Helen & Bill from Gibson Hill

Touchdown Shanghai

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We arrived in Shanghai around 6:30pm after a 15 hour flight. Meals, snacks and movies-on-demand kept us occupied. Our extra leg room seats allowed for some comfort, but coach is coach, and ultimately a tight squeeze. Immigration and customs went quickly. We had printed a Taxi card from the hotel website which gave directions to […]

Getting ready for Shanghai

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Bill and I are getting ready for Shanghai, doing some research, but mostly we’ll be winging it when we land there. We found a site we like, China Mike, and I’ve been reading a wonderful series of mysteries based in Shanghai in the 1990s, by Qiu Xiaolong. Morgan went to Shanghai and Beijing not too […]

Farewell New Zealand

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It’s 9:30am Tuesday the 20th here in New Zealand as I write, though the server is likely to place a timestamp of Monday afternoon since it’s in New York EDT time. The 16 hour difference between NZ and NY has been the most confusing. We did manage to call home a few times and I […]

Getting Lost in Northland

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We drove north again yesterday in order to dine at the Sawmill Cafe in Leigh. Since we had driven past it the day before, and Leigh is on a decent sized road near the coast, no problem, right? Well, at the circle in Matakana we turned left instead of going round the circle to go […]

Adventures in Northland

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We are staying in a motel in Orewa, along the east coast about an hour north of Auckland. On Saturday Bill took the reigns, driving us north on Hwy 1. It’s the biggest highway here, but only two lanes, one for each direction, and occasionally a passing lane. The highway runs parallel to the ocean […]

Auckland Alehouses

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We’ve been enjoying Auckland’s local alehouses – two that brew their own: Shakespeare Tavern and Galbraith’s Alehouse. Shakespeare was fun, very Irish Pub-like, including a chatty and friendly Irish bartender. Galbraith’s knocked our socks off. Really. We tried samples of Bob Hudson’s Bitter, Bellringers Bitter, Bitter and Twisted ESB, Full Nelson (brown ale) and Grafton […]

Update May 15th

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Well, blogging has not been a smashing success. Lots to tell and pictures to show, but the combination of being busy and sometimes iffy internet have combined to make the blogging spotty. We are in New Zealand now and about to roam around Auckland. The internet here is great so I uploaded some pictures to […]