For our final night we stayed at probably the “kitschist” and pinkest hotel in Japan. It is a popular wedding destination and had pink lights and decorations all around. They even had a princess theme with Cinderella’s chariot and glass slipper on display. The breakfast restaurant had a sea of bright flowers with a white piano set in the middle. For a final day, I … Continue reading Day 7 – Final tour
It’s our last full day in Japan – and the week seems to have flown. We had another 8 am start and we checked out of our hotel in Kyoto and headed to Nara. Nara is the sister city to Canberra, however it appears it’s not that big of a deal here. Nara is best known for its deer population and we walked through the … Continue reading Day 6 – Deers, Castles and Shopping
Our luck with the weather finally ran out today. As we awoke and looked out the winter the heavens had opened and it was pouring down. For most of the morning (till about midday) there was a steady stream of rain – enough that we needed umbrellas – which made trekking around the different locations difficult. Our first stop was at the Kiyomizu Temple which … Continue reading Day 5 – Day in Kyoto
For the first time this week the weather was cloudy and it looked like rain. We left our hotel at 8 and spent a couple of hours driving to Koka Ninja Village. It was a mini “theme park” that was located in a town that used to be inhabited by Ninjas. They had a house that used to be resided in by ninja, equipped with … Continue reading Day 4 – Ninjas, Towers and Rain
We had an early start today and needed to be down at breakfast by 6.30. Unfortunately it was too early for even our preferred coffee shop to be open. So I enlisted the help of Google Translate to try and order a proper coffee to our liking at the hotel. Fortunately it worked. We spent a couple of hours on the bus heading out to … Continue reading Day 3 – Mt Fuji and a very Japanese Experience
We got picked up from the hotel at 9 by our tour guide. Our first stop was the Imperial Palace, which is the official residence of the Emperor of Japan. The previous emperor was the first ruler in the history of Japan to abdicate his throne, which is now occupied by his son. The palace, in itself, is not visible from the road or any … Continue reading Day 2 – Tour Around Tokyo
The flight from Hong Kong was relatively short and we both slept for most of it. We arrived on time and worked our way through immigration and customs – which was all a breeze – and we were out in no time. Given the distance between Narita airport and Tokyo city (and our hotel), we decided to take the train. The one thing we were … Continue reading Day 1 – Tokyo Food Tour
We drove out to Uluru this morning after breakfast to complete our walk around the base. We started with a Ranger guided walk along the Mala trail, which started where the rock climb used to be. The ranger talk was uninspiring and tedious, however he did explain some of the rock art and what it meant. We left the tour and made our own way … Continue reading A Day at the Rock
It was another early morning start in the freezing cold for us today. The bus collected us from the hotel at 5.30 and we headed out to the Field of Lights. The Field of Lights is an installation of 50,000 lights on the foothills of Uluru by British artist Bruce Munro. It is an incredible display and we had access to different vantage points. From … Continue reading Field of Lights
We had to get up really early at 3am for a trip to the King’s Canyon. Distances in the NT are unassumingly large and it took us 3 hours to get there. We got to see some spectacular changes in the color of the sky as the sun rose. I have never seen the sky such bright red just before sunrise. Matthew, Ben and I … Continue reading King Canyons Tour
The resort we are staying at is right next door to a golf range and the kids spent an hour this morning collecting golf balls that had gone astray. When they came to the room excited with what they had found, I thought it would have been a handful. How wrong was I, they had connected over a 100 balls and laid them all out … Continue reading Pioneering Women
After a quick lunch in town we joined the second half of our tour, which was to see the sights around Alice Springs. We started with a visit to Anzac Hill with sweeping views across the township. The flags were all at half mast yesterday to commemorate the passing of the last Anzacv soldier from Alice. Viewing from high gives an interesting perspective of the … Continue reading A Town Like Alice
It was an early start today with the bus picking us up at 7 in the morning. It’s fortunate that Bron visited the Beanie festival over the weekend and got us all warm beanies. We definitely need it in the mornings. The first stop was the John Flynn memorial. John Flynn was sent by the church in the early 20th century to investigate the needs … Continue reading Gaps, Chasms and Upside down Rivers
Broken Clouds, 28°C 49-560 Kamehameha Hwy, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA #Experiencing Hollywood Hawaii has really unique and rugged landscapes and has almost all the different climates patterns except Arctic and Desert. Moreover it is a really short distance from beaches to mountain tops and lakes and rolling hills. This makes it a great location for Hollywood and a number of famous movies and TV Shows … Continue reading Experiencing Hollywood
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