Time Travel and Yet Another Coincidence

  Time Travel

Going back in time. Not really but if you go to Toby‘s fish and chip shop in Massey West Auckland New Zealand you can. We recently had caused to pick up some fish and chips. 

Normally a fish and chip meal would cost in the region of $10 for the fish and $5 for the chips. Imagine my shock and horror when it was three dollars for the fish and three dollars for the chips. I almost wanted to go back to the counter and say have you got a time portal here?  

I cannot explain this. It must be that they simply want to have a huge throughput and that’s how they make some money on vast quantities.

Yet another crazy coincidence 

Recently as I was taking the rubbish down to the rubbish room, I met one of our residents, who handed handed me a leaflet and said: 

“Bill do you want this?” 

 I looked at the leaflet: it said :

“ Hi I’m Nick I do IT and I do this and that.”

 I thought to myself this could be useful. I took the pamphlet home with me.

Half an hour later I decided to go for my walk and as I was coming out onto the main road, I looked up the road and saw a man walking towards me. I then turned around and started walking down the hill in the same direction that he was walking.

 As I got to the bottom of the hill he passed me and said 

“Oh I didn’t mean to scare you”, and I said:

“Nick!” He looked at me in surprise,

“How did you know my name?”

 “I’ve got a pamphlet with your face on the front of it”

“What does it say?”

“You do IT, and soon on.”

“That’s not me.”

Cruise 2025 Sydney to Adelaide via Tasmania

 2025 cruise

Warning the following account may contain mundane incidents!
It is more for our records. 

Apparently only two people read this blog, so no worries about talking to a large audience.

Wednesday 17.12.25

Arriving at mascot airport in Sydney we decided to take the train to circular Quay and then walk from there to our hotel in the rocks. The hotel’s name was Rendezvous on the Rocks.

This plan seemed good on the surface. But factor in 42° C then a short walk from the station to the hotel became a bit of a trial.

We had to go up some steps and lugging to suitcases up steps was not exactly fun. Beforehand I had made the mistake of thinking it can’t be a very big area so the hotel should be roundabout the middle of it.

This was a mistake so after much charging up and down little lanes we finally found the hotel which was in one of the streets that runs up the middle of the Rocks.

A nice little break later and off we go down the hill to Fortune of war which is a pub on the one of the main streets in the rocks and it was so good to have a nice Australian beer and some Iunch.

We tried to go back there for dinner, but you could not find a seat so we walked up around the corner and found a Bavarian style beer cellar which when they put us in there proved to be extremely full of drunk noisy people. So we said to the waitress we were going to shoot through because of the noise and she said I’ll sit you outside so we sat outside on a sloping table but that was fine and some nice beer so then off to bed.

Thursday 18.12.25
The next day and off we go on the light rail which goes down George Street.

This is Queen Victoria Arcade:

Stopped at Queen Victoria Arcade and walked round that and had a cup of coffee up in the second floor which was very nice but very very busy.

Then it was off to David Jones And to see how much a pair of dress pants would cost. Last time I bought dress pants was probably around about 2005, only 20 years ago. The cost then was around $35 in Farmers so I was shocked to find out a cheap pair is $250 each so I thought there must be a cheaper place to buy these sort of pants. Off we went to Woolworths where indeed you could buy a pair of so-called dress pants for $20, but they didn’t have any changing rooms to allow you to try them out!

For dinner we manage to snag outside seating on a nearby pub. As we are tucking into our lamb parmigiana I noticed a large cockroach crawling up the wall behind Rose. She was not amused. Then the cockroach went round the corner so we forgot about him and got on with eating.

Friday 19.12.25
A a little side trip was called for to the lovely suburb of Leichhardt. This meant catching the light rail down to somewhere near the main railway station and then catching a bus from there which proved to be interesting for us because we had never gone along this road much before and managed to actually get off pretty much at Leichardt so that Rose could look at the jewellery store which sold beads.

While she had a look in the bead shop I sat round in a lovely cafe called Lecato in a little side street and I thought this is the way a cafe should be. It was very comfortable and had a very nice display of food. Rose came out and she said I didn’t buy anything. I thought. Well that’s good. We can buy some lunch then. After a bit of lunch. We got back on the bus all the way back to town.

This is the display at Lecato:

Very hot in Sydney, so as we got off the bus around about the main railway station we were disoriented, so we had to have a drink of juice not beer. Coming out of there we somehow got to 90° around and couldn’t find George Street. It’s the light rail rail which runs like a tram almost all the way back up to circular Quay. Got off there and rest the heavy feet back at the hotel where I had a swim, why not?

This is the Hotel pool:

Finding a place to eat turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Every place was booked out, but at last in a little back alley we found a posh sort of restaurant where you could buy an entree for the price of an ordinary meal so that’s what we did.

Saturday 20.12.25
Walking the bridge seemed a good idea. We got as far as the steps to get on the bridge track, but one of us was feeling the heat, so back to the hotel for a rest.

That’s when we decided why don’t we go out to Bondi Junction and see if my niece who frequents a coffee bar out there could be found. I was not holding out too much hope of that because there are 22 coffee bars I counted up that she could’ve possibly been in.

So we got on a Bondi train that took us all the way to Bondi Junction. That was fine and way way underground. We came up and there was an old street that I’ve been paved over which was a large area. Further on there was a Westfield. What a Westfield it was, just went on forever and ever and ever and it was so easy to get lost in. So I went mad and bought a pair of pants and two pairs of shorts.

Then we had to get them taken up. That’s when we thought oh dear that’ll cost another hundred dollars probably but no, this did not happen. It was $18 to get them taken up which I thought was very reasonable even if it was in Australian dollars. But we had to leave them there and come back in an hour.

So for an hour we trailed around all the big Westfield and then when we came out we couldn’t remember where the tailor was so we came out onto the road where we thought the tailor was which was Oxford Street. Sure enough it was just up the road and so that was good then way back home.

Sunday 21.12.25

Boarding ship day. This was really easy because we were able to just walk down a hill to the boat which was only about half a kilometre away. Walking on board and boarding was very fast and fairly painless and they took our bags and they were going to deliver the bags to our room so went up and sampled the delights of the Lido deck.

This is a not quite self serve but every so often there is a large display of of food which you can point to and request the man from behind the counter to put on a plate. So that was nice sitting on deck nine which was looking out over Sydney with all the scenery. 

The ship was arranged as follows. Right down at the bottom was deck A, where we weren’t allowed to go to because that’s where the crew was located and below that as well. We were on deck one which is called the main deck, this had cabins that had port holes The next deck was called a promenade deck and it had things like art gallery, casino, a few bars, lounges and service desks. Deck three had the promenade because he could walk right around the entire ship. That was where you looked up and saw the lifeboats straight above you if you were walking around the deck. Three times round the deck was equal to 1 mile. As you walked right round the back end of the ship, that was where the dining rooms were. It was a two level dining room so one level was on one and that was for orange club members which I presume are people who pay a lot more to get a lot more.

At the front of the ship was a large theatre, for shows put on each night.

Dinner on the first night was very nice as they have very good dining area. With linen tablecloths and nice cutlery. Every meal had entree, then a main, then a desert You have to pay for your own wine which was quite a dear way to go if you wanted to do that, but they had all sorts of options that you could buy eight bottles for a certain amount of money and that seemed like a good option.

Because we had dinner at 7:30 it timed it really well for a show at nine 9 o’clock. The shows were very high standard in particular a dance show where they had about 10 dancers and two male singers and two female singers and the rest were dancers. The stage was rigged up so that they didn’t have to change the scenery. They used large television screens to display scenery that changed all the time. This was very effective.

Sailing out of Sydney gave a wonderful view from right up the top you could see as you went past all the bays, Double Bay and Rosebay and so on. Soon enough it was night time and dinner time so that was the first day. See the return to Sydney for pics.

Monday 22.12.25.

This day was spent at sea.

Tuesday23.12.25

The first stop was Phillip Island. We did not go ashore, as we were not wanting to spend lots of money on trips.

Wednesday 24.12.25
The second stop is Bernie in Tasmania. This is a small town about the size of possibly Tauranga in New Zealand, hard to tell. The ship berthed at a wharf so we just got off and got a shuttle bus into town. Once in town we walked down the main street which seemed very ordinary. Had a cup of coffee went to the local museum. Called in to see the local art gallery which was just closing anyway. We did not see much in the way of art on in that gallery but there might’ve had more hidden away somewhere. Then it was back out to have a look at the beach for me. There was quite a breeze blowing and the temperature was around about 14°, so I decided no swim for me. Rose had a look in a big op shop, and then back home.

Thursday 25.12.25.
The next day was spent at sea where we did very little except read books and play Rummikub and enter the quiz that was held at 4 o’clock every day. We did not do very well in the quiz. The books I read one was a science-fiction one all about time travel.

Friday 26.12.25.

We arrived in Adelaide. We had a trip ordered and paid for a long while ago. This was a bus tour to the Monarto Safari Park and also to Hahndorf, which is a little German village up in the hills behind Adelaide.

Rose enjoyed the little monkey in the Safari park and we saw various animals like cheatas and lions and elephants.

This is Hahndorf:

On the way back we got to go up a mountain that overlooks Adelaide quite surprising how high up it is then it was back down into the town for a quick drive around to get an idea of what Adelaide is about.

Saturday 27.12.25.
Our next port of call was supposed to be Kangaroo Island, however the wind was too high for the little boats to carry us into the shore so we missed out on that one.

Sunday 28.12.25

This day was spent at sea. A lot of reading books.

Monday 29.12.25.

The next port was Hobart. We got off the boat and got the ferry to the Mona. This is an avant guard art gallery of which we’ve heard a little bit about. The ferry ride was quite nice and relaxing. When you get off the boat you’re confronted by about 100 steps. Not a big deal as we managed to get to the top. When we got to the top we didn’t know where to go. So we thought oh well let’s just walk straight straight ahead. That seemed a logical idea but what we did not realise was we had just passed the entrance to the art gallery and that the art gallery was actually underground. So after trailing round the grounds for a little while wondering why we couldn’t get into any of the buildings we realised that the entrance was right back at the top of the steps. A fairly insignificant portal made out of stainless steel and when you went in there you confronted by a lift and the lift was serving three levels.

They said to start at the bottom and work your way up which is what we did. One exhibit did quite impress me was a waterfall which somehow had a light shining on it and the waterfall water was controlled by little valves so that each drop was programmed to come out at exactly the right time to actually write words on the falling water. It’s as it falling. The word would fall and be destroyed so that was very good. 

This is my first try at putting in a video:

I thought the general place felt very dark so when we came up for air right up the top we decided to go for a cup of coffee and wandered around. The kids playground was a nice piece of work of art. Then we went to go back and for some reason we ended up down on the bottom again and they said oh yes well you can get out this little secret tunnel. It’s just not very noticeable so we got out horizontally from the third floor to the jetty.

This is the children's playground:

Back on the ship for a bit of lunch then off out again to try and find where the city centre was walking from where the boat was parked this proved a bit of a mission the map that they give you didn’t really point out where the main part of town was. We ended up in an arcade heading back towards the wharf area to go and see the old part of town which is called the battery. On the map there is something called Kelly steps and we were heading for that but somebody’s feet said no they’re not going that far. So it was into a pub not for a beer but for a coffee and then a long trudge back to the ship and a nice dinner.

This is the City Centre:

Tuesday 30.12.25.

Someone’s birthday it was. Our port of call was Port Arthur. This is all very strange because it involves yet another coincidence. I was reading a book called “The Warming” by Craig Ensor and in the book, he mentioned Port Arthur.

The book is a bit depressing. It’s main idea is that the Earth was warming. This is in the future and the temperatures of everything were going up and up and up until everybody was living in Tasmania. Even that got too hot and they ended up in Antarctica. Very depressing book.

I think Port Arthur for us was a highlight of the trip. The grounds are beautifully kept and the buildings have got a real feel to them. We’re all starting to get sore feet from all the standing around and walking so we missed a whole lot of things that we could’ve gone on to see, but sometimes we just have to look after yourself.

This is just on of many houses restored:

Wednesday 31.12.25.

At sea.

Thursday 1.1.26

The report today is Melbourne. All of us had been here before and we’re at a loss to try and find something new to look at so we got a cab into the main part of the city as the port was some distance away.

We wandered up town trying to find the Block Arcade, which was closed anyway. Then we had a look at getting on a tram which was free up Swanston Street to get to Melbourne Central.

The clock and shot tower in Melbourne Central was duly looked at and a cup of coffee was had. Then it was a clever plan to get on the tram that goes right around the entire city. We got on one of the trams that led to Spring Street. When we got to where the tram should have been leaving, from we stood and waited and waited and waited while three trams went past going the other way. The one we wanted was not coming so we got on the one that goes the other way. When we got on the tam, the conductor said oh no well they haven’t gone that way for 2 1/2 years. Hmffff. Back to the ship.


Friday 2.1.26.

A day at sea.

Saturday 3.1.26

The port today was Eden. They did have a shuttle bus from the wharf but it was US$15 each for a kilometre. We thought we would be Mr and Mrs. Cheap and climb up the hill by ourselves. A bit of a struggle but worth the climb.

This is the long winding track uphill:

A reward at the top was some shops and a strawberry smoothie.

Eden is very scenic place. It would be nice to go there for a holiday break sometime.

Sunday 4.1.26.

We arrived in Sydney early in the morning after a night where there were thunderstorms. The ship did not seem to rock very much and I regretted not getting up and going on to the deck to look at the lightning.

This is arrival in Sydney:

The whole day was spent just getting to the airport, waiting at the airport, and flying back to New Zealand. We lost two hours due to the time difference so we got in around about 730 at night.

The next day we had to pick up Misty from the cattery. She showed her disapproval by meowing every 10 seconds all the way from Ramarama to Devonport, amongst other unmentionable activities.

A few days later we had to take ourselves up to Goat Island Bay because, well, they are not making many more days that good!  

This is fish and chips at Leigh Cemetery on the way home:

More Paintings

There is a local art gallery, where we went and got talking to the person looking after the shop.  I mentioned that I was painting, and he said bring them down and he might put them up. 

A while later, we arrived with four paintings, one by my wife, one by my sister in law, and two by me.  Two months on now, and no sales…..

Buoyed by all this activity, I decided to buy some proper acrylic paints, on the grounds that I did not want To have my pictures fading.

Then I decided that I needed to buy some new canvas panels and so bought two 14 x 20 panels. My walk each day was a good inspiration for some pictures of the bush along the track that I go.  Photos taken.

Here are the paintings.

This first  I am fairly pleased with, the second was an exercise on a small board, which was stolen from our craft room, and the last one is not a success, but has possibilities.

Dorothy

 Dear Dorothy

The most beautiful, wisest cat ever to have walked the earth.

You left this planet yesterday,

plunging your humans into an abyss of grief we can only guess at.

You did pass gloriously long cat days in summer,

 exploring the long grass in the back yard. 

In winter time, while the Wellington wind lashed at the house, 

and rain spattered the windows, 

you lounged luxuriously on the mat in front of the fire.

When your humans returned home, 

battered by the bats and bites of so called civilisation, 

did heal, simply by your calm and loving presence?

Trials of Acrylic Painting

 In the first few months, we went on a road trip down to Wellington. Part of the trip included a stop in Napier, where we visited a museum. This museum featured several audiovisual displays, and one of these was about a woman named Mei Whaitiri. She had been chosen at the age of 13 to be the model for Pania on the Reef.

I thought she had quite an interesting face, even though she was about 70 or 80 in the video. I found her to be a compelling character to draw. My first effort, however, ended up looking more like a baboon. Fortunately, after about four iterations, I managed to produce a drawing that I was reasonably happy with—though it wasn’t a true likeness, as you can see from the photo of her and my drawing based on it. I had great difficulties with the head being slightly tilted back.

You can see a video of her here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYUUiDJLpzA

I then decided that this would make a good portrait to try in acrylics. Unfortunately, the results were so alarmingly terrible that I lost all enthusiasm for painting portraits. Maybe it’s just something you have to keep practicing before you gain any real proficiency. Still, I’m puzzled as to why I can draw something reasonably well, yet the moment I pick up a paintbrush, everything turns to custard.

 I will not show it here as it is terrible.

Along these lines, earlier on I had seen a picture in the foyer of our retirement home. I was quite taken with it—it showed some buildings with water in the foreground and a few boats. I thought, That’s a good project for me, especially since I had found a canvas beside the road. The canvas, however, had been painted orange, which didn’t make things easy.

I soon discovered that simply copying someone else’s brushstrokes is not as straightforward as it seems. I ended up with something I thought looked terrible. I propped it up against the wall, planning to paint over it later. But after a while, I got used to the picture. I thought, Well, it’s a picture. Thousands of people paint thousands of pictures, and they all look different. Why shouldn’t mine be just as valid? Even though it’s not very professional-looking—who cares?

A Road Trip from Auckland to Plimmerton and back

  This is about a road trip we took about May 2025. The purpose was to go and visit our daughter who lives in Pukerua Bay which is just north of Wellington. The plan was to drive our car down there and make it into a bit of a road trip, as we haven’t been down the country in many years.

One of the things that we had on the way down from Auckland to Taupo was a rock thrown by a truck into our windscreen but it did not break so ever after that we were thinking that one of the many trucks that we saw coming in the opposite direction was going to do the same thing which does not make for very relaxed driving.

The trip down from Auckland to Taupo is not not such a bad one as there is 110 km/h speed limit which was great. Leaving Taupo, we had to traverse the country from Taupo across to New Plymouth. This meant going by one heck of a lot of back roads and fortunately we were able to use the map function on Rose’s phone so that removed all uncertainty as to which way to turn. 

Our first stop was Taupo where we stayed at a resort which was quite adequate for what we wanted. It had a hot pool so that was used at night as well as in the morning and was absolutely wonderful. We stopped in and looked at Craters of the Moon, which was nice. Shown here:

 Arriving in new Plymouth we stayed in a Airbnb place which was way up in the hills of Mount Taranaki volcano quite a few way out of town. This was a very nice stay and we enjoyed it very much, however being out of town a bit meant we had to make a 15 minute trip to town which was not a big deal. Our first meal that night was in a pub on the corner of somewhere in the middle of town, they had Guiness on tap so all was good.

We were there for about two nights so we did a bit of exploring around the place went to Pukekura Park and that was well worth the visit. Driving around town, we went past what seem to be a spaceship that had landed in the middle of the city.

This was an art gallery designed with a stainless steel facade with a wrinkled facade, so it was quite impressive building. We went inside to see that the entry fee was $25 each at which point we thought, well we’re quite tired aren’t we. Turned around and walked out and went somewhere else had a cup of tea  and then we thought we are not here for very long we might as well get on with it and just pay the $25 to see what we can see.

So we went back in and they said "they’re putting a new show on so the entry fee is only five dollars", which we thought that’s great until we walked in and only half of the place was open and what was open was quite underwhelming. About three floors of matting on walls and things like that not terribly impressive to our eyes. Then again we might be artistic philistines.

We did go down to where the chimney was way down at the south end of of the city and that was quite a nice view.

Next day we went from new Plymouth down to Wanganui. Wanganui seem to be a large city even though apparently there do not seem that many people in there. We walked up one side of the main shopping drag and down the other and we were struck by the age of everything. The buildings seem to be years and years old.

 We stayed in a little Country style hotel which was also very old and very charming Our stay there immensely enjoyable, with dinner in their restaurant which was also really well patronised.

The next day we had to visit my wife’s cousin who has a outdoor furniture factory in Wanganui so that day was taken up a little bit by that, but before we met him, we were going to go in the elevator. Across the river and there is an elevator which takes you up to a different suburb. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and thought well, we’ll just go to the top of the elevator and leave it at that. Photo of that one:

When we got up there we parked the car an because it was a windy day Rose stayed in the car and I went climbed up a little set of steps to the top of the elevator on the outside and had a look at the view. Turning around and I saw there was a tower behind us which I thought was a water tower.

Turns out it is a memorial tower to people that died in the First World War. Open to the public, you climb up a spiral stairway up about five stories.  The view from there is  wonderful, so if you’re there in Wanganui go and have a look at that one.

Then onwards we went from Wanganui down to Plimmerton. That was a nice trip because of the unusual landscape that seem to be changing all the time as you went down there and Plimmerton seems to be a just a little collection of shops where we stayed in a unit at the back of a house.

It used to be a model railway enthusiasts room to keep model trains before being converted to a place to stay. Nearby was a  beach, which was pretty miserable with the wind howling around the place and rain, so no swims for Bill. 

The next few days were spent going up and seeing our daughter who lives up in Pukekura Bay.

Then to Napier. At Napier we had time to have a little drive around the town and go and see the museum. Onto the Napier to Taupo road, which I thought wouldn’t take very long at all but nearly all morning where we stayed at a little motel on the Lakeside.  Very nice but 70s feel, but still quite pleasant. Went for a walk around the lake a little bit. It was a nice little walk just on the lakeshore, shown here:

 Then it was back home to Auckland and rescuing a kitty cat from the cattery.

A trip to Phuket, Thailand in April 2024

 I was not keen on this idea, as it involved sitting squeezed up for 10 hours in a too small seat.

Plus we had to put Misty into a cattery. Not her favourite option!

But other people had different ideas so off we went.  As it happens, the experience was a delight most of the time.  We scored a nice price for a 5 star hotel on Karon Beach.  The hotel which will remain unnamed was set in a large acreage of land and had about 4 swimming pools, 3 restaurants and 1 cafe.  Two bars.

Built in 1982, it presented as very modern to my eyes.  The staff were excellent, and the overall service and facilities wonderful.

Part of the deal arranged by a couple who organised it was to have a Luxury Escapes package added to it.

This involved paid for meals (all of them) and a happy hour where drinks were free.  This was great but lead to a certain amount of over consumption.. After the third night most of us were just choosing a main or two entrees.

The hardest part of the trip is just getting there from New Zealand. You have to take a 10 1/2 hour flight from Auckland to Singapore. Then you have to wait around for around six hours before you get on a flight to go from Singapore to Phuket. 

 Once we got to Singapore airport, we were surprised at the size and scope of the airport, it seemed to be that you could stand in any one place and look off into the distance and it would still keep on going. Many nice things to look at. We looked at the butterfly garden, cactus garden and Lilypond. 

 Then nearer to our departure gate was an orchid garden, which had mosaic and concrete sculpture. Parts of them seemed to be metal. Very well done. 

The train itself went through a large building called the Jewel. It was a geodesic dome, so the whole thing was curved. It’s amazing. 

The train goes through the middle of it and it’s all open inside so it is a really neat place. Because the people were travelling with were able to go into Business class lounges, we were able to spend some quality time in very comfortable surroundings so that was great.

These are photos of the hotel:

We went on a half day tour to the Buddha on the hill and saw the old part of Phuket town.

:

This is an old Chinese house in the old town:

Then off to see the elephants- a feed and shower with the elephants experience. If you go, do not miss this.