Monthly Archives: April 2013

Cousins Rob and Dearne

We are now in the last few days of our Bali adventure. Unfortunately a couple of the family had to return to their homes for work.  Josh flew back to Perth on Thursday morning as he was due back at the mine site today, Friday. Nicky flew out this morning as she had recently purchased another property in Perth and it was moving day this weekend.  Those left are making the most of the next 48 hours.

Rod and I had a lovely time with cousin Rob and his wife Karen on Tuesday and Wednesday.  They hale from Sydney and had rented a privately owned villa complex (Villa Banga Wangi) from a friend just north of Kuta in Badung. It was stunning. There were three self contained villas on the site with a separate central open air dining room and kitchen. The complex had its own swimming pool, cook, domestic staff, gardener and security.  We had a wonderful 24 hours with them.

When we returned to Kuta on Wednesday Rob and Karen came with us and joined the family for dinner at Jimbaran Bay.  It is a fantastic beach south of Denpasar Airport and about 5 kilometres long on powder white sand.  The restaurant tables are on the beach itself and as you can imagine most of the menu is seafood.  Once you have decided what you are going to have from the menu, you then go inside the restaurant and select your ‘live’ meal from huge water tanks.  Again very educational for the ‘grandies’ but we did not let them hang around for the gruesome bit.

Everyone is out and about at the moment picking up those last important purchases. While there is a lot of cheap stuff in the markets, for two dollars more you can buy good quality. What’s the old saying –   ‘buy cheap, buy twice’ is so true here.

We fly out tomorrow (Saturday) at 4pm to Kuala Lumpur then catch a connecting flight and arriving in Auckland on Sunday morning. We will update the blog with more pictures when we get home. It would be fair to say we have had a few ‘technical’ issues up here.

Take care everyone.

First night dinner minus the children

Our flight from Auckland to Bali was perfect.  Because we left at midnight on Thursday the kids (and most of the adults) slept most of the way to Kuala Lumpur. The service on Malaysian Air was fantastic. When we arrived in Kuala Lumpur we had an hour and a half to wait for the connecting flight to Bali. It really only gave us just enough time to let the kids have a run around and feed them (again).

We landed in Bali at 11.30am. By the time we had cleared customs and got to the Bali Dynasty Resort (our hotel) it was about 1pm. We had no programme for the rest of the day so everyone did their own thing.  The adults spent the rest of the day around pool drinking cocktails while the kids played on the water slides and in the pool. Like most hotels up here they have a ‘swim up bar’, so being able to be with the kids in the pool while the adults can relax is perfect.

For those of you who love cocktails you may be interested to know that they can be bought by the ‘bucket’ (1.5L) for NZ$9.00 in Bali.

Dearne and Tiffany getting the foot treatment from tiny fish

Saturday was a ‘please yourself’ day so most were out in the markets looking for those special bargains. If you have never been to Bali before, they sell anything and everything up here (and I mean everything).  If you have ever wanted to own your own little monkey, you can pick one up for about US$50. If you are good at bartering, you would probably get it for US$40. Getting it back into New Zealand would be your only problem.

On Sunday we all went to Bali’s Waterbom Park. Click HERE to see more of the Park. The park has everything that is available in water sports and/or water fun rides. The adults and kids all had a ball. It was very easy to spend the whole day there and super hard to drag the kids away at the end of the day.

Yesterday (Monday) we all had a burst of ‘we need some exercise’ and spent the day on the Bali Eco Cycling Tour. Youngest grandson #5 was on the back of a bike but all the other adults and grandchildren had their own two wheelers.   We started the day at Penelokan which is nestled on a volcanic crater rim of Mt Batur and finished 25 kilometres later in the little village called Ubud.

Jayden helping to roast coffee beans at a Balinese plantation

There were quite a few ‘point of interest’ stops on the way. Stops included a visit to a Balinese family compound (all the kids now appreciate their own homes!!), a visit to a local Balinese coffee plantation where we all tasted our first ever Luwak coffee,  a walk through a family rice paddy where the kids learned all about planting and harvesting rice and a couple of stops at local family industries so the kids could learn how some people earned their income here.  At one rest stop the grandkids ended up playing soccer with the local kids on a ‘very hard ground with concrete edging. The family mothers were showing mild concern for their children’s safety but the kids had a ball. When it was time to leave, the local kids did not want them to go.

While it was a fun day for everyone it was also educational for the kids. They needed no rocking to sleep last night. The adults finished with a few ‘quieties’ before heading back to the rooms.

We are leaving the family today for 24 hours and heading up the coast to spend the night with Dearne’s cousin who had come up to Bali from Sydney. We are expecting another very social night this evening.

This is our fifth visit to Bali and our love affair with country continues.

Getting a photo shot was like herding whitebait!!

The time has come (according to the grandkids) that they can start enjoying our Christmas present to them. As part of Christmas we shouted our children and grandchildren on trip to Bali during the first midyear school holidays in 2013.

We are flying Malaysian Airlines through to Kuala Lumpur and then on to Bali in Indonesia.  Our time of arrival in Bali is about 10.30am tomorrow morning. Hopefully we will all be able to sleep most of the way.

A number of other family members have decided to join us on the trip so we are a mixed bunch of travellers. Coordinating the travel arrangements has been a bit of a challenge at times (well done Nana).  We have ten of us leaving from Auckland, four from Perth, two from Sydney and Josh is flying from Japan into Denpasar.  Haven’t holidays changed over the years?. When I was a kid my big trip of the year was to travel from New Plymouth to Stratford to play rugby!!

The New Zealand contingent is currently at Auckland International Airport awaiting our flight. It does not leave until just after midnight so we are expecting a few weary grandchildren over the next couple of hours.

Will update the blog again from Bali.

Lunch at Poachers Pantry, Hall, NSW
Rod, Dearne, Chuck, Ali

It is our last day in Canberra today before we head up to Sydney tomorrow and back home over the weekend.  Our visit to Canberra has been most productive in terms of finalising many of the arrangements required to take the motorhome to Australia in June. It was certainly an advantage being in the Capital to have these discussions.

The clarification of the Carnet guidelines (the motorhome passport) with Australian Customs has been sorted and we are both happy with the outcome.  We can now import the motorhome to Australia without having to pay any import duty, taxes or register the vehicle in Australia.  We also have the ability to fly out of Australia for whatever reason and leave the motorhome here should there be need to during the Carnet period.

We had already set up bank accounts, tax numbers and a cell phone number so it was just arranging the final little things like an E-Tag for the Australia’s motorways and tunnel systems, data cards, membership of the Australian Motorhome and Caravan Association for cost effective vehicle insurance, membership of the Big 4 Holiday Park system and a process for fuel discount.  All done!

We need now just to complete the actual shipping arrangements to Australia when we get home. Roll on the 14th June and the start of our Australian journey.

If anyone needs to talk about shipping a motorhome to Australia, give me a bell. Believe me, it can be a torturous path without the knowledge.

Dearne with Clyde, Chuck and Ali’s American Bulldog. A giant (55kg) but gentle animal

It has been a great few days with Chuck and Ali. The last time we caught up was in April 2012 at the Communicators Reunion so it’s been a few months between drinks.  We have to say that without their assistance in Canberra it may have been a little more tiresome in finalising some of our travel arrangements. Having ‘inside’ knowledge always helps. Cheers guys.

Just before we left home Dearne had a ‘minor’ altercation with another vehicle. I am more than happy to tell you it was not her fault and no injuries so insurance (via the perpetrator) is picking up the tab for repair. The down side is that because we are now a one car family getting around is a little more difficult. The immediate plan when we get home is to get the car sorted.

To those of you who are attending Claire Bears birthday party, see you all next Saturday night in Auckland.

Ex Lady Sailors at the Reunion

When we flew out from Auckland last Thursday for Melbourne we were both a little unsure if we would enjoy the ‘Long Time No Sea’ reunion (an ex Navy thing).  While we both knew people who were going, I guess it was the unknown that was our concern.  Our feedback?  The weekend was brilliant. We both met people at the Reunion that we had not seen for some 20 or so years and in most cases we took up conversations as though we met up every week.

The event was held at the Amora Riverwalk Hotel, Melbourne  – a 15 minute walk or a 5 minute tram ride to the city centre. The accommodation was excellent and the venue was totally suitable for the Reunion.  The Reunion had both formal and informal components and was run superbly. Our thanks to George, Kel  and the organising committee for a great weekend.

If you are New Zealand Navy or ex Navy and you have never been to a ‘Long Time No Sea’ Reunion I urge you to consider attending the next one – you will have a great time.  While it is primarily an ex pat event, the organisers made the New Zealand attendees feel very welcome.  We will still have the motorhome in Australia in 2015 so we will be definite attendees.

I believe the next Reunion is to be held in Adelaide in 2015. I am not sure whether the dates have been finalised.

L to R Rod, Dearne, Louise, Brian

While we were in Melbourne we caught up with friends we  ‘cultivated’ while we were on our river cruise in Europe last year.  On the trip there were four couples who developed a great travelling relationship and we ended up doing most things together.  I think it started with us all being the first to ‘happy hour’ each night!! Brian and Louise came to our hotel and we spent an hour together catching up on the last 12 months.  It was great seeing you guys again and hopefully we will end up on another cruise together in the future.

We are now heading up to Canberra to spend a couple of days with Chuck and Ali – Rod’s brother and sister in law.  While we are there we will be trying to finalise the shipping of the motorhome with Australian customs. We now have a shipping date of 14 June.

We will update the blog in a couple of days.