New York New York!!



Cotton candy!! The Brooklyn Bridge
Glen walking the bridge after shopping up a storm...

On top of the Rockefeller Centre
Times Square
The Mets! (Shea Stadium)

God bless America!!
The boys at the Yankee Stadium.

Lake Como - Italy

Como: after taking the funicular to the top of the hill (where we looked down onto the beautiful, glassy Lake Como), we stumbled upon this sweet little family run trattoria hidden among a whole lot of houses. There were no menus - you just chose between fresh pasta with meat or with cheese - delicious!
Bellagio - a picturesque little village on Lake Como, a couple of hours from Como by boat.

The mainland - too right it is...

The Bay House Cafe, Tauranga Bay, West Coast with the Sinclairs, Cath and Oliver

Holding my gorgeous god-son Oliver...

The West Coast: the scenery, whitebait, beer, golf - what more could a man want?
Yes that's right - horse racing!

Hamo and son concentrating hard on the picks for the next race at Addington...

Ski holiday in Bad Gastein, Austria, with the Fowkes and crew. Left - the gorgeous view from our bedroom window.
Below - the first day and all keen - no sore thighs, no banged knees from drunken sled accidents, no complaining cos I can only turn one way (yet!)...



If you aren't so proficient using skis the traditional way, try another technique! (Rags: I am going to stick to this type of skiing from now on - it is much easier on the thighs...)

Quality air guitar from Rags and Fowkie!!

Caught out watching the final of X factor!
Christmas drinks at our house. Check out Ness and Bob's blogspot (go to links at the top right and click on NessandBob) for more photos!

Christmas in the Cotswolds: the boys and the goose! Cooking up a storm - boy does goose fat make roast potatoes taste so good!
Oh yeah!

Wine club trip to Bratislava and ViennaBratislava - the view on this side, as you can see, is quite different to the Communist housing blocks on the other side of the river (below)! Below - the war of the worlds looking thing below is what we were standing on top of! The restaurant inside the glass thing you can see shook everytime a truck drove across the bridge!
After a night in Bratislava we took a taxi across the border into Austria - here we are at one of the many Christmas markets in Vienna drinking Gluwein!
Post-Gluwein...

Above - toilet in Vienna designed by Viennese artist Hundertwasser. Below - Hundertwasser's house. He also designed some toilets in NZ in Kawakawa. Apparently, he considered New Zealand his official home and always set his watch to NZ time, which is pretty cool considering what a great place Vienna is!

Soweto

Below Dave Packham and Glen were asking the tour guide where they get the materials for the shanties from. He told them that they get whatever they can from the side of the road or wherever they can find it. 70% of people in this part of Soweto are unemployed.

This georgeous little boy in Soweto asked me to take a picture of him on my camera -look at his pose!