Down Under & Asia 2009/2010

Australia!! The country of dingoes, big sharks, spiders, snakes, koalas, kangaroos, amazing beaches and the Great Barrier Reef. Yes, i love it! It’s hot, the sun is shining, the beer is nice and cold and the beaches are lovely. Aaahhhhh, this is how December should be every year..!

I arrived in Sydney December 3rd, after killing 4 days in Christchurch, New Zealand. I was so excited about Sydney, ‘cause I was meeting up with the lovely Nita, a friend I met in Africa earlier this year. I stayed at her place in Sydney, and it was so nice to be in a house again!! I had a great couple of days there, catching up with Nita, enjoying the warm weather, walking around freaky Kings Cross and just relaxing. I had such a good time! Thank you for taking me out for a couple (…) of drinks at The Rocks, Nita! Fun times! Looking at the calendar I realized that I didn’t have as much time on the east coast as I first thought, so I only stayed in Sydney for a couple of days. I’ll be back for New Years Eve, so I’ll see more of the city then.

I booked my bus tickets through Greyhound, and I took the night bus up north, heading for Byron Bay. That place is just as I imagined it to be: a small city filled with backpackers, nice beaches and party everywhere. I met a Dutch girl on my way up to Byron, and after a couple of nights there we decided to leave Byron Bay and our 16-bed dorm (….) and go further up the coast to Noosa. This place isn’t as crowded with backpackers, it’s more a popular spot for wealthy holiday makers, and you can easily tell. Nice hotels and apartments all around, and of course a picture perfect beach. Very nice, I could have stayed here for weeks and weeks. But since I’m trying to squeeze a lot of activities in my tight schedule, I had to leave after a couple of days, and make my way up to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island.

Fraser Island is the world’s biggest sand island, measuring 120 km by 15 km. I went on a 3 day/2 nights camping trip, renting a Landcruiser with 7 other people to cruise around on the island ourselves. We camped about 50 meters from the sea, and it was so tempting to go for a swim when you’re MELTING, but that is a strict no-no on the island; outside Fraser Island is the breeding point for tiger sharks… They say that most attacks happen at waist deep, so no swimming. Also the currents are very dangerous in these waters, so they pretty much told us that if we wanted to go swimming, we’ll either be eaten by a shark, or option 2: drown, and THEN get eaten by a shark. Hm.. I stayed away from the sea. The island has several beautiful freshwater lakes where you can go for a swim, and the first day we walked up to Lake Wabby, very beautiful, and soooo nice to cool down. Ahhh..! That night our group made a nice barbeque, and after eating we could hear guitar playing and Irish songs next to our camp. Luckily for us, 10 Irish guys camped in the same camp as we, and you know the Irish; singing, drinking and having a great time. We joined, and we had so much fun! I had to come up with a Norwegian song to sing, my brain went blank, and the only thing I could think of – with some help from three Danish girls in our group – was Aqua, and Barbie girl…… hehe, quality music

The second day we cruised around the east coast of the island up to a place called Indian Head, a rock outcrop with great views of the ocean and the area around. If you’re lucky you can spot sharks, manta rays, dolphins, whales (in the right season) and sea turtles from this view point. We only saw manta rays (but many of them!), but apparently the other guys saw turtles and dolphins as well. Oh well, maybe I’ll spot them later. We also stopped by Maheno Wreck, a formerly passenger liner blown ashore by a cyclone in 1935, and it’s now a tourist “attraction”, a rusty boat. We cooled down in Eli Creek, a cold, freshwater stream before heading back to the camp.

It’s not only tourists that walk around on the beach on Fraser Island; the dingoes are there as well. The native dingoes are one of Fraser’s highlights, and thought to be the most genetically pure population. We spotted a couple, the first one that came up really close was at Eli Creek, and he wasn’t shy at all. He (or she...) walked right up to people, looking for food. A couple of other dingoes visited our campsite, many at night, and we could see all the footprints around our tents when we woke up the next morning. Alright, leaving the barbeque outside with all the meat grease on it probably wasn’t a good idea... They’re not as cute as they look though, they killed a 12 year old boy at Fraser some years ago, and everyone remembers the movie quote: the dingo ate my baby!!

After Fraser I went up to Airlie Beach, to do one of the things I really looked forward to in Australia: scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef!! Cairns is probably the “diving capitol” in Australia, but I didn’t have the time to go all the way up there, plus; the humidity there would probably kill me…
I booked a 4 day sailing trip around the Whitsundays with Islandive.com, and I can strongly recommend this company for everyone who wants to see the Whitsundays and have some proper diving as well. The sail boat – Emperor Wings – was really nice, brand new with a heated Jacuzzi on the big sun deck and with lots of diving equipment. We were 26 people on the boat, plus the amazing crew, that made sure we had a great time. We visited Whitehaven beach, the most white and fine sand I have ever seen, it must be one of the best beaches in the world! Picture perfect, don’t know how to describe it, so take a look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitsunday_Island

I had a couple of really good dives on this trip; the Great Barrier Reef really lived up to my high expectations! The corals were really nice with thousands of colorful fish swimming around, with the clown fishes/ ”Nemos” hiding in the anemones and the visibility was pretty good. I saw a very big Cowtail stingray, a similar thing to the one that killed Steve Irwin a couple of years ago, we went through some really cool caves and saw plenty of reef sharks, both white tips and black tips. They are nice sharks, nothing to be afraid of when diving (as long as you don’t do something stupid…). The highlight however, includes a different type of shark; an oceanic shark – a 3 meter long bronze whaler. The instructors have a trick with a bottle, to attract sharks. When they twist a bottle under water, it sounds like bones cracking, like someone is eating. The sharks have super senses, and they will come from far away looking for that bottle. The trick works fine, as long as you can see the shark. As soon as a shark appears, you stop making the noise, and they will swim off again. However, when the visibility is not so good, and you’re swimming along a wall, with the big ocean next to you, and the instructor plays with the bottle a bit too long, without seeing the BIG shark coming straight for it; the trick can be pretty dangerous. My instructor was in the front, maybe 4 meter ahead of me, looking towards us when I see a HUGE shark appears, coming very fast in our direction. Luckily the instructor turns his head soon enough to see the enormous shark, and stops playing with the bottle. The shark – which was about 3 meters long (a proper shark!) – suddenly understand that we are NOT food, and makes a 90 degree turn away from the instructor, swims in my direction and then back to the big sea. I was so excited, I loved it, but when I came back up, I could see that the instructor was a bit shaky. I understood that it wasn’t as funny; it was a potentially very dangerous situation. That shark was looking for lunch, but luckily he changed his mind when he saw us. Haha, still it’s my highlight, but I can tell you: the instructors were a bit more careful with the bottle trick after that…

The sailing trip around the Whitsundays is definitely one of my highlights so far. It’s so pretty there, I love sailing and diving at the Great Barrier Reef… what can I say - it’s paradise!

Pjuh, this entry is long enough now… I’ll give you a break before I tell you about my last couple of weeks in Australia…

We left Queenstown early morning, with Milford Sound as our next main stop. The sound (which actually is a fiord, but the English guys that discovered it had never seen a fiord before…) is one of NZ’s biggest tourist attractions, and receives more about a half million visitors every year – it’s like Geirangerfjorden back home I guess. I went on a 2 hours cruise, and for once we were lucky with the weather. On average, Milford Sound gets 7 m per year! That’s even more then Bergen!! People say it’s more beautiful in rain, with bigger waterfalls, but I prefer sunshine and blue skies. It was really beautiful, steep rocky cliffs rising out of the dark water, waterfalls and forest along the sides and fur seals playing in the water and relaxing on the rocks. I guess it’s like any other fiord, but it’s still very beautiful and very stunning.

We left Milford Sound, and camped at Gunn’s camp. The camp was originally built for public workers working on a tunnel in the area in the 1930’s, so the cabins are very basic. Every cabin had a coal/wood fired stove for heating, the electricity was limited by a generator that shuts down at 10pm every night and the showers was heated by a coal/wood stove as well. I loved it! Except for the sand flies… I have never seen so many sand flies in my entire life. They were everywhere, inside and outside. I must have killed 3000 sand flies in our cabin, but still there was about 3000 left. The bites I got from Franz Josef were nothing compared to these, and they still itch today, a week later… Argh!

We got up at 5am next day, to catch the ferry over to Stewart Island. The Island is NZ’s third-largest, it’s south of the south island – my southernmost point ever: 47,5 ° south. The weather was ok when we got there, very windy though, so the ferry crossing was a bit rough… Luckily I never get seasick. I wanted to go fishing, since they pretty much promise lots and lots of blue cod, but it was cancelled due to the strong wind. I decided to go hiking instead, so after a quick lunch we were ready to explore the island ourselves. That didn’t happen. Lonely Planet did warn us: “Frequent downpours create a misty, mysterious air and lots of mud, making boots and waterproof clothing mandatory”. It was – once again – pouring down. Hiking was impossible, despite my gore-tex clothes. A couple of girls went for a 30 minute walk around the small township, and they got soaking wet. Every activity was cancelled because of the shitty weather, so it was only one thing left to do: rent a car. It’s only 20km of road on the island, but at least we saw parts of it. I believe it’s a very beautiful place when the weather is a bit better, with the golden beaches and the postcard-looking-islands. Supposedly, it’s possible to spot a Kiwi (the famous, but soon to be extinct bird in NZ) in the wild and penguins as well, but I didn’t see either. Oh well. I wanted to stay there longer, and I actually planned for it, but since the weather forecast wasn’t too optimistic, I went back to Invercargill the following morning. No point staying in a hostel looking at the rain when it’s nicer weather just a couple of hours away.

So, Dunedin was next. It’s a nice little town, very Scottish apparently, and the country’s oldest university is there, providing the town lots of energy. It reminded me of Trondheim in Norway, party every night! We signed up for a tour at Speight’s Brewery, an hour guided tour in the brewery that has been up and running since the late 1800’s. Although it’s a bit modernized today, the still use a lot of the same equipment as back in the good old days, with copper kettles and pipes. All very interesting, but of course the high light was at the end of the tour: drink as much as you want for 30 minutes. We tried 7 different beers, including the original beer, dark beer, apricot beer (blah..) and low-calorie beer (again, not so good). After the tour we went to the Stock Exchange bar, were they adjust the beer prices after the Stock Exchange. A pretty cool concept, but they gave us very nice prices anyway, since we’re travelling with Stray. Cool! It was a good night out, let’s put it that way.

Next morning we headed back to Queenstown, but on the way we had a really cool stop. Curling! I’ve never tried that before, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. What made it even more fun was the Taiwanese Camera Crew there, making a documentary or something like that about curling. Fun fun fun. Curling is really not as easy as it looks, but after a couple of stones we got better. We played a game, and on my opposite team was the Taiwanese “star”, and I played against him. And HAH! I beat him!! So much fun! I even got a stone almost in the middle of the house, so so so proud of that. I’ll definitely try curling again, a lot of fun!

My second stop in Queenstown was a bit more exciting than my first stop. The first night I went out with Debra and Patrick to a local brewery, before heading down to the waterfront and the ice bar, to get a taste of winter (very touristy, yes, I know). They gave us warm winter jackets, gloves and uggs before we went in to the bar, with – 7 °C. Brrr! It was really fun though: ice sculptures, ice sofa, ice couch and ice glass. After 30 minutes I was really cold, I have had enough winter for now, can’t say I’m jealous of you guys back home!! Hahaha

Next day we woke up to a perfect day: sun, blue skies and no wind! Can you believe it? I went up the Skyline Gondola to get a perfect view of the city, pretty mountains with snow on top and the beautiful lake next to the city. Queenstown is picture perfect, a very pretty place. At top of the gondola we tried the Luge – small cars that can run pretty fast down the hills. So much fun! Weeeee!!! Later that afternoon we went hang gliding, since it was such a perfect day, and because you really can’t go to Queenstown without doing any crazy activities. I know, you can’t define hang gliding as crazy, but I wanted to do something I’ve never tried before. My pilot (yes, they call themselves pilots…) was Anders from Sweden, so I could finally speak some Norwegian again. I wasn’t nervous at all, but of course a wee bit excited when we ran down the hill till we couldn’t feel the ground anymore. I was FLYING! What a feeling! So quiet, just floating in the air. It felt so good. I was in the air for about 15 minutes, enjoying the beautiful view and looking at the birds below us. I even got to steer the hang glider myself, a bit nervous for a while, can I make this crash if I do it wrong?? I must admit that the best part was towards the end, when we dived down in 100 km/h. Loved it. So much fun

Next stop: Christchurch and Pearl Jam concert. How lucky am I that Pearl Jam is playing in Christchurch the day I arrive?? They weren’t even sold out, so we got the tickets just a couple of days before the concert. Oh yeah! Very excited! Despite the rain, it was a really really good concert, with Ben Harper as one of the warm ups. Pearl Jam played for 2 hours, and of course: Alive was my highlight. It was their last concert on their tour, so they gave everything, so energetic and SUCH A GOOD CONCERT!

Christchurch is probably the opposite of Queenstown. Not so much adrenalin in the air, it’s more a relaxed city. It suits me well, since it’s my last stop in NZ before heading over to Aussie. I’ll spend the days charging my batteries, do some souvenir shopping, a bit sightseeing and just relax. AND! Update my blog! Check!

I had a great time in New Zealand, and I can’t believe I’ve been here almost a month already. The landscape is very diverse. North Island is very “young” with active volcanoes and geysers, while the south island is wilder, with beautiful mountains, glaciers, fiords and it feels a bit more untouched. Highlights? Definitely Tongariro Crossing, Abel Tasman National Park, Milford Sound and Queenstown. I didn’t expect it to be so cold, I haven’t worn shorts once, but I know that Australia is just around the corner, and I CAN’T WAIT!! See you soon Aussies!

We left Wellington early early early on November 16th and spent most of the day traveling... The ferry between north and south island takes about 3 hours, but with check in and getting your luggage later and bla bla bla.. It took a while. On the way to Abel Tasman National Park we stopped for wine tasting on a small vineyard, Bouldevines. Nice wine, especially the Sauvignon Blanc, which that area is known for. After the wine tasting we did shot testing (!), never done that before. 3 shots for 2 NZ dollars, about 10 NOK. And my favourite part: visiting the fudge factory... Mmmm! A nice start on the south island!

Abel Tasman National Park is just beautiful. I stayed there for 2 nights, but I would stay longer if I had the time. Lots of nice tracks to go hiking, you can go horseback riding, kayaking, paragliding +++ I went on a sailing and hiking trip, so I got to see both sides of the national park. We saw fur seals playing in the water and swimming just in front of the boat. So beautiful! The beaches are “postcard beaches”, untouched (well not really, but looks like it) and golden, with azure blue water next to it. Need I say more? Paradise. New Zealand isn’t as warm as I expected though, the first night in Abel Tasman was FREEZING, and the following night I used 5 blankets to keep warm. BrrrR!

I was a bit upset leaving Abel Tasman, partly because I wanted to stay there longer, and partly because many of my traveling mates from Auckland decided to stay. I really wish I planned more time for New Zealand, but you can’t catch it all, ey? New bus, new people, and the feeling that i had to start all over again. The drive down to Barrytown was B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L., the west coast is just stunning. Actually, the view is so beautiful that Lonely Planet Blue List (one of my favorite books…) listed the West Coast Highway to one of the planet’s 10 best road trips. We stopped several places to look at the view; one of them was Punakaiki & Paparoa National Park, to look at the Pancake Rocks. Made out of limestone the rocks have formed into something that looks like piles of thick pancakes. Very fascinating, and a very nice stop.

Our next overnight stop was in Barrytown, a very small place. Nothing happening there, except a tradition made by Stray - a dress-up party… And yes, of course, our theme was cross dressing… I bought a cheap Father Christmas costume I’m not going to tell too much from that party, what happens in Barrytown, stays in Barrytown, haha. Short summary: fun party, the guys wearing tiny dresses and lots of makeup, drinking games and drunken people. And hangovers the next day.

We stayed in Franz Josef for 2 nights, a small town close to the Franz Josef glacier. They had many activities to choose from, like hiking on the glacier, ice climbing, helicopter ride to the top of the glacier, sky diving ++ Most people on the bus went on a full day hike on the glacier, but I didn’t want to spend lots of money on a glacier when it was pouring down rain.. I went hiking on a glacier back home this summer, and decided to have a lazy day doing nothing instead. I’m glad I chose that, because people came back to the hostel soaking wet and not too excited about the glacier. I prefer Bødalsbreen back home in sunshine In Franz Josef I was also introduced to bed bugs, bastards! Itchy itchy!!

Leaving Franz Josef it was still raining... We drove down to Makarora (a small place in the middle of nowhere...) for an overnight stop, and the drive that day is supposed to be one of the most spectacular drives in New Zealand. We didn’t see anything because of the weather, the fog was thick and the view was none existing. Not much we can do about the weather, so we played Trivial Pursuit on my iPod and listened to music instead. Of course I got a cold due to the shitty weather, and that kind of amputated my first stop in Queenstown...

Despite the cold, i was very excited about arriving Queenstown, “the adventure and party capital of the world”. It’s so many activities to choose from! Bungy-jumping, caving, rafting, sledging, jet boating, skydiving, paragliding, horseback riding ++, whatever you want to do: it’s right there. I wanted to try hang gliding, I never tried that before, but it was cancelled due to strong wind. My first stop in Queenstown was therefore filled with relaxation (trying to get rid of that cold), drinking (again, trying to get rid of that cold…different strategy), walking around in the town and along the beautiful waterfront and eating Fergburgers – apparently NZ’s best burgers. I must agree it is a very good place for burgers, highly recommended!

South Island so far really reminds me of Norway. Steep mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, hills everywhere with pine trees and COLD nights. Sounds familiar? It’s still very beautiful, but I guess it isn’t as breathtaking for me as for the rest of the people I’m travelling with. Kiwis are very friendly though, and always do their max to give us a great time. So far, I love New Zealand!
2009-11-24

Hello again!

Finally, Auckland! I arrived last Sunday, a bit confused about time and dates, Saturday disappeared in the Pacific somewhere. A lot has happened the last week, so this is going to be a pretty long blog, sorry for that..

I didn’t see much of Auckland, I was there for only one day. I walked around in the city, met other backpackers, walked down to the harbor, had a couple of beers there and that’s pretty much it. Auckland was ok, but I really don’t know the city. I headed south the second day, with a bus company called Stray. They do cheap hop on - hop off tours in New Zealand, and traveling alone it’s a good deal. We drove to Hahei the first day, a really small place on the east coast. The population there is 270 during winter, and 7000 in the summer.. The place is close to the Hot Water Beach, which is the main attraction in the area, together with the Cathedral Cove. The Cathedral Cove is really beautiful, with limestone arches and caves, and really nice beaches. I just wish it was a bit warmer so we could go swimming! It’s spring in NZ, so it’s like May back home in Norway. It can get really warm, but then again - it’s not summer quite yet! And it's really cold at night…

(http://www.thecoromandel.com/mercurybay.html)

After a great barbeque back at the hostel we went to the Hot Water Beach. Really weird experience. It was freezing in the air, the ocean was cold, the sand was cold, but grad a spade, dig a hole and you got your own personal spa , boiling hot!! Hot water comes up from beneath the surface, and during the low tide you can make your own personal spa. Very nice!

Next main stop was Raglan, surfers paradise in New Zealand. Apparently this place got the worlds longest left-hand break, and for those who know how to surf can ride a wave for up till 10 minutes. Wow. We went to Ngarunui beach, a nice, dark beach, just to relax. I didn’t rent a surfboard, but it was a lot of fun watching all the beginners!

Waitomo caves was an amazing place. In the area around the small town Waitomo it’s more than 300 mapped caves, lots of underground cave systems and streams with stalagmites and stalactites. Also, the worlds biggest (?) glow worms lives in these caves. The larva glow worms have luminescent organs that produce a greenish light, and looking up to roof of the cave, it’s like seeing a mini Milky Way - pretty stunning! I went Tumu Tumu Toobing in the cave, which is a walking, wading, swimming and tubing (black water rafting) trip. The lowest point was 35 meters underground, pretty cool! Our guides made us crawl through really narrow tunnels with our flash lights off, lucky I’m not claustrophobic…. The water was freezing, so I was really cold when we came up after the 2 hours trip.
(http://www.waitomo.co.nz/)

That night we stayed at a local Maori family, with Uncle Boy as their chief. That was quite an experience. After a pretty scary welcome, the family held a concert for us, traditional singing and dancing. The guys in the group learned to do the haka - a war dance, and us girls learned the poi dance. Quite fun, and a bit embarrassing. Show what your mama gave you!

The next day we stopped in Rotorua, probably the most famous place in New Zealand. It’s a geothermal hotspot, and it’s nickname “The sulphur city” couldn’t be more right. The city stinks! I visited a Maori Village called Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao - no kidding. It’s a thermal village, and Maoris live in the city, trying to live a normal life, with hundreds of tourists walking in the streets on guided tours learning about the Maori culture. We had a meal there as well, cooked in the hot pools. I was a bit skeptic, since it smells awful, but the meal was pretty nice!

The next big thing that we did was the Tongariro Crossing. I was really exited about this hike, and it was one of the reasons I chose to travel with Stray, that we got the chance to stay in the Tongaririo National Park for one day. The national park was established in 1887, and is the second national park in the world, after Yellowstone (I think…). It is three active volcanoes in the area, with Mt Ngauruhoe being the most famous one, since it stared as Mt Doom in Lord Of The Rings movies (were they destroy the Ring). The weather forecast wasn’t really good, and they were about to cancel it because of the really strong wind and the possibility for heavy rain. Luckily they didn’t cancel it. It was one of the best hiking trips I’ve ever been on, and I strongly recommend it for anyone who want to go to New Zealand! Don’t know how to describe it properly, so look at this:
http://www.tongarirocrossing.org.nz/
A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.
The weather turned out pretty good, no rain, but the wind was really really strong. We had up to 70 km/h!! Our guide said that this was maximum wind that he would allow, 5 more k/h, and we had to turn around. In some parts we had to walk 2 and 2 together, and I had problems breathing every now and then. So extreme!! But oh so cool : )

The next day I met Matt and Keryn, friends I met traveling in Africa earlier this year. So good to see them again! They picked me up in Palmerston North - their hometown, and we stayed at Matt’s mom house that night. What a lovely lady! Luxury to have my own room and a proper bed! We went to a barbeque and a 50th birthday party with a pink theme, a lot of fun. I wish I’m as crazy when I turn 50, it was a good party.

We didn’t do much in Wellington. I went to the Te Papa museum, to learn about New Zealand history, about volcanoes and earthquakes and I saw the biggest squid in the world. Huge! We spent the rest of the Sunday at Matt & Keryn’s house, watching tv, eating takeaway and just relaxing. Just perfect : )

Wow, blog is updated! I’m impressed if your still reading, you must be pretty bored at this point. I’m soon off to explore the South Island, I have 2 ½ weeks there before heading over to Australia. It’s spring in New Zealand, and it’s been very cold for the last week. I guess South Island is going to be even more cold, brrrrrrrr. I’m looking forward to warm Australia, but first; more of beautiful NZ.

So long!

So, i already got complaints about writing my blog in norwegian, so i guess i have to try to write in english from now on. I can’t promise any good reading, but I’ll give it a try.

First stop on my 4 month journey: New York! And once again it’s confirmed - i L.O.V.E. that city. I’m lucky enough to have friends in the city, and Susan has been a great hostess. Thank you so much Susan for letting me stay at your place! Her apartment is in Manhattan on 3 avenue, lower east village, so everything is really just around the corner. Superb!

The days went by with walking around in the city, on an impossible mission: no shopping.. I proved that impossible. So, I bought some jeans, a camera and lots of other stuff. I’ve been in great pain, there’s so much shopping surrounding me, but so little room in my backpack! My bag was completely full when I left Norway, and I have already shipped things back home. I’m not good at this backpacking-thing.

One of the nights we went to Madison Square Garden to watch a New York Knicks game. The tickets were really cheap, 7 dollars each. The Yankees were playing the same night, with a possibility to win the World Series, so lots of seats were available. It was a lot of fun, I’m glad we went. Also, Tony came drown from upstate, we traveled in California together a couple of years ago, nice to see him again. After the Knicks game we went to a pub to see the Yankees game, all the pubs were crowded with happy New Yorkers. The Yankees won of course, congratulations with the world series guys.

I did one big sightseeing in New York this time: Tom’s restaurant - the café from the Seinfeld show. I walked through Central Park and some pretty dodgy areas on upper west side to find the cafe, but luckily my chicken noodle soup was totally worth it! Just a fun thing to do. That night Susan and me went to Brooklyn to have dinner with Joshua and Allison (a cousin and his wife). Really nice to see them again, it‘s been a while. Nice dinner, good company and classic drinks at a 1920’s bar - it’s really not much that could go wrong.

So, that was New York this time. I had a great time, relaxing, shopping and being with friends that I don’t get to see that often. I’ll be back later, for sure!