London sights

After a good sleep we felt like checking out the local surroundings. Here's our YHA hostel, and a view down the street of Bolton Gardens.



Then onto the underground to Picadilly Circus.



Marble Arch & Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.




Over Hungerford bridge, built in 2000 to replace a bridge built by Brunel in 1864. It meets Jubilee Gardens, with buskers, a merry-go-round and the London Eye. And a spot for our lunch. Doug waved to the Emirates A380 on appproach to Heathrow. The crew have no doubt been in his coach.



Along the embankment and past Parliament and Big Ben.



Walking along past St James Park, leading to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen was out. Queen Victoria's statue was in.



A welcome break to sooth our sore feet in The Coal Hole. A pub from 1904, built in the coal celler of the Savoy. A haven for supressed husbands, not allowed to sing in the bath.



We headed back to the tube past Cleapatras needle. Made in Egypt in 1500 BC and brought to England in a steel cylinder by Erasmus Wilson. It was put overboard from the ship in a storm, recovered and erected by the Thames in 1879.

Hong Kong to London

We had a 2 hour stopover in Hong Kong. There were a lot of very interesting planes but we were a bit worried about the locals taking exception to big lenses.



This one from the plane window is an Air Indai Airbus A310.

Back on board for the twelve and a half hours to London we had great views of the mountains through China and Kazakhstan and these impressive cumulus clouds.



There was a steady procession of planes heading back towards Hong Kong on the same route.



We could follow the trip on the GPS view on the seat back.



A glimpse of Holland near Enkhuizen from 11500 metres as we neared London.

Finally in London, they had two immigration officers processing a huge queue of 'other' passports like ours. We took the free train to Terminal 5 to buy the Internet technology from Vodafone, then the Picadilly line to Earls Court to our Youth Hostel. It's clean, big, handy location, pity no cooked breakfasts.

Halfway in Hong Kong

Here's our Boeing 777 that has been a good flight so far. This post is courtesy of free Wi-Fi in Hong Kong Airport.

Off we go!

The bags are packed, the gardens are tidy, hopefully to be full of veges and potatoes and not weeds in 2 months time! Takeoff in 5 hours.

Lucy's Bridal Shower

Lucy's bridesmaid- to-be (Jani), and mum (Sue), hosted a very enjoyable bridal shower last Sunday. (16.08.09). There was a range of guests from Nana Loma to young nieces from Taranaki.
It was neat to meet Brendon's three sisters (two of whom had come all the way from Taranaki for the party), as well as Brendon's lovely daughter Teagan.



Memory game: we had to list all the accessories worn by 'the bride'.



We had the task of dressing a bride using a roll of cardboard, toilet paper and various other bits'n pieces. We won the prize (chocolate) for the 'most couture' gown. (darts and all - embellished with toilet paper roses.)

The 'How well do you know the groom?' game was hilarious. Lucy was given a chunk of bubble gum to chew every time she got one wrong. Pretty hard to talk and chew by the 6th piece.

Brendon's sisters knew Brendon better than Brendon knows himself so, to shouts of 'No!' and 'Wrong!' pieces of bubble gum were set aside for him to chew later.

Bubbly and delicious smoked salmon kept our energy levels up until it was time to leave.

We're all looking forward to the wedding!

Trip to Piha

Doug had a day off today so we set off to Titirangi to collect a starter motor for the Skyline. It was a lovely day so we packed a picnic and decided to drive onto Piha, once the deal had been done.

There was a fairly chilly onshore westerly blowing, so we abandoned our idea of a picnic on the sand and scuttled back to a more sheltered spot beside an estuary.




This friendly duck came to join us. She enjoyed eating out of Doug's hand.



After lunch, we set off for a walk up the beach. There was less wind by then.



What a spectacular beach!

A Silver Car for Dave

We had a very enjoyable trip to Te Awamutu so that David could collect the car that he had 'won' on Trade Me.

Our first stop was by the river in Hamilton. We had lunch and a bit of a walk as we were running a bit early.

We checked on the Spitfire - the one that we remember seeing at the Airforce Base, at Te Rapa, when we were kids.



They have made great progress on restoring the old gunship 'Rangiriri', since we were last there.



A more modern gun also featured - slightly obscured! We also enjoyed looking at some of the beautiful birds in the aviary.



A quick tweak to the Skyline, a bit of hand cleaner, and we were on our way again.



David was very happy with his purchase, and really enjoyed his drive home. The car looks lovely.

Terry's Birthday

We were invited for 'a lazy Sunday afternoon' to help Terry to celebrate his birthday. It was such a beautiful, sunny winter's day, and Lucy's house was well suited for the occasion.



Jonathan Acorn was there with his bag of tricks to amuse children and adults alike.



Djim, Terry and Acorn kept us entertained throughout the afternoon.



It was lovely to catch up with the Grandies.

Trip to Whitianga

We've been taking our 'weekends' mid week, lately as Doug always seems to be working over the weekends. We were happy to postpone if the weather stayed yuk, but it seemed to perk up Wednesday, so off we went.

Our first port of call was Cambridge, to collect a power steering system for the MX5. WE had to wait for a while so we amused ourselves by eating our lunch, and listening to the tuis.



Back on the road again, we pointed the car towards Whitianga travelling through Morrinsville, and Te Aroha.



We arrived at Whitianga at 3 o'clock and soon found our motel. It was comfortable, and in a quiet location. After unloading our stuff, we set off to explore Whitianga. We were quite surprised at how large the town is. It was nice to come across the Verissimos, also enjoying a bit of a stroll.

We had hoped that we might be able to have a stroll on the beach the next morning, but awoke to a drizzly day. What a shame - the beach must be lovely on a fine day. We located where Robert's rental property is, then began our journey home.



We decided to go home via Coromandal. It was a slow trip in places. We called in at Coromandel and had a walk around - reminiscing about those 'sailing days' when we used to come across from Waiheke and anchor up in Peacock Bay.



Here is where we used to land our dingy after rowing in from Juliet.

A visit to Thames wouldn't be complete without locating the plum tree, and a visit to the hot bread shop.





This photo was taken for Kristina - sadly the shop was shut.

Soon, another excuse to 'swing the lamp' Aputu Avenue at Te Puru. The old bach has long gone, and this flash lockwood is now on the site. I bet the neighbours hated that going up. The plum tree has gone..........






Our final stop, before home, was Thames. We drove up to the War Memorial to eat our lunch and admire the view, then had a quick look at the town. Thames shops looked busy and more alive, than on a previous visit.

Sounds of Bendigo

What was it like staying with Kristina and the kids? Well, it sounded like this and this and this :-)