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The New England States

September 2022
A 29-day adventure by Andrew Jerome Read more
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  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 29

    Auckland to Adelaide

    September 30, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    I didn’t get the sleep-in I had hoped for, due to several reasons. After waking up, my mind was buzzing thinking of everything we needed to do that day. I then hoped to use some meditation to go back to sleep but the hotel wifi had dropped out, so I couldn’t use the app. Then I was conscious of our check out time at 10am so I couldn’t relax. Therefore I just lay there, annoyed at not being able to do anything without any wifi!

    When Ted woke up I used his wifi and contacted Tara, who suggested we meet at a shopping centre halfway between us, before going back to her place in Howick. By this stage, Ted and I still hadn’t eaten since the flight last night so Tara kindly made us egg muffins and coffee. It was wonderful to see Tara again and catch up on good memories. We stayed until just before lunchtime as Tara had a catch up with friends, so we caught another Uber back to the hotel to collect our bags before taking the shuttle to the airport.

    This was our first time flying with Qatar Air and fortunately we got our boarding passes straight away. Whilst checking in, I did notice a sign that said staff travellers couldn’t wear denim, which pretty much was what I was wearing. None of the check in staff said anything but I made sure I took some trousers from our bag beforehand to avoid the possibly of being offloaded later!

    We went through security to get something to eat and were very disappointed by the lack of options. I went to a restaurant hoping for a healthy fruit smoothie where I was told, after 15 minutes of waiting, they weren’t serving smoothies. Grr! This meant I had to settle for McDonald’s again which was the last thing I felt like. Ugh.

    Whilst waiting at the boarding gate, an Asian tour group of 10 people bought last minute tickets after their flight was cancelled. We prayed we wouldn’t get offloaded but, as it turned out, we had four middle seats to ourselves so it was very comfortable. After the awful flight on Hawaiian airlines, the flight on Qatar Air was a dream, with plenty of legroom, a decent meal and good cabin service. But the best part was touching down in our home town and seeing Snoopy again.

    We hope you enjoyed our adventures. Until next time :-)    Read more

  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 27

    Honolulu to Auckland

    September 28, 2022 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Since this will be our last day in Hawaii for a while, we woke relatively early and went for a nice morning walk along the beach. We stopped for a coffee at the Moana hotel, where we enjoyed the view from those famous rocking chairs! Whilst our time in Hawaii has been somewhat long and unexpected, it was nice to leave with a positive image.

    After packing up and cleaning up the apartment, we caught an Uber to Honolulu airport. On the way, Ted checked the cost of the flight we are taking today and unsurprisingly, it has increased significantly since we purchased it. Whilst waiting for our flight, we bought some pizzas for lunch since the Chinese restaurant there offered nothing vegetarian besides rice.

    We headed towards our boarding gate and whilst waiting, I saw John Sparkes whom I used to work with at QantasLink who was operating to Melbourne that day. We chatted for a while before he needed to leave and then, about 10 minutes later, we saw Patrick Holley, one of Ted’s former coworkers in Sydney, who was connecting through Honolulu from Peru. He shared a similar nightmare staff travel story where he needed to pay over $3k for a flight home. It’s still interesting to run into former and current coworkers when you’re overseas.

    Before boarding, I bought some food from Starbucks as I wasn’t able to secure a vegetarian meal before leaving Honolulu. After boarding the flight, it was delayed slightly due to the late arrival of a connecting flight. Our so called “comfort plus” seats we’d purchased were a disappointment, since my seat didn’t recline at all. Therefore the nine plus hours flight when I was hoping to lay back and sleep didn’t happen. Ted similarly had a woman hitting the touchscreen on the back of his seat for the duration of the flight. I watched The Batman but most of the entertainment offered wasn’t great.

    Upon arriving into Auckland, we needed to stay seated whilst the cabin crew sprayed the cabin (haven’t seen Qantas do that for over 20 years) before disembarking, collecting our luggage and heading through immigration. I was concerned we wouldn’t be able to check into the hotel due to our late arrival, but the hotel said it was fine and came in the shuttle to collect us.

    I’ve contacted our friend Tara about catching up tomorrow, whom we haven’t seen since before Covid. I would’ve liked to have gone to bed early again but changing time zones has made it impossible tonight!    Read more

  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 26

    Honolulu

    September 27, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Due to the late Hawaiian time zones, today is actually our three year wedding anniversary. Ted started the day making us eggs on muffins for breakfast. We had arranged to hire a car to drive around the island today, mainly since our time here has been dragged out somewhat due to unforeseen circumstances. Whilst Hawaii is seen by most as an escape, we’re partly wishing we could escape it!

    When we went to collect our car from the car rental agency, the agent pulled a rather shonky deal - he said that because we were slightly early we either had to come back later and queue again, or pay for a more expensive car. Since we couldn’t be bothered waiting in the huge queue again, we took the pricier option even though it wasn’t what we’d wanted. We didn’t let it sour our day though, as we’d been looking forward to seeing something over than Waikiki.

    Our first stop was the Pali lookout, which we weren’t sure about as there seemed to be heavy cloud cover. We didn’t need to be concerned though, as the view from there was spectacular as always. Ted had been keen to see the town of Kailua nearby, mainly due to the beautiful beach scenery. After spending so much time in Waikiki, we had been feeling somewhat jaded with Hawaii, but seeing the other parts of the island restored our faith.

    The next stop was my favourite place in all of Hawaii - the Macadamia Nut farm! Even though it may be touted as a tourist trap, the marketing there is amazing, as they offer free coffee and free samples of eight different flavours of macadamia nuts, as well as selling body lotions, chilli jams and souvenirs. We didn’t end up buying anything but the visit alone was worth it.

    We then stopped at another famous Oahu sight - the view of China-mans Hat Island. Ted had been interested in going to his favourite Mexican restaurant on the North Shore, but the journey there was a challenge due to roadworks. We were lucky to wait only ten minutes, as the line of traffic stretched for several miles.

    We hadn’t originally planned to visit the Dole Pineapple factory, but decided to go and try the Dole Whip which is famous there. Clearly the place was trying to recover some of its losses during Covid, because a single soft serve cost $7.50, which is about $10 for us. We aren’t being tight with money on this trip, but we are trying to be smart so we decided to forego the experience this time.

    Our journey back to Waikiki was an adventure. After getting petrol, Ted turned into the left lane instead of the right, and we nearly collided with the incoming traffic. As the traffic was already starting to get bad, we had to exclude seeing Diamond Head crater today, and returned the car to the agency instead.

    We ate dinner in the apartment before going for a nighttime walk along the water. Seeing Waikiki in the evening light was beautiful, and it was the perfect way to farewell Hawaii before our flight to New Zealand tomorrow. We have been checking the passenger loads for the flights we were meant to be booked on, and know now we made the right decision by purchasing full fare flights. We continue our journey home tomorrow!    Read more

  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 25

    Honolulu

    September 26, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Today was an almost stressful day, as I noticed Ted was wide awake before 6am. When I asked what was wrong, he told me that our flight for Thursday has now dwindled down to 12 people, meaning our chance of getting away home on that day was slowly disappearing. If we didn’t find flights somewhere soon, we’d be stuck in Hawaii even longer!

    We both frantically had a look online and Ted managed to find an airfare on Wednesday heading to Auckland, New Zealand. I similarly found an airfare from Auckland direct to Adelaide so we swallowed our pride, and bought full fare tickets for our trip home. They’re more expensive than staff travel, but without all the stress and anxiety.

    After that drama, we headed to Ross for Less and bought another suitcase, mainly to replace the broken backpack I’ve been using since this holiday started. Bags are a lot cheaper here, so it was a good opportunity to increase our luggage supply!

    Afterwards, we decided to go to Hula’s for a quick drink which didn’t quite go to plan. We met a few locals whom we spoke to briefly, who then decided to include us in a round of shots! That broke the ice, so when they invited us to join them at Bacchus afterwards, we happily accepted.

    We ended up staying there for a while and having another round of shots, which isn’t as ideal as it sounds as we had both decided earlier we would drink less alcohol from now on! We then continued onto Inbetween, another bar we remember from our early days in Hawaii. Our original three friends needed to depart after that, mainly as they were too drunk, but we befriended a lady couple who were fun to talk to.

    Ted was determined to go back to Bacchus as they had trivia that night but, as we’d arrived late, we needed to complete the first round of questions without enough thought. We got a total shock when we saw we were seated next to a guy named Lee, whom we’d befriended almost 20 years ago, and hadn’t parted with on the best terms (long story!). To describe it as awkward was an understatement, but we still managed to make polite conversation. As for the trivia, we came second last, only beating the team that arrived even later than us.

    Despite trying to save money, we bought a pizza at the pub for dinner but otherwise didn’t have a late night.    Read more

  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 24

    Honolulu

    September 25, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    Ted had suggested that we walk towards Diamond Head early in the morning when it was cooler, so after a quick breakfast, we made our way there. Despite the early morning, the humidity was still high and it was hot before we knew it! On the way back, we stopped into a Starbucks to enjoy the air conditioning and a pumpkin spice latte, since it’s something we’re unlikely to buy anywhere in Australia!

    Since laundry is piling up again, I spent the morning doing washing but didn’t have enough change to dry them, so our cupboard looks like a Chinese laundry now. We went to another favourite place, Lulu’s, for lunch. Even though we’ve been trying to save money by having breakfast and dinner in the apartment, lunch is still a costly affair once tips are included.

    We went to Hula’s for a supposed quick drink but ended up staying longer as it poured rain. We were very happy to see our favourite waitress Lee there, who has worked at Hula’s for 22 years, so we can still remember her from when we first came to Hawaii. We met a couple from San Francisco, Rob and Chris, who are travelling with their friend from the UK Kirsty, so it was great to finally meet some new people. We also befriended a couple from Palm Springs, easily done because we asked to pat their dog Lani.

    The guys asked us to join them at Bacchus afterwards so we stayed until about 6pm (when it had stopped raining) before getting a sandwich and changing before heading out. We didn’t end up staying that long - the crowd was quieter and everyone was sober. I think our late night partying days from the past are over!    Read more

  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 23

    Honolulu

    September 24, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Today was somewhat stressful as we have not yet finalised our plans for our flight home, due to the constantly changing passenger loads on flights. After breakfast, Ted suggested walking down to the water to see the fish, which was a nice tranquil way to start the day. There was a parade down Kalākaua Avenue today, so we saw people who had already parked themselves a spot on the side of the road. Ted wanted to see the parade but I was still not feeling well, so I went back to the room to rest.

    Just prior to lunch, Ted called and suggested I come to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch which is another favourite venue of ours. It was actually the perfect location to watch the parade too, since it was shaded and we could see the street easily. Ted then told me that there were no seats left on the Monday flight when we had planned to leave, so we had to quickly change to the Thursday flight, which has about 50 seats.

    This meant we have also needed to extend our accommodation for an extra three nights which fortunately, wasn’t too difficult or expensive. To be honest I wanted to leave earlier as we’re missing Snoopy, but we don’t have much choice at the moment. Ted suggested we make some additional plans to keep ourselves busy - we considered going to another island, but decided to hire a car to drive around the island on Tuesday instead.

    The rest of the day was relatively quiet - apart from snoozing, we went to Hula’s for afternoon drinks, as well as walk towards the Barefoot Beach cafe as the evening was so beautiful. After returning to the room, we seriously had considered going out for drinks again, but even whilst reading, I kept falling asleep! Fortunately Ted was no more motivated than I was, so we decided an early night was definitely needed!    Read more

  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 22

    Honolulu

    September 23, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Since our body clocks are a bit confused, we woke up too early at around 5am, as we probably thought we are still on the mainland. Surprisingly it was actually Ted who was starving first thing this morning, so he suggested getting dressed and walking around to find a restaurant. We were hoping for an IHOP or Denny’s but neither were open yet, so we went to Mac24, which Ted used to go to when he flew to Hawaii, which opened at 6am.

    I’m still feeling quite sick, which appears to be sinusitis. We walked around to get a coffee and Ted suggested an Australian shop which was here previously, but it seems to have closed up. One thing we have noticed is the different face of Hawaii - a number of boarded up shops as well as more homelessness. It is sad to see. We ended up going to Honolulu Coffee at Sheraton instead as the view of the water is beautiful.

    Since we have an apartment, we caught a bus (now $3!) to Ala Moana for lunch and to do some grocery shopping. Ala Moana is pretty much the same. I went for a personal favourite, Panda Express - I used to love the orange chicken but fortunately there are still some vegetarian options. Ted offered his lunch to a homeless man there who declined, but I thought the gesture was very kind.

    In the evening we went to Hula’s in the hope of seeing some familiar faces, but there was no one there we knew. We are still trying to ascertain how much Hawaii has changed since Covid - the tourists are back but you can see some subtle differences. We didn’t stay as long as we would’ve liked, as some creepy and boring English guy kept talking to us and invading personal space! We don’t have any definite plans yet, but for now we’re just enjoying the serenity.    Read more

  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 21

    Toronto to Honolulu

    September 22, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Well, today was definitely going to be a challenge! The last few days haven’t been the easiest, as I seem to have caught something like a cold, complete with cough and nasal congestion. I think it could’ve been caused by either sleeping with the air conditioner on, lack of water or a mediocre diet but either way, it isn’t ideal.

    We packed up the car quickly before going to breakfast and checking out of the hotel. The drive to the border though seemed to find every delay possible, whether it was being stuck behind a garbage truck, roadworks or detours!

    Even though the GPS didn’t send us to the border crossing we’d requested (assuming it was sending us to the one with the least traffic), the process was extremely easy especially since there was only one other car in front of us! That was fortunate though because the traffic we encountered closer to Toronto was chaotic! Luckily we were able to use the carpool lane which made the drive a lot easier.

    The process of returning the rental car and checking in was seamless, so we headed to our gate to have something to eat. Toronto airport has a great system where the gates have chairs and tables set up with iPads and charging stations, where you can order food and drink and have it delivered to your table. It was slightly more expensive but considering the ease and lack of stress, totally worth it.

    I thought I’d finish off the meal with a good coffee, but had to settle for Starbucks instead. The boarding staff at the gate indicated the flight was full, so Ted and I made sure we boarded early to avoid the inconvenience of having to part with our bags due to lack of baggage space. We ended up being in the second back row.

    The flight attendant on board knew we were crew and looked after us wonderfully. The flight from Toronto to Vancouver was just over five hours, but we both had plenty to keep us occupied. WestJet has a good online entertainment system, so I made sure I downloaded the app when we arrived in Vancouver.

    The walk to our next gate was very long, and when we arrived at US customs and immigration, we needed to sit and wait in a waiting room for confirmation that our bag had arrived for the next flight. We had about two hours to connect to our next flight, and most of that time was gone due to all the processes we needed to go through!

    The flight to Honolulu was similarly full, and we had seats third from the back. The flight attendant from our previous flight had mentioned us to the crew on this flight, and they similarly looked after us wonderfully. It seems that WestJet employees know each other very well, as they also knew some of the FAs we’d had on our very first flight from Los Angeles!

    I managed to stay awake most of the flight by eating, reading and watching episodes of “Modern Family” even though it was 3am in our original time zone. When the plane was coming in to land, I closed my eyes and was surprised that I was already starting to doze when the aeroplane landed. Even though disembarkation is never as quick as you’d like, we didn’t have to wait long for either our bag or the Uber to our accommodation. We even saw Janice in the terminal, one of the FAs from our first flight, waiting to take the flight back!

    Our accommodation is somewhere we’ve stayed before although this time, Ted chose a different room as the previous one is noisy due to the elevator. As exhausted as we were, we went to a nearby ABC store to buy something small to eat, before showering and heading to bed.    Read more

  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 20

    Niagara Falls

    September 21, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    I left the decision of where we would go today to Ted, as I had organised most of the itinerary beforehand. There was the choice of Watkins Glen State Park, Albany, Niagara Falls or Buffalo. Ted chose Niagara Falls with a stop in Buffalo, which is actually on our way to Toronto Airport tomorrow, however we won’t have time to stop considering the driving distance, border crossing, rental car return and the Toronto traffic!

    After a good breakfast, we started our drive through to Niagara. The sad thing to see was how run-down the town of Niagara Falls is. We weren’t sure if it was an after effect from Covid or something else, but the town was dilapidated and depressing. It was very different to the memories I have of Niagara Falls from years ago.

    As we approached the Falls, we weren’t sure whereabouts to park until we noticed an area that offered parking for $10. We weren’t sure if it was legitimate, but the guy who took the money was wearing an official looking T-shirt, so we were hopeful! As we walked towards the Falls, we became stuck behind a tour group, which wasn’t as bad as it sounds because we got a free commentary as well!

    TBH, I hadn’t been that excited about seeing Niagara Falls, simply because I felt like we weren’t seeing anything new. I was wrong though - unbeknownst to us, there was also nearby Goat Island which offered a completely different perspective of the Falls. We took an unbelievable amount of photos, made easier by the obvious lack of tourists about. Another thing we noticed too was how much was closed, such as restaurants and souvenir shops.

    When we went to collect the car, we noticed that our $10 parking had now increased to $25 from then onwards, so fortunately we’d arrived at the right time! Ted was keen to see Buffalo on the way back where I had been during the winter of 1992. The traffic itself to get there was chaotic and to be honest, neither of us were impressed by the city. We parked the car and went to a sports bar for lunch but TBH, the city didn’t leave a pleasant lasting impression on us.

    Our trip back to the hotel took longer than planned, mainly because we got stuck behind a truck for so long! We noticed our room hadn’t been cleaned, and found out it is only cleaned every third day. That may be another sign of the labour shortage. For dinner, Ted bought some broccoli which, as unappealing as it sounds, was exactly what I felt like after days of unhealthy eating.

    Tomorrow we head to Hawaii but we clearly didn’t do our research before booking the flight: we wake up at 6:30am and drive to Toronto, to depart at 2pm for a five hour flight to Vancouver, then catch a connecting 6 hour flight to Honolulu. In other words, we arrive in Hawaii when it’s 3:30am here. Ugh. It’s going to be a long day.    Read more

  • TravelerThe New England States
    Day 19

    Roxbury to Mount Morris

    September 20, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Unfortunately Ted and I didn’t sleep so well because, as awesome as this hotel is, the beds are way too soft and I woke up with an annoying backache. Today was a bit of a longer drive so I collected our breakfast from the reception area - even though it was bagged, there were still plenty of options.

    The weather was a bit overcast again today but fortunately, with very little rain. After stopping in nearby Margaretville for some supplies, we continued onto Bethel. I had been disappointed previously about the lack of autumn colours but today we had some colour on the drive which was great.

    When we finally arrived in Bethel we noticed two things - the amount of signs written in Hebrew, and how the town didn’t have much else! We headed straight to the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, better known as the site of the 1968 Woodstock festival. We actually thought the place was closed as there was a huge car park area, and only a handful of cars.

    Just like our visit to NASA in Houston, this place exceeded our expectations. We purchased an entry to the museum as well as the iPad audio tour “Meet me at Woodstock” which we did first. This was a guided, multimedia tour of the Woodstock historic site which involved walking around to seven different locations outside, in the area where the festival occurred. At each location, the tour showed a 3-D model of the stage, with pop-up photos and videos highlighting landmarks around the historic site. It also played music of that era whilst attendees would give their memories of the concert. It was great.

    The museum was just as good. The exhibit included films, interactive productions, artefacts on display, and photographic murals. It showed fashion of the 1960s, music from the era, and original footage featuring the people, stories, sights, and music of the Woodstock Festival. It reminded me slightly of the Beatles museum in Liverpool - even though I wasn’t around during that era, it helped you to appreciate and understand it.

    After taking a lot of photos, we continued on our way. As we still had plenty of driving to do, we settled on another McDonald’s drive thru meal (ugh) so we wouldn’t need to stop. We even crossed the border into Pennsylvania for two minutes, but the drive kept on going!

    Fortunately our hotel in Mount Morris is quite good, although we have really noticed how rundown some of the towns we drive through are. I managed to do an enormous (seemingly) amount of laundry too at the hotel laundry, meaning we have clothes to wear again! I was hungry and tired by the time we went to dinner, so Ted suggested we go to a nearby Denny’s.

    It seems like the shortage of workers we saw at Roxbury is prevalent here too as the waitress needed to turn us away as she was the only one working. It was then we noticed how virtually every business seemed to have a “help wanted” sign, indicating a similar problem here. I ended up getting Subway and Ted bought KFC for dinner. We were disappointed but it’s understandable.

    We were exhausted after the drive today so decided to go to bed around 9.30pm. We have no definite plans yet for tomorrow but are so glad we have two nights to relax here.    Read more

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