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I had heard some of the shows in Vegas were spectacular, so we went to the ticket office on Saturday and booked tickets to a number of different shows - it was fortunate that we booked when we did, as many of them were already near fully booked for the entire week.

The first show we went to was in the Hollywood Theater at the MGM Grand on Saturday night - world famous magician David Copperfield. We had excellent 'seats' which was actually at a table with another couple right in the center and only three tables back from the stage - one of the best views in the house imho. From what I had seen on tv in the past, David Copperfield was usually pretty reserved and mysterious when performing, but as it turned out he was actually outgoing and talkative in the live show, as well as being a bit of a comedian. He did some amazing illusions, and occasionally got people from the audience to assist by throwing things into the audience and whoever got the item came up on stage. At one point he threw a couple of gherkins - one of them he threw directly to IceQueen, so suddenly IceQueen was up on stage performing with David Copperfield! Yay - my weasel is famous! Ice had to write down a playing card value (three of diamonds) on a big piece of cardboard and he eventually did some involved trick where a sonogram of a baby still in the womb picked out the correct card. Very kewl. Unfortunately we were not permitted to take photos at any of the shows, but David Copperfield gave Ice a signed photo of himself as she left the stage.

Sunday was of course Christmas Day, but there really wasn't anything special done to honor the occasion there - pretty much another day in SIn City it seemed. The buffet had a bit of Christmas decoration on one of the desserts I had, but that was about it to be honest. We hung out and walked around some of the nearby hotels and played on the slot machines a bit and just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. I think it was this day that we went for a ride on one of the monorails too.

On Tuesday night we went to 'Zumanity' at New York New York. I'm not sure how to describe this show - it was like a cross between the circus and the Moulin Rouge. The show bills itself as a celebration of all forms of human sexuality, and it certainly was - men with women, women with women, men with men, masochism, orgies, dildos, dwarfs (or midgets or little people or whatever the current politically correct term to use is) and elaborate costumes (when they weren't naked) were just some of the features in the show. The show was made up of a series of different acts - mostly a combination of dance and acrobatics - introduced by a drag queen hostess. Some of the acts were quite stunning - the two nearly naked and extremely flexible girls in a large fish bowl and the aerialist act with a topless woman and a little person were among the highlights. There was also a contortionist who, although being kind of out of place in the theme of the show, was freaky to watch - it was almost like the dude was made of rubber. It was an experience. Fortunately we were seated up on the balcony so were not in danger of being dragged on stage at any point.

On Wednesday night we went to see Cirque du Soleil's performance KÀ, and omigod what an absolutely amazing show it was - it was worth going to Vegas just to see that show alone, it was seriously that good. The stage set was beyond description - you'd have to see it to believe it - one of the main parts of the stage was able to rotate into almost any angle - including completely vertical. For a bit of video, you can click here to watch a KÀ TV clip for the production.

I found a review of the show at reviewplays.com which covers parts of the show quite well, so I'll quote a bit from there, along with a few images from that site.

It's almost an understatement to say Cirque du Soleil has reinvented Las Vegas. Surely it has, but it has also reinvented entertainment as it will be known in the 21st-century. In his LA Times review of KÀ, the Cirque's fourth permanent Vegas attraction which just opened at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino earlier this month at a cost of US$165million, Mark Swed said that it "may well be the most lavish production in the history of Western theater."

It's hard to know where to begin to describe KÀ, so let me start with the ending. On the 149-foot high stage of the new $105 million KÀ theatre - or the place where a stage would be if there was one - the show culminates with a majestic fireworks display. On the stage. Inside the hotel.

Where the stage should be in the KÀ Theatre is the place the members of the crew and the company call The Void, a huge smoke-belching gaping hole that descends into the depths of the Vegas desert sands 51 feet below the level of the audience. Two enormous hydraulic steel decks, the Sand Cliff Deck (25 x 50 feet and weighing 80,000 lbs.) and the Tatami Deck (30 x 30 and weighing almost 100,000 lbs.) move at speeds up to 60 feet a second - and often with people executing some outlandish stunt on them. Not only do the decks slide into place over The Void, they then have the capability to rotate 360 degrees and tilt from horizontal into a completely vertical position. This is nowhere more unbelievable than in one massive battle scene, where two entire companies of performers square off to fight, but find themselves slowly becoming perpendicular to the audience.

There are journeys through the icy land of the Yeti-like Mountain Tribe, complete with a snowstorm and a huge tent that transforms into an enormous flying apparatus resembling a prehistoric bird, which then takes off over the audience with the entire tribe onboard when one of the royal kids must flee another attack.

KÀ is also the first Cirque du Soleil production to feature a storyline, following adolescent twins who are separated in a warlike attack upon their idyllic kingdom, sending them fleeing for their lives in opposite directions and through opposite but equally perilous journeys.

In this first image the sister's sailing ship is thrashing through a massive storm, in which the huge, careening vessel (completely manipulated by the artists themselves) is hurtled across the front of the stage while acrobats twirl from the mast and are thrown off with breathtaking leaps into The Void on either side.

After all the characters are lost over the side, the twin sister and her nanny (for lack of a better term) suddenly appear slowly floating down from the highest 149 foot point of the stage, their progress downward accentuated by video projections of bubbles which appear behind them on a curtain of some transparent material - the effect is totally realistic and had us sitting there amazed wondering how the hell they did it. Soon they are rediscovered on the Sand Cliff Deck, buried in 350 cubic feet of granulated cork. Emerging from below the 'sand' are two playful crabs (among other creatures), manned by contortionists bent over backward and walking on their hands:

The following image is one of the many characters in the play - even the characters not wearing elaborate and technical costumes were still made up in painstaking detail.

This show is one of the more amazing things I've witnessed in my life, and if you are ever anywhere near Las Vegas, you must experience this stunning production - I honestly can't state nearly enough just how extraordinarily breathtaking it is. KÀ plays permanently - and probably forever - at the MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas.

On Thursday we took a guided tour to the Hoover Dam. It is huge (I don't think they know how to do things any other way in Vegas). One of the major highways out of Vegas travels over the dam - you can just see the cars on top of the dam in this image. They are currently building a 1,000 foot high bridge as an alternative route because the dam is such a prime target for terrorism.

Our tour included a trip deep into the innards of the dam to where the massive generators are. Those turbines generate electricity for a good part of three different states.

The was a weasel there too.

It's a long way down to the 'shallow' side of the Hoover Dam and the Colorado River.

On the way back we stopped in to sample the wares at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. Along with the nice hand-made chocolates, they had a groovy garden area outside with paths winding through it and lots of different plants and cactuses or cacti or whatever.

We left Vegas late Friday night and flew back via Washington DC, finally arriving back in New York at about 9:30am on New Years Eve. You're probably wondering about the gambling side of our vacation, considering that's what Vegas is primarily about. We didn't play on the blackjack or poker tables at all - neither of us were willing to throw money away that rapidly. When we did gamble, we spent our time on the slots. At the MGM Grand the slots range from 1¢ per spin (only a few of those) right up to US$500 per spin. Imagine spending $500 per spin - you could easily go through $100,000 in an hour at that rate. Actually, with most of the slots you choose multiple lines to play with each spin, so the 1¢ - $500 is per line, not per spin.. which means some of those top machines could be guzzling $10,000 per spin! Wow.. that's like millions per hour on just one slot machine.. that's just sick. Needless to say we spent most of our time on the less expensive slots - the 1, 2 and 5¢ ones. Believe it or not, we actually came out a couple of hundred dollars on top. We had been down a little during most of the week, although I spent a couple of days running off one $20 note before finally losing it, then we both won comparatively substantial amounts in the last day or two, which covered what we had spent and then some, so that was a bonus.

So that was basically our holiday. It was a great week and we never left each other's side and loved every minute of it. Awesome. Thank you to my sweetness and light Ice for a wonderful trip.

You may comment on this story anywhere here, or at the Las Vegas Vacation weblog entry if you wish.

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As I mentioned, we were right on the strip at a major intersection with some of the most well-known hotels in Vegas on each of the four corners - the MGM Grand (our hotel):

New York New York, and yes, that's a full-on roller coaster behind the statue of liberty:

The Excalibur, which obviously has a medieval theme - apparently they were planning to knock it down sometime in 2006 and rebuild it because it's sinking into the ground. Seriously.

and finally Tropicana - probably the least impressive of the four. This photo was taken down the road a bit - the big green monster in the far background is the MGM Grand, and Tropicana is closer on the right. Running overhead in this shot is one of the monorails that provide an alternative form of transport to some of the major hotels.

Here's a shot of me with the MGM Grand in the background:

A huge gold lion dominates the corner the MGM Grand stands on..

..and behind the lion are gigantic video screens.

Next to Excalibur is the Luxor, which is the big pyramid that has become an icon of Vegas:

In front of the pyramid is a massive sphinx - this shot is taken from behind it:

..and you can't have a pyramid and a sphinx without having hieroplyphs everywhere too..

Just beyond the Luxor is The Mandalay Bay hotel. The gold windows of the Mandalay are tinted using actual 18-carat gold leaf, I kid you not. Some of the hotels going up in Vegas are hitting the US$2billion price tag - yes, billion. Amazing huh.

Las Vegas is famous for it's flamboyant use of bright flashing neon lighting, digital billboards and general excess which, if the city were a person, would be the equivalent of the worlds most extreme attention whore. Here's one of the signs outside the MGM Grand - not too excessive, but I like how the picture came out.

Ok, that's probably more than enough about the hotels.

There are a heap of different restaurants within the MGM Grand, including establishments by world-renown chefs Wolfgang Puck, not one but two Joël Robuchon restaurants, an Italian trattoria named Fiamma, sushi at Shibuya, Craftsteak, Nobhill, Pearl, Seablue and many more. Our regular ended up being The Grand Buffet - they had a huge selection of foods including things like king crab legs, rack of lamb, juicy steak, lots of vegetables, blueberry blintzes, an extensive salad bar and much much more, plus a wide assortment of mouth-watering desserts. For breakfast (or brunch as it turned out for us most often) they also had pancakes and belgian waffles, canadian bacon, omelets and many other choices. The great thing about it was the variety - we could try all sorts of different things, and the only limit on how much you ate was your own stomach - needless to say we absolutely stuffed ourselves.

..continue reading "the Las Vegas trip 2005" »

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This is the account of our trip to Las Vegas during Christmas / New Year 2005. We flew to Vegas on the Friday morning before Christmas Day to stay at the MGM Grand, which is right on the strip in Vegas. The flight there took about 5½ hours direct from NYC, but since we crossed a time line in the process, we gained a few hours - the local time of arrival was only 2½ hours after we left - we were winning already!

The flight afforded us amazing views of the canyons and desert as we approached Las Vegas..

..as well as magnificent views of Lake Mead (the lake that sits behind the massive Hoover Dam).

The next two shots look almost like satellite images or topographic maps..

The different layers of land color near the edge of the lake on this shot are actually the result of the rise and fall of the lake water levels..

Once we landed in Vegas, a shuttle took us to our hotel. The MGM Grand is apparently the third largest hotel in the world, and I'd believe it - the place is huge - the corridors in the part where we stayed seemed a mile long. We checked out a number of the hotels around us during our stay - Tropicana, New York New York, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay - and the MGM seemed to be the nicest of them all. We stayed in the brand new West Wing of the hotel which was very comfortable - the bathroom mirror even had a flat screen television set seamlessly into it so you could watch the news while drying off.

This is the main lobby of the MGM Grand - it simply oozed gold, marble, and opulence..

The hotel included a large swimming pool area consisting of many different pools separated by paved walkways edged with shrubs and large palm trees. One of the 'pools' (pictured) snaked around and between other smaller and bigger pools like a river, and it even had a current flowing in it. There were also several jacuzzi (spa pools) scattered around, and of course all the pools were heated in winter.

The paved walkways were spotless and immaculately manicured..

Here's a few of the palm trees that were scattered liberally around the pool complex. The white line in the sky is a vapor trail from a passing jet.

Sitting in the shade of the palms: a weasel.

There were multiple restaurants, bars, clubs and theatres (for live shows) in the hotel, as well as shopping, food halls, a lion habitat (yes, lions), and of course the casino. The following photo is part of 'Centrifuge', one of the bars inside the MGM Grand.

The next shot is of a warm comfortable and somewhat secluded lounge bar in the West Wing of the MGM Grand - it was usually pretty quiet and proved to be a great place for us to sit and chill and take a break from the bright lights and crowds elsewhere.

..continue reading "the Las Vegas trip 2005" »

Me and a few mates piled into a couple of cars and headed north up the east coast (I was living in Auckland at the time). After checking out a few spots along the way that were just totally out of control, we were heading up the coast road towards Pakiri and had stopped at Leigh for a quick feed. We decided we'd stop in and check out Goat Island Bay on the way past, I mean, the place is a marine reserve that's normally flat as a pancake even when Pakiri is hitting 5 foot, but maybe some of the swell was making it in there... maybe.

That turned out to be one damn good move. We pulled up above the bay on the 'cliff' and freaked.. this huge swell was wrapping right around the island and big clean waves were peeling across the bay, and NOBODY WAS OUT! There was a massive peak sucking up off a shelf off Goat Island itself that was downright evil. It's not so clear on these photos, but the trough of those waves off the island was sucking several feet below sea level as the wave broke. Scary.

I managed to snap these few photos from the top of the cliff before joining my mates out in the waves, but I'm telling ya, it was all time out there. It was bigger than what it looks in these pics; I guess it's because of the angle I took the photos from that makes it look a little smaller. The pitching lips were pretty heavy and tended to drag you all the way in if you got caught inside, but the faces were big, open and amazingly clean and were peeling off perfectly, just lined up and waiting for us to carve. Considering the churning mess that we had seen everywhere else, we couldn't believe how good it was here. Stoke.

We had a hell session out there that day, certainly one that I'll never forget. The boys went home at days end with bloodshot eyes, surfed out bodies, and great big stoked grins on our faces. Ever since, I always make sure to stop in to check out Goat Island when I'm up that way, just in case...

Gisborne, New Zealand. I spent a year or so living and surfing here off and on while working for Hot Buttered surfboards in Auckland in the late 1980's. I had countless epic sessions surfing Gizzy and the coastline north and south of here with a bunch local Gisborne boys - Brett, Eddie and Clint Daly, Cody, Rhys and a few others. This is just a few pics of some of the perfection we scored. Most of these were taken at Wainui (stock route, pines. empty section etc.). Added a few pics of the boys.