L.A and onwards

Hello all

Well all good things…………………………

We have been so fortunate with everything that we have done on this holiday, that it will be difficult to tear ourselves away. Mick and Holly have been great hosts, so we have continued in holiday mode, in brilliant sunshine, until today.

We walked along the sea shore to the pier, enjoying calamares L.A style, this took up most of the day as we had slept for 13 hours, following our rather uncomfortable flight from Auckland, wedged in the middle of 3 seats with a very large man in the aisle seat. Actually every seat in the plane was full, bar one. Bren says that kiwis love to travel by Air NZ, they did that night!

We had a great trip to the Getty villa, recently re-opened after a long makeover, housing mainly Roman and Greek antiquities. It is in a stunning position overlooking the sea on the Malibu stretch. We had a very enjoyable lunch in a sea view restaurant where we scanned the horizon for more glimpses of dolphins or whales. have become a bit obsessive about wild life watching, we were somewhat placated by seeing lots of gannets in flight.

Santa Monica would not be complete without a wander along the canal and boardwalks of Venice Beach, stopping for the now mandatory ankle tattoo. You will be able to see the results of having our Chinese birth signs for sheep and dragon (guess who the dragon is) gracefully adorning our ankles. Last night we had slide shows of both our holidays in Japan and NZ, which may be of interest to only us, but we were mutually fascinated by each others exploits, I think we score highest in the spectacular scenery section, falling behind in the illustrated blogs, due to pressure of itinerary.

For anyone wanting to do a trip to NZ after seeing the photos there are loads of Kiwis really keen to do a house swap, and the air fares are really good right now, just imagine 6 months or even 2 weeks away from English winters. Perhaps Spain is a little nearer!

People have said to me that going away for nearly 5 weeks will be a life changing experience. I think I would say that the whole trip has increased my ability to travel from place to place, under one’s own initiative, and the excitement has never palled over the whole of that time. The maxim : do it now, springs very much to mind. These years of life are no time for procrastination, neither are vague ideas about what one wants to do, or where one wants to go. On second thoughts it may be just the time of life to do things on a whim, to take risks, to try something new. I am not sure, because I also recognise that the family and friends that I have back home are also important to come back to. We watched the effects of earthquakes in the fiord region of NZ scraping all the trees and moss off the mountainside, only to see the new growth changing the face of the mountain a few years later. So perhaps while it may be true that a rolling stone gathers no moss, one can become so moss clogged that new life becomes very difficult to initiate. So there you are , that is my take on it. If you want to know what Marie thinks you will have to ask her.

Photo update from LA

Hello, this is Mick, updating for Mum, who is still on NZ time. She arrived safe and sound yesterday, and we went out for a nice meal on Main Street.

I have uploaded a LOT of Mum’s photos. To get to them just click on the photo on the right. There are also several movies in there, including flying over the Glacier.

Auckland to L.A

We are trying to adjust to a rapid change of scene and pace of life. Starting with today, we gently said farewell to the Bay of islands, feasting out eyes on the boats, mountains, vibrant greenery heading for the big city. Bren managed the motorways and spaghetti junctions like a dream, arriving at our hotel mid afternoon. Only it wasn’t the right hotel only one that sounded like it. So we had a tense journey to the real hotel, which was in a closed street right in the heart of the city. The next test was parking the car which had to be driven into the lift – the car lift, a feat which took 3 men to advise. We were somewhat hysterical at this extreme turn of events, only mollified by a glass of pinot noir while we finally appreciated the facilities of this newly opened hotel/apartments. Pity about the car park.

We are now resting after viewing the city from Sky Tower, and having a meal down by the harbour.

We are looking forward to meeting Mick and Holly although it will be hard to say goodbye to Bren and this part of our trip. This country is so beautiful. it is not hard to see why people keep coming back. We spent Sunday sailing round the islands and watching loads of dolphins swimming in the slip stream. It was so exciting, we could have swum with dolphins but will have to save that for next time. The hotel, the Copthorne was in a great spot, just next to the Waitangi treaty grounds, so we visited the site and the centre, saw the video, and have a much better idea about the Maori /settler history. The long boats are amazing, hard to imagine them canoing from the Polynesian islands 100 at a time, men that is…..Hope to continue from Mick’s all for now folks

Days in the Bay of islands

We are now on our last day before traveling down to Auckland for an overnight, and then flying out the following evening to L.A

We stopped at Ferry Landing in The Coromandel. where our house stay hosts were homemakers par excellence, showed us their shelves of homemade preserves, all made with home grown fruit. The host Alan is related to the first Scottish settlers in the area, and takes guests on guided tours to Maori sacred sites. It was all very interesting but we had to tear ourselves away for a must do trip to Hot Water Beach, which had Marie and I stripping down to swimming costumes to sit in hot pools in the sand which disappear when the tide comes in. Very bizarre and all before 9.a.m. The travels continued with a trip to Coromandel Town and a miniature train trip.

Next Lap

Just an early morning muse before we set off. Mick has added links to some of the places we visited, which is great. Will be sad to leave Whakatane, we have had such a good time with Bren and Bern. They have a very interesting lifestyle here, and Bern particularly has lots of interests including being a maize monster on Friday nights to raise money for the choir. It is big in NZ scary maize mazes cut by farmer before harvest.

Yesterday we visited the geysers at Rotorua huge boiling sulpher smelling jets on a splendid Maori culture site, where we were again welcomed with a Haka concert. This is very much alive in NZ. On Saturday we spent the day at a Haka competition. with fierce chanting warriors with dreadful grimaces. Yesterday we learnt all the history of these war dances, finishing off again in the Polynesian spa baths which are blissful.

This has to be my best holiday ever, and we are off on 3rd leg today before joining Mick and Holly for a photo fest in L.A.

Days with Bren

Hello all. Long silence while we move into a more relaxed gear and enjoy spending 6 days with Bren before setting off with her on a 6 day adventure. We arrived in Rotorua and Bren had us basking in the sulpher hot baths before you could say alfalfa. Blissfully removing all aches and weariness!

Bren’s house is lovely, lots of exotic fruits banana, figs, kiwi lemons in the garden and 5 sheep to keep down the grass. Marie has already formed an attachment to Milly who is the undersheep and gets headbutted by the others.

Click here for photos!

We have done fantastic walks along the cliff tops, looking out at Whale island and White island with volcanic steam erupting. the beaches are so beautiful and underused. We have visited the beach where John will get married and met his fiancee Rachel who is charming, best of all have sent a small slide show and some photos to Mick who will upload to the blog. Do not hold your breath, the whole photo thing has been somewhat challenging to say the least, involving joint efforts of the family and much head scratching.

Today we went to mount Maunganui which Bren and I walked up and watched them parachuting down onto the beach, then after a picnic and paddle we sank into the hot salt water spa baths to chill out or heat up and came home via trendy bar and fish and chip shop, a splendid day out. Tomorrow back to Rotorua for the full geyser, mud bath experience. Hope you enjoy photos

Ann

Te Anau, Doubtful Sound, Dunedin

Hello all

We have certainly been on a long trek away from the world of blogs and emails.

We are now back in Christchurch for 12 hours, before leaving at the ungodly hour of 6.10 by train to Picton, then ferry to Wellington and the next day meeting up with Bren finally in Rotorua, non stop moving and not much time to draw breath!

We have been on the wilderness trip overnight on Doubtful Sound, which was a fantastic experience, the vastness of the fiords, the dolphins playng alongside the boat, the seals lounging on the rocks, like going back in time to a place as yet unspoilt by man.

We opted for a boat trip not a swim, as the water is fathomless and pretty cold. changed our f share for a twin bunk to avoid the young revelers who I suspect did not sleep that night…..We had another night in Te Anau before going on to Dunedin. Here we leapt in to action and within minutes of arriving, we had booked to go on a trip to see the yellow eyed penguins, and the albatross area in Otago Bay. This was one of the highlights, seeing the penguins close up was amazing, they were moulting, and spend 4 weeks not eating, not going in the sea, as they would drown, and looking very forlorn, at least they moult in two’s.

Today we had a good 2 hours in the museum seeing the antarctic exhibition which was fascinating

Off tomorrow early so will close now

Ann

p.s the tsunami passed us by