Outside the Aerial Tram
Dec 302008
bus
Jan 052009
Our last full day in Costa Rica, and the main agenda item is to get back to San Jose to fly out tomorrow. We had three stops along the way – the first was in a town whose name I missed, where we walked around the plaza, visited the church, and most importantly had ice cream. Kevin and I have agreed that a proper diet should include ice cream three hours after breakfast every day if possible.
Our turn in the front seat today. Much more thrilling than I thought – this bus is gigantic.
Our lunch stop was in the town of Sarchi, which is famous for their painted oxcarts and painted everything else. We watched some of the local artists painting souvenirs.
Cans of paint.
Paint pots.
Palette detail.
Artist’s drawers.
Jun 062010
Day 1: Instead of napping we decided to use the ‘force your body to time shift’ approach to jet lag – after checking into our apartment we went to breakfast and started sightseeing.
Apartment on Curzon Street
Our apartment is on Curzon Street in Mayfair – it’s small, but nice and very convenient to the tube; it’s also across the street from Shepherd Market, a small area with shops and restaurants. The spot we chose for breakfast was okay, but we’re not really used to runny eggs and English style bacon and hash browns. Tomorrow we’ll try eating in, though we also found some nice pastry cafes right across the street.
Walking through Green Park
Guard at Buckingham Palace
Burning off the bacon, we walked through Green Park and past Buckingham Palace, then jumped the “Original Tour” double decker bus to get situated and oriented to the city, disembarking for the Tower of London, then rejoining for the rest of the loop afterwards.
Kevin and Eric atop the tour bus
The tour of the Tower of London was quite entertaining – they are hosted by Yomen of the Guard who live within the walls. We learned about many beheadings, mucky moats, how to become a Beefeater, and nuances of armor.
Beefeater, Yeoman Warder and Tourguide
After the rest of the bus tour, including three loops through Trafalgar Square (where pigeons have been eradicated by fining humans for feeding them and sicking hawks on the birds that choose to stick around anyway), we returned home for a nap.
Late that afternoon a quick two stop ride in the tube took us back to the Thames for a ride on the London Eye. Even after 23 years of marriage I wasn’t aware of the depth of Sarah’s discomfort with heights until I asked her to take my picture near the top of the loop. Oops.
View from the top of the loop of the London Eye
We had a very nice meal at an Italian restaurant near the Eye, then hopped the tube for home. Time to finally get caught up on some of that sleep!
Nov 242011
Good Morning
This is it, the big day we’ve been driving for: The Top of New Zealand! There’s quite a bit to do at the top of New Zealand – there’s the Cape Reinga lighthouse at the tip, there’s sand tobogganing and there’s 90 Mile Beach. It’s legal to drive the length of 90 Mile Beach on the sand, but the rental car companies won’t let you take their cars out there, and amatuers get bogged down in the sand and flooded at high tide almost every day. So we booked ourselves on a day long bus tour and left the driving to Paul. The 300 mile round trip takes all day, so we were picked up at our hotel at 7am.
An early start - up with the sun.
Gumdiggers Park
After picking up our bus mates and box lunches our first stop was at Gumdiggers Park. Gumdiggers were like California’s golddiggers, except this gold is dried sap from ancient Kauri trees, more commonly known as amber. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s it had tremendous industrial use as the main ingredient in resins and varnishes – of essential importance to sailing ships and furniture makers. The gum trade coincided with the devistation of the Kauri forests, similar to our logging of giant redwoods in California, so resourceful entrepreneurs began searching for amber in buried ancient Kauri forests preserved in the peat bogs of northern New Zealand – thus the name gumdiggers. Gumdiggers Park is a site still in the condition it was in the late 1800’s. Underneath the site are at least two layers of ancient Kauri forests which were destroyed by natural disasters and preserved in the bog. As part of the tour you visit a perfectly preserved non-petrified Kauri tree that is carbon dated at over 100,000 years old.
An ancient Kauri tree, estimated to be over 100,000 years old. The layer over it is from a forest that is 40,000 years old.
Cape Reigna – The Top
At noon we arrived at Cape Reigna. Part of my vacation algorithm is to go to The Top of Things – this generally leads to pleasant surprises, and at the very least to a nice view. New Zealand, however, has a stunning gift for you when you get there. Beyond the lighthouse, the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean collide. Waves created by the prevailing Southerly winds arc around the top of the island and crash in a frothy seam. We were awed.
Cape Reigna, with the Tasman Sea (left) and Pacific Ocean (right) actively colliding.
Here’s a snippet of video I shot that will help:
We tried to get some pictures in the wind, and it was quite challenging. Sarah did a great job of shooting me. I was trying to compose a good shot with her and the colliding seas behind her, but the wind was just going crazy. I ended up firing off a bunch of shots and laughing. Sorry dear!
Us, at the Top of New Zealand
Sand Tobogganing!
The next stop was only about 15 minutes away at the top of 90 Mile Beach. Paul, our driver, slogged the huge bus through a river to get us to the biggest dune, then whipped out slick bottomed boogie boards for all of us.
Our Tour Bus and Sand Dune
Long hike up, short ride down. Completely worth it.
That is really fun. About two thirds of the way down the dune, I'm using my feet to steer a little bit. At the bottom is a very shallow river, if you keep enough speed you skip across it. Which I did, right into the far bank.
Survivor.
90 Mile Beach
The west coast of New Zealand is a 90 mile long beach that is completely undeveloped. It’s open to the public and you’re even allowed to drive on it. But not in a rental car, you fool! We rode the bus for an hour and a half down the beach with a view that rarely changed. It was serene and relaxing and beautiful to watch go by.
Our Bus, on 90 Mile Beach
Bus stop. We stretched our legs and waded in the Tasman Sea.
The Final Stretch
The bus stopped at “Ancient Kauri Kingdom” to wash the sand off and to provide busloads of people the opportunity to buy souvenirs. We also stopped for an early dinner at 4:30 at a Fish & Chips place in Mangonui.
That evening we went into the town of Paihia and had dessert at Alfresco’s. It was excellent and we were beat.
An interactive map of the day’s activities for your enjoyment:
View Top of NZ Tour in a larger map