Lake Louise

Lake Louise is the most picturesque of the fields so far and this is clear right from arrival. The main lodge facility is all fully made of a light wood, an impressive and welcoming sight that epitomises what you would expect from a Rocky Mountain resort. When we first got to the field it had by then been a few days since the field had got any fresh snow, and after the clear runs of Sunshine Village Lake Louise was looking a little bit rougher. Lake Louise has a main front face, a back face of the same mountain and then further lifts going up the Larch face behind. Being overly optimistic we headed up and over the front face, and off down a back face black diamond that end up in a tight path through the trees dodging roots. We finally managed to get to the end of that track with the lift in sight, though separated from us by a filthy mogul track. Quite an introduction to the field, though I’ll have to take the blame for that one.

We spent most of the first day on the Larch hill, which by virtue of being further to get to had the best condition runs. The second day we were there we spent more time on the front face, and split the third day between the two (the back face of the main mountain was really only good for access). 

Despite having more snow than Ruapehu normally gets, while we were there you couldn’t shake the feeling that the field needed another 30cms or so to really blow you away. The runs through the trees were great and you could get some really long runs going, but unlike Sunshine you needed to be on your guard for rocks coming through. We also got a little unlucky on the second day in that the wind came up at the same time as the snow started coming down, whipping away our fresh powder as soon as it came down.

As you may know, Kathryn and I got engaged at the Marmot Basin field, which is in a later blog post. While that was very successful, an earlier attempt at Lake Louise was an epic failure. The goal was to write the proposal in the snow for her to see, but because we were boarding together without someone else to write it I had to come up with an elaborate story to set it up. Having finally gotten Kathryn to sit above me out of view and planning to come at me a certain way (“for a film shot”) I got started on the writing. Unfortunately, at just the wrong time the wind came up and knocked my board off its perch and it was gone down the hill. I had to immediately abandon the message and chase the board, and hope that once Kathryn came down she wouldn’t see it.  Luckily for me this worked out in that she didn’t see it, but we still lost an hour trying to find the board, which we eventually found when Kathryn spotted the bindings in some deep powder. Luckily the board didn’t get anywhere near injuring anyone but it just wasn’t meant to be that day. Good things take time!

Sunshine Village

Written by Kathryn

For the next few posts we thought we would describe the three ski fields we visited around Banff instead of giving a minute description of every run we did because that would get boring and repetitive to read.  This first post will be about Sunshine Village which is about 20 minutes outside of Banff.

Our arrival Calgary was well timed as it was snowing and Banff had recently had a lot of snow as well.  Although we weren’t in Calgary long, we couldn’t have asked for a better first look at Canada.  Everything was covered in snow from a recent storm and it was still gently snowing as we caught a taxi to the bus station to catch the Greyhound to Banff.  The Greyhound depot was rather confusing,  Greyhound do not guarantee that buying a ticket will get you on the bus, and given the number of people on the queue we were a little unsure whether we would be able to get on.

The bus we were meant to be on was running late which increased the stress, as we were left waiting in line for 45 minutes after the scheduled departure time before we were finally allowed to board.  The bus did fill up but luckily we were able to get on it, so all the stress was for naught.  Banff was the first stop the bus made and we were excited to see that it was still lightly snowing.  While it meant dragging our bags though the fresh snow on the sidewalk to get to our hotel, it also meant all the ski fields had a fresh dumping of snow. 

Banff is exactly what you would imagine a small Canadian town to look like in the middle of winter.  Snow is everywhere: beside the road, on the road, on the roofs, in your shoes, everywhere. It is insanely cold, even in the middle of the day. And it is oh so beautiful in the sunlight. The buildings all use a lot of wood and stone in the traditional mountain style, and it was fun to just walk up and down the main street soaking up the atmosphere.

On the advice of our hotel concierge we visited Sunshine Village first.  This is a 20 minute shuttle ride from Banff to the base of the field, and then a 20 minute gondola ride through the trees to get to the main village and lifts.

The ski field fans out around a valley so that there are some runs on either side, one side being steeper than the other.  We started out on some relatively easy slopes to get used to the hired gear and soon found that the dry Canadian snow was a lot slower than what we were used to at home. This made the runs very enjoyable as you could really push the boards while always being able to easily rein it in. It also took some time to get used to the need to maintain higher speeds to get across any flat bits.

It didn’t take long for us to feel comfortable again and move onto the more challenging slopes.  One of the things we were most looking forward to was snowboarding through trees which we have never done before, since Mt Ruapehu doesn’t have any.  Most runs started above the tree line and then as you moved further down the runs were lined with them and there was the odd clump which would temporarily divide a track.  There are also plenty of side tracks that have been created by other skiers and snowboarders adventuring off-piste.  As we got braver we worked our way onto these tracks going through the trees, however they require really good control for tight turns and are not very conducive to going at a slower speed.

We also had a go at a terrain park for the first time.  Sunshine has a small terrain park with some rails, boxes and jumps.  We were only brave enough to try the boxes which came is a few different widths.  The fact that they are wider than a snowboard gives you a false feeling of safety.  Although all you have to do is straighten up and go in a straight line it is surprisingly easy to go off track or lose your balance as the surface is very slippery.  On the widest box my board skidded out from under me and I fell on my ass, bouncing once on the box and being carried off the end into the snow by my forward momentum.  Although painful at the time I’m sure it was very funny to watch.

In general the runs at Sunshine are nice and wide with a good mix of steeps, rolling hills and tracks as well as the trees.  We both really enjoyed it, spending 3 of our 7 days there.

The last bite of the apple

As it was our last day in NYC we wanted to fit in as much as possible.  We started by walking to Grand Central Station and we happened to get there right near the end of rush hour.  At first the building felt very maze-like until we found the main concourse, which feels like a giant dome.  It felt like the building had far too many entrances and exits because people were coming from every direction and disappearing out the other side.  We stood at one end and watched the commuters for a bit before moving on. 

After Grand Central we walked a few blocks to the Empire State Building.  First we did the Skyride, a motion master ride which gave some information about the building and local attractions that you can see from the top, such as Central Park, High Line Park and the Brooklyn bridge.  I found the screen fuzzy and hard to watch which kind of ruined the experience.  The ride didn't compare to any of the other rides we had been on but it was good to see for the view it gave of NYC.  Also, a lot of the information it gave we had already heard about on other tours we had been on.  After the ride we went to the top of the building and looked around.  It was nice to see the city from above during the day and we got a good look at the Rockefeller building as well as the famous Chrysler building, which was once the tallest skyscraper in New York.

Once we had seen enough of the New York Skyline we hit the streets again. Rob was keen to see the High Line, which is a park built on abandoned freight railway tracks which were raised above street level.  Parts of the track have already been converted and the Trust is planning on converting more.  Some of the old tracks have already been demolished but we walked roughly half of what has been restored.  The tracks are 30 feet (9.14 meters) above street level and at times pass through buildings where the loading stations were.  The gardens look like they would be very pretty in spring and summer but everything looked a bit bleak in winter.

At the end of the High Line we thought we would walk up to Central Park for a horse and carriage ride but realised we were about half way down the island of Manhattan and it was probably a bit far to walk in one go.  In the end we caught the subway, which was starting to lose some of its novelty as the station smelt horrible and there was a weird homeless man peeing on a rubbish bin.  This may have been why it smelt so bad.

We arrived at Central Park and inspected the horses.  I wanted to pick the prettiest one but we ended up having to take the one at the front of the line.  The horses name was Eddie and our driver was Mike.  We got driven around a small circuit of the park which circled the ice skating rink and went past the Zoo.  I was impressed to see that at the entrance to the park there is a water trough for the horses to stop and drink at.  It was a pretty slow ride but it was definitely a nice way to see the park.  The clip clop of the horses hooves was relaxing in the same way the sound a train makes.

After our tour of the park we walked to the ice skating rink and hired some skates.  For some reason they always make hired skates horribly uncomfortable, which means you can't skate for long before your feet hurt.  However we did have fun watching a group of kids having an ice hockey lesson.  They would have been about 5 years old and could barely skate in a straight line let alone hit a puck but it was good fun to watch them giving it their best while failing. When the lesson was over we handed back our skates and caught the subway back to Times Square.

Just off Times Square is Madame Tussaud's wax museum.  The museum takes up 5 floors and you start at the top and make your way down.  The statues are grouped into themes such as sports stars, celebrities, politicians and singers.  We were able to have our photo taken with most anyone we wanted except Barack and Michelle Obama as Madame Tussauds had their own camera set up and wanted you to pay for their photos.  Some of the statues looked very realistic but others they hadn't quite got it right such as Julia Roberts.  

We ended our last day in New York by going to Ray's Pizza for dinner again, then back to the hotel and to bed early, since the shuttle to the airport was arriving at 2:30am to get us to the airport for our flight to Canada.

Another Wicked Day

The first thing we did today after heading out into the city was to pick up our tickets for Wicked from the box office. These were pre-booked so that we didn’t miss out, which was a good idea as the theatre was full!

From there we headed up to Central Park. We were planning to walk around to the Museum of Natural History but instead we jumped into a pedicab which took us all around the park, pointing out the sights and stopping for photo opportunities. The guy then dropped us off right by the museum which was 30 blocks down the park, so I’m going to call that a success.

The Museum of Natural History is great, and is so big that we didn’t manage to get through it all. The museum itself is quite old but despite this the older exhibits were still in excellent condition and many of the areas had been developed and updated. It did still seem to be very much in the vein of read and look, unlike the interactions of Te Papa, but if you can get Liam Neeson to voice your space exhibit then you’re doing something right.

The MNH also has comprehensive dinosaur exhibits with skeletons and fossils far beyond anything I’ve ever seen before, as well as an interesting exhibit on meteorites (I’m basically still a child). Kathryn quite enjoyed the gen exhibit because it was full of sparkly things, but I’m still not convinced they’re worth the price we pay for them.

Because the day outside was shaping up pretty well for a New York winter we decided to make the most of it and go and check out the Statue of Liberty. The MNH has a subway station built into the lower floor so we jumped on a train and headed all the way downtown to the Staten Island ferry. Because of the ways our other days had panned out we would have had to pay to get on a dedicated cruise to the island (which is closed post Sandy anyway), so we instead got on the free Staten Island Ferry and saw pretty much the same thing for free. The statue is iconic and for good reason, it is very impressive standing high over the water. It was a weird feeling actually seeing it first hand, having seen it in some much media previously.

We took the ferry out to Staten Island and back, so we were able to just jump back on the subway and head up town to our hotel, to get ready for Wicked. We popped into the Italian restaurant next door which turned out to be a great surprise, a fantastic little place virtually underneath us. The fettuccine and ravioli went down a treat in what looked like a Sopranos mob meeting set.

With dinner still on our taste buds we headed a couple of blocks uptown to the Gershwin Theatre for Wicked. The place was packed with people waiting to get in but luckily our travel agent had got us tickets in the 7^th row, which meant a speedy entry and a fantastic view. The show itself is amazing, we mainly went because Kathryn had read the book but I enjoyed it immensely (and have since read the book!). The show is very funny as well as being dramatic, and I even knew a couple of the songs which I wasn’t expecting. The Gershwin Theatre has been hosting Wicked for nine years and while this isn’t the original cast they clearly have the show down to an art. I would highly recommend the show, as much for the interesting tie ins to the original Wizard of Oz as well as for the show itself.

Boats, planes, and buses

On our water taxi the day before we’d seen the aircraft carrier Intrepid on the waterfront and so today we started off the day by heading down there to check it out. The Intrepid is an old aircraft carrier that has been decommissioned and is now used as a floating museum for the ship and various military aircraft. The ship is huge as you would expect, but has been decommissioned for some time so a lot of the technology aboard is quite dated. This makes it even more impressive that they were able to operate so many aircraft off the ship so effectively with such primitive tools.

I was most looking forward to seeing some of the accompanying items, such as the Blackbird spy plane, the nuclear submarine Growler and a retired British Airways Concorde. The Blackbird is an amazing machine, designed to fly much higher than other aircraft for reconnaissance only. This in itself is pretty neat but the best bit is the way it is powered. To put it simply it operates as a normal jet at lower speeds but once it gets up towards Mach 2 the jet is no longer required as the engines effectively compress and burn air alone, with no additional fuel required. This isn’t to say that the plane is environmentally friendly, but just that this was a huge advance in jet propulsion.

The Concorde is an aircraft in a similar vein, a huge, expensive and eventually redundant step forward in passenger travel. The ability to move people around in the skies faster than the speed of sound were a huge feat of engineering, but was so costly to create and run that, even without the horrible Paris crash, it was likely that it would eventually fail in the face of high capacity jumbos. That said, I think that the Concorde is a very attractive plane and it was great to see it in the flesh. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go inside but you can’t have everything!

The other interesting exhibit was the nuclear sub Growler, docked beside the Intrepid. The sub wasn’t nuclear powered, but was armed with nuclear ballistic missiles which it would launch just off the coast of Russia during the cold war. While I generally disagree with most US military policy, it was still interesting to be able to go down into a submarine (awesome) and see how they fit 100 people into it to run it (holy hell it’s small).

Once we’d had our fill of US military history we headed back into the city and jumped on the uptown tour with Grey Line. This took us right around Central Park and up into Harlem, before coming back down Museum Mile. With only four full days to see New York the ability to just jump on a bus and see the different parts of the city is very useful, given that we don’t have the opportunity to spend much time on the ground.

We rounded out the day of sightseeing with a trip to Ripley's Believe It Or Not on Times Square. This is a whole building of weird and unusual items from around the world, which while not as authoritative as a  museum was really good for a laugh.

And because we can, we had Mexican food for dinner. Around the corner from our hotel. America is awesome.

The Big Apple

New York is both massive and tiny at the same time. It took us a little time to get our heads around it, simply in the way the streets and subways work. But once you figure out how to orientate yourself it suddenly becomes accessible, even in the way Wellington is. It helps that coming from Wellington we’re prepared to walk a lot longer than the New York locals.

One the first day we started off by picking up our tourist passes. These allowed us to use the hop on-hop off buses which included a tour guide, as well as the pass which gave us discounted access to pretty much all of New York’s attractions. These both saved us stacks of money so I’d highly recommend them.

We started off our first day by jumping on the water taxi and heading right down to the point of the Manhattan Island. This came with an entertaining accompanying commentary giving a quick little overview on our way down. This ride also included a specified booked time for us to go into the 9/11 Memorial, which was one of the things we were very keen to do. While the memorial will be free access once finished the area is under development so for crowd management you need a booking to be able to go in. While there is still a lot of major construction going on in the area and the museum isn’t open yet, it’s great to be able to experience the manmade waterfalls that cover the floor area of the original towers. Running my fingers over the names really brought home the people involved, and highlighted the sheer number of innocent people killed. The memorial has been done really well, and will only get better over time.

After spending some time watching the waterfalls we headed back out onto the streets. We needed to get a few things so headed into Century 21, a department store in the vein of Kirkcaldie and Stains in Wellington. There are two of these in New York and the downtown store was massive. The prices of the products are pretty good but the place itself is organised chaos, laid out like a maze and with people everywhere. I’m not sure whether it’s like this most days or whether people were just trying to get out of the cold!

We decided to head back up to Times Square to drop off our purchases and so jumped on the Grey Line hop on bus which was on the downtown loop. This took us back downtown and around to the East River, before heading up the eastern avenues and around to Times Square. While this covered a little bit of territory we had already seen it was really interesting to get it with a tour guide. As well as providing some general insight about the area, the guide was also able to point out the residual impact of Hurricane Sandy, which still has some major ramifications. Many huge buildings in the financial district are still running on generators and whole blocks are boarded up waiting to be repaired. There wasn’t any real impact on the transport network, many of the external escalators and elevators were shutdown but the subways were all running as normal so it was mainly superficial damage.

This time of the year it gets dark pretty early in the city, with it being noticeable from about 4.30pm. There are a lot of lights around (especially in Times Square), but the change in light does mess with your eating schedule as you start feeling hungry earlier. To celebrate New York’s influential Irish heritage we headed down to an Irish pub for dinner, with a plan to jump on the night bus tour later on that evening. After a tray of beef sliders (not great but then again mini-hamburgers, how can you go wrong) we headed back to the hotel to put on as many clothes as possible to survive a couple of evening hours on an open top bus.

The night tour was a great view of the city, a lot of the city’s Christmas lights were still up and we also went over to Brooklyn to see both Brooklyn and Manhattan from afar. 

Once we wrapped up the tour we headed over to the Rockefeller Center, to head up to the Top of the Rock observation platform. The Rockefeller Center is the home of NBC in New York and hosts Saturday Night Live, as well as being the 'location' for 30 Rock. By heading up the Top of the Rock we got the night view of New York including the Empire State Building, which was everything you'd expect.

Having soaked up a great day of New York we headed back to the hotel to warm up and try to get some sleep for day two.

Goodbye LA

Having to be at LAX by 8.30am for our Virgin America flight to New York meant that the Saturday the 5th was effectively a travel day. As a Saturday we didn’t have to worry as much about traffic, so had a smooth trip back to the Hertz drop off. Sadly we had to say goodbye to the Mustang, which Kathryn had christened Sally. A quick bus ride later and we were at the Virgin terminal.

The flight to New York was fairly uneventful, although flying over New York at night was pretty spectacular. By going to the East we were losing time so despite a five hour flight we didn’t get in until about 7pm, which didn’t leave much time for sightseeing once we got through the airport and into the hotel. The hotel itself was on a block leading off Time Square so it couldn’t be easier to get out and look around, but to save the sights for the next days we simply hit a pizza joint for some New York style pizza and then hit the hay.

Look out for the New York update tomorrow, covering all four NY days!

Last day in LA

As this was our last full day in LA we got an early start and headed to Ihop from breakfast before picking up the car and driving to the Griffith Observatory which gave us a good view of the Hollywood sign for a quick photo shoot.  You can’t visit LA without seeing the Hollywood sign so that was definitely a must see and the fact that it was kind of on the way to Universal Studios helped.

Finding Universal was easy enough but driving into the car parking building was like winding through a well signposted and heavily coned off area.  We picked up our tickets which included Front of Line passes.  These allowed us to skip the queues once for each ride and go directly to the front.  We had such good experiences with the similar passes at the other parks we were keen to do it again.

Universal is not quite a manicured as Disneyland was but it was certainly prettier than Six Flags.  Luckily we got there relatively early in the day so the park hadn’t filled up with people.  Our first stop was the Haunted House which was actually a lot scarier than I had anticipated.  The skeletons and mummies were are unrealistic as ever but the dangling cobwebs that caught in your face and hair were slightly disturbing.  However the scariest part were the people dressed as monsters that jumped out at you when you least expected it.

We had been advised to start at the back of the lot as it takes the crowds a little while to filter back that far and you can often jump on some of the rides without waiting in line early in the day.  It turns out this was really good advice.  We got on The Mummy roller coaster first without using the Front of Line Pass and only had to wait a few minutes to be loaded into a car.  This ride was one of the best at the park as after a slow start it shoots you forward and zooms around an indoor track until it comes to a sudden stop and after a short message threat from the Mummy, you are hurled backwards down the same track to the start of the ride.  As we found out most of the rides at Universal are what they like to call 4D, so we were squirted with water and blasted with air to give us the impression we had blood dripping on us of bugs trying to crawl up our legs.

Next we jumped onto the new Transformers ride which is also in 4D.  This ride isn't a rollercoaster, you are loaded into individual cars and given 3D glasses and sent out with one of the Transformers to save the Allspark.  The car is like a motion master in 3D on a short track which allows them to have more than one car going at a time.  This is definitely one of the best rides I have been on as it gets you up close to the action in the fight sequences and also drops you off a tall building without ever really moving very far.  If you ever visit Universal, you must do this ride.

We decided to the leave Jurassic Park and WaterWorld rides until last after my experience with Splash Mountain so we headed back up the escalators to check out when the next Special Effects demonstration was.  Since we had some time before the next show, we used out Front of Line Passes to get into The Simpsons ride.  This ride is set up exactly like the Transformers one but didn't really compare because it was like being in a cartoon, therefore didn't feel as scary.

The Special Effects demonstration showed us some old and some new effects used in movies with the help of volunteers from the audience.  It was interesting to see how realistic some of the older ones could still look and how hard it must have been on the actors to use them.  After the show we went into the Shrek show since the entrance was directly opposite and we had a bit of time to kill before the Blues Brothers show.  Shrek was another motion 4D motion master ride that squirted us with water and air to make it more convertible.  This was one of our least favourite rides at the park, mainly because we felt we had done it before at the Simpsons and Transformers rides.

The Blues Brothers showed up in a police car and sang and danced on stage.  They must have been pretty hot in their suits because it was getting very warm at this stage.  They encouraged the crowd to get up and dance along with them and a few were getting very into it.  At the end of the show they drove off in their Police car again, a lot of the characters we saw had cars.  Once again, Americans certainly know how to commit to a theme.

After the Blues Brothers show we jumped on the tram for the Studio Tour.  The trams drive around the studios and explain what the sets are used for and what tv shows and movies may have been there.  The high lights included the miniature ship used in the filming of the King Kong movie and the subway which they can crash a train into a flood and the Mexican town which they sent a flash flood through.  It was even used to film an episode of Bones, one of my favourite shows.

The Studio Tour takes about an hour so it was getting on in the afternoon by the time we finished.  At this stage we decided to redo the Mummy and Transformers rides using out Front of Line passes since we had enjoyed them so much the first time.  Since it was near the end of the day we decided to do the Jurassic Park ride and risk getting wet.  There was a stall on the way in selling bright yellow ponchos so we decided to buy one each just in case.  This turned out to be a really good idea.  The ride started out as a nice safe boat ride through a prehistoric swamp where herbivore dinosaurs grazed.  However something goes wrong half way through the ride and we were taken up an incline and dropped down an 84 foot drop underneath a T-Rex.  The drop hadn’t looked that big from the outside but from the top it was surprisingly scary.  And the ponchos came in handy when we hit the bottom and the water sprayed up and drenched everyone.

After that we headed up to the WaterWorld show.  This is kind of a shortened re-enactment of the movie of the same title starring Kevin Costner.  Everyone in the show is a trained stunt man or woman so the show was full of action.  Luckily we were sitting far enough back that we didn't get sprayed with water by the jet skis.  The best bit was when a plane busted over the top of the backdrop and crash landed into the water right in front of us.

The last attraction we went to was the Animal Actors show where they demonstrated some of the tricks the animal actors are taught and how they use them to get the animals to interact with the human actors or the set around them.  The show descended into planned chaos and we saw dogs, cats, ducks, Guinea Pigs even a big pig and heaps of other animals.  It would have been more fun if we were able to pet some of the animals but I get that it might be overwhelming for the animals to have so many people crowding in on them.  They were very cute though.

We drove straight from Universal to the Staples Centre where we were watching the LA Lakers play the LA Clippers.  While trying to find the correct entrance we saw David Spade.  He was the only famous person we saw in Hollywood.  Our seats were quite high up behind the goal and one end of the court.  I was a bit freaked out by the height because we were right at the front of the terrace and there was only a shin high wall and a knee high glass wall between us and a big drop.

The game was really exciting, the Clippers led for the entire game, sometimes by at least 15 points.  However the Lakers came back towards the end and nearly caught up.  The last two minutes of the game probably took at least half an hour to play out with all the time outs and free throws that were taken.  I had expected the game to go for maybe an hour, or an hour and a half at the most but we were there for nearly three hours in the end.  I didn't realise basketball games were so long.

We were flying to New York the next day so we went back to the hotel and packed up and got ready to leave LA for the last time.  I think Rob was a bit sad to be leaving the Mustang as well, but maybe one day in the very distant future he will own one.

Will add photos another time. Got to get to sleep earl tonight since we need to be at the airport early tomorrow.  Goodnight everyone.

Farewell to the city of sin

Our last day in Vegas started with a wakeup call from Ellie, a Contiki companion visiting from Melbourne. We’d made a plan to drive the strip for a while before checking out the Stratosphere, which was a large tower with great views of the strip.

After jumping in the car we first headed down to the Vegas sign to take a couple of photos of the iconic symbol of Vegas.  We then all the way down the strip to the Stratosphere, where Ellie decided that she’d like to do the SkyJump, which is an in place free-fall down the side of the tower. 

We decided to stick around and watch this, but it then took 30 minutes for the people running the ride to sort it out and actually get Ellie onto the ride, so pretty much as soon as we hit the bottom we had to say goodbye. We’d planned to catch up with Sarah, another Contiki friend, back at Harrah’s, but with the delay at the Stratosphere we didn’t get back until 25 minutes late and we’d just missed her!

No longer having someone to hit the casinos with, we took Sarah’s advice and visited the Secret Garden at The Mirage. The Garden houses a dolphin enclosure as well as the lions and tigers used in the Siegfried & Roy show. These were both very cool, there was no show that day so we just watched the dolphins playing in their pools, and the cats were simply roaming in their enclosures. I did feel bad for the cats as the enclosures were quite small, and while it was great that these endangered animals are being protected it doesn’t seem to be much of a life.

After this we were ready to go, so loaded up the car and headed back down to the Stratosphere one last time. As we had free passes to the top of the tower we headed on up to get a final view of the strip. 

We headed out on the road back to LA, which this time took the expected 3.5 hours to get to Santa Monica. A quick dinner at the Ihop next door and it was off to bed to try and catch up on some sleep.

A Giant's Sandpit

Despite trying to get an early night we still didn’t manage to get back to the hotel until just before one in the morning. This meant our 6am wakeup was a bit of a challenge! We eventually managed to get our sorry asses out of bed and down to Flavors for a quick breakfast, before heading out on the road at half past seven.

Our first stop was the Hoover Dam, which is only half an hour out of Vegas. This isn’t that surprising given that the construction of the Hoover Dam is the reason Vegas exists. The Dam is an amazing piece of engineering, a giant wall of concrete with Art Deco decorations in a tight canyon. The level of water in the lake was pretty low, which we could see in the gap between the water level and the bleached high water mark on the rock. While the road is no longer a means of transport you are still able to drive over it.

The Dam also marks the line between Nevada and Arizona, and the change from Pacific to Midwest Time.

After leaving the Dam we headed off on the drive to the Grand Canyon, which is another four and a half hours away. After the early start Kathryn was soon fast asleep in the warm car, even as the outside temperature dropped as we climbed higher up onto the Colorado Plateau.

After a couple of hours we’d climbed onto the Plateau and Kathryn woke up to find that we were driving past fields caked in snow. While we’d expected it to be cold we hadn’t realised quite how cold, and how much snow would be on the ground. All the roads were ploughed and so were perfectly clear, but the surrounding fields were completely covered. This continued right up to the Canyon itself, with the stereo display showing the external temperature dropping to -2 degrees Celsius.

We briefly pulled into the township and picked up a prepaid access pass to skip the lines at the park entrance. After driving a couple of more minutes down the road we pulled into the Canyon car park and headed off to the Rim Walk.

If you haven’t been then as you may imagine, the Grand Canyon is an amazing experience. It’s huge. 10 miles across and scarily deep, it does a great job of making you feel very small. The snow continues here and most of the walkways were covered in it. This gave you quite an eerie feeling around the parts where you are close to the edge with no barriers! It is very pretty though, and despite being cold we felt very lucky to see the canyon in its winter cost.

Kathryn managed to get her nose into a book about those who had died falling into the canyon so we bought this to read now that we’d seen it (obviously not great to read before you go!). We checked out the info centre and took some photos at the sign, and then we were back on the road.

We were both still tired at this point so I picked up an energy drink from the gas station. This turned out to be a horrible grape flavoured disaster so I won’t be buying Rockstar Energy ever again!

Four hours later we pulled back into Las Vegas, and despite being tired we had tickets to see the Cirque de Soleil show Mystere, so after freshening up we headed out into the city to pick up our tickets. We headed over to the VIP line at the box office to pick up our tickets. The snob behind the counter decided that we didn’t look VIP enough so told us to go to the other line, until I pointed out that we were simply following what was written on our ticket voucher.

Tickets in hand, we then needed some dinner. With our trip to Grand Canyon a bit flexible we didn’t have a reservation so we had to do a bit of work to find somewhere to eat. In the end the only thing we could eat at fast enough was Denny’s so in we went. It was here that I found that one of the $5 notes we’d received on the trip to the canyon was counterfeit! Having used $USD for a couple of weeks now, I really appreciate the effort that has gone into our New Zealand currency. Small bills, easily distinguishable by colour and extremely difficult to fake means that you can deal in cash with no issues, unlike here we you need to always be on your guard.

The show itself was a great display of acrobatics and colour, as is always done will by Cirque de Soleil. The Mystere show has been running for a very long time so is very slick, although I did find that it had less of a story than I expected.

To wrap out the day we tried to catch a late night showing of the Bellagio fountains, but unfortunately we missed the final show by five minutes and then waited half an hour before finding out that it had finished for the night. We headed back to the hotel, very cold by this time, and hit the hay to get ready for our last day in Vegas.

New Year's Day

New Year’s Day was very relaxed.  We slept in then wandered down to the Flavours buffet for breakfast before heading back to the room for another nap and some rest.  Although not too hung over the cold and the late night had made up pretty tired.  Once we felt a little more awake we decided to head to the Machine Gun Vegas gun range to try out some serious firepower.  We chose MGV especially since they offer the chance to shoot a grenade launcher as well as hand guns, semi- and fully automatic weapons.

It was a strange experience seeing so many people in one place openly wearing handguns on their belts.  Considering gun ownership is supposedly common in America I haven’t seen anyone wearing one in any other place, although they did check us for guns, knives and other weapons at all the theme parks.  Rob and I both chose different packages which meant we were shooting completely different guns.  The expert helped me select three guns with relatively little kickback that I could control and Rob chose the Gamers package which gave him 4 guns, one of which was fully automatic.

The shooting range was a long narrow room at the rear of the store and while inside we had to wear eye protection and earmuffs at all times.  For each different gun we were given a choice of targets to shoot at, all of which had different bad guys.  The guns were held in a locked cage at the back of the room.  The supervisor would bring us the guns one at a time, show us how to grip and aim then load them and set us loose.

First up were the hand guns, I was shooting a Glock and Rob had a Barretta.  The Glock had more recoil than I had expected and my arms were getting a little sore half way through the second clip.  Next up were semi-automatic rifles (Kathryn: MR556A1, Rob FN-SCAR) which we were able to rest on the ledge in front of us to fire so the weight didn't have much impact.

I then took a step into the past and shot a Thompson M1A1, also better known as the classic Tommy gun. Rob followed this up with M4 Carbine, which was a beast of a gun, and he rounded it out with the recognisable AK-47. It was a great experience to be able to do something we can't easily do in New Zealand.

When we left MGV we put the top down on the car for the first time and headed a little way out of town to one of the shopping malls in search of snow gear.  Although the day was sunny it was still pretty cold with the top down so we also had the air conditioning on hot to cut out some of the chill.  At the shopping mall we each bought a pair of snow pants that actually fits instead of the horrible ones we got online in New Zealand.  While browsing the other gear they had available, Rob found battery powered boot warmers which looked like fun but unfortunately we couldn't find gloves with built in wrist guards.  We drove back to Harrah’s to change and meet up with the group for dinner and a variety show at Planet Hollywood.

Dinner was again at Flavors, after which we walked down the strip to Planet Hollywood. With some time to kill we went off on what was going to be a quick look around the Planet Hollywood shops, but Kathryn ended up with a new pair of shoes somewhere along the way.

Planet Hollywood’s V Theatre is the home of ‘V’, tagged as the ultimate variety show in Vegas. The show is essentially an accumulation of support acts into one show, bound together by one presenter. Led by the very funny juggler Wally ‘Go Faster’ Eastwood, the show included amazing acrobatics, magic, physical strength and roller skating, as well as comedy right through.

We were seated with most of the Contiki group and once the show finished we all headed downstairs for a ride to the club for the evening. Being the last night, Contiki had arranged for us all to travel in Hummer limos which, while not something that would normally excite me, seemed to fit into the Vegas theme of excess. With a few free bottles of champagne and what felt like a 20 cameras we were soon living it up like it’s what we did every day.

We got to the club (Moon at The Palms) and decided that we’d at least go up and take some photos and look around, as the club is at the top of The Palms tower. Because we’d planned to just go home after the limo ride due to an early day tomorrow I wasn’t dressed to go out, so it was bit of a gamble to get in but I managed to get in with a group. We all met up again at the top of the elevator and took a few more photos, before we headed back down and took a taxi back to the hotel.

Vegas New Years!

Kathryn wrote the start of this and I finished it so there may be some weird perspective changes. Apologies in advance.

Our first full day in Las Vegas started with a sleep in in preparation for a late night.  We wanted to get out of Harrah’s and see some of the other hotels and casinos nearby so we caught the Monorail to the other end of the strip.  After getting off the monorail at the maze-like MGM Grand we went past New York, New York and into Excalibur which is like a medieval castle with neon lights.  We got lunch of deep fried chicken at Popeye’s and what Rob thinks it was possibly the best Pepsi he has ever had.  We are still usually only eating two meals a day as the serving sizes are so big we just don’t get hungry enough to have a third.

The intention was to go to the Titanic exhibit in the Luxor hotel but we got distracted by the Roulette table.  We cashed in $50, hoping that would last us a while then found out that it was a minimum bet of $10 each time.  Our strategy was to place a few dollars across  a few different numbers and hope for the best.  We even took a few chances and bid on odds and evens and sections they were divided into.  At $30 up we thought we were doing really well and said if we doubled our money we would cash out, then we hit a losing streak and went back down to only breaking even.  Rob boldly played two bids of $10 each on the last third and the middle column on that row and joked that if it landed on one of three numbers were would be in the money.  That $20 bet was lucky because one of our three numbers came up and we ended up with $100 in chips in front of us.

As agreed we cashed out and used our winnings to buy tickets for the Titanic exhibition, inside the Luxor casino.

The Luxor is shaped like a Pyramid and even on the inside its shape is very obvious.  The rooms open onto terraces that look down into the lobby and casino and all the internal structure, eateries and shops have Egyptian decorations.  Outside there are several sphinxes and other statues.  

Before we entered the Titanic exhibit our photos was taken against a mock-up of the prow of the Titanic.  The exhibit takes you through the building and design of the Titanic and compared it to other ships that were in operation at the same time.  It highlights the huge differences in accommodations between First and Third class even though it was considered to be more luxurious for all passengers than the standard ship of its time.  Highlights of the exhibit are the recreation of the grand staircase, the chunk of ice, listening to the ocean while walking along the promenade deck and seeing the large section of the Titanic which has been preserved.

We caught the monorail from the MGM back to Harrah’s where we had a message on our phone from the tour guide.  He still hadn’t let us know where to meet them that night so we rang back but could only leave another message.  Next we went across the road to the Cesar Forum Shops.  The Forum is absolutely huge and full of shops I have never heard of before.  We took an escalator that spiralled up around a statue and a fountain to the third floor where the ceiling is domed and painted to look like the sky outside, which they even tinted and darkened for the change between night and day.  In Vegas they really know how to commit to a theme!

A lot of the shops were a bit out of our price range but we wandered through anyway and kept an eye out for sale racks.  Luckily Victoria Secrets was having one of their semi-annual sales and I was able to get a bargain there.  We also hit the Gap and took photos of one of the shops that looked more like a night club with music and lights.

After shopping we went back to Harrah’s and left a message for the tour guide to let him know we would be in our room for the rest of the day if he wanted to call or come by so that we could meet up with the rest of the tour.  David came by and we were finally able to check into our Contiki tour with two hours to go before we were due to meet up for dinner.

Dinner was at the Flavors buffet in Harrah’s hotel and we were able to meet a few people from the tour.  It seems our group was made up of mainly Australians with a few Kiwis, some Canadians and other nationalities.  After dinner the group took a bus to the Luxor hotel where we went into our club for the evening, LAX hosted by Ice-T and Coco.   

By the time we got there LAX was well underway, as shown by the substantial queue outside. Luckily our promotor Chris had hooked us all up with VIP access so after a brief wait we were in and up the stairs. LAX is split out over a few levels around the main floor and with the lights was quite a spectacle. The best part? We had an open bar until midnight, giving us a couple of hours to ramp up into the New Year’s countdown.

After sinking a few Whisky Drys each we pulled together a group and headed out onto the dance floor. I was pleasantly surprised by the music mix as there was a good mix of the new and the classic, and come eleven o’clock the dance floor was pumping. By then most of the Contiki group had spread out and the group we were hanging out with got invited upstairs into the VIP area. While it was good to watch what was happening from another level, the best fun was down on the dance floor so after a while we headed back down.

Pretty soon we were building up to the countdown, and having had a few drinks we were both in a great mood. The final countdown was immense, and at midnight the whole club erupted in an explosion of noise and colour.

From here there isn’t much to say. We danced and drank, and once we’d had enough we walked our way back down the strip back to the hotel to crash. The streets were packed with people and police on horseback, and in retrospect it would have been a much more interesting trip had we just hired a limo. Despite that, this was easily the best New Year’s that I’ve ever had. Thank you Vegas!

To Vegas!

With the lack of wi-fi in our Vegas hotel and no desire to eat at McDonalds for theirs, our Vegas blog posts are only going up now. Kathryn's done a great job keeping track of thing though and has written most of these posts.

We had planned for this to be a cruisy day where we could sleep in, catch up on our photos and drive to Las Vegas and check into our hotel and meet the Contiki group we would be with for New Year’s eve by 4:00pm that day.  The drive to Vegas usually takes about 4 – 4 ½ hours so after a quick breakfast at Ihop we checked out of Howard Johnson and were on the road north by 11:00am.  Rob enjoyed the 5 lane freeways and was switching lanes like a pro by the time we were out of the city.  However, as we got further from LA it became obvious how many people were also heading in that direction, and it was even more then we had expected.

Due to the huge number of vehicles traffic was slowed to a crawl for long periods of time and there was no obvious reason for it to do so.  This also wasn't helped by some technical difficulties in the process of filling up the car (Rob had to ask a couple of people for info on the process, which involves guessing an approximate dollar value inside first and then hoping it all worked out in the end).

Getting back on the freeway wasn't too easy either.  The big looping on-ramps and off-ramps have several exits so being in the right lane is very important.  Unfortunately this took a couple of goes! We managed to end up in a defunct outlet mall car park, trying to find an exit that would lead back to the freeway. 

At about 2pm Google was telling us we were still 3 hours from Vegas and traffic was still crawling along around us so we stopped tried to get hold of the Contiki tour guide and our accommodation, Harrah’s, to let them know.  No one seemed to know who our tour guide was or how to get hold of him so we had no choice but to just kept driving and figure it out when we got there.

Driving in to Vegas at night was overwhelming but amazing.  Like LA, Vegas spreads out for miles so there were rows and rows of ordinary street lights and other buildings, all cut by the freeway, before we got to the strip.  Everything is lit up and there are neon lights and spotlights coming from everywhere.  The hotels aren't just skyscrapers, there are pyramids, an Eiffel Tower, a castle, a Statue of Liberty and so many others.

We checked into Harrah’s and asked about the Contiki tours and they were able to help us to leave a message on the tour guide’s room phone.  The whole day had been exhausting and our 4 hour trip had turned into 6 and a half, so for our first night in Las Vegas we went to a buffet dinner at Harrah’s, called Flavors, and then went to bed early.

While the circumstances meant it wasn't the greatest introduction to Vegas, we were still amazed at the city itself and it worked out for the best, as we were one of the few who weren't hung over on New Year’s Eve! Read about that in the next post.