We have enjoyed our few days in LA – it’s a bit of an overwhelming place, but we managed to see plenty of stuff! And it was great not having to fly straight home – not sure we could have coped with 2 long flights in quick succession!

So now all we have left to do is our 2 flights home – LA to Heathrow, and then tomorrow morning, Heathrow to George Best Belfast City Airport (!)

Jill & Jonny

We started out with a trip to Venice Beach. Here we got to see some of the man made canals that are built between the houses, a house that Julia Roberts lives in (just the outside of it), Muscle Beach – there wasn’t anybody doing and weights today though apparently it was too cold (even though today ended up being about 21 degrees and sunny!) and lots of wierd and wonderful characters and shops along the beach front. Not that nice a place really and not safe after dark according to the bus driver.

Venice Beach

Next up we drove through Santa Monica past a whole block of buildings owned by Arnold Schwarzenegger including his own cigar store. Then on to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive which has more expensive designer shops than you can shake a stick at!

Our longest stop of the day was a place called Farmers Market. This is a massive food market (not just for people, we found a bakery for dogs in there as well!) with lots of places to eat in it. We tried a Brazillian place called Pampas where you pay for your meal by the weight of food you have on your plate. Beside the market was The Grove shopping area. It was fully decked out in Christmas lights, trees, Santa’s Grotto and a brass band playing carols.

Christmas tree at The Grove

After lunch the trip took us to Hollywood and our next stop on Hollywood Boulevard. We took a walk along ‘The Walk of Fame’ (the stars in the footpath) and then to Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre where all the hand/foot prints of the stars are on the ground. Here are just two of the ones we saw:

What's up doc?

Will Smith

The final part of the tour was in Downtown where we got to see areas like the Jewellery District (1000 shops selling nothing but jewellery including an old cinema converted into a massive shop) Chinatown, Little Tokyo and the area where the city was founded by the Spanish, Olvera Street.

Jonny

Universal Studios

Our destination today was Universal Studios in Hollywood. We were able to book a a day trip through our hotel so all we had to do was get up and catch the bus at 9am. On the way to universal we got a quick glimpse of downtown LA and also the Hollywood sign in the distance. But we’ll hopefully get a better look at those tomorrow as we are taking a tour of a few different areas of the city then.

When we arrived at Universal we started with the Studio Tour. This firstly takes you round the working sound stages where they not only make films but tv shows as well. Then it was onto the back lot where they have full scale buildings and towns constructed for various films and tv shows. These included ‘Old Mexico’ and ’6 Points Texas’ which are used in lots of westerns, the motel & house from the movie Pyscho, ‘Wysteria Lane’ from Desperate Housewives and also used in the film The Burbs, Whoville from The Grinch and Amity Island from the Jaws films complete with a full size version of the big fish himself which trys to take a bite out of you.

Krustyland

Next it was back to the theme park proper and first stop was the new Simpsons ride in Krustyland. It’s excellent, a 3D simulator ride that goes wrong with Side Show Bob chasing you. At one point you end up being spat out of a 50ft tall baby Maggie’s mouth (it makes sense when you’re there don’t worry! come to think of it if you don’t watch the simpsons then none of that explanation made sense probably!!) Anyway the ride was so good we ended up doing it twice.

Other rides & attractions that we took in included Terminator 2: 3D, House of Horrors (I actually did these two myself, Jill said she had some shops she needed to look around!), Backdraft – lots of fire involved in that one, The Special Effects Stages – they show you how lots of effects work in movies and adding sound effects etc and Water World – a show where most of the crowd get wet and there’s lots of mad stunts and explosions.

City Walk

We rounded off the day at City Walk, a huge collection of shops, cafes & restaurants. Then it was back to the hotel for a well earned rest before we see what LA proper has to offer tomorrow.

Jonny

Today has been a bit of a marathon, or do I mean yesterday and today I’m not sure anymore. All I know is that by the end of the day thursday for us will have lasted for about 44 hours roughly!! Lets back up a bit first though and fill you all in properly on what we got up to before our time in New Zealand was over.

Tuesday saw us head from Oamaru to Christchurch. We didn’t get up to much touristy stuff but spent some time sorting out the camper for handing back. On Wednesday we spent most of the day in the centre of Christchurch. We had a look round the cathedral which was pretty impressive then the market happening in the cathedral square. Dotted around this were some buskers, a piper belting out ‘flower of scotland’ among other tunes and a strange man dressed up as a wizard drawing shapes on the ground with chalk. Didn’t manage to work out exactly what he was doing and thought it was best to not disturb him as he may have been slightly unhinged!

Punting on the Avon

Later we had a punt on the river. Our punter (not sure what the technical term for the fella with the stick is) was from England. He’s travelling the world and ended up working in Christchurch for a few months, not to bad a job, pushing tourists up and down the river in the sunshine I suppose.

Thursday started out by saying goodbye to the spaceship. Then the rest of the day was filled up with 2 flights and 3 airports. Now it’s on to the last leg of the journey in LA not sure what we’ll get to do yet but check back and we’ll let you know. The one good thing about being back in America is free internet again!

Jonny

So we’ll update properly when we arrive in america. We leave here this evening (Thursday) and arrive in LA on Thursday morning. Figure that out!!!

Yesterday we spent the day in Christchurch…lovely city, lovely day. We saw Christchurch Cathedral, went punting on the river Avon, and generally just had a look around!

That’s all the time we have now, more soon!

Jill and Jonny

On another note, as we draw closer to the end of our posting, we know that there are people reading that have never commented…leave us a wee comment! We’d like to know who has been following our journey.

November, in New Zealand, is known as ‘Movember’. Where men all over the place grow moustaches, in support of male depression and cancer, to raise money for charity. Jonny has been doing his bit in support of the cause…

Mr Lazy

Jill

But lets go back and fill you in on whats been happening since we last posted in Dunedin. Saturday night was taken up with watching New Zealand beat Australia to win the rugby league world cup. That went down well as you might guess with our hosts!

On Sunday we went along to church, Riversdale Presbyterian. It was really good, very different to back home very informal and loads of kids running about everywhere. (don’t worry we’re coming back to hyde park!) One quite surreal part the service was that the woman leading the worship was from Dromore, yes the place in Co. Down. In the afternoon we headed to the beach, Oreti Beach near Invercargill. It was packed, a bit like portstewart strand on the ‘one’ sunny day of the summer back home. Wayne even manged to dig us up a shellfish from the beach but as it’s kinda illegal to keep them so he threw it back.

This morning it was an early start to get all our stuff packed up and into the spaceship again before heading off. Amazingly all our stuff fits in the cases still even with all that we seem to have bought along the way! After saying our goodbyes we made our way up through Dunedin and out onto the coast road in the general direction of Oamaru. We made a stop along the way to see the Moeraki Boulders. These are a collection of round boulders lying on the beach near Moeraki town. It’s easier to see than explain so here’s a picture.

Moeraki Boulders

That’s brings back to the campsite and us sitting out in the evening sun at nine o’clock at night, something tells me the weather’s not going to be good enough to do this next week back at home!?!

Jonny

Parasailing. We have always wanted to try it, and this was our chance! We ignored being sensible and not spending any more money (the excuse that is used often is that ‘we’re on holiday’) and made our way round to the jetty, just in time to get on the boat that was leaving, taking another group of people out.

Para sailling

So we got kitted out in our life jackets and harnesses. We had 15 minutes in the air, and it was great!! Lovely views, just floating around in the air, attached by only a little string holding us to the boat! When they reeled us back in, apparently it was too windy for anyone else to go up, so the people who were due to go after us didn’t get a chance. They didn’t look too impressed!

Today finds us back in Dunedin, to see some more of the sights there. This morning, we had a tour of ‘Cadbury World’. As it’s a weekend, the factory wasn’t making chocolate, but we got to see some cool stuff anyway – including a 28 metre chocolate falls! We also got to see a DVD about the making of the chocolate, got some free samples, and had a browse around the shop, while listening to Christmas music! All very festive!! They even sell a teddy of the gorilla drummer (without drumsticks though!).

Cadbury World

We had lunch in an Irish pub and have spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around in and out of places such as the railway station (apparently the second most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere, after the Sydney Opera House), the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, and First Church of Otago.

And now we’re having a rest and a cup of tea and updating you all on what we have been doing!

Tomorrow is our last day in Riversdale, so the challenge for tomorrow is to squeeze our ever expanding pile of presents, clothes etc back into our suitcases! Should be interesting.

Jill

Yesterday, Gill took us shopping in Invercargill. We then took a drive to Bluff, the most southerly point of New Zealand. Next stop…the South Pole! So, like typical tourists, we had our photos taken at the signpost that tells you how far away you are from different cities. You have to do it, don’t you?!

Bottom of the world

On the way back, we made a stop in a Christmas shop, and had a look round there for a good while. Jonny was bored senseless by the time we were finished looking at things! I’m really in the mood for Christmas now.

Today, we decided to spend the day in Queenstown. It’s about a 2 hour drive from Riversdale, so we set off this morning and our first stop was home of Bungy Jumping, AJ Hackett Bungy, just outside Arrowtown. The jump takes place on an old railway bridge (Kawarau bridge) over a river. It’s about 47 metres high. High enough if you ask me. Jonny had to restrain me from having a go. (Not really!) So we watched the crazy people jumping for a while. Some of them found it very difficult to ‘take the plunge’ so were cheered on by the watching crowd. All very entertaining.

Why?!

Next stop was Arrowtown – a lovely little town, where we had lunch, and I looked round all the shops, while Jonny waited outside with an ice cream! (I think he conveniently bought this so he wouldn’t have to go into the shops!) We found an amazing sweetshop, that had 2 whole rows full of sugar free stuff. I got a bit excited by this!

So then it was on to Queenstown, and we’re having a look around there this afternoon. Tomorrow we might head to Dunedin again for the day, and then Sunday is our last day with Gill, Wayne and the boys before we start making our way up towards Christchurch for our flight on Thursday afternoon.

Jill

After we last posted, we had our trip to the glow worm caves. This involved another boat trip, this time across Lake Te Anau. It took about half an hour to get to the Tunnel Burn – the river that comes out of the caves.

To start, we got to watch a lovely slide show about, well, bugs. It showed how the glow worms develop, catch flies, including slow motion shots of them eating their prey. I’m thinking it might have been better to watch this afterwards?!

We were taken into the caves in groups of 12, and told to mind our heads. It was very low and quite hard to walk at some points. We had a short walk along the river, and then a boat trip into the ‘glow worm grotto’. Now this sounds much much nicer than it is in reality! But lets face it, the reality is fly larvae glowing in the dark! And when I say dark, I mean it. And I have a slight problem with the dark! And with bugs. So it was right up my street!!!

It was an interesting experience though. Jonny had to keep telling me to be quiet, as I always forget people can still hear in the dark and I was loudly proclaiming how much I didn’t like it!!

Back out through the cave, we got to see an eel in the river. It just kept getting better and better!!!

After that, we took the boat back and then we headed back to the farm. We have had a lazy day today, and think we’re heading with Gill to Invercargill tomorrow.

Jill