After Guy married Sheryl and Gail married Al, Rose Paton took the newly extended family on a three-week vacation in winter 1975 to Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia as a family bonding exercise. Our itinerary can be seen here.

Tahiti, the capitol of French Polynesia, was the most exotic stop of the trip, but also the shortest, only three days. We had a tour around the coast of the island, saw where Captain Cook landed to make observations of the 1769 transit of Venus, visited the beaches, took a cruise on a glass-bottomed boat, and watched hula dance demonstrations.

This was Al’s first trip south of the equator and he used the occasion to get a photograph of the Southern Cross and fainter, surrounding stars.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, we joined a coach tour visiting the glow worm caves and the hot springs region at Rotorua on North Island. At Rotorua, we smelled the springs and bought some souvenirs. We also were entertained by Maori dancing and rode a chair lift up the volcano.

NORTH ISLAND

SOUTH ISLAND

On South Island, our tour picked up a family of Texans who quit their rental car after deciding that driving on the “wrong” side of the road was too stressful. We visited Christchurch, Dunedin, the southern-most tip of South Island, the Church of the Good Shepherd on the shores of Lake Tekapo, and Milford Sound. We stopped along the road to see Mount Cook, now called Aoraki, but it was shrouded in clouds. We did see lots of sheep and had a demonstration of sheep sheering. In an article in the Lake Geneva Regional News paper, Rose reported that “New Zealand was the more beautiful of the two countries and that New Zealand serves a more American type of food.” Gail took the group photo below. Guy Paton is third from the left. Sheryl is mostly hidden behind the woman in orange standing in front of Guy. Rose and Bob Paton are the third and fourth standing from the left. Al Holm is the second person kneeling from the right. The coach driver is standing just left of center and is wearing a tie. The man on the left with the hat is the Texan and the woman with red hair next to him is his wife. The young woman in white pants kneeling in front is their daughter. The white-haired woman crouched down in the middle is Mary Bowie, who was a Scot who had moved to New Zealand and who enjoyed a spot of drink. We corresponded with her until she passed away. She often sent us a tea towel for Christmas.

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Australia

From New Zealand, we flew to Sidney, Australia, where we we joined another coach tour. First, we visited Sidney landmarks like the Opera House and the Sidney Bay Bridge. Then we went inland to Canberra, the capital, pausing along the way at Point Sublime to look down at the shore 1361 feet below. In Canberra, we saw the usual monuments and government buildings, but also had an adventure when Bob needed his insulin supply refilled. At home he had a standing prescription, but here we had to visit a medical clinic to get a prescription that a pharmacy would fill. That took time with us running around on foot. The driver/guide was not happy with us for delaying his tour. Continuing our journey, we stayed in Albury and visited a winery and a large hydroelectric dam before arriving in Melbourne. One motel where we stayed had pass-through windows in the doors of the rooms where breakfast was delivered. One item on the breakfast menu was spaghetti. We thought we'd try that. It turned out to be Chef-boyardee canned spaghetti on toast. Interesting! In Melbourne, we visited the beautiful National Gallery of Victoria art museum and Captain Cook’s Cottage in the Fitzroy Gardens.

Our flight home had a change of planes in Hawaiʻi. We didn’t leave the airport, but the warm, moist air and lush flowers were wonderful. We took a lot of photos of scenery during the trip. Now, over five decades later, I wish that I had taken more photos of our family embedded in the scenery. Web page prepared by: Albert Holm; Date: March 15, 2026