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Published: June 29th 2014
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Hi again from the ‘Big Apple’, New York City (NYC).
It is now 5.30pm on Sunday 29
th June (NY time) as I sit in our 17
th floor ‘Executive View Cabin’ at the very futuristic ‘Yotel’, 570, 10th Avenue NYC.
We have just had our first showers and change of clothes since we left Waipukurau at 7am on Saturday morning NZ time so it is well over 48 hours since we left home.
The last blog detailed the journey to Honolulu and the time differences.
Well after a 4 hour lay over in Honolulu we boarded Hawaiian Air HA50 bound for JFK Airport, NYC. We were already reasonably shattered after a full day and night travelling so were looking forward to maybe getting a little shut eye on the 9 and a half hour flight.
It seemed like the flight took forever but in actual fact, due to good tail winds, we landed 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We got a little bit of broken sleep but not much and by the time we landed at JFK we were both dog tired and badly in need of
a shower and change of clothes.
However I back up a little. The flight from Honolulu to JFK was a good one. Hawaiian Air have been really good to travel with and the Airbus 330s have been quite comfortable. The food etc. has been typical ‘airline’ food but more than acceptable and the staff very friendly and helpful. However none of that ever makes up for the long flights etc. But as I’ve said before it’s one of the necessary evils you have to endure if you want to travel overseas from NZ. ‘No pain – No gain’.
Flying in over what the map appeared to say was Nebraska and Iowa at about 40,000 feet, we were treated to 2 incredibly violent but beautiful storms off to our north with the whole sky lit up by lightening for some time. Thankfully we were flying well away from the storms but it very spectacular to see from our elevated seat. Nothing else of any note apart from great views of NYC as we flew in over the city to land.
We had pre-booked and paid for a shuttle service to transport us
to our hotel and that seemed to take forever but we eventually got to the hotel around 9am Sunday morning NY time. Of course our room wasn’t ready at that time so our luggage was picked up by a huge ‘robot’ and stored away in a huge wall of storage bins. That was our introduction to the futuristic ‘Yotel’. We were allowed to go up to ‘Mission Control’ on floor 4 to have a ‘free’ breakfast of muffins and tea/coffee before heading out to Central Park to fill in some time until our room would be ready at 3pm.
Armed with a map we walked 3 blocks to the ‘metro’ station on the corner of 8
th Avenue and 42 Street where we purchased a 7 day pass ($US30 each for unlimited use) and then hoped on the ‘Uptown C train’ to one of the northern entrances to Central Park that took us into the park near the ‘Reservoir’. Tens of thousands of people running, walking and biking through the myriad of roads and tracks all over the Park in temperatures around 27 degrees C. Boy, was it a shock to the system!!!! High, hazy cloud but still
very sunny and very warm. We hugged the shadows as much as possible and walked all over Central Park from about 10am until 2.30pm. The drink stands benefited from our bankroll of US dollars as we tried to stay hydrated and keep the energy levels up as much as possible. On several occasions our lack of sleep (some might even say our age) caught up with us and we had to use some of the many very conveniently placed seats to rest up and recharge the batteries. We had a bite to eat by a part of the Park where about 5 social games of baseball and softball were being played and then Joy decided that she really did want to see a part of the park that we couldn’t find on the basic map we started with. However it was a long, long way from where we were so we hired a ‘pedicab’ to take us through the park to the Shakespeare Gardens and the Belvedere Castle. It was uphill virtually all the and took 22 minutes for our ‘driver’ to get us there and believe me in that heat he was pouring out the ‘juices’. At $3 per
minute the bill came to $66 and he earned the $14 tip as I rounded it up to $80. Believe me it was cheap at half the price as I don’t think we could have made it on foot in the condition we were in!!!
After that it was only a 4 ‘small’ block walk to the nearest metro station to head back to check in to the hotel.
Around 3pm we arrived back, after doing some necessary shopping for toiletries etc. at a nearby ‘drug store’, and experienced more futuristic things…..you check yourself in on a computer and it spits out your key-cards and a printout with your room details etc. A staff member did take pity on us and took us up to the ‘cabin’ on the 17
th floor and what a beauty it is. We are on the corner of the building with windows along both sides of the corner and views all over the city including the river which is about 4 blocks away. Hopefully I can download some photos to then blog when it publishes.
We wasted no time in hitting the shower and making ourselves
feel almost human again. Joy has crashed on the bed for a few zzzzzzzzzds before heading in Time Square for a look around and something to eat for dinner. However I don’t think it will be a late night as we have a big day tomorrow started with a 30 minute helicopter ride of NYC and then an afternoon of shopping at the Woodbury Outlet Store Centre over in New Jersey.
You see, it’s Joy’s birthday tomorrow here and the helicopter ride was her choice of special things to do and shopping all afternoon until the Outlet Centre closes at 9pm was the second special thing she wanted to do. Not sure where we might have dinner to celebrate but I’m sure it won’t be difficult to find somewhere suitable in this place.
That’s almost the first day in NYC, not really exciting but we did see a lot more of Central Park that we didn’t get to last time we were here and what a fantastic asset that place is to this huge city.
I’ll try to bet this blog published with some photos before we head out for the
evening.
Love to all the family and well done to the boys for emailing or texting their mother for her NZ birthday date!!!
Bye until next report!!
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