Robertson's on Tour: New Zealand '08 - '09

[AntRobertson]

Righto this thread's been a long time coming and, frankly, was a complete cock-up before it even began. First off, lacking the skill, equipment or inclination of guys like Bobcock and Co., we managed to have our camera on the wrong setting so over half the pics came out a blurry mess that I had to subsequently delete (which was after buying a new USB cable to replace the one we left in NZ). Secondly, owing to the nature of the trip (Xmas, visiting relations and friends etc) most the pics are of people rather than places and, for obvious reasons, I'm a bit reluctant to post those. So anyways what follows is a random collection of mediocre pics from what was actually a really, really good trip...

So we set off:



This was on the Silk Air, CM to Singapore, leg of the trip. All my pre-trip apprehensions came to nothing as the boys were coo'ed over by sexy air hostesses and then nodded off straight to sleep for the entire trip. Unfortunately this gave us a false sense of security and when Singapore Air managed to totally and utterly cock-up the next leg of the trip (Singapore - Auckland) I had the most miserable and difficult flight of my life. Anyways, a story for another thread/time...

After arriving in NZ and a few days with my sister and her family it was straight to the beach to met some friends. This is where we stayed:



And this is a gratuitous nudity shot of my wee chaps and my mates boy having a bath :



Then it was the whole big family Xmas thing with aunts, uncles and cousins galore coming out of the woodwork and convening for a lovely lake side BBQ/Xmas lunch. This is the only pic of ours that survives from that day :



One of my boys chasing ducks. Err, chasing Xmas ducks!

After that it was off to meet some more friends at another beach to go camping. A decision which, with the benefit of hindsight, was really, really dumb. Two increasingly mobile boys and wide open spaces for them to disappear into meant we had to watch them constantly. This pic sums up the exhaustion everyone ended up feeling:



My boy asleep in a suitcase.

I did however catch this absolutle monster of a kingfish. Had I caught it the following day I would've won the fishing competition that they held (which only started then). But I didn't. Still happy with it though, as you can see clearly from my expression:



And another gratuitous bath-time pic, camping style:

[Wayne Kerr]

Bloody nice fish mate

[AntRobertson]

This, incidentally, is the car we hired for the whole trip. A 2008 XR6 Falcon, brilliant car and only around B30,000 for the entire 3 weeks. That's cheaper than most rentals here and for a full-size 'executive' saloon too!:



My boys were clearly stoked with it as much as I was :



Here's the whole family with grandma... Well one of the grandma's at least... You can see the strong family resemblance in this pic:



And one of my boys with his great-grandma, pretty much the single most important reason for the entire trip:

[AntRobertson]

Originally Posted by Wayne Kerr

Bloody nice fish mate

Cheers Wayne. I may be, ahem, slightly exaggerating the size as time goes by, it was actually only 10kg, but it's my first ever kingy so I was pretty stoked with it.

[peterpan]

Jezzus Ant, slim pickins. I'm an old cvnt but can still work a camera.

Is that all you could manage after 3 weeks holiday? I got some great photo's of my last trip. Bay of Islands, Rotorua thermals, Christchurch gardens etc.
Do you want to borrow them and pretend they are yours?

[AntRobertson]

And, finally, me wee chap wearing part of his sun-protection kit:



The weather in NZ was superb, very simialr to a winter in Chiang Mai actually, but that sun is a killer! Literally and figuratively. I'm relatively fair-skinned but here in Thailand even I can get away with an hour or so in the sun without getting burnt. In NZ that's more like 10min or so, no exaggeration! It's that fierce!

[Red dragon]

Nice pics mate,

seeing the boy playing in the grass makes me wanna take my boy home to see the family, playing football in the Garden and BBQ's are a few things I miss about back home.
Also the bath, I have a similar style in my home, bloody hell I miss having a relaxing bath everynight.

[AntRobertson]

Originally Posted by peterpan

Jezzus Ant, slim pickins. I'm an old cvnt but can still work a camera.

Is that all you could manage after 3 weeks holiday? I got some great photo's of my last trip. Bay of Islands, Rotorua thermals, Christchurch gardens etc.
Do you want to borrow them and pretend they are yours?

I know mate, I'm really quite gutted about it.

Thankfully as we spent all the time with friends/family they also have plenty of shots so it's just a matter of collecting those together. We were in RotoVegas too by the way, wanted to get to the Bay of Islands but didn't manage to get past the Whangaporoa penninisula. Next trip.

[peterpan]

We only used to use these small ones as bait when I was a lad.

[reinvented]

nice pics ant
must get round to a photy thread meself

[Gabriel]

Thank you for the pictures Ant. Seemed like you all enjoyed yourselves.

[MeMock]

What happened with Singapore airlines?

[AntRobertson]

Originally Posted by peterpan

We only used to use these small ones as bait when I was a lad.

Let me guess... You used to fish bare-foot in the snow and were so poor that you fashioned fishing poles from cigarette butts that you found?

[Travelmate]

excellent pics, the boys seem to have enjoyed themselves.

[Ghandi]

Nice post , always a handful traveling with kids in tow.

[AntRobertson]

Originally Posted by MeMock

What happened with Singapore airlines?

It was a balls-up of epic proportions!

We had called them to confirm both the booking and the seats (as you know the bassinets can only go on the bulkheads) several days prior. When we went to the gate at Changi airport I knew from one look something was up as it was packed.

My suspicions were correct, turns out they'd over-booked the flight, and when I enquired they said there were no bassinet seats left. Obviously I wasn't too happy but they said that we'd have spare seats for the boys so I thought that was better than nothing. It wasn't.

We boarded the plane and it was one of those ones configured with the 3-seats in the middle (don't know what type, I never pay attention to this stuff). The wife and I had a seat each and there was the spare one in the middle. I was pissed off but figured we'd manage... Until some lady came along and asked for her seat. That's when I had a slight bout of air rage (although we were still on the ground).

Now remembering that we'd paid 1/2 fares for the boys, effectively 3 full fares, I thought the least we were entitled to was 3 seats. No way was I going to spend the entire trip sandwiched in a seat with a 12kg infant on my lap for 12hrs. And what really pissed me off was it became apparent after I'd blown my top and called attention to the situation that they'd boarded the flight without considering individual needs. There were single people sitting in the bulkhead seats where the bassinets go.

Long story short, but some helpful passengers gave up their seats and we ended up with one bassinet seat and the one directly behind it. I basically spent the entire trip switching one boy from my lap into the bassinet and, literally, didn't get a minutes sleep (we'd left at 1am Thai time). Arrived in NZ and I was completely zonked; felt like I was drunk.

[MeMock]

That is poor service for sure.

Been there done that with a 12 month old. Problem was I then had a 9 hour car drive as soon as I arrived at Darwin airport.

Anyway, I am interested in you saying you paid half fares for an infant. It should only be the tax, 10 or 20 % of adult fare - whats the go there?

[astasinim]

Good stuff. Shame the rest of your pictures didnt turn out right. Looks like the little fellas had a great time. I was wondering about the air fare price too. We paid £60 Man - Bkk. Sorry to hear about the bad service you received. Ive always found Singapore Air to be spot on.

[Ghandi]

Surprisingly bad service from Singapore Airlines , would expect that from Thai Airlines and the bassinet seats should always be designated for infants

[AntRobertson]

Originally Posted by MeMock

Anyway, I am interested in you saying you paid half fares for an infant. It should only be the tax, 10 or 20 % of adult fare - whats the go there?

I think 12mths is the 'cut-off' mate, anything over that's 1/2 price up until a certain age (not sure what). Our boys being born in November turned 1yr old a couple of weeks before we flew out!