Weatherqueen

On a sunny but bitterly cold day we drove to the area around Niagra, filled with fruit and wine farms. Obviously the trees and vines were Winter-bare but the neat, regimented rows of neatly trimmed trees with their red-coloured branches stood out against the dramatic snow-laden sky. We travelled along the southern shore of the lake with the Toronto skyline in the far distance across the water as the sky got darker and more leaden, but the weather held as we toured the quaint town of Niagra-by-the-Lake with its high-end boutiques and pretty parks - its a very attractive area that I intend to revisit in another season. On the way to Niagra Falls we stopped for a brief walk along the river that forms the border between the USA and Canada, to watch giant ... read more

I would love to just have this entry read “Sorry, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” but to be honest I didn’t do enough that was exciting, naughty or outrageous enough to keep it secret. What I did have was a nice final week to my 13-month Round the World Tour in a mad town, made crazier with the addition of Halloween. I am seriously hoping that was why I got chatted up by a Hotdog, a Smurf and a naturally portly Fred Flintstone. From San Francisco I had to fly via Los Angeles to reach Vegas and American Airlines made it very difficult as their ticketing system still had my flight dated in June. They blamed BA for not updating the AA information, despite the fact that several other airlines I had flown since ... read more

We were collected for our 2 day Yosemite Tour by our guide, a big Kiwi guy who turned out to be very knowledgeable and joined the other 9 people for the long drive to the National Park. We stopped half way to choose our included lunch at a large deli with masses of choice where they made fresh sandwiches to order. We ate these, plus a whole load of other stuff we selected within our designated budget, at various stops around the Park later in the day while keeping our eyes out for Bears. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny, and our guide decided to do the high areas on the first day and the Valley on the second, as the sky was so clear. First stop was the Toulumne Grove Trail, a winding path ... read more

I am way behind on publishing my blogs but I blame my mate Joy who has been travelling with me for the past 4 weeks. These catch-up editions will probably be a bit lightweight but should include the highlights of what we have been up to - they certainly should include a ton of photos as I took thousands of shots, most of which were rubbish but some are decent enough to go public. So, I took a 30 minute internal flight from the Big Island of Hawaii back to Oahu on Sunday morning and checked into our Waikiki hotel, where I watched a multi-denominational church service held on the beach, featuring a group of women prisoners from the local correctional institution singing hymns. Then I went back again to the airport to meet Joy who ... read more

I had two Wednesdays this week as I left Australia on Wednesday evening and flew all night on the 10 hour leg to Honolulu where I arrived slightly dazed and confused early on another Wednesday morning. There is a 20 hour time difference between the two countries which took a few days to adjust to, but it was fun having my own mini Groundhog Day and I enjoyed having an extra day in my life. Its also a year since I started this trip, which is kind of special too. I grabbed a shuttle bus to an airport hotel where I spent the night and flew out first thing the next morning to the “Garden Island” of Kauai. Its a bit of a pain having to be at the airport 2 hours before the 30 minute ... read more