SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

San Diego is like a second home for me because is where my American Mum lives. She adopted me unofficially 5-6 years ago. I love that city and I spent there many beautiful moments this time and in the past. Coming to San Diego brought back to my mind many memories and it was emotionally very intense.

It was very different from the other destinations of my trip and I don't really consider it part of my travel-adventure but more like a come back home. To keep me in the explorer's mood, Jan (my American Mum) took me around to a lot of nice places. It was a perfect transition before going to Europe. The climate is great in San Diego, always sunny, but still cold compared to the tropical Samoa- It helped me to slowly adapt. I had hot showers, tv and internet and we went to the theater and shopping. These things can seem normal but I didn't experience them this year before coming here.

downtown from the sea

old town San Diego - a bit of the Mexican feel

Jan took such good care of me, body and soul. We went to the gym for aerobics and zumba and to yoga on Sundays in a wonderful venue facing the ocean in La Jolla. I love that part of San Diego (it has always been my favorite), with its cove and the seals and sea lions resting on the sun or swimming in the waves.

La Jolla children's beach, now seal's beach

We went to Coronado yacht club at the party held every year for the first 100 members that joined the club. It was really nice and Jan tried to make me dance some R'n'R but she is too good for me and I have to practice for next time.

We went to the Wild Animal Park and it was really amazing to see this huge area transformed in different habitats for many species of wild animals. It seems that these animal live quite well in captivity as there are many babies born there. Jan compared it to a 5 star hotel for wild animals. We were very lucky and saw a baby cheetah (only 2 months old) and then an adult cheetah, the animal ambassador, that walked in front of us so we can see it from close distance. It is such a beautiful animal! I loved also the gorillas. They act so human but are so big. The lions sleeping on the sun were amazing as well. But there were so many beautiful animals. I like this park more then the zoo (SD zoo seems to be the biggest in the world and is incredible) as it feels more natural even if it is artificial.

After the pleasant almost all day walk in the park we went for wine tasting in Ofelia. I love California and Zinfandel is my favorite in general even if here I had a surprisingly good San Giovese and Shiraz. The owner is a former Argentinian diplomatic with Italian origins that puts a lot of passion in his winery with excellent reasults.

Jan rows and one day she went rowing and I took a nice walk on Mission beach and then an amazing breakfast at the Eggery in Pacific beach, where we had mixed fruit pancakes with whipped cream.

We went to see three shows at the theater and they were all different but all very good. I really enjoyed and one reason was the nice dinners before the shows. Before "Emma" and "Death of a salesman" in the Old globe theater in Balboa Park we had fish tacos in the Prado. Fish tacos are a "must have" in San Diego. It is basically a grilled or crisp maki maki fish with salsa and vegetables. Very special and one of the things that I usually miss from here (with Trader Joe's pita chips dipped in hummus, but this is not a local specialty). Another show we went to see was at the Horton plaza theater in the Gaslamp district downtown. We saw a commedy, "Superior donuts" and it was great. I loved in particular one line of the play that says " my shop is better then (...) as I sell Croatian pornography" . I couldn't believe my ears :-). Before going to the play we had a lovely Mexican dinner, San Dego style, sitting outside as it was so warm. I loved my margarita and lobsters :-). It was the night of the superball and it was quite calm as all the crows was concentrated in the pubs with tv screnes and totally focused on the game.

One day we went out with some friends on their powerboat and it was really wonderful.



We've done a lot of things and had great time but the most important thing for me was to be with Jan, a person that I really love and care for. I was missing so much our nice chats about important things in life. I love to talk with my Mum but my American Mum has a different point of view and I always love to hear it and reflect about what she is saying. Thank you Jan for adopting me and for being such a good friend :-).

NEW ZEALAND

I arrived in Auckland (North island - New Zealand) on Dec.12th flying from Sydney and spent in the country a little more then a month. It was great not to fly directly from Europe, as I did last year, as it is really a long flight and 12 hours time difference. My sister and her family live in this nice and peaceful city, that spreads for more the 60 Km on a land with more then 50 vulcanoes (my sister lives just under one of them, mt. Eden,a  beautiful place to have a nice view of the city and enjoy the sun and breeze) and this is the reason for my frequent visits to New Zealand.

downtown Auckland from the sea

We had a beautiful Christmas holiday and I want to use the occasion to thank all the friends that have invited us for dinner during the holiday season and made us all feel at home :-).
Soon after Christmas we (my sister Manuela, her husband Vanja, her son Orlando and I) flew to Christchurch in the South island, where we started a fantastic tour in a campervan.
The city shows the signs of the recent earthquake that caused major devastations but the overall situation is better then we expected....

Christchurch is the third biggest city in New Zealand with approximately 360.000 inhabitants. It is the biggest in the South island, known for its British feel and for the gardens (I recommend the botanical garden). The colonist that founded it around the 1850 wanted to bring on the other side of the planet a part of the victorian culture and make it live through the architecture.

In Christchurch we rented the van that took us around the island: a Wicked van named Jesus!!! :-)

Vanja, Manu and Orlando at Wicked vans parking

the Jesus van - this was the polite side ;-)

From Christchurch we headed first south to Akaroa (you can use this link to follow our itinerary: interactive map of New Zealand ) to this interesting French-British settlement and the amazing scenery. Akaroa has a very interesting history. In 1838 Captain Jean François L'Anglois bought this land from the Maori but when  the French settlers arrived some years later, from their vessel they saw a British flag (rised only one week before, after the signing of the controversial treaty of Waitangi). Can you imagine the surprise and disappointment of these people seeing that the British were claiming their "promised land" that they reached after such a long and surely not easy journey? They decided to stay and fight for their rights and at the end the land remained British and the town was divided in two fractions. It has still quite an intense French feel.


the view just before driving down to Akaroa

the view from a walk in the Banks peninsula 

Then we decided to go North and we went to Kaikoura, famous for its seal colony (very cute but dangerous). I found it funny that they go hunting and then they sleep for weeks to rest :-)

From there we continued our journey North with a new member joining the family :-) and went to Bleinheim in the Malborough region for wine tasting (btw, I love Sauvignon blanc from that region, it is my favourite white wine!)

We went to Nelson for New Year's eve and had great time there. We had a wonderful dinner, a great party and the best banana pancakes in the world for breakfast :-). We headed further North and reached the Firewell spit, with its nice walk by the ocean and through the dunes to the bay of fossils.

Then we went back and headed South reaching the West coast. Inspired by the amazing breakfast pancakes that we had for more than one day, we went to see the pancake rocks (heavily erored limestones and blowholes) by Punakaiki.

I loved the incredible energy of the Tasman sea. No swimming but such beautiful landscapes and beaches full of beautiful stones and shells.

Another thing that I loved was the Franz Joseph glacier.

Soon after, we reached our favourite place on this trip: Wanaka (I think everyone on the team will agree on that - you can comment if you don't). This small town with its nice and warm lake was just perfect for some relaxation and rest.

We continued to Queenstown and headed to the East coast to the amazing area south of Dunedin, with its beautiful scenery....

and fauna...

We continued North, direction Christchurch where I took my flight to Samoa and our tour ended.
A lot of things happened and I've been to a lot of other places but this is a short summary of our amazing family tour in the land of the changing scenery and incredible natural beauties.

SYDNEY

I visited Sydney in the beginning of December and so many things have happened since I left Australia that I've just now been able to write this post. But better now then never.

Sydney is beautiful, just amazing. A city where old and new are complementary where traditions of the past meet the future. People feel free to walk around dressed in shiney broadway dresses or to just lie down in one of the many parks, drink a beer in the middle of a working day with friends or work hard.... It is an ordered mixture of everything and you can smell that freedom everywhere. It is often ranked as one of the most beautiful cities in the world and I can easily understand why.

sitting in front of city hall

the city tower

Sydney is surrounded by beaches (the water was not really warm) and you can surf every day of the year and even on your lunch break :-). Still, freedom is strictly regulated and there is an alcohol ban in all outside public areas. What I love about that ban sign below is the martini glass - I can imagine my friends and I drinking from martini glasses on the beach  wearing a Santa hat ;-). If you look well you'll see the martini glass in the water with the guy drowning.

Downtown Sydney is quite big but pedestrian friendly. Everything is well connected with the metro and the train and if you want you can go to Circular Quay, and after having a coctail at the fancy bar by the Opera house, you can take a ferry

and, of course, I did :-)

Sydney has some very beautiful and very pleasant neighborhoods, not far from the busy downtown like this old residential area close to Oxford street


and the condos by King's cross

It shows its modernity, elegance and importance...

without forgetting about tradition

and old and new seem to peacefully cohesist in a beautiful mixture.