I made it

Yep, I'm in New York, so I finally made it to the Northern Hemisphere! Ok, ok, I'll back up a few days..

After a 2 hour delay in Auckland, I had a decent 5 hour flight to Tahiti and got my transfer to Le Meridian Hotel. It was pretty flash with a bed wide enough for six people. It was about 1am by this time so I went to bed. Got up the next day and noticed these goldfish as long as my forearm swimming right outside my verandah. I then went down to the beach for a kayak and a swim.

After that I went into Papeete for a look-see in the city. I ordered roast chicken at one place and got half a bird! The city was rather busy, selling all kinds of stuff I had no interest in, apart from some tahitian jewelry for TJ.

I came back to the resort and had time for a snorkel which was my first time and amazing. I was able to swim around with all kinds of colourful tropical fish and I saw what looked like a rock with a mouth as well as a piece of rope - again with a mouth.

Then it was time to go back to the airport for an 11 hr flight to NYC. This wasn't as smooth as the previous flight with about half of it being turbulent. It didn't make me sick, but did mean I only got a couple of hours sleep.

Tj and a couple of her friends picked me up at JFK airport which was great and we went to our hostel in Chelsea - the art district in Manhattan. We had a decent mexian meal then went to an improvised comedy set a short walk away. It wasn't too cold that day, but unfortunately not a sign of the weather to come...

The next day (Sun) we had a big day walking as well as discovering the subway. First off we walked to Times Square uptown after spending the best $1.02 on a good beanie. Yes, it was cold that day my friends. Out came the gloves and the scarves. It had snowed the night before. We found our way to the Guggenheim art gallery - which was cool. It was designed by well known architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It didn't exactly have floors - rather a continuous spiral upwards. Saw some Russian and Impressionist art including some Picasso and Van Gogh pieces as well as some modern art by Kadinsky. After that we went across the road to Central Park where we must have walked in the snow and ice for an hour before getting to the ice skating rink. We went skating for an hour which was cool. I started to figure out how to do those cool stops that the ice hockey players do. Then it we caught the subway to Toms Restaurant, the diner that appears on Seinfeld. We had some good old American burgers there. Back to the hostel for a break before going out to East Village to check out a Jazz club.

Today (Mon) we checked out of the hostel and brought our gear to TJ's cousins place where we're staying for the next two nights and then went downtown to check out the World Trade Centre sight. It looks like there's some serious development happening there, but nothing has reached above ground level yet. Walked around some more down Wall St then went on the Staten Island ferry for a great view of the city from the Hudson River, passing the Statue of Liberty on the way. We came back and attempted to walk over the Brooklyn bridge, but couldn't find how to get on it as a pedestrian. We were cold and hungry so walked through Chinatown to Little Italy and found a renowned pizza place and had a great meal comprising an 18inch diameter pizza which was great.

That's it for the moment, if you've made it this far! I'm really liking New York and am picking up all the little different rules of American society. It's a great city with so many places to explore and so many suburbs that each have their own personality and feel about them.

Scotty.