Milly Made It.: Holidays

O'ahu, Hawaii - October 2019

California - March 2017

O'ahu, Hawaii - October 2015

Singapore - April 2015

Gardens by the Bay

Tekka Market, Little India

Little India

Chinatown

Kampong Glam

California - July 2014

San Francisco

Fisherman's Wharf

Crossing the GG Bridge

Little Italy, SF

Chinatown, SF

Muir Woods

SF from the water

Alcatraz

Monterrey

Lone Cypress, Pebble Beach

Piedras Blancas

Elephant Seals at Point Piedras Blancas

Red Rock Canyon State Park @ 43 degrees C

Joshua Tree National Park @ 42 degrees

Salton City

Oops, wrong road again near Palm Springs

Near Lake Hemet

Coronado, San Diego

Old Town, San Diego

Out in the wops of California - btwn Paso Robles and Palm Springs

General direction travelled: San Francisco (3 nights), Monterey, Carmel by the Sea, Cambria, Paso Robles (1 night), Lost Hills, Mohave, Red Rock Canyon State Park, accidentally Edwards Airforce Base!, Palmdale, Palm Springs (3 nights), Joshua Tree NP, accidentally almost Twentynine Palms Marine Corp Grand Combat Centre!, Salton City, Carlsbad (3 nights), San Diego. 1200 miles driven.

O'ahu, Hawaii - Oct 2013

Our condo @ The Ilikai, #526

Waikiki Main Beach

Waimea Bay Beach Park

On the trolley

Melbourne, Australia - September 2013

Dawn over the Tasman.

Returning to scale @ Flemington after Race 1, 7 Sept.

Brisbane, Australia - July 2013

Central Station

War Memorial

On the way to the art gallery

The Hilton Hotel, Elizabeth Street.

Sydney, Australia - April 2013

In the city.

St Mary's in Hyde Park.

My room 4 Points Darling Harbour

My wardrobe had a light that came on when the door was open. I want one!

View from my window of Darling Harbour.

My ticket in!

Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free ...

Post race cool down.

Brisbane, Australia - Oct 2012

The City Botanic Gardens

The Wheel of Brisbane

City

Treasury Building

Queen Victoria

River Fire Festival

From the ferry heading back to Eagle St Pier

O'ahu, Hawaii - Oct 2011

California (and Nevada, Arizona) Road Trip - Sept/Oct 2010

Las Vegas, NV

Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Mono Lake, CA

Tioga Pass, Yosemite NP, CA

Sequoia National Park, CA

Bodie State Park, CA

Death Valley, CA

Death Valley National Park, CA

Yosemite NP, CA

Yosemite National Park, CA

The Grand Canyon, AZ

Cliff Dwellers, AZ

Vermillion Cliffs area, AZ

Notes from the i-touch

Fri 24.9 - Arrived Las Vegas via San Franciso. Frisked at San Fran airport before flight to Vegas after not even setting off detector for an international flight. Stayed at Circus Circus which we booked on wotif back in July. Takes us 9 minutes to walk from the entry to our room. Most people wandering around speak Spanish.

Sat 25.9 - Walked miles down the strip. Homeless (well homeless looking) people selling bottled water out of chillybins on the footpaths. Got bus to outlet shops. Got back to hotel with no time to spare so we got on the bus to the Mirage with all of our shopping to see Love by Cirque du Soliel. Pretty spectacular. Had a pause about ¼ of the way through when one of the performers got stuck and had to be lowered down from the ceiling!

Sun 26.9 - Went up town in the am to Sephora (one of our fave US shops). Picked up rental car, free upgrade to Hyundai Santa Fe so feel very flash. Drove to and explored Red Rock Canyon. 37 degrees C at 7.30pm. Making use of free wi-fi at McD's next to Circus, Circus.

Mon 27.9 – Ate donuts for breakfast purchased from the shop on the ground floor of the hotel. Strip in the am – visited the M and M store and Sephora – one last time. Left Vegas about noon. Drove to Twentynine Palms via Hoover Dam (where the new bridge was almost ready for opening), Lake Havasu City (houseboats on the Colorado River), Parker, Earp, Highway 62. Border inspection as we crossed into California from Arizona. Stayed at dodgy Motel 6 next to Del Taco. Motel full of builders working at flash new hotel across the road. After work they gather in the carpark and drink their beer out of their chillybins. Interesting. 111 degrees (42 Celc) going thru Lake Havasu City on edge of Colorado River.
It was a tri-state day. Woke in Nevava, drove south through Arizona and slept in California.

Tues 28.8 – Left Twentynine Palms and drove to Palm Springs via Joshua Tree National Park. Lots of Joshua trees, red rock formations, etc and maybe 4 other cars of people. So plenty of room for exploring and not having to have random people in photos. Staying two nights at Palm Mountain Resort and Spa. $60US a night via coupon book picked up at visitors' centre. It's like the apartment complex on Melrose Place back in the day with the big pool in the middle.

Wed 29.9 – Visisted Desert Hills and Cabazon Outlet malls, finally found a Joann craft store, walked up Palm Canyon Drive (Palm Springs is v quiet), finally ate Coldstone Icecream. 39.4 degrees C. 719 miles driven since Sunday afternoon.

Thursday 30.9 - Drove from Palm Springs to Tulare via Barstow, Ridgecrest, Lake Isabella, the Sierra National Forest. Staying at Motel 6 at Tulare right next door to Apple Annie's where we had mexican for tea. Long day. 1100 miles driven now. Rain in Palm Springs.

Friday 1.10 - Tulare to Sequoia National Park followed the General's Highway into the park. Walked up 350 steps cut into the rock to the top of Moro Rock @ 2050 metres above sea level. Very puffed - we blame the altitude (-: Views of the Western Divide. It looked andf felt like we were at the top of the world really. Did a hiking loop to see the largest tree in the world. First walking loop was the Giant Forest Trail around the edge of a meadow. Saw a bear, deer, lots of squirrels today. Was going to stay in Fresno but heavily populated by motorcycle riding gangsters having bbqs in the carparks of every motel we pulled into so drove onto Madera - nothing at all like the cake. Motel 6 owned by Indians, not as in Cowboys and Indians, but as in your local dairy in NZ! Grape vines across the road from motel.

Saturday 2.10 - Madera to Yosemite National Park. Very, very busy, lots of people, roads closed, etc. Scenic - big rock faces, little rivers and big meadows. Got up to 6000 feet above sea level and then back down to the river and valley floor. A nice park, but too crowded. Must remember not to visit National Parks on Saturdays. Stayed in Mariposa, wild west style town. Off the road by 2.30 pm which was nice for a change. Had a swim * 33 degrees. Two good questions today - at breakfast at Subway 'would you like white egg or yellow?' 'hmm yellow?' These Americans. Then this avo, 'are u from England?' 'no New Zealand.'

Sunday 3.10 - Mariposa to Carson City via Tioga Pass (Yosemite NP) and Bodie State Park – a former mining town now a ghost town not as in Scooby Doo ghosts, just as in desterted. 150 buldings are still standing. Great pix @ Bodie in the spitting rain. Cold and rainy day all round. The most corrugated road ever from leaving the highway into Bodie – possibly not supposed to leave paved road in rental car. 5 degrees C over the Pass. Persevered with jandals, but did have to stop and find sweatshirts in our bags. Mono Lake scenic but stinky. Staying at Quality Inn Trailside Inn in Carson City. 16 degrees C here at 5pm - it feels cold. Great day discovering Mono Lake and Bodie – they weren't on the 'to see' list, so bonus.

Monday 4.10 - Drove from Carson City to Beatty via Death Valley National Park. Drove amongst the clouds coming back south by Mono Lake and got into a dust storm in DV. Staying at Motel 6 in Beatty. Dodgy town – one petrol station and a couple of motels. Tioga Pass closed with snow today. Went to Manzanar in the Owens Valley. Another random stop which turned out to be a gem. Manzanar was where in WW2 the white Americans imprisoned many Japanese Americans. It was once a camp of 10,000 people. America is a funny place. There are heaps of governor ads on tv at the mo and one depicts a candidate as being a friend of the "illegals" - so I don't think a lot has changed in terms of who some deem worthy of living here.

Tuesday 5.10 - Started in Beatty. Visited Rhyolite ghost town where there were warnings about snakes and collapsing buidlings, 20 Mule Canyon (exciting off road driving again – narrow and sloped dirt tracks), Artist's Palette, Dante's Peak, Badwater which is below 86 metres below sea level and the lowst point in America. Walked out onto the salt in the heat and glaring bright of white salt as far as you could see. Then drove all the way across to Kingman, AZ. Staying at Quality Hotel on Route 66 tonight. Arby's for tea. Hottest temp 82 F/27 C.

Wednesday 6.10 - started in Kingman, AZ with free motel breakfast. Weather very bad on the Interstate. Got to Williams where they told us not to go anywhere because of tornado warnings. Vehicles had rolled on the Interstate. Marked time in Williams for about an hour and then headed towards the Grand Canyon and looked over the edge in several places. (I have been there before in 2000). Cold and rainy some of the time. Drove from Cameron to Bitter Creek, Hurricane, St George to Mesquite. Saw the Vermillion Cliffs and the Cliff Dwellers where people used to live in homes carved into the rocks. Left about 8am got to Mesquite at 7.30pm. Have not seen any new critters. Have not seen any real Indians either ... We keep looking when we drive thru reservation land. Disappointing.

Thursday 7.10 - shopped at Walmart in Mesquite and then drove on to Vegas. Nothing says America like Walmart - love it. Nothing else in Mesquite, we thought it would be a mini-Vegas. Went to Premium Outlets in Vegas. Stayed at Hilton - 60$ wotif room upgraded for 20$ to a renovated room with big pillow top beds and a late check out. Used Monorail to get back onto the strip. Bought Toby Keith CD at his very own shop in some casino after listening to country music for the last two weeks. We love his Trailorhood song!

Friday 8.10 - Returned rental car – bit of a mission. Discovered we've done 3021 miles (4861 km), not 2021 miles as we thought. Eek. Now at Vegas Airport 6.34 pm. (Ended up on standby at LAX for about an hour randomly as we had bought our tickets six months beforehand.) Finally got seats. Were called to the gate by name! Got there just as they started boarding. Got about 6 hrs sleep between LAX and AKL.) Hmmm, where to for our next holiday?

The Canterbury, NZ, Holiday Dec 2010 (Hanmner, Kaikoura, Tekapo, Christchurch)