Here is the view from our bedroom window:
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Autumn on Waiheke Island
Autumn arrived at the same time we did, lucky we were expecting it and brought the right clothes A tail wind blew us from Melbourne to Auckland so the flight only took three hours - barely time to get settled.
Auckland was full of hardy Kiwis in shorts and thongs and tourists huddling into jackets against a sharpish wind blowing off the harbour but it had dropped by the time we headed out to dinner on the pier. 3 stars only.
Ferries to Waiheke Island run every hour on the hour so it was easy to walk out of our hotel with our cases onto the ferry for the short trip to the island where a bus was waiting. Buses are frequent and cheap but it didn't take us long to decide we had to have a hire car so back we went to the ferry terminal to get one.
The house I rented off the Internet was rather euphemistically described: a "5 minute nature walk" down to the front door which is actually for mountain goats and I dread going back up it with my suitcase. The shower is under the house which means out the back door in your nightie in the rain but fortunately there are no close neighbours. The other houses are scattered around the mountainside with precipitous hair-raising drives if you're lucky or a grassy glassy footpath like this one. Well we wanted quiet!!
We drove (love that car!) to our nearest village of Oneroa for basic supplies at the Four Square and came back for a quiet night with our books: TV is three channels of commercial rubbish and the AVIs I brought on a stick won't play on the TV set. There is an iPod dock so we can play our music.
The hire car guy told us there are 8000 permanent inhabitants, 4000 weekenders and in January 20000 visitors! I'd sooner be here in March even if it is raining.
We spent this morning exploring the tiny villages around Oneroa and taking time to decide on a winery for lunch. There are 31 vineyards and half of them have restaurants - we can't try them all, sadly. Stonyridge was a good choice: you sit on a verandah overlooking a valley of vines and horses and eat delicious food. Winery lunch will be our main meal and I award this one 4 stars. Food is expensive here - I suppose it's a long way from the mainland but it was surprising to be told we have to tip. The menu offered duct tape for hyperactive children so I reckon they earned a tip. Nowhere is very far away here with an island 23 kms long.
The rain lifted but we still have a grey sky so my photos won't look like a tourist brochure. We came back to our cottage and undertook the walk to "our" beach Herekoa Bay for which you need to be a mountain goat with cleats. It's a dear little rocky beach lined with dinghies and oysters on the rocks - which we will leave there, David having suffered twice in the past from dodgy oysters.
Auckland was full of hardy Kiwis in shorts and thongs and tourists huddling into jackets against a sharpish wind blowing off the harbour but it had dropped by the time we headed out to dinner on the pier. 3 stars only.
Ferries to Waiheke Island run every hour on the hour so it was easy to walk out of our hotel with our cases onto the ferry for the short trip to the island where a bus was waiting. Buses are frequent and cheap but it didn't take us long to decide we had to have a hire car so back we went to the ferry terminal to get one.
The house I rented off the Internet was rather euphemistically described: a "5 minute nature walk" down to the front door which is actually for mountain goats and I dread going back up it with my suitcase. The shower is under the house which means out the back door in your nightie in the rain but fortunately there are no close neighbours. The other houses are scattered around the mountainside with precipitous hair-raising drives if you're lucky or a grassy glassy footpath like this one. Well we wanted quiet!!
We drove (love that car!) to our nearest village of Oneroa for basic supplies at the Four Square and came back for a quiet night with our books: TV is three channels of commercial rubbish and the AVIs I brought on a stick won't play on the TV set. There is an iPod dock so we can play our music.
The hire car guy told us there are 8000 permanent inhabitants, 4000 weekenders and in January 20000 visitors! I'd sooner be here in March even if it is raining.
We spent this morning exploring the tiny villages around Oneroa and taking time to decide on a winery for lunch. There are 31 vineyards and half of them have restaurants - we can't try them all, sadly. Stonyridge was a good choice: you sit on a verandah overlooking a valley of vines and horses and eat delicious food. Winery lunch will be our main meal and I award this one 4 stars. Food is expensive here - I suppose it's a long way from the mainland but it was surprising to be told we have to tip. The menu offered duct tape for hyperactive children so I reckon they earned a tip. Nowhere is very far away here with an island 23 kms long.
The rain lifted but we still have a grey sky so my photos won't look like a tourist brochure. We came back to our cottage and undertook the walk to "our" beach Herekoa Bay for which you need to be a mountain goat with cleats. It's a dear little rocky beach lined with dinghies and oysters on the rocks - which we will leave there, David having suffered twice in the past from dodgy oysters.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
A Foggy Day in Santa Monica
We spent our spare day in Santa Monica where we walked in the fog on the pier and beach. The fog made in coolish and we'd left our jackets at the hotel (where it was warm). Quite spooky looking out to sea through the fog, very suitable for Halloween.
Adults everywhere got into the swing of Halloween, including this cute deer at Barnes & Noble bookshop. Ahhh Barnes & Noble... We spent some time there buying books (David) and a Nook Color e-reader (me). Yes I know B&N doesn't like Australians but I have strong hopes of getting around that and have pre-loaded it as much as I can.
Lunch was on a third floor rooftop overlooking Third Street Promenade and was nearly too chilly till they turned on a heater. Great small dishes of Asian/Latin American food to share: we didn't much like the yucca chips but all else was delicious.
Adults everywhere got into the swing of Halloween, including this cute deer at Barnes & Noble bookshop. Ahhh Barnes & Noble... We spent some time there buying books (David) and a Nook Color e-reader (me). Yes I know B&N doesn't like Australians but I have strong hopes of getting around that and have pre-loaded it as much as I can.
Lunch was on a third floor rooftop overlooking Third Street Promenade and was nearly too chilly till they turned on a heater. Great small dishes of Asian/Latin American food to share: we didn't much like the yucca chips but all else was delicious.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Los Angeles
We made it to Los Angeles and so - surprisingly - did our luggage as we only had 20 minutes in Atlanta to travel by train from B concourse to D. Atlanta has long escalators that plunge you under the runways to a train that comes along every five minutes to whisk you away to the next stop and another very long escalator up. But our cases must have taken a quicker route.
Our travel agent booked us into a medium hotel (on Qantas we hope) and we had a mediocre sort of meal with
a waiter
straight out of Fawlty Towers and are very ready for bed after the exhaustion of 8 hours sitting in planes. Why is that I wonder?
Our travel agent has booked us on Virgin Australia Monday night at 9.25 pm so we have a day in LA to follow Jenny's advice.
Outside is the city that never sleeps:
Our travel agent booked us into a medium hotel (on Qantas we hope) and we had a mediocre sort of meal with
a waiter
straight out of Fawlty Towers and are very ready for bed after the exhaustion of 8 hours sitting in planes. Why is that I wonder?
Our travel agent has booked us on Virgin Australia Monday night at 9.25 pm so we have a day in LA to follow Jenny's advice.
Outside is the city that never sleeps:
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Crisis!
Qantas has grounded all aircraft! We will be stuck in Los Angeles waiting to get back home. Jenny: what can we do in LA for one day? Our travel agent is hot on the job so I'm not worried; we'll get home even if it takes a while.
Tim got bagels for breakfast which we ate with the delicious wild mayhaw jelly. Mary knew it is a wild hawthorn and googled it to discover that it used to be a family tradition to go mayhaw picking in the woods - "a tradition now sadly defunct" - except at Wokulla Springs. Somebody should tell them.
Meanwhile today we are watching The Game Florida Gators versus Georgia Bulldogs and the Dawgs are winning which is causing great anguish in this house.
When The Game is over we will attack Ben & Jerrys ice-cream. It was buy one get one free at Publix so I bought 6 different flavours: Pumpkin Cheesecake, Chunky Monkey, Cherry Garcia, Red Velvet Cake, Everything But The... and Imagine World Piece. The names are a big part of Ben and Jerrys. If you suggest a name that they adopt you get a lifetime supply of ice cream.
Here we are with Tim and Mary optimistically toasting the Gators' success:
But they lost 20 to 24...
Tim got bagels for breakfast which we ate with the delicious wild mayhaw jelly. Mary knew it is a wild hawthorn and googled it to discover that it used to be a family tradition to go mayhaw picking in the woods - "a tradition now sadly defunct" - except at Wokulla Springs. Somebody should tell them.
Meanwhile today we are watching The Game Florida Gators versus Georgia Bulldogs and the Dawgs are winning which is causing great anguish in this house.
When The Game is over we will attack Ben & Jerrys ice-cream. It was buy one get one free at Publix so I bought 6 different flavours: Pumpkin Cheesecake, Chunky Monkey, Cherry Garcia, Red Velvet Cake, Everything But The... and Imagine World Piece. The names are a big part of Ben and Jerrys. If you suggest a name that they adopt you get a lifetime supply of ice cream.
Here we are with Tim and Mary optimistically toasting the Gators' success:
But they lost 20 to 24...
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wakulla Springs and St Marks
Nancy and Al came early to pick us up today and drive us two hours north to the REAL Florida - the land of cypress knees, swamps, alligators and good-ole-boys in pickups. We had sausage and biscuit (scones) in Perry for morning tea and coffee then pushed on to St Marks, formerly San Marco when the Spanish had it. It was a fort strategically placed where Wakulla and St Marks rivers meet and flow to the sea and like so many historic sites changed hands from Indian to Spanish to British then American. Now it's a peaceful spot with only the fort foundations left and a good place to launch your boat for a day fishing.
Then when you don't catch anything you can have lunch at the Riverside Cafe which is practically IN the river it's so close. We had steamed oysters to start - rather odd - then
I had breaded shrimp and the others had blackened grouper.
Next stop was Wakulla Springs State Park (nearly to Tallahassee) which has a most surprising hotel, a 1930s grand mansion which has been turned into a hotel - Nancy and Al have stayed there many times and often bring visitors. They have a particular fondness for old hotels. We've known Nancy and Al since we lived in the same apartment complex and our children became friends. Al was on sabbatical at the time but returned to Gainesville to become a professor at the vet school.
We took the boat ride on the Wakulla River, through the swamp and over the springs and it was gorgeous! Just one other couple and us (how unlike most places in America) and so much wildlife - 12 manatees, alligators, big and little fish and any amount of birds. Spanish moss hangs from the trees and when the boat engine was turned off all you could hear was the croaking of frogs. The spring emits 250
million gallons per day of fresh clean water - amazing to us! There were a few kids jumping off the diving board but otherwise no-one. I could have gone around again it was so good.
We stopped at a good-ole-boy selling honey and jelly by the side of the road and I bought a jar of wild mayhaw jelly. My picture is of Nancy deciding to buy some of the Tupelo honey.
St Marks also has a National Bird Reserve so we drove out there to a land of sea and sky and a dyke between the sea and swamp where you can walk looking at seabirds one side and swamp birds the other as it is a staging post for birds flying south for the winter. It's also a breeding place for monarch butterflies which were so busy that I could photograph them close up. Al had a lovely time with his binoculars looking at birds until the no-see-ums forced him back to the car.
We drove past the honey man for the third time in search of the perfect place for a picnic which turned out to be Wakulla Beach, deserted except for a dog and a woman netting for bait fish. Here we had smoked mullet from Riverside, crackers, olives, nuts and the wild mayhaw jelly which is a lovely pale pink and tastes of quince crossed with pomegranate. A winner!
The two hour trip back on route 19 passed quickly. Many thanks to Al for his excellent driving and to Nancy for her inspired choice of outing!
Then when you don't catch anything you can have lunch at the Riverside Cafe which is practically IN the river it's so close. We had steamed oysters to start - rather odd - then
I had breaded shrimp and the others had blackened grouper.
Next stop was Wakulla Springs State Park (nearly to Tallahassee) which has a most surprising hotel, a 1930s grand mansion which has been turned into a hotel - Nancy and Al have stayed there many times and often bring visitors. They have a particular fondness for old hotels. We've known Nancy and Al since we lived in the same apartment complex and our children became friends. Al was on sabbatical at the time but returned to Gainesville to become a professor at the vet school.
We took the boat ride on the Wakulla River, through the swamp and over the springs and it was gorgeous! Just one other couple and us (how unlike most places in America) and so much wildlife - 12 manatees, alligators, big and little fish and any amount of birds. Spanish moss hangs from the trees and when the boat engine was turned off all you could hear was the croaking of frogs. The spring emits 250
million gallons per day of fresh clean water - amazing to us! There were a few kids jumping off the diving board but otherwise no-one. I could have gone around again it was so good.
We stopped at a good-ole-boy selling honey and jelly by the side of the road and I bought a jar of wild mayhaw jelly. My picture is of Nancy deciding to buy some of the Tupelo honey.
St Marks also has a National Bird Reserve so we drove out there to a land of sea and sky and a dyke between the sea and swamp where you can walk looking at seabirds one side and swamp birds the other as it is a staging post for birds flying south for the winter. It's also a breeding place for monarch butterflies which were so busy that I could photograph them close up. Al had a lovely time with his binoculars looking at birds until the no-see-ums forced him back to the car.
We drove past the honey man for the third time in search of the perfect place for a picnic which turned out to be Wakulla Beach, deserted except for a dog and a woman netting for bait fish. Here we had smoked mullet from Riverside, crackers, olives, nuts and the wild mayhaw jelly which is a lovely pale pink and tastes of quince crossed with pomegranate. A winner!
The two hour trip back on route 19 passed quickly. Many thanks to Al for his excellent driving and to Nancy for her inspired choice of outing!
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