The Flying Kiwi’s - Epistle #8

Kia Ora whānau!

            Again, I’d like to thank you for your patience.. and MAN, I didn’t realize that mum and I had let a whole week go by before we doing another blog.  We’re actually back on DRY land right now – in LA, we’re staying at La Quinta Inn – near LAX… and today I’ve been walking around like I’m still on a boat… LoL!  That’s funny as!

Monday 14^th April, 2014 

Anyway, leaving off we’re still in VEGAS on Monday 14^th…

            Ok, so after lunch on Sunday with the Snow whānau Aunty Martina let mum know that her cousin Aunty Shirley Peihopa lives in Vegas… Mum was all excited because she thought that Aunty Shirley lived in LA (sister to Louise who Kiri is named after) – so, Mum called her and organised for her to pick us up on Monday to take us shopping.  She’s 74 years old now and has only JUST retired 2weeks ago from her mahi as a legal secretary – she also has 2 daughters living in Hawaii.  We offered to pick her up, but she insisted on coming to get us so we let her… LoL!  Not sure if that was a good idea – LoL!  Bless her heart and her driving.

 

Aunty Shirley Peihopa and Mum - outside her whare she bought for $24,000 now worth $250,000

Aunty Shirley at the Outlet - she’s pretty cool and funny e hoa.. I tell you...

            We asked her to take us places she hadn’t been before – our car was in VALET and so was our GPS… bad move, we ended up seeing the Monte Carlo from about 4 different angles… LoL!  It was hilarious!  I quickly looked up on my iPhone the directions to the outlet we had planned to visit – LUCKY!  Then I directed her the way there – she reckons she hasn’t been to the strip in at least 10 years of her 40years living there.. LoL! 

            Mum reckons riding with Aunty was the first time she feared for her life.. LoL!  And that’s something considering ‘I’ was driving us around in America on the WRONG side of the road…!  That was funny!  After going to the outlet she was reversing us out of the park and crashed into a parked car behind us.  I’m not sure, but I think the result of that little misdemeanour left to tiny dents in the car – but she just drove off.. LoL!  I looked out and saw that they were really small.. SO, here’s hoping that the owners don’t see it and notice them.. LoL.. Aue!

            Aunty Shirley took us to her whare and gave us kai.. it’s awesome to see that tikanga still happen – aroha and manaakitanga, she’s pretty neat alright and both she and mum were so happy to see each other and spend time with each other.  COOL!  We went to the post office to post the cards to the whānau from VEGAS – that was cool.  She dropped us off back at Monte Carlo – what a lovely day spending time with her and the funny-ness of her driving. HAHAHA!  Good times..

            Mum and I went straight to the ticket booth to buy our tickets for CIRQUE DU SOLEIL – we weren’t too bothered on which show we’d watch, it was more about the cheapest and best seats we could get.. ALSO, while were there we saw that they also sold discount tickets for kai all over VEGAS – so, for dinner we bought a voucher to get cheap dinner at Planet Hollywood, and a nice breakfast at ‘The Mirage’ – that was a real bargain!  Mum described these buffets similar to a food court in a mall, but all the food was included – funny.. but true!  After purchasing our tickets we went on the tram to the Bellagio and planned to walk on to Treasure Island (to get good seats for the show) and then back to Planet Hollywood for dinner – well, after getting to the Bellagio we saw how much further down from the Bellagio, Treasure Island was – so instead we went early to dinner had a good kai…

 

Some of the Bellagio show...

WOW!  Cool!!

Mum inside the Bellagio - it’s a HUGE garden..

One of the roof tops in the Bellagio… BEAUTIFUL!!

Then Uncle James Murray (brother to Uncle Tom Murray, mum had dinner with in Utah) called mum and wanted to meet up with us.  He came and picked us up from Planet Hollywood – he took us to Treasure Island to get our seats for the show and then took us for a tour around VEGAS – Uncle James, he sells shopping malls…!  Mum and I were both like ‘Huh?’…. Sell shopping malls?  Well, in any case because of his inside knowledge he knew all about the hotels too.. how many rooms they have, who the owners are etc.  Did I mention he didn’t say any Māori names as owners.. LoL!  Kei te pai..  In any case, coz we were so early for dinner and the show, we went on a tour, he told us all about the number of rooms each hotel has and a little about the owners – man, a lot of money I say!

Planet Hollywood - dinner voucher

Mum and Uncle James Murray

Anō - he loves Ganamā and Ganapā so much!

We were here!  Mean!!

This is NOT photo-shopped… COOL!! 

The Bellagio on the right - we just caught the final moments of the fountain show for the day.. 

Wiwi… Lovely!!

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL – MYSTERE…

So, that was an experience and a half… I’ve always wanted to go to one of their shows – Michael Jackson show ‘ONE’ was definitely sold out and we weren’t able to get one to that show… Mum called it a ‘knock out’ LoL.. why?  Coz she fell asleep!  LoL.. for most of it and then I fell asleep in the last bit that she was awake for.. HAHA!

Afterwards, we walked all the way home – well, I pushed mum on the wheelchair home and we ‘just’ caught the last few minutes of the final BELLAGIO night fountain show…

And that was our final ‘whole day’ in VEGAS – man that was awesome!!

Tuesday 15^th April, 2014

So, we decided to take it easy this day… we called the office and asked what the latest check out time was that we could have – 12pm?  Great!  So, we didn’t check out till then – it was cool at the Monte Carlo because all parking was free – Valet and Self-parking.. we always did valet parking and gave a little ‘tip’ when the driver brought us our car.. I think we’re over tipping for sure!  LoL!

 

Me taking it EASY on our AWESOME bed… YUMMY BED MAN!!! #1 Bed on our trip so far...

We then went for brunch at ‘The Mirage’ talk about flash man!  We used our other coupon which got us in for half price – talk about it!  It was primo as man!  So, we were able to get to have kai at a few different places in Vegas and I reckon the best was last!  We then made our way to the VEGAS temple – man that was so beautiful! 

Breakfast at the Mirage...

Mum and I outside VEGAS temple - POST-SESSION… Lovely!!!

Beautiful!!! And the temple… :)

Wow… how cool to be at the temple in VEGAS..

Our rental car that wasn’t NEARLY big enough for us and ALL of our shopping!! LoL!!

We then drove to Los Angeles, CA!  That was a nice drive – felt like AGES though.. and so glad that we had our GPS (or GST as mum likes to call it J).  On our way we stopped at In and Out and had dinner – that was yum!  

In and OUT restaurant...

It’s pretty good - if you ever get to have one… HAVE ONE.. LoL!

I was pretty proud of myself coz the GPS eventually tried to take me off the I-15 which is the interstate highway that takes us from Salt Lake right to Murrietta, CA – where Aunty Linda and Uncle Kent live – and I refused that direction and we got there fine – GPS recalculated the route and we made it fine – it was a little late and Aunty Linda provided me the wrong number for her – LoL!  So, she didn’t know when we were going to arrive – she was asleep when we got there but got up and stayed up with us having a kōrero and catch up with mum.  She’s awesome!  Afterwards, we straightway fell asleep – had a nice sleep man!

Wednesday 16^th April, 2014

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS – VIP STYLES

So, Mum and I were in no rush to wake up this morning – bad move!  Coz we didn’t know how far from Aunty Linda’s, Universal Studios was – it was about 1 ½ hours… WOAH!  But, we had a good sleep which was – good!  Driving through LA was a little hectic – just people everywhere and I had to say to myself ‘People don’t get on the road to crash’ LoL.. so, as long as I was driving properly then, I’m sure others would ‘mostly’ be aware of what they were doing – although there were a couple of times I’m sure there were ‘worst’ tourist drivers on the road then me.. LoL!  Made me feel a little better!! 

 

Not the one on the hill… but, COOL!!!

Our destination - FINALLY, what a drive!!

It was VERY lucky for us that Aunty Linda said she would pick up Camilla from Long Beach airport – coz she told us how far Universal was from LBC airport.. So, we arrived at Universal at around 11am and there were people everywhere!  It was their ‘Spring Break’ so there were families everywhere!  Mum and I had already bought our ‘general admission’ tickets back home.  But, when we got there and there were people everywhere – we thought about doing the ‘Front of the line’ pass and then decided on paying a LOT more to do VIP – mate, that was cool YOLO.. why not?  Our accounts were still pretty healthy and so we did it!  We had our own private (small group) tour around the studios and where the ‘general’ tour was 45minutes, ours was 2hours and we were able to get off and walk around the different sets!  My top places while on tour was – seeing part of the set where ‘Back to the Future’ was recorded – it was the town square where Doc was up at the clock trying to get the line connected for Michael J Fox to get the lightening in order to get back to his own time… MEAN!  I was like ‘COOL!’ – the ONLY one in the group… LoL..

 

100 points for whoever can name the movie this set was from!! It’s not that hard!

A different look at the same set...

This might help - which movie!!!

We also we down WISTERIA Ln – that’s right!  Desperate Housewives.. that was mean!  Also, we went ‘on set’ of a tv show ‘About a Boy’ adapted from the movie with Hugh Grant… It’s not showing in NZD yet… Lastly the coolest part of the tour was being able to go to the PROP’s warehouse – FAR OUT!!!! Just mind boggling ALL the props they have – the clothes and everything for inside sets, from modern to vintage props for the inside of the houses etc.

Hollywood sign - as close as we got to it! LoL..

Water World Show set… MEAN..

The SET… South West movie..

From an ACTUAL MOVIE...

The best RIDE??? Coz with our VIP passes we could go through the FAST lane – Mum and I together went on the MUMMY for the first time – FREAKY!!! LoL.. it started slow and then went FAST AS!! Haha.. Lucky I was sitting next to mum, she closed her eyes the whole way through.. LoL!  She was freaked and I was having the time of my life!! LoL!

 

Mum on the set of ‘About a Boy'

The set of ‘About a Boy'

We also had a VERY nice LUNCH – comes with VIP I guess.. but, it was actually pretty impressive… Man, that was an awesome day!  A worker walked us back to our car with Mum in the wheelchair and we were off home – another LATE night… got back to Murrietta and asked Milla or Aunty if they wanted to visit Uncle Ross with us – they didn’t – LoL.. We went for the final hour and spent the rest of the night packing our bags and getting ready for the CRUISE – yeeeeeah!!!

 

Despicable ME ride… COOL!

PRESENT DAY – Monday 21^st Aril, 2014

Ok, whānau.. Mum and I are awake and she’s not feeling too well…

I have missed writing about our CRUISE – but I woke up a little late and fell asleep last night while I was writing this – it’s time for mum and I to get ready to leave for Hawaii.  SO, I’ll leave the BLOG here and update the Carnival Cruise when we get to Hawaii… It’s awesome and will be dedicated to Toni Laulu as her and some of the cousins are considering going on it at the end of the year when they come back… Also, for Pania Reiri-Smith because she recommended the cruise to us…

SNEAK PREVIEW - CRUISE

The ATRIUM - real Carnival-like

Arohanui whānau, friends and bored readers…

Mama Kiwi and Parns

Xoxoxoxoxoxo