Cuddly animals, not so cuddly animals, and Jodene...

Hello again!
It's been a while since my last email, so lots to catch up on.

I last emailed you when north of Auckland, admiring Kauri trees. The next day, the weather was attrocious, with torrential rain, and howling gales - a massive storm had hit the north island. Plan A (to visit the beaches west of Auckland) was clearly out of the window, so I visited Sheepworld instead! A very interesting (and largely indoor) demonstration of sheep, sheepdogs, shearing, milking (of a goat) and the chance for the school children to feed various baby animals (aaahh!). Muggins decided afterwards to explore the rest of the complex (they have a mini farm there) and got completely drenched...

Having dried out and made it back to Auckland in one piece, that evening I met up with Jodene (ex Numerica, now back in NZ) and Troy. They live in a suburb of Auckland, and have a nice house, full of her relatives over for the wedding, which is this coming weekend! Both are fine, though Jodene's job hasn't worked out - the Numerica Finance crowd were a hard act to follow! The suburb they live in is quite quiet, and shockingly the nearest pub is quite a distance away, though it's probably just as well, the amount of times she used to drag us out to the pub, didn't she Rebecca ;-)

Next day, the weather was still poor, but as I wanted to visit one of Auckland's islands, headed off to Waiheke island, but on a vineyard tour (with a coach sightseeing tour as well). A very pleasant day, Waiheke is a nice place, and we visited 3 winemakers, seeing their vines and (tiny) production facilities, with samples to follow...indeed, in 1 case, as it was a bit wet, we skipped the walking about bit, and spent the time sampling their products instead! Waiheke's poor soil, climate and coastal nature are very similar to that of Bordeaux, so unlike most of NZ's production, they specialise mainly in claret style reds, and very nice they are too, though with the small scale production, and lots of manual intervention, they are quite pricey.

The following day I headed south out of Auckland to Waitomo, famous for it's glowworms (which are the larval stage of a gnat). I stayed in Otorohanga, where I visited the Kiwi house, and caught my first glimpse of the Kiwi bird, a shy nocturnal creature, and increasingly rare in the wild.

To see the glowworms, I joined the 'Spellbound' tour, which avoided the crowds in the main Waitomo caves. We drove out into the countryside, put on our miner style helmets (I will upload the obligatory silly photo) and entered the first cave. There we quickly saw glowworms everywhere (I got a good close up photo), then the highlight was when we got onto our raft, extinguished all the lights and floated down this cave stream. Everywhere were glowworms, emitting the blueish light to attract insects, a magical sight, like the night sky. Incidentally, these were the glowworms filmed by the BBC for David Attenborough's recent brilliant series, I hope the fame doesn't go to their heads. The second cave we visited was dry (the stream had rerouted) but had some interesting limestone formations, and some recently discovered Moa bones! (Stuart, there's plenty of the adventure caving stuff around too, though I left that for others!)

Smitten by glowworms, I stayed dry over dinner that evening so I could drive out into the woods, as there's a stream there with glowworms in the bushes above it. A magical sight, and on the way back I even managed to photograph a possum (NZ's number 1 animal pest), the only ones I'd seen up to then were squashed ones on the road...

Mike

Hello from Northlands

Hello again
I've made it out of Auckland, up into Northlands, and it's great!

I picked up my car last Thursday, and spent a few minutes driving around getting used to the controls, i.e. I was lost, or rather I knew where I was, I just couldn't find my way onto the (motorway) SH1 to take me out of Auckland!

Once finally on the open road, the motorway soon ended, and the roads became incredibly scenic, twisty, hilly and quiet - real Top Gear style roads, the sort where you see Clarkson thrashing some expensive bit of machinery, though without the AOR music. Great fun to drive on, but you have to concentrate on the road, not on the scenery, or else you'll end up with an extra close view of it!

I spent 1 night in Whangerei (quiet town, but some nice walks nearby), but the real fun has been further north in the Bay of Islands, where I've visited the historic Waitangi House (where the Maoris first signed the treaty to let the British take over), been on a cruise among the islands (seeing where Cook first 'discovered' NZ on the Endeavour), walked through Mangrove Swamps, and taken a bus up to 90 mile beach, and Cape Reinga. And no, I didn't boogie board down the sand dunes!

Today I've made by way down the West coast, though the ancient Waipoua Kauri forest (one of the trees there is 2000 years old and is so fat, it looks like a fort), and am staying in a sleepy B&B tonight in the middle of nowhere (Matakohe) so no hellraising today.

The scenery is lovely, with amazing vistas everywhere, but it's not a place for night owls. For example, Paihia, where I stayed in the Bay of Islands, is very much a holiday town, but most of the restaurants wil be shut by 10 or earlier, and the streets aren't exactly well lit...I might have to start taking my torch out with me.

One great thing about leaving the US is having proper sports on TV (not a non stop diet of American Football), so there's plenty of cricket and tennis to watch and British footie news. Kiwi TV shows lots of British shows too (Bad Girls is being heavily promoted!), so I never feel too far away, even if the distance is 18000km!

Mike

Kia Ora from Auckland

Hello!
Yes I'm in NZ now. Ok, I'll confess as to why I'm here. I met my Hollywood agent in LA, then have flown down here to star in Peter Jackson's new film, the follow up to King Kong, King Con - gosh that extra body hair tickles.

Back in the real world, I arrived here on Monday - I never had Sunday 15th, as the international date line pinched it from me! Two people on board had no birthday this year...

Luckily (for me anyway) Devon (Kiwi friend from work) was here too (with Adi), back to see family and friends, so I got to meet some of them, and was shown around, so thanks again D!

What do I think of Auckland? The people are very friendly, the guest house Chalet Chevron (in Parnell) was excellent, and I visited a couple of great museums - MOMAT the transport and technology museum has some excellent interactive exhibits plus an interesting collection of aircraft (a Lancaster and two flying boats) plus fire engines, police cars, trams and an extensive collection of electric meters (ok I didn't spend long with the latter!).

The natural scenery is beautiful, with the harbour, hills and water, but the city itself is a bit of a sprawl, with mile after mile of low rise surburbia (according to my Rough Guide it takes up more space than London, which sounds hard to believe), the centre is a bit dull, and the whole city a bit too car dependant for my tastes, so I'm not too disappointed to head out today. New Zealand's real treasures lie elsewhere I suspect.

Having said that, I'll be back again next week, when I'll be hopefully seeing Jodene (ex Vantis Numerica), and yes Jodene, you did give me the wrong mobile number (I checked your email)!!!

Mike

LA Confidential

Greetings from LA, on my last day in the US. It actually rained today, the first rain I've seen since I've been here, though I'm not expecting any sympathy!

After the cancellation of the Grand Canyon helicopter ride (I'll just have to come back one day to do it!), the next day my flight from Vegas to LA was a bit of a shambles too. My America Airlines plane developed a fault, and the flight was eventually cancelled. My luggage went on the next American flight, but there was no room for me, I went on another airline, flying to a different terminal! However, we were all soon reunited, so no problem.

I've been staying in Santa Monica, a nice coastal suburb - you don't want to stay in the rough parts of LA! Long sandy beach with a pier, and a short walk to Venice, with it's few remaining canals (which are very attractive) and it's exciting beach life (every form of activity going on). There are a few homeless people here, but fewer of the crackheads and general weirdos that litter the rest of the city.

Downtown (I took an express bus along the freeway) was nothing very exciting, though the atmosphere of the Latino shops added some excitement, and it's not safe at night.

Yesterday, I used the local buses to explore Hollywood, and some of the other districts. I saw the walk of fame, and the famous hand and foot prints (I'm still waiting for my star, if Michael Bolton and KC and the Sunshine Band can get one, then mine can't be far off!), then via another long bus ride visited a car museum, where I saw the original 60s Batmobile and Arnie's Hummer! The local buses are a good way of mingling with the locals, one of the ones I took yesterday had flexible plastic windows, I presume that was to prevent broken glass...

Mike

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/my_photos

P.S. For those of you interested, or bored at work, I've uploaded some of my photos to the net. This is more for my benefit (to keep them secure in case the memory card is full or damaged) than because they are wonderful works of art, that demand to be shown to the world, but they're there for you to look at anyway!

Viva Las Vegas!

Hello again!
With a couple of hours to kill before I fly to LA, and needing to digest my Denny's breakfast (Denny's does very nice breakfasts, but they do explain why Las Vegans are the 2nd fattest in the US!) I resume my comments

Firstly, at Miami airport, while waiting to board my flight to Vegas, I saw none other than Bruce Forsyth, with his family! (I think he was flying to the Dominican republic). You'll be relieved to know I didn't ask him "Are you dancing?" !

Las Vegas. The tone is set as soon as you land, as the first thing you see as you exit the plane and enter the terminals, is slot machines! Casinos are everywhere, I've lost track of the number I've seen over the last few days, it must be in nearly 3 figures. You can't avoid them either. For example, with hotels, you have to walk though the casino, to get to reception, and to your rooms. Never mind the dress codes you get in posh London casinos, here you walk through them with the suitcases and laundry!

The Strip itself is fascinating to walk down, (or ride down on the brand new British double decker buses!) as architecturally the big casinos are stupendous, playgrounds of fantasy and whimsy. Outside you can see scale copies of the Eiffel tower or the statue of liberty. Inside you can see amazing animatronic displays, replicas of Venetian canals, middle eastern bazaars, wild animals etc. This all cost billions to build, but pays for itself due to the incredible amount of gambling going on, most of which seems to be blue collar people. Lots of shows here to, though I resisted the temptations of the erotic caberet, countess magicians and Celine Dion!

To escape the madness, I took 2 (long) day trips out. The first was to Death Valley, the desert landscape there and during the journey was amazing (Las Vegas is, after all, in the middle of a desert), the highlight for me being Badwater, a giant salt flat 282ft below sea level. The weather there was very pleasant, warm and sunny, but then it was winter! 130F in summer sounds less agreeable

The second trip was to the Grand Canyon, a VERY long day (I think the bus covered 520 miles), so most of the day was spent in the bus looking out of the window, or watching films. The big disappointment for me, was that the helicopter trip I had booked was cancelled due to lack of numbers. That would have given a much better perspective, as it's almost too massive to take in. It was very cold there too, on our bus were a large group of Australians with several young children, I haven't heard that much childish Aussie whining since Ricky Ponting was run out by Gary Pratt last summer

Hopefully, I wil find a internet cafe with USB connections, as then I'll be able to upload my photos. Until then I'll be off (and no I didn't lose my shirt in a Casino!)

Mike

Greetings from Miami

Hello
A quick note to let you know that I did actually set off, and haven't just hidden under the duvet for 6 months!

Miami South Beach is a great place, the weather has been warm and sunny, the art deco architecture really attractive, and the beaches inviting. It's hard to believe it's their winter! A good way to break myself in slowly into my big adventure. Miami downtown, which I visited this afternoon, was less inviting - sadly I didn't have a jacket to do the rolled up sleeves bit!

My hotel is hip, trendy and minimalist, well at least it was until I moved in. The usual millions of channels of rubbish on tv, though I managed to catch REAL Dodgeball, and yes the presenters are just as OTT as in the film.

Anyway, it's time to move on again, tomorrow I fly to Las Vegas (5.5 hours, the US is a big place!), time to gamble away the money I secreted away from Vantis ;-)

Mike

P.S. Jacqui, your trip sounds great, as you can see I've started mine at a slightly easier level!