New York, New York !!

We have been busy! We have been riding the City Sight bus tours: Uptown, Manhattan, Down town, over the Hudson River to Brooklyn and the Night Time Tour. The weather is still very cold - thank goodness for warm hats!


This is the cathedral of St John, the largest Gothic Revival church in the world. The Statue of Liberty could be laid down in the nave. An amazing place. Some of the sculptures at the front were coloured and some were new with modern based themes. The second picture shows what a muddle the place is with Gothic, Georgian and a modern part where there was a recent fire. The fountain is next to the cathedral in the children's garden with lots of small sculptures made by local children.


This is the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright of whom we are ardent fans. Not popular when it was first built (as were many of the huge structures!) but now a busy modern art gallery. We went to a Viennese Gallery where we were excited to see the original of a Gustav Klimt portrait. Fantastic - and a very good cafe with yummy cakes. Bit posh though!


This little church is St Paul's, one of the oldest in the city where George Washington had his own pew. This was one of the bases for the rescue staff after 9/11 and had an emotion display about the events following the collapse. The picture above is of the many origami banners sent in by the school children of Japan to show their support amongst many other similar tributes from around the world.


Here are 2 of the best known buildings. The Empire State (more later as we hope to go up it) and the Flat Iron Building (did they model this on Imps in Margate!)


This lovely arch is the Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn modelled on the Arc De Triumph in Paris commemorating the Union soldiers of the American Civil War. Brooklyn is a large area with some lovely architecture but our trip was spoiled by a guide who tried to show how good the area was by slagging off Manhattan and other places. Every thing it had was bigger or better or had come before the rest of New York City! The second picture is a view of Manhattan from The Manhattan Bridge.


The night time tour retraced much of the routes taken on the other trips but was thrilling with all the lights blazing. Here is Broadway and Times Square.


Here we are on the Brooklyn side looking across to Manhattan with the most amazing city skyline. You just want to keep taking more and more pictures here.

Still so much more to see in this busy place so keep an eye out for the next installment!

New York

Flying to the US was odd to say the least. We flew (in a lovely plane with very good seats) for about 12 hours ....... and then arrived in LA 9 hours BEFORE we left!!
The transfer to the New York plane was easy, and after getting our seats sorted, we set off for JFK Airport and the COLD!!
We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. Lovely frontage and almost opposite Grand Central Station and 5-10 minutes walk from Broadway and Times Square.


Here is Gordon in front of our hotel and the view from our room - and yes it IS the (world famous) Chrysler Building. How's that for location.


We had a good lay in as the day of the flight was a bit of a "Groundhog Day" and went around the corner to "Blooms" for brunch.


After brunch we had a wander around the area starting with a visit to the Chrysler Building itself! We are afraid that most of the photos on the next few blogs will probably be of buildings so bear with us! So, here is a close up of the tower.


Rachel wrapped up to protect her from the cold in the streets of NY. Big change after the southern hemisphere!


Here is Broadway and Times Square - all flashing lights and people trying to sell you tickets!


As we love it so much here is that tower again at night!

More to follow!

Up the Thermal Highway

We drove from Lake Taupo north back to Rotorua for another quick stop there. On the way we stopped at Waitapu - The Thermal Wonderland. And it was. When the guide books claim it is the best of this and that in New Zealand they are right!


The first part we went to see was the Lady Knox Geyser. It was a little odd that it seemed to go off at 10.15 every day like clockwork - but all was explained. There was an auditorium of seats around to watch the event and a guide started the "show" by explaining how adding soap powder changes the surface tension of the hot and cold layers of water making it spout. Apparently it was not the right season for the highest spurts but we were still pretty impressed.


The area was impressive by the selection of minerals in the water and soil that caused a wide variety of colours. Sulphur was responsible for the amazing yellow colour.


Here, the edges of the lake were a vivid red / orange - even brighter than in the photo. And when the light is right, the steam is also red and shimmers over the very blue water.


This is the Primrose Terrace where water pushes silica crystals along which creates dune like patterns and terraces as it solidifies. This is a smaller scale version of the world famous terraces that were lost in the late 19th century volcano.


The Emerald Lake does as it suggests in the right conditions and is very, very green.


In Rotorua we had a lovely apartment with a private mineral bath. However, the picture shows us in the park in the town where there are a selection of free hot mineral foot spas. Lovely. And what was most amusing was that here - in a public area were the best mud pools we had seen. The photos were fantastic.

Another highlight is the Waka or canoe by the lake. The carvings, by a present day local artist, are amazing but what makes it even more special is that it comes out for special occasions and races more than once a year.

Going back to see Dave and Steve now in Auckland to wash our clothes and do a bit more sightseeing before we head off to New York.