Hampton Court & Cambridge (May 'Staycation' II)

Hampton Court

In a change of pace from the first May Holiday weekend, for the second we went to Hampton Court and Cambridge. Each are less than an hour at of London so quite manageable for a day trip each. Hampton Court is home to the 'Hampton Court Palace' which if I am being perfectly honest was definately a little underwelming.... thankfully though there was a also a food festival on which was much more my style!

Above- Hampton Court Palace.

Below-Sheeps milk ice cream... could be the next big export for Southland

Cambridge

Steeped in history, Cambridge is well worth the visit. The town buzzes with university students and the town is scattered with all the university halls of residence many of the same names you will see pop up in universities & schools in New Zealand.

One of the best ways to see into all the halls & the sights of the town is via punting on the Cam River. We set out to Cambridge on a sunny afternoon and in typical 'Wilson style' hiring a guide was too expensive, so we did it ourselves (NB when I say 'we' this is the royal 'we' I actually mean 'me'). We had some close calls & collisions, but overall everyone managed to stay in the boat, some other punters where not so fortunate!

Above- Showing off my 'punting' skills. FYI the pole is actually really long and its quite difficult- take my advice and just get the guide.

Nadia and Amruta soaking up the sun whilst being shunted around by yours truly

Above-Someone call the grass police there has been an incident- Possibly the naughtiest thing Nadia has done in her life!

Above- one of the halls of residence, I forget which one but they all look this spectatular

Above- inside Kings chapel

Cambridge's version of Manchester's famous street- I think I was looking out for Mike Baldwin at the time

Nadia outside Selwyn College in Cambridge- this hall was named after the really famous one in Dunedin at Otago University, or maybe it was the other way around :-)

Taming the Thames (May holiday 'Staycation' I)

In England public holidays are called 'Bank' holidays & in May there are 2 of these (the first & second weekend of the month). For our first weekend we decided to hire a boat & crusie the Thames with some friends from work. The weather was awesome & we would highly reccomended this as something to do.

The trip was a round trip from a small town called Benson to Oxford & back- the boat travels a maximum speed of about 5 miles so you dont get too far. The Boat is captained by yourself so after a quick 30 minute test run with the boat hiring people they set you on your way.

Above- Picture perfect, to the right of this picture is a pub / hotel that you can moor up & have a quiet drink & freshen up, you can see some of the boats who have chosen to do this under the arch on the right hand side of the river.

Above- Nadia captains the ship, safely guiding us through one of the many narrow bridges on the Thames. Please also note the bowl of sweets to the bottom right of this picture, it is no surprise that Nadia was so keen to take the reigns.



Above- This is where we camped out for our first night, which had some nice walks around the area for exploring.

Above- My best 'Titantic' impersonation as I try not to fall over the front of the boat. In a surprising twist a light over exposure on the photo creates the impression I have a propellor decending from my bottom which adds to the effect really

Above- And there she is the 'Starlight' cruiser in all her glory! It has all the modern comforts including a lounge up the front with retractable roof, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms & gallery with fridge, oven etc. She was a long narrow boat so quite unresponsive on the steering from time to time we discovered after hitting many a wall.

Above- Check on the serenity
Above- One of the 10 'locks' that we encountered on our journey, a mission to strat with but you soon get the hang of it.

Above- The 'crew' from back- Steve, Fiona, Amruta, Nadia, Suso

Above- one of the towns we got off to have a look, I forget the name of it but knowing England it would have had a strange name probably ending in 'bottom' or 'shire'.

Above- BBQ UK style (disposable) on the bank of the Thames in Oxford

Above-Oxford a very picturesque place to visit dominated by the university

Start speading the news....

3 weeks after getting back from NZ, we decided it was about time for another holiday... roll on Easter in New York! We had heard a lot of good things about New York & it didnt dissapoint. We had 5 nights in the big apple & it was non stop action from day 1. Manhattan apparently has 200,000 people per square mile- the most in the world. We were staying right in the core of the big apple in times square which proved the theory above correct!

Above- the view from the free Staton Island ferry of the statue of liberty.


Above- ground zero, not a lot to look at yet, I think it is due to be finished sometime in 2012

Above- The great Madison Square Garden of which I went on a tour off & took in all the great sporting history that the pkace had to offer, oh & also met one of the NY Knicks cheerleaders. Whilst I was abosbing my sporting Nirvana Nadia was doing her own tour of sorts ... in the womens fasion section of Macy's department store!

Above- Inside 'the garden' unfortunately being Easter basketball had not started & the NY ranngers ice hockey team were away so I had to settle for views from the skybox of the travelling circus.

We didnt see David Letterman kicking round in our travels but I guess there was always that potential.

Nadia doing her best CSI impersonation

Above- Macy's in the foreground with the Empire State Buidling to the right

The Staten island ferry runs every 15minutes and is FREE on your travels you get a magnificent view of the statue of liberty, a must do in New York.

Above- Times square, where we were staying it was heaving with people 24 hours a day. The building in the middle has been empty for a number of years with the revenue for its upkeep coming purely from company advertising on the side of its building.

Above- Central Park

Above- The United Nations building

Above- The view of Central Park from the Rockerfeller Centre

Above- View of the Empire State building from the Rockerfeller centre

Above- Baseball batting cages at Chelsea Piers- I thought I was Babe Ruth when hitting the softballs, but when I switched to baseballs I didnt fair so well.

Above- Monument in Brooklyn

Above- Walking across the Manhattan bridge

Above- The view of the skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge

Above- Wall Street

Above- Nadia's 'Happy Place' the M&M's centre in Times Square

The view of Manhattan from Brooklyn

Click on the video above to see the view of Central park from the Rockerfeller centre