Arrival in Paradise

Our visit to the Seafood Cooking School was a great last experience in Auckland. Mark was a chef with lots of humour, but a good teacher. He showed us how to BBQ squid on a bruscheta topped with tomato and basil salsa as well as snapper coated with Moroccan spices combined with potatoes rosti and a tomato pesto. We did well, as you can see in the picture, and were rewarded for our efforts with a glass of white wine to accompany our food.
Next day, we took charge of our rental car – a 2003 automatic Nissan Sunny with 66,000 km on the clock. We headed north over Auckland Bridge to the BP station to buy our toll road tickets where we saw a lovely car (plus Koala), which we wanted to exchange for our Nissan Sunny (only kidding).
A long slog up Highway 1 to Whangerei was followed by a diversion to the coast with wonderful scenery on route, combined with amazingly twisty roads with steep gradients. I certainly had to keep focused on those roads, so I left the sightseeing to Linda when she could look out from behind her hands.
We eventually returned to Highway 1 and reached our journeys end – Point Veronica Lodge, Opua – just after 5 o’clock. Walking out onto the veranda with our hosts John and Audrey we were met with an amazing view (see picture). Yes we were in the Bay of Islands and yes it is paradise as we were to find out over the next two days.

David comments - As the appalling weather experience in the US disappears into the dim, murky distance now that we are enjoying the glorious sunny summer in Auckland, I thought that I would review the various food and drinks that we have consumed. Friends of ours have commented previously that they know where we have been not by the places we have mentioned but by the food and drink we have consumed. Well, here goes.

The flight out and the upgrade to Club was, obviously, a bonus as was the smoked salmon mouse and lobster & prawn salad that was served. This was accompanied by a glass of champagne and two glasses of a rather nice Chateau Rully (white Burgundy). I opted for cheese and biscuits and was served with a large glass of port. No wonder I slept well on that flight. In contrast, Linda does not do alcohol on planes and she eats more frugally.

In Las Vegas, we were very disappointed with the food offerings at Caesar’s Palace, although we had a lovely Mexican meal at La Salsa and takeaway coffee/orange juice/muffins/toasted bagels from Payard went down well. The dinner buffet at Bellagio, though, was sumptuous, including smoked salmon, aii poke (chilli raw fish from Japan) and other forms of sushi for my first course and kobe sirloin beef (matured for 24 months) plus pepper crusted rib eye steak for my main course. The desserts, crème caramel, bread pudding, sugar free chocolate and ice cream also slipped down well. We were eating too much, as happens in the US, so Linda and I shared a lovely breakfast of fruit, yoghurt and granola plus toasted bagels, cream cheese and more smoked salmon at Planet Hollywood.

Our one night in Los Angeles was spent eating great burgers at Hooters, where the waitresses were rather shapely. The next day’s lunch was spent at a Jewish deli, where I had pastrami on rye and Linda ate a half sandwich of corned beef (salt beef) accompanied with chicken soup and the biggest matzo ball she’s ever seen.

Apart from the wine on the plane, I stuck to beers in the US, drinking Fat Tire and Sam Adams in Las Vegas and, would you believe it, Guinness in Hooters (very sad). Linda mainly drank marguerites.

Now that we are in New Zealand, though, our consumption has taken on a different hue. We ate at ‘Di Mare’ in Parnell (a suburb of Auckland), a steak and seafood restaurant, which has a Greek chef and a Brazilian hostess. It is definitely family run and we would recommend the restaurant highly to anybody who comes to Auckland. Linda had a half dozen oysters, followed by fish of the day (Gurnet), which was lightly fried and accompanied by a salad. I had calamari, but not fried in bread crumbs and it was delicious. My main course of spaghetti and meat balls was also superb. The meat balls were more like rissoles and were highly spiced, but there was far too much spaghetti, so ask for a half portion of pasta if you eat there.

We have also enjoyed good lunches at Devonport with Debbie, Mark and the family and at a Thai restaurant in Auckland. Tonight, though, we are going to a seafood cooking school where we will be taught by a chef for an hour and then we will prepare and cook our own meal based on this tuition.

Of course, we have had some wine in New Zealand, but it is rather expensive by the bottle at restaurants and so we have been buying it by the glass. So far, nothing stands out particularly. On the beer side, though, I have discovered Mac, a local brewery and Mac’s Gold and Black Mac (a dark beer) have gone down well. We met a Czech girl who was not impressed by Kiwi beers, but agreed that Mac was good.

Finally, I just thought I'd include this picture of me with an Elvis impersonator in Hollywood - we told him that I did a better impersonation at a recent Murder Mystery party we held. He was not impressed!!

Linda comments - never thought I'd say I was glad to leave Vegas, but even after winning $130 on Bellagio's bountiful tables, this did not compensate for having to buy a rain hat and umbrella. Sunny California where "it never rains, but man it pours" (as the song goes), unfortunately, was correct. Despite being round the corner from the Kodak Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre (home of the Oscars) and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard, pouring rain bouncing off the sidewalk does not encourage pedestrian tourism. Universal Studios and Disney may have been open - and no queues - but this definitely separates the young from the young at heart.

Thank goodness for a lap top and mobile phone, because we changed flights and left LA two days before we planned. Even the 'hotel' we were in understood and didn't charge any cancellation fee. We spent Friday having lunch with my niece's ex-mother, Stella, and her daughter, Caroline, and then took off for the airport to relax and keep dry.

We had a good flight with Qantas, but I still don't like losing a day while trying to sleep through the International Date Line - who has got my Saturday? Please return it as soon as possible!!!

We landed early in Auckland on Sunday and took a shuttle ride to our hotel. The shuttle driver was brilliant and took us up to Mount Eden (highest point) for a view of the city. It was a great way to arrive in Auckland.

As has become our usual way with hotels, we changed rooms from the 10th to 21st floors and got a wonderful view (see picture) of Auckland Harbour. Arriving early also surprised David's niece

Debbie, but we met up with her family who were in town to meet Mark's (Debbie's husband) mother Carol, who had just flown in from the UK. We all took a trip on a ferry to Devonport where we had lunch. Mark and Will (the youngest son) went for a swim - I was very happy just to watch. We will meet up with them again in two weeks when we go to Blenheim.

Initially, when we arrived in Auckland the weather remained disappointing cloudy and we even had some drizzle. But the skies cleared on Sunday evening and it got quite warm. On Monday, however, the weather was WONDERFUL, it was hot (26C) and we had a great day.

We took a hop on/hop off bus and went to Kelly Tarlton's underwater world/antarctic encounter where we saw penguins, stingrays and sharks. It was KT's 25th anniversary so we got in for $5 instead of the normal price of $31.50. I tried to book a dive with the sharks for tomorrow (David just wanted to film it) but the earliest booking was for Wednesday when we are due to drive north to the Bay of Islands. Please, someone tell David Harris that they do shark dives without cages too!! Next stop was the Museum and the cultural show and fascinating displays plus an interactive volcano display - this defintely silenced the kids.

Now, feet up, relaxing, drink in hand, contemplating dinner and tomorrow's programme, possibly watching cricket in the evening (well, David's been very good).

Weather to stay or move on

The weather in the US has been appalling. In Las Vegas, the 5 year drought broke when we arrived and in Los Angeles, they have had the worst storms in 20 years, with mud slides all over the place. Last night, walking along Hollywood Boulevard, Linda and I were trying to read the stars names in the pavements, but there were too many puddles! Going to Disney or Universal Studios seems like madness in these conditions. So, we have decided to cut short our stay in the US and we will move on to Auckland 2 days earlier than planned, arriving on Sunday 24th January.

At least in Las Vegas there were things to do indoors, like gambling, shows and shopping. Linda bought some great shoes (see picture) (decisions, decisions, what colour should she buy??) and she also won on the tables - her luck is always better than mine. Somehow, we were in the front row for Bette Midler's show (she was incredible) and we went to see the Cirque du Soleil production of 'O' at the Bellagio.

From the pictures, though, you will see that the weather was not great. Really murky from our room and there appears to be a bit of a halo around the Eiffel Tower.

Please New Zealand, be kind to us, we need some sunshine and I want to send a picture of me in my shorts to Hendri

Thanks Reg and hallo Las Vegas

It's funny how things happen to us. How we very often change rooms in hotels because we don't like what we are given. Well, this time it happened twice! Once at BA check-in and then again at Caesar's Palace. At Terminal 5, we were told that our airplane had changed to a smaller plane and so our seats had been changed from the middle (which we had paid to pre-book) to the rear of the plane. We were not happy about this and after some discussions, along came Reg, one of BA's deputy managers. He gave us access to the BA lounge at terminal 5 (free food and unlimited drink) and then he paved the way for us to be upgraded to Club class, which was really great since we had never been on flat bed seats when flying. Linda actually enjoyed the flight and I really relaxed whilst drinking lots more booze, eating lobster and watching my choice of film whilst lying semi-comotose (see picture).
We arrived in Las Vegas far less tired than we might otherwise have been, even though it was 3 a.m. according to our body clocks. At Caesar's Palace, we were given a room on the 5th floor with no view whatsoever and we found it almost impossible to understand how the lights worked. After a trip back down to reception, we were given a room on the 45th floor with a great view. Also, the new room was about twice the size of the initial room and, I estimate, could accomodate 8 king size beds (see picture).
The weather in Las Vegas, unusally, is raining and forecast to rain for the next few days. However, some retail therapy (see picture - but nothing serious as we haven't hit the shoe shops yet only Swarovski), a little gambling and shows by Bette Midler and Cirque du Soleil should keep us amused.

A week to go and getting twitchy

The snow does not seem to want to go away - but we do. We haven't been able to get out of our house until last Saturday . However, our road is now driveable but still very white. The temperature in Las Vegas is only 16C, but that seems very warm compared with the sub-zero temperatures we have had recently in Chalfont St Giles, and it gets better in LA where the temperature is up to 23C. I can wear my shorts there and maybe use some suntan lotion. Yippee!!!
We have done most of the on-line pre-travel arrangements, except we have no hotel, as yet, in Sydney and no car hire in NZ or Oz - but we will get there.
We aim to pack very light, but I don't know how successful we'll be - we will need to be disciplined!

Follow us and see how we do.

David
Monday 11th January