Flight from Gold Coast to Christchurch went fine. Arrived in Christchurch around 11.30pm. Getting through customs here was quick and easy - very streamlined - great work Christchurch! Much better than any experience we have had in USA. Free shuttle was waiting for us and took us straight to our overnight accommodation at the airport lodge motel. Great service and friendly staff. arranged for a wake up call at 6.30am tomorrow morning and organised for a taxi to pick us up and take us to Apollo to collect our motorhome at 7.30am. The motel is a self contained unit with a kitchenette, separate lounge room and a huge king size bed - very clean and tidy - no hesitation in recommending this place to anyone visiting Christchurch. I had read mixed reviews about this place but ... read more

Well...they say all good things come to an end...so it is with our vacation! Flight from San Francicso went well..we were flying with Alaska Airlines but when we got to the counter we were told we had to fly with Delta airlines....no idea why this happened but we were a little annoyed as we had worked out the baggage charges - $175 for the 5 checked bags for the domestic leg of this journey. Anyway it all worked fine as when we got to Delta they said that as they are partners with V Australia we would not be charged baggage for the domestic leg and te luggage could go straight through from San Francisco to our final destination of Brisbane Australia. We were charged $125 for the 5th bag (that being the only bag over ... read more

Started halloween with a good trick - a $64 parking ticket for not moving the car before 9am - For street cleaning! We missed that sign - there are so many signs on the kerbsides - looks like we will have to pay this one - don't need any dramas here - let's just consider this our contribution to San Francisco's local council - pay it and learn a lesson. Parking is hard to find around here - remembering that most people living in apartments park on the street as garage parking is few and far between. Glad we don't have to look for car parking back home...having a place to park a car on a block of land is a luxury for San Franciscon's. Something most of us take for granted in Australia. Next trick ... read more

We are loving this small apartment - it is ideal for our needs. We both slept well - the bed is super comfy. Todays blog is only short as most of the day was spent shopping - we visited 3 outlets in the San Francisco area - found some great bargains and our suitcases are well and truly full for the trip home to Australia. On today's journey we did cross over the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge - wow it is a speculator sight. We have previously visited San Francisco in 2009 so we have already done quite a bit of the touristy stuff. There are about 7 toll bridges in San Francisco and not all off them are maned so we had to prepay tolls when we picked up the rental car - $42 to ... read more

Slept in this morning and then started the tedious task of packing bags for our flight tomorrow to San Francisco. We purchased two new roll along travel bags from Macy's for our extra luggage. They are a great idea - roll up into a sleeping bag size carry bag when not in use so good for storing. When shopping in Macy's you can get a 10 per cent discount card if you are from outside of the United States. Just pick up discount card from the visitor centre in store and the discount is good for 30 days. Macy's in Herald Square consists of 2 buildings - 9 floors of clothes shopping in both buildings. We have been putting off going to Times Square since we arrived in NYC so today was the day to bite ... read more