Author: Simon

We have been moving slowly up the West Coast……Garberville to Eureka to Crescent City to Bandon to Vancouver (Washington State)…

On route to Eureka we ‘had’ to stop off and see some more Redwoods (they grow like weeds here)….

On leaving Eureka we passed the “Old Town” including some spooky Victorian houses…(probably about the oldest thing we’ll see!)

Eureka to Crescent City to Bandon….beautiful coastline (bit like Cornwall)….although our latest “Best Western” left alot to be desired…

Bandon to Vancouver (Washington) via Springfield….which is apparently the “offical one”….

We soon head for Seattle and then on to Canada…..

You’ll be pleased to hear the weather has been quite English…..so all those tans are disappearing fast.

Our final San Francisco treats included…..a sneaky return visit to Barnabys favourite Arcade…..a ride on a Cable Car and a stop off to view the Golden Gate Bridge…

We then made our way up the coast, using the slow road….and blimey wasn’t it slow and winding! We stopped overnight and visted a beach called “Glass Beach”, guess what, loads of Beach Glass….

Next we moved (slowly) on to Redwood country……finding time to drive through a tree and visit various other “very tall trees”…using one as a bridge….to visit a “Giant Tree”. No sightings of Big Foot, yet, although I still haven’t had my hair cut…..

Hello!

Bit of a catch up here…..

Whilst in LA we spent a day at Santa Monica, mainly on the pier, beach, muscle beach and shopping….far more pleasant that Los Angeles, thank you very much…

We then headed east to the Joshua Tree park…..here we saw various odd rock formations and cacti…Alice and Barnaby were sworn in as Park Rangers….temperatures were up to the mid 30c! Which is unusual for the time of year….

We also visited the local “Bowlarium”, where I showed the locals how to chuck a bowling ball…and at $25 for 2 games + shoe hire, I’ll be making this my local going forward. You can see it was packed!

Next up…..we spent 2 nights “off Grid” at an A-frame in Sunset Crater Park. This was suprisingly successful! No Wifi, no phone signal….no (well only a few) grumbles. We attempted to climb the local volcano (like you do), but didn’t quite make the top! The volcanic sand was rather tricky to climb up…You can imagine that in the middle of nowhere the stars were rather impressive! You can see the A-frame in the first photo….if you squint…or use this Google maps link on ‘satellite’ mode to get an idea of how remote it was!

https://goo.gl/maps/K26rydyE1aS2

From there we have moved on to Grand Canyon, for those of you who haven’t heard of its a bit like Cheddar Gorge, but without the cheese.

Next we will be tracking west to Yosemite….where we might need snow chains….anyone know how they work???

We’ve been rather quiet over the past week.

Our last few days in the camper were spent north of Auckland in the Bay of Islands.

We spent an afternoon visiting the Waitangi Treaty grounds, this is where the initial “agreement” between the British and many Maori groups was signed (or not signed). We learnt that the sneaky Brits slightly mistranslated the English version into Maori and there is still argument bargument over the words…..anyway after a tour, a Maori show (no that is not me), we decided to do the very English thing and play cricket….that’ll show’em…..

 

 

We dropped the camper in Auckland…and all enjoyed proper beds, carpet and sofas…..we also visited the Auckland Sky Tower…

 

 

A further day at the Auckland Museum to see some wholly underwhelming exhibits….a tree, some bananas and a pond at the Wintergardens proved more interesting.

 

 

Auckland Zoo is planned for Good Friday (hoping to get a few animals locked up) and then we fly to Hawaii, where we will arrive before we have departed (if you see what I mean)….so will go from being 12hrs ahead to 12hrs behind….

Good day or Good night….

Unbelieveable, but true….

Hopefully I’ll get to this original recording setup….maybe even where they shot the video. Fingers crossed!

Help! My bluetooth keyboard has gone on the blink! Well, it hasn’t but from that unbelievable list of letters, you might think it had.

Te Whakarewarewatanga-o-te-ope-a-Wahiao is the full name of Whakarewarewa, a “real” working Maori village situated in Rotorua. The village is sat on top of a large dose of Geothermal activity, which the occupants use to their advantage.

The tour guide explained the history of the settlement, customs (children still “dive for pennies” from the tourists, as they have done for yonks), cooking is still carried out in a Hangi (boxed hole in the ground) or in the rather hot pools. They also have baths, utilising both the hot water and the yellow soapy scum “minerals” that collect in the water channels.

Whilst villagers do still live in the settlement, a lot also live and work outside, but it’s probably a reasonable insight into how they have lived over the past few centuries. They all fell out with the “Craft village/geysers” next door about 30 years ago, and the gate has been firmly locked since!Here’s the website if you are interested…. https://www.whakarewarewa.com

And some photos of our visit. The “bowler hatted” carvings reflect the influence of the pesky Brits!

Sadly no Tightrope walking with Dolphins or Polygon news…..but here is a catch-up…..

On the 13th we ferried across the Cook Straits to the North Island…..

By the 14th we were up to Napier on the East Coast where we visited the National Aquarium….along with the usual collection of fresh and salty marine life…we saw Little Blue Penguins (all of which were “rescue” Penguins….think wooden legs/neck braces) and surprisingly (both for it being an Aquarium and we hadn’t read the leaflet properly) a Kiwi. See photos of Penguin, but no Kiwi photos as they prefer the dark…

Next we moved on up to Lake Taupo, via “Craters of the Moon” and Huka Falls. Craters of the Moon being a Geothermal Park, containing Mud Pools and thermal vents. The pictures don’t do it justice….stick around for the next blog for more Geothermal related facts…..

Obviously we had a game of mini golf, this time only 5 shots separated top from bottom. I will need to get in some extra practice….

Some sunshine has improved the view from the van….Wednesday and then Thursday….

Short on Wi-Fi and poor weather due to a ‘cyclone’ (lots of rain and a bit breezy)…but the clouds are beginning to break over Lake Tekapo….

Forcing the kids up a mountain tomorrow…

Oh deary me, we are rather behind here….

The last post was for Coral Bay when we left on 10th Feb…it’s now 18th Feb and my homework is late.

So here goes…from Coral Bay to Lancelin, crossing back over the Tropic of Capricorn, we stopped a couple of times

Carnarvon…where we visited a “Space Museum”…it’s on the site of an old Satelite Tracking Station, that was used during the Apollo landings (and more importantly for the set of the BBC Educational Look Around You series) Gallery of pictures below…

At Lancelin, we stopped specifically to try our hand (legs) at Sandboarding….which was fun, but tiring walking back up the hill each time…

From Lancelin to Perth where we met up with Judes’ primary school friend Helen, who hadn’t seen each other since 2005….

In Perth we spent two busy days with Helen…..cruising the River Swan, travelling by tram and bus….visiting the Fremantle Prison…..a selection of views and poses below…

(including an apocolyptic sky!)

We also visted Rottnest Island, home to Alices new pet Quokka…

It was also great to meet up with Dawn and Dean (and kids!) , old collegues from Hallmark days…..not seen since they were sent over on the boat in 2002…

We flew out of Perth to Christchurch, New Zealand on 16th Feb….just in time for Cyclone season!!!