Photos

Check out the photos of our trip so far on Flickr.

Broadway

Today was our last day in NY. We spent the morning walking around China town, making last minute purchases, and wondering how we were going to fit all of our shopping back into our bags.

We navigated the subway with it's lines closed for repair ( i was very proud of ourselves for working it all out) had a massage and generally chilled out for the afternoon (i had a nap!) because... tonight we were headed to Broadway!

We had purchased ourselves tickets to All My Sons staring John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Patrick Wilson and Katie Holmes... that's right Katie Holmes....

Times Square at night was beautiful, the lights are really something
The show was awesome, and it was really cool to see real stars that close up performing... even Tony enjoyed it. It was a fab night and i am so pleased that we decided to go.

Our last night in New York finished Perfectly.

Dinosaurs and Rain

It rained today. I was not impressed.

We spent the morning in the Natural History Museum looking at the dinosaur skeleton's. they were very cool.

We then headed down to the top of Fifth Avenue - we were going to walk through Central Park, but the rain killed that idea.

We stopped first at the Apple store which was so jam packed it was not funny! Apple seems to be very popular over here!

Then we headed into FAO Swartz, one of the coolest toy stores in the world... which has the piano from the movie "BIG" in it. We watched a few people play, but I was a little to shy to have a go myself.

We continued on down Fifth Avenue till we got to Tiffany's where we had to stop in for a little look. I was a little overwhelmed with all of the beautiful jewelery they have and when they told me they had 5 floors of it I found myself quivering a little.

In the next block down was the Trump Towers, we took a quick peak inside an found a huge 5 level Nike store out the back.

We continued to walk all the way down Fifth avenue, back to Jacqui's on 10th street, man were we shattered by the time we got back.

Tonight we headed up to Harlem to see Jacqui's friend Connie's apartment and to go to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. The food was really nice, and the company amazing.

The cab ride home was an experience, I ended up sitting in the front seat with Bronwyn, Megan, Tony and Jacqui in the back. There were many comments made about hands in the wrong place and much commentary from the girls of the molestation of my boyfriend.

The near miss with the bus woke me up a little, but I was still more than ready for sleep by the time we made it back to Jacqui's.

Woodbury Commons

Today we decided to head to an outlet mall north of New York called Woodbury Commons.

To do this, we decided it would be a great idea to hire a car and drive. That in itself was a mission. After several google searches (for the best deals) we managed to hire a small Hyundai Accent. We asked google maps for directions and we were off!

We started off well, google maps was our friend...... then, we ran into a little blip... we couldn't find the Lincoln Tunnel. Google was telling us to merge to the right, but there was no merge..... so after a few grumbles and mumbles we decided to ignore Mr Goggle and follow the Rd signs.... it worked! We found our way into the tunnel and all was right with the world again.

Mr Google helped us get most of the way there ok, until we went south down the I-95 instead of north. Several miles down the road we worked out there was an issue..... there was a big bridge in front of us that we where not meant to cross. Apparently it was the longest bridge to cross the Hudson River and we where headed back to NY city.... whooops. (Tappan Zee Bridge)

So over we crossed, we paid a $4.50 toll and then turned around and came back.

We finally made it to Woodbury Commons around an hour later than we expected to, but we were all alive, (we hadn't killed each other) the car was in one piece and were ready to shop!

The shpoping was awesome, and there was some great bargins to be had, Megan got 2 pairs of sneakers for $70 for the pair, and Tony got some really nice short sleaved Quicksilver shirts for $10.48. We spent a good 5 hours shopping there before we needed to head back to NY to return the rental car.

The drive back was an experiance, it started to rain and was already dark by the time we left. We were doing really well until we missed the turn of for the Lincoln Tunnel (again!) so we had to go through another toll both, pay another toll, and do a U-turn (the lady at the toll booth told us it was ok!)

We made it back to the hire car place with just a couple of hiccups, ask Megan about those!

A quick fashion parade of the purchases ended the night, what a great but tiring Day...

At the top of the Empire

The morning disappeared in a hurry, we headed down to South Street Sea Port to the Bodies Exhibition. It was Amazing. Check out the website to see what it is all about, but if you ever get the chance to go to one, do it.




Megan Tony and myself headed up to Grand Central Station to check it out. Unbelievable! It is huge and the Chandeliers are amazing. They also have the staircase i want in my house.....


We went up the Empire state Building in the afternoon. The view from up there is amazing Tony got a feel for how big NY city really is!

Jacqui had a Stoop party for her birthday, heaps of people turned up throughout the night to help celebrate, it was a lot of fun. It was great to meet heaps of her friends and colleagues.

We were all completely exhausted by the end of the evening!

Budweiser in Brooklyn

Today was a long day, we headed over to Brooklyn this morning, and managed to get ourselves well and truly lost!

After much discussion, we ended up calling a cab to get us where we wanted to go which was Juniors Cheese Cake Company.


After much Cheese cake (which was fabulous) we headed over the Brooklyn Bridge to take in the awesome site of the NY skyline.

You can also see the Statue of Liberty from the bridge, which Gavin and Nicky (my cousin's) had never seen.

We then headed into wall street and the financial district for a quick shopping trip. We also took in the Trinity church and the New York Stock Exchange.

George Washington took the oath to become the first president of the United States of America on the steps of a building on wall street, so we took photo of his statue as well.









Nicky and Gavin headed back to Chicago tonight, but we are looking forward to catching up with them when we arrive in Chicago ourselves.

Tomorrow looks like another Jam packed day. Jacqui's actual birthday and therefore party are happening, and we are going to try to get a whole pile of touristy things in too.... having a fab time!

Snapple in the Apple

We spent the first few nights in NY on Fire Island, we had a blast. The sunsets were awesome and the days on the beach were just what the doctor ordered.

Yesterday we headed into Times square, and enjoyed the manic atmosphere. We walked along Broadway and enjoyed our first taste of shopping New York style.



Today we headed down to the World Trade Center and were amazed by the construction site. The memorial museum was really interesting, but i could not look at the wall of missing people, it was just too sad.

We spent the rest of the day shopping at Century 21, which is a discount designer brand store. Tony bought lots of socks.



Tonight we are heading down to a New Zealand bar in South Street Sea Port, called Nelson Blues. It should be a fun night!


Check out the right hand side of Tony's blog for more photo's











(this is the plan for the new 7 Trade Center)

we are at the Apple store

Yay for free internet.

'

So far we have used public transport to get to the golden gate bridge, then into town, where we are now at Tony's idea of heaven... the Apple store.  Bronwyn has made her first purchase, a very beautiful Purple Ipod nano... i am rather jealous!

off now for some food... and then back to the airport for our next flight to NY.

AWESOME!

9 Sleeps to Go

My American friend Jeff wrote a blog the other day about words in NZ that sound the same and it got me wondering if there are words in America that sound the same as other ones?