Last of LA for now

They have developed an amazing little camera for use with high action sports like surfing and Freddie(my sort of adopted Swedish grandson) asked if I could buy it for him while there in LA. Freddie came to us when he was 17 and stayed in our back flat at Cabarita while taking lessons with the High Performance Surf Centre and became quite close to Fran and me during 2 stays at our house. The camera was called the HD Go Pro and Herbert was very enthusiastic about being involved in this given his love of all things photographic. Lots of kms later and we had one to play with and make sure it was a goer. Then packed it in my backpack with as much care as possible for the trip to Costa Rica.

We still had a few days together and made a trip down to Long Beach and visited the Aquarium of the Pacific for all the beauty of the sea and we also did a nice walk around the lighthouse to look across to the old Queen Mary and enjoy the sunset. We did lots of dining out as that is a passion of Herb and Joan’s and we still had 2 more days to visit places

The next day we went up the coast past a perfect Rincon at 4 ft to Santa Barbara and did a coastal swamp walk before lunch. This city is very beautiful, done in the Spanish style(by council decree) and it suits the area. We visited the famous mission built by the Franciscan monks with local Indian help and then finished off down at the pier. There were a few waves running here as well.

I left my cap and sunglasses at that night’s restaurant, but got lucky the next day, when we rang and they had been found. So picked them up and went to the Malibu Creek State Park which was given to the state by 20^th Century Fox, so the area has been used a lot, for film and TV including the hit series Mash. Its also very beautiful to walk around and we saw a hawk up very close and also some deer. Went back to Topango via Stunt Road up to the spine of the Santa Monica range where there was a great view down to the sea and lots of beautiful homes to go past.

So now the last night getting all the pictures processed and onto a DVD and the packing done and my huge thanks to Herbert and Joan for their very generous hospitality and I think I have convinced them to return the visit when I’m back in residence at Cabarita. The next morning Herb took me to the airport and the next stage of my journey.

Malibu Creek State Park

Ridge Rd Santa Monica mtns

Malibu Creek rockclimbers

Hawk Malibu Creek

Lake Malibu creek

Deer at Malibu Creek

Santa Barbara

The inside of the mission

Santa Barbara jetty

More LA photos

Santa Barbara Mission

Pier at Santa Barbara

Late arvo point south of Rincon

Long Beach Harbour

Aquarium of the South Pacific Long Beach

first days in LA

It was great to finally see Herb and Joan again after 20 years. We had met on Victoria Island outside of Vancouver and then again as we went through LA. They still have the same lovely home in Topanga Canyon and I struggled to stay awake as we went up the canyon road. I took over Joan’s studio and slept for 12 hours straight. That’s jetlag for you.

Joan is quite a good artist and Herbert is a very good photographer and engineer so naturally some art galleries were on the menu for the next few days and I’ve got to say I was very impressed by the Getty Museum and Art Gallery as much for its position and architecture high in the Santa Monica Hills. You take a monorail to the top and the whole thing is free apart from $15 parking. The view from the top can be great but dust storms away to the south were covering things a bit. The highlight exhibition inside was the drawings of Rembrandt and his school and the galleries permanent collection, and Irises by Van Gogh took my fancy there.

In between helping me find an unlocked IPhone to buy we also went to the Huntington Estate the next day. The IPhone is a bit of a story with one guy who had 2 to sell wanting to meet us in a Starbucks! So we didn’t go there and eventually found a store that had a 3G with 8gb for $300.Probably a bit much, but felt better getting from a store. The Starbucks man had the 3GS with 16gb for $375. What the heck I can’t get a 3G simcard and plan in Costa Rica anyway as its only just been released here so only citizens can have it. I found this out at the end of a 50 m queue in San Jose!

Back to the Huntington, this was the favorite of mine because it was a nice mix of fabulous buildings with lots of mainly British Art and beautiful gardens of many types. The estate was built by one of the guys responsible for driving the railway through to the West Coast so that must have been a nice little earner! Funny how these early pioneers thought that local art had no merit and clung onto the art of Europe and the Greek and Roman classic periods. The Chinese and Japanese gardens and then the Aussie garden that was taken over by a film crew led to the huge and amazing cactus garden. Back over to see a lithograph exhibit and through a water spout garden and it was done , sort of, I’m sure we missed some stuff like the Library itself.

Venice Beach is where I met up with a travel companion for the Central American leg. The websites for people looking to link up and do some travel together have certainly helped people, who are on their own, to meet others going in the same direction. The place itself is like a mix of Kings Cross and Bondi Beach with a very bohemian feel. The sunsets over the ocean are great and there was an amazing Drum jam session that developed as time went on with more people joining in and doing their thing.

Trip to Los Angeles

Just getting to Los Angeles was a story and a lot of fun until the Dept of Homeland Security got their hands on me.

Thank you Sue for running me down to the airport and thanks to everyone for their amazing hospitality while in NZ.

I had the most fun I’ve ever had on a flight, when a really nice mix of 3 guys got together and rapped. Rob from Chicago was in the aisle seat opposite and he had been out visiting his girlfriend. Turned out he had also lost his wife to cancer only 2years ago and we were both going through the same readjustments to life in our early sixties. I happened to mention surfing and a young guy’s ears twitched in front of Rob and then we had Kevin join us in the conversation. Kevin is from up near San Francisco and surfs a lot of those big waves in that area. The service was fabulous on the leg to Fiji and we had plenty of free drinks and the stories and laughter flew back and forth. You have to know that Rob is 62 and so was I (well almost!) and Kevin is 26 and is a non catholic. Both Rob and I are catholic and had done 9 first Fridays at mass when we were young which got us a Plenary Indulgence. This gives you a free pass into heaven no matter how bad a life you lead and what a good deal. That offer has expired so don’t go signing up haha! Anyway the bottom line was that we gave poor Kevin the title of “that dyslexic non catholic without a plenary indulgence”

The banter and drinking continued during the stopover and then the first indication of the increased security on inbound flights to the US when all passengers were body searched before boarding. The 3 of us managed to get seats together but it was getting late so we quietened down and Rob gave us a sleeping pill for now and a ‘stayhard’ for later haha! Kevin shouldn’t need one of those but took it anyway. What a fun trip up to now right?

When I went through immigration I was led away to the Reassessment Section and you don’t want to go there as your passport goes into a little slot on the wall and then never seems to move. The fact that you have people waiting seems to make no difference at all and my offence was that I didn’t know my address in LA and didn’t have an outward ticket. Even the fact that the State Dept has issued you with a Visa cuts no mustard. So it ended up delaying me by 2 hours and poor Herbert and Joan never got the call the airline rep was going to make. But hey I was finally back in America

Venice Drum Jam session got bigger

Venice Beach

Muscle Beach Venice LA

Markets

Venice Pier Sunset

Good right off the breakwall Venice

huntington estate

Joan in the Chinese garden Huntington

Joan & Herbert cactus Huntington

Chinese Huntington

Herb&Joan's Place haha

Getty Villa and The Getty museum and Gallery

Getty Villa

Joan Getty Museum

Joan and herb Getty Museum

Getty Museum gardens and view

TOHEROA CUP 2010 BAYLYS BCH

Mum Price

Merv Robert Jean

Jean Leslie Jodie

Mum and me

Abe Mum Joel Eli

Raglan

Bridal Veil Falls nr Raglan

Opunake sth of New Plymouth

Winter Gardens Wanganui

REST OF DECEMBER

A bit of a spin around the North Island was meant to be about surfing but the broken elbow put paid to that. Still I could make some of the surfing spots part of the sightseeing and visiting couldn’t I? After leaving Merv and Sue at Dargaville I visited the fantastic Kauri Museum at Matakohe and would have spent a day there but could only spare 4 hours. This place deals with the history of the Northland region and the fabulous Kauri trees that used to be all over the north. Go there if you are ever in the region.

I went to Auckland to meet a late acceptor for a lift to Palmerston North and that started a run of bad luck. The English lady stuffed the arrival date because of the time difference and was a ‘noshow’ at the airport and was in fact still in Seoul. So had to stay overnight and pick up the next day and then made it to the Coromandel Peninsula. Kiwi campsites are really well set up so the EL was able to stay in cabins and the great kitchens and facilities make for cheap getting around. EL reckoned she could read a map so next day we ended up taking a wrong turn and going 30 km the wrong way and having to backtrack!!

They should shoot the bugger who thought of ‘adopt a bollard’ which is a scheme to put money into smash repairers pockets---haha!. Local councils right through the North Island are bollarding all the parking spots and I scraped one that will probably cost me $2000 insurance excess. There were 4 different colours of paint from victims before me on this one!!

For the surfers, Whangamata was flat but it was OK at Gisborne’s Makarori where I spent some time in 1972. EL tried a surfschool and almost stood up so that was good and the next day we reached Palmerston North and said goodbye. I went east to stay with Kay and David near Greytown and this was a great time catching up with old friends from our trip round Aussie in 2003 and couple of other times in NZ and Aussie. We went down to Petone for shopping and sightseeing and nice to meet some British lads with the right spirit as Xmas approached. They were in the hills behind Wellington having lunch in a gale and had their Wicked camper decked out with Santa on the roof!!! They get their rental at half price if they do something silly during the hire and I can vouch for these guys. Good on you!

Next day we went out to the east coast to Castle Point and there was a nice wave coming in through ‘the gap’ and only 2 guys out. Spectacular cliffs and a nice lighthouse made for a good walk. Moving over to the West Coast for the trip back up the island, the first city was Wanganui where they are having an argument about Maorifying the name by including a ‘h’ after the ‘W’. The beach looked like it had been hit by a bomb but the city is very pretty with lots of parks and lakes and a cultural hill that had a couple of galleries and the impressive library.

Never saw Mt Egmont or Taranaki if you like, as it was covered in cloud that unloaded on the first Fleetwood Mac concert but the fans didn’t mind. Saw some of the areas famous surf spots along the highway named for them, but it was just passable conditions. So in someways I was pretty lucky I picked this time to have a crook elbow. I used the back roads to Raglan and had a nice night in a bar at Kawhia on the way. You can dig your own hot pool in the sand here. At Raglan the next day it was cross wind 4-5 ft and the best I saw for the entire trip and then I had to face the music at the rental return—bugger!!!!

Met Robert Jodie and the boys during the night, over from Australia for Xmas and Nana’s 90^th birthday and we traveled up to Whangarei and called into see Nana at the nice nursing home where she will stay now after her fall.

Xmas and the birthday were held at Mum’s home and she came out for the day both times. Must have been a bugger all those years, having your birthday so close to Xmas. Still she got some good presents this time and the turn up to the birthday was a true reflection of her great standing in the community.

A very quiet New Year was followed by the Toheroa Cup being played for the 105^th year without a break. Even during the war the women kept this famous beach cricket game going. This year Baylys Beach beat the townies from Dargaville 217 to187 and it was the highest scoring game for 15 years. I did my best Billy Bowden impersonation umpiring on a few occasions and Merv and I did a fearsome amount of drinking. So the sandhills were well watered by all as we dodged all the other beach users. So in a few days its off to the US and shortly after on the 15^th to Costa Rica and hopefully some surfing.