When we got to Manchester we had an Avs rental car and drove into CityApartment Hotel which was the easy part. As with the UK not an easy place to park the car. So my wife hopped in and asked how to get to the car park. She was told it was not easy and to put the address and co-ordinates into the SatNav/GPS which I have my own with me. I did that and my GPS went mental trying to get us there, after about 20 minutes we finally found it and we were only about 200 metres from the door of the hotel. The one way system and bus only lanes made it a real excursion just to fid the car park. After going down to Cheltenham and back again the the same hotel the GPS knew by now where to go, WRONG, it took us to a road under a bridge with a barrier across, A quick turn around corrected the GPS and we were back on track.
Now choosing seats on a plane can be a bit hit and miss. I thought we had chosen ok, but seemingly not. The second leg of the flight we were one seat back from a bulkhead in the centre section. The guy in front decided that the 2 meteres he had in front of him was not enough so pushed his seat back to the max. Looking forward he had his legs stretched out just touching the bulkhead and his TV screen was almost 2 metres away. Me, however had my little screen pushed about the length of my iPad from my face. I was reading a book on it at the time and it was not easy getting the iPad in an appropriate place to read. I felt if I had a big black non removable marker pen on me I could write “selfish bastard” on his big bald head, lucky for him I never had a pen. Well possibly lucky for me also as he was a big angry looking bloke.
Napier to Manchester is a long pair of flights. We had the option of an hour and a half stop, a five and a half hour stop and a 12 hour stop in Singapore, or a complete layover as we booked on the way home. the first part Napier to Auckland is easy, only an hour flight, then Auckland to Singapore was 10 hours 50 minutes and Singapore to Manchester was 13 hours 45 minutes. We had booked seats in the centre of the plane which was a 3, 3, 3 seating configuration in economy, we often go premium economy. Although the flight is a long boring time spent they had plenty of entertainment on Singapore Airlines of movies, tv, radio, and books. Good enough service on board but it used to be better when we travelled pre-covid. The meals were only average compared to the past flights we have done.
Our pilot is looking for the green dot near Manchester
We had a 5 hour 20 min stop over at Changi Airport between flights from Napier, New Zealand, Auckland, Singapore, Manchester. We booked a 6 hour block at the Ambassador Transit Hotel in Terminal 3, but we arrived in Terminal 2. A quick transfer on the little Skytrain made it nice and easy then a long walk to the hotel. We managed a 2 or 3 hour sleep and a shower and off we go to the departure gate. Loaded up with Iced Water and assuming since we were in the Transit Terminal already that the water would be fine, BUT, that was not to be. Our plane was going to Houston, USA after Manchester so in fact there was a fairly stringent search making sure we had no water in our bags. After standing in the line for some time and getting near the front a security bloke asked if our water bottles were empty, nope, oh well go empty them then. So we did that and then back to the end of the line to start the process again. Anyway we finally got through and onto the plane and good to go.
Changi is an awesome airport, it has a bit of everything. Along with helpful staff (most of the time) and a well organised agenda it seems to run like clockwork.
Manchester Airport in comparison is well past it’s use bye date, it is very old and tired and it’s low ceilings and complicated way to get where is needed well and truly needs some attention.
Well not entirely closed but hardly anyone on the streets or cafes. Floriade flower show, an annual event was nearing it’s end and even that was very quiet. Some great sisplays from what we saw and after about 2 hours walking around there it was time to go find a cafe.
Not an easy task as a lot seemed to be closed
I think the 2 days in Canberra could have been spent better somewhere other than Canberra.
During our few days in Brisbane we did a river cruise which included a lunch at the old historic Breakfast Creek Hotel.
A bit of a walk to the river cruise boat, then waiting around for a long time then we were finally under way.
A very informative trip with one of the staff pointing out a lot of things on either side of the river.
We finally got to the last stop and then it was about a 2km walk to the actual Hotel.
The quaint old hotel with great service and it included a demonstration of tapping an old beer barrel which resulted in beer spraying up when the cork was removed and everyone got a taste of the freshly tapped beer barrel. Lunch was quite enjoyable, an old restored part of it was a huge bar with a very high ceiling and almost every choice of drink I could ever want.
Then since we had to be back for the return river cruise trip most of us walked back and waited under the trees on the boat.
During out few weeks we did manage to visit three of the Beechworth Bakeries.
Bendigo, Echuca and Beechworth. At each we did have one of their specials the “Beesting” as part of our lunch.
The crowd at all of them around lunch time is staggering. A massive selection of baked goods for both eating on the premise or for taking away. It seems a lot of locals just come in for their bread which is only a very small percentage of what they offer.
I did get one of Tom’s bakery books with a heap of recipes in it and a lot of guides for making a lot of their products including the “Beesting’s”
Chambers of the Black Hand Opal Mine – Lightening Ridge
Chambers Of The Black Hand Opal mine at Lightening Ridge was a great experience.
First we waited in the hot sun for another tour to finish then several of us descended down the 85 steep steps into the mine. The guide had given us all hard hats and a safety briefing prior to the descent.
The tour was very informative about how the mine was formed and all the hundreds if intriate carvings in the soft stone down below.
As expected there was a small shop down in the mine selling hand carvings and various Opals.
We arrived late at the Royal Flying Doctor museum at Dubbo, NSW so did not really get enough time there.
At the time we got there after many hours of driving the cafe was closed unfortunately.
We had a couple of people showing us around, one was a retired Nurse and an ex Pilot telling us how it all worked and they showed us mock plane setups of how the planes were set up inside, the medical kits they had on board and a good video of tome of the stories of rescues that had been done in the past.
The Nurse took us up to the top of a control tower and we managed to see one of their planes coming into land and take a stretcher off the plane.
The story behind it all and the experience was fantastic.
Our visit to Canada was great. My Wife and daughter met me in Montreal as they had been in UK. I flew to Vancouver then to Montreal and they met me the following day.
We spent a bit of time in Montreal and also did a trip to Quebec City and also another trip to Niagara Falls.
The Quebec City trip was great we had a good guide and she gave us an excellent walking tour of the old City plus we had a bit of time to explore some places ourselves before catching the bus back again.
The Niagara trip gave us plenty of time and we had lunch at a great place with a view of the falls. It also included a couple of stops, one at a wine tasting place and one in a small village. While there we did do a boat tour on the river below the falls, which was a bit wet but awesome, it gives a great perspective of how bit and how much water is coming over the top.
From Montreal we flew to Toronto and had a few days there. This is where our daughter stayed on for another few days to do a course while we flew next to Calgary.
We planned the Calgary stop wrong as it was bitterly cold and we had 5 nights there killing time until our planned Rocky Mountaineer train trip. We were picked up at our hotel by bus and driven to Banff, after a night there we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer and headed to Lake Louise. This part was supposed to include a Helicopter flight and also a Gondola ride. The Helicopter flight was cancelled due to fog and the Gondola was almost no view at the top also due to fog.
We got to Lake Louise and once again due to low fog no view up to the end of the lake. We were joined by passengers from the train in from Jasper and that extended the train a bit longer. We never thought of doing the Jasper part until then.
Next stop was Kamloops, and then next day into Vancouver. We were greeted by a huge line up of buses to take us to several different hotels around Vancouver. All in a nice line with everyone in uniform it looked really impressive indeed.
We had opted for the Gold Service with the double decker carriages with a great view, we also had meals on the train as well which were fantastic.
Another few days in Vancouver to look around and a lot of walking, a couple of bus tours, it is a place I would gladly go back to at another time.
Rimrock Hotel
Our view of the spectacular mountains at Lake Louise
