Tommy & Rhonda's Travels

The Maldives is Paradise!

ttlax — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:11:00 GMT

Another beautiful day and we are excited to go scuba diving. We wake up and get ready and head to the dive center. They have crossiants and coffee, etc for us before the dive and our guide briefs us on the dive site and what to expect. We are going to Marigii South (sp?). Sounds fine to us and we head out on the boat along with Glen from Australia and there are some other Americans…Brad, Mary and Marylin from Idaho. They are like expert divers so we drop them off and then head to our spot. We did see some cool fish and stuff but overall we were a little disappointed with the dive. I guess we expected more and the visibility in the water wasn’t that great. The Maldives has incredible currents which will stir up the bottom and hurt the visibility. We get back on board with some fresh fruit and Glen and I head up to the top of the boat to enjoy the view up there. We chat a little about work, etc and get to know each other a little bit. I learned his wife was 6 mos pregnant and he was in real estate. We make it back to the resort in time for breakfast. We briefly meet Glen’s wife, Linda and then sit down for the always incredible breakfast. We did also sign up for the afternoon dive but said we would do it only if it was to Manta Point (dive site). We had heard great things about it and wanted to experience it if we were going to cough up another $170 (the cost of 2 dives). Rhonda wasn’t feeling great so we decide to go back to the villa and hang out and let her get a little nap in hopes she feels better and in hopes that we will be going to Manta Point later on that day. I play around on the computer and catch up on email and sports and stuff and she relaxes and gets a nap in. A little before 2pm it is time to head back to the dive center and find out where we are going. When we get there Rhonda checks the site and its Manta Point! Sweet…we are both very excited. On the dive it is just us and one other guy. A few minutes later after chatting with him we find out it is Jean-Christophe, the big cheese of the resort. He tells us the Mantas are usually better in the morning so that tempers our excitement a little bit. Our guide had also told us that November is the end of the Manta season at this spot so it will be hit or miss. After the guide checks the current, its into the water we go! Now the deal is, we cruise along until we get to these big rocks and then if the Mantas aren’t there, we wait for them there and hope they come. About 2 mins after we decend, our guide points out 2 small rays about 25 feet away. We were both hoping it would be more than that. Within 5 mins of starting our dive we are at the rock and the Mantas are there! We are talking HUGE MANTA RAYS. We can’t believe it. We were told before we just hang on to a rock and watch and they will swim around. If we mess with them, they will go away. Also, the current is very, very strong so its important to hold on or you will get taken away by the current. Not a dangerous current but it will mess up your dive. After about 5 mins of watching I am still in shock. Rhonda and I are snapping pics on the throwaway underwater camera and can’t believe this is going on. At the peak, there are 7 big ol manata rays for our enjoyment. Sometimes they come literally within a foot of our head. It is the most unbelievable thing I have ever imagined. I keep looking at my watch and air to see how long we had been there and how much longer it might last. When we arrived at the site, there were no other divers. Within 10 mins, there were about 30 other divers. All in awe of the Mantas. It got even better. Out of nowhere comes a huge sea turtle swimming thru. He decides to swim behind me and then swim by me literally within inches of my head. I was in total shock! It was soooooooo cool! In all, we spent 45 minutes holding onto a rock for dear life (at times the current is really, really strong and it will pull your whole body in a direction) and watching these Manta Rays just fly through the water. It was definitely the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I kept thinking, “now this is why I got certified to scuba dive!”

The Maldives is Paradise!

ttlax — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:09:00 GMT

Well, we wake up Saturday and its another beautiful day in the Maldives. We still can’t believe we are really there. First up was breakfast and again it was incredible. The view is the best and the food is right behind. We could easily get used to this! After breakfast we stop by the Dive center on the way back to the villa. We learn about diving there at the resort and find out that if you have less than 30 dives you must do an assessment dive with a few skills. That is for both of us. So we sign up for the afternoon dive on the house reef (mandatory for the assessment dive). Its more at the villa and pool before we head over to the dive center. The Japenese lady who is our leader is very nice and patient. She explains everything to us and shows us what we should expect to see on the dive after our skills. The skills go great, Rhonda is a little nervous about one part but our instructor is patient and she does great. It was time to dive! We dove around the house reef and saw tons of great fish and even a nice big ol turtle. It was better than we both expected and even better than that was the fact we can go to all the other dive sites. We sign up for the morning dive the next day, Sunday. By the way, the service at the dive center is second to none. You don’t touch a thing until you are on the boat and ready to put your bcd on. You sit down and they put it on you and its all ready to go. Its amazing…you just put your weight belt on, your bcd and you are ready to jump in. It takes about 30 seconds all in. The fresh fruit after you finish doesn’t hurt either, that is for sure. From start to finish the service is completely amazing. After the dive we hit the pool for a little bit and then headed back to the villa. We decided to try the in villa dining for dinner and just hang out there and enjoy each other and the views, etc. One word for in villa dining….WOW! We didn’t order anything special, we got a steak and some pasta to share. The boys come in and set it all up upstairs while we just hang out and wait for the go to head up and enjoy. Everything is set up beautifully and there is a little appetizer for both of us as well. We are eating on the upstairs of the villa, looking at tons of stars and out into the Indian Ocean….AMAZING! And a bargain compared to the buffet. Rhonda isn’t really up for any drinks so she has lemonade and I have a couple beers from the mini bar. We don’t stay up super late since we have a big day in the morning diving in the Maldives!

The Maldives is Paradise!

ttlax — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:08:00 GMT

We wake up to an incredible morning in the Maldives. No clouds, beautiful blue sky and we are more excited than we can even imagine. We don’t sleep really late but its close to 10am by the time we head to breakfast. Oh, and what a delicious breakfast it was. The choices are so plentiful and there is champagne and almost any juice you want, squezzed to order. No champagne on this day but we do have oj and coffee as well as made to order omlettes, and tons of other stuff like fresh waffles, chocolate crossiant, tons of fresh fruit, etc. The list goes on and even better than that is we just can’t believe we are in the Maldives. For me, it has been a dream for a long, long time. For Rhonda, not so long but I know is a dream for her as well. We keep asking each other, can you believe we are here? Well, yes we are and our breakfast view is right out into the water with the overwater bar in view, about 4 or 5 different shades of blue in the water and clear blue sky on top of that. After our delicious breakfast, we decide to head back to our villa and get some sun. Our sun deck is calling our name and it has 2 big lounge chairs complete with big cushions and fresh towels on top of that. We hang out in the villa and get some sun for hours as we soak up the atmosphere and just enjoy our huge villa. I will also have to admit I have the computer on and am following the Arizona-Oregon game on the internet. Arizona wins…a huge upset so that doesn’t hurt my already awesome mood. Late in the afternoon we decided to go to the pool for a little while. The service at the pool is amazing and we pick a spot on the beach between the pool and the ocean. It really doesn’t get any better than this. At Soneva Gili, anytime you arrive anywhere, they give you a cool, lemongrass scented towel. It is so refreshing since it is very hot and the scent is awesome. We, of course, get this at the pool and along about 4pm out comes a plate of fresh fruit….delicious!!! There were some standards and one I had not seen before. It was a white fruit with black dots on it…Dragonfruit…and very tasty. After some time at the pool, we headed back to the villa to get ready for the seafood buffet that night. There are different buffets throughout the week but this is supposed to be one of the best. I decide to go to the spa to workout and work up an appetite. Now, this was especially nice since I had not been working out much at all. I got a quick little lifting circuit in and then ran 5k. The treadmill was all in kilometers and kilos. That’s why the 5k. I felt better than I thought I would considering how little I had run over the course of the trip. I finished up and headed back and we headed out for dinner. The buffet was delicious. There were about 10 different kinds of organic lettuce from their garden along with tons of other stuff for salad, a huge sushi table, a big pasta station and then the fresh fish station. Of course my favorite was the fresh fish station. You just picked out what you wanted and it was grilled to perfection and brought to your table. First round I had tuna, local reef fish and prawns. Second round I had more tuna, reef and butter fish. Third round was reef and butter. Man was it tasty. The pieces weren’t huge so don’t think I ate 3 tons but I did eat a lot. You just don’t get fish that fresh and tasty in Dallas. Not like that. I also hit the sushi table (wasn’t bad, I can eat sushi but wouldn’t select it over all the other choice we have at home. And of course it doesn’t get any fresher than in the Maldives) and pasta station for good measure. The dessert was fine but nothing spectacular. Rhonda and I also had a great bottle of white wine to wash it all down so it was a delicious and tasty night. After dinner it was back to the villa to hang out and enjoy a beautiful night with tons of stars, an incredible villa and of course each other.

A day in Bangkok and...on to the Maldives!

ttlax — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:05:00 GMT

Well, we sleep pretty good and get up about 9:15am. The hotel has free breakfast so we head down and eat up. Pretty basic…scrambled eggs, toast, a little fruit, juice and coffee. Oh and I ordered ham, Rhonda bacon. The bacon looks normal, the ham more like spam or something else. I don’t even think about touching it! It looks revolting…seriously. I normally want to try anything but there is no need for this. After we finish breakfast we set out to get some cash. I forgot to mention the day before when I realized we had been ripped off at the nest. Someone stole 1500 baht right out of my wallet. I didn’t spend any cash while we were up there and I opened my wallet when we landed in BKK to count up. Well, money was out of order which doesn’t happen in my wallet, and I’m missing a ton. Not sure when it happened and not sure if it was the people at the nest or the massage ladies but I am sure it was someone. I left my wallet in the room pretty much the whole time we were there and it was right next to the bed during the massage. It could have happened even during it since I did dose off a little bit at times. Anyways, back to the day at hand. The first bank we go to won’t let me get cash off the card. Ugh. We do get them to negotiate a tuk-tuk ride to a bank down the street they say will do it for us so for 20 baht we ride to the Bangkok bank. They won’t give me money b/c my card isn’t signed but luckily Rhonda’s is and after a few minutes, we have cash! Greatness! We go back to the hotel and find out how far it is to the tailor and then head up to the room. We decide just to take our time getting ready, pack up all our stuff, go to the tailor and then head from there straight to the airport. The sights of BKK can wait till we get back from the Maldives. There isn’t a ton we want to see anyway but the must see stuff like the Grand Palace, floating markets, etc will be cool when we get back. The traffic is awful going over but our driver is the man and maneuvers thru the traffic with ease and flair. The best part of this 40 min ride is the pre negotiated 100 baht. Dirt cheap. We make it to the hotel (the tailor is next door) and they offer to hold our bags. Nice since we aren’t going to stay there. We pick out a suit and some shirts…we will see how they turn out. Hopefully well. It’s not as cheap as I imagined but this place has a good reputation for the most part and I wanted something that will hopefully look good and last a little while. We head back over to the hotel, get our bags and a taxi and it’s off to the airport for our flight to Male, Maldives. We make it to the airport in 30 mins (way faster that it is supposed to be) and have plenty of time before our flight. We check our bags and get our boarding passes. When we were standing in line I told Rhonda how surreal it is for me to see our flight on the monitors. PG 711 Male. I told her how for years I have priced flights and routes and dreamed of going to the Maldives and that dream is about to come true. It really is amazing. After check in, we find a place for some food and wow, I guess Rhonda was hungry. She got spaghetti and didn’t leave a drop on her plate. I had a club sandwich that was decent and then we headed thru passport control and toward the gate. We were on a mission for tapes for the video camera as we had 4 mins left on our last tape. There is tons of shopping in the Bangkok airport…seriously like a mall. We finally find a place and get a pack of tape and are really thankful we have them. We hit the Bangkok air lounge for a little while, Rhonda writes in her journal and I check email and then we head to the gate. Maldives, here we come! Rhonda is cracking me up as I tease her about missing the flight and what would she do, etc. She expresses she would have a major meltdown and start crying, etc. We definitely don’t want that. When we get to the gate, they aren’t boarding and I want to take a seat. Rhonda insists on the seats closest to the boarding door but when we get over there, there are not 2 seats. I want to head back the other way but she doesn’t, she is freaked about missing the flight. It’s hysterical! We are checked in, by the boarding door, they have torn our boarding passes and she doesn’t want to walk 30 feet to sit in a chair to wait. I convince her it’s going to be fine after cracking up a little and we wait and then we board. We are on the flight right now as I’m writing this and we are closing in. We have just been served ice cream and Rhonda is laying down taking a nap. Wish I was but I’m also really excited. The bad part is it is dark outside and we won’t be able to see all of the little islands from the air during daylight. The good part is we just flew over Sri Lanka and will be landing in 45 mins. Well, next update from the Maldives!

I can’t explain the excitement as we land in Male, Maldives. It’s a place I’ve been dreaming of going for probably 11 or 12 years and now we are finally here. We landed in total darkness so it’s a big disappointment that we won’t see the Maldives from the air. It looks so spectacular in pictures and some resorts require a seaplane flight (which only operates during daylight) but we are close enough to Male to just take a speedboat. The good thing about that is we go straight to the resort and don’t have to spend a night in Male waiting for daylight. It seems to take forever to get our bags on the slowest baggage carosel I have ever seen but they finally come. Next it is off to customs where everything is x-rayed and of course we pick the slowest line ever. We didn’t know it but the worst thing you can do is get behind locals. The customs people go thru everything and I mean everything. They take everything out and sort thru it…what a pain. The line next to us must move 20 people thru before we finally figure out what’s going on and change lines. We get thru the customs and out the door we go. A representative from Soneva Gili is waiting and we walk about 50-70 yards and we are on the speedboat. There is nothing to this airport…out the door and you hit water. No exaggeration. Waheed is one of the guys who met us and he is our Guest Relations man. Anything we need, we just contact him. He tells us it’ll be about a 15 minute ride to the resort so just sit back and relax and we’ll be there in no time. A few minutes later he pulls out a little bag that reads, “No News, No Shoes” so we take our shoes off and in the bag they go. Rhonda is loving life at this point…she loves the no shoes aspect. And at our resort the only time you wear shoes is to workout. Other than that, no shoes. Its ok to wear flip flops if you just HAVE to but that is just one of the things about Soneva Gili. When we arrive we are just in awe. We are so excited and walking down the arrival jetty we are loving the lights in the water and how crystal clear it is. Waheed shows us to a waiting golf cart, “our limosiune” as he puts it and we are off to our villa. The time is about 9:20 or so (the resort is an hr ahead of Male to maximize daylight) and we pull up at Villa #22. Rhonda comments on the number since we were married on July 22. Waheed says “welcome to your new home” as he opens the door and it our villa is soooooooo big. Just like we imagined (since we’ve looked at it on the internet about 1000 times) and surreal to there. He gives us a tour starting with the living room, the bathroom, upstairs, the sundeck and finally the bedroom. We can’t believe we get a week here. We must have said to each other 100 times, “can you believe we are here?” We are really hungry so we head over to the bar to get something to eat before we crash out. We decided to split a burger and have a drink. I ordered up a beer and Rhonda ordered…well she ordered something that will have you breathing fire in no time. It had raspberry sorbet and some liquor I can’t recall the name of but its about 95% liquor and there is a small scoop of sorbet. Asking how she likes it she says, “ok” which I know means she doesn’t like it very much. No comment on the fact she is drinking straight liquor! I taste it and about cough up a lung. There are only a few more sips and I just tell her to forget the price (expensive!) if she drinks that she’ll be on the floor and hungover the entire next day…not worth it! We finish up and decide we are ready to head home for the night and get rested up for the next day…our first taste of daylight in the Maldives! There is a complementary bottle of champagne in our villa so we don’t go bed immediately but do after we check out our sweet outdoor shower and upstairs daybed.

Back to Bangkok

ttlax — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:03:00 GMT

We wake up about 8:15 after a decent nights sleep. We brush our teeth and head over to the restaurant for some breakfast before our 9am Thai massage. I just had some scrambled eggs with toast and Rhonda pancakes (crepes really) with fruit. Both were good and the ladies were ready for the massage. Thai massage was awesome! We had it in our room and we were both on the bed with the ladies rubbing, stretching, all kinds of stuff all over our body. It did feel really good and at the end we had hot herb bags patted all over our bodies for a good while. When one would lose its warmth, they would get another one out of their crock pot and put the used one back in to warm back up. Total time…2 hrs. Really nice and it was $18 for all of it. Probably expensive for the area we are in but as far as I’m concerned really cheap and not a bad deal for the place we are staying. Our agenda for the day has us exploring the famous local cave and walking over to this big monastery 500 steps up and not far from the hotel. We do the monastery first and we are sweating and tired after just a few of the steps. Needless to say, we are out of shape and it is very humid. We make it up there, check it out and head back down. It’s amazing how they love their Buddha in Thailand. They are everywhere. When we make it back down to the nest we debate if we have time for the cave and decide just to order lunch and go back and pack up and shower for our trip back to Bangkok. Next thing we know it is 3pm (where does all the time go?) and our ride back to the airport is ready for us. It’s another songtheaw and it’s a long ride. About 45 mins into it, I’ve had enough and am ready to get to the airport. Shortly thereafter, we pull over to the side of the road. We kind of look at each other wondering “car problems?” or something else…nope the driver just has to take a leak and right there on the side of the road he does. This ain’t Texas! We start to get a little nervous when we are approaching 2 hrs and still not at the airport. We have made a lot of U turns and are wondering if the driver is lost but finally we see some signs for the airport and make it with plenty of time to spare. We checked in, headed to the airport lounge for a bit where we had a little fruit tart and checked email. Our flight was delayed a little bit but before we knew it we were boarding the bus at the gate to take us to the plane out on the tarmac. This flight we were on Bangkok Air and again the service was great. We got a hot meal (this was a prop plane mind you) and drinks, etc. Nothing like this at home, that is for sure. By the way, neither is the security…it’s a joke to go thru security. There is no line and you just put your bag on the belt, don’t have to take out your laptop, and walk thru the metal detector. So easy. We get to Bkk a little late and get our taxi to the hotel. We make it and the hotel is fine. Room is very clean and decent and we head out for dinner. The hotel tells us of a place about a 10 minute walk and we are off. Rhonda is looking pretty much like a ghost at this point as we go thru the streets of Bangkok. It is incredibly dirty and is definitely way different than anywhere else we have been. We have an incredibly hard time finding the place with Rhonda saying more than a few times she doesn’t like this and is ready to go back to the room. But we are hungry…I know it’s different and not our comfort zone but we are going to find this place. There is some commotion on the street with a cab and girl and a guy and this only heightens Rhonda’s uneasiness and disdain for Bangkok. A guy finally points us in the right direction and we find the restaurant. It’s a pretty cool place and right on the river. We order up a little Thai food and I try to ease Rhonda a little bit but I will say I have never seen her freaked out like this. She is so uncomfortable its making everything uncomfortable. We have a decent dinner but it takes 30 mins to pay the bill….UGH! It’s after 11 and we are tired and ready to get back to the hotel. Rhonda gets in bed and starts watching a movie on HBO (one of our 2 English channels, the other being CNN) and I get on the internet to upload a video for Colton and Chloe, look for a tailor I want to visit and get us ready for the next day.

Chiang Mai and Chiang Dao

ttlax — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:01:00 GMT

We were up and at em early for the flight to Chiang Mai. I guess we slept decent but it was one of those nights where you don’t want to oversleep so you wake up a few times. We hopped right out of bed, got ready real quick, checked out and got into the taxi for the ride to the airport. Everything went smoothly and we were business class on the flight to Chiang Mai. I thought something was a little weird when we got our boarding passes and we were in row 17. Turns out we were on a 747 for the one hr flight. Definitely unusual but I guess they were going somewhere far from Chiang Mai. We were upstairs which was pretty cool only because we had never been upstairs before on a 747. We had breakfast on the plane….something like rice soup with pork in it and some fruit on the side, etc. It wasn’t that bad, wasn’t the best. On arrival, our ride wasn’t there but within 5 minutes of getting our bags our ride was there and we were off. We waited curbside while our driver went to get the car and it was interesting once we got to it. It was a songtheaw (sp?) which is a pickup truck with a roof and 2 rows of seats running down the side. Then there is a back door with no door, just a spot to get in and out. I knew our ride wasn’t air conditioned but had no idea that is what we would have. It was a fine ride to Chiang Dao nest but much longer than anticipated…1 ½ hrs and we thought an hr max. Once we arrived, we were happy to be there and loved the place. We got checked in, had some lunch and decided what to do while we were there. I went with the Thai lunch and Rhonda had a BLT. Both were tasty…mine was pretty spicy but not too much. We decided to do the elephant ride and bamboo raft that afternoon and get a massage the next morning and see the rest of the stuff around the nest before heading back to the airport. We decided it would be too much of a whirlwind to try and do Chiang Mai as well so we just bagged it. The elephant ride was an adventure, that is for sure. Totally not what we expected. They have different tours and the ones with the pics is not what we got! We ride out into the jungle and after a while, Rhonda sees and elephant. She points it out to me and is thinking it is just some guy on his elephant just riding it. Very shortly after, the car stops, the guy comes over and we are out of the car. This, my friends, is our elephant! Next thing we know he is on the ground, Rhonda is climbing on and I’m trying to take a quick pic before I have to get on. There is no group or other elephants around; it is us and the jungle. Once we are on and ready to roll, the car drives away and we are off. Rhonda is a little freaked out at this as its nothing like she imagined or pictured at all. Early on, it is mostly up hill and the big guy is not going very fast, stops frequently and our little elephant trainer dude is yelling at him a lot to go (I assume that’s what he was saying, pretty confident I’m right!). After about 5 minutes, he turns around, says hello (to me only, one of 2 English words we heard from him all day) and points to the front where he is riding. He was offering for me to ride up front. Now, at this moment, Rhonda and I are sitting on a little platform with bars around it and able to hold on and stretch out. Our trainer is riding way up on the elephant’s neck, almost on his head with nothing to hold onto. In his hand he has a bamboo switch and a little hook thing. So, after the offer, I look at Rhonda and ask what she thinks and she says go for it. So we switch places. Wow, this is weird. The first few steps I almost fall off b/c of his back coming up with each step. I solve this problem by moving a little more forward and its fine. The elephant is a little hairy bur not real hairy…feels kinda weird with different hairs everywhere and just the feel of his skin. He seems to stop a lot going up hill, seems to get irritated sometimes and one time snaps off about a 4 inch tree with his trunk without any effort. This is one powerful, powerful animal. At times it is difficult to stay on and I work up a sweat just riding (it is hot and humid so that doesn’t help at all!). Initially, I thought I would be up there only for a short time but I’m up there the rest of our time on the elephant which is another hour or so. Wow! We both had a great experience but I know Rhonda spent half the time praying for the elephant to behave! We ended the ride in a little village in the middle of the mountains in the middle of nowhere in Northern Thailand. It was so cool just to be there and so cool to have a ride like that. After disembarking from the elephant, we get back in the car and head for the ping river and the bamboo raft. Another really cool experience. Now, the raft is just a raft made from bamboo poles and is basically just a float down the river. The water does not run fast and the guide just stands in front and pushes us along with a long bamboo pole. We do this ride for an hr and its very peaceful and a great enjoyment. We see some interesting houses along the way (that look nice like they don’t belong), some total shacks and dumps where you can’t believe people live, a lady doing laundry in the river and every kid we pass knows hello and goodbye. Rhonda and I have a good chat about lots of things and it’s so peaceful just to look around at the mountains and know where you are and take it all in. It really is surreal seeing how different these people are, how they live and how it is so different from what we know as home. It makes you thankful to have the opportunity to see and experience it and thankful for what you have at home. The ride came to an end and it was back to the nest for some relaxing and getting ready for dinner. Rhonda wasn’t feeling that great so she took a nap and I did a little stuff on the computer and relaxed. I woke her up probably around 7pm and we walked over to Chiang Dao nest 2 for dinner. Nest 1 where we were staying serves western food and nest 2, Thai food. We wanted to go for the Thai food and we were glad we did. We ordered a set menu and it was a lot of food and it was tasty. We both really enjoyed it and were glad we made the walk over. Rhonda had her sights on dessert at nest 1 (the crème Brule in particular) but when we got back that was sold out so back to the room it was. We got ready for bed and about 9:30 or 10 I called and go a hold of the bank. Matt Adams had just received my email from the day before (I guess the bank was closed) and said he would get back to me. Within the next 30 mins I had an email explaining they block all ATM transactions in Thailand b/c of high fraud and we can only use our card for cash advance at banks. Ugh, but at least now we know. It’s late and we are ready for bed so lights out it is.

Goodbye Sydney...on to Thailand

ttlax — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:58:00 GMT

We got the 6:15 wake up call and it was time to get up, get ready and head out. There are no refunds on the bridge climb if you are late and considering we were leaving on a 5pm flight to Bangkok, we needed to be on time. We headed out of the hotel and hopped on the bus to Circular Quay. We had plenty of time so we stopped and got a quick breakfast….bagel with ham and cheese for me and banana-blueberry bread and fresh OJ for Rhonda. We walked to the bridge climb headquarters and checked in early. We were offered the 7:35 climb and took that. In our group was a young couple from England and a family of 3 from India. All very nice folks. So, they give you tons of stuff for this climb. You can’t take anything with you so they know nothing will fall off. They give you a suit to wear, then a harness, a radio with headphones, a fleece to attach to your belt, 2 kinds of hats if you want (attached to your back), a deal to attach your sunglasses, and a hanky. It’s all clipped on somewhere so it can’t fall. The climb was great…it was a really neat experience to climb the bridge, be on top of it and be able to see all over the city. We had a blast and were glad we decided to do it. Rhonda says next time we should do it at night. I agree it would be really cool but I doubt there will be a next time!! When we finished, we got 1 pic and then headed off for some lunch and to catch the end of the cowboy game. On the 3^rd try, we found a place with the game on and I ordered up a chicken burger and it was ribs for Rhonda. There was only 3 mins left in the game but I was glad to see the boys had it under control 31-20 with the ball. After lunch we got the ferry back to Darling Harbor one last time. We made a trip through the aquarium and by far the coolest thing was the Ocenarium with big sharks, rays and tons of other fish. We liked it better than the wildlife one next door. Sadly, our time in Sydney was pretty much up. Oh, what we could do with a few more days! We really did feel like we needed more time but there just isn’t. We went back to the Holiday Inn and packed up and headed for the airport. As sad as we were to be leaving Sydney and leaving Australia, we were very excited for what’s next….THAILAND!!! One of the exciting things is just a different culture….as great as Australia is, it does feel a lot like home. We know Thailand will be much, much different! For some reason, a 9 hr flight doesn’t seem so long in business class. You can stretch out 100%, get fed like a king, have anything to drink you want, have about 20 movies on demand, TV and just about anything else to watch. And of course in this case you can lay almost totally flat but it’s still really nice. We finally did land in Bangkok and had to walk about a mile to get to the immigration/baggage claim. We waited in line for a bit as they take a picture of everyone entering the country. Wonder if we do that….? Our bags were among the first off the plane and I decided I better get some cash. Went to the ATM and hmmmm…transaction cancelled. Tried again…same thing, transaction cancelled and contact your bank. We went thru customs and I tried at a different bank and same message. Crap. We are pretty much screwed. I guess that is why I have a couple hundred dollars for emergencies like this so I had to cash in a $100 so we could finally get out of there and onto the hotel for a couple of hrs sleep. We must have been asked by 100 people, “taxi, where are you going?” 800 baht, 400 baht, etc. So annoying and yet so tempting. Knowing not to fall for that rubbish, I went to the info center, showed them where we were going and had them write the address in Thai for the cab driver and also learned it wouldn’t be more than 200 baht. I knew it would be cheap since it wasn’t THAT far anyway. We got all checked in, the room was fine for a quick layover but nothing else. Carpet kinda dirty, bed ok, bathroom tiny and a hint of old smoke smell on a non smoking floor and in a non smoking room. Not bad though. Rhonda crashed out immediately and I had to go down and buy internet time to email the bank and try to get this ATM crap worked out. The most annoying part is that I gave them the itin and told them when I would be in each country so I figure there should be no problems. I played around for about 30 mins and still never heard back so it was time to go to sleep. It was after 12 midnight (4am Sydney time) and we had to get up at 6 to get ready real quick and head back to the airport for our 7:45 am flight to Chiang Mai.

Sydney

ttlax — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 02:55:00 GMT

Well, Sunday morning….our last full day in Sydney and another big day. We started off over at Paddy’s market for a few souvenirs, grabbed a quick bite of hotcakes at McD’s and set off for the rest of the day. We took a bus down to Circular Quay, and hopped on the ferry to Manly. Now, this is one of the biggest things everyone says you must do in Sydney and it didn’t disappoint! The ride was beautiful and we arrived and hit the info desk to get all the scoop. We found out where to go and headed toward Shelly beach. To get there, we hit Manly beach first. It was awesome! Beautiful, pretty big and so busy. There were kids of all ages in their swimming uniforms doing all kinds of competition up and down the beach. It was packed with families and just people everywhere. We hung out there and just watched and then headed over to Shelly beach kind of around the corner. It was also very pretty and so many people everywhere. Open water swimmers, people playing on the beach, laying out, scuba classes going on, etc. We just relaxed, took some pics, got hungry and ate a sausage and just took it all in. After a while, it was time to start heading back to catch the ferry back to Sydney (30 min ride). On our way back to the port, we stopped at an internet café to try and book a bridge climb for the next morning but couldn’t do it online. I wrote down the number so I could call later to see if we could get in. On the ride back, I stood at the front of the ferry and just enjoyed the views of everything and all of the sailboats all over the harbor. When we arrived back at Circular Quay, we caught the ferry back to Darling Harbor and went back to the hotel to change and go meet Patty and Kelvin, my 2 Aussie mates from 11 years ago. We headed to the Opera bar (we were about 15 mins late) and there they were! Pat was with his wife Nicole and 6 mo old son, Mitchell. It was really great to see both of them. What a treat! We talked about old times, new times and everything in between. We all stayed at the Opera bar for a little while then headed over to the rocks for dinner. We hit a pub there and ate there as well. About dinner time, Nicole headed to the airport to pick up here sister coming in from London so it was just the boys and Rhonda. We had a blast hanging out and next thing you knew it was time for everyone to go. Nicole came back and picked up Pat and Rhonda, Kel and I caught the bus home. We got off at Town hall, said goodbye to Kelvin and walked back to the hotel. I forgot to mention I borrowed Pat’s phone and did book the bridge climb so we were on for 7:55am. We got back to the hotel and got ready for bed, and I watched a little TV. I saw the end of a promo for the Cowboys-Giants game and it said live at 5am so I got a 5am wake up call. It was the Packers and Vikings so I figured it was a doubleheader and the boys were the 2^nd game. So, back to sleep.

Sydney

ttlax — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 02:51:00 GMT

What a beautiful morning in Sydney!!! It had been raining for the last week and even rained on us the night before so we were really pumped. We mapped out a game plan for the day and set out. First stop, Darling Harbor again and we checked it all out in the daytime, bought tickets to the aquarium and wildlife exhibit and went to see the wildlife. It was cool but overrated. We did get to see some Koala bears and also Wallabies (smaller Kangaroos) so that was neat. After that, we took the ferry over to Circular Quay. This is the main harbor in Sydney and right by the Opera House, etc. We walked over to an area called the rocks (very popular, full of pubs and old stuff and a street fair on the weekends) and just explored there, shopped a little, had lunch at a pub outside and a nice tasty beer. We also stopped at another pub, the Lord Byron Hotel, on the recommendation of George from our scuba trip. He and his wife are from Tampa but living in Sydney for 6 months. After lunch we found a great spot for some photos of us and the Opera house, etc and also filmed a little video clip to email to Colton and Chloe. We then headed over to check out the Opera house (really cool and amazing just to be there) and then headed over to the botanical gardens. We walked through there and the highlight was the flying fox bats that have taken roost there. These things are nasty looking, really big and wrap their wings around themselves and hang upside down in trees. They were everywhere. Wait till you see pics of these things…they totally freak Rhonda out. After our visit to the gardens, we were getting tired and decided to head back to the hotel. It may not sound like we did a lot on this day but we did. We got some great pics of the famous stuff, spent a little time on the harbor on the ferries and got to really live Sydney. We loved it. We got cleaned up and headed out for Hillsong church. It’s a church in Sydney that Ed Young spoke at a few months ago and we wanted to check it out. The people were sooooooo friendly and welcoming. It was much, much smaller than we imagined it would be and it was an experience. The energy in there was amazing but it was much more charismatic that I thought it would be. During the praise and worship, everybody was in the aisles and down front just going at it. We didn’t know it when we went, but the service at 7pm on Saturday night is for 25-35 year olds which fit us perfectly of course. The praise songs lasted forever, I think there were 3 and it was 25 to 30 minutes. After that a guy held up some prayer requests and next thing you know the entire church is praying out loud. The message was really a great message and we got a lot out of it. After the service, we were welcomed again by a number of people and a guy named Seth was great and very friendly and invited us to an after party. We were starving so we took the Hillsong bus back to Central station and headed out for food. We decided on the Cheers pub and it was not very good but it was food. We ate and headed back to go to sleep. It was about 10pm, we had another big day ahead of us and of course, Rhonda was sleepy! J

On to Sydney

ttlax — Fri, 9 Nov 2007 11:15:00 GMT

We woke up for our last morning in Cairns and headed out for breakfast at a tasty café. We then walked around, shopped a little and bought Todd a Christmas present. It was time to go back and pack up so we did that and it was off to the airport for our flight to Sydney! We were both really excited to be going there and to see and experience a city we have always admired and to get to see some of the most famous landmarks in the world. Our flight on Qantas was great, on a 767 and again incredible service and again ice cream! Now, the hot meals they did serve…not Rhonda’s favorite. Both time we had a chicken curry dish (blah as far as she was concerned but I got it both times) and on this flight she had the lamb. Poor little ol Mary’s lamb. How could she do that? Our flight landed in Sydney about 4pm and we got our bags, some train tickets and we were off. We rode the train to the town hall stop, got to walking and about 10 minutes later we were at the Holiday Inn Darling Harbor. It was a decent hotel, about like most Holiday Inns and perfect for us. A great location and the price was right. We unpacked, thought about doing some laundry and then after relaxing a little went out to explore and get something to eat. We walked around Darling Harbor and had a very tasty meal at the Meat and Wine Co. We both had filet, Rhonda’s was overcooked so they had to redo her’s and then it was undercooked but she ate it anyway. Mine was perfect and delicious. After dinner we went to a bar just there on the harbor and had a beer. Only one though since Rhonda was tired from all of the travel and of course we had a big day coming up exploring Sydney. Night, night.

Great Barrier Reef

ttlax — Thu, 8 Nov 2007 11:12:00 GMT

Well, it was a long night. Neither of us slept good and our room, #21 was on top of the boat. This was the worst part of the boat as far as seasickness goes and since we were moving the entire night (we weren’t’ supposed to be) it made it very rough. We were up at 4am just rocking back and fourth….not good. Rhonda got very seasick and was feeling awful in the morning. This caused her to miss the first 2 dives in the morning…ugh. I went ahead and did them, they were really good. The first one my buddy was Christine from Canada and the second was Scott from Germany. Scott likes to go deep and before I knew it I was 22 meters deep. I’m only supposed to go 18 so that was a bit of a problem. I got up to a good depth immediately but we were in the water 30 minutes so I was a little over what I should have been on the dive table. I’m sure I’d be fine but that was the last dive for me that day. Besides, I was seeing some really cool fish and stuff on the dives but the snorkelers were seeing turtles and sharks so I wanted some of that. Rhonda finally felt good enough to get in the water so we snorkeled on the last dive. What a great choice! We saw tons of blue starfish, different fish and towards the end of the dive a big ol sea turtle just floating along and then 2 sharks! Awesome! The sharks were white tip reef sharks and probably 4 to 6 feet…not huge or scary but it was really cool to see them in their own environment. We got back on the boat and had 2 hours to do nothing until it was time to transfer back to Reef Quest for the ride back to Cairns. Rhonda was napping on a couch most of that time and I called home which was cool just to be sitting out on the Great Barrier Reef in the middle of the ocean talking to my parents. We finally go to transfer back and had a nice conversation with a couple Aussies and Keith from Chicago. When we got back, we walked home and checked back into the hotel Cairns. Room 227 was much, much better than 201…nicer, cleaner, no toilet problems. We laid down (its about 5pm) watched a little TV and napped a little. I went down to get our bags from the storage room about 6 and Rhonda was out. I laid back down to get ready for our big night out in Cairns….a nice dinner and some drinks and checking out the nightlife. Next thing I knew it was midnight, I was taking out my contacts and waking Rhonda and telling her to do the same. No dinner, no going out. We easily slept till after 6am…I guess we really needed it!

Great Barrier Reef

ttlax — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 11:10:00 GMT

We awoke about 7am to have breakfast at the hotel, get packed up for our trip to the reef and wait for our ride from the dive company. They picked us up, checked us in and off to the boat and the reef it was! We had some safety briefings and stuff on the ride out and then it was time to dive about when we got out there. Rhonda was most comfortable with a guided dive (extra $15) and so was I since it was my first ocean experience. The dive was amazing; we saw lots of great fish but nothing crazy yet. After the first dive we had some lunch, then did our second dive on the same boat we rode out to the reef, Reef Quest. After our 2^nd guided dive, it was time to hang out for just a bit and then transfer to Ocean Quest where we would dive some more and then spend the night out of the reef. We got over to the new boat, got the briefing and got some terrible (really pissed me off) news. We were told the boat goes in for fuel once every 3 months and this was the time. All of their promotion and literature says the boat is errantly out on the reef. Total garbage. So, instead of spending the night out there, we spent the night traveling back into Cairns, refueling and back to the dive sites just in time for the morning dive. I will say we did 2 dives before heading in…Rhonda had a mask problem on the afternoon one so she bailed out. It was the best dive of the day as far as fish and stuff but the visibility wasn’t quite as good as it had been. After a shower and dinner, it was time for the night dive. I was really pumped about this, Rhonda not so much so she sat it out. It was a really cool experience. Not as scary as I thought it would be but I didn’t see as much stuff as I thought we would. I did see a huge lobster that was the highlight. It was really, really cool to see the nocturnal ocean creatures moving at night and to shine your torch on a lobster and see it so clearly was really cool. After another shower and some apple crisp with ice cream, we were exhausted and in bed by 9pm.

Christchurch to Cairns

ttlax — Tue, 6 Nov 2007 11:02:00 GMT

3:30am a bright light comes on and Rhonda wakes up wondering what the heck is this? I kinda went back to sleep as the light dimmed then brightened again and we were easily up at 4. When we got down, no super shuttle. 4:20, still no shuttle, I give a call and am assured the shuttle is almost there and we will be fine for our 7am flight to Sydney. Finally about 4:40 a cab pulls up and says he is here for the shuttle. He makes fun for not getting a cab from the start but the hotel said the “discount” cab is $42.00 to the airport and the shuttle was $21 for 2 passengers. The cab was about $25…now we know for next time I guess! We get checked in….totally sweet! Business class rocks! We got our own check in line (there was a huge line for coach) and were treated like royalty. They took extra care of all of our bags and then after check in we headed to the international departure lounge for Air New Zealand. Wow, it was sweet. A big spread for breakfast, any kind of drinks or juices…really nice. We pretty much stayed awake to enjoy all of the stuff but Rhonda got a nap in before the flight. We like the business class experience. On the plane, the great service continued. The seats were comfy, but didn’t recline huge. There were only 2 rows of b class seats since it was an Airbus 320 plane. We had personal DVD players and about 20 movies to choose from as well as a nice spread for breakfast…fruit, pancakes or eggs with steak, etc. We loved it. I slept a lot of the flight; Rhonda stayed awake watching a movie and soaking up the business class experience. One of the highlights of the flight was the taste of vegemite for Rhonda. I put some one some toast and gave her a taste….can’t wait to watch the video of that again! Great stuff! It was cloudy coming into Sydney but was a treat to fly by the city and get to see the harbor, downtown and the opera house from the air. Just like all of the great pics you see of Sydney….that was cool for both of us. We landed in Sydney and had a long, long layover for our flight to Cairns. We claimed our bags, transferred over to the domestic terminal, checked in and got something to eat and just hung out. We had some wireless internet time at the gate for an hour or so as well so that was nice to do some things before our flight. The flight was amazing compared to what we get at home. We were on a Qantas flight and they serviced us very nicely. First of all, we asked about seats and next thing we knew we had exit row, window and aisle and the middle seat blocked…sweet! We had a hot meal, drink service (coffee and tea) and then later they came by with ice cream…twice! I couldn’t believe it when at home for the same flight we get nothing but have the option to buy some chips for $5. We arrived in Cairns a got a cab to the hotel. It was a short ride, probably about $15 or so. We got checked in and I’ll have to say, not as nice as it looked on the internet! The walls looked like they hadn’t been painted in 10 years and our toilet made this constant noise. Not a bad room though and we were of course happy to have it. We relaxed for a little bit then headed out to explore and see what Cairns was all about. Its pretty cool but a little older than I expected. Kinda like an old Florida town I’d say. They have a really cool esplanade on the water and a stretch of a lot of restaurants and shops. We also walked to the harbor to check out where our boat for the scuba trip left from. We were both a little tired from the long day of traveling so we decided to go ahead and eat as it was gonna be an early night (we were also 3 hrs back so it was a lot later for us and we got up at 4am). We ate at the Raw Prawn on an “early bird special” 20% off and it was actually very tasty. I had Kangaroo and Rhonda had barramundi with delicious avocado salsa. Both were very tasty (the Kangaroo was overcooked) and we got a little video of Rhonda eating some Kangaroo! After dinner we walked a little more then headed for home. We had a drink in the hotel bar (since it was complementary) and then went to sleep fairly early. After all, an early morning tomorrow and a long 2 days of the Great Barrier Reef await!

Queenstown to Christchurch

ttlax — Mon, 5 Nov 2007 07:20:00 GMT

We had a good nights sleep and woke up very, very early for Rhonda’s physical therapy appointment at 7am. We drove to the office, she went in for treatment and I headed out for a run. It was pretty chilly, enough to see your breath so I was a little cold for the first half, my hands were freezing but I warmed up and had a good 35 to 40 minute run. I went back and picked Rhonda up and we headed back to the hotel. We got cleaned up, packed up and headed out to the airport. We stopped at Subway on the way to the airport and picked up a 2 for 1 breakfast sandwich to eat when we got to the airport. We stopped for a refuel, and made it to the terminal to return the car. It really was nice to turn that car back in without any damage or wrecks! We got checked in for the short flight to Christchurch and scarfed down our breakfast. It was nice to get out of there on time as they were saying some bad weather was coming and Queenstown is notorious for cancelled flights. We arrived in Christchurch and hopped on the city bus to take us to the center of town, right by the hotel. We had to walk about 2 blocks to the Hotel So but we made it easily. There was a chill in the air but we weren’t cold and the fleece felt pretty nice. The hotel did not have our room ready so we dropped off our bags, headed to their lounge to chill for a bit and get some internet stuff done but their connection wasn’t working. After about 15 mins of that, we headed out for some lunch and went to a place called Joe’s garage a few mins from the hotel. I had some ham and cheese sandwich and Rhonda had a salad. I think sometimes the food is the worst part of traveling, its hard to just go get a healthy meal anywhere. Everything has cheese, butter, or something on it but you never have any idea what is coming on it and they look at your like you are a stupid, annoying American if you start asking lots of questions. So, normally I just order. After lunch we went and got checked into the hotel. Upon arrival in the room…well first reaction…it was the smallest hotel room I have ever seen. I’m not even kidding; it was probably about a 13x9 room. There was a double bed with wall on 3 sides. There was probably a foot or two of shelf space at one end of the bed with a flat screen TV above it. That was the whole width of the room. The length not much better, it was probably 8 or 9 feet to the bed, enough for a desk on one side and a bathroom on the other. We are talking airplane sized bathroom complete with a shower maybe big enough to turn around in if you are in exactly the same spot. Needless to say, room 633 was a very nice room, just tiny. After stuffing our stuff under the bed so we could move in the cramped space, it was time to head out and explore Christchurch. We walked all over town to the main spots and of course the Cathedral square. We took plenty of pics around town and enjoyed our day exploring. The city has a great vibe and we enjoyed just being there. We picked out a spot for dinner that was having a good Monday night special and after a few hours of exploring we went back to the Hotel So to relax for a few mins and get ready for dinner. We headed back out and ate at the Viaduct. I had a pizza and beer and Rhonda had spaghetti with a glass of wine. It took 30 mins to get our bill (ugh) and it was especially annoying since we were kind of tired and had to get up super early. After we left we headed over to Annie’s wine bar for a glass of wine at the insistence of our friends Mike and Julie from SF. It was a great place and the wine was tasty. There was a tour group in there of about 30 or 40 old people and Rhonda and I were hoping that wasn’t us one day unless we were really old, like 85 or so. After that we headed out in the rain to stop off for a drink at the dux de lux, a famous pub in Christchurch. It was totally dead when we got there, we were tired and knew we had to get up super early so we went home and crashed out. I finished uploading the pics we had been doing before we went to dinner and most all of our pics to that point had been uploaded. We crashed out with the special hotel wake up system set for 4am with a 4:15 am super shuttle pick up in the morning.

Milford Sound

ttlax — Sun, 4 Nov 2007 07:18:00 GMT

Awake in the Milford Sound early to the sound of rain, this was not the start to the day we had hoped for. We headed to get some breakfast and bought some eggs and a loaf of bread at the little store and cooked up some breakfast before the trip. The trip was going rain or shine and unfortunately for us, totally raining. We follow the guide from the lodge to the start of our kayak trip and get outfitted in all kinda of stuff for the trip. Long underwear, a long underwear top, a fleece, a very bright orange wind jacket, a kayak skirt thingy, a wool hat and another hat on top of that. We aren’t going to get cold I don’t think but it is cold and wet. Oh, we also got some pogies. Yup, I didn’t know what they were either but they go around your paddle and you put your hands in and it keeps your hands warm. After a safety briefing and all that jazz, we finally hit the water. We are off to kayak with penguins, dolphins and seals. So pumped. We can’t see the peaks that are just breathtaking b/c it’s so foggy and wet, we can’t see much. Not how I dreamed this trip up but still amazing none the less. We kayak, and kayak, and canoe (as Rhonda puts it) hoping to see the previous mentioned but no dice for a while. Finally, there is a seal just swimming, minding his own business a few feet away from the kayak. Very cool. A little bit later, there is a penguin…SWEET! What we came for. We only see his face and he goes under but surely he will come up and we will get a great look and sweet picture. Well, we are still waiting…he just disappeared and would be the only penguin all day. No sign of dolphins. The weather clears up a bit for us and pretty much stops raining but it isn’t the ideal day to be out. We head across the sound to a beach for lunch and get attacked by sandflies. These little bitches are a pain. They are totally annoying, there are millions of them and they bite! #@$%$#% sandflies! We finish up lunch, we can see a lot more now and paddle back…we paddle right up to Bowen falls, a 164 meter high waterfall….WOW! AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL and really cool to be in a kayak. We paddle around and head back and the trip is over. What a great experience but I’ll have to say disappointment with the lack of wildlife compared to what we thought we would see. Also disappointment with the weather and the fact the good cameras and video camera stay in the car b/c of the weather so the only pics are from the underwater camera. Hopefully some of them turn out good. We get some dry clothes on and head back out on the road to Queenstown. The drive back is really beautiful; the weather is great as well. We arrive back in Q town about 7 or so and check back into the Crowne Plaza. It is our last night in Q town and we are sad to be leaving such a wonderful, beautiful place. We get all cleaned up and head out for dinner. We can’t really decide what we want and finally decide on a place called Lone Star. I had read somewhere they had really good nachos and they sounded kind of good but we ended up just ordering a regular entrée and some delicious hot bread to start with. We had the Johnny Cash chicken and split it. We had heard the portions were huge and our waiter confirmed that. Good thing we did split it, it was HUGE. 2 huge chicken breasts with mashed potatoes and slaw. Very delicious and we had a good, kinda healthy meal…a great choice. We were pretty tired after a day of kayaking and the long drive back so we stopped off at an internet café to check a few things on the way home. The #1 thing was to try and figure out if our hotel in Christchurch was open…we found out it had just opened so that made us feel better. I checked the college football scores as well and saw Arizona beat Ucla so that was nice as well. We finished up there and headed back to the hotel and hung out for a bit and went to bed.

Queenstown to Milford Sound

ttlax — Sat, 3 Nov 2007 07:17:00 GMT

As you can imagine, today was a sleep in day. Rhonda got lots of sleep but slept well even with the bad back and it was better than the day before but still a ways off from feeling good. We went back to Vudu for breakfast. What a treat…Rhonda had the most delicious pancakes ever…blackberries, blueberries, banana…YUM! I had a few bites and just another bagel for me. I have not been eating a lot for breakfast since I feel like I have gained about 100 lbs already. We enjoyed our morning and early afternoon in Queenstown and set off on our 4 hr or so drive to the Milford Sound. Now, I have to say that everything we have done and are going to do on this trip excites me but this has to be right up near the top. The drive was beautiful. We saw probably 1 million sheep along the way and the mountains got prettier and prettier as we moved on and got closer. Words cannot describe how beautiful this drive is…and our pics and video won’t do it justice either. The snow capped peaks and the lakes and the occasional tree tunnel…it really is a breathtaking drive. We finally made it to Milford and to the Milford Sound lodge where we were booked for the night. The lodge is basically a youth hostel, and is the ONLY place to stay there unless you are on an overnight cruise. We went down to the only place to eat, the Blue Duck and had dinner and a few beers for me! We headed back to the lodge and tried for the wireless internet so Rhonda could watch some TV in the room but we couldn’t get the signal in our room. So…we asked what we could do and headed out with a few others to look for the glowworms. A girl that works at the lodge led us and we found heaps of them on our walk. It was awesome to be in the middle of nowhere and see all of these glowworms on the rock. Trust me, it was fun but of course there is absolutely nothing else to do there anyway! After that we headed back to the room and got ready for bed and our big day of kayaking. We went to sleep very hopeful of good weather in the morning (the weather had been perfect up to this point but rain was in the forecast).

Queenstown

ttlax — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 07:15:00 GMT

After a pretty good night’s sleep, we woke up and headed down for breakfast at the hotel. They have a buffet and a few different options…all of it totally overpriced. We had our choice of bread, ham, cheese, fruit and cereal for $19. The best part of breakfast for me was the big glass of kiwi juice…tasty! We finished breakfast and got ready for probably our most exciting adventure in Q town, canyoning. We were both excited to do it…I did it once before in Switzerland 12 years ago and Rhonda was excited for her first time. If you don’t know what it is you basically put on a wetsuit and navigate through a canyon in whatever way possible. What we got to do on this trip was a zip line, jump off a few waterfalls, slide down a few natural waterslides, rappel down a cliff (and the option to rappel down a waterfall or jump), and stuff like that. The water was running very fast so we did really have to take caution and follow instructions of the guide to a “t” or we would easily get swept away in the rapids. By the way, the water was FREEZING! We had huge wetsuits on but no gloves so our hands were frozen pretty much the whole time. The worst part of this adventure was on about the 2^nd waterslide Rhonda hurt her back. It was really killing her and she was a trooper and tried to finish but had to walk out just before the end. She was in major, major pain. I’m not sure her walking out wasn’t harder than just finishing the trip but she bravely made it back to the van in major pain. We went straight to the Dr to get her checked out and he gave her some muscle relaxers which was a huge help. We spent plenty of time waiting for the Dr and then had about an hr and a half before her physical therapy (which is free in New Zealand for travelers). This helped a good deal and we were really having her take it easy since we were leaving the next day for a long drive to the Milford Sound and a kayak trip the next day. We needed to get her well for that. So, sadly, our last afternoon was spent at the Dr and physical therapist. We went out for a delicious dinner (even with the bad back that was getting better) at a place called Finz right on the shores of Lake Waikuputu. I had probably the best salmon I’ve ever had and Rhonda had fish n’ chips…she loved it and it was tasty. We went back pretty early since Rhonda wasn’t feeling so great (and the muscle relaxers were making her very drowsy). She crashed out pretty early and I headed out later to get us some more water and stopped at the hotel bar for a glass of wine with our San Francisco friends who were back from their trip to the Milford Sound. We chatted about that and I assured them my wife was really cool and fun even though she was jet lagged one night and knocked out by muscle relaxers that night. We exchanged info and headed to bed.

Queenstown

ttlax — Thu, 1 Nov 2007 07:10:00 GMT

We woke up today and knew there was lots of adventure stuff to be done! There are so many choices in the "Adventure Capital of the World" we couldn't do them all but it was time to decide what we were going to do. We slept in late which was really nice and then headed out to breakfast at Vudu cafe (voted the best in Queenstown). I wasn't super hungry and had a bagel, Rhonda went with the eggs benedict. Breakfast was great. We went back and decided today we would do the jetboat ride and go bungy jumping! After discussing everything with the hotel concierge, we made our bookings and headed out. The first activity of the day was the Shotover jet boat ride. We got there a little early and were able to see the boats going and what it was like and we were first in line for our preferred seats. Well, the guy at the hotel said the back corner was great, which is where we sat but Rhonda and I both think the front would have been the best. Needless to say, it was an exciting ride and a good deal of fun but a little overrated. I think we both agree it’s overpriced for a 20 minute ride. Rhonda was a little scared going into it with the thought of flying through a narrow canyon at 55+ mph…it wasn’t very scary but pretty cool none the less. After completion of the boat ride, we headed on the road to the Karawara Bridge for a bungee jump! I’ll have to admit I had some nerves heading up but nothing like Rhonda. She was really nervous but I knew she would come around and do it. After we got there, we watched people jump for a while and I was a lot less nervous after that. Rhonda was coming around but still nervous. We finally decided it was time to head in and gets it going. We still had not decided if we were going to jump solo or tandem. I was all for solo but cool with tandem too if Rhonda wanted to do that instead of solo. We decided on the tandem jump. Does it take away from a solo jump? I don’t really think much, if any. On one hand, you have someone going with you so you have a partner in crime or fear depending on how you look at it. I think it probably feels exactly the same once you actually jump. And, I think it’s really cool to have done it together. Of course, immediately after we jumped, Rhonda was wanting to do the solo jump! So, next time….we will both do the solo. The jump was 43 meters high and off a bridge over a river. There are 3 different places to bungee in Queenstown, and the bridge we jumped off is the first commercial bungee in the world. We both thought that was pretty cool to jump there. We were kicking ourselves for not having a bystander video or take pics of us but we did buy the pics that they took. Wait till you see them…we told them we wanted to get dunked in the river so Rhonda is holding her nose from the first second of the jump. Kinda funny. We never did hit the water unfortunately…we came oh so close, but no cigar! It was late afternoon after that and we headed back to town and the hotel to clean up and get ready for dinner and a night out. We relaxed for a bit, showered up and headed out for some pizza in Queenstown. We ate at Winnie’s and had a half and half pizza. On one side a normal, tasty veggie pizza. On the other side, we tried the local’s favorite…um, very different. There was chicken, brie cheese and some other stuff…very sweet, not what I like in my pizza but it wasn’t bad, just not what you would expect. Oh, and you dipped it in pistachio sour cream that the local just LOVE! We picked up a bottle of local Pinot Noir and headed back to the room to enjoy it outside on the patio on a georgeous night. We only had about half of it and next thing we knew another day was gone, it was late and we were really tired. Time to hit the hay; we have another big day in Queenstown tomorrow, our last full day there.

Auckland to Queenstown

ttlax — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:01:00 GMT

Well, we woke up in Auckland and first thing on the agenda was trying to figure out the washer and dryer (its an all in one!) and get our clothes dry before we headed out on our flight to Queenstown. I was cracking up at Rhonda freaking out at the thing (there is video) but we kinda figured it out enough to get the clothes somewhat dry. Now, we didn't necessarily have a lot of dirty clothes after one day but we liked having it in our room as well as I did manage to spill on the clothes we flew in as well as the running stuff. We grabbed some breakfast at a cafe down the street, packed up and headed for the airport and Queenstown.

Arrival in Queenstown was amazing. First off, this place is tough on the pilots. There are mountains surrounding and you can't just fly straight in. You have to fly in, then circle around to get the right approach in for a landing. We made it safely and loved the beauty of the snow capped mountains. We got our rental car and we were off to the Crowne Plaza. Now, this was quite a challenge as they do drive on the opposite side of the road in New Zealand. Rhonda was quite nervous and I was quite confident everything would be fine. It does take a lot of concentration though. Everything is backward, the mirrors, the side of the car, side of the street, the blinker, winshield wipers, etc. Wouldn't you know it the first time I hit the blinker the windshield wipers start going. Oh well, its all fun. We made it without incident to the hotel and got all situated. We headed out to explore Queenstown and checked out the lake, had a yummy lunch at Fergburger, and got to know the town. No dinner for us this night as we were a little tired and Rhonda crashed out early again. I headed out to explore the nightlife but it was no fun without Rhonda. I did stop at the hotel bar and made some friends from San Francisco on their honeymoon. We talked for a while and enjoyed swapping stories and talking about where we had been and where we were going. Mike and Julie were some good company. Well, that was enough as the bed was calling as well. Besides, a big day on tap upcoming!

Auckland

ttlax — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:30:00 GMT

Well, we finally made it! After a long trip, we arrived in Auckland. It started with a flight to LA and about 8 hrs there where I tried on some wetsuits, we ran some errands, stopped by the Russo's to say hi to Christina and the kids and met Jason for a little bit before heading off to the airport. The flight was almost a total disaster as the ticket agent assigning seats said we had an isle and middle (and its was 3, 3, 3) and when we got there we had 2 middle seats (it was 3, 4, 3). Luckily, a nice couple had both isle seats and switched one with us so we could be together and have an isle seat. The flying time was only 12 hours and mostly dark so I got some decent sleep, Rhonda not so much. When we finally arrived, the weather was beautiful and we were very happy to be in New Zealand. After riding the bus to the hotel (with a few block walk) Rhonda took a nap and I got things organized and we headed out to explore. Auckland is a beautiful city, right on the water and very clean. Its so similar to San Francisco...hilly, on the water, ferries to take across to the town of Devenport (kind of like Sausalito), and very crisp weather. We took the ferry over to Devenport, explored there, climbed Mt. Victoria for some great views of Auckland and the surrounding areas. After riding back to Auckland, we explored some more and headed back to the Oaks on Hobson. Rhonda took another nap, I went for an awesome run and then we headed out to dinner. I got to explore some fun parts of Auckland on the run as I ran all the way to the harbour bridge which was nice. We just walked to a place very close to our hotel for dinner and about halfway thru, I started to crash and I think Rhonda was crashing all day! We finished up our meal (not very tasty) and went home and crashed hard. It had been a long day and it was already Tuesday night!