Travel

The place to discuss anything that isn't football or LUFC
User avatar
ChilwellWhite
Howard Wilkinson's military attaché
Posts: 4868
Joined: 29 Dec 2014, 18:12

Re: Travel

Post by ChilwellWhite »

Sounds fantastic Mr Russell ;)
User avatar
Selby White
LUFCTALK Moderator
Posts: 17206
Joined: 25 Mar 2012, 11:32

Re: Travel

Post by Selby White »

Nice trip that Mr R will look forward to reading about it.
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
User avatar
Mr Russell
LUFCTALK Moderator
Posts: 6965
Joined: 03 Dec 2009, 03:22
Location: Newy

Re: Travel

Post by Mr Russell »

Cheers!

Doing the hop on hop off buses in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.

in the Bay of Island i'm going to an island named after me called Russell (was called Kororareka back in the days), it used to be called the arse end of NZ due to it being a whaling port where they used to all drink and visit the brothels and get up to mischief but now its full of history etc and supposedly has a real nice old fashioned pub called the Duke of Marlborough which was built back in 1827.
Owners come and go but Leeds United will be there forever, for the fans - keep Marching on Together.
User avatar
NottinghamWhite
LUFCTALK Admin
Posts: 31307
Joined: 11 Nov 2009, 10:10

Re: Travel

Post by NottinghamWhite »

Off to York on Monday for a couple of days, love the city. Dinner at The Ivy on the first night but basically just pottering about might go to the Railway Museum on Tuesday.
Winner of the Europa League
User avatar
Barlow Boy
LUFCTALK Moderator
Posts: 11928
Joined: 22 Jan 2012, 19:28
Location: Barlow, obviously.

Re: Travel

Post by Barlow Boy »

NottinghamWhite wrote:Off to York on Monday for a couple of days, love the city. Dinner at The Ivy on the first night but basically just pottering about might go to the Railway Museum on Tuesday.
Enjoy mate, you know my thoughts on York, fortunately for us, it’s just down the road.

I enjoyed the railway museum, but we went in the holidays and they were doing little trips on Thomas The Tank Engine :D
When you retire, you switch bosses - from the one that hired you, to the one that married you.
User avatar
Wigan White
Arthur Fairclough's milliner
Posts: 2756
Joined: 05 Aug 2011, 13:19
Location: Wigan

Re: Travel

Post by Wigan White »

Barlow Boy wrote:
NottinghamWhite wrote:Off to York on Monday for a couple of days, love the city. Dinner at The Ivy on the first night but basically just pottering about might go to the Railway Museum on Tuesday.
Enjoy mate, you know my thoughts on York, fortunately for us, it’s just down the road.

I enjoyed the railway museum, but we went in the holidays and they were doing little trips on Thomas The Tank Engine :D
Did you meet the Fat Controller?
User avatar
Barlow Boy
LUFCTALK Moderator
Posts: 11928
Joined: 22 Jan 2012, 19:28
Location: Barlow, obviously.

Re: Travel

Post by Barlow Boy »

Wigan White wrote:
Barlow Boy wrote:
NottinghamWhite wrote:Off to York on Monday for a couple of days, love the city. Dinner at The Ivy on the first night but basically just pottering about might go to the Railway Museum on Tuesday.
Enjoy mate, you know my thoughts on York, fortunately for us, it’s just down the road.

I enjoyed the railway museum, but we went in the holidays and they were doing little trips on Thomas The Tank Engine :D
Did you meet the Fat Controller?
Funnily enough, I’m sat with Dave in the Pavilion now. He’s not fat though.
When you retire, you switch bosses - from the one that hired you, to the one that married you.
User avatar
Wigan White
Arthur Fairclough's milliner
Posts: 2756
Joined: 05 Aug 2011, 13:19
Location: Wigan

Re: Travel

Post by Wigan White »

Barlow Boy wrote:
Wigan White wrote:
Barlow Boy wrote:
NottinghamWhite wrote:Off to York on Monday for a couple of days, love the city. Dinner at The Ivy on the first night but basically just pottering about might go to the Railway Museum on Tuesday.
Enjoy mate, you know my thoughts on York, fortunately for us, it’s just down the road.

I enjoyed the railway museum, but we went in the holidays and they were doing little trips on Thomas The Tank Engine :D
Did you meet the Fat Controller?
Funnily enough, I’m sat with Dave in the Pavilion now. He’s not fat though.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
User avatar
Mr Russell
LUFCTALK Moderator
Posts: 6965
Joined: 03 Dec 2009, 03:22
Location: Newy

Re: Travel

Post by Mr Russell »

My Trip to NZ February 2018


As you know I headed off to New Zealand for a 14 day cruise. We travelled by Royal Caribbean cruises and their ship called the “Ovation of the Seas” which is the biggest ship in the Southern Hemisphere and can carry just under 5000 passengers followed up by nearly 2000 crew.


Left Sydney on Sunday 4th February and missed the Waitangi Day celebrations (06/02/18) by one day as our first port of call was the Bay of Islands the following day although we did land via tenders at Waitangi and they still had some ceremonies still going on as we landed.



Bay of Islands (Day 4) Wednesday 7th February 2018


We booked a car for this part of our trip and had to pick it up in Paihia - http://www.paihia.co.nz/ or http://www.paihia.nz.com/ (just down the road), we headed off for our first stop of the day at the Kawiti Glow Worm Caves – http://www.kawiticaves.co.nz/ - New Zealand holds 86% of all the glow worms caves on the planet (Australia owns the rest) so if another country claims they have these caves they are lying to you or they are fake. 16 generations of one of the Maori tribes have lived on this site and it was one of their many descendants who was our guide for our trip, he was excellent giving us the history of the area and the caves as well as the life of a glow worm. Sadly we could not do the full tour due to the fact there has been a lot of damage due to heavy rains in the area recently.


Next stop was Kawakawa Public Toilets by Hundertwasser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundertwasser_Toilets - yeah i know you going to ask why stop at a toilet :wtf: , funnily enough it’s in the main street of Kawakawa and they are very pretty (for a toilet) as some of the brick is made up of wine bottles and other strange objects, the queue for the ladies was long (sorry ladies) and after looking around I wondered if anyone really took a photo inside!!!! :shock: .


After christening the toilet we are on to another water related area called the Haruru Waterfalls – in Waitangi - http://waterfalls.co.nz/waterfalls-by-r ... ruru-falls and thanks to the rain the region have had they were in full flow and were a good photo opportunity.


It was coming up to lunch time and we were heading off to Russell which used to be the capital of New Zealand many many moons ago (when NZ was founded), it was originally called Kororareka before its name changed to Russell, it was also known as the hell hole of the pacific due to it being a whaling station in the early days and brothels and the like were the main attraction, thankfully that has changed.


We had to get the Ferry between Opua and Okiato which is a short car ferry ride over to Russell. We were having lunch at one of the oldest pubs in the country called the Duke of Marlborough Pub/Restaurant - http://www.theduke.co.nz/our-story/history. Fish and Chips are well known in New Zealand (not for only for the way they say it) and that is what I had, it was very nice as well washed down with McLeod’s Pale Ale and a Kainui Kiwi Pilsner :D . After a short look around we headed back to the Ferry for our next stop on our agenda.


We were off to Keri Keri http://kerikeri.co.nz/ and the Chocolate shop which NZ is famous for (as well as Coffee) Makana Chocolate Shop - https://www.makana.co.nz/ - after this stop we headed back to Paihia and where we dropped the car back off was a lovely little place called CBK (Craft Beer Kitchen) https://stonegrill.co.nz/blog/ (look till you get to CBK part) where I had sampled some Stoke Brewing beers of a Dark Ale and an IPA before hoping back on the bus to take us back to the tenders for the ship.


Great little place the Bay of Islands and worth a look, get a car if you want to see it better as tour buses and the like don’t give a chance to see the place without rushing around, getting to see my surname (Russell) was my main aim and I was stoked to get there :D .



Day 5 - Auckland Thursday 8th February 2018 – http://www.auckland.nz.com/


Once again we had to get tenders as the ship was way too big for Auckland harbour which to me was a surprise but when your a huge floating hotel the surprise lessens ;)

We had organised the hop on hop off bus for Auckland which was only $45 NZ dollars and they had 3 sections to the loop where you could get the Ferry over to Devonport or do the Red/Blue tours on the bus. http://www.explorerbus.co.nz/


We did the Ferry across to Devonport as the bus had a queue a mile long, it was a nice little trip across the water which took us past our cruise ship on the way. We had a little look around the main street, stopping in at one of the eateries on the way where I tried a Good George Brewing – IPA before heading back to Auckland in the hope that the bus was ready for us which thankfully it was. We went on the Red tour part first which took in some of the nice scenery in the outer parts of Auckland. We got off where the Museum was as that was where you need to go for the Blue tour which we went around before going back to the Museum to finish off the red part of the tour.


It was still quite early and I had done some research of where some good places to have a drink and to relax was and it said the Viaduct Basin where most of the Restaurants and Bars were, the main two for me were Pan Head Brewing Co – https://www.panheadviaduct.co.nz/ and Dr Rudi’s Rooftop bar – http://www.drrudis.co.nz/contact/ - I only had a quick look in the Panhead as I have had some of the beers before but the Rooftop bar appealed to me and we headed upstairs and sat outside where you could view the whole harbour area, as my partner does smoke and in New Zealand the laws are less strict than OZ you could have a drink and smoke in the outdoor area part. Menu looked nice but we had booked on the ship already so we could not try their delights food wise but their beer was awesome as I had a few Dutch Courage IPA (the best beer I tasted in the whole of the country), White the Lightning Wheat Ale and a Bright Light Pale Ale. It was so nice just sitting back watching people go about their business and what was happening in the harbour as boats came and went, it was wonderful to be honest and I could have sat there for days :D :D :D .


To me Auckland is just like Sydney except for the Viaduct area which was better than anything Sydney could provide, we headed back to the ship and onto our next stop.



Day 6 - Tauranga – Friday 9th February 2018


This is where the ship docked but we were heading off to Rotorua http://www.rotorua.nz.com/ . We met up with some old family friends of my partner and her mother who used to live in Newcastle but were actually from NZ and had moved back home. We’d given them some ideas of where we’d like to go and they met up with us after hiring a 12 seater bus.


We wanted some Maori culture and this was the place as one of the Maori tribe’s lives on top of some Geysers in the area and that was where we headed to Whakarewarewa - https://www.whakarewarewa.com/ for a look around, sadly it was hammering it down with rain but that did not deter us.


We got to look around their village and each group had a guide, I wish I could remember our guide’s full name as it was about as long as that place in Wales but his English version was David! He asked us where we all came from and there were people from our group from Belgium, Chile and other parts of Australia, when asked I said Newcastle NSW as that is where I do live but then one of my party said but not originally so I said Leeds in England and straight away his first words to me were “Leeds United”, my team! I smiled like a Cheshire cat when he said it :D :D :D , he had also played Rugby League in Newcastle NSW 40 years ago as well.


The tour was fantastic and it was amazing how they lived mostly still under the nights sky but they did have houses to sleep in which reminded me of an Amish village in America, every time a sink hole appeared they just picked up their house and moved it to another spot around the Geysers, we saw where the cooked their food and where they bathed (all outside as well) and we got to see all the Geysers in the area. Once the tour was finished they put on a performance where they performed their dances like Poi Dancing and of course the famous Haka which put the hairs on my neck in overdrive as it was brilliant to see it in person 8-) :thumbup: , what a tour and to see how they live with nature was inspiring.


After finishing the tour we went for lunch at another CBK in Rotorua CBK - Craft Beer Kitchen - https://www.cbkrotorua.co.nz/ the feed was top notch for everybody and I had another few brews as well such as Good George – Grapefruit IPA, Yeastie Boys – Gunnamatta Earl Grey IPA and MOA – South Pacific IPA, yes I love my IPA’s! Once lunch was done we headed back to Tauranga which took just over an hour. On the way back I finally saw Sheep! Yes I was thinking NZ were doing a big joke on me as I had not seen one till this day and they were keeping them hidden away, NZ are well known for sheep and the jokes that go with it :shock: :lol: .


We headed back in Tauranga where some wanted to stop off for a goodbye drink so we went into the main street and found a MACS Brew Bar called Astrolabe where I sampled a MACS – Great White Cloudy Wheat Ale before saying our farewells and back onto our floating hotel.



Day 8 – Wellington -11th February Sunday


After a day at sea we were in Wellington the Capital of New Zealand http://www.wellington.nz.com/ where we once more got the hop on and hop off bus https://hoponhopoff.co.nz/#bookings. The ship was virtually in rock throwing distance of the Wellington Phoenix’s football ground but sadly they were playing away in Western Sydney, which was a shame! :(


Wellington is the craft beer capital of NZ but sadly I got to see very little of it and the stop to be honest was a mess from start to finish :x although it was not the fault of the bus company in any way. We had to walk to the area where the buses went from which was a bit of a trek but we did get some nice photos of the city from the lookout area above the City.


We made a mistake of getting off at the Cable car – https://www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz/English/home.html stop but the trip on the car was enjoyable and fun, we could only go one way as there was a queue to go back the other way and to the bus stop so we got off and had to walk all the way back to stop one (again) by this time our group had got much smaller so we made the choice of going straight to the Te Papa Museum https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/ which I can say is impressive but sadly it was a rush job around the place so we could not fully enjoy what it had to offer.


When we were at the top of the museum I spotted a nice little bar to for a drink to unwind which was the Shed 22 Brew Bar - http://www.shed22brewingco.co.nz/. It was another MACS Brew Bar so I tried the MACS – Green Beret IPA and the Panhead Brewing Co – Supercharger APA (which was voted NZ’s best craft beer this year), both were very good. We headed back to the ship sadly disappointed with our Wellington part of the holiday :( .



Day 9 - Picton – Monday 12th February 2018


Once again we hired a car for the 6 of us as we headed to the main Wine Region on NZ of Picton which houses the Marlborough wines. We picked up car and headed straight for Blenheim as I wanted to see a World War one and two aircraft museum which is part owned by New Zealand film director Peter Jackson called OMaka Heritage Flying Museum - http://www.omaka.org.nz/index.html. I bought a ticket for both Wars and I have to say I’m highly impressed with mock ups of all the planes that they featured in both wars. In the second World War part they had an 8 minute film area where they showed what it was like for a Russian soldier fighting in Stalingrad when the Germans were attacking, it was something that you will remember as was the statistics of how many people who lost their lives in just that battle alone and in the war itself, frightening to be honest.


After that we went for lunch at the Highfields Winery - https://highfield.co.nz/?age-verified=08aea9ca71 which the food was very good and the service was friendly but they did make errors in our orders. Blenheim has its own brewery as well as I tried a Renaissance – Fellowship Pale Ale whilst we were there.


We headed back to Picton http://www.picton.nz.com/ to look around the small town which houses 4000 people, our ship doubled that in one go, after doing some shopping we headed to Mikey’s bar https://restaurantguru.com/Mikeys-Bar-Picton where they were playing some music in the courtyard, I had a Renaissance – Voyager IPA as well as a Tui Brewing Co – East India Pale Ale and got to get behind the bar for photos (in my YCC cricket top :thumbup: ), even got to serve some people, no I’m joking I know which side of the bar I belong to! :lol: :lol:


Back to the ship after a really enjoyable day



Day 11 - Dunedin (Port Chalmers) – Wednesday 14th February 2018 - http://www.dunedin.nz.com/


We had to take a bus into Dunedin as its about 13kms away from where the ship docked in Port Chalmers, I really wanted to do a train trip whilst we were in New Zealand but sadly it was not to be, we did have one chances here but the train would have taken the exact trip our bus took and it was not worth it in the end.


Another hop on hop off bus here - https://www.shoretripsandtours.com/Prod ... showvisits#!
There was about 7 stops along the way for this trip and thankfully our bus driver stopped at all of them and let you take photos, one of them was Baldwin Street http://www.dunedin.nz.com/baldwin-street.aspx which is the steepest street in the world (Guinness book of records also agrees), it did look very steep and I would not want to run up it :think:.


Other stops included the Cadbury World http://www.cadbury.co.nz/cadbury-world/ sadly the tours were all booked out but the shop was full of people buying lots of chocolates, not really my cup of tea but quite impressive never the less. Next up after the Factory was Dunedin Train Station http://www.dunedin.nz.com/railway-station.aspx which is actually an impressive looking building and you could spend at least 30 minutes looking around it.


The main stop for me was Speights Brewery in Dunedin http://www.speights.co.nz where I had some photos taken and a paddle of 6 beers such as Triple Hop Pilsner, Empire IPA, Ultra Summit Lager, 5 Malt Old Dark Ale English Porter, Distinction Dark Ale and the Gold Medal Amber Ale, we relaxed there for an hour speaking with the locals, once more we could not do the tour as they were sold out but to sample its actual pub was great :thumbup: .


After the pub we did some shopping around the Octagon area where the shops and the restaurants are, after buying some gifts we stopped at another CBK place https://www.cbk.nz/dunedin in the Octagon and just sat back in the Sun and enjoyed the day, plus I had a MOA – Station IPA, A Good George – Pilsner (the bar man said it was his favourite beer) and a BS Bingo IPA before we headed back to the ship which had a Scottish Bagpipes Band playing as we went aboard, in case you did not know Dunedin has a big Scottish influence and there is a statue of Robert Burns near the Octagon. It is a lovely place to visit :thumbup: .



Day 12 - Thursday 15th February 2018 (cruising around the Islands)


Dusky Sound, New Zealand -
Doubtful Sound - http://www.doubtful-sound.nz.com/
Milford Sound, New Zealand - http://www.milford-sound.nz.com/


Only got to see the last one as the first one (Dusky) was too early in the morning, Milford was very impressive and from what people said it was the best one to see which thankfully we did :thumbup: .


Come day 15 Sunday 18th February 2018 (very early) we were back in Sydney NSW and heading back home to Newcastle NSW a few hours later.



The ship


Its big would be the first thing would you say but once you got your bearings (really after the first day) it was not a problem looking around her and getting to where you wanted to go.



Food


Most of the time we did My Time Dining (included in your cruise fare) and the food was between average to good but the staff were excellent and tended to all our needs.


There were paying results on the ship as well –

Wonderland – think Alice in Wonderland – 15 course degustation meal and it was very filling, they did make a mistake with a drink I ordered so they gave it to me for free as well as my other two drinks. Really nice food and very good service.


Jamie’s Italian – yes after Jamie Oliver, he gets everywhere. Nice food again I had some wonderful Lamb chops and I’m not a huge fan of Lamb but these I could have eaten again and again. My partner made comment that her dish was not as good as her sister’s husband’s version of it and the manager heard it and gave her a free course (she picked the lamb chops), our waiter from the Ukraine was excellent.


Michael’s Genuine Pub – old style pub made of wood, brilliant staff from Bali and Philippines who made our stay very enjoyable for us and the food was excellent, the fish and chips (John Dory fish) were superb as was the burgers, spent a bit of time there I can tell you.
Chop’s Grille - did not go to this one but from reports it was very good. :D :thumbup:


Entertainment –


A mix of excellent to not enough, the entertainment staff (British, Canadian, Mexican, Dutch etc) were great but it just felt there was not enough to keep you going for the whole day.


Plenty of quizzes which was great and some good shows but just not enough of them or just not my taste of show. The best part was the music bands as they tribute bands of AC/DC, INXS and Queen (Steve Larkin who I’m told was one of the Britain got talent winner), all 3 were fantastic and the music was memorable. The love and marriage show and the Liars club were funny as was the Men vs Women quizzes who were surprisingly won by the men :lol: .



The Smoking Area


Funnily enough there were just as many non-smokers there (including me) as this was the best place to meet and have a chat with people :shock: , we met about 8 pairs and each one had one non-smoker in it, very strange but you got to meet people from all over the world there as we did.


The Rooms


We had a double room whilst the rest of our party (4 with 2 twin girls) shared another room, they had a balcony whilst we had a virtual balcony (fun) and the best part was our room and bathroom was bigger hahahahaha!
:lol: :lol:


Beers/drinks on board


I’m a beer man although I did have a couple of Irish coffee’s on board and a Hennessy Cognac but some of the beer choices were awful with bland Aussie/American beers such as Budweiser, VB, Tooheys :x :x :x etc but there were some shining lights to save me such as –

Widmer Brothers (USA) – Hefe
Sierra Nevada (USA) – Pale Ale
Bass Pale Ale (UK)
Newcastle Brown Ale (UK) – great on tap awful in the bottle
Guinness (IRE)
Molson Coors (USA) – Blue Moon Wheat Ale
Anhewazer-Busch (USA) – Michelob Lager



Other stuff –


At the same time as our cruise we heard reports of one cruise which had a female Russian National glass somebody for coming onto her (6 were thrown off) and another cruise which had a family terrorising the rest of the passengers until all 23 of them were kicked off their ship to much applause, not a good look on social media with the security staff wading into them.


Our cruise was very quiet to be honest on that front with not a jot of trouble.


End Product


If you ever get the chance to go to New Zealand then do go :thumbup: , it’s a wonderful country full of wonderful people :thumbup: , I would love to do it in a car or combi van and go at your own pace. They might not be up to date technologically as you try and get pay wave on your card and they don’t have it in virtually most places, you have to stick your card into the machine and do it the old fashioned way but that is a minor point, now where did all those sheep go????? :silent: :wtf: :wtf:


Ok not that short of a report!!!!!
:D
Owners come and go but Leeds United will be there forever, for the fans - keep Marching on Together.
MOT1964
Dick Ray's Talent Spotter
Posts: 1592
Joined: 29 Jan 2011, 00:04

Re: Travel

Post by MOT1964 »

I came across this website a few months ago which shows live webcams at various destinations across the world, and may be of interest to some members.

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/home.html

My favourite at the moment is the one at the watering hole at Tsavo East National Park in Kenya.

Just to add, the webcams have been taking longer to load than normal over the past couple of days, but hopefully this is only a temporary issue.
Post Reply