Dent Family Six Month Travel Blog 2018 – Australia NZ USA Canada

Hi it’s me Alice again, I know what a surprise I haven’t died 😂

Today we drove from the Grand Canyon to the Hoover Dam! On the way we stopped at the “Roadkill Cafe” which include a sandwich containing ‘mystery meat’ which sounded interestinggggggg…

When we finally got to the Hoover Dam, it was very windy!! Mum was a bit scared as she doesn’t like heights and the Hoover Dam is certainly high up. We walked across the top of the Dam and we were scared we might blow away! Mum was very brave and posed for a picture by the edge :

Me and dad also managed to take some pictures off the edge ( I was terrified of dropping my phone)

I am very glad we made it across safely and there was no earthquake like in the San Andreas film…

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???

Today we went into the centre of Hollywood!!

First we went on a bus tour that went around the celebrity’s houses.We saw Britney Spears’s big pink mansion, Katy Perry’s house on the hill, and Steven Spielberg’s (and Iron Man’s) house. We also saw Justin Bieber’s run down house and were going to go in the portaloo outside (but we went past it too fast)!

Later on that day, me and Dad went to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! while Mum and Alice went shopping.

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Is a thing like the Guiness World Record Museum but was (nearly) all collected by a man called Robert Ripley. We saw odd things like:

A two headed cow,

A man that could pull his bottom lip up past his nose,

And a woman that could pop her eyeballs out of her sockets.

(Just letting you know that none of these thing were actually there, they were just wax models or pictures).

🙂

Barnaby 🙃🙂

Sorry that we haven’t posted for a bit but, to be honest, we have just been relaxing and enjoying Hawaii!! We can’t quite believe that we are actually here but, the vast expanse of ocean, palm trees and Hawaiian shirts kind of gives it away – yes they are everywhere, so watch out dad!!!!

We visited a coffee and chocolate farm and tried all sorts of others things there too….!! We’ve been snorkelling and seen green turtles, puffer fish but luckily no moray eels!

We went up to the active volcano in the middle of the island yesterday but we were a little disappointed that it didn’t erupt for us! Not even a bit of lava to show for a 5 hour round trip!!!

The closest we’ve come to coconut bikinis and grass skirts was at a Luau this evening at a nearby hotel (think fire eaters and cruise ship passengers!) but it was a good laugh anyway!

Here’s some evidence that we’re not just living it up in Bognor somewhere!!!

 

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!

We went to Wai-o-Tapu and saw and smelt the most bizarre sights of our trip so far!

You can see the various stages of the Lady Knox Geyser, my family’s reaction to the smells (Barnaby walked the whole way round with his hood over his face) and the fantastic and frankly weird Shrek’s swamp – yes, it actually was that colour!!

It’s a shame we can’t do “smelly-blog” for you!!

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….

On 12th March we nervously set off to swim with dolphins, having read about high seas & almost guaranteed seasickness……and no guarantee of dolphins!!

Squeezed into our wetsuits, we cruised out from Kaikoura (thankfully on a calm sea with glorious sunshine) & came across our first pod in about 20 minutes!
We were told that the dolphins like it when you sing, so Barnaby & I offered them a fabulous rendition of the Rick Astley classic “Never gonna give you up”. They seemed to quite like it, even after the 5th try in the water!

We watched & swam with literally hundreds of beautiful Dusky dolphins & they performed jumps & leaps all around us! It was incredible!

On the way back, we saw some common dolphins, a little pod of Hector’s dolphins (which are tiny & so cute!) and then, to top off what was one of the most amazing things that any of us will EVER experience, 2 Orcas (Killer Whales!) just pottered around by the side of our boat for 10 minutes or so!!

Enough said I think?!!! Xx