Home again
This blog's turning into a bit of a travel blog really, apart from the last post- but to be honest (and this might sound really quite fancy-pants, so excuse me..) traveling seems to be about what has been occupying my time the most.
If I'm not actually enroute anywhere, I'm considering it, and if I"m not considering it, I'm calling the travel agent, and if I'm not doing any of those, then I'm re-booking it, and blasting the travel agent for screwing it up in the first place!
Of course, my travels have probably ended for now, a mere 40 points off a status upgrade on my airpoints, and will pick up again with a trip to see parents in Christchurch for Christmas (huzzah) and hopefully (fingers crossed) a new Asian destination next February (location TBC).
For now, let's discuss the past week I spent in Queensland.
Prior to leaving, I had dreamy notions of tropical temperatures, maybe dipping down to as low as 15 degrees, but steadily sitting at 25+ for the daylight hours. People always talk about the Gold Coast being in perpetual summer, and I packed as such, with mini skirts and tank tops, sleeveless and strapless numbers, and only a light jacket / blazer to keep the edge off the evenings.
Imagine my surprise when I ventured out to Queen Street Mall, in my aforementioned skirt, tank top, and ballet flats, and froze. I bought my very first Supre item then and there, a pair of tights to try and warm my legs against the 10 degree shade. Matt had been in Sydney for the previous three days, and it had been raining cats and dogs the whole time (which apparently caught the Sydney-siders off guard, and turned all drivers into idiot lunatics)- but he too had packed inappropriately for the season. We were both on the hunt for warmer clothes. Matt didn't find any warm clothes though, but Tarocash at the Myer Centre found Matt something he didn't bargain for - his very first gay come-on! I'm sad I missed it, I was upstairs looking at some store or another. I'm informed it was hilarious though!!
Our original reason for coming to Brisbane was to attend a wedding, and as such most of our time was centered around alcohol (much much alcohol...), and catching up with friends. Lots of fun was had, and much drama was witnessed, but all in all we had fun.
I think this post is long enough now, I'll leave the Goldcoast part of our trip for another blogging day.
Ooh quick update on the wedding venues, I'm hoping that someone from Mantels in Mt Eden will call me back today so we can go see the venue and discuss catering options and available dates in the weekend. I really like the reviews from other brides who have held their weddings there, and the venue itself looks really nice from what I can tell on the internet plus, it's a BYO Venue, with no corkage charged!
Fingers crossed I may possibly have a date set by Monday! Of course, I'm not holding my breath, I am - if nothing else - a realist.
Labels: Travel, wedding
Ohhhh My Glutes...
Today we spent the afternoon climbing the Great Wall of China. What a work out for my bum(which definitely needed it)! Anyway, feel really good about it, and being up there, and being able to see into Mongolia (just), and seeing how far the wall goes (as far as the eye can see... and much much further) makes one feel quite small. Am adding pics as soon as I've finished writing this.We caught a sleeper train from Shanghai to Beijing last night, and arrived this morning at about 7.15am, with just enough time to check into our hotel, grab a quick shower, dress, and leave for Tian'anmen square and Forbidden City.
After a mammoth walk from the Square, through the front gate of the Forbidden city, and out the other end (the Concubines' gate), we fell into the car and slept our way to a Jade Factory and Lunch. Blah blah blah, moving on from there to Badaling, and our entry to the Great Wall of China. About 2 minutes before arriving at the wall, both Matt and I suddenly came down with caffeine withdrawal headaches, which increased intensity with every uphill step we took. After a quick coffee, we pressed on, and surprised ourselves with how much distance we covered in an hour. I"ll let the pictures speak for themselves. After a quick bite to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe next door to the hotel, and suddenly it's Sunday night! We leave tomorrow night on a train back to Shanghai, then leave Shanghai on Tuesday afternoon at 2pm, back to reality at 6am Wednesday morning.I'd just gotten used to Shanghai (Beijing seems very different in comparison) and now we have to leave! Isn't that always the way?
Labels: China, Travel
Ni Hao - from Shanghai!
So here I am in Shanghai, about to begin day two of my journey. Day 1 started yesterday landing at Pudong Airport at 7.30am after an 11.5 hour flight from Auckland. After a shower and a quick walk / catchup with Matt, it was off to see the sights of Shanghai with his colleagues visiting from Germany. After brunch at the Westin (Packed full of westerner ex-pats for a Mothers Day Buffet) it was off through old town Shanghai, via Yu'Yuan Gardens (pretty lotus and carp ponds, and lots of people selling mass produced "bargain antiques", ending at the French Concession. Photos from that little tour can be seen on
my Bebo.
I've just booked myself on a couple of tours over the next two days - tomorrow I'll be heading on a day tour around 'the best of Shanghai', including the Jade Buddha temple, and a walk down the Bund. I'm thinking that we'll probably head down the Bund tonight for dinner anyway, but it will be nice to get all the background history from a guide aswell. On Wednesday I'm heading to Zhu Jia Jiao, an old water village outside of Shanghai, which will be really interesting.
And while I'm doing all this, poor Matt is stuck working his tail off... :(
More photos will be added each day! Stay Tuned!
Labels: China, Travel
Busy...
The last time I managed to get here, I'd just started being the boss. Now I'm halfway through a week long training course, am about to go to indoor netball, and I finally found some time to get on and do a quick update.
And wouldn't you know it, I don't have F.A to update! I'm boring! boring boring boring!
Question for anyone out there who's reading this: whats the weather like in China around this time of the year? And is it worth trying to learn a bit of Mandarin before embarking on a 10 day trip to Shanghai / Beijing? Or is there enough English knowledge there to get around?
Anyway, must dash, have to go out and lose another game of indoor netball.
Labels: Travel
How to see The Late Show Live!
Today I finally finished uploading photos of our trip to the states to Bebo. Go check them out here. My favourite is this one of us on the ferry on the way to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty, and my next favourite is this Other one of us in the queue to go see a taping of The Late Show. Might I add, David Letterman is hilarious even without the cue cards. He comes out a little bit before each show starts, and has a chat with the audience, answers a couple of questions, and generally warms himself up for the taping. Taping only takes an hour or so, but it's well worth a look if you're ever in NYC. And the best part? It's Free!
To get tickets to a taping, go to the
Ed Sullivan Theatre (on Broadway@ 53rd if I remember rightly) no earlier than 9 am (doors open at 9.30) on the day of taping
(Monday - Thursday), and get in line. They say that the order of the line doesn't mean anything, but I think it helps. We were third in line on that day. You will have a questionnaire to fill out, and you
MUST bring Photo ID of any sort (NZ Drivers License is fine). Then they will send you behind a screen and have a chat which seems to be about nothing, but is actually
gauging your bubbliness and happiness. They like to accept people who aren't shy about showing that they're having fun.
The smilier and more forthcoming you are with answers about who you are and what you're doing in the city, the more likely your possibility of getting tickets.
They'll then send you away, not before taking down your contact details. Give them all details possible: NZ Cellphones (including American calling prefixes if possible), Hotel name / address / room number, relatives phone numbers if possible.
The safest bet, if you want to go out sight seeing during the morning, is to take down their office phone number, and wear the toll charge on your Roaming Vodafone Cellphone, and call them between 11.30am and 12pm midday to find out if you're a lucky winner!
Labels: Travel
Home sweet home...
Stepping off the plane onto the skybridge on Saturday morning at 4.45am was quite an experience. Being first off the plane, and not stuck behind the crowds of cattle class was nice, and it ensured we had DFS all to ourselves, with enough time to stock up on various alcoholic delights, and still get through customs and to the baggage carousel without queues.
Sadly our "priority" luggage wasn't "priority" at all. It took us nearly 30 minutes to get our bags from the carousel, after everyone else on the flight (non Gold class, I might add) got their bags first. As such, we still found ourselves queuing for MAF inspection like everyone else.
(Question: What's the point in a Gold Koru Club membership if one still has to queue like the average traveler?)
Every time I return home, I'm reminded of all the things I love about this place. Upon return from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the fresh clean smelling air was big on my list. This time, the Summer warmth was number one. 4.45am and the Captain had outside air temp as 21 degrees Celsius.
A Far cry from New York's -15 degrees, or Los Angeles' 10 degrees.
I wasn't that impressed with LA. Colour me weird, but I need tall buildings, even if the tallest office building here is only 40 something floors, I need to see a skyline. LA, to me, was far too spread out. It was as if they'd taken all the skyscrapers in NYC floor by floor, and put them each in single story buildings from Papakura to Silverdale. Sure, the financial and business area was in one place, but in my opinion a good city centre should include all facets of life, from finance and business to entertainment, nightlife, dining and recreation. One should be able to live in a city apartment, or at least a townhouse, and never need a car. LA, however, one would need not only a car, but also the patience of a saint to deal with the awful traffic!
Visiting Las Vegas was a shock. I expected a sparkling and wonderful city of sin- I expected top shelf and Dom to rain down on me in a daily shower- day and night burlesque shows and Godiva chocolates. It was still a lot of fun, but the bubble of preconceived notions in my head was burst and Reality hit.
Las Vegas is the sparkling city of money.
On the upside, however, I did not expect quite the variety of shopping that there was. Within walking distance from our hotels (we switched halfway through our 6 day stay from one end of the strip to the other) one could experience any number of hotel malls with no less than 150 specialty stores each including Victoria's Secret, Christian Lacroix, Dior, etc etc (blah blah blah), but oh the prices!
Diesel was especially expensive. Smith and Caugheys, and the collective of High Street, have the Auckland Diesel market pretty much sewn up, and a great pair of jeans will cost no more than $250 NZD.
Vegas Diesel stores (not stores that bought and resold diesel, these are Actual Diesel stores), would sell Diesel jeans for no less than $220USD (Plus tax) - nearly $370 NZD! Dolce and Gabbana had great prices on their shoes (end of season sale), but jeans for no less than $350usd...
I have a new appreciation for shopping to be found in Auckland - as, apparently, do New Yorkers. An article in a popular New York publication touted Auckland, New Zealand, as the new "hot place to shop"...
That's some food for thought!
I'll more photos into the Bebo Album when I get around to it - more New York photos and Disneyland to come!
P.S Through the entire trip we only saw one celebrity, although due to alcoholic imbibing, we wouldn't have noticed if we saw more. The celeb in question is Weiss from Alias - also known as the Pilot from the first season of Lost, Matt from Heroes, 'that dude' from Felicity... Although Matt saw Ron Jeremy the day before I arrived.Labels: shopping, Travel
The Greatest City on Earth
So far this truly is the greatest city on earth - Yes we're in New York City and boy is it cold! We've had a few snow flurries now, but nothing's settling on the ground which is disappointing, and the temperature is a constant 0 degrees celsius, plus wind chill!
I've uploaded more photos to my Bebo Album, link in the previous post, and there are more to come. We were lucky enough to get tickets to a taping of the Late Show, so we're just getting ready to go off to that, then at 8pm tonight we're off to Phantom of the Opera on Broadway (well, technically the Majestic theatre isn't on Broadway, but it's close enough). It's all so much!!
Labels: New York, Travel
Photos are up!
Ok I got photos up, but there are more to come yet. We leave for NYC Tomorrow morning, so more photos are yet to come! For now check out these pics, and the rest of them in my bebo album
here
Labels: Caribbean, LasVegas, Travel
What happens in Vegas...
What happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas, it goes on the internet!
Or at least email.
So when you're drinking in a bar at a hotel / casino in Vegas, and Cameras are pulled out, don't be surprised if the next day you find your fiance has plastered photos of you looking VERY drunk all over the internet.... (p.s, that's an Appletini, just like JD drinks on Scrubs - was awful too, and gave me the most hideous hangover)
There are some pretty cool photos, such as one with me, our friend Michelle, and a pornstar called "Barbie" hehe - they'll all be posted up in the near future!
Vegas was great, January was an awesome time to go to Vegas, cos I found the best sales ever! I didn't bring any kind of coat or jacket with me, thinking that Vegas was going to be, at its coldest, 10 degrees. Little did I know we had happened upon the coldest winter on record, including snowfall on the strip which is very rare! Suddenly I had a shopping goal - it was hard to stick with my goal though, especially when I shopped past two (not one, but TWO) separate Coach Factory stores, which both had further reductions! Luckily I was able to keep my eyes on the prize, and bought two gorgeous big warm jackets from Zara. One is a casual jacket, forest green with a brown faux fur trim, the other a long, slightly dressier, black jacket, slightly 'puffer' with black faux fur trim, perfect for a Vegas, New York, or indeed Auckland winter's night!I got both together for $107USD inc tax, which is a steal when I couldn't find a single great looking jacket last winter for less than $150NZD!
There was also a visit to Paul Frank (Julius is a dear friend whom I've neglected over the past couple of years...) A dozen great outlet stores including Calvin Klein and Coach (yes Coach again!) - levis disappointed me, however, offering very little in a hipster range for women (not "misses" or "Juniors" but Women!!!), so for jeans I had to settle for Gap 'curvy flare' - I even found a Lee store, but it didn't sell ANY of the hipster / bumster flare range that we know in NZ- I was infact really disappointed with the range of averagely priced denimwear available, and now do I understand why US women will spend upwards of $200 on designer jeans - they're the only ones that look any good! I did, however, baulk at the Diesel store in the Forum shops at Caesars palace - I can buy a pair from any range of Diesel Jeans for less than $220NZD , at full retail price, anywhere in Auckland - but their cheapest pair only STARTED at $210USD!!! Who were they kidding? It's not like they were Dolce and Gabbana or anything!!
I found my way into Victoria's Secret also, which we desperately need in NZ. I thought everything was going to be hideously expensive, being such a big household name, but everything was so well priced, I bought two bras and two pairs of underwear for less than I would pay at a dept store in NZ, and these were gorgeous. Very sexy looking, and sexy comes in all sizes at Victoria's Secret, not just an 8 - 10. I love Victoria's Secret very VERY much.
I did heaps more shopping and am in love with heaps more stores here, but I can't go into much more detail as my battery's running low (and matt's taken both power adapters to his training).
We're currently in Trinidad, having spent a couple of days in Tobago (gorgeous place if you can find an empty beach), more photos to come, sorry I've been so crap in updating this blog, will try and get pics up tonight (will be mid afternoon in NZ by then).
Labels: shopping, Travel
New Year, New Post, New Blogging habits... New York?
Hoorah! We made it through 2006, and out the other side into 2007!
Who knows what this year will bring... perhaps a wedding date? :D
In any event, it will bring some travel at least - Friday night I depart off for the wonderful world of the USA, following Matt who leaves on Thursday night. He's got business over there and I couldn't get the extra day off, but no matter.
So last year I didn't make any New Years Resolutions, but I fulfilled all the usual!! Typical isn't it. In 2006 I:
1) Quit Smoking
2) Joined a Gym
3) Bought a house
4) Officially started living with Matt and only Matt
5) Bought a new kitten
6) Traveled overseas to somewhere other than Australia.
All in all, a fantastic year! It'll be a hard year to top, but here are a few resolutions to kick off the year:
1) Continue not smoking (if I can make it to a year, then my life insurance and medical and income protection decrease!)
2) Continue going to the gym (so I haven't been since before Christmas... I"m sure I'll go back soon...)
3) Not default on a mortgage payment (it would take a pretty big economic depression, and some hefty spending on our part to default)
4) Not break up with Matt (he might decide he hates me...)
5) Not kill the new Kitten
6) Travel somewhere else (already booked and paid for - tick!)
7) SET A GODDAMNED DATE!
Ok, so Travel Itinerary will see me heading to Vegas by way of San Fran, then to the Port of Spain in Trinidad, then over the water to some lovely resort in Tobago, then back to Trinidad for a couple of days, then to NYC by way of Miami, then across the country to LA for some Disney fun, followed by a night in LA. On the list of things to do...
I GOT TICKETS TO THE KNICKS vs MIAMI HEAT!!! They cost a small fortune (actually, maybe a medium fortune), and I'm pretty sure that the game has canceled out any hope of my shopping, but who cares?! It's the Heat baby!
Another must is the Phantom on Broadway, where tickets aren't actually as expensive as originally thought! Premium seats are $150USD each pre ordered (so cheaper if you turn up on the night), and when you consider that currency is all relative, and a seat at a bloody Sky City Auckland Theatre Company show is a good $70 each, the Phantom of the Opera is a good night out!
As we're staying on Broadway in Times Square, on The Thursday we're going to walk down to the Ed Sullivan Theatre and queue up for tickets to one of two of the Late Show filmings, which should be a blast if we can get seats. If not we'll just get a meat platter from the Hello Deli or something :)
Also, we must have McDonalds at some point to continue our international survey: Does McDonalds taste the same all over the world? So far Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand all say "yes". The test meal is a Quarter Pounder Combo. Results will be posted up here.
While we're away, I will endeavour to keep the blog updated with tales from the U.S, but let's be realistic - in my own home I can't even keep this blog up to date, so don't hold your breath :)
For now, I'll bid you a fond farewell (look at me writing like there's actually someone reading this...), and a Happy New Year! Hope Work doesn't suck too much for you!
Labels: Travel
