We left the USofA on March 15, 2023, and flew 15 hours (plus 2-2 hours layovers) from Las Vegas-Las Angeles-Auckland NZ-Christchurch NZ. The business class on the Las Angeles to Auckland was very nice, sleeping horizontally in a “bed.” We arrived two days early in Christchurch to get acclimatised and then joined the group of 35 other RVers plus a wagon master couple guide. We picked up our Class C (pictures later) RV in Christchurch and followed the written instruction provided us by the wagon masters to the first campground for the night, me as driver and Lynn as navigator. That took some time to get used to; working together with very strange navigation aids in a country we knew nothing about driving on the LEFT side of the road! It took us a couple of days to get used to it but thankfully there were no fights and we had no accidents and we made it to our campgrounds.

Fantasy RV Tours put on the tour. The overall plan was to obtain the RVs at Christchurch, drive around the South Island, take the ferry to the north island, drive around the north island and leave the RVs at Auckland to fly to Australia. (Change in plan – the ferry encountered bad weather and mechanical problems so there was no ferry.). With the ferry out of action, the wagon masters rerouted us back to Christchurch where left the RVs and they obtained plane tickets for us to Rotorua in the north island where they arranged a bus company to take us to almost all the venues we would have visited with the RVs on the north island.

From Auckland we flew to Brisbane and took a one day bus tour and that evening flew to Cairns (pronounced Cans by Australians). Then flew back to Brisbane and picked up new RVs and drove to Sydney, through Blackheath, and dropped off the RVs. That was the end of the first phase of our Fantasy Tour.

The second phase was a 6 day extension to the Australian Outback (Bush). We flew from Sydney to Alice Springs and drove through the Bush to Ayers Rock (Urluru in Aboriginese) and then flew back to Sydney from Ayers Rock where the entire Tour ended. Lynn and I spent 2 extra days in Sydney enjoying riding the public transit and shopping, and local tours. We flew home from Sydney – Auckland – San Francisco – Las Vegas, again business class on the long flight. We flew a total of 12 airline flights counting the six from and to the USofA and drove the RVs over 1,200 miles, of course in kilometres. Overall, its was a blast and, of course, we saw so much cool stuff.

So I decided to put together this web site for anyone who is interested following a photo log of our trip.

So, I grew up with Tillamook Cheese.  For our friends in the east, Cabot is the equal, although there may  be some argument about the quality because of Wisconsin cows! Anyway, Tillamook is my standard and to see it being made ….yum.  The day we visited they were packaging the large Costco size cheese blocks.

(For those that are interested) In the photo the lady to the near left took the block of aged cheese and ran it through hot wires in one direction and then hot wires in the other direction to cut it into blocks.  Then the guy just to her left tears the large block apart and sets them on the single block line. Then the blocks are weighed under the plastic covered area and if they weigh below the minimum they are moved to the side there is a guy there that cuts slim slices from a common cube and he slaps it on top of the block that doesn’t weigh enough and then they all go into the packaging area you can’t really see here.  I will always look at the block open from now on to see if I can tell if a slab was added to my block.  I AM NOT WIERD!

The best part is that they have a cheese tasting area and Lynn and I went through it twice, hmmmmmm.  What I learned is that whey, the raw cheese is also very good because they had a sample.  In fact we bought some whey and I was going to take a photo of it but we ate it.  But, we were able to taste the various aged cheese in this line.

After we had a nice walk on the beach.

We went for another hike the next day.  The hike was about 5 miles up and down mountains and twice hitting the ocean.  This movie shows the first time we hit the ocean and shows Lynn hiking to the overlook.

We walked another mile or so to the end of the point.

We had the freshest sea food in this Tillamook area.  We went to an oyster shucking factory that had a restaurant inside and had some really really fresh sea food.  Will go back some day.

 

Another not too exciting place.  Very small town but for some reason it had an outlet shopping center.  The only thing that struck me was the number of Tesla’s parked at the Tesla charging posts.   Who would have thought that out in the middle of nowhere there would be a Tesla charging station and much less a few Tesla’s getting charged.

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Now Florence turned out to be a different story than Coos Bay.  The people at the church we visited on Sunday – not many young folks – indicated that Florence was voted the number 2 place to retire in 2011, or something like that.  You know those old folks, they can’t remember hardly anything.  We struggled a little to see why it would be voted so high as we drove around but we have to say it was very nice and, of course, the weather in that part of Oregon is pretty mild except for the rain – hardly any snow, they said.  But we stopped by this little bar that had a band and a volunteer singer that had dropped in from San Francisco and was singing for free as all the young’uns danced. I’m being facetious of course, it is just like the Villages here and we are running away from that.

Florence is located on the Suislaw River that dumps into the ocean and deep sea fishing is the rage there.  You can see the results of the early morning fishing that day.  Next to the dock were 6 cleaning locations and it was busy with guys waiting.  The second guy had four salmon and he would strip a fillet off turn it over and strip the other side and throw the rest of the fish in the garbage can.  You can see him working here.

So I asked him if he was going to throw away the next one knowing he was so I asked if we could take it.  Lynn’s eyes got the size of an Caucasian and so excited that she went to find a plastic bag in the car.  Here is a photo of her in the kitchen with her “catch.”

Soup, soup, soup, and then freeze the rest for later use and we are still eating that in Reno, NV.

But, at the docks there was one boat that sat at the docks and cleaned freshly caught sea tuna and people flocked to the boat to buy large quantities right off the boat.  Here is a photo of the boat.

We actually had a pretty good time in Florence.  Good restaurants!

 

Kind of a dud, I think, at least with regards to photos.

We camped at a local Indian casino right on the bay and got photos of, TA DA, a dredge working in the bay!

We mostly road around in the car and found that it is a very active industrius community without much in the way of tourist stuff.  They did have a Wine Walk downtown the day we were there consisting of people paying money for a wine glass and then walking from store to store where each store poured, a pretty good slug of, wine into the glass and the deal was that it was against the law to go outside on the sidewalk with the wine so you had to stay in the store till it was gone-do you see the point?  We saw some pretty snockered people walking around.  Now we don’t drink much wine but if it were beer it might have been more story.

Anyway, here is the dredge.  The cool thing in my engineering mind is the captains cabin on the push boat (far right) that is pushing the barge that will be filled with river mud and dumped at sea.  The captain is about 30 feet in the air.  Can you imagine a windy day with high waves. He would have to seat and shoulder straps, I think.

Brookings is just over the Oregon border, just north of Crescent City which is just north of the Redwoods.  After parking at the Elks Lodge we decided to go hiking again in the redwoods south of Crescent City – sort dumb if you think about it since we drove through there the day before and its about 35 miles back.  Oh well.  Anyway here is how beautiful the place is and why we came back.

And them, of course, I have to get in the act.

Back at Brookings it was time to finally clean the rig (home) outside.  I think there is about 1,200 square feet of urethane painted siding and 500 square feet of windows!!  Anyway, it has to be done.

Not withstanding me being in the photo, I thought the colors here along with the sky were great – of course, that is tempered by the fact that I am red-green challenged!

As I was working, I kept hearing this screeching in the sky and I looked up and there was this Osprey flying up and then diving and then up and diving and . . . well you can see what I mean.

After that we were off north along the coast with a goal of eating cheese at Tillamook, OR, the home of Tillamook cheese.

On our way up the coast of California, before we entered Oregon we’re thought we’d stay a day or two in Eureka, a small harbor and town of about 28,000 folks and rest a while.  Boy was that wrong.  We spent 8 days there playing golf, going to a performance, hitting the farmers market, Taco Tuesday at the Elks Lodge and it went on and on.  We had a great time!

We went bike riding on this cold cold day on Samoa island.  Yes, Samoa.  The towns in the area are named Trinidad and Manila.  You’re think that they could be more original than that.  But we had a good 10 mile ride.

After the ride we went to this nice seafood restaurant right on the wharf.  We watched the birds diving into the water for their dinner.  The waitress brought us ours.

Eureka has so many beautiful Victorian houses the whole place should be made an historic area.  But, this one Victorian home, the Carson Manson, is the probably one of the most beautiful homes of this type in the US.

The sign outside the mansion says that the mansion has been restored by the Ingmar group which, as I understand it is a men only social group!  They hold functions and have dinners and ……  But, at an all you can eat pork ribs dinner at the Elks Lodge the people we sat next to indicated that just recently the Ingmar group has been opened up to women.

As we understand it, the entire Eureka, Arcata, McKinnleyville has been influenced greatly but the philosophy of the Humbolt State College and SF transferree mind set and has become VERY progressive.

As an example, we went to a performance in Arcata, just outside Humbolt State by Will Durst, a presidential election satirist.

He lives in San Francisco and has very left leaning attitudes toward past presidents and presidential candidates.  He spent almost 90 minutes going over his opinion of past presidents and, more recently, the present presidential candidates.  Of course, Hillary could do little wrong and Trump received much of his humor.  Here is just a few comments from him about our illustrious Republican presidential candidate.

We had a great time at a local benefit function for a railroad restoration group.  They had a roundhouse full of old locomotives, a restored caboose and a walk through restored pullman, business and restaurant cars.  You can see the passenger cars behind the band that is playing for the diners of the Salmon, Oyster and Tuna dinners.  Lynn was enjoying herself also.

 

Lynn caught me playing with a toy the  railroad restorers had got working, a Steam Donkey, this particular one was used to power a lumber cutting machine.

Couldn’t upload this video, will keep trying.

Finally, we went to this really nice seafood restaurant in Trinidad, CA, and afterward we went for a walk on the dock.  It was foggy and calm and the Bell Buoy at the entrance of the bay was dinging soulfully in the mist.  It was sort of romantic, if you know what I mean.

We camped for a few days along the Eel River in a KOA with a 9-hole golf course next door. For $25 you could play all day.  Lynn and I went out a couple of times.  The course was not great, not well kept but it was little used and had great views, was up and down and narrow – meaning lost balls, lost balls, lost balls.

Here Lynn tees off and with the duck family helping her determine the wind speed, the proper distance and …….

What really happened with Lynn is that the blackberries were ripe and I could not get her to play golf.  Each blackberry bush group we passed drew her in and you can see what happened.

 

Again, it is fortunate that the course was not well used because we spent, probably, an hour picking berries and no-one came through.  But we got bags of blackberries and froze them to use in Lynn’s morning specialty, “green juice,” which is essentially every plant product we have in the refer being ground into a juice.  Actually, it is quite good.

We spend some time touring around the Redwood forest and found this little, actually not so little, shop that sells all kinds of redwood art and home decor stuff.  

Lynn assumed the job of SHOPPER!

They had this cute mushroom thing, I think a garden statue, but it was up on the hill and looked so cool up there buy itself.

The Redwood area is famous for the Bigfoot sightings and, as such, a lot of stuff for sale there has to do with Bigfoot.  I thought I had a Big Foot, size 12 1/2, until I put my foot next to Bigfoot’s.

There is no area, other then in France, that compares to the wine country, in our estimation.  Just riding through the rolling hills covered with huge oak trees, open grass land sliced by acres and acres of vineyards is a treat to the eyes.  And the professionalism beauty of the wine tasting rooms is cool to see.

Just seeing the actual grapes hanging from the vine that will be turned into bottles of fine and some not so fine wines is wonder.  I guess little things make us happy!

But, some things just don’t go well for people in the wine country.  For instance, in the RV park we were staying in, these folks ran out of luck!

But then you get a little tranquility when, as you ride through the rolling grassland, you see the cows, in a line, heading back to the barn for dinner.  Because of the drought the fodder in the fields is bleak.

We camped at the Elks Lodge in Petaluma, about 50 miles north of SF and visited some really nice shopping areas, restaurants and we went to a Funk Band performance at a local club.

The interesting thing about moving north of SF is that so many “hippie” progressive people live in the area.  The “yuppie” type and hippie type are all over and the conversations you hear at restaurants are VERY different from those in the south eastern US that we’re used to, as you can imagine.

Anyway, we then moved north into the Bodega Bay, Guerneyville area just west of the Napa wine country and camped at the Cassini Ranch next to the Russian River.  I had one too many Margaritas in our RV and then we went for a walk along the river.  I challenged Lynn to a “Thuuking” contest.  My three brothers and I had these contests over the years and the championship changed from brother to brother, although each of us would claim the grand championship.

Here’s how it works, so you pick up a small flat rock that is smooth and pretty much rounded all around and you put it in your index finger and throw it up and spin it and when it lands in the water, to win, it  must make a “Thuuk” sound.  That means there is little or no splash and there is “boing” or “clunk” or “thunk” sound.  It must be a perfect THUUK!!!

I love the way Lynn jumps up throwing the rock.  It’s so cute!

With my Margaritas, I could barely stand up but I got through it, Lynn was the champion that day and it was her FIRST TIME!  Bummer.

We went hiking along the coast putting on our hiking boots and taking our walking sticks. Going up hill I say these sticks give a “4 wheel drive” power!  Seeming to get upper body exercise when we use them.

My favorite golf course in all the US of A is the little 9 hole along the Russian River just west of Guerneville called Northwood.  It has bright green grass and huge Cedar and Douglas Fir trees on either side of the fairways.  You can hear other golfers balls, not ours of course, bounsing off of the trees and echoing down the fairway.  It is just a beautiful course and a beautiful experience.

 

Of course we went to Guerneville, just upriver.  This town is the pen-ultimate yuppie, hippie, and gay center of the area.  It used to be a logging, mining and cattle town until SF culture moved in.  Now, the cattleman’s bar is a Rainbow bar and the “boys” seem to have a boisterous time in there as Lynn and I walked by.

One last thing to share is the collapsing sea coast.  Lynn and I have been coming to this area for years and there were several houses propped on the edge of a cliff looking over the Pacific.  For years we laugh and said, “who would buy a house here, it could fall in the ocean!”  Well, it finally happened.  In the photo below you can see the cliff, it is far away, but maybe you can see the remains of at least three houses that were there the last time we passed by but are there no longer.  The irony of it is that one house that is still left has a “For Sale” sign in front of it.  You bet, we will buy that for our retirement home???!!!