Month: April 2020

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Viseisei Village. Fiji’s Oldest Settlement with Colorado Traveling Ducks

The first Fijians arrived here around 1500.   Many of those first arrivals built a settlement right here by the beach.

Nadi Bay

Our tour bus drove along the coast and we arrived at the village.   Many of the nearly 500 villagers are direct descendents of those original settlers.

Laundry at Viseisei Village

From the bus, our first view was laundry drying.   Before entering the village, we were led to this market.

Craft market at village

The women sell crafts and jewelry they make.   Of course, each of our moms bought something.   Pearl necklaces of some sort.   But, even the Colorado Traveling Ducks had to admit that they were very pretty.

Methodist Church

Entering the village this church immediately greets the eyes.

Jone Wesele Methodist Church

In 1835 the first Methodist missionaries arrived in Fiji.   This is Jone Wesele Methodist Church.   We went inside.

Inside church

Here our guide is explaining the history of Viseisei to us.   Before leaving we walked to the front of the church.

Interior of Methodist Church

Isn’t this beautiful?  We liked it a lot.

Carpenter Memorial Burial Site

Leaving the Methodist Church, we saw the Carpenter Memorial Burial Site.   Such an impressive monument.   The houses in the village are all so neat.

House in village

We like clean, neat lawns.

Looking down path to more houses

Looking down a path, we felt very welcome here.    The village was very clean and everyone was friendly.

Open space in center of Viseisei Village

Isn’t this a nice open space in the center of the village?   We really enjoyed our time here in Viseisei Village.   If you visit Fiji, we hope you spend some time here.

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Hilton Fiji Beach Resort and the Colorado Traveling Ducks

Yes.   We are in Fiji.   And our resort is on the beach.   A perfect last stop on our six country around the world tour.   Let’s explore our temporary home.

Lobby of our resort

We like this lobby.   Look at those flowers.  Those ceiling fans are nice and different than ours at home.   And the store is Jack’s.   We will soon learn that Jack’s is a main store in Fiji.   Some of everything and great souvenirs.  We have our keys and the golf carts are ready to drive us to our room.

From our patio

A great view from our patio.   Nice to have lounge chairs, in sand, near us.

From our patio

Looking to the left, the pool and then the restaurants.   There are a few restaurants here to enjoy.

Our patio

Of course, we need a view of our patio.  We are on the ground floor so we can walk out of our room, directly to the beach, pool or restaurants.   Hilton Fiji Beach Resort is rather large, so here is our stop for the Bula Express.

Bula Express

Bula means hello, good, and many pleasant greetings or comments.   It is a friendly word.   We can ride the shuttle all around the resort, but we prefer to walk and see everything.

Restaurant. Breakfast served here

This is one of our main restaurants.   Our complimentary breakfast is served here.   That breakfast is a huge buffet with everything.   Delicious and we usually sit on the outdoor area looking at the beach.

Pool

This is part of our pool.   This smaller area is great for smaller humans.   If you are wondering about the dark sky and all the clouds, don’t worry.   The storm clouds didn’t last very long, but when it was calmer and sunny, mom wasn’t taking photos.   We were in the Pacific Ocean often.   Those moms love to swim.   They both go out far, but Soapy’s mom really goes far.   I was a little worried since I looked at the map and didn’t see land between Fiji and New Zealand.   But all is well.   Those ladies are adventurous, but careful and safe.    Need something to do between swimming, sunning and eating?

Chess anyone?

Here is the answer.   Chess anyone?   Back towards our room, this wishing well, flower pot, grabbed our attention.

Flowers and massage table

Behind the flowers are massage tables.   A massage, outdoors and near the beach, is a wonderful thing.

Sitting on lounge chair on our patio

Soapy Smith Duck and I, Zeb the Duck, are enjoying the breeze from the Pacific Ocean while sitting on our patio.  While in Fiji, we plan to spend much of our time at the beach.

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Colorado Traveling Ducks Visit Manly, near Sydney, Australia

Back on the boat in Sydney Harbor.   They have hop on hop off boats, so we are heading to Manly today.

Manly Wharf

Manly is a  popular beach town near Sydney.   Some people even commute by boat between Manly and Sydney for jobs.   Downtown, we liked the sign for the Municipality of Manly.

Manly

Perfect weather led us to wander around, do some shopping, and then think about lunch.

Sculpture

We decided to get sandwiches and eat at the beach.

Manly Beach

These steps were convenient and gave us a great view of the sand and water.   Perhaps we were too interested in the beach and didn’t pay attention to sea gulls behind us.

Adorable seagull or clever thief?

Before our first bite of food, this fellow, or one like him, flew from behind us, dove at our food and got the top bread from one sandwich.   He was quick.   Probably experienced at the grab and fly routine.   We were surprised.   After eating the rest of our lunch, it was time to walk on the beach.

Lifeguards on Manly Beach

We are life guards for the day.   We really think they were training new, young, life guards.

Practicing rescue skills

They ran across the sand and quickly, into the water and on the boards.   We thought they looked very good.   We like this.

Beautiful Manly beach

Families having fun with their children on the beach.   But, as they say, all good things must come to an end.   Time to walk back to catch a boat to Sydney’s Circular Quay.

Looking out to sea

Not expecting to need the life saving ring, we used it as a look out for small ducks to sit.

Back for a snack?

Another look back.   Moms say no time for another snack on the deck.

Stand up paddle boarding

These people are practicing stand up paddle boarding.   Time for us to board our boat.   It is a little windy here.

Windy, but good sailors

These sailboats are leaning, but the crew handles everything.   No over turned boats today.   Tomorrow we leave for our last destination.

Sydney Harbor Bridge

So this is our farewell to Sydney Harbor and Australia.  We love Australia and hope to return and stay for a longer time.   You will love Australia also.

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Enjoying Sydney Harbor with Colorado Traveling Ducks

Today we did a little shopping.   When in Australia, you must purchase Uggs.   Of course, we can buy Uggs at home and many places in the world, but Uggs are from Australia, so this is where we must purchase more.   Each mom purchased a pair of boots and Soapy’s mom also bought a really great jacket.  The timing is perfect.   Uggs on sale now, the beginning of summer in Australia, and November is the beginning of winter in Colorado.   Only concern is getting all this stuff on the plane.   The store we visited did not ship, so moms have a packing challenge.   But, they will do it.   Wandering around Sydney Harbor, we bought boat tickets.

Under Sydney Harbor Bridge

Here we go, under the Sydney Harbor bridge.   And very close, we admire the Sydney Opera House.

Sydney Opera House

We are blessed with another day of sunny, beautiful weather.

Leaving Circular Quay

This is the dock area of Circular Quay.    A center of activity with shopping, tourism, restaurants and the wonderful water front.   Leaving Circular Quay, we pass this fort.

Old fort

We love the old bricks here.

Homes on hillside

And homes on the hill around the harbor.   Our boat takes us to several ports.

Beach

And great beaches.

Explore the shore

Rocky area for climbing and exploring.

Boats near Manly

And boats anchored near Manly Wharf.   Manly is a famous town near Sydney.   Next time we will show you some of Manly.

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Featherdale Wildlife Park with Colorado Traveling Ducks in Sydney, Australia

We love animals.  Today we will visit Featherdale Wildlife Park.

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Seeing the animals native to Australia will be fascinating.  There are so many kinds of marsupials here, animals with pouches.  This is a wildlife park, so the animals are in enclosures, but the enclosures are large and humans can touch and feed some animals.   Upon entering we were entertained by these wombats.

Wombats

Aren’t they cute?  These animals look like miniature kangaroos, but the sign said they are Red Necked Pademelon.

Feeding small kangaroo like animal. A red necked pademelon

Soapy’s mom is feeding them.   There are several places in the park to purchase approved food for the animals.   We purchased food several times.   This Red Necked Pademelon came to see the Colorado Traveling Ducks.

Red Necked Pademelon

She has a baby in her pouch.   A really colorful bird, the Southern Cassowary is the heaviest of all Australia’s birds.

Southern Cassowry

He has blade like claws and is capable of killing.   He is also capable of swallowing a whole mango.   The Southern Cassowary is an amazing bird.   We like his helmet, too.   In the United States our pelicans are white.

Australian pelicans

Here we have black and white pelicans.   The moms just loved the koalas, so we paid to go in a special area so they could pet and touch this koala.

Petting koala

The koala has thick, soft fur.   Good thing they cannot take animals into Colorado, or I think they might have brought him home.  The Little Penguins are wonderful.

Little penguins

We like animals that are not so much bigger than we are.  These are the smallest penguins in the world.   The sign says some even live under Manly wharf.   We visited Manly but did not see them that day.   Mom and I saw them 14 years ago on Phillips Island, near Melbourne.

Little penguins

We love these little penguins.   You may have heard of the Dingo Fence in Australia’s center, near the opal mines of Coober Pedy.   Mom and I, Zeb the Duck, saw it  years ago.   We were told the Dingo fence is the longest structure in the world, longer than China’s Great Wall.   The fence was necessary to keep the Dingos, Australia’s wild dogs away from the cattle and sheep.   But the Dingo we saw today, was calm and seemed like a dog that could live in our house.

Dingo

The sign told some differences between domestic dogs and dingos.  Dingos do not bark.   That would be nice sometimes.   And the Dingo only breeds once a year.   The short beaked echidna eats termites and other ant species.   A sign told us the female incubates one egg in her pouch.

Short Beaked Echidna

The baby echidna is called a puggle.  A new name for a baby animal to us.  The rest of our group left after a couple hours, but we loved the animals and had not seen all of them.   So we stayed for the entire day, taking a taxi to our hotel.  We stayed until the park closed.   The snack area had outside seating, so we enjoyed a quick lunch.

Lunch

My mom wanted a hot dog and Soapy’s mom wanted chili cheese fries.   Not really sure what all was on those fries, but the moms were happy.

Uninvited lunch guest

We had a visitor, or a beggar, join us for lunch.   There were many signs asking visitors not to feed the birds.   So, sorry, no food for you big bird.   After lunch we continued exploring.

Ghost Bat

The ghost bat is Australia’s largest carnivorous bat.   And he is only 200-240 mm in size.   Next we saw a Bilby.

Bilby

These are rare and live in central deserts, including those near the Kimberly in Western Australia and those of Southwest Queensland.   This Bilby was not interested in seeing us.   Now one of my favorites.

Tasmanian Devil

The Tasmanian Devil.   He came to meet us.   Four years ago in Tasmania, we saw some Tasmanian Devils and were told they have a disease that could threaten their existence.   These all looked healthy and we were happy to see that.  The Tasmanian Devils were being fed and this guy showed his sharp teeth between taking bites.

Tasmanian devil

We think he is our friend. And a Goodfellows Tree Kangaroo.

Goodfellows Tree Kangaroo

We had never seen one of these nocturnal animals.   He is interesting to see.   Here is a Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat.

Southern Harry nosed Wombat

The young stay in the pouch for 6-9 months and are weaned at one year of age.   The pouch of the wombat faces backward to avoid collecting dirt in it while digging burrows.   We are sure the baby wombats appreciate that.  Here is a tall bird.

Emu

The emu stands about 2 meters tall.   The female lays the eggs and that is the end of her parental duties.   The male takes over all parental duties, including the incubation of the eggs.   This small guy is a wonder.

Splendid Tree Frog

The Splendid Tree Frog lives near the Kimberly Region of Western Australia.   And we learned that frogs pull their eyes back into their head to help squish the food in their mouth.   This last one we will show you is rather frightening.

Inland Taipan

The inland taipan grows up to two meters long.   It is rare in Queensland, and presumed extinct in New South Wales and Victoria.   The Inland Taipan is considered the world’s most venomous snake.   That is one Australian creature we really don’t want to see in the wild.   As you noticed, we really love the animals and learned so much at Featherdale Wildlife Park.   We spent much of the day feeding kangaroos and admiring koalas.   We hope you visit Featherdale Wildlife Park when you are in Sydney.   Especially if you are not visiting other areas in Australia where you could see these animals in their natural habitat.  Our moms can’t resist showing a couple more photos of some favorites.

Koala

Koalas sleep most of the day and night, but they are just adorable.   And a favorite pastime at the park.

Feeding kangaroo like animal

Soapy’s mom is feeding another small, kangaroo like animal.   There are a lot of photos in this post, but we have over 250 photos of the animals.   I know…Humans    But this is just to cute not to share with you.

Just too cute

The animals are waiting for you to visit.   And buy them some treats.

 

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Colorado Traveling Ducks Arrive in Sydney, Australia

Another long overnight flight and we are now on our tour bus in Sydney, Australia.   Here we are at the famous Bondi Beach.

Bondi Beach

We love beaches and this is a great one.   Right in the city of Sydney.

Ducks on Bondi Beach

Isn’t this great sand.   Behind us you can see some surfers and a view of Sydney.  Of course we like this fellow.

Our new friend

Ducks and seagulls are friends here.   We believe he is standing on one foot.  We didn’t pose with our new friend, but he sees us.  Soapy’s mom loves beaches.

Soapy’s mom on Bondi Beach

She is ready to stay here and enjoy the beach, but not today.   We ducks found a great place to sit.

Ducks ready to ride

We are ready to ride.   We love beaches, too.   But, back to the bus and a short ride.   We are going to Mrs. Macquarie’s chair.

Information about Mrs. Macquaries Chair

This sign explains the chair.

Ducks on Mrs. Macquarie’s chair

This chair is a little big for the Colorado Traveling Ducks, but we love looking out at the water.  So, let’s leave the chair and walk to the water.

From chair walking to water

Isn’t this beautiful?   We love it.   Let’s go to the railing and the famous Sydney Harbor.

A great view of Sydney Harbor

On the left is a cruise ship.  The ships dock right here in Circular Quay.   Then the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge.   This is a perfect view of Sydney Harbor.  But, back to the bus and we are going to Darling Harbor.

Getting on boat for lunch and harbor cruise

Let’s follow Stephanie and get on this boat.   We will have lunch here and enjoy a short harbor cruise.   Lunch was delicious, and now it is time for dessert.

Dessert time

Everything was fabulous, and we loved dessert.  Sitting on deck, we enjoy our harbor cruise.

Ducks on deck

You can see it is not very crowded so we can walk around and see everything.

We love seeing our tracks on the water.

The back of the boat has the least wind, so it is safer for small rubber ducks.   We love to look back and see our trail on the water.   The weather is perfect and we really enjoyed everything we saw today in Sydney.   We want to tell you we were here in early November.   So much has changed since then.   When we were in Australia, we saw no evidence of the horrible fires that would burn so much of the country.   And, of course, none of us had even heard of Coronavirus.   We are so grateful that we went on this trip before our world changed so much.

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Ubud Village Hotel at Monkey Forest, Bali, Indonesia with Colorado Traveling Ducks

Before we head to the airport for our next destination, let’s look around our hotel.   Ubud Village Hotel at Monkey Forest calms visitors as we relax and enjoy the beauty around us.   From the main street, Jalan Monkey Forest Road, we enter our resort.

Entrance to our home in Ubud

You see there are many motorcycles, and our hotel has a parking, drop off, area for tourist convenience.

Arrangement of flowers

Beautiful flowers in the lobby makes us feel welcome.   Straight ahead, we noticed this small pool.

First small pool

A pool here gives us a tropical feeling and exotic atmosphere.

Hand carved wooden chairs and table

Small shops and a gym border each side of pool, while hand carved chairs and table allow us to sip a beverage and enjoy the atmosphere.   Continuing toward the back of the resort, we follow the path.

Path through hotel to restaurant and pool

Our room is last room on left.   Tropical view from our room.  Soapy and his mom are a floor above us, while they enjoy a higher view of lush vegetation.   Breakfast is served in this main restaurant.

Dining facing main pool

Dining and looking at the main pool.

Serene pool

The pool is uncovered and there is a snack bar at the far end.   Everythying is very convenient, located together, but with the illusion of space and solitude.   This bar and smaller restaurant, where we had our dinner the first evening, looks out to the street.

Looking toward main shopping street

We would love to go shopping or to the Monkey Forest, but we need to get on our bus now.   Heading to the airport and our next country.