Busted for beer in Auckland New Zealand

Posted on February 6, 2013February 25, 2013 by admin

I know it is hard to believe but… it happened. It is tough to take but we have to admit it happened. Who would have thought! Ok, Ok, I guess we will have to go on to details after having said that…

To set the stage; we thought some fish and chips would be great to have for a dinner and after a hot day; a good beer would be the perfect addition. We found a nice bay that had a Fish and Chip place with a bar that had beer next door.

Now it might be important to mention that the five of us ordered Fish and Chips and each order was freshly made and wrapped in paper. They actually put all the orders in a box so we could move them a bit better. You can see in the picture a tin can. That is what they call Red Sauce. It was cheaper to buy a “tin” rather than the individual packages. As there were no great tables; we proceeded to the beach to enjoy the beer and the Fish and Chips.

That manager of the bar walked over to us and explained things. What we learned is, the license is for a square foot space and as such doesn’t expand to the beach. Now we could have gone to a store and bought a few beer and then drank them while we had fish and chips, but, buying a beer and taking it out of the bar and drinking it with our fish and chips was not legal. She would lose her license and have a heavy fine if we stayed there. We, of course, had no idea. So we drank the beer at the bar and walked back to the beach and ate the fish and chips.

What a wonderful time of enjoying Auckland. We have seen this city from every angle and what a great place it is. Kudos to Cousin Shelley for being the best tour guide ever!!!

French Polynesia – Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora

Posted on January 30, 2013February 25, 2013 by admin

My, these islands are such beautiful places. I am glad we saw them in the order listed above too. Each one is unique and has its own charm in different ways.
The first stop Papeete Tahiti, is a beautiful place and more of a city than we saw during our other stops. We were there on a Sunday so basically everything was closed. But it still was a great day, especially after being at sea for so long. It was nice to walk on land for a few hours and see what things are like there.
Next we went to the Island of Moorea. It is more of a rural island with lots of agriculture there. With some friends we rented a car and drove all the way around the island. These pictures give you an idea of what the island looks like:

The final French Polynesia stop was Bora Bora. We got up about 5:15 am for the approach to Bora Bora. There is only one opening in the reef to get into the island and … well see what you think;

Of course Ace was with us too…

We did a 4×4 tour of the island and what a photogenic place it is;

We only visited for a day but we are sure glad we got to spend the time we had there.

Pitcairn Island – Mutiny on the Bounty fame

Posted on January 30, 2013May 12, 2016 by admin

We stopped at this island, well went around it really as there is no real place to even tender in. The locals, most all of whom are descendants of the mutiny, came out in a boat to pick up supplies the ship had brought for them. There are about 60 people that live on the island. There are only 4 family names Christian, Warren, Young & Brown. Pitcairn is the least populous and most remote jurisdiction in the world.
We sailed from south of Lima Peru for 4 days sailing to get to Easter Island; then another 2 and half days to get to Pitcairn Island. It is yet another 2 days sail to get to Tahiti. Remember we are on a cruise ship. Back in the day it was sailing ships. In fact they read to us about the first sighting of the island that is named for the guy that first saw it. They told us that it was something like 15 weeks of sailing after sighting the island before they actually reached it. Ok, now you have an idea of just how remote this island is. After the Mutiny it was 18 years before someone next came to the island. When they did there was one man, 9 women and 23 children living there. Here is a picture of the island;

Botany Bay is just to the right of center and that is where the wreck of the HMS Bounty is.

This is a picture of almost all the locals coming out to our ship to pick up supplies. The second picture is one of them leaving the ship and you can see the pile of supplies we brought them, we paid for the supplies too I might add, well the ship did.

As we cruised around the island enjoying the scenery we almost thought we had gone back in time when we rounded the last corner of the island at Fletcher Christian point. Look at the picture to see why;

It was an amazing day and one of wonder to visit such an historic place.

Easter Island

Posted on January 28, 2013July 28, 2017 by admin

We were fortunate to spend a fabulous sunny day on this island. You know how some places you have heard about and your expectations build and then you hear more and more and you build such expectations that you don’t think anything could live up to it. Well after hearing about this place and reading about it with all the history I was ready to be let down by our visit. I can tell you that you can believe all the hype! This is an amazing place and one that we will not soon forget.

They told us that sea swells can be problematic and not many ships can tender into the island. You see there is no dock on the island. So the only way to get ashore is by tendering in. Look in this next picture at the Tender boat coming back to the ship. Where we went ashore was just past that first row of rocks and just before the second row of rocks. One tender (boat) lost its front corner window and another one lost the front door. They had to stop bring people to shore for a while after we were ashore. Even some of the afternoon ship tours were not able to get ashore and had to be canceled. We counted ourselves lucky, for sure.

Once ashore we found our guide and headed off for a private tour of Easter Island. Along the way we heard about the history of the island and what it is like to live there. There are a total of around 8,000 people that live on Easter Island, according to the last census. The place has been growing as the previous census recorded 4,000 people.

It had rained for several days before our arrival and this day was a beautiful partly cloudy day. Everything was clear and bright. You will notice the bright fresh green in some of the pictures.

Yes for us the island lived up to all the hype. It is a very special place that we are very lucky to have spent some time on.

Sand Boarding in Peru

Posted on January 27, 2013July 20, 2017 by admin

We took an opportunity with a couple of friends while in Peru, to go Sand Boarding at a little Oasis called Huacachina. It was the first time for all of us to try this sport out. All of us were glad we did. We had Ace along, you can see him here at that lake in Haucachina checking out the mermaid.

Now to go Sand boarding it isn’t like just going on top of hill and sliding down it. You drive out in the sand dunes and find a nice hill, board down and of course when you get to the bottom of the hill your driver comes down and picks you up for the next run. This was our vehicle for this little adventure.

Look at this next picture to get an idea of where we were doing this at.

The sand here is very fine and reminds me of the Sahara sands. After a bit of instructions we started boarding down the slopes

After a long day riding around the dunes and sand boarding we headed back to the oasis…

It is a tough life sand boarding the dunes of Peru…but we would do it again in a minute 🙂

It sure is Christmas time

Posted on December 20, 2012July 21, 2017 by admin

We were downtown manning the Real Estate office for a friend and there was such a clatter we had to go outside to see what was the matter. When we looked out…low and behold there were all of these kids lining up right next door. They all started to sing Christmas carols too. After a few songs their Moms took them and everything was quiet again. Take a look at what we saw…