Around the World in 43 Days! 2007-2008

Gidday to everyone from the Big Apple; from the frozen Big Apple, that is!
After a straight forward flight from Orlando to New York, we had quite the eventful shuttle from the airport to our hotel near Central Park. We never realised just how many people one driver will try to pick up, how many airport stops he'll make and just how many people could be crammed into one small shuttle van!!

After dumping our gear in the Beacon, we donned our winter woolies and set off for a stroll around Central Park in 1degree temperature. All except Rich who, after stepping outside, quickly had to go back and put more clothes on. There was heaps of entertainment in the Park - frozen lakes to throw ice and rocks and sticks onto, snow to slide down, sqirrels to chase, hot nuts from a park vendor, horse and carriages going by, etc.


Luckily the weather had been snowing before we got to NY, so we had some sense of what it is like.

We thought we had seen a fair bit of the park, but when we got back after our walk we realised that we had covered only a very small percentage. A visit to Arties Deli on the way back where we thought we would get typical yankee diner food, only to be presented with a bowl of coleslaw and mixed relish pickles. Oops. We had made it to one of New York's favourite Jewish Kosher Delis! All the food (other than the pickled entree) was great, even the Knish Puppy.

Here is the view at the end of first arvo in NY -

The next day (19th) we spent mainly in downtown Manhatten. Sue had booked us on a double-decker hop on and hop off tour.

We saw Times Square, the Flatiron building (that thin one in heaps of movies),

the Empire State Bldg, and Rockafeller Centre. The Empire State bldg was a real highlight - we saw heaps and really appreciated what an effort went into building it in 1931. The weather was really ferrel on one side - see Sue all rugged up below.

There were lots of highlights, and everyone had personal favourites. Sue loved the Rockafeller Centre, Bethany liked shopping and the Empire State Bldg, I really enjoyed having lunch at NY's msot famous Pizzeria - Johns, and Benj's was finally getting to touch a guitar a famous shop, Matt Umanov's.

15th December
This time we went into the real Universal Studios (as opposed to the Adventure Island funpark of Universal Studios). It didn't disappoint - we were thrown around in a hurricane (the movie set of Twister), were entertained by the Blues Brothers, went on the Mummy ride, screamed when Jaws popped out of the water beside our boat and watched a very loud rock concert played by dead people! (Beetlejuice, Frankenstein, Dracula and Frankenstein's Wife). It was so much fun!


Then we got huge icecreams and ate them while watching a live Fear Factor show with heaps of dangerous stunts being performed right in front of our eyes. We also went on other rides like Men In Black and Terminator 2. Then we finished at Universal for the day after meeting Bart and Lisa Simpson, and WENT SHOPPING! (much to Bethany & Sue's delight... and Richard and Ben's dismay :P) Playing Disney Mini-Golf that night tied the day off nicely with funny courses, interesting golf techniques and lots of fun!

17th December
This day was literally "totally out of this world"! We spent most of the day at the famous Kennedy Space Centre looking at real space shuttles and learning all about NASA's space program. It was really interesting! We learned so much about space. Firstly, we checked out the Astronaught's Hall of Fame where Ben and Bethany went on a G-Force Simulator that spun round and round at 4G. We saw lots of Alligators on our bus tour, saw the REAL Atlantis Space Shuttle on it's loading dock in the distance, saw the huge building where they build the rockets, touched a moonrock from space, saw lots of videos about previous space missions and experienced a REAL shuttle launch (so now we know what it feels like to journey in a rocket up to space!).



Benj wanted this one in for Grandad Schuster - thought he might like to work on it!!
That afternoon we left the space centre to go on an Airboat Ride on the St. Marks Northbound River. We saw heaps of wildlife like alligators, eagles and cows and the country scenery in the afternoon sun was SO BEAUTIFUL! It was a cold day in Orlando today, but that was handy because it got us ready for the coldness of NY. We had dinner in a typical American country Diner, which was exciting because it was like the ones you see in all the movies. We ate fried shrimp, fried alligator and hushpuppies! (very american- we are always trying new things!) A great way to end our stay in Orlando, Florida. Next we fly to the Big Apple!

We have not had either internet access, energy or enough battery to blog until now, so apologies for the delayed update. We had another night's flying and realised that we have only had one night in three in a bed! We mostly managed to sleep for the 7 hr flight from Hawaii to Dallas (Texas) and then again for the 21/2 hr flight from Dallas to Orlando Florida. We were all really tired. However that did not stop us from heading straight to Disney EPCOT straight away.

We managed to do 7hrs after only arriving at 3pm. The fireworks show was spectacular and we loved all the country Christmas displays. We now have millions of pictures of different themed trees. This might just turn out to be our most Christmassy Christmas yet!

Second Disney day was at MGM. We woke up at about 10.30am so we missed most of the morning. But we managed to squeeze another 8hr day in! We all have done the rollercoaster’s even though our heads are still spinning from the travel. Disney is a blast with lots of things to see and do.

We are always too busy to eat and end up eating at the end of the night….last night we had something at our Resort the All Stars Music. We are in the Rock section with the big guitars, speaker stairwells and piano pool. Very appropriate for this family! Benjamin says he may have had to kill himself if we had been in All-stars Country.

Today (that was the 13th) we went to Universal Studios Adventure Park. (It has two parks to Disney’s 5). This was our day of thrills starting off with the Hulk (twice in succession) and working through to the duelling dragons. WOW! We ate a lot today because we had an all you can eat pass. Sue’s favourite place in Universal was Seussland and all the Chrissy decorations while Richard liked the Toon town’s ‘Dudley Do right’s Rip Saw falls’- this was a log ride which guarantees that you get wet- we did! But what we did not know that a whole heap of people had paid quarters to squirt us at the end of the ride- we got soaked! So of course we had to pay to squirt someone else. Fairs fair; Benjamin liked the roller coasters and Bethany thought the buildings were exciting- they really do a fantastic job creating atmosphere.

We finished the night with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade down the main street in Universal Studios- complete with ticker tape.

UPDATE -
Today is the 15th December and we have gone to Magic Kingdom yesterday on the 14th and to the main bit of Universal Studios today. Magic Kingdom was like a trip down memory lane as we revisited a lot of the favourite places we had from our time at Disneyland in 2000.

Rides like Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain, and the Pirates ride (updated after the movies with Jack Sparrow, of course!), and Sue wanted to do "It's a Small World". Benjamin drew the line at that one!!!
It was great seeing our favourite characters, like Micket etc.


And then we had the fantastic finale to the day...

Universal Studios ... (more to come tomorrow. Got to sleep now sorry :-) )

Finally it feels like we are on holidays! After a delayed flight out of Brisbane, we made it to the very hot Nadi at Fiji. Rich thought he would help you by showing where we went on the following map..

That short trip was only 3 hrs. Unfortunately, our flight out of Nadi to Hawaii was delayed until midnight, so we went out and had dinner at a seafood restaurant in downtown Nadi. Coming back at a liesurely 3hrs before our flight, we then had four shocks:
1. The flight got delayed a third time until 2am - another 2 hrs.
2. The staff at Nadi airport were a tad slow. It took THREE hours STANDING in the queue to check back in. Pls see the distance we travelled in the picture below, which took the same time as flying from Brisbane to Nadi!!

3. The flight got delayed a fourth time - another 2hrs. So now we were leaving at 4.20am. Yawnnnnnnn
4. Ending up sleeping on the gate lounge seats with the other 200 people.

Eventually we made it to Honolulu, but had to quickly change plans as we had lost half of the 2 days we have here. No problemo - have alook at these happy campers finally out of planes and queues.

Bethany did what she normally does and looked at the scenery upside down..

Of course Sue is revelling in the Christmas time - she can't help herself around all of the decorations..

Tomorrow we hope to make up for what we missed today, and get up to the surfing action on the North shore of Oahu.

To catch you up, the second day in Hawaii was a full day. We hired a car and drove around the whole island, on the wrong side of the road of course....Sue was a bit edgy with some of my turns. We started with snorkelling with the fishies at Hanuama Bay. This was really fun and there were heaps of interesting colourful fish (really big ones too!) We had a waterproof camera but that is old school so we will have to get the film developed before we have some pics.

We also visited the famous Bills pies where we bought a chocolate cream pie and managed to eat only half. We were at Waiama Bay for the Billabong Masters surf carnival - unfortunately there wasnt the 6m waves that they wanted, so the comp wasn’t on. We thought the waves were big though. We made it home to have a quick shower and get to the airport.

We are on the home stretch of planning and packing now!
But, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men ... Sue has hurt her back and Richard's Grandma has passed away. They say things happen in threes ...

Here is where we are going: Travelling 44352 kilometers, visiting 19 destinations.

[09 Dec 2007] Brisbane, Australia
[09 Dec 2007] Nadi, Fiji
[09 Dec 2007 - 10 Dec 2007] Honolulu, USA
[11 Dec 2007] Dallas, USA
[11 Dec 2007 - 18 Dec 2007] Orlando, USA
[18 Dec 2007 - 23 Dec 2007] New York, USA
[24 Dec 2007] London, United Kingdom
[24 Dec 2007 - 30 Dec 2007] Rugby, United Kingdom
[30 Dec 2007 - 31 Dec 2007] London, United Kingdom
[31 Dec 2007 - 04 Jan 2008] Rome, Italy
[04 Jan 2008 - 06 Jan 2008] Florence, Italy
[04 Jan 2008] Pisa, Italy
[06 Jan 2008 - 07 Jan 2008] Venice, Italy
[07 Jan 2008 - 13 Jan 2008] Telfes im Stubai, Austria
[13 Jan 2008] Munich, Germany
[13 Jan 2008] London, United Kingdom
[14 Jan 2008 - 17 Jan 2008] Dubai, United Arab Emirates
[17 Jan 2008 - 19 Jan 2008] Kowloon, Hong Kong
[20 Jan 2008] Brisbane, Australia

Here is what the packing looks like: