Cvg

Waiting for bags

Checked for ord and cog

Lack of seat assignment caused some consternation.

Arrived at sfo

Tough flight for Rohan but now we've washed him off and he's ready for spaghetti and meatballs
Hilton checked us in but wifi not free?

Ready for sfo

Nz8 was the 747 Dunedin - kids jealous of the hobbit painted 767 bound for lax.
Aukland was ok with two acrobats in the sky tower lobby.

Auckland sky tower

Not a bad view-crazy jumpers

Hba to auk

Sydney transfer was easy but had heaps of time.

Friday

Wound down. Ready to go. Took the kids for a quick spin on the river at Richmond Wichita was fun. Also a game of giant chess with Rohan.

Thursday

Went up mountain, shopping for Tina's opal, dinner out with family at La Porchetta's - Australian Pizza as I remember it. Gorged on cappriccosa

Boxing Day

Recovered from Christmas (sort of) visited Celeste in Bagdad - interesting renovated\moved house. Nice dinner of Walaby at the customs house. Kevin the dog at the gate.

Christmas

Visited mum and dad- found out where Milford was (on pit water). - this was the propert they Dunbabins leased before they took Jimmy Murdoch and his sisters out to Maria Island.
Had a lovely dinner with the family.

Christmas Eve

Packed up for trip to EHN. Stopped at Richmond on the way down. Didn't last more than an hour at mum's place.

Pipeline track and Andy

Had a good little ride with Terry on Amina's bike. Several other people were out on the track but it was nice and easy.
In the afternoon we caught up with Andy and Sophie. Hayley and Rohan had a good time with Natellie and N? So it all worked out well. Lovely BBQ lunch. Andy's taken the digital elect hobby to a greater extreme than have.

Saturday

Salamanca -yawn
Sandy bay beach - nice. There was a moth going fast on the bay-don't think I've seen one up Ina foil before.
Back to Suzette's - seem to be off out for dinner.

Peninsular and back to Fern Tree

Survived Mum (just) - Christina and H quite upset at various times with m's judgmental and frosty welcome.
Dad good - suffering a little with aftereffects of knee cortisone injection but had a couple of long conversations without the others getting too bored. Visited Devil Park and Port Arthur. The devil park bird show wasn't as good as last time but the kids liked it. PA was spoilt by aftereffects of MDS.
Dad lent us an interesting book on the Dunbabin family's early history and the connection to Jimmy Murdoch who was a great grandfather of mine apparently. Jimmy was grandson to Dr James Murdoch of Craigow.
Dad also talked about Issac Solomon some - cousin of Joseph? Was sent to Salt Water River for Reciveing stolen property.
Kids liked the blowhole and view of the Neck on the trip back up.
MacCauleys are putting us up at Fern Tree - so far so good.

Hobart again

No cricket - Rohan not interested. Much unchanged from last time. New woolworths next to argyle st car park. Renewed licenses etc. Mures for icecream. Mums tomorrow.

Eastlands shopping experience

Appropriately the iPhone spell corrects Eastlands to Wastelands. Somewhat dodgy weather and a case of throat crud put paid to the cricket idea today.

6am at Richmond

Most of us seem to have woken early even though the time change fro NZ is only a couple of hours.

Kids flat out

Both asleep by 7:30. Rohan found a golf ball so we constructed a minigolf course with sticks and had fun with that for a few minutes.

Sorted out Jenny's prepaid Telstra mobile wifi - needed to reboot the device to set the password. Then tried refilling from our us Visa card with no luck. PayPal worked fine though. The device from NZ works fine with the Telstra sim once I give it the Telstra apn (Telstra.internet) and CHAP authorization. May have been cheaper to buy a new starter pack from Telstra rather than the refil but this was easy...

Arrived at Richmond

Virgin Australia flight not terribly inspiring, but we got here. So far have Internet at Jenny's place but neither of our mobile wifi devices work- need to get to Telstra Monday...
Now what about cricket tomorrow??

Chrecked in for hba

Hayley woke us at 3am. Checked in and had breakfast by 5:am

Auckland

Did the Auckland museum and the maratime museum-navigator stressed without GPS
Ready to catch airport shuttle at 4:20 on the am...

Hamilton gardens and Auckland

Easy drive to Auckland - no tornadoes for us. Hamilton gardens were very impressive and the kids liked them. Dinner at the BAa bar. Very neat volcano to walk around at Mangere.

Waitomo caves and a kiwi

Very strange bird the kiwi- larger than we expected. Stayed at Othrohanga

New Plymouth

Morning on beach, then Pukeiti rhododendron garden then back to the beach for kite flying. Had dinner with Paddys cousins Kerry, John and Leone

Drive to New Plymouth

Kicked out of bed at 5:15 by Tina made the most of it and shot the dawn over Lake Rotorua - one other (German?) photog there. Sunrise was a few minutes later than google claimed - probably doesn't account for nearby hills? Few good shots.
Visited the buried village - the area seems to have been hosting tourists since the 1860s with a minor interruption due to volcanic eruption. The waterfall was the hi light for me although the rest was well enough done - iPods to do the self guided tour were a good idea and worked better than the crummy audio tour devices other places fool around with.
Hit the road for Te Kuiti on the road for New Plymouth around 12. Sheep and forestry and not much else.
Kids has ice cream at Te Kuiti and couldn't finish them.
Drive to New Plymouth was ok with slow motor homes, tractors, roadworks on Mt Messenger to keep us awake. Piopio fruit farms look like a good place to stop on the way back.
Stopped at Waitara briefly to phone ahead and get the keys for the Oakura place. Stopped on the drive to Oakura so I could catch Mt Taranaki with the cloud off - looks good!

Rotorua

The unpronounceable thermal village was fun. Houses falling into sinkholes, steam rising up from the paths and kids diving for "pennies" thrown from the bride by tourists. Boiling mud slightly disappointing - either too wet or just a small patch.. Park in town had some thermal wading ponds so we all got our feet wet. Sulphur smell strong in places but not too bad. Took the kids out to the Zorbs on the other side of town - they had a ball and would have gone again if I'd been willing to shell out another $70. Cabin at nearby caravan park suits nicely and lake is at the end of the street - need to try a dawn shot across the lake.

10.5 gb of hobbit pictures

Started the morning with a pretty walk at Moturiki Island. Very pretty ocean views to either side with people biking, sprinting, paddle boarding, kayaking, running and hiking all over the place.
Took the tour from Matamata - expensive but pretty, especially with the spring flowers.
More time on the beach in the afternoon. Much nicer day but still not swimming weather. Didn't stop Rohan though.

In nz with wifi

The 777-300er worked. Films on plane were ok - the Candidate funny. Arrived before Paddy and Jenny who were dissappointed to miss us emeeging from international arrivals. Found ANZ ATM and went with a huawei hotspot from NZ telecom. The guy said it would work best with AT&T in USA. Drove to Mount Maunganui about 2 hrs- only on wrong side of road once. Very windy - good weather for simultaneous wind and sunburn. Hayley's stitches were removed - just 90 dollars at walk-in clinic - bargain. Rohan played in water on beach.

Ready to board nz1

Crew needs 10 more minutes...
Much tiredness

La

Arrived LAX. only 6 hour wait.
sadly the observation deck is only open on weekends

Ready to leave Chicago

757-300 4th last row. Not many people - will Hayley get a window too?

757 arrived at ramp. Lots of freight offloaded.

Arrived in Chicago before we left

Long stroll from one end of concourse B to the other.
Emb 145 for first leg

Checked in 2 hrs early