Australian Open

Nadal
On a roll and seems unstoppable, currently holding three of the four slam crowns.

Federer

A devastating loss in the final in a match he could and should have won.

Nadal certainly has his number and it's going to be tough for Roger to get Sampras'.

Serena Williams

What can you say? Serena can usually turn it on when the going gets tough and she certainly did this year. Admittedly women's tennis doesn't have a superstar at the moment with a host of mediorce players in the top 10.

Safina

Watching Safina play is pretty much like watching her brother play.

She has that female Russian serve, most going into the net.

She's also shed some pounds and does have a great game though. Hopefully she can get her head together and win the big ones. I'm certainly rooting for her.

Two weeks of Hot Hot tennis.

The Australian Open is our favorite tournament. This year marked our fifth year at the tournament in the last ten years. Australia is a great place for Americans to visit especially when it's winter back home. It's January and summer down under. Unfortunately this year the weather turned HOT. The hottest week on record with temperatures soaring towards the mid-forties (centigrade) for almost a week. The players didn't like it and the fans, especially those sitting in the sun, didn't like it.

Attendance the second week dropped off significantly during the day sessions. Many fans just didn't want to make the hot trip to the tournament just to sit in the heat. The massive heat wave had also buckled rail lines and brought transit systems to a standstill with massive power outages cutting electricity to twenty percent of the city.

It seemed tournament officials didn't know how to handle the heat. There is a heat rule in effect but it had been altered from years past. The roof over Rod Laver arena remained open when the mercury rose beyond comfort. Players complained more and began dropping like flies. On one of our day sessions the first two matches ended in retirements. Finally organizers decided to close the roof after Serena Williams had dropped the first set against Kusnetsova. Serena went on to win the match and Kusnetsova was rightfully upset since she felt the altered conditions favored Serena. Tournament officials had finally felt the heat, even from Rod Laver himself who questioned why the roof over the stadium named after him remained wide open in the stifling heat.

Night matches the first week on Margaret Court Arena. Always a great atmosphere and some exciting matches.

Rafa's fans. Always there and usually happy.

What makes the Australian Open fun are the crowds. Yes, the tennis is good but it's summertime down under and school is out.

There is much talk of moving the Australian Open to February or March. All the top players want it but there is much resistance from Tennis Australia. The main reason of course is money. School would be back in session in February and organizers feel it would cut into their take.

But the players do have a valid point. Mid-January for the first slam of the year leaves little time after the off season for them to prepare. Maybe the heatwave this year will spark a change of date for the tournament.

Chinese New Year Down Under

Chinese New Year is being celebrated around the world and we're celebrating this year in Melbourne, Australia. It falls on January 26 this year which just happens to be Australia Day (Australia's Fourth of July).

There's a healthy Chinese population here in Melbourne, perhaps even more than there is in Sydney, but probably just less diluted than in Sydney. In any case, the organizers didn't hold back on any of the celebrations as a full slate of activities and day of partying shut down most of the streets in and around Chinatown.

There were at least a half dozen Lion Dance troupes making their way through Chinatown helping the merchants beckon in the new year with prosperity and good luck. Many shopkeepers simply hung out some lettuce in their entryway and waited for the lions to show up.

What's a Chinese New Year parade without a dragon?

Where there are Lion Dancers there are usually firecrackers and they weren't shy about lighting them up. Many of the merchants had strings, twenty feet long, strung out waiting for the lions.

Welcome Year of the OX.

Yes, if you were born in 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, or 2009, you're an OX.

People born in the Year of the Ox are patient, speak little, and inspire confidence in others. They tend, however, to be eccentric, and bigoted, and they anger easily. They have fierce tempers and although they speak little, when they do they are quite eloquent. Ox people are mentally and physically alert. Generally easy-going, they can be remarkably stubborn, and they hate to fail or be opposed. They are most compatible with Snake, Rooster, and Rat people.

Find out more about those born in OX years, and any other year for that matter by clicking OX

Melbourne time in the year of the OX:

Hot in Melbourne

It’s summertime down under here in Melbourne (pronounced Mel-Bin) Australia and we’re enjoying every minute of it. However it’s getting a bit too hot to be comfortable. The forecast is for the hottest week in over a hundred years with temperatures soaring into the 40+ range every day for the next week. Massive power outages from the extreme heat have cut power to over twenty percent of the city for the second straight day. Bushfires are flaring up all around the outskirts of the city and some rail traffic has been halted by tracks buckling under the heat.

We’ve been attending the Australian Open Tennis Tournament every day and for the most part it’s been very enjoyable.
There was great interest in the Obama (pronounced O-bom-mer) inauguration here with about 10 hours of live coverage of all the activities in Washington D.C. We watched some of it which began at 3 a.m. here. As with everywhere else, there’s great expectation with the new American president.

Australia Day was celebrated a few days ago with lots of fanfare, flag-waving and of course beer. Next to huge portions of food, especially breakfast, Australians love their beer. Come Friday, after work, restaurants and pubs overflow onto the streets with people enjoying beer, after beer, after beer. It’s a great way to unwind and cool off during these hot summer evenings but beer drinking among some youths in the inner cities is getting a bit out of control. In just the past few days, a small minority of drunken, flag-draped, youths gathering on beaches in the suburbs became unruly and created some pretty ugly scenes. Controversy has erupted on whether the flag should be allowed to be worn as a cape, as is popular among many youths at events ranging from national holidays to many sporting events. In some cases the drunken rabble rousers spewed racist hatred aimed at certain minority groups, all under cover of the flag. Again, it’s just a small minority that’s gotten a bit out of control. For the most part, Australians are warm and friendly and racism is much less evident than it is in the United States.
Melbourne is a great cosmopolitan city and a wonderful place to visit especially during the summer.

When You Go:

* Take the Sky Bus from the airport into town. It's $16 AUD per person, one way, but book a return for only $26 AUD.

* Don't miss the ChinaTown Dumpling Restaurant on Swanston St. Order Chili Oil Dumplings and Lamb wraps.

Melbourne time:

Fiordland - The road to Te Anau

Frodo and the gang have done much for the tourist industry in New Zealand. Since the release of The Lord of the Rings motion picture, tourism in New Zealand has increased anywhere from thirty to forty percent (depending on who you talk to).
A visit to New Zealand must include a trip to the southern island and Fiordland. Auckland is an ordinary enough city with a great harbour and plenty of yachting activities, but you can get that in any one of a number of cities around the globe.

Queenstown in summer. No skiers, but it does have the same feel as Mammoth or Aspen during the summer.

The best way to see New Zealand is by driving. Yes, the steering wheel is on the left but outside the larger cities and towns, you can drive forever without encountering more than a half dozen vehicle's you could possibly hit. Sheep on the other hand, are a different problem, although in most areas, there is so much land for herds of sheep to graze on, they seldom need to cross a road.

Our journey to Te Anau started from Queenstown, where most day trips to Fiordland originate from.

Arrowtown, a small town just outside of Queenstown, with some 1,700 residents was originally built up during a gold rush in the 1860s. At the height of the rush, the town swelled to nearly 7,000 people. The Chinese were first brought in as cheap labor but within two years their numbers had swelled to 1,700.
Today, Arrowtown remains as New Zealand's only living Historic gold Mining Town.

We poked our way through the remains of the old Arrowtown Chinese Settlement. Didn't see a single other Chinese person around.

One of around six boats set up to take tourists out to the Sound.

We arrived and settled into a small motel in Te Anau the day before our planned trip out to Mildford Sound. However, everything was on hold due to some environmental "hazard" at the Sound. Apparently, someone had siphoned some fuel out of a tank of one of the boats, into the water, as a planned protest against the ongoing plans to perhaps expand the tours on the Sound. There's got to be a better way to get your point of "protecting the environment" through than by harming the environment.
We were awakened and informed at 5 am the next morning that the whole mess had been cleaned up so we did make our two and a half hour scenic drive out to Milford Sound.
The trip out the Sound was enjoyable and we could see the point of trying to stop any further expansions in the fleet. It is a beautiful place with dramatic landscapes but not unlike many other areas on the southern island.

The town of Te Anau is not much more than a couple of streets with restaurants, shops, and motels. Plenty of places to get your Fiordland souvenirs, if you are so inclined, or kayaking, camping, or hiking(tramping) gear. Strangely enough there's also a sizable Korean supermarket. Or maybe not so strange. There are growing pockets of Asians relocating to New Zealand, especially from Korea. Other than all this, the town itself doesn't have much else to offer. What remains the highlight of Te Anau are it's natural surroundings.

Out on Milford Sound


Hiking, or "tramping" as they call it in New Zealand.

The southern island of New Zealand is truly a naturally scenic place. You can see why so many people spend so much time on outdoor activities.

I once believed that New Zealand was "a long way to travel" to get to "not much there", and although it's true that our first few visits were a "stop along the way", we enjoyed every minute of our time there. So if you're into bold scenic landscapes and are on your way to Australia, or some destination in the South Pacific, you may want to swing by Fiordland.





Te Anau, New Zealand time

**Memories: Dramatic landscapes, deer farms, and "the worst spaghetti I've had in my entire life"

**Visits: April 2000, November 2001, January 2005

**Links:
Arrowtown Chinese Settlement
World Heritage
Fiordland