Starting Along The Jurassic Coast Line

 We woke to a beautiful morning, mum did a spot of dishes before we left this morning.  Easier doing this at a camp ground than in the camper for us newbies

It was time for a photo with the camper, mum's dog is doing well considering she hasn't been out of mums house in 4 years, she is rather enjoying the walks and sleeping with her mummy at night on the bed

Our travels won't take us to far today, but we have some amazing sights to take in

We headed into Weymouth as our first stop, found it a bit hard to park up to walk about the city, but managed to stop off enough to grab some photos of the water front

I've never seen a real Helter Skelter before, they look like so much fun.

Next stop was the Isle of Portland, I wanted to head up to the top of the hill to get a view of the Chesil Bank.  Although it wasn't a clear day it was still amazing to see it in person, it's longer than I expected and goes for miles 18 in total

The Isle of Portland was interesting place to visit, lovely wee location and worth the trip.  Recommend the drive up the hill and the view from the top is amazing

Next was the start of the coast drive, we had some fun making sure we were on the right road leaving the Isle of Portland, got to love GPS units, adds to the fun of the trip.  I got a great photo of the other end of the Chesil Bank

We have had a great day taking in the amazing views, and finding sidings to stop in to grab a few photos or just stop and take it in.  There will be way more to come.

Tonight we are staying just out of Charmouth, and tomorrow will be heading to Lyme Regis.

Hitting The Road

Day 1 of the road trip

We started pretty early around 7am moving items into the motorhome, mum had a good checklist which made it easier, and by 9.30am and it's time to go, but only one problem, I can't start the motorhome.  Luckily all of mum's neighbours were out to wave us off and 5 mins later with the help of one of the neighbours, I had it started....apparently I wasn't turning the steering wheel enough to release the key turn, haha, Thanks James!!

Because of my late arrival in the UK we had lost a days travel so just one stop on the way today at Costco to look at TV's for mum and an iPad.

Found a few things of interest while walking the aisles, I love finding New Zealand products when overseas, our good honey is a better price here than at home.  No shortage of Sriracha sauce and the biggest packet of chips I have ever seen, 907g!!

We arrived in Chichester Camping and Caravan Club park around 4pm.  First setup, luckily a lovely fellow camper next door helped with the electric hookup making sure I do things in the right order.  Within a few minutes we were all go, the electric was on, phew.  

I walked up to the local CoOp to get mum a coffee and a few items like butter for our dinner sandwiches.  During my walk it was hard to not stop and look at all the bulbs that are out, just love these tulips in someones front garden

Early night for the both of us.

Day 2 - Day of Driving

Today was planned to be a market day in Poole, but alas that wasn't to be, we woke to rain.  But we had a great time driving around Poole, looking at the the beautiful views of the harbour.  We stopped in at Currys and B&Q to look around.  A quick stop at Tesco Extra to pick a few supplies up and then we headed off to our Camp ground for the night on Moreton.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I had a great flight from Auckland through to Vancouver, we arrived 45 mins early, which gave me around 6 hours at Vancouver airport.  The airport is still one of my favourites, but the aftermath of the pandemic are felt everywhere.  I had noticed at Auckland airport most shops were closed, or totally empty.  Vancouver wasn't much different.  A few more high class stores, but Gucci was no longer, all boarded up just the sign above the door, Mike will be thinking just as well.  It was 1.30pm Vancouver time on a Friday Burberry and Salvatore Ferragamo was closed.  The food court only had 3 places open, most were either closed or empty.  Mike's favourite was there, so a bit of A&W sounded like a good way to pass an hour.

A few calls to family to give updates, time to wonder around and stretch the legs, found a couple of kiwi products in the Relay

with 3 hours to go, I sat for a few hours at our departure gate watching a few domestic flight come and go, KLM arrive, only 3 international flights left before we did, amazing how different it feels in this big airport but very few people.  It was a nice afternoon to relax, hey I'm on holiday lets make the most of it

Onto London, then Norwich

9.5 hour flight through to London, completely full in all classes. I had never flown Air Canada before, it wasn't what I expected.  Like a lot of airlines I am guessing they are struggling, and making cuts where possible.  Unfortunately  both my meals were still frozen.  During the night there was not drink service and the back gallery was closed overnight, we only had one glass of water during the flight. 

Heathrow moved pretty fast through the eGate system, one bonus to them not being in the EU anymore is that commonwealth countries can now use their eGates for entering the UK. I did have an hour and a half wait for my luggage.  I was beginning to wonder if it had been left in Auckland, it seems like the start of the trip was continuing, but no it finally came off the conveyor belt, a little repack of the suitcase to fit the new laptop, and off to find the train

Train Time

Down to the Heathrow Express, onto Paddington, I was hoping that maybe the Elizabeth Line would be open, so I could go Heathrow to Liverpool Street Station, but no (apparently opening on the Queens birthday).  Change over at Paddington to the Hammersmith Line then off a Liverpool Street Station.  it's now 2.25pm and there is a train to Norwich at 2.30pm.  Luckily I remembered that the train goes from platform 9, the guy showed me where to get my ticket and with 2 mins to spare I was on the Norwich train...score, now I need a drink ASAP.

The scenery once out of London was beautiful, and how I have missed train travel in the UK. 

I arrived in Norwich at 4.20pm, headed out of the train station for a Taxi and arrived at Mums by 5pm.   Motorhome time.  James with the motorhome were still at mums so he took me through all I needed to know and then it was time to sit and say hello to Mum for the rest of the night.  Made it.....Wow what a trip 38 hours end to end.

On My Way

What a day, the fog has cleared, it's raining, but hey, flights are leaving Wellington, this is it!!!   Or is it?

2.43pm I get the following on my phone "Kia ora, Due to poor weather conditions forecast for Wellington today, there is the potential for your flight to be disrupted...."  After much discussion I decided not to wait on hold.....To the airport we go.

Arrived, checked in, and was in Koru within 15 mins,

apparently they were still getting people out of Wellington from the previous two days and they had 2 flights with engineering issues, however my flight was good and we left on time, I think the message from Air NZ was a little miss leading.

Arrived in Auckland, wasn't able to walk to across to International due to roadworks so headed for the free bus.  Through the departure gate and headed for PBTech...yes there is a PB Tech at Auckland airport and I picked up my new laptop, exciting purchase of the trip, Check ✅ $700 saved..Check ✅ 

On the flight, ready to go.  The flight is full, but I have my aisle seat.  I am so impress with how many Mum's are traveling alone with their young ones, how they do it will never know, It's hard enough getting myself organised!! Women are machines is what I put it down to, just keep going.

Vancouver here I come.

A Few False Starts

 Oh where to start, I was book to fly with Singapore Airlines, starting with a flight out of Wellington on the 30th of March on a 10.45am flight.  However I woke up to the following news "Passengers face long waits as fog disrupts Wellington Airport flights". We headed to the airport, "How bad could it be?"

Half way to the airport I had a text from Air NZ that SQ440 from Wellington to Auckland was cancelled!  Mike pulled off the motorway at Ngauranga Gorge, and we parked up for a bit, with two cellphones I was on hold with both AirNZ and Singapore Airlines to figure out next steps.  Then I noticed my AirNZ App updated

Excellent, we are off again, "To the airport please driver".  The family dropped me off, bit foggy for the traditional family photo at the airport, and I headed into the airport.  I was pretty excited, I had Premium Economy booked from Auckland to Singapore so I was able to do Priority checking, in the queue I was, smile on my face and ready to go.  Got to the counter and lovely gentleman said after a few minutes, "You will need to go down to Ticketing at the end mam, I can't check you in for the new flight".

Down I head, queue again, to only find out that my new flight had also be cancelled and to be told I would not be able to make it out of Wellington today.  Quick on the phone to Mike, "Where are you?  Can you cone back and get me?"  I was home again by 11.30am.

An hour on the phone with Singapore airlines left me with a new flight out on the 5th of April!!  and an added expense of $1700.  I had 24 hours to decided and get back to them.  I have to say it took 2 calls at this point, I kept being asked why I didn't turn up for my flight.  They didn't believe me that my flights had been cancelled and well lets just say this wasn't work out and I was rather stressed at this point.

On the internet and found a oneway to London via Vancouver on Air NZ and Air Canada, $1,200 and leaving this afternoon at 5.15pm.  Booked, but I needed a supervised negative RAT test, off to the Pharmacy and $60 later I was ready to go.  Stress cleared let's watch some TV for a few hours then off to the airport at 3pm.

2.45pm hits, another text from AirNZ, your 5.15pm to Auckland is cancelled!  well this was most defiantly not going to plan, and on the phone to AirNZ again...no flight north on a Thursday so I was booked for Friday afternoon.  AirNZ were great, no extra cost. What a way to start the holiday.

UK Road Trip - 2022, here I come!!!

Wow it's been almost 3 years since writing in our Travel blog.  How the world has changed, and I am excited to see how much has changed when traveling around the world.

 

This year I am flying solo to the UK to meet up with my Mum and we are heading off around the UK on a motorhome road trip (see the map above).  Never had a motorhome road trip before, come to think of it, not sure I have ever been in a motorhome.  I grow up having holidays in a caravan in the summers, and I am guessing this will be close, but being in a different location every couple of days will be a little different.

So why a motorhome?  Always wanted to give it a go. I love the fact that I can unpack once and have what you need around you, but you are still on the move.  The price of hiring a motorhome isn't much more than a car, plus it's most of your accommodation, you may need to budget £10-£20 a night for campgrounds, but there are other options out there too.  Plus with COVID still being in communities it means if we need to isolate we can, we can stay to ourselves as much as we want, and get out there and walk around when we want, a lot of flexibility.

My next post will be me leaning NZ going via Singapore to London Heathrow, keep tuned.

Dubai Sunrise

Today we had to get up a 3:00am because we had booked a desert sunrise 4 wheel drive trip.

We met our guide as planned along with a German couple off our ship, then picked up two more people at a hotel. The vehicle was a large 7 seater however got cozy with all adults on board!

We drove for about an hour, leaving the state of Dubai and entering into [name]. The highway was 6 lanes wide (each direction) in some parts, and 10 lanes wide in others! It was dark the whole way and with little traffic, we made good time.

We took a side road off the highway, and drove for about 5 minutes. This rode was one lane each way and some sections were very sandy.

Suddenly our driver asked us to hold on, and he veered off the road into the desert. Within seconds we had left civilisation behind, and were driving over sand dunes in the darkness.

We parked up in a flat area and were soon joined by a few other vehicles from the same company.

Here they laid out blankets and cushions for us all to sit on, very comfortable, and offered us a light breakfast of coffee (which did not taste like coffee thankfully), dates, fruits, and juices.

We all sat quietly and enjoyed watching the sun rise, a very peaceful occasion.

A falconer joined us to show us a falcon up close, and we were able to hold it. I was amazed how little it weighed.

He explained how falcons hunt, and how they use them for sport, and how they care for them. Did you know falcons travel in planes with people, and have their own passport?

The falcon was then let loose to fly around us and "hunt" by him swinging meat on a long piece of rope. The bird would swoop down at around 80 km/h and almost touch the ground as it went for the lure. As the desert was silent, we would hear the birds wings in the air. A most incredible demonstration. Eventually the bird was allowed to catch the food and then sait happily on the falconer's hand eating.

Next we had free time to wander around the desert. The sand was incredibly fine and soft and as I walked up a dune my shoes will up with sand but it felt like water. Here from up high I saw critters in the sand, but was able to take in a 360 degree view of the desert dunes.

Here's Helen enjoying the morning.

Once it was time to leave, we were unexpectedly taken for a drive over the dunes. It started out slow, then suddenly we were driving at steep angles (both sideways and up/down). It was very scary at times, we all were concerned the vehicle would roll over but the driver knew what he was doing. Besides, the vehicle had a roll cage inside.

Helen took a video and here's a few stills from that.

This was incredibly fun and after 20 minutes of driving, everyone was left with an adrenaline buzz. Luckily nobody got car sick but some of us were getting close!

The drive back was slow, when we re-joined the highway we had peak-hour traffic to contend with. Many people live outside Dubai and drive in to work every day. Hence why the highway is 10 lanes wide.

We returned to the ship about 8:00am, having had a most fun morning. By now most people were leaving the ship heading off on their excursions.

We stayed on the ship, had a swim and generally relaxed, and then sailed just after midday.

Farewall Dubai, we enjoyed the visit.