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For the love of football
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  • Terry's Tiki Tours

For the love of football

One man's quest to watch his beloved Spurs play live. Read more
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  • Trip start
    September 21, 2018
  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    Haere ra Aotearoa

    September 21, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    After fleeing the heaving metropolis of Napier we have arrived briefly in Auckland. Lots of renovations going on there and it's a bit of a maze. Of course the highlight was getting a rub down from security, to check for drugs. He started with my bag and I was getting twitchy when it looked like he'd dab me as well, but luckily it was just the electronic wand. Crisis averted. About to board the flight to the home of vegemite and the beer spelled with just one letter. See you all soon.Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    The land of Oz

    September 21, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    A flying, literally, visit to Oz where hopefully their sandwiches and bakery goods aren't as prodigiously priced as the ones at Auckland Airport! Less than a day and I'm already on a rant. Lol. In my defense $10 for a simple sandwich is having a laugh. I told the mugger, sorry person serving me, that the bread must have been baked by Jesus himself to cost that much. She didn't laugh. Anyway now it's time to hurry up and wait until check in for our Taipei flight opens and then I'm going to swan into the Business Class lounge like I belong there.Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    It's business time

    September 22, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We were the first in the queue for our China Airlines flight from Sydney to Taipei, and because we were flying business class we were invited to the lounge and even given an express pass through customs and security. This all went smooth as butter, as we got through the line and full body scanner in no time and had almost made it to the promised land of the departure lounge. But then I must have emitted another Pablo Escobar vibe, because the guy with the magic wand zeroed in on me like I a fat girl at a buffet spotting free shrimp. A quick swipey swipey, rubby rubby later and the machine flashed up green, of course!

    Eventually free of Australia's wily border force we sauntered down to the business class lounge, where I proceeded to eat one of everything. Not because I'm greedy, but because I felt I was representing New Zealand and it was my patriotic duty to join cultures through food.

    Three house later I waddled out and made the taxing 100 metre walk to our gate, where we were waved past the plebs and wafted into the sanctuary of the business class section of our A350-900. Time to stress test my lie flat bed. Taipei is 9 hours and 7000km's away, what a hardship.    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler
    1

    A magic carpet ride

    September 22, 2018 in Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Let me get this out of the way early. China Airline's Business Class is exceptional. Delicious food, exemplary service from slim, attractive flight attendants, (take note Air NZ) and a lie flat bed that had enough controls to keep the geek in me gleefully happy. I even got some good sleep, which is highly unusual for me anywhere, especially on a plane. Some 'other' unnamed people on this flight had even more sleep than me. In fact at one point there was a symphony of snoring. Initially I thought two untuned tractors were having a race though the cabin, but it was two other passengers. One whom I know very well. We landed in Taipei just after 5am and it was already 27 degrees. This may be a toasty kind of day. Next stop central Taipei.Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler
    1

    Look up, and up, and up

    September 22, 2018 in Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Caught the high speed train into Taipei city, which took about half an hour, so I'm glad we didn't take the regular speed one. Seriously though, Taipei is a massive urban sprawl, intermixed with dense foliage covered hills.

    Our one and only reason for dipping our toes into the city was to see Taipei 101. Wow, what a structure. It punches into the sky, towering over all other buildings and giving a stunning view of Taipei, amid the smog. Very impressive, especially the lifts which fire you up to the 89th floor in just over 30 seconds.

    After gazing over the strange mix of old traditional Chinese structures and futuristic skyscrapers we caught the bullet lift back to ground level and caught the MRT back to our airport hotel. A few hours sleep and a refreshing shower, it is 33 degrees here, and we're off to the airport. A few more hours in the business lounge doing it tough then we board our bird bound for Vienna.    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    Ohhhh...Vienna!

    September 23, 2018 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    What an eventful last 24 hours! The first 13 were spent enjoying the excellent China Airlines service between Taipei and Vienna. This was pretty standard except for one odd moment. As I was waiting in the galley at the front of the plane to use the facilities, a middle aged Chinese lady emerged from the toilet, took a look at me and launched herself towards me. Before I knew it she was attached to me, giving me a vigorous hug. Fortunately the flight attendant was onto it and managed to pry this stranger off me. I still don't know what that was all about. Maybe they shouldn't serve alcohol on intercontinental flights?

    Anyway, having composed myself once more I finished another movie and watched the lights of Vienna emerge from the darkness. We touched down on time and made our way to border control expecting fingerprinting and forms to fill in. Less than 30 seconds later we were on the ground side of the airport wondering what just happened. Austrian efficiency at its best is what. This efficiency continued as our bags arrived within minutes, another perk of business class, then we strolled through arrivals and down the escalators to the City Express train which of course left dead on time. There was even free on board wifi.

    On reaching Wien Mitte station we got an Uber to our hotel, which of course we couldn't check in to until 3pm. We were there before 7am, curses! No worries though as we had our Vienna Hot Rod tour booked for 10am. To kill some time we decided to walk the 3k to the Hot Rod headquarters. However some time remained alive as we got there more than 30 minutes early. While standing outside looking hopefully in we struck up a conversation with an older couple. Turns out they were doing the tour with us and they were Aussies. Anzac Hot Road championship duel activate. After some high speed, high powered hot rod instruction we hit the roads around Vienna central.

    I thought I'd seen some beautiful historical cities before, but Vienna takes the Gold, gives the other cities a wedgie and then leaves with their girlfriend. It is flooded with grandeur and is standing room only from one amazing historical monument to the next. Simply unmatched. Of course we first saw these eye popping gems from 6 inches off the ground, hurtling along at up to 60kms an hour. The Hot Rod tour was fan- bloody- tastic. Dominic our guide did an impeccable job guiding us through the streets around the Ringstrasse and keeping us alive. I had been really looking forward to this opportunity and it totally lived up to the hype. Hopefully there will be video from my video glasses to come.

    After the tour we had a drink with our Aussie compatriots then took the hop on hop off big bus tour. This time we travelled at a speed that allowed us to see more of the sights. Finally we made it to our hotel room and we were very ready to crash out.

    Tomorrow, more of incredible Vienna. To see what the hot rods were like in action visit https://youtu.be/p7J_SNvKcVE or
    https://youtu.be/V2iN43PPLXc    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    What a challenging hypothesis

    September 24, 2018 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Another glorious day in Vienna, apart from the weather, which makes Invercargill's look positively settled. It jumped from gale force cold winds to still and warm, then back again, faster than I could change cellphones. Still there's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing, and I had plenty of that.

    The day started with Jean and I repeating our trek from the previous day past the Hauptbahnhof, Karlskirche, the Opera House and then turning left to visit the incredible Hofburg. It seems that Austrians didn't do small scale, not when they had an empire anyway. The Hofburg is so large it makes the word colossal feel self-conscious. We had a good wander around the buildings marvelling at the intricate detail and how difficult it must have been to get a WiFi signal to all parts of the residence. Well I wondered that, Jean just admired the marvellous stonework and estimated the double glazing cost.

    After pondering both of these age old questions we decided to bite the bullet and visit one of the museums. Being a student of the globe I opted for the Weltuseum Wien. Now although in English that sounds like a history of people's swollen bits, in German it means 'World museum' and it was predictably impressive. It seems that Austrians were quite the wanderers and collectors back in the day and brought many artifacts back with them. Whether this was ethical is questionable, especially when I got to the room devoted to the Pacific. I heard it before I entered, a haka pounding out full throttle. They had the prow of a waka, some patu and mere, a korowai and other Maori artifacts. However the bit which unsettled me was the section where they questioned the ethics of collecting human remains. The museum used to have many of these, including Maori heads. To their credit in 2015 they returned these via Te Papa to the descendants in New Zealand and this was documented as part of the exhibition.

    After leaving the Weltmuseum we sauntered through the museum quarter for an hour or so and left feeling immediately intellectually ripped. I don't want to boast, but it's quite possible after that knowledge power workout that we are now what the locals would term 'ubermensch'.
    Finally we decided we could do no more and started the hike back to the hotel. This took a little longer than expected as we had been drawn deeper into the heart of Vienna city centre and the walk back was a vigorous 4 to 5 k. Whatever the true distance it's true that by the end of it Jean's dogs were barking and we had racked up 29 thousand steps for the day on my Fitbit.

    Right now we are lounging in the OBB (Austrian Railways) business class lounge waiting to board our overnight sleeper train to Rome.

    Tomorrow it's Viva Italia and Forza Juve!    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    What we do in life echoes in eternity

    September 25, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    The Nightjet sleeper train between Vienna and Rome left Vienna on time, to the second, at 7.23pm. The Austrians are doing nothing to help dispel cultural cliches about Germanic peoples being sticklers for punctuality. It was great for us though, as we got settled into our sleeper cabin and soon had the beds down and ready to sleep our way south through Austria and onwards to the Eternal City. I even got to sleep within minutes and was sleeping the sleep of the just until being jolted awake around midnight in Villach Austria. They must have been changing some wagons. No problem, I just rolled over and dozed off for another couple of hours until we stopped again near Venice. The final two stops were Florence and Bologna, before the guard served our breakfast about 90 minutes out of Rome. Naturally being a train out of Austria the breakfast was meat and cheese heavy. The Austrians/Germans, a people after my own cholesterol.

    Around 9.35am, only 13 minutes behind schedule, which was pretty good after a 14 hour trip, we pulled into Roma Termini. The first clue I had that I'd like Rome was the giant transparent video screen at the end of the station concourse showing football highlights. I may have found my people!

    Being the frugal fellow I am I decided we'd walk to the hotel, seeing the 50 metre long taxi queue helped with that decision. 20 minutes later, dodging Italian drivers and seeing more scooters in ten minutes than the rest of my life we arrived at our hotel. It is located on the fifth floor of an old apartment building and has a historically protected lift, which is serviced once a week. That filled Jean with confidence about riding in it.

    We dumped our bags and headed out to catch an Uber to the Colosseum. It took a while for it to arrive and after being in it for five minutes I realised why. Italian drivers seem to regard rules and regulations as suggestions. We did get to see more of this incredible city while watching the madness though. It's so different from Vienna. They are both staggeringly old, but Vienna looks very planned and structured, whereas Rome seems to have grown and aged organically.

    We got to the Colosseum about 25 minutes before our scheduled entry time and boy was I glad I had booked. I think most of Asia and 25 percent of the American population had decided to descend on the Colosseum for the day. Once our pre-assigned time arrived we marched through the entry and up the stairs to the first floor. I fought the urge to bust out my Maximus Decimus Meridius impressions, mostly. We spent a good hour taking in this incredible structure and yes, we were entertained.

    Leaving the Colosseum we decided to take a Hop On Hop Off bus tour, which would also eventually stop near our hotel. We passed the Vatican, the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, Circo Massimo, Villa Borghesi and a few others. This was a scouting trip to see what we will go back to tomorrow. Until then, arriverderci.    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler
    1

    La dolce vita

    September 26, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We were living the beautiful life today, except we were not quite as well dressed (I'm dying to buy an Italian suit!), stylish or vocal as the typical Roman. I have seen hardly any women in activewear and the ones that were wearing it were probably foreigners. Actually I believe Activewear in Italian translates roughly to 'big lass who doesn't own a mirror'. But I digress, what we did have was the Italian trifecta; pizza, pasta and gelato. This was only consumed in the name of scientific research and was promptly burned off after we had walked another 20k around Rome. But why wouldn't you walk as much as you could here when every street is cloaked in history and has heard the footsteps of generations over two millenia.

    Our morning began with breakfast served by our hosts. I don't know what I ate, but it had pastry, custard, fruit and something else that's probably banned in 3 systems. I do know that it had me repeating 'grazie mille' to our hostess like I was some demented Italian CD with a scratch in it.

    After humbling myself before this breakfast saint we headed out for another day of Italian sightseeing.

    We started by following the Via Del Corso towards the Spanish Steps, continued to the Obelisk before backtracking to see the Trevi Fountain. Fountain must mean something different in Italian, as this one had no water in it, at the moment. I guess the Trevi Stone Bowl doesn't flow off the tongue quite the same though.

    We finished our tour off with a look through the Pantheon, which wins dome of the year award from me. It's a cracker!

    Sightseeing ticked off we headed back up the hill towards Corso d'Italia and our hotel, but some cunning person went and plonked about 50 authentic Roman restaurants in our path. They even had the foresight to include outdoor seating and proudly proclaim their ability to give me gelato. That sealed the deal and after careful technical analysis we chose Baccanale, where we proceeded to devour fresh pasta and pizza chased down with the aforementioned gelato.

    By now clinically obese we somehow managed to drag our bodies back to the hotel and crash for a siesta.

    Tomorrow we're up early to take on Italian drivers as we run the gauntlet of Roman traffic to the airport and on to Berlin. Arrivederci Rome, it's been strabiliante and I hope to come back soon, for longer and to see some football. Viva l'Italia!    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    First we take Berlin

    September 27, 2018 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Today was a moving day, as we were on the go from before sunrise in Rome until the sun set over Berlin.

    It began with us being collected outside our apartment in Rome and driven through the winding roads of the capital to Fiumicino airport 45 minutes away. Our driver picked us up at 6.50am for our 10.20am flight, which made me think the airport might be in another country, or that the transport company was going for the full historical experience by picking us up in a horse and cart. It was neither disappointingly. It's just that the airport takes some getting to and it pays to check in with time to spare. I didn't mind being so early once I wandered around the terminal though. Like much of Rome the airport has an effortless air of style and is a nice place to be.

    While we were wandering around I was treated to a sight that could only happen in Rome, a large group of nuns taking a selfie. I thought of photo-bombing, but didn't want to risk eternal damnation, or a kick in the nuts from a blessed Daughter of the Sacrament.

    Eventually we boarded our easyJet flight, after some unexplained delay. The flight left 25 minutes late, but the pilot must have fed it the herbs and we arrived only 5 minutes late. Then we waited 20 minutes in the terminal for the luggage to start showing up on the conveyor belt. I could sense I was about to go full Hulk smash when Hans must have found his fake arm and the bags started to appear. Our driver met us at arrivals, then explained that he'd had to park in the other terminal building park as so many roads were closed because of the Turkish president visiting Berlin. I thought nothing of this until later at our hotel I received a call from the Segway tour company informing me that I could take an abridged tour today or reschedule, because of the disrupted route due to his Turkishness. I naturally rescheduled as I want the full noise Berlin Segway goodness. That left us with some time available, so we wandered down the road to the Deutsches Technik Museum. Great place for a nerd and it would be ideal for a class visit. I just have to raise the 100k to get them here.

    After a couple of hours museumyness I'd worked up a hunger so we had a walk down Stresemannstrasse and I spied a likely spot. Because we were in Berlin I thought it only right that we should dine Mexican style, so Burritos it was, finished off with strudel and fresh cream of course, because I'm not an animal.

    Tomorrow the Segways will get thrashed like a redheaded stepchild. Until then, tschuss.    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    Schnell, we must see die ganze stadt

    September 28, 2018 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Up at the leisurely hour of 7am we moseyed on down to the dining room for our complimentary breakfast. I really held back, conscious of how quickly five months of gym work can turn into asking for elastic waisted pants. So I bit the bullet and went healthy with a fruit salad and yoghurt, chased down with a mini strudel of course. There's apparently a bylaw that all meals must contain some variant of strudel and I'm not causing an international incident over it.

    Breakfast complete we headed off to rendezvous for our Segway tour. We arrived in plenty of time at Glinckastrasse and got chatting with some of the other riders who would complete our Segway stunt team. Wouldn't you know it, out of 7 riders 4 were Kiwis, us and a lovely couple of guys from Auckland. They were touring Europe to celebrate a 50th birthday, snap!

    Michael our guide, a Russian emigre, gave us all a quick lesson in Segway mastery. Jean was first monkey up and took to it like a Lab to food, which put the pressure right on me. I was a little wobbly at first, but didn't send the Segway into an uncontrollable death spiral, so it was really a great success.

    Once we had our training and were on the road my natural athletic ability and innate mechanical understanding kicked in and I was playing that Ssegway like I was some sort of gyroscopically balanced savant.

    We had booked the three hour tour, which surprised both Jean and I, and our groaning hamstrings by the end, but thank goodness we did, because Berlin has so much to see. As a World War Two and Cold War buff it's the centre of my universe, but it has so much more history to offer. We saw a church from the 1200's, the first Rathaus (city hall) original university, Museum insel and a long and impressive list of other historical gems.

    We finished up the tour just before 1pm and headed back to the hotel via Checkpoint Charlie. This was not for any historical imperative, but because Jean and I had lunch at the McDonalds which overlooks the site on our visit 8 years ago and she was hungry. It also didn't hurt that they were currently selling the McRib.

    Bad calories consumed we continued to the hotel, where I jettisoned Jean and trekked back towards Potsdamer Platz and the German Museum of Espionage. Now I could tell you more about this, but I've been sworn to secrecy. Decode the images if you can. ;)

    Here's some video to enjoy https://youtu.be/GQWqqemlH8U
    https://youtu.be/1gLnmi_iRmQ    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler
    22

    Guess who's back?

    September 29, 2018 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Berlin does a lot of things well and extremely efficiently, but one area where they score an own goal is Tegel airport. What a clusterf&*k of epic proportions. It's like two German guys had a few too many steins and decided to knock up something like an airport with some stuff they found lying around a building site. It makes bush airstrips in wildest Africa seem sophisticated. Literally it is like a prefab garage with about five short haul jet's worth of passengers jammed into it, with one small food kiosk and a bathroom from a down on their luck football club. That would be bad enough, but getting through what passes for their security area is much slower and more difficult than it should ever be. It took so long to get from the front of the queue to nearly the other side of security that some of my clothes had started to go out of style. Luckily by the time I got all the way through my clothes had come back into fashion. I swear it would have been easier to get over the Berlin wall in its heyday than it was to pass through security at Berlin Tegel.

    Once we were on our Aer Lingus flight things picked up and we had a smooth and on-time trip to Dublin. Dublin airport is quite large and spread out, so we had a long taxi to the terminal before I could finally set foot on Irish soil for the first time in over two decades. Customs was easy and friendly, which was no surprise and the girl dealing with us asked if we were visiting family when she saw my passport. It's fantastic to be in a country where you don't have to spell out your surname.

    After clearing customs and collecting our bags we trundled our stuff to the airport hotel, via a few false starts and wrong turns and made it to our room about 12.30am.

    The next morning, Saturday, we were up by eight and back to the airport to pick up our rental car from the Avis counter. We were on the road by nine, headed all the way across Ireland, from east to the Wild West coast to visit the home town of my ancestors and try and find the burial place of my great-great-grandparents.

    The main road from Dublin to Galway, the M50 is fantastic. It's what New Zealand highways should be. Two lanes either side, a median barrier and smooth tarmac, plus a speed limit of 120kmh in most places. It's glorious and makes the journey so much faster and easier.

    We pulled our Renault Kadjar into Claregalway, County Galway just after midday. I had followed on some research carried out by one of my uncles and thanks to the reach of the internet had located my great-great-grandparents grave in the cemetery at the Franciscan Friary church burial ground in Claregalway.

    The friary has not been used for a while, but it must have been a very impressive building back when the guys with itchy cloaks and bowl haircuts were doing their thing. I had narrowed the search for my ancestors to this location, but this burial ground is several hundred years old and there was no directory to follow, so I thought it might take a while. To my surprise and delight I managed to find the headstone after about only twenty minutes of searching. It was a powerful and quite emotional experience to be standing in my forebears home town and final resting place. It was a full circle moment, that their great-great-grandson had returned to the place from which their daughter had left Ireland forever, for a life in an unknown and distant land. It had taken over 150 years, but blood will out and family finds a way.

    After spending some time to soak in this special moment we eventually left Claregalway to head for the Cliffs of Moher. This is only about 70 kilometres from Galway, but it's over some very narrow and windy roads, so it took well over an hour. We did get the bonus of passing through The Burren and driving by a couple of dramatic coastal castles on the way.

    After negotiating the trail to the cliffs we braved the winds and the crowds to climb the path and peer over the edge to the wild Atlantic pounding relentlessly against the shore hundreds of feet far below. It's a stark, dramatic landscape and I immediately liked it.

    I found it comforting that my forebears who left this part of Western Ireland to make a new life in New Zealand chose to settle in another beautifully wild coastal place, Southland.

    Finally tearing myself away from the view and the wind we left Galway and the Atlantic behind to made the return 300k trek back to Dublin, arriving just as the sun set. Tomorrow the delights of Dublin await. Slainte!    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler
    2

    I can resist everything but temptation

    October 1, 2018 in Ireland ⋅ 🌙 5 °C

    Today we broke the long standing world record for the number of hop on hop off bus tours taken on one holiday, when we orbited fair Dublin city in the 'Do Dublin' bus tour.

    Starting in O'Connell street we first passed the iconic Dublin GPO, scene of the fiercest battles in the 1916 Easter Rising. The Irish Republican in me always gets a lump in my throat when thinking of the Easter Rising and seeing the GPO again was another misty eyed moment.

    We then continued around the most famous sights of Dublin, which come thick and fast, even though the full circuit takes two hours to complete. The weather was typically Irish, so the Southlander in me felt right at home, but the North Islander beside me was shivering, so we soon abandoned our perch on the upper deck and adjourned to the slightly warmer climes of the enclosed lower deck. The more climatically comfortable surroundings of the bottom deck allowed both of us to take in more of the sights and terrific commentary from Gareth Lawless our driver and tour guide. I know gift of the gab is an Irish cliche, but cliches evolve because there is always a kernel of truth in them. Gareth gave the best tour commentary I have ever heard, along with regular Irish songs as we passed the Irish Writer's museum, the famine memorial, the Irish Emigration Museum, St Stephen's Green, Trinity College, the Guinness Storehouse, Kilmainham Gaol and Phoenix Park.

    What an amazing, vibrant and history filled city Dublin is. The real highlight of the day though was the visit to EPIC - the Irish Emigration museum. This museum only opened in 2016 and it harnesses the most engaging and creative technology to tell the story of how the Irish diaspora has altered and affected every corner of the globe they have settled in. It charts all aspects of how it has come to pass that Ireland has exported so many of its people. It is by equal measure sorrowful, celebratory, proud, defiant and unbroken. It would make anyone with even a single drop of Irish blood cherish the gift of such an incredible heritage. I know I am far from an unbiased commentator when it comes to this issue, but the bottom line is that Ireland's greatest export has always been its people.

    After an incredible two hours we exited EPIC and headed back to O'Connell street to visit a souvenir shop, which are very hard to find. Why in one twenty metre stretch of the street I was lucky to find only four such shops. Handing over my crisp Euros I walked out with a Maloney key-ring proudly advertising my family coat of arms, a commemorative Easter Rising coin and a bag of Baileys chocolate, for emergency purposes only. Souvenirs secured we caught the Airlink Express back to the hotel and a meeting with an old friend from Southland.

    Tomorrow we touch down in good old Glasgy. Come on the Bhoys!    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    Back in G-Town

    October 2, 2018 in Scotland ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    We bid a fond farewell to the Emerald Isle yesterday morning and caught the Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Glasgow. Amusingly the plane we boarded was an ATR-72, just like the ones Air New Zealand uses on its regional routes. Of course being Irish it was much more comfortable and flew with a twinkle in its eye.

    Just over an hour after departing Dublin we touched down at Glasgow International, disembarked and walked through to the terminal to be greeted by Jean's uncle and Aunt. They were happy to see us, but did have an important question to ask, 'Where's your suitcases?' In the excitement of reaching Scotland we had sailed past baggage claim and out through the exit doors, neglecting to collect our bags. Whoops! The one way doors had closed behind us, stranding us from our stuff. Just when it looked like our bags would have to find a new home with some other lucky traveller, who would be gifted with our dirty laundry, more passengers filed out of baggage claim and we took the opportunity to zip back in. Ha ha I thought, take that security, until the alarm went off and a voice announced 'You have entered a restricted area, please wait for security.' Bugger that I thought, you'll never take me alive and I continued purposefully striding towards our baggage belt. When I saw an airport official walking towards us I explained that we were dopey tourists and he said 'Sure it's fine, go for it pal.' God bless the Celtic sense of informality.

    Bags now safely collected we returned through the arrivals doors and re-greeted Jean's aunt and uncle. They drove us to their home where we relaxed with a home made lunch before meeting up with Jean's cousin later on.

    Today we have the big family reunion with Jean's cousins and their wee bairns. I have been promoted by Jean as a one man show for kids, so the pressure is on for me to entertain. If it doesn't go well I shall tell the kids that I'm Australian.    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    Paradise is calling

    October 2, 2018 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    What a great day in Glasgow. After a morning run and breakfast I was asked the question by Jean's aunt, 'Do you want to go to Celtic Park?' I'm not sure if I replied verbally, but I do know that my head was nodding back and forth like some demented bobblehead toy. So the decision was made and we set off across Glasgow.

    Arriving at the stadium I took a moment to soak in the majesty of where I was before we wandered closer and I popped my head in the door to ask if they had a museum. The answer was no unfortunately, but they did have a stadium tour and the next one was starting in five minutes, result! Almost throwing my money at the guide in excitement we headed up the lift and embarked on the tour around Paradise. This included stops in the boardroom to see some of the trophies Celtic have won and listen to the history behind each, spending time in the home dressing room, going down through the players tunnel to pitchside, sitting in the home team dugout and enjoying the view from the VIP seats, including Rod Stewart's.

    After savouring the atmosphere we adjourned to the players lounge for refreshments and to gather strength before my assault on the Celtic Superstore. I had to show incredible restraint here, as we still have two weeks of travel to go, but I did buy a couple of Celtic shirts and some Celtic chocolate. I could have filled a truck with all the Celtic goodness available, including a dog collar emblazoned with the immortal line 'You'll never walk alone', which dogs also find very comforting.

    After a full and memorable two hours we jumped in the car and headed back into town for dinner with all the rellies and their adorable Scottish kiddies. A full on Glasgow accent coming from a five year old is pure gold.    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    Now that's a cathedral!

    October 3, 2018 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    To combat the effects of holiday eating I was up again this morning and straight out for a walk to explore the local environs.

    This morning's fat-fighting safari was to Pollok Country Park. Normally this is where you can view the Burrell exhibition, but that's being refurbished at the moment, so I was denied. Still, it's a lovely park and worth a visit.

    After breakfast we headed north with Jean's uncle and aunt and cousin to the city of Dunblane. Most kiwis may recognise this name because of the school massacre which occurred there in 1996. Fortunately the place is now better known as the home of Andy Murray, the sometimes successful tennis player. It is also home to a very impressive cathedral, which began life as a Catholic cathedral, but it was knicked by the Presbyterians after the reformation and has continued to be a protestant place of worship ever since. Whichever hymn sheet they're singing from it is still a beautiful and awe inspiring structure. which is over 750 years old.

    Prior to roaming the town and visiting the cathedral we had a very refined lunch at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and Hydro. This very sophisticated hotel overlooks the city. Fun fact, although Dunblane is not very large it is still classified as a city because it has a cathedral. Thanks 5th form history, you saved me again.

    After a relaxed couple of hours wandering the ancient lanes of Dunblane we got back on the motorway and negotiated Glasgow traffic, which is beginning to rival Auckland's, back to home base in Glasgow.

    Tomorrow I'm hiring a car and heading North to Inverness to catch up with an old friend. Can't wait! :)    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    I'll take the high road

    October 4, 2018 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Today was a mission to meet a friend. Leaving Shawlands about 10am Jean's uncle and I drove to the Arnold Clark rental car depot to pick up my rental car.

    After about 15 minutes of processing and paperwork, who knows what they do during this time, I was shown out to my rental car. It was supposed to be a Hyundai i30, but that one must have run away, so they 'upgraded' me to a Peugeot 3008. I have to say this is a very nice SUV, with all the latest tech, including a fully animated computer dash. This meant that I simply had to spend the first 50 miles of my trip playing with the options.

    Once I had stopped geeking out I settled down to enjoy the drive north to Inverness. Several people had warned me about the A9 and how tricky it was, but it's just like a typical New Zealand highway, so it was a doddle for an automotive athlete such as myself.

    Just 5 miles out of Inverness lies the Culloden Battlefield, so I made time to stop there first and go through the visitor centre. It is extremely well done and clearly explains the events leading up to the fateful battle and the crushing of the Jacobite rebellion. The clans never really stood a chance and some poor decisions and bad luck sealed their fate. Despite this they still fought with incredible spirit and bravery. After paying my respects to the fallen I carried on into Inverness City and met up with my longtime friend and fellow Invercargillite Annalise. She has lived here in Inverness with her two sons for almost a decade and loves the place. It's not hard to see why as it's a beautiful, wild part of the world which reminds me a lot of the area around Kingston and Queenstown. I also think by law she must live somewhere with 'Inver' in the name.

    After visiting her home, which is a lovely old farm house, we drove into Beauly for a meal and a night of reminiscing at the Priory Hotel restaurant. The craic was great and I realised it's been far too long since we've seen each other.

    Tomorrow I'll bid a sad farewell to Annalise and the Highlands and head back for one last night in Glasgow.    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    Glory, glory Tottenham Hotspur

    October 6, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Today was the biggie, the event that this entire holiday has built towards. Not my visit to Tescos, the day when I got to watch my beloved Spurs play live for the first time since 1990. The day started with a hiccup though.

    We stayed at the Glasgow Airport hotel, so we could get up at 5am and literally roll across the road to check-in at Glasgow International for our 6.45am flight. At this stage everything was moving smoothly, too smoothly as it turns out. The universe had obviously seen the fun I have been having and the luxurious lifestyle I have been living and thought, screw you buster, let's have some fun. So we boarded our easyJet flight on time and sat there ready to takeoff for London. And we sat there, and we sat there, and sat, and sat....you get the idea.

    We waited in the plane at the gate for over an hour and a half. Now this wasn't easyJet's fault, the fog in London was affecting flights all over the UK. What was easyJet's fault was letting us board when they knew we couldn't take off until after 8am, sadistic bastards! This meant that we didn't reach London Gatwick until after 10am and screwed my master plan of doing a little sightseeing pre-game.

    Upon reaching Gatwick we rode the monorail between terminals and checked into our hotel, the Hilton (remember the luxury theme). Once that was done and our bags ditched we legged it faster than a Labrador chasing a sandwich for London Victoria and onwards to Wembley Stadium. At this point I have had a request to mention the weather. Yesterday in London it was sunny and 22 degrees. Today it was not. Today it was 10, with constant rain. Oh universe, you cheeky bugger, you wont stop me.

    We forged on, through rain and cold and arrived at Wembley just after 1pm. This gave us time for me to visit the merchandise store, where I showed admirable restraint and only bought 2 Spurs shirts, some Spurs gloves, a Spurs baseball cap and a matchday scarf. I shall buy more when we return to London after our time in Florida, and when I have an extra suitcase.

    Spurs shopping complete we strolled the concourse waiting for kickoff and praying for sunshine. Obviously god doesn't do requests, because the rain continued, throughout the entire match.

    3pm and kickoff eventually rolled around and I have to admit there was a pretty big lump in my throat as the ref blew the whistle to start play. A wild mix of emotions surged through me. Excitement and joy at seeing my team and sorrow for missing mates who didn't live to see this day. Squeezing back the tears I sat back for two seconds until I got caught up in the game and then lived every kick, pass and tackle for the full 90 minutes. Fortunately Eric Dier calmed Spurs' nerves in the eighth minute by smacking in a messy rebound and Spurs bossed most of the match from then on, apart from a few Cardiff attacks. When Cardiff were reduced to 10 men about the hour mark I thought the match was in the bag. However, Spurs being the generous team they are you can hardly ever rest easy. In the end though the ref blew time and a cheer of joy and relief range out from the faithful.

    Now Spurs may have won the match, but I have to give props to the travelling Cardiff support, they cheered, sang and clapped their boys for the full 90. They even tried to have a go after the match, but got a quick kicking from some handy Spurs lads.

    My journey to mecca complete we tramped back through the rain and retraced our steps to our Gatwick Airport hotel. This required three train rides over 90 minutes.

    Now sitting in the warmth of the Hilton, the colour is finally returning to my frozen body, Jean however may need to be microwaved to raise her core temperature. Despite the delays and English weather nothing can diminish my joy at having once again being able to support my team in person.

    Tomorrow we catch our Norwegian Air Dreamliner for Orlando. Mickey you better make sure the place is tidy.

    To see some of my match action click either of these links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw4cePv2MUk
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV_0q8cnjUY    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    Hurry up and wait

    October 7, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today started rudely early, about 3am when I woke up. Timezones are not my friend. It did however give me time to check my phone and notice that our Norwegian Air flight had been delayed by a couple of hours. This was slightly annoying as it would delay our arrival into Orlando, but it would give us a bit more time in our hotel, so glass half full me thought sweet, less rush.

    Just before 10am we ambled down to the terminal, reveled in using the priority lane to check in and moved seamlessly through security. So far so good, but then things went a little off script.

    First when I changed a significant amount of pounds and euros for US dollars at the airport currency exchange and got molested by their thieving rates. They would make pickpockets blush.

    Dragging my bleeding wallet away we checked into the Norwegian Air business lounge and blobbed out. Luckily I checked the departures page on my computer and it suddenly said our flight was boarding, so we legged it for our gate only to see exactly no boarding taking place.It didn't actually begin boarding for another 50 minutes.

    These two calamities have left a sour taste in my mouth, it's the grubby, gritty taste of London, the most overpriced city yet. Yesterday it cost us $200 to get into the city and onwards to Wembley and return. Give me Berlin or Rome any day!

    Anyway I digress. We were finally on board our flight and kicking back in premium economy at the front of the plane. This was almost as good as some airlines' business class offerings. Heaps of leg room, passable food and good entertainment options. The only unusual aspect was the almost exclusively male stewards in premium economy. Perhaps vikings don't trust their women with VIPs.

    Settling back we enjoyed several movies, two meals and even a little shut eye, so apart from the check-in shenanigans Norwegian Air gets a big tick from us. Orlando International Airport though does not.

    The border security queue at Orlando would make a snail feel like Usain Bolt! It took us two hours to get from landing to actually sitting down on Disney's Magical Express rolling to our Disney hotel.

    Arriving at our hotel we collected our magic bands and used them to magically open our room door. You can also use them to buy food and souvenirs at the park, store fastpasses for rides and various other convenient uses.

    Tomorrow we check out Orlando, especially the malls, before storming the parks on Tuesday.    Read more

  • Terry's Tiki ToursFor the love of footballTraveler

    The world in 300 acres

    October 9, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Yesterday was a shopping day, where we hit the Mall at Millenia to start the spending. Five minutes after entering we realized we were in the wrong place. It was seeing Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuiton, Hugo Boss etc that made the penny drop, so we quietly exited before they could check our bank balance and biff us out.

    Before we left the premises completely we did make a refreshment stop at The Cheesecake Factory. Oh lordy their cheesecake is good!!! The hershey's double chocolate cheesecake is worth the two hours on the treadmill afterwards.
    Once we were Xmas day full we waddled across the road to the SuperTarget store, where we could shop with our people. I bought a new smartwatch before leaving Jean in Target so that i could hit Best Buy and really make my credit card bleed. Twenty minutes later I had my electronics fix so we headed back to the All Star Movies resort, with a quick stop at the outlet mall of course.

    Today was our first park day, so we were at the resort bus stop before eight and entering Epcot at rope drop.

    First up was Test Track, a race car simulator that's like a giant slot car set, if your slot cars could go 70mph!

    Once that Fastpass was used we had two hours to kill before the next one, so we took a stroll through the World Showcase, a two hour stroll. They have themed areas for quite a few countries and it's done in the grandeur and detail that only Disney can pull off. We even passed a little New Zealand stall selling green lipped mussels and venison.

    It took a good two hours to complete the World Showcase loop and it was time for the next Fastpass, Mission Space. This is a space launch simulator, which is a motion ride. These can be my Achilles heel, as I'm prone to motion sickness. Luckily I didn't barf all over our spacecraft, which made the ride even more fun.

    Following this we rode Spaceship Earth before wandering through more of the park then catching the shuttle to our second Disney hotel.

    Our first Disney hotel, the All Star Movies resort was very nice, wonderfully themed and huge, but this latest one, The Wilderness Lodge, is another level altogether. It's in Disney's deluxe hotels category and a night there would bankrupt most Pacific nations. We've managed to get four nights there, don't ask how. It is epic in the truest sense of the word. It has a stream running through the lobby and a waterfall leading to one of the pools.

    After checking in we kicked back and enjoyed watching the latest thunderstorm from our sixth floor balcony. It's a tough life!

    Tomorrow it's the big one, Magic Kingdom time. Hold on tight kids!    Read more

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