San Fran

Boarding our plane from London Heathrow we were feeling pretty sad that our trip home was over... until we remembered we had one more treat in store, a stopover in San Francisco, California!

We arrived at our hotel at about 8pm which didn't leave us much time to explore that night but we were up and out early the next morning - excited for a day of fun starting with our booked trip to Alcatraz!

Alcatraz Island

Catching our ferry at 8.45am we were disappointed not to get a view of the Golden Gate Bridge - the famous San Francisco fog seemed to be draped just over the bridge, and nothing else... No matter - we soon arrived on the island and enjoyed a couple of hours exploring, including a fantastic audio tour of the Cell House, home of famous crims including Al Capone and George "Machine Gun" Kelly.

Grim cells

We walked the rec yard, explored the cells, administration quarters and the dining hall - all very much an eye opener into prison life. Definitely felt like a place with stories to tell, and a few ghosts lurking...

Stacked up

The sun was really starting to hot up as we caught the ferry back- giving us a great view of Coit Tower, on Telegraph Hill.

One of San Fran's many hills!

We followed our ferry ride with a stroll along the promenade, interrupted by a quick break at the America's Cup 'village' - already set up in preparation for the Sailing contest taking place there in a week's time. We found a comfy spot and watched a bit of the youth competition on the big screen, cheering NZ on of course!

Brushing up on the rules in preparation
for NZ excitement soon to commence!

Soon enough it was lunchtime and a visit to the Ferry Building for some meatloaf with sides. Matt was a happy camper.

Please note, this is not the Golden Gate Bridge. Pretty cool anyway!

Walking through downtown we came across plenty of the famous cable cars...

Old and new

 ... and Chinatown - a great reminder of Asia and our honeymoon!

Competing with London for best Chinatown award (in our view)

Having seen the hills from the ferry we soon had to walk up and down and few, including Telegraph Hill and the famous Lombard Street.

This photo doesn't do the steepness justice.
Another sweaty flight it is then!

Lombard Street

Finally we got a stellar view of the bridge, even if it was still a bit shrouded by that fog.

International Icon = tick!

Still time for a bit more walking we found us ourselves at the marina proper, where we got a close up view of the youth Americas Cup boats...

What a setting!

 ... and to Fisherman's Wharf for Clam Chowder in a sour dough bowl. Delish.

Tasty as

Matt decided he needed to burn off some of the weight he had gained over the last two weeks, by visiting the old style arcade, where he beat the machine at arm wrestling. That's his story anyway!

Strong man!

And then to the airport. And it really was the end of the trip... Sad faces all round - but what a trip its been. Now to planning for our Christmas NZ tiki tour take 2. Can't wait!

Home, Sweet Home

After 16 months away it was time to make our way home to the UK to recharge our batteries. Matt's batteries require: Ales, Pork Pies, Lincolnshire Sausages, Scotch Eggs, Friends and Family. Sarah requires less meat and more cheese.

After our brief stopover in Vancouver we touched down at Heathrow to be met by these clowns!

What a welcome party!

It was brilliant seeing Sarah's sister Katie dive through the barriers for a Broad girls reunion. Even better when Jamie was saying she'd spent the last half hour saying she'd definitely be restrained and stay behind the barrier!

Our whistle-stop social tour of England had begun. Leg 1 - jet-lag recovery at Al and Anna's for 2 nights. So - straight on the beer then.

Cheers!

Before meeting up with Katie and Jamie for a walk on the South Downs. Even though we lived in London for a good many years we got really confused by the network... Auckland's a bit of a toy town in comparison!

The South Downs were stunning and it was great to catch up with these guys, especially hearing all their stories of walking round South America for 3 months and cycling round the South of France for another 3 months!

Beautiful

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to London and head up to our families. We did this using the quickest vehicle known to man - the hire car. Not quite sure how they accepted it back in one piece after most of the male members of my family had driven it round various fields, but they did!

First stop - drop Sarah off with her parents in Norfolk.

Returned in one piece, as promised!

And it was time to say goodbye for Sarah for a while as I went my way to Lincolnshire and Sarah stayed in Norfolk so we could both have time with friends and family.

Norwich Peeps!

Awaiting me in Bicker at my grandparents house was the Southern Cross proudly flapping in the wind!

In an English country garden

 Which definitely warranted a return trip the next day for some of my Grandma's amazing, and much missed, cooking. Here's the man of the house settling down with some good old John Smiths and a sirloin steak.

Grandpa

 Mum might read this, so I'd better put something about her cooking being good too.

Mum and Dad in front of the Lincolnshire mountains

 After far too short a time, it was off to see my brother and his family in Nottingham. This involved seeing my little nephew Caleb again (still cute, not little) and meeting my 16 month old niece Esme for the first time! After a couple of nights in Nottingham, we picked Sarah up at the local international transport hub (East Midlands Parkway) and headed en masse down to the Cotswolds. FUN!

Baker extraordinaire, Ney Bear

 We had a cottage for the Bank Holiday weekend and spent the weekend enjoying the local show, local food and big gardens/playgrounds for some racing against the kids.

Oh England

 Esme used about 6 words in total in front of me. But as I am gleefully resurrecting the role of "Uncle Knobhead" (Peter Kay, ithankyouverymuch) the only word I heard all weekend was nooooooo!

I can't imagine why...

Catering for Copes

I tried to take care of the kids - but my attention span often got the better of me. Resulting in beans getting the better of Esme.

Grumpy with me or with the menu?

 And for our final night, Katie and Jamie joined us!

Our cottage

 This little man was easy to keep entertained... How quick can you run round the garden? How quick can you run round the garden twice? Sadly, Chris and I also fell for the same simple lure of fun.

Caleb en vogue

 The sun finally came out for our last day in the Cotswolds. Whilst New Zealand has great scenery, it doesn't have any buildings more than about 200 years old. Bourton-on-the-Water blew us away. So did it's cream teas!

A rare moment of no wasps

 Back in the car and back to Nottingham. These two had some beans left so spent the next hour doing trampoline aerobics.

3... 2... 1... SUPERMAN!

Back in the hire car and back to Bicker. A quick hello from Sarah round the Cope family and then drop her off in Norwich at Emma's new house. Then back to Bicker. Phew. Time for some R&R with the parentals and a good walk down Frampton Marsh.

He's still got it. What's it? No-one actually knows.

 Frampton Marsh is, erm, a bit flat.

But beautiful all the same!

More goodbyes and then down off to Ely for a last meal with Sarah and her parents before onwards to London. But - we still had a tourist day with Al and Anna to look forward to and a big night out in Camden. So our hosts took us around the sights of London to try and tempt us back...

A new addition to London's skyline in our absence...
quite the views!

Followed by a cruise up the Thames

And a sighting of King Kong

And my favourite bit of London, the South Bank

 Back to Al and Anna's newly refurbished house... shower and rejuvenate (tea, tea, tea) and back into town for some long overdue catch-ups with good friends and a big night of partying at Ultimate Power - a club night of non-stop power ballads. Here's a collage of some of the night. Thanks everyone for coming along!

Good times!

 I'll blame it on the tiredness, but I had a lovely sleep in the taxi at 3am. Then a lovely sleep on the kebab shop table at 3.15 am. The manager didn't take kindly to that, so I had a little sleep on the pavement whilst Al collected our order.

They say a picture tells a thousand words...

 And before we knew it, it was our last day! Al and I freshened up with a run around Greenwich Park before heading back to tidy up the garden after their builders had trashed it! 4 hours later the ice bath was full, the barbeque going and the battleshots set up for a game or two!

Al's fire pit. We all thought someone had sold him a hole,
but it's actually a real proper thing.

Team Cope-Vollbracht trying to win at Battleshots.
A3? HIT!

 What a whirlwind two weeks... absolutely jam packed with seeing people, enjoying good food and drink and making the most of every minute. We got on the plane shattered (but still looking forward to a short city break in San Francisco) but happy.

But not before fitting in one last pork pie...

See you again soon, England!

Living below the line

Before heading back home for our recent visit I was persuaded by three of my colleagues (Hannah, Rebecca and Jo) to join them in signing up to 'live below the line' for 5 days in late September. Late September seemed a way off, and how hard could it be to survive on NZ$2.25 a day?

Team 'Ladies Who Don't Lunch' -
L-R Rebecca, Jo, me, Hannah

Since returning back to work from the UK the pressure has mounted and tomorrow my five days of poverty commences. We have already attracted some donations as a team to our cause - Oxfam. Now we just have to do it. 

Task 1 out of the way - food shopping. Turned out this was pretty painful - having not had time with a birthday weekend away to shop around I am stuck with monotony and not much in the way of nutrition. The worrying thing is that fruit and veg, whilst not expensive, are also not cheap enough when you're living on just over £1 a day.

Yum

So, wish me luck: the next 5 days ironman training schedule includes two 1 hour swims, three 1 hour runs and two 1 hour bike rides. I will update this post on completion of the challenge (if I'm still alive)... 

A £5 donation or NZ$10 donation (roughly equivalent to my total budget) would be welcomed from any of our regular readers :) 

For my page click here, and for our team page here. 

Vancouver!

What a whirlwind few weeks it has been! Now we're back from our epic trip home we are ready to get caught up on blogging, starting with our brief but action packed stopover in Vancouver.

We loved it! Vancouver really is Auckland on steroids with a stunning harbour, amazing parks, cycle and walkways everywhere, fantastic eating and drinking and mountains within touching distance of the city.

Arriving at our hotel at about 4pm on the Friday we set straight out for a run around Stanley Park - not having had much sleep on the plane due to excitement we weren't sure how it would go but it was well worth it - the park is huge and gave some great views of the city, harbour, a bit of beach time and some glimpses of First Nation art in the form of some impressive totems.

Another City of Sails - Northern Hemisphere style!

Loved these totems

Canadian Geese... in Canada!

Laid back beach

After a quick shower and spruce up we caught the bus into town and headed straight to Steamworks Brewery (thank you Hannah and Jody for the recommendation). A few yummy Canadian craft beers, some calamari and chips later we were ready to head into Gastown to sample a bar or two before heading to bed.

Happy boy!

Not all consumed by me, promise

Next morning we were up bright and early to make the most of our one day in British Columbia, commencing with a proper 'diner' breakfast - eggs benedict for me (with a healthy included side of fried potatoes...) and corned beef hash for Matt.

YUM!

Walking along the shoreline from the West End we found the miniest ferry ever to take us over to Granville Island, famous for its market, quirky shops and boutiques.

Teeny ferry

Spending a couple of hours on the island, followed by a stroll through historic Yaletown, we found ourselves catching another ferry, this time to the North Shore (yes, there's one of those in Auckland too!) home of the famous Grouse Mountain, ski field in Winter, general fun place to go in summer.

Tourists who didn't fancy catching their plane sweaty caught the cable car up the mountain, we hiked up instead... It turns out this is one steep mountain, an hour later we had completed the 'Grouse Grind' and were ready for a sit down.

So many steps! Definitely glowing...

In true Canadian style, our rest was accompanied by a lumberjack show, complete with chopping, sawing, log running and tree climbing. Honestly, the show was beyond brilliant - we loved it (mainly due to the Canadian sense of humour used throughout - turns out the obviousness aligns nicely with ours...). Unfortunately cloud cover meant we weren't treated to views from the top, but seeing the grizzly bears and catching the cable car back down ensured our visit was complete!

Strong men!

This guy was rather lovely!

Catching a ferry back to the other side there was only time for a quick Japadog (Vancouver famous Japanese hot dog - the best thing Matt has ever put in his mouth apparently) a walk along Coal Harbour to complete the day's loop and we were picking our bags up and heading to the airport...

A fantastic day and a bit, and a great warm-up for our time in the UK.