Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Singapore Visit
"We have arrived in Singapore. Its humid, very humid, but absolutely gorgeous. " That seems to be as much as I can get from Gaye for today's trip report. What I can add is that the flight was easy. Got thru a bunch of movies we haven't seen (the included Terminator Salvation, Charlie and Boots, The Hangover) and she is impressed with the hotel. there is a great selection of food and a nice pool, also she is in love with the view. From the room on the 19th floor you can see across the Canal to a bunch of Singapore style apartments, complete with common area pools and playgrounds. To the right are views right out onto the Straights of Malacca which is full of anchored ships.
I'll be off to PTTEP shortly to see how the set up of the training venue is going. Gaye will be off exploring.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Gaye Arrives Back Home
Left work a little early to pick Gaye up at Tullamarine airport. She was due to land at 3:05 29th July after flying from Vancouver to LA to Auckland then across the pond to Melbourne. Its a long enough trip when flying straight from LA to Melbourne without the added the leg down the West Coast from Vancouver and the additional stopover in Auckland.
Gaye is used to long haul. When returning from Colorado Springs to Melbourne one time, and using frequent flier points to do so, she had to fly CS to Fort Worth to LA to Hong Kong to Taiwan to Singapore to Sydney to Melbourne. I flew direct, left a day after her and arrived in Melbourne a day before she did.
Caught up on all the goss on Eila and her new appartment, John, Maria, James, Carol, Peter, Uncle Albert and extended family on the car trip back to Geelong. Looking forward to more when she gets over the jet lag.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Quick Trip to Sydeny
Had a great weekend with vic and John in Sydney. Flew up on Friday afternoon in time to catch John and his mates for an after work Friday beer. The back to their apartment to watch Stage 13 of Le Tour. didn't see too much of it, the couple of Kilkenny's at the pub meant an early night. Who am i kidding? bed time is bed time. Come 10:30 that's it for me.
Saturday ride up to Church Point, then back thru Terry Hills on a beautiful Sydney winters day, then an afternoon at the Dee Why Tappas restaurant on the beach. Sunday saw up up on Long Reef looking for whales. Sharp eye Vic saw on right in near the beach with a couple of surfers floating nearby for a closer look. It was a little distant for us, but I think I saw a mom and calf.
Sunday a game of golf at Lane Cove Golf Club. A lovely course in a steep sided gully with a creek leading down into Sydney Harbour. Very enjoyable. All good things must come to an end, so John dropped me off at Mascot to catch you 6:35 flight back to Avalon.
While I was away Steve and Regan hosted a murder. Sounds like they had a great evenings entertainment.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Some Have It Good
So, is it any wonder Vic and John are feeling the post holiday blues. They just sent me a selection of their photos from their Hamelton Island Babymoon trip. It included helicopter ride over Whitehaven Beach and the surrounding islands, snorkeling, evening sailing, swimming. Clear skies and 25 deg C temperatures were the norm. Who would want to leave beautiful Queensland for the southern states winter?
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Touring in South Australia
Clive and I decided a short Tour de South OZ would be a nice way to stretch the legs and planned a trip from Kingston SE through the Curong, over to the Fleurieu Peninsular and up to Adelaide, maybe taking in Kangaroo Island if time permitted.
As it turned out we had a great time. The weather was excellent with no or little wind and temperatures reaching a max of only 20 deg C for the whole trip. A little rain on the last day didn't dampen the trip at all.
Day 1 Kingston to Policemans Point. A very flat road. The distance was about 98 klms. We were thankful that there was no head wind. About 4 years ago a shoulder was built into the road making this part of the trip very safe. The new shoulder runs from Kingston right through to the Wellington Ferry.
Day 2. Policeman's Point to Meningie. 70 klm. 5 years ago Gaye and I stayed at the lake side motel where the water lapped at the back door of the unit. The water is now 2 meters lower and about 100 meters from the motel. Could hardely be described as 'lake side' anymore. A real indication of the level of stress the Murray River is in.
As it was only a short ride to Meningie, we had time to check out the town, the museum and look for a time table for the return trip by bus. This led to an interesting encounter with a lovely local lady on her Bike Friday. Great chat outside the Newsagent where we learned all thing bike friday, and why not to go to King Island, (more expensive than travelling to Tasmania from Melb by ferry) and how to ride without sight, and how fast bike friday's can go - both tendem and single. Clive's bike won a yellow birdy-duck-sort-of-thing.
Day 3. Meningie to Strathalbyn. 96 klm. We had intended to stay at Langhorne Creek, but there was little accommodation so pressed thru another 20 klm to Strath. No comfortable shoulder on the road now, and there was a lot of trucks carting probably sand, but they were very attentive giving us plenty of room as they passed. Update: I saw the end of a news item on the Murray River System, where it was indicated that limestone is being used to 'wall off' parts of the lakes to try and stop the corrosive effects of the drought. Likely the trucks were carting limestone. Need to investigate this futher.
The first pub at Strath didn't take lodgers, but advised us to go up the hill to anorth, that was 'clean and comfortable', rather than the tourise ripp off motel down the hill. We were glad for the advise. The "Robin Hood' hotel was great.
Day 4. Strath to Goolwa. 50 klm Checked out canoes in Goolwa and the local windsurf speed strip. No one was out due to there being no wind. Bad for the speedsters like Chris D and Tim H, but good for us on our bikes.
Day 5 Goolwa to Normanville via Victor Harbour. 80 klm. Inman Valley very pretty and particularly green. Gave Kangaroo Island a miss. Maybe next trip.
Day 6. Normanville to Glenelg via Willunga. 100klm. There is an excellent rail train from Willunga thru to the coast. Stayed at the Stamford Grand for a little of end trip luxuary.
Day 7. Check out Adelaide.
Day 8. Bus back to Kingston.
Day 9 Drive back to Melbourne.
As it turned out we had a great time. The weather was excellent with no or little wind and temperatures reaching a max of only 20 deg C for the whole trip. A little rain on the last day didn't dampen the trip at all.
Day 1 Kingston to Policemans Point. A very flat road. The distance was about 98 klms. We were thankful that there was no head wind. About 4 years ago a shoulder was built into the road making this part of the trip very safe. The new shoulder runs from Kingston right through to the Wellington Ferry.
Day 2. Policeman's Point to Meningie. 70 klm. 5 years ago Gaye and I stayed at the lake side motel where the water lapped at the back door of the unit. The water is now 2 meters lower and about 100 meters from the motel. Could hardely be described as 'lake side' anymore. A real indication of the level of stress the Murray River is in.
As it was only a short ride to Meningie, we had time to check out the town, the museum and look for a time table for the return trip by bus. This led to an interesting encounter with a lovely local lady on her Bike Friday. Great chat outside the Newsagent where we learned all thing bike friday, and why not to go to King Island, (more expensive than travelling to Tasmania from Melb by ferry) and how to ride without sight, and how fast bike friday's can go - both tendem and single. Clive's bike won a yellow birdy-duck-sort-of-thing.
Day 3. Meningie to Strathalbyn. 96 klm. We had intended to stay at Langhorne Creek, but there was little accommodation so pressed thru another 20 klm to Strath. No comfortable shoulder on the road now, and there was a lot of trucks carting probably sand, but they were very attentive giving us plenty of room as they passed. Update: I saw the end of a news item on the Murray River System, where it was indicated that limestone is being used to 'wall off' parts of the lakes to try and stop the corrosive effects of the drought. Likely the trucks were carting limestone. Need to investigate this futher.
The first pub at Strath didn't take lodgers, but advised us to go up the hill to anorth, that was 'clean and comfortable', rather than the tourise ripp off motel down the hill. We were glad for the advise. The "Robin Hood' hotel was great.
Day 4. Strath to Goolwa. 50 klm Checked out canoes in Goolwa and the local windsurf speed strip. No one was out due to there being no wind. Bad for the speedsters like Chris D and Tim H, but good for us on our bikes.
Day 5 Goolwa to Normanville via Victor Harbour. 80 klm. Inman Valley very pretty and particularly green. Gave Kangaroo Island a miss. Maybe next trip.
Day 6. Normanville to Glenelg via Willunga. 100klm. There is an excellent rail train from Willunga thru to the coast. Stayed at the Stamford Grand for a little of end trip luxuary.
Day 7. Check out Adelaide.
Day 8. Bus back to Kingston.
Day 9 Drive back to Melbourne.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Weekend with Vic and John
Vic is around 3 months now, so it was time for a trip to Sydney for a couple of pics. An early start on Friday morning saw us on the Corso at Manly by about 8:30am followed by morning tea at Dee Why beach and a swim at Freshie. Water temp was just right at 21 deg C. and the water and wave quality encouraged Vic to have a swim with us. The afternoon was spent exploring John's new Mac and watching the movie Ghost Rider (Nicholas Cage, Peter Fonda). Saturday morning John and I did the Church Point Terry Hills loop (40 klm) on the bikes, followed up with another surf. This time at Dee Why beach. Another movie The Golden Compass with beer and popcorn. Finished up a great day with a glass of Penfolds and another excellent Shiraz from the Hunter Valley John had in the cellar. So good in fact, John has made a promise to himself to get a dozen at the next opportunity.
A trip to the aboriginal carvings and Americas bay at West Head filled out a great weekend.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
New Zealand for a Couple of Days
Returning to Auckland along Highway No 2 between Wahi and Paeroa, you travel through a significant gorge rich in history of gold mining. As you walk up the gorge you can see where the Welsh miners had dug exploratory shafts into the mountain side. Other tunnels are very deep and obviously returned gold for all their digging efforts.
Historic Gorge on the way back to Auckland
Hot pools in the distance down on the beach on the East Coast of the Coromandle Peninsula
Bruce Bignall's railway. Bruce is a potter and built the railway so he could retrieve clay and large trees to fure the kilns. The railway has become a tourist attraction and revenues from tourists go towards rejuvinating the property to bring it back to pristine condition after severe destruction from farming and logging in the past.
Hot pools in the distance down on the beach on the East Coast of the Coromandle Peninsula
Bruce Bignall's railway. Bruce is a potter and built the railway so he could retrieve clay and large trees to fure the kilns. The railway has become a tourist attraction and revenues from tourists go towards rejuvinating the property to bring it back to pristine condition after severe destruction from farming and logging in the past.
A very large Kari Tree. There are not too many left because it is such a great timber for everything from houses to boat building.
One of the boats on display at the maritime Museum.
View from our room at the Copthorne Hotel in Auckland.
One of the boats on display at the maritime Museum.
View from our room at the Copthorne Hotel in Auckland.
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