Room 10 WIS: What was the best part of your holiday?

Room 10 WIS: What was the best part of your holiday?: In the holidays Vanderley and I traveled to Brasil to introduce our son Mateo to Vanderley's family. The best thing about being in Brasi...





Cool, my family biked 122kms in the holidays along the West Coast Wilderness trail in under four days. On one of the days we biked part of the track that had not been finished yet, so there was no bridge across a large river and we had to cross it, but if it had rained we wouldn't have been able to get across. From Sophia

The Final Journey Home

I got told by a couple of British people that their obsession with health and safety was just progress and would be in New Zealand within a few year. Well I hate to tell you this but we saw none of it in the US. At Manchester Airport we were told off for wheeling Holly on our car seat propped up on the front of our luggage trolley. Yeah she fell off once but it wasn't any great height and we were using common sense not to go too fast. We did it in San Fran and Auckland no one cared. Time to loose the paranoia in the UK and force the politicians to wind back the policy.

Anyway we were somewhat paranoid about time and arrived at the San Fran airport four and a half hours early. We actually had to wait 45 minutes for the counter to open. We were the first in the queue and enjoyed the very friendly experience of Air NZ staff. We sat down and had some Chinese before what we expected to be an arduous journey through US customs. Again we were wrong; they smiled and had us through in no time. The worst place we have experienced for customs was Heathrow. I was really surprised. In Heathrow three of our bags needed to be reexamined, one bag 3 times and they picked out the smallest detail. In San Fran I forgot about my toilet bag and they took the shaving cream and left the deodorant. 

So there we were waiting in the transit lounge for over two hours. Kids entertained themselves of course. Must have gone to the toilet five times and Holly needed to chat to anyone who would listen.

The difference between Air NZ and Virgin Atlantic was marked. On Virgin they just ignored attendant lights as they had so much to do or fix where as on Air NZ nothing was wrong and no one had a need to speak to an attendant. The attendants looked and acted completely professionally. On Virgin they were all made up and it felt more like a slightly out of control English holiday camp (Hi de Hi ) where the attendants also looked slight flustered.


The girls all sat together on one row just behind us (their choice). It had me concerned but they were amazing. Either playing with their flight entertainment or sleeping as we left at 10pm. 




The rest of the journey was just as uneventful. Customs in Auckland is always a hassle as bags are thoroughly checked with a concern for our bio-security is so strict. It still took less than an hour and we had time to walk over to the domestic terminal. We had another wait and boarded our final flight from Auckland to Nelson. 

The arrival was strange. Oma and Opa to greet us. The cousins Anna and Aimee also turned up as did Sue's friend Delwyn. Being home means not having to travel any more but it also means a consistent job and resetting up our house. Dealing with the hassles of having had our house rented and getting back into schools etc. 

I will miss the British the most. Their friendship, openness and general attitude took me aback and I shall value the year greatly. If you are ever in NZ give us a bell. Bozzy your still the man and I hope we catch up sooner rather than later.

Last Day Overseas

We were off early today as we had pre booked a boat to Alcatraz.

It left at 9.10am and we were nice and early. It was nice to be back on a boat but it didn't take  long and we had landed. What an airy feeling walking up the road to where so many hard out nutters had been locked up in such a notorious prism. 

The tour here is superb with a oral description leading you through the different areas of the prison building. We heard about the two major break out attempts and general life in this hell. Its hard to image how close the prison (island) is from San Francisco. Some ex-inmates described how, with the right winds they could hear the party's from the city waterfront. 





After a couple of hours and chilling out around the grounds we left by boat again. As we peered out over the water from the ferry we realised that Team New Zealand was out racing against Luna Arossa. They were a long way off and it was hard to tell who was who. We docked and immediately went to the America's Village. 

It was great and we sat down to watch the racing on the big screen. Some of us preferred to just get comfortable and do as little as possible. When the end came nigh we ran to the dock side to watch the  kiwis come in. The course is designed very well in that it all happens very close to the wharf. The kiwis won by miles and we had to wait for some time for Luna Rossa to cross the line.

Team New Zealand celebrate while Luna Rossa are still heading over the line.

The cup village was the type of place to hang out for a few hours which we had. There was a kids zone where they actually got to sail a boat on land. Not quite the real thing but a chance to experience sailing and wind. Of course there was the inevitable bouncy castle and blowing toy boats down guttering type channels full of water. 





Later a couple of the Team NZ crew came out to sign autographs. None of the organisers seemed to know who they were but we managed to find out that one of them was named Grant Loretz, Sail Coordinator and Trimmer.

Once we had finished all this action we used the tram one last time before heading back to the hostel picking up all our gear and catching the taxi to the airport.

San Francisco and Biking Adventures

San Francisco has to be the coolest city I have ever been to. Heaps of people run and cycle and there is a cohesion to the city ethnically and socially I haven't seen in the US. The pieces just seem to fit together better and everybody seems far more informed about the rest of the world.

We started the day by taking a tram (F line) down to Fisherman's

Wharf. Something happened again which we hadn't experienced in a while. Our girls all sat on a seat separated from us. Four american woman (sisters) had them surrounded and after a short time were quizzing them on where we were from, where we had been and where we were going. They were quite taken by the girls and of course wanted the inevitable photo. Fifteen minutes later they bid farewell saying meeting the girls had made their day. 

We got off the tram and made our way to the San Francisco Bicycle Rentals. We we all measured up and good to go. Holly was especially keen as she imagined unbridled power with little effort having a clip-on on the back of my bike. 


The biking was easy and we cruised along the water front towards the Golden Gate Bridge.With a stroke of luck we came across the America's Cup set-up but unfortunately on a rest day. 

The bridge itself was awesome. Couldn't believe how many people were biking, running or walking over it. Great thing we had bells and put them to good use. The bridge itself is 2.7km long and gave breathtaking views of the city and harbour. It was surprisingly cold up there and we were glad to have polar fleeces. Unfortunately Julia pulled a slight muscle in her neck and we needed to curtail our longer journey to Golden Gate Park.

After dropping off the bikes we headed to Pier 39 known for it's huge crowds, seals and crazy shops. The seals were just hanging out probably bemused by the large number of people kept at bay watching their non-movement.

The crowds were large and the shops were fun. Our girls loved the piano staircase. As they ran up and down the music would play in accordance. They are amused by the simplest things and would have stayed a lot longer if not enticed away by the thought of ice-creams. The piers are a really happening place in San Francisco and also provide the typical tourist shops for souvenirs which Sue obliged willingly.

  

Arriving in San Francisco

It was a strange feeling driving up the coast. No time for sightseeing or stopping. We had spent the last nine days driving every day covering a total of over 2000 miles, way too far. We had to drop the rental in San Francisco central before 1pm and still had a drive of a little under four hours to get there.

The roads are very pleasant with straight freeways all the way requiring little slowing. We checked into our hostel first "Adelaide Hostel", before rushing to a petrol station. Eating on the run has created a rather large mess throughout the car. We used the vacuum to good effect and arrived at the rental drop-off with 15 minutes to spare. Because it was a Sunday it closed at 1pm.

Budget had created a small issue as they had entered my date of birth as the issue date of my license and were attempting to charge me extra for being a young driver. It all got sorted and as we were waiting we saw our car get wheeled out for the next client. "Man that was quick!!" It was all shiny again and looking like new. Obviously no time for checks though.

We bustled onto the sidewalk and attempted to get our bearings.

Yeah! No more car!!

The kids were re-leaved to be out of the car. All we wanted was food but it was a bit of a walk. Not only is San Fran highly expensive for accommodation but also for food. There were no Burger Kings or McD's for miles. Eventually we found a sandwich bar place in the like of Subway and settled down at Union Square for a picnic. 

We had a couple of hours to waste so took in China Town before climbing the hills to our Hostel. A nice place. We have a TV, free wifi and breakfast. In the evening they showed a movie but we only lasted 30 minutes as the Halo setting wasn't quite age appropriate.

Californian Coast Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo

Today we cruised up the Californian coast from Victorville to San Luis Obispo. As luck would have it it was a Saturday and the traffic was not too bad as we bypassed Los Angles. 

Holly airborne

We first stopped at Refugio State Beach. Just a nice beach quite like our own along the coast. After a shower and clean up we were off again. It was pretty cool to see names like Santa Barbara and Santa Maria before stopping again at Pismo Beach.

Pismo is the ultimate seaside experience with the hordes checking out the shops and walking the boardwalk. Ironically we found the 20C at the beach cold and decided not to go in. 


The hostel didn't open until 4.30pm, (whats with that) so we went and caught a movie Despicable Me 2 and checked out the town. It's probably the first town with a town center we have come across which is nice.

Cooking at Calico

400 miles is a long way no matter how you cut it. Julia says, "I need to go the toilet", reply "after another 100 miles". We left early and finally made Calico Ghost Town over five hours later.

Now this is heat. Yeah sure only 106F but this time we were out in it for 90 minutes. The town itself is pretty much as the name suggests. A western type ghost town with mostly authentic shops and buildings apart from now they sell nick knacks or food.

The high lights included the train which was no more than 200m long but had a great description of what the town used to be. We got talking to a Mexican couple. She lived some where famous on the coast of Mexico I had never heard of and I am fairly sure she didn't know where New Zealand was especially when she asked what other language we spoke and suggested we were both speaking English as a second language. Really nice people though. Reminds me of speaking to people in the UK. One of my classes told me they couldn't understand anything I was saying for the first month. That did explain a few things.

The mine was the other highlight. The idea of walking through a darkly lit cave heading who knows where never gets old. It gave a great description of the silver mining and the conditions the men were working in. It's well worth a visit to this town and the price is reasonable. Just ignore the attempt to make it in to some sort of theme park. If you go mid summer you can also experience the conditions they would have lived under. All my girls including the biggest one struggled with the hour we were here. Imagine if there wasn't any power.