Author archive
10 April 2009
Upon arrival, we hopped on to the public bus to the city but didn’t have small notes. The kind driver wanted to conserve his change so gave the both of us free rides. This is the way New Zealand used to be!!! I love it!!! We stayed at the Mercure Grosvernor in the city centre, […]
10 April 2009
We were flying standby from Auckland to Adelaide early in the morning on standby. It is a longish flight for the A320 and apart from the passenger load (which can be high being Easter weekend), there are sometimes weight restrictions which could see us not get on despite seats being available. Fortunately, we got our […]
28 February 2009
Above: This copy of the Cardona hotel in Auckland didn’t conceal a garden behind. Today is officially the last day of summer. Tomorrow it will be autumn, and Marie will hop on the plane home after a two month visit. Who knows where and when we will meet again! We commiserated the twin-event at the […]
22 February 2009
It was an uneventful flight back to Auckland. The weather had been glorious and I’m glad I made the most of the summer with visits around the country.
22 February 2009
We had breakfast where Jo and the Navy Band was playing, then headed out to Mission Estate, a winery that is often the venue for summer concerts by famous stars. Lionel Richie was coming to sing in a week. But as it turned out a week from today, it became the venue’s first ever cancellation due […]
21 February 2009
We flew down to the Art Deco Weekend in Napier today. Napier is the (self-proclaimed?) Art Deco capital of the world because it was rebuilt in the style of that era after being levelled by an earthquake 1931. Like Nelson, it has known for good weather and a seaside setting. Oh, I want to move here […]
20 February 2009
It’s back home and back to the “salt mine” again until my next weekend trip in a couple of weeks.
7 February 2009
We did a circuit around the region today, heading north to Arrowtown, Cardrona and Wanaka. Arrowtown is an old mining town that has been kept in the style of the period … to the extent possible I guess. It was home to the first Chinese in New Zealand who came to work in the gold […]
6 February 2009
My Boeing 737 plane to Queenstown taxied towards the runway … being seated at the last row, I saw that a cabin crew member was standing outside the open loo. Rather strange at this late stage of the taxi. As it turned out, she was helping her chundering colleague. The plane turned back to the […]
26 January 2009
It was nice to be able to join my French visitor here and hopefully again in Queenstown soon. But in the mean time, its back home and back to work.