Feb 3rd overlooking downtown Auckland

First a recap of our final days in Lake Havasu City. On Sunday, we set out to golf our usual round but it was so slow! Turned out we were behind the club's "Seniors' Tournament" aka "The Rusty Zipper Open," according to the women in front of us. I don't even want to think about any of those zippers open! We finished 9, then decided to forget it and instead, headed to an establishment that is open only from mid January to May and only for Saturday and Sunday afternoons. We headed south and turned off a dirt road a few miles out of Parker and drove for about 5 miles at a pace designed to preserve the tires and paint-job and to avoid breathing in too much dust. Just about the time we wondered if we were ever going to get there, we turned a corner and saw The Desert Bar.

It's quite a weird spectacle to see this collection of structures--roofs, decks, a few band stands, wooden walkways and of course, the bar. The band was playing, the sun was shining--all good! We got ourselves a beer and a burger, a place to sit and enjoyed the scene. Lots of older folks but young people too, dancing and singing along but mostly just enjoying the vibe and soaking up the sun! Great way to spend the day.

Monday was our last day; cleaned up in the morning, then played our final round at London Bridge. Left on Tuesday to drive to Mark and Karen Franklin's place in Sun City Grand, where we spent the night and left our car for the duration of our time off the continent. We were able to play a round with Mark in the morning, then packed up and headed to the airport. Made our connection to LA, then after a 3 hour lay-over, we boarded New Zealand air and took off. We were a little delayed getting off the ground due to weather conditions somewhere in our path but once air-bound, it took us less than 12 hours to reach Auckland. I thoroughly recommend NZ Air: fabulous service, reasonably comfortable sits (if anything can be comfortable for that long), great movie selection and a smooth flight. Geoff and I watched Iron Lady and Ides of March; I watched Tin Tin, Geoff chose The Debt. Still managed about 5 hours of sleep. I'm writing this at 3:45pm and we are both surprisingly alert. We got into town at 9:00am but couldn't get into our room until the afternoon so did some exploring of the city. Looking forward to going to the Chinese Lantern Festival that starts tonight about a block away; hope to post some good pics! It will be an early night though but we hope to beat the jet lag and be able to start the day fresh! Our hotel is great and in the heart of the city so we can walk everywhere. I've been watching the cars driving on the "wrong" side of the road, trying to steel myself to taking it on in three days when we rent a vehicle and head off to explore New Zealand!

PS There are some amazing trees in Albert Park - this is an Ombu tree - the roots grow above the ground!