Week Commencing Monday 30 May  Chris dropped me off at Tampa where I started the journey to Amarillo via Dallas. At Dallas there was a line-up of small E80 twin tail engine jets that feed the small cities. Arriving in Amarillo I discovered it is not only famous for the song, but is also the home town […]

27-30 May 2016. Landing early Friday evening out of Nashville, Chris picked us up at the airport.  Old mate Chris is over here from NZ doing a stint for the NZ Defense force with his wife Nadine and their two children Jacob and Lucy. Nadine prepared some fantastic evening snacks over which we chatted for some time. […]

Sunday 22 May 2016 A comfortable 14h 40min flight landed us in San Francisco. US immigration recently introduced fast access with passport scanners like the ones we have had in NZ for several years. Sylvia slipped through with ease on her US passport. I was thinking maybe third time lucky but not so… my ticket gets the […]

Monday 16 May Arriving at 7am after the 11.5 hour flight from London, Sylvia headed for the rather dingy Cathay arrivals lounge where she spent the day waiting for her connecting flight to NZ. I jumped the speedy airport express and in 30mins was in a taxi heading to long time friend Pat’s place. Taxis […]

Friday 13 May Hotel Mercure in the town of La Grande Motte was in keeping with the town “old and ugly”. Having cooked our way through the night I asked the guy on reception if they could take a look at the aircon. “Air conditioning either all on or all off” came the reply. “Not […]

  Tuesday 10 May A stroll around Metz revealed a solid beauty. This place was kicked off by a bunch of Celtics some three thousand years ago. The Romans rocked up in 52BC and made it one of the biggest and most prosperous cities in the region. It became part of France in the mid-1600s. […]