So back up the hill I climbed with the thought of getting some help. I flagged down a twosome in a golf cart and when they saw me their eyes got real big. I thought that’s not a good sign. They drove me back to the starter shop and took off. The guy in the starter shop told me that I had really done my nose up "good and proper" and that he thought I was going to need plastic surgery. Since there was no hospital in town, he took me to the local place in town where paramedics park their ambulances. I don't remember what they called it. In any event, after some discussion about how much I was bleeding and what I thought we should do about it; they loaded me in an ambulance and carted me off to the hospital in the next town. On the way to the hospital the paramedic told me that a big chunk at the top my nose was missing and that I would need plastic surgery.
When I got to the empty emergency room I laid there for a while and eventually a nurse came and looked at me. After looking me over, and saying that it looked like plastic surgery was needed, she telephoned the doctor who was on duty... at home. When the doctor arrived, the nurse explained how I had come to grief on the rocks. He looked me over and decided to call the surgeon that was on duty, also at home, because it looked to him that the missing chunk of meat would have to be replaced. When the surgeon arrived he put two stitches in and told me that my
nose would probably look fine when it healed. In any event, he said that if I didn't like the looks of it when I got home I could always get it fixed then. So much for socialized medicine. But on the plus side, the total cost for everything, including medicine at the drug store, was $112.00. No one ever asked me if I had medical insurance.
A related expense to the accident was that Cindi had to take a taxi from the time share to the hospital. After getting the rental car keys from me, she then had to take another taxi from the hospital to the golf course to get the rental car. All that was good for me because that meant she was distracted doing other things while I was getting repaired.
It's been 10 days since my misadventure. The stitches have been removed and I'm on the mend. The only things that ever hurt, and still do, are my left knee and my forearms. My forearms hurt a LOT. The day after I got the stitches out I went back and finished playing the rest of the 17 holes that I didn't complete the first time. Cindi came along this time to keep me out of trouble. :)
G'Day Mate...
Before we left the States we signed up for a three week guided tour with a company named Globus. (Two weeks in Australia and one week in New Zealand.) We chose Globus because they provide all transportation, hotels, and a guided tour upon arrival at each new town. Then you are on your own until it's time to move to the next town. We stayed in each town 4 days. We thought we were very clever to add three weeks at the beginning, and one week at the end, of the Globus tour so we could take advantage of their airfare. It turned out that people were constantly joining and leaving our Globus tour as we went along because they were staying in some places longer, or shorter, than the tour. Now that's really clever.
We drove up to Sydney on a Friday afternoon for a look see and to wait for our tour group to arrive. Four million of the 20 million Aussies live in Sydney, and since we arrived in town during rush hour, every one of them was on the road. Cars were coming at us from every conceivable direction... none of them familiar. And the roads are REALLY skinny. After a very exciting trip through town we immediately turned in the rental car. Good thing too because we had a $3000.00 deductible in case of an accident. (They call them "smashes" here.)
Sydney is a beautiful city located on a beautiful bay. It is reminiscent of San Francisco, but the weather is way better, and the citizens aren't freaks. We spent three glorious days kicking around the city having a great time while we waited for our tour group to fly in from LAX. Sydney is a great tourist town and there is a lot to see. The people are very helpful and friendly. It's simple to get around on the subway and buses.
Since we arrived in Australia we have been eating at a lot of fish & chips places. Many places serve a great tasting white fish called John Dory that we have never heard of before. Yum, good stuff. We were surprised to see tourists walking over the TOP of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. We were stunned. Where are all the liability lawyers? :) It would like if they let tourists walk around the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. And I don’t mean where the cars drive, I mean at the top.
After four more days in Sydney with the tour group, we got on a plane and headed north for the Great Barrier Reef, located just off the coast of a town called Cairns. Cairns is very much of a summer beach resort type town. Lots and lots of tourists, mostly with back packs. We enjoyed walking around Cairns in the evening. Until we got to Cairns the summer weather had been great, mid 70s practically every day. Cairns is way to the north, much closer to the equator, so it was hot and humid like Florida. I snorkeled out on the Great Barrier Reef a couple of times. It was pretty neat. One thing we came across in Cairns that we had not seen before was the night time zoo. The zoo in town closes at sunset. Then they open it up an hour later with a BBQ dinner and a guided tour of the zoo at night. At the midpoint of the tour they bring out little cakes for the tourists, but not for us to eat. Dozens of kangaroos come out of the dark and eat the cake. There were so many of them it was difficult not to trip over their tails.
After four days in and around Cairns it was time to head south to Melbourne. Melbourne is Australia's other big city. In fact, the reason that the capital of Australia, Canberra, was built from scratch out in the boondocks is because the location was halfway between Melbourne and Sydney, both of which wanted their city to be the capital.
We liked Melbourne a lot. Actually, we liked ever single place in Australia that we went. We will remember Melbourne as a walking city. We walked practically every place we went. Again, there was a lot for tourists to see and do. We could have easily spent a week here. Melbourne completed the first two weeks of the guided tour. Then it was off to New Zealand for the last week of the guided tour and a then a week on our own.
We spent a total of five weeks in Australia and barely scratched the surface. Australia is a very tourist friendly country and it is extremely easy to get around from place to place. We would like to go back and spend at least three months kicking around.
Merry Christmas to everyone on this Christmas Eve...
It surprised us to learn that New Zealand is on two separate islands.
We flew into Auckland from Melbourne and the weather immediately went downhill. Here we were, smack in the middle of December, their SUMMER, and it was very cold and rainy. We even had hail of all things. The locals were in shock. Still on the Globus tour, we only spent one night in Auckland before heading south to Christchurch, the largest city on the south island.
We spent a day and a half in Christchurch and it rained the whole time so we only saw the city from the bus. Blah.
Our next stop was further south in the pretty little tourist town of Queenstown. Queenstown is one of the most scenic places we have ever been. The lake and surrounding mountains make for pleasing vistas everywhere you look. The town itself is very artsy and friendly. We spent two whole days here and loved it.
The last stop on the guided tour was back up in Auckland. We spent two days seeing the sights of this working class port city before saying goodbye to the tour group. Then we picked up our rent-a-car and headed north to the Bay of Islands. This area is the number one tourist destination in New Zealand for the locals. They flock here for the beaches and other water activities. The area was very scenic and we enjoyed our stay there.
New Zealand is known for sheep. There are sheep farms everywhere. They raise a number of different breeds depending on what the sheep will be used for. They