Hastings, New Zealand - Food & Flowers

December 29-30, 2010 - Dinner with Kayvin and Nilda de Leon...

 New Zealand's CrayFish - bigger than our Maine Lobster, this one is only a 7 pounder, they grow as much as 12 pounds, can't imagine eating a 24 pounds crayfish, this 7 pounder took us 2 dinners to finish...

 This one was caught by our friend Kayvin, he had 4 of these and we can only handle one - yummm.... too much cholesterol...

 Live fresh green New Zealand Mussels, sold in every grocery stores as well as all other local fish and crayfish...

 My sister served us the best, sweetest and most delicious cherries... crunchy & yummy...

These beautiful flowers belong to my sister's neighbor, just full of bloom, vibrant and bright, I was tempted to cut them and make flower arrangments or something, luckily, my sister prefer silk flowers (they dont die...)

 Another gorgeous flower, the African Daisy, tall long stems and feathered petals...

Perhaps the most surprising floral discovery of this tour was this giant Protea bush, again grown like a regular garden plant, these blooms would probably cost a tidy sum in the florist market... I remember for my daughter's wedding, I was checking out the salmon protea at the LA FlowerMart, each stem cost about $3.50 per stem, and that was whole sale price...

Hastings, New Zealand - a very laid back town on the East side of the North Island of New Zealand

December 29-30, 2010 - Hastings, New Zealand....

 This is the city of Hastings, a quaint little town, the hub of the city is their city centre where all the businesses and shops are located. The Clock Tower is a Hastings landmark at the heart of the city.

 The shops at Hastings are all small and yet very friendly country style hospitality, everyone says hello to you as you meet them on the streets, people seems happy and un-hurried...

 The city shops sorrounded by fountains and man made lakes, aside from driving on the left side of the road, we felt at home here.  The weather was perfect and everyone was walking around in shorts and sandals.

 Hasting's Clock Tower with the sheep statues is the main attraction of this country setting town...

 The shops are lined with hanging purple petunias throughout the main shopping district, very clean and almost deserted, since we got there 2 days before New years, most of the shops are closed for the holidays..

 K-Mart store was a welcome sight, we were thrilled to find out that most of our franchise stores are everywhere in New Zealand.

 Even the aisles look and arranged the same as our stores in the mainland US, here Sandy and my sister checking out the cosmetic section of the store.

 At first I thougth this was their Wendy's, it turned out to be their ice cream shop like Baskin and Robbins, except the selections were limited...

 That's Kayvin filling up his antique car for the New Year...

 This is Hastings after 5PM, all the shops closes, except for their Dairy Stores (convenient store like 7-11)..

 Typical Hastings home, tiny English cottages with 1 car garage seemed the norm, very few homes with 2 car garages.

 My sister, Nilda and Sandy preparing to sit down for a meal..

 My sister washing and preparing the cherries for lunch..

 Sandy talking to our girls on our Magic Jack, that worked great, almost like we were just next door talking to them in California.

 Nilda Daken and Sandy de Leon, posing infront of the city centre.

 My sister and I infront of the Clock Tower & fountain..

 Sandy and my niece, Jonilyn, we surprised her on this visit to Waikaparau, North of Hastings, approximately 40 miles away, so she was dressed very casual..

 My sister's flat, this is a 2 bedroom and 1 bath home with 1 car garage... I was shocked to find out that they dry their clothes and laundry outside in the sun, not a very familiar sight...

Sandy standing outside the Flat as we were getting ready to leave for our city visit...

Taken December 29th, we made a dash to the City Centre to pick up some items for our New Years Eve...Standing at the Clock Tower Gardens, these Maori Totem Poles are displayed for their native arts..

Arriving in Auckland, New Zealand After 3 hours of Plane ride

December 28, 2010 - Auckland Airport Arrival @ 6PM local time...

Our 3 hour plane ride from Sydney to Auckland seemed a lot shorter compared to our previous connection... We landed in Auckland International Airport and went through customs.

 After arriving in Auckland, we proceeded to the Immigration & customs check, since we declared that we were carrying packaged Salami Sausage, our bags were inspected for any additonal foods or other items. Our Salami Sausage, present for my sister, was inspected, the label read and re-read, plus x-rayed.  Guess, DO NOT bring any kind of foods into New Zealand or Australia if you are traveling there. After clearing customs, we checked out our suitcases and we waited in the terminal stops for the shuttle to take us to the Domestic Airport.

 Upon arriving at the Domestic Airport, we checked for our flight and gate, our suitcases had to be checked in again, screened our boarding passes issued.

 Our Flight was delayed for 1 hour, so I went on the internet Cafe and logged on to Facebook to just let everyone know we arrived safely in New Zealand. Little did we know that our next 50 min flight to Napier would become perhaps the most thrilling ride throughout this trip.

 This is our plane from Auckland to Napier, a twin engine jet plane, 15 rows and 2 seats on both sides of the plane. The passengers seemed to sound just like the Australians but with a little harder accent... This ride was ROUGH! It was like riding colussus at Magic Mountain, everyone's head were bobbing up and down and sideways and anyways - we were almost ready to DIE...

We arrived at Napier Airport around 10PM, being the last flight of the day. After our flight we were glad to be back on land.  My sister, niece and their partners greeted us. Our trip to my sister's house in Hastings took another 40 mins.

Arriving at Sydney - Airline Travel crossing the International Dateline..

December 28, 2010 @ 5:58AM...

 Arriving in Sydney Airport after 14 hours of flight, we arrived at 5AM local time...

Sydney was our port of entry since there are no direct flights to New Zealand from the US. The International terminal was designed for everyone's comfort and shopping, they had several duty free shops selling most of what we can buy from America, their rate of exchange is $1.20 per $1AUD... better shop in the main City if you want to buy in-expensive souvenirs..

 Sandy going through the terminal waiting area at the Sydney international airport... quite a long walk...

 The Duty Free shop offers mostly American products but at a higher cost since it is all imported to Australia..

 Sandy & i busied ourselves with shopping since we had 6 hours of lay over, they had plenty of places to eat and lie around, couches that are designed for weary travelers needing to lie down or nap while waiting for their connecting flights.

 The stuffed Koala bear I was holding in my hands cost $75 AUD (equivalent to $105USD), whew, that was scary, yet cute for a picture taking.

Sandy lounging around the Cafe waiting area, time went by fast, its like shopping in the malls...