New Orleans Day 3

The last day of our holiday and what a way to spend it.  The French Quarter Music Festival started our day with a parade down Bourbon Street - great fun with loads of mardi gras beads thrown into the crowds.  We moved on to the open air stages to listen to music and enjoy the atmosphere before taking a street car ride to the Garden District.  We got off at Auboudon Park but it was very hot so didn't stay long and made our way back to the music festival.  A late lunch listening to more music and then we popped into Preservation Hall where the shows were free for the festival.  A short rest and a shower at our hotel before finishing our day with a Dinner and Jazz cruise on the Mississippi. 

The end of our 85 fantastic days round the world.  I hope you have enjoyed sharing our travels in this blog and we are looking forward to seeing you all again when we are back in England.

The Parade

New Orleans Caps

Mardi Gras Beads

One of the many grand homes in the Garden District

The Gumbo Trio on the Dinner Cruise

A break from the music on the Upper Deck

New Orleans Day 2

Today a music festival started in the French Quarter where we are staying and it is very busy.  We decided to leave the music until tomorrow and took the street car out to the Mid City district.  Our first stop was to look at one the amazing cemetries in the City where families have huge tombs to bury their dead. The one we looked at covers 105 acres and there were three more of similar size in the same area.

We moved on to the City Park where we spent the day wandering round the Park which is bigger than New York's Central Park and houses the Art Museum and an interesting Sculputre Park.

Street car on Canal Street

One of the many tombs

City Park

Sculpture Park

New Orleans Day 1

After a journey plagued with delays we eventually arrived in New Orleans and have been enjoying this lovely City but it is very warm and it has been hot work sightseeing.  

We started day one with a trip on the free ferry across the Mississippi to Algiers - a village of old buildings and the Jazz Walk of Fame along the levee. We returned to the City and spent the rest of the day wandering round the French Quarter finishing our day with supper and a concert in a jazz club. 

New Orleans from Algiers (on the opposite side of the River)

Louis Armstrong at the start of the Jazz Walk of Fame

Mardi Gras floats stored in Algiers until next year

The French Market

Live music at lunchtime

World famous jazz venue - Preservation Hall

There are several of these "carriages" giving tours of the City (we didn't do one!)

The Cathederal

Los Angeles

We are only here for a day and a half so it has been an exhausting whirlwind tour of the City.  We arrived early afternoon yesterday and went straight to the Getty Museum.  We didn't have time to do the galleries unfortunately as they closed at 5.30 p.m. and spent our time wandering round the grounds. 

Today we did as many of the sites as we could visiting Rodeo Drive (shopping for the very rich and famous), Sunset Boulevard (Walk of Fame, Chinese Theatre etc), the "Sign viewpoint", Mulholland Drive (where the rich and famous live) and the Marina del Rey (where Tim Clarke works and lives!).  We went to see Tim at work at West Marine but he had a day off so we spent some money and left a message.

The Getty Museum

And again

In the gardens of the Getty Museum

The Gardens

One of the many sculptures at the Getty Museum

End of Rodeo Drive

 

One of the many names on the Walk of Fame

Entrance to Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Bing Crosby's hand and foot prints

The "Sign"

Lighthouse at the Marina Fishing Village

Fishing Village Wharf

Day Trip to Aitatuki

A early start today as our pick up was 7.00a.m. for a 45 minute flight to the Island of Aitatuki. 
Aitatuki is the sort of island everyone imagines a South Pacific island to be - brilliant blue skies, clean white sandy beaches, blue seas and palm trees everywhere.  After a short drive round the Island (it is even smaller than Rarotonga) we joined a canoe boat type boat with two outboards to cruise the lagoon.  Our first stop was on one of the small islands for a swim and then we moved onto the highlight of the day - the snorkelling.  This was just like swimming in an aquarium and none of us wanted to get out of the water even though a delicious lunch was waiting for us. 
As we were finishing our lunch we moved on to One Foot Island where we spent the afternoon wandering round the shore and swimming before returning to the "mainland" for our flight back to Rarotonga.  A wonderful day in paradise.

Our boat for the day

Swimming in the lagoon

Guess who!

Fish swimming around the coral

David dives deep

Giant Clam on the seabed

Our own private "aquarium"

Call for lunch

One Foot Island

Yet another beach

And more islands

Cook Islands

We've come to the end of our time in New Zealand and are now relaxing in the Cook Islands for a week (8 days actually because we have had two Saturdays!).  Not a lot to do here except enjoy the sun and sea.  We are staying in a beach front bungalow on a small complex on the beach with swimming pool, kayaks and snorkelling gear all on site.   There are only two other guests so very peaceful. 

We managed to tear ourselves away from the beach to hire a car and have driven round the Island - 32km - and David is very proud to have a Cook Islands Driving License.

Our bungalow on the beach

The Veranda

The Beach

Sunset

Dinner at a beachside restaurant

David's Driving License