Uh hah, oh no, don’t let the rain come down...

Ok the roof hasn’t got a hole in it (for those who know the song!) but the rain is coming down with a vengeance. Some similarity to when we left Dorset, as SH5, the road we took yesterday from Taupo to Napier was closed today after a number of “washouts” caused by the 200mm rain that has fallen.
This weekend is the biggest Christian festival in NZ called Parachute (Greenbelt type) and it is taking place at Hamilton. Guess what - festivals equals, tents equals rain, equals mudbath! Val and Claire do you remember Firm Foundations? Well the TV footage showed the site as a river, with water up to knee level, not quite deep enough for baptism but getting that way!
“When the rain comes you run and hide your head” Ok Ron, I’ll let you off, you weren’t being an old softee and just after a comfy bed!
We found a very friendly Presbyterian church (St Paul’s) this morning, with a 9.15 service. It turned out to be the simple informal fore-runner to their main 10.30 service. As we arrived, they greeted us with lovely fresh coffee and a very warm welcome. We were sitting in front of two Trefoil Guild ladies, one also a Brownie Guider! Following the service we came back to the motel ready to be picked up for our wine tour. This weekend is the wine Harvest Festival with all the Hawkes Bay vieyards celebrating in usual antipodean fashion with good music, fabulous food and of course beer- no, sorry wine in abundance
They were collecting us at 1pm and there had been some mention of a NZ$10 platter lunch, so, understandably, we hadn’t eaten. We’d chosen the tour company we were using as they seemed to be visiting the smaller (boutique) wineries rather than the “big boys” which we’d been recommended to do. They did exactly that, and we spent a fascinating afternoon, visiting 4 different boutique wineries and tasting between 6 and 8 wines and sometimes a port as well at each. The “tasters” were only about 1/5 of a large glass ...but when you work it out, we’d still drunk the best part of a bottle or more each by the end of the afternoon..without lunch, as the weather was so bad, no-one seemed to be bothering with their lunches!
As we arrived at the third winery (Salvare) Ron spotted a Morris Oxford which is obviously the owners pride and joy. Our cellar door host Simon was wearing a T shirt with the estate logo on it (The Morris Oxford) and the words “Slow down and enjoy the journey”. Ron and I were very glad when we got there as we both needed the loo; OK too much information...and as they also produce olive oils, balsamic vinegars etc and you were able to taste these as well – along with a reasonable quantity of bread. Phew! Blotting paper!
The “cellar doors”, as the tasting rooms were known, were generally manned by students of Viticulture in the middle of their degrees, which meant, of course, that they were both passionate and very knowledgeable about their wines. I’m not sure they were quite expecting Ron’s technical questions tho!
The last site we visited (Matariki Wines) is named after the Maori name for the star cluster Pleiades. In our party was a young Japanese lady. The guide asked what car used this for its logo. It is, of course, Subaru. The winery had planned and Italian BBQ for today as part of the celebrations but naturally it had been cancelled, so we repaired to our very nice temporary abode and prepared an early supper. We’re now safely ensconced in our motel room watching TV – what else do you do on a very wet Sunday evening?
Tomorrow we’re due to move up to Hamilton, but we’ll have to see which roads are open!

Ridin’ along in my automobile...no particular place to go...

In a chance conversation with our host at the Rotorua campsite, it transpired that he had lived for over 20 years in Hastings (NZ near Napier, not Sussex!) He was going there that afternoon to see family. We spoke about our intended campsite, and were basically warned off it as oit was potentially as noisy as another one we could mention. He recommended another just outside Napier. He made a comment about journey time, and we said we were thinking of talking an alternative route on the way out, which would have taken us through the Ikawhenua and Huiarau ranges. This would have gone past 2 splendid lakes but, apparently a large proportion of the route was unsealed – ie potholed gravel track – and could potentially have taken 8hrs + with the added hazard of head on confrontations with large logging lorries. As you will be aware, slugs don’t like gravel! :-) Thankyou guardian angel no.1!
We set off from Rotorua with every intention of camping just outside Napier for a couple of nights...but we met another couple of those “angels”. The first was a lady in a souvenir shop in Taupo, who warned us about a storm due this evening (having already lost her modem (blew up!) the previous evening) and then her electricity due to the thunderstorm.
We continued on our way in fine weather through the mountain valleys towards Napier and had no radio signal for at least ½ hr. The radio decided to come to life just long enough for Ron to hear a weather warning for up to 6” of rain due tonight in the Gisborne/Hawkes Bay coastal region. Where were we headed? Napier in Hawkes Bay.
Height of potential rainfall 6”
Height of tent groundsheet 4”
Do the sums! Ok, we know it doesn’t all come at once, but... We are now safely ensconced in a small motel, not on the coast (partly due to its being a little more reasonable in price to come in from the coast), but, more importantly, being in Napier, the coast didn’t seem the best place to be!
We’ve booked ourselves on a wine tour tomorrow..very sensibly the local tourist organisation encourages you to do the trip by air conditioned minibus rather than driving! Seems like a good idea to me. So even if it is throwing it down with rain tomorrow, we should, all being well have a good day none the less.
If it doesn’t rain I’ve told Ron it’s part of his fiendish plan to get a really comfy bed for the night!!!
We spent the afternoon exploring Napier – it’s supposed to be one of the most “English” of the cities in NZ. The main reason is that much of the city was destroyed by a massive earthquake and subsequent fire damage in 1931. The rebuilding plan took place at the height of the “Art Deco” era and so much was built in that style. The planning authorities have been badgered by the local “Art Deco Trust” to preserve the buildings as far as possible in their original state. It really is like being in a time warp as you walk around the city and the very English formal esplanade gardens! You’re almost expecting to see Poirot or the Great Gatsby appearing around every corner. Ok I know Gatsby was American, but it’s the same era. We are going to miss the art deco festival in 2 weeks time – everyone dresses up in 1930’s costume etc – knew I should have borrowed the “flapper” dress, Jess!
So, we’re on a mission tomorrow – the Mission being the oldest Winery in NZ! Being incredibly civilised, the tour doesn’t start until 1pm, so we have time for church in town first. I love it when a plan comes together – God’s, not ours, of course!

What goes up, must come down...

And it does, but not necessarily in the same fashion! Curiouser and curiouser! Take 1 Gondola, no cornettos or gondolier and where will you go? In this case up a mountain! The gondola is cable car, and you go up in it, but luge down! Now before anyone has visions of us in skin tight Lycra (perish the thought!) or “Cool Runnings” Please wipe both immediately from your minds!
The luge may look similar to that used on the superfast downhill tracks, however you can actually sit up on this one, with three wheels and a pair of “handlebars” to steer and brake. So it works a bit like a gravity powered go-kart. You are, of course, going down the side of a mountain for 2Km so it can go fast – even on the scenic route. The speed some of the teenagers were going down the intermediate and advanced routes made us go grey at the thought! There is NO suspension and you’re running 1” from the ground on solid wheels on concrete...work it out! Imagine sitting on top of an operating pneumatic drill or giant orbital sander! Hmmmm...
Great fun for big kids!
We then came down to earth and after a very nice picnic lunch by the side of Lake Rotorua (watching black swans, shags and Australian coots) decided on a bit of culture as we had need of a balanced diet! So wiping the silly grins off our faces we repaired to the Government gardens in the city centre, home to the original Rotorua bath house, which now houses the city’s museum. The bath house is an amazing Victorian edifice which is actually still being built 100 years after it was started as the designer/builder ran out of money!
A surprise was in store for us, as whilst we were watching a volcano in the back seat of the movies (no comments please!) we felt the earth move...(Definitely no comments please...) ! There was a warning that children had to be accompanied by adults as there were frightening scenes and loud noises...
The bath house had some interesting scientific electrical instruments used with baths (mud and water) which makes the mind boggle – physically as well as mentally! You really did get the “full spa treatment” – according to George Bernard Shaw and others. They bore a strange resemblance to instruments of torture as far as we were concerned!
More from us from Hawkes Bay!

I’m H A P P Y, I’m H A P P Y

I know I am I’m sure I am...etc! The reason? A dry tent, 2 dry sleeping bags and roll mats, a new QUIET campsite!
We’re still in Rotorua, but 5 km the other side of town. They’re forecasting more rain tonight, but we’ve gone over the tent with seam sealer (just in case!) Unfortunately the design isn’t 100% (are they ever?) They sewed the seams, sewed Velcro tabs on to keep bendy poles and fly sheet in contact, taped ACROSS the Velcro tabs...so when you do them up, they pull the taping (and sometimes the lamination) away from the canvas! Der, what bright spark thought of doing it that way round! We still think the wet came in through the floor, but we’re not taking any chances! One of our neighbours on the new site got wet last night – apparently the rain was so hard, it was bouncing up under the flysheet, onto the inner, and hence into the tent. Nice!
Anyway, enough of that! We packed up early, got a refund on tonight’s camp fees and spent the day at the same place we went to last night! Strange? Not really! The evening was supposed to have ended with a land train ride down to see the geyser at night. It was so blooming wet that we didn’t get to go. So they told us that we could come back today as they had our names from the booking, just show the sticker you were given and you get a free day pass. Well there had obviously been so much more to see than we’d had time for, it seemed just what the doctor ordered – a free day out on the way to the next site!
It was well worth the second visit – as a cultural centre, we hadn’t had time last night to visit the carving school or the weaving school – both of which were fascinating. The canoe picture is a replica of the one the Maori used to travel from Tahiti to NZ in the 1300s, the other picture is a Maori greeting ceremony – believe it or not! The leaf being put down is a sign of peaceful intent and welcome – if you pick it up, you also come in peace. There was a lot more of the geothermal park accessible than we had realised last night as well, so we were both very happy!
Ron was really chuffed with his birthday messages – thankyou guys! He will reply next time we go on line. Just one comment now tho’- sorry David, no pic of the sun fish! There was too much of a swell to get a focussed picture at the distance.
Where next Dan and Jen? Well, we’re here tonight and tomorrow (Thurs and Fri) then is Napier...Hawkes Bay wine country!

Thursday morning at 4am..... we’re leaving home!

Yes, it really is 4am. Not a totally alien time to M, but a very alien one to Ron! Sadly we’re both awake as we had a horrendous thunderstorm last night. Nothing came through the canvas, but the water must have “pooled” under the tent, and with our respective body weights pressing down (no comments please!) forced the water through the groundsheet! Result – wet floor, roll mats, sleeping bags..hmm not good! Not cold, fortunately, felt a bit like a wet suit! But not good to lie in – especially with Arthur itis! So, the plan – evacuate to the kitchen, make a coffee and do some blogging until it get light enough to deal with it!
We’ve also decided to change campsite..we might be on the outskirts of Rotorua, which was supposed to be quieter...apart from the fact that we’re very near two arterial roads that go round and take all then logging lorries! The site managers, when we booked in, said “don’t worry about the road noise – it all stops at 5” –we weren’t too concerned as the busiest of cities seems to go “dead” between 5 & 6pm, with people coming out to eat a bit later, but much fewer of them. Everything’s closed by 9.30pm, so no problem, normally! We’ll see what they say when the office opens!

Good day, Sunshine..
And it is! With temps in the mid 20’s, and only a few fluffy clouds in the sky, we had a very pleasant and leisurely drive through the lake area into the caldera of a massive ancient volcano, in which Rotorua sits. Surrounded by the mountains that are the walls of the old volcano, with Lake Rotorua in the centre, it really is a stunning area to visit – a geographers paradise! – Well at least Jen will understand why Mum is raving on about it! Boiling mud pools, hot springs, geysers...Hmmm heaven! (to some!). To others, of course, it’s a smelly mess!
Several former NZ visitors had told us that we must go to a “Hangi” – a cultural evening and meal in the Maori tradition, where part of the meal is cooked in a Hangi - a hole in the rocks with geothermally heated natural steam doing the cooking! We went to one that is supposed to be one of the most authentic (we weren’t into one of the more “sanitised” posh hotel versions) choosing rather to go to one at Whaka (the shortened version) or see above to be more precise! The guide could say it, but I suspect he was the only one who could! If you’ve ever wondered why NZ Maori names are so difficult to pronounce, it’s because until the arrival of Cpt Cook, it was only a spoken language; when they came to write it down, the sounds worked best with only 14 of our letters! So you never see a C or B or J, X,Y,Z etc! Another challenge!
Having been to a similar evening in Rorotonga, and both sets of people coming from the same area originally, it was fascinating to see the difference between the two cultures. The Polynesian Maori the much more gentle race, the NZ Maori very much the warrior race. We did, of course, feel obliged to point out to our guide that the All Blacks were not God’s gift to rugby (although there have times when we would both have agreed with him!) Well, as true rugby fans, we couldn’t let the side down. But it did make him laugh when we said “Trust us, real rugby fans, and we come to NZ in the closed season!”

The wheels on the “Slug” go round and round...

As you can see, the little Mazda has acquired a name! It doesn’t leave a silver trail, but there are other similarities! We found out why..they’ve only given the poor little thing a 1300 engine..not so good with a body the size of an Astra! It goes uphill about the same speed as a Land Rover, but without the street cred or the grunt! The cry of ”come on Slug” can be heard through the mountain roads, and the squeaking of springs as we bounce up and down to get more traction in true hill climb fashion! To be realistic the last bit was a bit unfair, although “Come on Slug” and “You can do it” as one of Rev W J Awdrey’s(?) engines would say, can be heard as we drive along the scenic routes.
So, where did the wheels go turning? We wanted to explore what’s known as the East Cape route. It’s 500km round the East Cape...beautiful coast for 2/3 and an amazing river gorge for the other 1/3. It also goes through large areas of Maori land, and there are several really interesting cultural bits.
Our hostess at the Motel was more than a little concerned that we didn’t understand how far it was! We did, because this bit was planned months ago! So, full tank of fuel on board, lunch in the boot, bear at the ready, and off we went! It was everything we hoped it would be and more. Although the Coromandel had a more spectacular coastline, this had it’s own particular beauty.
We stopped in a couple of really interesting places; one being a very intricately carved Maori meeting house and the other being St Mary’s Anglican church at Tikitiki. On the outside, wooden walls and a tin roof, on the inside a fully functioning Anglican church, but also a beautifully decorated Memorial Chapel for those of the Maori race who fell serving with the Anzac forces. The whole place was filled with intricate carvings, the walls decorated with woven panels; all of which were gifts from the various subtribes. Hopefully the pictures give you a feel of what we saw.
The route runs from Opitiki to Gisborne (where Capt Cook first landed) and then down through the Gorge back to Opitiki. We were blessed with sunshine most of the way round, but also with a thunderstorm as we came through the gorge. Unlike in the UK, as it was quite warm,the cloud base seemed to stay higher than we would have expected and although the rain made taking photos of the gorge a bit pointless, we were still able to get a good view ourselves.
Enough about the scenery! The policeman in Thomas the Tank Engine was very annoyed that Thomas took a train load of trucks to the quayside. The reason being that he didn’t have his wheels covered! Now this was very much the reason that Toby was acquired by the Fat Controller, so that safety could be observed when people and machinery (engines) come together. As you will all be aware and intimately acquainted with railways must be fenced to stop idiots playing on the track and possibly getting injured or killed. Even our Model Engineering society tracks are guarded so that no one can be sued for lack of duty of care! Not so in NZ or in USA in the main, but with only a few trains a day I suppose they can get away with it. Or, do the Kiwi’s have better regard for what is dangerous? They seem to enjoy the adrenalin rush as much as any race but you don’t see them playing “chicken” on the railway!
The Gisborne area has the first real extensive viniculture we’ve seen and also hops... bodes well for the wine and beer. We also saw a vast amount of market garden produce in the deltas made very fertile by rivers and volcanic soil. The farm shops are incredibly good value and there is nothing quite as good as fresh from the land produce.
Much to our hosts relief (she said it reminded her of waiting up for her own children!) we got “home” about 9.30. It would have been at our planned time of 9.00 had it not been for numerous boughts of “seal repairs” as the Kiwis call them – road works, or rather, lack of road works! Their repairs seem to consist of, strip the surface, leave it as gravel track for a few weeks, and then think about getting round to finishing it with a bit of cement! This is always followed by the ubiquitous sign “wash car today”! The trouble is, you get little warning of when these “repairs” are coming up other than a temporary 30kph sign as the road words start, which means you normally hit the first piece of gravel at about 50 mph. As you can imagine, this proves interesting especially when you realise that braking hard then is not really an option! Even worse on a motorcycle or push bike. How fast do you cycle, Ron?!
Tomorrow we’re off to Rotorua, in the mountains...and their promising thunder storms...Hey ho!

I long to be under the sea, in an Octopus’ garden ... verse 2!

The great day dawned; beautifully sunny and warm with just a slight breeze – Ron even had 3 birthday cards – one from me, obviously(!), one from Mum and Dad and one from my sister – all of whom are far too organised for their own good! They gave me the cards to bring with me – how organised is that! They were really appreciated.
We boarded Gemini, a beautiful 50’ yacht, with about 20 others, to be greeted by “Butler” the owner of the business –who was obviously cultivating a “seadog” look, and three helpful lady crew members. Wet suits were issued, the galley and drinks supplies shown and then off we sailed looking for dolphin! It took about 3 hours to find them – during which time we saw blue penguins, jelly fish, sun fish and an enormous shoal of fish that were having a battle with storm petrels and sheerwaters who saw them as an easy lunch!
Then we saw the first tail flukes and splashes of the dolphin! The excitement was almost tangible as the crew brought the boat right up among the pod..they like to ride the bow wave of the boat – almost like they’re playing a game! There aren’t really words to describe what it feels like seeing first one or two, then 8,9,10 and more wild dolphin swimming two feet away from your feet! They were twisting and turning in the water, leaping upwards occasionally to breathe and obviously quite happy with these strange humans invading their world.
We all had a chance to get into the water behind the boat and, with the aid of snorkel and mask, see them really close up. While Ron and I were in the water one swam right underneath us, and groups of 2-3 swam alongside – awesome might be a trendy youngsters word, but it’s the only one I can really think of that goes anywhere near describing the experience.
When we stopped off an island for lunch and further snorkelling a large grey black octopus and a stingray were sighted. Not wishing to end up like Steve Erwin a hasty retreat was made by all!
Finally, the sight of a flying fish skimming the waves over a distance of at least 50 metres was icing on my metaphorical cake. We got plenty of good photos of the day and when we finally arrived back at the quay 8 hours later we both needed pinching just to make sure we weren’t dreaming. We then had a 83 km drive south to Whakatane to find our motel and a birthday supper. Much of Whakatane was closed as it was a Monday evening, but the owners of the motel suggested we try “Skippers” – a restaurant within Whakatane fishing club. We did and it was great! The biggest problem we had was deciding which of the many photos to include in the blog..here are just a few – lot’s more to bore you all with later!

Ooops! Forgot the train pic!

I'm in trouble! Here's the train pic I was supposed to put in!

I long to be under the sea, in an Octopus’ garden ...

Well, tomorrow is Ron’s birthday – I have been scheming to try and get him in one of two places for more than one day! So far I’ve failed miserably! The reason I wanted him to stop in one of these two places, was so that we could have a special day out (a whole day, not one where we’re “moving house”). The two places were Coromandel Town or Mt Maughanui. Why those two? Well, because you can go on a trip and swim with dolphins! Although we’re only here in Mt Maughanui for one night, our next stop is two nights in a motel not far away (also in honour of his venerable years!) So if we get packed up quickly (current tent and content removal time about 20 mins!) we should be able to catch our boat in the morning and go and find Flipper and his friends! I guess by now Jenny will have ceased to speak to both of us! She loves dolphins!
Our last 2 nights have been spent in two Family Parks Campsites. This is a bit like a club which you join for $NZ40 – about £16 - £18. Then you get the chance to book ahead from one site to another, and you get a 10% discount.
The numbers added up very much in our favour, as the sites are on both islands, and often in the place we want to visit. So we’re $NZ40 down, but already $NZ 4 up on tonights accommodation!
They’re about the sort of standard we’re used to in caravan club sites, but with swimming pool (used to cool off this afternoon!) , Kitchen etc and very helpful staff – when we went in to find out where the boats for the dolphin trip left from, she offered to phone them for us and we got it all booked there and then! The only slight problem..this trip doesn’t include lunch. As we’re travelling very light, we hadn’t bought tomorrow’s lunch yet, and the boat goes at 9 tomorrow. Hmmm technical hitch. However, a wander along the road from the campsite found both a little supermarket for lunch, and a liquor store for a bottle of beer to go with supper! Result!
What is the world coming to,eh? Cooking on an electric cooker using a Trangia saucepan, with a glass of beer in one hand. Ooh It’s a hard life!
The other reason we joined this club is for the internet access. The norm seems to be $NZ1 for 250MB, which is OK for checking the odd email but useless for the blog. The sites charge $NZ8 per hour with no limit on a high speed connection. Obviously we’re still looking for free ones as well!

Turn turn turn..

We have just travel to Coromandel Town over beautiful mountains and many 270 degree bends with 5 warning chevrons and 15 kph signs and Δ with a car precariously perched on the hypotenuse. Hence the Byrds song title! We used the C/H facilities this morning and had a very English breakfast of toasted crumpets with poached eggs which I cooked in a pan of boiling water. Unfortunately, one of the eggs broke as I put it into the water so it all ended up looking like some egg foo yong. With minimal cooking and eating facilities it made for an interesting test of ingenuity for me to get any egg actually on my crumpet! Margery was alright, because being a very polite(cough) gentleman (cough, cough) I gave her the whole egg. Margery said I was getting very eggy and so I suggested she drove today, as I keep on putting the windscreen wipers on to indicate I am turning. I did it as well –apart from when you said “indicators right”..I got a bit confused then as I was trying to turn left at the time! Ok, it is only a rather sad Mazda Familia with 154,000 km on the clock and it is automatic and the controls are in the wrong place and it has the grunt of a piglet and...am I getting to sound a bit Jeremy Clarksonish? Anyway it’s a good thing that the national speed limit is 100 kph as it takes us and hour to get to that speed, and going up hills Margery daren’t take her foot of the accelerator as we would start to go backwards, and we would have to get out and push (shades of Austria and a coal lorry, Dad). Still the guy in front took one look at us in his rear view mirror and wasn’t impressed by the view: he hi-tailed it up the hill as quick as he could. When he eventually stopped at a view point we finally arrived, but for some reason he decided to ignore the view after seeing who was alongside him - that it reminded me of the 50’s song about a bubble car with a chorus –beep, beep, beep beep, his horn went beep, beep, beep! We are intending to visit a pottery tomorrow. I know; I don’t do potteries. But this one is different... cos its got the only narrow gauge railway in New Zealand. For the anorak (aka Adrian) the track is 15” gauge and climbs over 3 kms with 5 switchbacks and one double deck viaduct, to a height of 165m. The steepest gradient is 1:14!! It was built by the potter, Barry Brickell over 26 years to extract clay from the hillside. Some love of his craft to go to such lengths. I will post a picture after we’ve been to the pottery (don’t you mean the railway, Ron!!). Having been to the Pottery/Railway it’s obvious that Barry loves nature in it’s truest form, and the railway, whilst he was passionate about it, was a means to get to his beloved piece of land – now a 60 acre conservation site, where he is replanting native trees – Kauri in particular – he’s planted 20,000 so far; when they get to 56,000 they plan to stop! At 74 years of age he’s still a nationally famous potter (and the recluse he always was!) The Railway was opened to the public at the suggestion of the bank manager , to repay his overdraft – now it has done that, the money it raises goes into further conservation work. From our viewpoint it’s a fantastic (in every sense of the word!) place to visit. Wonderful views, great ingenuity (supporting walls made from wine bottles and clay when the money ran out!) and great conservation project.

These mist-covered mountains..are a home to me now..

Well, at least for the next few days! We had two super days in Auckland – exploring the city in three dimensions!
1. Ground level – and what a cosmopolitan city is turned out to be! Near our hotel there were loads of Chinese restaurants, Thai ones, Korean ones, Japanese and a few more besides. The city, like many is an interesting mix of old and new buildings – very often the very modern at the bottom, with the old still there on top!
2. From above – 418 metres above to be precise – from the viewing platforms of the Sky Tower – the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. Splendid views all round Auckland. If you are mad enough you can walk around the tower on the OUTSIDE...or if you’re totally insane, you can do a controlled descent base jump! Controlled it may be, slow it was not ! Needless to say the $NZ190 each was better in our pockets than theirs!
3. From the sea as we went very touristy and did a harbour boat tour. Auckland isn’t quite the size of Poole, but comes close – their entrance doesn’t have the Bramble Bush Bay Chain Ferry clanking across it, however, Ron did spot a 1930’s steam tug, the William C Daldy, built on the Clyde, which was moored at Devonport Pier. This vessel made its way here under its own steam – incredible for such a relatively small ship. It was sold to it’s current owners , its Preservation Society, for $1NZ – hardly surprising it’s no longer in use as it takes 2 days to get up steam! We didn’t see “Parahandy” at the helm!

So where are we now? We’re spending 3 days exploring the Coromanel Peninsula. We chose a DOC (Dept.of Conservation) camp site to try out our tent for the first time – and guess what? It rained! Hardly surprising since we were in the mountains – 5K up a gravel road with 2 fords to cross to reach the site! As the fords had risen considerably (at least 12 inches) after last nights torrential rain ( the worst that the warden had seen for many years) we decided that, beautiful as it was, one night was enough – especially as they were forecasting “Storms” for this evening!
Whilst we were waiting for the tent to dry, we spent what Ron has just described as “a leisurely 2 hrs” , walking up to Wentworth Falls – I think my description might have been a bit different, but the falls were very impressive (over 200 foot drop), and well worth the uphill slog!

So, with a now dry tent we went exploring – whilst packing up we had been chatting to our neighbours, who were similarly engaged, and they recommended the site we are now at – in a tiny coastal village called Hahei. It’s a 4.5km walk to one of NZ’s well known beauty spots – Cathedral Cove. Which is where we spent the afternoon – we even got a swim in, although the water was quite a bit colder tan Rarotonga! Two steep hilly walks on rough tracks in one day..and Ron wonders why I look tired! Seriously, it was a beautiful Cove, with amazing (and enormous) natural rock arches, stacks and a load more costal features to waste photos on!

When we got back, we went in search of a much needed shower and found something very useful . Out trusty Trangia cooker got a night off as they have an enormous cookhouse at the site for anyone to use, Its fitted out with ovens, hobs, microwaves, toasters etc etc – locals were even leaving their slow cookers on while they went out for the day, and coming back to a ready cooked meal! That’s hardly what I call camping!

Tomorrow we head off for Coromandel Town – the centre of the 1850s Gold Rush. It’s named after HMS Coromandel – a British Navy Survey vessel that called here looking timber for masts etc. No long rough walk tomorrow though!

I would walk 500 miles...

Well, more like 13,000 actually - and all to have supper with friends who live less than 100 miles from home! It was really silly, but it had to be done! It turns out that our friends Roy and Joi were only in Auckland for one evening at the same time as us, but we made the most of it!

Philias, as you can see was enjoying himself [- sunbathing at Auckland Harbour. We spent a great day exploring Auckland on foot - being built on 48 dormant volcanoes, there are rather a lot of hills :-( A bit like San Franciso!)

We also purchased our tent ( good 3 man (well, 2 man one bear) dome), 2 sleeping bags, carry mats and some gas for our Trangia.. so we're all set on the camping front!

Had a great evening with Roy and Joi - they couldn't quite believe the God-incidence either!

Off towards the south of North Island tomorrow - we have a car from 10am.

Also found Esquires Coffee shops - apparently island wide, with free wifi! Good excuse for a coffee!

Val, we're very pleased Sims is behaving himself and keeping Daisy company. I hope he doesn't pull Ian of his bike though!

Kevin, we've traced Marcia and so may be able to visit!

I come froma place down under...

Got here at last! Crashed in an airport hotel last night and moving into Auckland to get ourselves sorted with a tent, phone sim card etc today! Longer post in a few days when we've got ourselves sorted - hoping to meet up with Roy and Joi Demery (ex Kent, now Bristol!) who are also here on hols!

Apologies for the lack of posts from Rarotonga - as you can see, we prepared them, but, as Harry would say, the internet was "rubbush"! we did manage to sort out our Aussie Visas, but that cost us NZ$20 (£8) and took AGES! Hence the flurry of postsnow we're back in relative civilisation - with a free wifi!

I’m a believer! Pretty amazing Grace!

If you haven’t figured out the link for the Blog post titles by now then you never will, because they are all song titles or corruptions thereof.
Today being Sunday the island is closed and everyone goes to church. Not difficult as there must be at least one church per 500 inhabitants. Up to approx 10 years ago the only CITC churches were set up by LMS (London Missionary Society), but since then there has been movement for the churches to be peoples churches with services in Cook Islands Maori language. We were able to sing the Introit as we recognised the hymn as Holy, Holy, Holy and the language is almost phonetic in pronunciation and with the words on two screens we could cope. Most of the service was in the local language but the screen was used to indicate what was happening. The pastor made a real effort to put prayers , notices and sermon in English as well.
The a cappella singing in up to 8 parts with men singing cantor as well was an amazing sound. There were some guttural shouts reminiscent of the hakka which worked almost like a living percussion.
We all sang the Benediction, He is Lord, He is lord but rather slower we are used to which helped as we were singing in CIM.
We remade contact with Geoff and Catherine after the service, who we learnt have an elder son Joel who lives in London and is a percussionist with Tim Hughes at Holy Trinity, Brompton and is very into Soul Survivor as a result. Small world or what?
Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best and we all had “morning tea” after the service, which was an agape buffet lunch of enormous proportions. This is a normal island Sunday tradition.
The PA speakers in the church were delicately covered with handmade lace and were definitely there to be heard and not seen. The flowers on the other hand turned the whole church into a tropical paradise. What a place and statement to the worship in this place.
We didn’t take any photographs as you really need to experience the whole thing, as we’re sure you will appreciate.
So, as we sit in 28⁰C by the beach under a palm frond sunshade we must say farewell to Rarotonga shortly as we prepare to fly to Auckland NZ. The excitement is building as Ron has only waited 50 years to get to NZ!

Desmond has a barrow in the market place...

Along with many others! That’s where we were off to this morning – the weekly market in Avaura .
The place was heaving with farmers bringing in fruit and vegetables, craftsmen selling necklaces and earrings, more sarongs and pareu than you can imagine. A pareu is a larger version of sarong used as a dress when folded in 374 different ways! The men demonstrated how they should be tied, with young female volunteers in bikinis. Maybe this would be a way to get scouts tying knots!
We were wandering round, taking photos, buying some local bread etc for lunch, and enjoying a drinking coconut, when we came upon Ron Bird manning a Sea Scouts Stand! As he was with the Cook Island Group on Brownsea in 2007 you may have met him, Jess and Kevin! At the same time, we met an Aussie couple, Geoff and Catherine, from Sydney – Geoff was an ex scout leader and had been similarly drawn to the stand! In another of those biazarre co-incidences, they were due to eat at the same restaurant we’d been recommended this evening – Trader Jacks, where they apparently have the best sea food on the island! They are also staying at the same resort as us, and also intended to go to church on Sunday!
We spent a very pleasant evening with them, and got a lift home in their hired VW Golf Cabriolet!

We are sailing, we are sailing...
We had a lazy start this morning – no false alarm calls, as I’ve changed the time on my phone. We were collcted at 10.15 for a lagoon cruise..with beach BBQ lunch!
A very pleasant couple of hours spent either looking through the bottom of the glass bottomed boat, moored in the Marine Nature Reserve, or snorkelling around it. Where were we? In the water of course! Well, at least for half the time! Having learnt the skill, we certainly intended to put it into practise..as a result saw far too many fish to identify in about 15 feet of clear water..swimming through holes in the rocks, feeding and being fed by the boat crew!
Then into shallower water to an island in the lagoon, whose name translates as “no touch island”,where the two guys running the boat produced the most amazing bbq lunch – albacore tuna steaks, bbq’d bananas, onions, salads, french bread with grated coconut, pawpaw and watermelon. Hmmmm very yummy! Even more enteraining than watching then gather fallen palm branches ect to make the fire for the bbq, was watching them cut green palm branches and weaving them into baskets for the food! Not much was left,but the remains were quite legitimately thrown into the lagoon to feed the fish, who made very short measure of it all!
Lunch started with grace in Cook Islands Maori and English; after lunch we were told about the “Tree of Life” (the coconut palm) Trunk used for wood, branches for roofing, coconut fibre in cooking and cloth, husks for gardens, fruit for drinking and eating, shells for costumes, cups, bowls etc. The green coconuts are used for drinking – no cup required, just a sharp knife and a straw! The coconuts we normally see at home are the fully ripe ones, have little juice and much thicker and firmer flesh. What we call milk is actually the juice, coconut milk cream and milk coming from the squeezed grated flesh of the nut. I think might make my own next time – I’m sure a coconut is cheaper than a can of milk!

I like to ride my bicycle..

Well we both do, actually! Except we nearly didn’t – again! There was a different member of staff in the booking office when we went in this morning – guess what? No bikes! Aaarrggghhh! She denied all knowledge of our booking and only after two somewhat annoyed people went back a second time did she organise two bikes from town. Ok, we catch the bus in...except it had just gone...again! So, plan b, we collect the postcards we’ve bought and sit and write them while waiting for the bus. Just as we finish, 2 bikes get brought back early! Yahoo! Now, I say bikes, and this is Polynesia... but they were a little tired! Mine was supposed to have 18 gears, but as the front derailler was inoperative, I was left with 6, but it worked...providing you didn’t need the front brake as that stuck on whenever you used it! Ron’s was a little more interesting as it sounded like the Pinky Ponk from “In the Night Garden”! Sorry if you aren’t into under 5’s TV – just imagine all sorts of weird noises at once and you’ve got it!. We’re not sure if there was a single bearing on the bike that wasn’t in need of a total rebuild, but it went ok and the hire company seemed totally oblivious to the damage being done!
Now, the point of the bikes..I gradually gleaned this over a few days. A bit more freedom to explore? Er..yes. A chance to go away from town rather than into it? Er..yes. Something a bit more than that? Hmmm, maybe we’re both getting the picture! Ron wanted to cycle right round the island! 33k if you stick to the mainroad...a bit more if you use the back roads...of course we used the backroads! It was fascinating, because you could actually see how the island works.
Let me explain a bit further. Rarotonga is basically a big lump of volcanic rock, sticking up out of the Pacific. Being volcanic, the rock takes ages to break down into soil, and so there is only a narrow strip of land around the edge which is relatively flat, and where there is any amount of soil at all. There is basically one road that goes right round the island (hence the clockwise and anticlockwise buses!) In about ½ of it, where is enough land there is an older back road. The main road has hotels, villas, holiday lets of all sorts. But there is no sign of farming or residential accommodation for the people who live here. Get onto the back road, and you find the real Rarotonga. Small holdings, family homes, local rather than tourist shops. It’s fascinating.
So that was what we did; setting out in temps of 33-35⁰ –the tarmac was melting in places! With the added humidity, cycling was interesting! But we took plenty of water, plastered ourselves in factor 30 and off we went.
We did stop quite a lot! We also had a very refreshing ice lolly and a couple of drinks on the way round. But we made it back by 5 o’clock. We didn’t think that was too bad – others we met on the way round thought we were nuts! Talking of nuts...apart from bruised nether regions we and our aged bicycles returned unscathed. Question –what is scathed? Note to self...look it up!!

Jungle, jungle Rock!

Last night was fab! A traditional Polynesian feast with more dishes than you can shake a stick at! AND loads of fish, so we were both very happy! Having made the head dress, it had to be worn!
The fantastic meal was followed by traditional music (loads of drums, guitar, ukuleles and singers) and an enthusiastic troop of dancers. The fellas weren’t bad either, but Ron didn’t take any pictures of them 
We did do a video! But it’s too big for the blog so you’ll have to see it when we get home!
Wednesday morning 5am..well it wasn’t meant to be..but Margery’s phone was still on California time –oops! So we went back to bed for two hours...and got up for a second time at 7! Oh dear, not a good start for a very busy day! Fed and watered we were collected for our cross island “walk”. We were going with a guide named “Pa” who turned out to be a traditional “man of the hills” who walks at the same speed, uphill or down! He put us to shame as we struggled up what we can only describe as a 1500 foot scramble through jungle and cloud forest.
It wasn’t so much of a trail, as a trial as we used tree roots, boulders and anything else including the trekking poles to haul ourselves up a very narrow path on top of a ridge 18” wide at the most. Interesting! Even more interesting when you start to come down a similar trail and it’s started to rain and so everything – us included was covered in mud!
Ron ended up losing his footing and a favourite shirt trying to help me down a particularly slippery bit with a 2’6” boulder to get down No broken bones, just a ripped shirt. Our guide has obviously had the problem before and found his own unique solution to the problem!

Happy talking happy talk..

For those of you who are familiar with the musical “South Pacific”, you’ll recognise the song title which we’ve chosen for this blog entry. Firstly we met some New Zealanders (we’re reliably informed that they don’t mind being called Kiwis) Phil and Donna, who were on the walk with us. We have an invitation to Dunedin! Secondly I lost Ron.
There I was, sitting waiting to order supper, when we get the most amazing sunset, just like the start of the aforementioned film! So, camera in hand, Ron disappears along the beach. Closely followed by a Swiss gentleman, whose supper had just arrived at his table! 10 mins later they were still missing! I was joking with the gentleman’s wife about us both having lost out husbands to photography when they finally returned! We decided to share a table as Ron had discovered that they were on the same sort of trip as we are! They are about half way round, doing a “Cooks” tour following the route from England that Capt Cook chose for one of his expeditions. They too had done the booking themselves, although with help initially from a friendly Munich travel agent.
Hans and Frieda live between Zurich and Basel, and were fascinated to hear about our blog. They are currently using email to keep in touch, but are going to try following our blog – you never know they may even start one themselves! Since they flew out this evening to NZ – we may well see them again – if not there are 2 invitations to visit the UK or Switzerland to exchange notes and photos after our trips! So if you’re reading this, Hans und Frieda – gute reise! Hans and Frieda had tried to book the walk we did – but had been advised against it – we were able to explain why!

Sittin' on the dock of the bay...

Watchin the time roll away..as we should have been out on bikes today. We had been told that there was no need to book – they had plenty...but of course, not this morning. Hey ho, something had to go wrong I suppose!
Anyway, not wishing to waste a day, we booked bikes for Thursday instead and decided that, as all the faffing around in the hire shop has made us miss both clockwise and anticlockwise buses, we’d walk into town. You’d have thought we’d suggested doing it naked , the look of shock on the booking clerk’s face! Ok it was 5 km and the temp was in the upper 80’s or so. But we like walking!
So a leisurely walk into town (what else do you do in these temps!) produced a few interesting pauses at tiny local shops and a very pleasant chat with a young man fishing..more of him later! We’d been looking out for a couple of these very distinctive South Sea Islands shirts and a new sarong for me (well, it has to be done!) We found them!
Margery also tried the local flower decoration – unfortunately this was behind the wrong ear! Married ladies put them behind their right ear, unmarried behind their left to indicate they’re “ready for anything” – oops! Whata mistakea to make!!
Houses of Parliament can be very different! Do you think “2 Jags” would approve of this parliamentary transport?!!
We also found the marketplace where we will be going on sat – there were a few stalls there, so we bought ourselves a coconut, 2 enormous passion fruit and a pawpaw- all for the princely sum of NZ$4 (abt £1.60)!!! So that was a couple of lunches sorted.
We also booked ourselves a table at what is supposed to be the best seafood restaurant in Rarotonga for our last night here, Saturday. Who should take our booking but the young man we’d chatted to on the sea wall earlier! Like many islanders the world over, he has two jobs to make ends meet – waiter and fisherman! So we’ll see him again on sat at Trader Jacks!
We decided to go the long way home, and get a view of the island from the perspective of the anticlockwise bus – this walking thing’s all very well, but there are limits!
So, what do you do on a sunny afternoon on a south sea coral island? You go snorkelling of course! Well many people do – we’d never tried it, but as our resort has the free loan of snorkel gear it would have been rude not to have a go. Great success all round once we both stopped trying to breathe through our noses! For those of you who haven’t had the experience we found it incredible being able to swim alongside turquoise parrot fish (12-18”long) and shoals of smaller grey/silver fish; not to mention seeing bright blue star fish and all the coral. Harry, you’d have loved the fishes!
Margery had a bit of a busman’s holiday, joining in with a group of aussies being shown how to make the traditional flowered head dress ladies wear for traditional feasts (we’re going to one this evening) . The instructors turned to me and said “she’s good” – I said “- and not a piece of wire or oasis tape in sight!” Margery finished far ahead of the other ladies, but did let the cat out of bag towards the end of the session. It was still fascinating to see what you can do with a strip of palm leaf stem, a handful of amazing flowers (all collected from the gardens here) and a piece of string!

Lazy Days and Mondays ...I do like Mondays

Don’t mix 2 song titles, Ron, it’ll get everyone – me included – in a muddle!

I know that should be rainy days and Mondays, but lazy days fitted today perfectly and it’s a Monday!

We’ve just done our first overnight flight – 9 hours from LA to Rarotonga! For the first time ever, I slept on a plane – must be something to do with being horizontal. Ron, however, did not! L You’d have thought we’d have both crashed out as this was our 3rd flight in one day! (LV to Phoenix 1hr, Phoenix to LA 1 ½ hours, then the Rarotonga one!) Personally I think R didn’t sleep cos he was still too fed up about the ridiculous delays at LA Airport. We should have had almost 3 hours to chill out, get some supper, do some blogging in the lounge at LA. However, in their wisdom, the US security guys had decided firstly to close the First/business class check in (which is usually very quick) then just to have three of six possible screening lanes open. Oh yes, then you had to have everything – laptop, mobile phone, etc laid out individually in a tray – along with your shoes, coat etc etc! The result was that most people ended up with 3 or 4 trays and a bag or 2 to go thru the screening process – you can imagine how long that took! So we ended up blogging as we ate! Not that we mind the security – just the lack of staff to do it properly. The lack of flexibility in the minds of most American officials that we’ve met doesn’t exactly help either.

Anyway, the good news (a minor miracle!) our bags have arrived safely – and on the same flight as us!

We got off the plane in the dark at 5.15am (1 hr early due to no headwind) to the most glorious scent of tropical flowers in a balmy 26⁰! Wow! And yes, it is January! The sun came up around 6:15am to show the true beauty of this island. The resort we’re staying in is great – right on the beach, and looks everything like the tropical paradises you see on travel programmes.

We started the morning feeding fish in the south pacific 30 yards from our bedroom window! Then a lazy Monday.

The place is full of flowers and P & T we’ve found the starlings you told us about! For those not in the know, Polynesian starlings are nothing like their UK namesake – the same size but slightly built, brightly coloured and with a lovely song.

We have the constant sound of surf breaking on the coral reef 100 yards offshore, as the sun set at 8:15.

Plans for this week ? well, we’re planning to hire mountain bikes tomorrow and do some exploring – M decided it had been far too long since she rode a motorbike to risk one of the fairly powerful 2 seaters they have here! Then we’ve booked a Polynesian evening – meal and show with drums, music and dancers for Tuesday evening (we reckon we’ll have burnt enough calories on the bikes to cope with a Polynesian “feast”! Then a guided walk up into the centre (Hills!) on Wednesday (just in case we need to burn off a few more calories!)

Thursday we have no fixed plans for, Friday we’re going on a glass bottomed boat trip (with a fish barbeque - yum!)

Saturday, there is a market in town and we will get the clockwise bus to this, (10 minute journey) or 50 minutes if you get the anticlockwise bus by mistake, as it goes all around the island first. On Sunday we are planning to go to the CICC, a Maori language church before we depart for Auckland at teatime arriving in NZ around 9pm. For those who like to work out timings as far as we are concerned the flight is 5 hours, but we arrive on Monday evening! Something to do with longitudes....and time zones!

Lazy Days and Mondays

Don't mix 2 song titles, Ron, it'll get everyone – me included – in a muddle!

 I know that should be rainy days and Mondays, but lazy days fitted today perfectly and it's a Monday!

We've just done our first overnight flight – 9 hours from LA to Rarotonga! For the first time ever, I slept on a plane – must be something to do with being horizontal. Ron, however, did not! L  You'd have thought we'd have both crashed out as this was our 3^rd flight in one day! (LV to Phoenix 1hr, Phoenix to LA 1 ½ hours, then the Rarotonga one!)  Personally I think R didn't sleep cos he was still too fed up about the ridiculous delays at LA Airport. We should have had almost 3 hours to chill out, get some supper, do some blogging in the lounge at LA. However, in their wisdom, the US security guys had decided firstly to close the First/business class check in (which is usually very quick) then just to have three of six possible screening lanes open. Oh yes, then you had to have everything – laptop, mobile phone, etc laid out individually in a tray – along with your shoes, coat etc etc! The result was that most people ended up with 3 or 4 trays and a bag or 2 to go thru the screening process – you can imagine how long that took!  So we ended up blogging as we ate! Not that we mind the security – just the lack of staff to do it properly. The lack of flexibility in the minds of most American officials that we've met doesn't exactly help either.

Anyway, the good news (a minor miracle!) our bags have arrived safely – and on the same flight as us!

We got off the plane in the dark at 5.15am  (1 hr early due to no headwind) to the most glorious scent of tropical flowers in a balmy 26⁰! Wow! And yes, it is January! The sun came up around 6:15am to show the true beauty of this island. The resort we're staying in is great – right on the beach, and looks everything like the tropical paradises you see on travel programmes.

We started the morning feeding fish in the south pacific 30 yards from our bedroom window! Then lazy Monday

The place is full of flowers and P & T we've found the starlings you told us about! For those not in the know, Polynesian starlings are nothing like their UK namesake – the same size but slightly built, brightly coloured and with a lovely song.

We have the constant sound of surf breaking on the coral reef 100 yards offshore, as the sun set at 8:15.

Plans for this week ? well, we're planning to hire mountain bikes tomorrow and do some exploring – M decided it had been far too long since she rode a motorbike to risk one of the fairly powerful 2 seaters they have here! Then we've booked a Polynesian evening – meal and show with drums, music and dancers for Tuesday evening (we reckon we'll have burnt enough calories on the bikes to cope with a Polynesian "feast"! Then a guided walk up into the centre (Hills!) on Wednesday (just in case we need to burn off a few more calories!)

Thursday we have no fixed plans for, Friday we're going on a glass bottomed boat trip (with a fish barbeque - yum!)

Saturday, there is a market in town and we will get the clockwise bus to this, (10 minute journey) or 50 minutes if you get the anticlockwise bus by mistake, as it goes all around the island first. On Sunday we are planning to go to the CICC, a Maori language church before we depart for Auckland at teatime arriving in NZ around 9pm. For those who like to work out timings as far as we are concerned the flight is 5 hours, but we arrive on Monday evening! Something to do with longitudes....and time zones!

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Blogger Problems!

We've done about 5 posts but are having problems getting them through :-( Watch this space and we'll see what we can do.

Pictures are getting better!

Route 66 at Kingman, Arizona, outside the TI

Daughter Pacification!

Well, what have we been driving in US? A Dodge of course. No collision damage waiver needed as even with Margery driving it we didn't scare the wildlife or Ron, well only occasionally! You git, Ron! you moaned like mad! What you seem to forget is that apart from one trip to the Shopping Mall in Florida (yonks ago!) I've never driven left hand drive!! I don't think I did too badly - I even coped with the strip after dark and that is scary!

We knew the petrol heads reading this would need an apprpriate updated! Our verdict? A Tank!

eeeennnnoooormus! but not too bad to drive if you like automatics , which Margery doesn't.

Even more scary - no handbrake! yuk! But there was a footbrake which we only found on the last morning...oops.

The truck was loaded up for you other petrol and diesel heads. Can you identify it. No Harry, its not a John Deere Tractor!

Grand Canyon Centre Parks

Some pictures!

We haven't stopped for the last two days!

On Friday we drove out to the Hoover Dam. Ok, we've got dams in the uk, but they're not set in mountains like these, nor are they quite so HUGE! (and this one is only one of a series of 4 that control the Colorado River from it's source to southern California.) Until you realise that the majority of the towns and cities rely on this arterial flow, the enormity of the system is difficult to appreciate. The destruction caused by the river during the spring snow melt surges flooded the majority of the usable land which then went to drought conditions during the summer. Understandably, the Americans are very concerned about terrorist attack, so they have security checks on all cars approaching the dam. There are times I'm very glad we live in England.

So what's all this about Centre Parks? Well, if you've ever visited one you'll understand, but for those who haven't, let me try and explain.

"They changed paradise –put in a parking lot with a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot! Don,t it always seem the same, you don't know what you've lost till its gone". (Joni Mitchell)

Centre Parks is very much about an image – the same lodges in beautiful areas, shuttle buses to transport you around an enormous site, twee shops and themed stores to attract (or repel!) customers and helpful liveried staff ready to answer your every need. Got the picture?

Ok, now put all that on the edge of one of the most mind blowingly beautiful pieces of God's creation. Yep, thats the South Rim of the Grand Canyon! Sadly mankind would never have visited it at all had it not been for early entrepreneurs wanting to develop it as a tourist site. It has no other value for the developer. But to lovers of beautiful scenery, and wild and wonderful places it calls!

Why? Just take a look – and as usual, the pictures never do it justice.

Fortunately it's not quite as bad as it sounds! The Canyon itself is relatively untouched, and you can walk along much of the rim with a view unobstructed by the ubiquitous safety barriers you'd find in the UK. All of the buildings are set back from the edge of the canyon itself, so maybe I've been a bit unfair.

But the views! My mind is still in overload!

So, how did we get there? Jen warned it was a long way (we'd worked that our too!) To be precise, if we'd driven straight out there, it would have been 290 miles each way. !!!!!! Hmmm – and much of that with 25, 35 or 55 mph speed limits L

We left Las Vegas at 5.30 ( it was supposed to be 6 but neither of us could sleep with excitement!) Drove straight there, with one stop at a diner for an all you can eat breakfast at a town called Kingman, which is really only known about from the song Route 66. We'd made a second stop at an Arizona Tourist information this time...nothing to do with the fact that it was on Route 66, and had a Route 66 museum and a very large Locomotive outside it, was it Ron? The information we got from them suggested an alternative route out of the Park, for several reasons.

After travelling up to an elevation of over 7000 ft we paid our 25$ to get into the park (ouch!) and spent a great time, taking LOADS of photos, and saying "Wow" far too often than is really healthy! It had snowed leaving a real Christmassy winter feel with blue skies and warm sunshine over sparkling white snow which contrasted with the red and grey rocks below. We were able to see the Colorado River 4000ft below when we went to Desert View on the south eastern rim, in Naverjo country. As the sun went down so did the temperature, we left the park at dusk and drove through Flagstaff, (also Route 66 fame) and saw a 1 mile long train pulled by 2 very large diesel engines which we had to stop for as it crossed our route back to LV. The Hoover Dam in darkness was a second bonus as it looked liked a dwarfs workshop, all lights and tiny machinery, when viewed from the top of the hill.

The light pollution from LV can only really be appreciated when you can see nothing in the black desert but the stars and then in the distance the grey glow; and guess what, we only saw two or three PV collectors in the GC National Park. The USA has soooo... much sun, and yet doesn't think to use its free energy. The power of the oil companies!

This return loop on route 64 added an extra 100 miles to our journey but was well worth it even though we didn't get back to LV until 11:30pm.

A little bag repacking was required this morning (ugh!) On the way up from LA our bags were technically 5 and 9lb overweight respectively (strangely Ron's was the heavier – I think it's the bigger walking boots!) All the airlines have different rules – American said you could check 2 bags each in, no problem, but they shouldn't weigh more than 50lb each. Our luggage weighed a lot less than 2x50lb, but were in one case each. Thereby hangs the problem! On the way up, the girl at the check in very kindly waived the 125$ charge for each bag she could have charged (another definite ouch!) but suggested that we repacked into two bags each for the return journey.

Not wishing to risk either of our decent rucksacks to the tender mercies of baggage handling, we decided to get the weight of both cases down just under the 50lb limit by putting walking boots, travel books, lots of the chargers for laptops, phones etc and our Trangia cooker into Ron's daysack (this being the oldest and tiredest one we have with us) on the grounds that if it gets damaged, he could probably do with a new one anyway. Sorted! Or so we thought. At check in, being a different airport, they were going to charge 85$ for checking in the 3 bags! Arghh! However, the check in clerk turned into another of our "angels" when he asked whether we were flying home –no, to the Cook Islands – "oh, that's ok, if we send them straight through to Rarotonga, there'll be no charge – we don't charge for transatlantic or transpacific flights!!" So the bags have the correct "RAR" labels on, and we won't have to lug than around at LA....Lets just hope they get to Rarotonga at the same time as we do!!!

As we say good bye to LV we are looking forward to our overnight trip from LA, via Phoenix (and by the time we get there you all will be sleeping!) to a south sea paradise. South Pacific here we come!

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Sushi for breakfast? Only in USA

Hi guys, sitting in Nevada Tourist office with a handy wifi!
planes all worked out ok yesterday, didn't bother with supper - brains didn't know what had hit us! However, on the advice of a fellow traveller, went out to "survey the strip" Boy oh boy, is it all that we thought! I dread to think how much electricity the neon is burning!
You can visit NY Paris and San Fransisco Bridge in 2 blocks! our hotel takes about20 mins to walk from one end to the other, and it's not the biggest!

The view from where I'm sitting is of the Sierra Nevada with Lake Mead and the Colarado river. Red rock and desert against startlingly blue water - we'll try and post a few pics next time - they're all still on the camera at the moment.

Yes I did have sushi for breakfast!! Buffet at MGM with everthing from porridge to sushi, tapas and everything else in between!

Virgin on the ridiculous

Despite every attempt that has been made to keep us in the UK we are in the Upper Class lounge at Heathrow waiting for our boarding call! Thanks to all who have been praying as it definitely is working.
We must say that we can both remember the last big freezes in 63 and 1980's and we hope it gets better soon for you guys.
Philias is disgusted as they don't allow animals in the lounge, so he's been hung up guarding the coats in the cloakroom.
R+M both have had facials in the spa. For R this was a first, but apparently more men avail themselves of this treatment than women! Not sure what this means? It means that us ladies are sensible and have them elsewhere as well! M
Its LA next stop and then a connection to Las Vegas; we hope to arrive at the hotel around 3am UK time.

So that's definately a sleep on the plane, then :-) Philias seems to be enjoying his flight!

Best Laid Plans..!

The best laid plans...as they say, go oft awry! So much for our nice laid back Tuesday afternoon, sorting the house and doing some leisurely packing! By lunchtime we'd both decided, quite independently of each other , that with the weather closing in, the only sensible thing to do was to get out of Dorset and Hampshire as fast as the snow and Bertie the BMW would allow!

SO...cases were not so much packed as thrown together, bins were emptied (as was the fridge!) washing up and most of the tidying up was done. Not quite ᾲ la headless chicken syndrome..the brains were definitely engaged, but you get some idea of the speed involved!

There were a few moments of inspiration..we both came up with the thought that we weren't risking friends (or their small children!) driving us to the airport in this wretched weather, so the train would take the strain. That wouldn't be so much fun with the luggage, so Ron phoned the Hilton at Heathrow and they very kindly agreed to store the big cases overnight! Brainwave! J

So, we came up yesterday via Heathrow to drop cases, arriving at Val and Ian's house with Sims and without any mishap at about 8 last night. We seemed to be running just ahead of the main snow belt all the way! Phew!

We drove through snow, but by the time we reached Kent, it was still not laying on the roads to any extent.

Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex really seemed to be "copping it" if the road reports were to be believed!

Then, this morning, Val very kindly drove us to Swanley (the A20 and M20 being almost clear) and we caught a train about 15 mins later to Victoria. By 12.15 the tube had conveyed us to Terminal 3...and we asked the dreaded question at the Virgin Check in...how's it going? You can imagine our delight when they said they'd managed to get all bar one flight off this morning, and that was only cancelled as Boston was snowed in!

So, all being well and barring whiteout overnight, we should be ok for tomorrow. Either way we can't do a lot about it, so we're just sitting back comfortably in our hotel room, having just spent the afternoon in the swimming pool and sauna! The next move for us is to choose one of the 4 restaurants to visit for supper (it's a hard life!) and get an early night before a very long day tomorrow. We'll let you know how we get on tomorrow!!

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The calm before the snow

We are sitting here listening to the weather forecast for the next few days. It sounds quite interesting with ice, followed by rain and snow. We were told before moving to Dorset that it never snows here. Well, they're wrong. We had snow in February 2009 and are now expecting possibly to be snowed in tomorrow. Maybe it's because of all the logs we've been burning increasing global warming. Unlikely-you haven't seen the amount of logs we've got through since installing the log burner in November. Watch out Ringwod Forest you only have 9 months until we start the fire again.
On Wednesday we are travelling up to Kent and then on to Heathrow, if the weather is kind to us. We also see that Las Vegas has a forecast of rain whilst we're there, and that when the Colorado River is at its lowest since the Hoover Dam was built. What is about us?
We went to Guernsey just before Christmas for the wedding of Peter and Lucy. We had a great time, and it snowed, with Jersey being brought to a standstill. Is it me?
Simba is getiing quite twitchy; maybe he will settle once his food, bed and the cases go into the car on Wednesday morning. He is qite clingy at the moment making sure that we are not let out of his sight.
We will update the blog as and when we can, even if it means visiting McDonalds. There are hotspots for wifi we are told and so we wont have to rely on hotel internet.
Our plants have gone on holiday and so with the decorations also taken down after Christmas it looks pretty bare. After recently watching The Day of the Triffids, I hope we've done the right thing leaving them with our friends in West Moors!