Whither I am bound
Australia & New Zealand (with guest appearances by Singapore & HK), plus footnotes
She says it’s because of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - but I happen to know it’s those Aussie flyboys who turned up on the doorstep of their New York apartment when she was nine. Kind of like when she insisted, in 2017, that while we were living in Europe we absolutely had to go to the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights and pet some reindeer. Delia1 hates the cold. We could make no sense of it . . . until she remembered the crush she’d had on the Robber Girl in Andersen’s The Snow Queen.2
She wants to see the Outback. She wants to visit our friends in Brisbane, Melbourne & Adelaide.3 She wants to visit Hanging Rock, and see the Opal Mines where her father took her mother (whose name happened to be Opal). And she wants to ride the Ghan Train from Darwin to Adelaide.
I am, of course, going with her. Besides, Trip-Planning is my Superpower - though this one is so complicated that we brought in our old travel agent, John Reese of J5 Travel, to assist us.4
I did have one small request: If we’re going all that way, we have to stop in New Zealand.
New Zealand has my heart. We went there first in September 2010, after we attended the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne, Australia, where we met many delightful people but saw very little of Melbourne. (Before that, we’d sucked all the sweet juices of Sydney: museums, shopping, the Opera House . . . and of course the Harbor Cruise to the Zoo, which I warmly recommend for jet lag. And visited fabulous writer Catherine Jinks5 in the Blue Mountains. But that was all.)
We returned to Melbourne briefly, as a stop in our Historic World Tour the summer of 2017 - staying with one of the Delightful People from WorldCon6 - but I get ahead of myself. In 2010 we went over to New Zealand after WorldCon, and had many fine adventures there - all limited to the North Island because there were earthquakes happening in the South, plus lots of snow in the mountains we’d planned on driving through down there. We stayed in Wellington with a friend who was working with Peter Jackson on The Hobbit movie, met more delightful people, who took us to visit an alpaca farm and some of the weirder LOTR film spots7. I got to meet my Writing Idol Elizabeth Knox, became friends, and even returned to Wellington for a break during the infamous World Tour Summer 2017.
So now it’s time to see the South Island, and we will!
Here’s a crazy thing, though:
Maybe we can visit Hong Kong! I said in the early planning stages. And go see Joyce Chng in Singapore, and meet Chris’s new babies! Delia said they weren’t nearly as close to Australia as I think they are. John pointed out that Frequent Flyer Mile trips count all stops as separate tickets, so it would double the cost.
And then . . . a miracle occurred
I got us a great deal on Singapore Air to Auckland, New Zealand. We change planes in Singapore . . . and guess what! Singapore Air is only too happy to let you do a stopover of a few days! I mean, why not? Tourism for the Motherland, right?
Getting home from Australia was a real challenge, FF mile-wise. I finally settled on Cathay Pacific . . . and guess where we change planes? And guess where they’re happy to have you stop over for a little local tourism?8
The Schedule
Many of our friends have no idea where or when we’re going; we’ve been a bit quiet about it. So here it is, in full detail:
March 4: Fly to Singapore
March 9: Fly to Auckland
March 10: Northern Explorer Train from Auckland to Wellington!
All-day scenic trip down the North Island. Check off another Life Goal.
March 11: Early flight to Nelson (South Island)
I’d have preferred to take the fabulous Ferry - but then we’d have to get a car & do hours of scary driving. Instead, a friend is picking us up & whisking us off to her new house on Golden Bay, where we will finally catch up with ourselves, and loll about, and read, and maybe write something, and no doubt talk ourselves silly.
March 16: Back to Nelson. Pick up car, drive to Kekerungu.
(I told John we were not capable of driving more than 4 hours/day. Because we’re not.)
March 17: Drive to Christchurch
Huzzah! Stay with writer friend Karen Healey! Eat food! See sights!
March 20: Transalpine Train to Greymouth
Yes, another scenic train trip! Through scary mountains, but someone else is driving, and they already laid the tracks.
Pick up car, stay in fancy lodge outside Hokitika9 Do cool nature things.
March 22: Drive to Bella Vista Motel Fox Glacier!!
See a Glacier at last!! Check off another Life Goal.
I pause here to point out that we are still in New Zealand. A very granular trip. Australia will be Longer but Shorter, I promise.
March 24: Drive to Wanaka
More nature.
March 25: Drive to Te Anau
Nature all the way. Get up next morning for:
March 26: Doubtful Sound Overnight Cruise!!!
The one everyone tells you was the best thing that ever happened to them. Who are we to argue? Take my money.
March 27: FLY TO BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
Staying in modest flat in Brisbane for a week, hanging out with writer/illustrator friend Kathleen Jennings (our frequent houseguest in NYC & elsewhere) who has promised to find everyone we know and invite them to hang out & show us the sights.
April 2: Fly to Darwin
Package deal for this next bit includes “Darwin City Sights & Jumping Crocs”
YES THERE ARE JUMPING CROCODILES near Darwin. Do you doubt my travel agent’s word?
April 5: GHAN TRAIN: 3 day 2 night sleeper excursion from Darwin to Adelaide!
We stop to see the Aboriginal carvings in the National Park, then Alice Springs, then the Opal Mines of Cooper Pedy. 10
April 8: Sleep in Adelaide one night. Kathleen Jennings turns up the next day to drive us out to her sister’s Sheep Station11 & see the Valley.
April 12: Return to Adelaide. Try to find someone doing a Passover Seder that night.12 Or the next. Hang out in Adelaide with writer pals.
April 16: Adelaide to Melbourne 3 Day Tour!!!
I am so proud of myself for finding this one! It allows us to see the celebrated Great Ocean Road and all the cool stuff that comes before it, without having to backtrack from Melbourne. I’m not much of a one for tours, but Amie wisely pointed out that The Driver Misses All the Good Views, and when she speaks, I listen.
April 18: Arrive Melbourne
Stay with Amie, meet kid who hadn’t been born yet in 2017. See all our Melbourne friends! Drink coffee! Go shopping! Let Amie drive us out to Hanging Rock & other places she knows because Amie, she Knows!
April 27: Fly Melbourne to Hong Kong
We do not know anyone in Hong Kong. Advice gratefully accepted.
May 1: Depart Hong Kong 9:05 a.m. Arrive JFK 1:15 p.m.13
Such speed!
This is a strange time to be leaving the country. I wonder if it will feel the same as being abroad for that year in 2017-18, while our friends were enduring the madness at home — but then we at least returned refreshed instead of ground down. I dunno. I’ll be thinking of you, and worrying about us. I’ll try to take a little bit of you with me, and send some foreign skies back.
And that’s a good place to stop.
Your pal,
Ellen
Delia Sherman, my partner since 1992 or so. (Legally married in our backyard in Massachusetts in 2004.)
It was a lovely trip. Short and sweet, with lots of trains. No Northern Lights, but plenty of reindeer . . . and Moomintrolls, because it was the Finnish bit!
"We don’t have to go to Australia to see them! They come to the U.S. all the time,” I said, which is only sort of true.
Take a moment to pity John. Because every time he found a nice hotel, I would immediately go digging up a different one that was cheaper (“we don’t need so much luxury! we’re not that kind of people!”). John is a lovely man. He is also brilliant at manipulating Flyer Points to find the best deal.
I love Jinks’ Pagan books best.
Amie Kaufman, who credits the panel Delia & I were on with giving her and her bestie, Meaghan Spooner, the confidence to start writing together. I’ve just read their latest book, Lady’s Knight, coming in June - better than cheesecake on a stick!
Lorien & the Paths of the Dead, if you must know
You knew it was Hong Kong, right?
As John’s notes put it, This would be considered your "splurge" stay. He knows me so well. (As does Delia, who basically said, “Shut up, we’re doing it.”)
No, we’re not going to make it to Uluru. I thought we would, but it’s a 4-hour drive from Alice Springs! It would be a whole other trip. As would the Coral Reef. A certain amount of this is because we had to give up some stuff to get others: the Ghan only runs a few times/month, for example. The Adelaide>Melbourne trip is only once/week. Thank goodness for John!
This is a Delia Life Goal. Because of Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career. You can visit her town, but it is Very Far Away from Anywhere Else.
Yes, I have written to the local synagogue. In January. I’d better remind them. I don’t suppose you happen to know any Jews in Adelaide?
It’s the trip of a lifetime. We travel a lot, but I think this is the first voyage we’ve ever taken with absolutely no professional events attached: no conference, no meetings, no signings, not even any research (that we know of . . . yet).
That sounds absolutely lovely - have all the fun imagineable!
What a wonderful dream of an adventure! Happy for you and looking forward to the delicious photos and details! (Plus a little envious). Have a blast!!!