Sushijas
Aaron Alper Joined: July 6th 2009
Logged in: April 26th 2010
Logged in: April 26th 2010
Travel Blog Posts
First Temple
Alright, alright, we’ll do a Thailand blog. Better late than never, right? There’s a lot to write about so I’ll just jump right in. The adventure began when we landed at BKK. Of course, it is one of the largest airports in the world, and due to the local time there (12 hours ahead of EST), most of the flights land at night. So, at 9:30pm on a Tuesday night, it was extremely busy. This behemoth of an airport is brand new, very nice, and ultra modern. I was most impressed with the sloping travelator, an escalator with no steps so that you could take your luggage up or down without waiting for the elevator. It was hard to keep our bags from flying off but we managed. It was interesting to see the retro modern ... read more
Photo 22
Hola to all.... A little late with this blog, but I wanted to make sure to share our experience on the live aboard scuba diving boat trip we took to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia about 6 weeks ago. In a word...amazing...and awesome...two words...sorry! The boat is called the Spirit of Freedom and it was very accommodating. We arrived at the boat on day one, and met the ten crewmembers, and 16 other divers/passengers. The majority of the divers were from the US, with a few from Ireland and England and one from Australia. After the usual briefings on diving, the boat, safety, etc...we were off to the outer ribbon reefs to begin diving! Basically, we did 11 dives in 3 days...it was a 3 night/4 day trip, and it was the Cod Hole trip. ... read more
Wednesday morning
We’re back from our last trip to the south island. It’s bittersweet; sweet because we absolutely love the the south island, with its small population (less than 25% live down here!), breathtaking vistas, and can't-put-your-finger-on-what-it-is magical feel. It’s almost like a country of its own. But it’s also bitter, because we won’t be going back again for a very long time, if ever. Anyway, we spent our week well. We wanted to get an early start on our first day, so we took a night flight to Christchurch so we could get going right away the next morning. The trip up to Kaikoura was pretty, with lots of driving right along the ocean, through narrow tunnels and so forth. We had lunch in town and then went whale watching. The whales in Kaikoura change throughout the ... read more
Old Melbourne Gaol
Well, it finally happened… the Big Trip! 18 days, four cities, one Great Barrier Reef. We were practically jumping out of our skin with excitement. Please know that this is a long entry, so it’s divided into cities in case you want to skip around. If it’s too much to read at once, come back another time to finish it. And don’t forget to look at the pictures at the end! Melbourne Our adventure began in Melbourne. Melbourne is the second-largest city in Australia, and it oozes personality. From the beautiful and modern Federation Square, to the graffitied alleyways, to the ornate arcades, to the beach in St. Kilda, it really has lots of character. Never ones to sit still, we hit the ground running the day we arrived. We visited the Old Melbourne Gaol (pronounced ... read more
Crazed Rugby Fans
You know how, for the most part, you’d rather be travelling? Same with us. Yes, our entire New Zealand experience counts as travelling - but really, we like it best when we are sleeping somewhere other than our own bed. Not to say that we haven’t had some fun in our hometown lately. We’ve done some distinctly NZ things here and really enjoyed them. First, the rugby game. We knew we didn’t want to let our time here go by without catching a rugby match, and we ended up going to one with a big group from the hospital. Rugby is a complicated sport, and after sitting through a game of it, I still have no idea what goes on or what the rules are. What I can tell you is: • The scrum, or way ... read more
The Church
Coromandel and More South Island Splendor Hello again... Here's what we've been up to... We recently took a quick weekend trip to the Coromandel Peninsula. The peninsula is northwest of us, and is a hugely popular summer destination for Aucklanders. We decided to check it out before high season starts. It takes about 2.5 hours to get to Hahei Beach, where we were staying. The drive was filled with a few small towns along the way. Each are famous for their own reasons: one has great natural spas, another has an original railroad system, and so forth. All of them were cute and it was great to see more of the country. We also got to see more mountains and hills, particularly on the beautiful yet treacherous highway 25. We checked into our hotel in Hahei, ... read more
Huka Falls
Hola and happy new year to all...MOT that is... This is sort of a hodge podge of adventures that we have done recently--short, sweet and to the point---please check out all of our action photos! Before work began for me, we decided to take some advice from a fellow American ED doc (thanks Julie) and drive out for a good hour in every direction out of our home town of Rotorua. On one trip south to Taupo, we decided to explore our first high adrenaline native Kiwi adventure: Hi-speed jet boating. This, on the banks of the Huka Falls. Not your typical hydroplaning jet boat, but shaped more like a larger carriage on an amusement park roller coaster...about 4 or 5 rows that can hold 4 people in each row. And let me tell you, the ... read more
Hotel So
It should be mentioned that we spent about a week and a half in Hamilton for Aaron's orientation. Hamilton, which is a larger city an hour-and-a-half northwest of Rotorua, gets a bad rap for being a place where there's not much going on. However, we found it to be quite nice. It has a reasonably big downtown area, with lots of nice restaurants and boutiques. There are also the stellar Hamilton Gardens, which are breathtaking - and free to visit! We will return to the gardens in October to see the flowers blooming. Hamilton is also a convenient stop on the way to the Waitomo River, where we will do a rafting and abseiling (rappelling) excursion soon. After Hamilton, we took off for the south island. First stop, Christchurch. Christchurch is a really interesting mix of ... read more
Surprise!
Yes, we've been bad bloggers, and we admit it. In our defense, we've rarely been home. This, September 18, will be our fifteenth night at home, compared with 16 nights being spent elsewhere. Not that we're complaining. We've been up to some pretty fun stuff. Our first out-of-town weekend trip here was to Hawkes Bay, also known as wine country. We set out late on Friday afternoon, and what a drive it was. Beautiful mountain roads, rolling hills, lush forests...ahh. At one point, we stopped at a scenic overlook just to stretch our legs. Wouldn't you know it, this virtually unmarked place had a nice gorge with a huge waterfall. We arrived Friday night in Napier (there are two main cities in Hawkes Bay, Napier and Hastings) and had a fantastic dinner at Mission Estate Winery, ... read more
scuba
Hello to everyone and sorry that our 2nd blog took so long to produce! We just got a secure wireless internet account here in New Zealand so that is what the delay has been! Anyway, we were quite sad to leave Moorea as we really fell in love with the island. It's a spectacularly stunning island, with gorgeous sunsets (new pics included) towering mountain peaks, and sparkling clear blue waters! We were able to snorkel right below our bungalow and the amount and variety of fish we saw was amazing. We also did a really fun ATV ride into the mountains, through various citrus orchards..pineapple, papaya, grapefruit, lemon, etc, and on our last weekend there, took in a really interesting native Tiki Village bbq and show, including a traditional fire dance. On to Bora Bora, which ... read more
