On the way to New Zealand

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Day 1 - 15/04/2010

So on our trip to NZ we planned to start this in France, Nice to be exact. Unfortunately as is the way it did not go according to plan!!. Volcano in Iceland eurupted, our flight was cancelled and we had to improvise. This meant taking a ferry from Dover with every other person in england (no easy task), then hiring a car from Calais (one of the last available) and driving the short distance of 1200 kms to the south of france in less than 12 hours. Not exactly the ideal start to our trip but we needed to be there by Friday morning to catch the Monte Carlo Masters (ATP 1000 tournament).

Day 2

So we finally arrived in Nice around 9am, no time for rest and headed to Monaco to see the 1/4 finals. Again it was an absolute mission to get there from Nice, we were told it was 15 mins away but with the train strike it took almost 2 hours with the bus and queing etc. I'm sure this is not normally the case though. When we finally got there, managed to see Nadal, Djokovic and Ferdasco which was pretty awesome, though slept through some games and no fault to the players 😊 I have to say though of all the tournaments I've seen the setting here is pretty amazing. The mediterranean visible on both sides while watching and sun beating down, pretty special!

Day 3

We slept in late but we soo needed it. It looked quite sunny so we decided to do a bit of sightseeing in Nice. We have been to many places before and maybe we expected too much and we were not impressed. For the second highest tourist destination in France it could be better. Did not think much of the Old town and not really clean but heard it is better at night.Also a lot of homeless people although they were quite friendly. Maybe it is the time of the year who knows. Also found it strange so many people going to the beach in April(two of them even swimming in the sea), it must be tourists as most of the locals were wearing so many clothes. Of the sights one thing worth doing is the walk to . It is a long walk up but the views are worth the effot and the sea look amazing, the colour is beatuful. One other thing worth noting is the public transport is ridicuously cheap like €1 to all the way to monaco (1 hour bus) and similar to use the tram around the city...after driving to Nice on the french motorways which costs a small fortune this was some relief.

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Photos

Rafa in action
Action from Monte Carlo, Rafa Nadal

Nice from Colline du Chateau
Worth the walk up the top and completely free!

Monte Carlo
Fernando Ferdasco just won! (as seen behind me)

Comments

[orange beach]

NZ
Was there 5 years ago and loved it. Spent most of that on South Is. Depending on time of year, it can get hard to find accommodations without reservations. We found the offical travel offices very helpful with transport and guest house. Have spent 20 years in Asia travel so happy to offer suggestions. I am a new person to this blog but seems a good idea. Good travels.

[AniaDazz]

NZ
Cheers for the comments, actually I should have said but I am actually from NZ just have not lived there for some 7 years or so now (UK). Now we are returning and doing a huge trip, if you can give any advice on Russia (we are going the transiberian through mongolia) or places to visit in China that would be great. So far it is just Bejing. From there we are going to HK and then probably Thailand. ,