CAPE YORK, Australia – End of the line. Out on a limb is the feeling, although you’re really out on a rock, amid a clutter of them that seem a lineup of toast in a breakfast table rack. One more step – it wouldn’t be wise – and you’ve plopped off the continent and into a rowdy, swirling sea where two headlong-colliding adversaries – the Indian and Pacific oceans – trade … [Read more...] about IN AUSTRALIA, YOU CAN’T GO FARTHER NORTH THAN THIS
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THURSDAY ISLAND – ‘THE ONE THAT COUNTS’
THURSDAY ISLAND, Queensland, Australia – A sign over the doorway of a saloon called the Torres Hotel declares modestly: THIS IS THE TOP PUB IN AUSTRALIA. Why? “Because I’m here,” says the barmaid named Tammy, a fetching blonde. A man quaffing a beer at the bar, Bob Gilmour, shakes his head and laughs. “With all respect to Tammy, definitely an asset, it’s geographical. … [Read more...] about THURSDAY ISLAND – ‘THE ONE THAT COUNTS’
NOOSA: NICE AND NATURAL
NOOSA HEADS, Queensland, Australia – One moment you’re sauntering along Hastings Street, peering into high-fashion shop windows littered with Italian-labeled throw-me-ons of insubstantial life expectancy but substantial price. Maybe you’ve had a swim in the South Pacific, near enough to sometimes flood Hastings, the town’s main artery. And followed that by brunch on the … [Read more...] about NOOSA: NICE AND NATURAL
CLIMBING A VOLCANO IS FUN, FOR SOME
WHAKAPAPA, New Zealand – Because it’s there, I know I shouldn’t be. “It” is the volcanic Mount Ruapehu, looming and with the appearance of a gigantic molar with cavities. “Looks like a sweet climb,” enthuses my friend, Aurelio, who would never deny that a mountain goat teeters somewhere on some altitudinous limb of her family tree. Looks like a sweat climb to me. So, … [Read more...] about CLIMBING A VOLCANO IS FUN, FOR SOME
A WISE WAY TO SETTLE THE “GIRL’S WAR”
RUSSELL, New Zealand – An elderly survivor, a 33-foot whaleboat, is cradled in the yard of the local museum, and Russell does have the look and air of a small, unrushed New England whaling town. Old, well-risen-and-wide-reaching trees guard the handsome white frame houses that stand behind whitewashed picket fences lining the quiet waterfront. But Russell, originally known … [Read more...] about A WISE WAY TO SETTLE THE “GIRL’S WAR”