Oman for Xmas

We set off for warmer climes at 6.30am on the 20th. It’s the middle of the night!! A long drive to Athens, 4 ½ hour flight to Abu Dhabi and a 1 ½ hour stop over, which was totally chaotic due to flights arriving off schedule from UK. Abu Dhabi is a hub for the Middle East so there were people going to all sorts of places, India, Russia and all stations Middle East. We thought we had plenty of time to get through passport control and get champagne at duty free before catching our flight to Muscat. Not so, by the time we’d got Mark’s visa (once again I get in free!) and cleared passport control, we only had time to run through duty free, get champagne and get to gate as they were boarding. An hour’s flight and we were in Muscat. Long day!

Muscat is the capital of Oman, however it’s only a small part of a larger grouping of cities and towns stung along 40kms of coastline along the Gulf of Oman.

The towns form a string of civilisation between the sea and the very rocky barren range of mountains inland. Situated in the Middle East close to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, etc you would think it would be similar in that massive building and tourism has taken over, but you would be wrong. Oman is an independent country, ruled by the Sultan and hasn’t been seduced to the modern overdevelopment seen elsewhere in the Middle East.

One of the Sultans Palaces

It hasn’t changed much in the last 15 years, yes there are new buildings, but they are in keeping with the traditional Arabian style and no high-rise. It retains a somewhat medieval appearance with two old Portuguese forts co-existing with modern, commercial and residential quarters, interlaced with beautiful mosques. The result is a city with a friendly, relaxed feeling, very very different from Dubai. All around the city it’s green and very colourful with massive areas of beautiful flower planting.

Our reason for going so far was to spend Xmas with Mike, we haven’t had a Xmas together for 5 years and as he’s likely to move to NZ next year, who knows when we will be together for another Xmas. We had been invited to stay with Eve’s (mikes girlfriend) parents, who live in a typical Arabian style house.

We got the Raj room ……

Eve’s mum and dad had spent 7 years living in India and the bed came with them when they moved to Oman. Other house guests; Oli, Eve’s brother who had arrived minus his luggage after a very protracted journey from UK, unfortunately he was transporting the Xmas pud - oops. Meg, Eve’s sister, arrived back in Middle East from NZ and Simon, a friend of Eve’s mum and dad from Goa.

Next evening was the carol party with lots of Jules and Giles friends. A little chaotic but some carols were sung to help us get in the Xmas spirit. We spent the next few days shopping for Xmas, site seeing around the town, port and the local beaches. Xmas Eve a trip to Trader Vics for cocktails to get us even more in the Xmas spirit.

Xmas day and the table was groaning under the weight of delicious food. We’d had a great morning opening our presents and we helped Oli out with new underwear .....

.... best present, Mike’s Morphsuit .....

Micheal went out into the wide world dressed like this to pick up some milk and coke, we sent 2 minders with him cos we weren't sure how much sense of humour the arabs would have, however when something did happen - like getting stopped by the police - his minders were too busy laughing to do anything to help. Luckily he was only asked to take the face piece off and show his license. Where did he have his license???

Oli then made a trip to the airport yet AGAIN to see if his luggage had arrived. A miracle, it had got here, Xmas pud would be served after all but best of all Oli had his own underwear!!!

We set about cooking, every vegetable had a person responsible for its cooking – mine was pumpkin, and it was an amazing way to get everything ready with no-one feeling like they were stuck in the kitchen. Turkey was cooked off site and picked up when ready, all the veg was ready together when the turkey arrived with it’s delicious gravy and we sat down to eat and eat and eat. We had to have a couple of hours rest before we could do Xmas pud justice. Fab day, best Xmas dinner for a few years!!

Boxing day – our last day – we’re off to the beach and snorkelling. We pack up all the left-overs from Xmas day and champagne and off we go. It’s a drive through the mountains, old villages and wadis to arrive at a secluded little beach.

The guys were in the water straight away, but wimpy me thought it was too cold even though I’d taken my wetsuit. After lunch though I was in and Mike and I went in search of Nemo. We found him too, along with Dory and some of his other friends – fab!! What a great way to spend our last day. The next morning we had to be up at 3am, and a sad goodbye to Mike and Eve, hoping we will see them before they go to NZ but no guarantee. In the terminal we look at the departures board to find our check in gate to discover our flight has been cancelled - bugger! We got shuffled over to Qatar Airways and luckily flight times weren’t that different. We must have been in a parallel world after checking in cos we didn’t look at our watches or hear our flight called. A tap on the shoulder from a Qatar airways guy telling us the flight was ready to leave and we were holding it up bought us back to planet earth. How embarrassing, last on the plane and sideline looks from everyone else seated and waiting to leave.

Nineteen hours later (includes a 4 ½ drive from Athens) we arrived back at Lefkas, long journey, but please to be home. Would we go again, well I would, there’s lots more to do than we had time for but I don’t think it’s a place I would like to live for any length of time, I would miss the greenery of wetter climates, but very enjoyable.

More piccies of Muscat here

Olive picking and NZ Final Part

We've had a busy time lately, last race of the winter series -won!, curry night in our local - pogged!!, treasure hunt in Marina - won!!!, quiz night - LAST!!!, picked olives for day and a half - knackered!!!!
Will be picking olives again in the New Year so will write more about that then, suffice to say, it is seriously HARD work but very rewarding when you see your own olive oil coming out of the press the very same day.

NZ Final Part

One of the main reasons for going to NZ this year was to get together with family. Most of whom I haven't seen in 8 years and Mark and Michael haven't seen in 16 years. So a family reunion on my Mums side was organised. My aunt and uncle have a farm in the Bombay Hills south of Auckland where she has a Chapel in the grounds for weddings and lots of room for receptions, so that's where we were going. My nephew arrived from Singapore, one of my brothers from Sydney, Mike and Eve from UAE and us from Greece, what a united nations lot we are now!! So lots of food, booze and a big open fire set us up for the afternoons hilarity. I love my family and don't get to spend nearly enough time with them so it was a brill afternoon.

Now we've only got a week left, we visit the famous Kelly Tarltons, the first of the walk through sea aquariums ever built. Lunch in Mission Bay at another new food chain, Burger Fuel where we had some of the biggest tastiest burgers we’d ever had.

Next day spent shopping with Mike and Eve for snow goggles and and a trip up the Skytower for more fab views over Auckland.

Next, we're off to find Hobbiton, for those of you who aren't Lord of Rings fans that's where the Hobbits live and where the film begins. Mike and I are big fans of LOTR. The nearest town to Hobbiton is Matamata.

Mark makes a good Gollum

When we arrive we find that no private tours are allowed, the site is on a private farm. How much is a tour? $64 per person!! This is to see the place where the set was, the set isn’t even there anymore!! What a rip off. Another example of a few people trying to get rich quick but with very little to offer - am disappointed and empbarrased that the Kiwis a getting like this. Drove around the area that was used for the shire and used our imagination instead.

After lunch in Cambridge we set out for Paeroa where I remember as a child there was a GIANT bottle of L&P, it was set at the entrance of the town and was 7 meters high. L&P is Lemon and Paeroa, NZ's own pop, a combination of lemon juice and local mineral water. It can only be found in NZ and in specialty NZ stores abroad. Things remembered as a child then revisited as an adult never seem quite the same. The bottle has been moved to a new site and although it is still 7 meters high, from an adult point of view the word GIANT had to be removed from my description and replaced with LARGE.

Friday 11th
Drove to Kariotahi beach, about an hour from Pukekohe (where my Mum and Dad live) on the west coast. It is black sand beach, too hot to walk on in the summerbut it's not summer now and sky is black.

Kariotahi beach

We walked along the beach for about a kilometre then started to head back as the weather closed in. We got to about 150m from the car when the heavens opened so by the time we got in we were completely soaked. Sat in the car and ate our sandwiches, just like England.

Next stop, Pokeno for icecream. Standing in the middle of the town you can see both ends. Icecream here is superb, huge portions and very cheap and very very tasty.

After a fabulous lamb roast dinner Mike and Eve decide to dress Mum up in Eve's snowboarding outfit, hilarious.
Poor Mum was nearly expiring with all that gear on and a roaring fire going in the lounge. I think the comment of the evening was from Mum "this is abuse of the elderly". At 78 she's full of life and fun.

Saturday 12th Last day tomorrow – today I chill with Mum and Dad and wonder where the time has gone, we’ve had a good mixture of whistle stop touring and chilling with family. It will be sad to leave Mike and Eve, not sure when we'll see them again. Although I don’t really want to leave, part of me is also recognising I’m not ready to come back for good yet, still too much of the world I want to see.

Sunday 13th So sadly it's goodbye to NZ and back off to blighty.