Travel with Art

Actually arrived on time and then had a wonderful wheelchair guide greeting Mom as  business class offload started so no waiting, and then took us to duty free, through immigration and customs - all speedy with no waiting. Wonderful kiwi lad. Hobbitton - movie set in New Zealand Picked up the rental car (actually great to have an automatic even though I only paid for a standard). Lots of mileage on it but handles well. We headed out crossing the north Auckland bridge and carried on the motorway towards Orewa, then onwards to Warkworth and finishing in Whangarei. Overnight for  one night at Lodge Bordeaux. Dined at a local restaurant: with lamb (rack for Mom and liver - eg 'fry' for me- really good).  Next day it was an early start for the coastal drive first out to  Whangarei Head, then surfer beaches of Ocean and Sandy, and cross country over hills and cattle farms to the Bay of Islands and NZ's oldest European settlement of Russell (also NZ's first capita

Mom and I start our next journey on December 22, 2013. We fly to Auckland and rent a car 11 days to tour New Zealand's north island before boarding the Celebrity Solstice for a 14 day cruise around New Zealand and over to Australia stopping in Hobart, Wellington and ending in Sydney. Another car rental for 12 days to tour from Canberra to the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley and Nelson Bay before spending Australia Day on a boat in Sydney Harbour, and flying from Sydney back to Phuket on January 29, 2014. New Zealand North Island Drive.... Click  here  to open the map we will drive. CRUISE.... Click  here  to open the map we will follow for the Celebrity Cruise. Australia Drive.... Click  here  top open the map we will drive. Check back for progress as we commence our journey.

Shortly after returning from Bali I boarded another flight to spend a week in Hong Kong. Initially I stayed with Catherine and Vince. The weather remained great the entire time and I was able to get in some long walks towards the country park.  Early on I headed into HK Island with Catherine to visit our friend Isabel who has been convalescing in hospital.  It was good to catch up with her husband Fritz while I was there. I headed back into the island for a couple of other chores (hearing aid issues: repair and a new mould, and some shopping for electronics: hard drive for Robert, and checking out the new Canon EOS 70D). Me with Mark & Gary at the BBQ for Dave & Norma Saturday I headed over to David & Leslie Rule's for a visit with Dave and Norma Murrell (visiting from England). We started off with a hike in the mountains behind their home: Ray, Mark and I did the long loop up while the others stayed to an easier and shorter route, with both groups hooking up fo

Entrance to our villa (Note: this blog has small sized photos to load more quickly. At the bottom of this post there is a slideshow which links to the large sized photos stored in Flikr - in case you are interested in more detailed viewing...) October 12 I flew out to Bali to join 7 friends from Hong Kong at a 4 bedroom luxury villa 20 minutes north of Ubud for 8 nights.  My flight landed first, 20 minutes before the Rules. We were to share a car for the 2 hour drive to our villa north of Ubud. But before our car arrived Tony, Joanne and Rudy arrived (as did their car). We spent a bit of time waiting on our car and driver but with Bali traffic we all managed to arrive at the villa right behind each other.  Murni's Villas is a small complex of 3 villas, infinity swimming pool, lush tropical gardens perched on a hill top over looking terraced rice paddys. The villa we are in is perfect for a large group of friends with its 4 bedrooms, huge common dining/living area, full kitche

Sunny windy days for the most part continued after all my brothers left the province. A time to relax and soak up a bit more sun reading my Kindle out on the deck. It was also a time to take a break and do a weeklong road trip around the province. First stop was to visit the Mackay Cottage in Denver (40 minutes out of Antigonish) to visit Stephen and Kathy. Rainy and STRONG windy days (their dive platform even slipped its mooring overnight). Anyway great little visit in the huge cottage and great stone fireplace. Next I stopped off neat the town I went to University it to visit Darrell and Elaine. The have a lovely garden plot with chickens and cats roaming and a brook burbling. Darrell's sister and her husband were in to visit but mostly off at the Black Watch Reunion activities - still great to meet them in between. The other three of us took off and did an Annopolis Valley Wine tour which I really enjoyed.  Finally was a few days with my Aunt Lucia in Salmon River and visiting

I headed out from Redditt with my Tent in the Trunk and took 5 nights travelling to reach Mom's home in Cape Breton.  I tented near the Kakabeka Falls outside Thunder Bay and right on a beach outside Sault Ste Marie. Both locations were pretty spectacular but I did not spend much time at either. Then it was in to Toronto for 2 nights with Greg & Annette. It was cool just hanging out and heading down to Woodbone beach on a fine sunny day. Onwards early Monday morning to make my final stop in Edmunston, NB - in the rain so I got a hotel. Arrived at Mom's home just before supper on Tuesday. Fortress Louisbourg From that point we had all of my brothers (and their families - barring 4 members) arriving over the next 2 weeks. First some were in for the Acadian Day Festival but all were here for the Mombourquette Family Reunion one week later.  The same weekend as the Festival the Fortress Louisbourg was having a 300th year celebration and Mom and I went for one of t