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The highs and lows

March 1, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

…. as written from just South of Winnipeg at 12,000 metres, it’s time for a recap of the last nine weeks.

  Best   Worst
Airline Air New Zealand from Auckland to Sydney. Upgraded, big seats, big screens and lots of free stuff.   United from San Francisco to London. Dominatrix pensioners, screaming babies and loud men. Thai Airways out of London was a close second.
Airline lounge Air New Zealand in Auckland. Gave us beans and toast for breakfast.   US Airlines in Phoenix. No food and drinks are charged. On the plus side, the barman did sing us a song.
Surprise How big America is. And some of them even know where the UK is. And Lone Pine was pretty cool.   Having the wallet stolen on New Year’s Eve.
Drinks Happy hour martini’s at “the bitter end” in San Diego. Bad hangover.   Happy hour martini’s at “the bitter end” in San Diego. Wine in Marlborough, New Zealand is a close second.
Accommodation Green house on the hill for ambience. The second hotel in Melbourne for facilities.   Melbourne guest house. No en suite toilet or aircon. It’s high 30’s outside.
View Yosemite (Franz Josef Glacier a close second)   The rain from the motel in Kaikoura while doing nothing.
Place Yosemite. Or snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.   Las Vegas. Bored after three hours and we have three days there.
Food Malaysian/Chinese food on Cuba Street, Wellington.   Most of America. We OD on salt and retain too much water.
Baggage check Flagstaff. About an hour on both our bags. Seriously bored staff.   New Zealand. Opened the bags but didn’t look inside because it was so tidy.
Weather Sydney, Australia and Bay of Islands, New Zealand   San Francisco – it rained except for the first day.
Stephen’s cutting comments) N/A   “it’s ok I can read signs” to the guide at the Hoover dam asking if we needed directions.
In flight movie Burn after reading   Sisterhood of the travelling pants 2. (This is without watching it too!)
Unfriendly receptionist Wanaka. She wouldn’t stop talking to us.   Alice Springs so called “Resort”
Most surreal moment Critic-ing “Adrenalin Rush Hour” for the discovery channel in Vegas.   Vegas timeshare saleswoman thinking the UK was on the European continent …. somewhere.

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Wanaka/Queenstown/Auckland/Sydney

February 11, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

After an early night in Wanaka, it’s an hour drive to Queenstown airport. Car returned, we wait a couple of hours for the Qantas flight.4087 leaving queenstown

Except for the initial fantastic views over the Southern Alps, it’s an uneventful flight.  As we come in to land it’s 25 degrees but with a humidity of 100%

With the city centre 29km away and an early start the next day, we stay in an Airport Hotel in Auckland. The Kiwi International Hotel sounds luxurious but is in fact a distinctly 2 star affair. With no air-con, the humidity is oppressive.

We’re peckish and go on the hunt for food. There’s a supermarket nearby but with only a kettle and some cutlery, it’s slim pickings.

4088 lunch at kiwi international

I’m considering a new career in modern art. Therese has a cup a soup.

Bad food, bad TV and a couple of hours later, we have something a little more substantial from a nearby Greek themed place, followed by a couple of glasses of wine in the hotel. The heat drops … but only a little. We manage an hour or so of sleep before the 0345 start the next day.

The shuttle bus drops us at the Airport and it’s a quick check in and through to the lounge. We demolish some beans on toast while waiting for the next flight, to Sydney.

We get another upgrade on Air New Zealand and get through the new Coen Brothers film (good). In Sydney for 0830 local time, we’ve already been up nearly 7 hours.  The next flight isn’t until mid-afternoon and the baggage couldn’t be routed, so we have to clear customs and enter Australia again, only to check in later. A last minute electronic visa application and we’re sitting back in the lounge by 1 o’clock waiting for our flight out …

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Blue Mountains, Katoomba

January 3, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

We miss the 0918 train by two minutes. A long black later, we’re on the 1018 to Katoomba and the Blue Mountains.

It’s a two hour journey; the first hour through the North Western suburbs, the second a steady climb into the mountains. We’re entertained by three aging Australians discussing women divorcing their sons, bosses trying to avoid the tax system and paying off their first mortgage early. Sadly, they depart but are replaced by some Lancashire folk confirming to the Australian opposite them that as well as hedges in England there are mountains and nice flowers.

Once arrived, it’s a walk along Katoomba Street to the visitors centre at Echo Point. Here’s the three sisters (and Therese) below.

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We walk part of the rim – but given the train journey times, don’t hang around for more than a couple of hours before returning to the station.

Unfortunately,  there’s no entertainment for us as we travel back to Sydney. Since it’s our last night, we have a quick look online for restaurants and spot a Veggie friendly Chinese. This turns out to be less friendly than expected, though hardly a disaster as we found an excellent Indian place on route called Masala, which we return to for dinner.

The night finishes with packing. Tomorrow we’re on an early flight to Cairns.

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Crazy time in Sydney Harbour for Teddy

January 3, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | 2 comments

Whilst Therese and Stephen went off to the Zoo, I spent the afternoon water skiing.

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Pepsi Max!

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Animals

January 2, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | 2 comments

We’re outside the Sydney Aquarium by 8.30 this morning. We’ve walked past several times in the last few days and the queues have been massive. A coffee later and we’re inside.

Special guest is the Dugong …

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though there’s lots more

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Teddy chills on an island …

3218 aquarium and zoo

A couple of hours later, we’re off, via Circular Quay, to Taronga Zoo. The ferries are packed and a couple of extras laid on.

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Coming back, it’s another packed ferry and we realise we’ve been sightseeing for 8 hours. A quick change back at the hotel and we finish the evening with a meal at Darling Harbour. A break from Chinese tonight with (what else!) Italian.

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All is quiet on New Year’s Day

January 1, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

Come on. We were up till 4am and mentally exhausted. Barring a cup of green tea and some juice at 9am, we didn’t wake up again till after 1pm!

Our initial attempts to escape the hotel are thwarted when we get stuck in the lift for a while. No-one answers the alarm and the telephone inside is dead. Fortunately, the mobile has the hotel details, leading to this exchange:

Hotel : “Hello, Metro Hotel Sydney. How may I direct your call?”

Me :”I’m in lift number two and stuck. Can you please help?”

Hotel : “Which floor?”

Me : “I don’t know. We started at 7″

Hotel : “We’ll send someone up”

Not quite sure how they send someone up, but we were moving again after a few minutes.

Feeling tired, the first mission is to get some cash. This means the dreaded cash advance on a credit card. Ouch. At least the money comes out of the machine.

We stop off at the police station and pick up a crime report card. Then it’s off for a walk around the opera house, hyde park (full of bats) and the city centre.

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Another hour is spend in an Internet cafe above woolworths (still no relation) shifting money around , courtesy of our new financial impositions.

3195 sydney ny dayBy 6pm,  we’re hungry, having only had breakfast. Chinese is in order.

We find an excellent one at Mother Chu’s Tiawanese Buffet with a page long vegetarian menu and demolish a table full of food.

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