Sunday, 13 December 2015
Saturday, 12 December 2015
DisneySea
Introduction by Declan:
Yesterday was a huge day.
At DisneySea we found loads of entertaining rides, including:
Boats:
Lighthouses:
Exploding cannons:
And even epic volcanoes:
and on the other side of the volcano there was an american town!
And now few words from Mum: Yesterday was enormous. But we woke up early and made the most of it. Bussed to Disney Sea and spent 6 hours there. I think our first visit three years ago was best as coincidently we had gone on a quiet midweek semi-rainy day. Yesterday was a sunny crowded weekend and it was packed. Some people lined up for three hours for a ride! Not us...we went on 1 ride in 6 hours. The rest was walking around and looking at the 'worlds' all beautifully designed and constructed. From artificial volcanoes, a Mediterranean Renaissance town, New York, an Arabian city, American town and more...Great to see it again. After that we negotiated through multiple train connections to the Shinkansen and into Kyoto. Very tired indeed we met our machiya owner, David, and settled into the cutest and most perfect renovated merchant building, that would once have housed three generations as well as being a place of business. Needless to say the entire place is about the size of our lounge! Pocket garden and deep bath are lovely touches. Today we will explore the neighbourhood.
Yesterday was a huge day.
At DisneySea we found loads of entertaining rides, including:
Boats:
Lighthouses:
Exploding cannons:
And even epic volcanoes:
and on the other side of the volcano there was an american town!
And now few words from Mum: Yesterday was enormous. But we woke up early and made the most of it. Bussed to Disney Sea and spent 6 hours there. I think our first visit three years ago was best as coincidently we had gone on a quiet midweek semi-rainy day. Yesterday was a sunny crowded weekend and it was packed. Some people lined up for three hours for a ride! Not us...we went on 1 ride in 6 hours. The rest was walking around and looking at the 'worlds' all beautifully designed and constructed. From artificial volcanoes, a Mediterranean Renaissance town, New York, an Arabian city, American town and more...Great to see it again. After that we negotiated through multiple train connections to the Shinkansen and into Kyoto. Very tired indeed we met our machiya owner, David, and settled into the cutest and most perfect renovated merchant building, that would once have housed three generations as well as being a place of business. Needless to say the entire place is about the size of our lounge! Pocket garden and deep bath are lovely touches. Today we will explore the neighbourhood.
Friday, 11 December 2015
Christchurch to Tokyo
It was an early start, rising about 4am but excitement helped. Thanks a lot to Nana and Poppa for their great taxi service to the airport. Everything ran on time, except for long lines at Auckland meant we were just on time to checkout the new Koru lounge in Auckland for about 10 minutes.
On the way to Auckland we saw this mountain - not Fuji but looking very much like it:
Then at the Auckland domestic terminal we saw a mountain of a different type:
Richie very graciously was offering photos with fans bold enough to approach him. And there were quite a few!
This was our first flight on a 787 "Dreamliner". It was very comfortable and the Air New Zealand staff were great. Turns out the "lieflat" beds are good for watching TV and movies as well:
The electrically dimming windows are a lot more than a novelty and great for a day flight because you don't feel all closed in. The impression is a bit like being under the sea than way up in the sky!
Dinner was nice, especially when you can eat it with your best mate:
Sadly starters were about the same size as main meals and Declan found it a bit hard to finish it all. Still he managed a dessert (and four cans of Sprite).
Then the lovely crew invited him to the cockpit once we'd landed:
So it was a great journey but a long day so we were all in bed at the airport hotel by 7pm local time!
Which was a good thing since the next day is DisneySea!
On the way to Auckland we saw this mountain - not Fuji but looking very much like it:
Then at the Auckland domestic terminal we saw a mountain of a different type:
Richie very graciously was offering photos with fans bold enough to approach him. And there were quite a few!
This was our first flight on a 787 "Dreamliner". It was very comfortable and the Air New Zealand staff were great. Turns out the "lieflat" beds are good for watching TV and movies as well:
The electrically dimming windows are a lot more than a novelty and great for a day flight because you don't feel all closed in. The impression is a bit like being under the sea than way up in the sky!
Dinner was nice, especially when you can eat it with your best mate:
Sadly starters were about the same size as main meals and Declan found it a bit hard to finish it all. Still he managed a dessert (and four cans of Sprite).
Then the lovely crew invited him to the cockpit once we'd landed:
So it was a great journey but a long day so we were all in bed at the airport hotel by 7pm local time!
Which was a good thing since the next day is DisneySea!
Thursday, 3 December 2015
The Plan
As a family we've had a long-term plan to spend Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere. However various things have intervened - initially the Christchurch earthquakes, then the repair work to our house and so on. In 2015/16 we are finally doing it!
What initially started as going to see the "Christmas Markets" in Bavaria soon grew to include other "once in a lifetime" things we might want to do. And we loved our last trip to Japan so we wanted to squeeze that in again.
The basic itinerary is:
We'll try to post at least once from every country!
What initially started as going to see the "Christmas Markets" in Bavaria soon grew to include other "once in a lifetime" things we might want to do. And we loved our last trip to Japan so we wanted to squeeze that in again.
The basic itinerary is:
- 11th December: NZ to Japan
- 19th December: Japan to Germany
- 24th December: Germany to Italy (Venice and Naples)
- 2nd January: Italy to France (Paris)
- 4th January: France to Iceland
- 12th January: Iceland to Spain (Barcelona)
- 18th January: Spain to US (New York City)
- 28th January: US to NZ (home on the 30th)
We'll try to post at least once from every country!
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