Today it was down to stonehenge, then over to Salisbury to check out the old village and Salisbury Cathedral.
Getting out to Stonehenge was abit of a drive, thankfully Madeleine took us out, so navigating and driving wasn't a problem for us, took around and 1.5-2 hours to get out there. When we left, it was a beautiful still day, but by the time we got to stonehenge the wind had gotten up, and the stones are quite exposed....
It was amazing to look over the stones, which they think have been there since about 3500BC.... or though a "Henge" (something hanging from something else) has been there much longer, the first ones where made from wood.... You can't walk amoung the stones now, which is a shame as that was something I wanted to do (Rowan here today) but years of other other people taking samples of the rock with hammers and what not has resulted in the building of a roped off path, around 20M from the stones to keep people away from them.... a shame that the actions of others have ruined it for the rest of us..... but a stuning sight all the same, something that makes you realise how little time each of us is here for....
After the stones, it was down to the town of Salisbury for lunch and to look over the Salisbury Cathedral. Salisbury itself (well the part we saw) is an old town, with a cannel going through the middle of the town, with nice old brick buildings either side. We had lunch at a local hot bread shop, managed to get seats inside, which was lucky as it rained during lunch.
After that it was down to Salisbury Cathedral, notable for having the highest Spire in England. Another thing that was noticable about this Cathedral was that it was mostly unchanged in design since when it was first built. In all the other cathedrals and buildings we've seen so far, various kings and queens have added bits if there own, normally in the modern (for the time) style, but Salisbruy Cathedral was one style, pretty much, all the way through. The catherdral itself is massive... and seems even more so, i think, because the are no other large buildings near by. Lots of Church cannons are buried in here, some going back to the 1100's.
the other major thing here is the "Magna Carta" thats kept here, one of 4 original calf hide copys, and the best surviving copy written in 1215 (apparantly it was lost in a filing stuff up, so no one had it out in the light for quite some time). The "carta" itself represents the foundation of democracy (or though the king (King John) that signed it went back on his signature a couple of years after signing it... caused a spot of civil war....)
After all this it was time for a quick coffee then back on the road, hoping to beat rush hour traffic, which we managed pretty well.... and back to Madeleine and Micheals place (a really cool little Brick Bungalo)....
and thats it.... wow
R&M
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Winsor
Today after getting up rather late, Madeleine took us to Winsor Castle.
We wondered around the town of Winsor for a while before heading up to the Castle. Winsor is pretty much as I expected, a small town based around the tourist trade, but also has kept alot of its heritage. Well from what I could make out anyway.
We walked across the Thames River onto the Eaton side and took some pictures of the Castle and stopped in and had a coffee at a shop on the river. It was very serene, sitting there next to the River, looking up at the Castle. Ian will know exactly what I'm talking about as I remember him trying to describe the way he felt when he and June finally made it to a place in France that they had been wanting to go too for a long time. I imagine the feeling was the same, finally here I was in front of what I thought was a real Castle (finally one that looked like a Castle :) ) all the way from New Zealand, I was in a place I had been only dreaming of and now was reality. It was a very emotional moment.
Anyway once past that ... we headed off up the road, back over the Thames and off to the Castle. It was amazing walking around, its been on this site for about 800 years. They have replaced the moat with gardens, which are simple, but very nice all the same. We went into the State rooms, which weren't as flamboyant as the rooms in Buckingham Palace, but still very stunning. One part had been destroyed in a fire in 1992, but now has been restored to what it might have been like when Charles I ruled. All round the Castle you could see the Royal initials of past Kings and Queens. Although Buckingham was the main residence, I could see more of the Royals in this Castle than in the Palace.
We then moved onto St George's Chapel, which pretty much holds the Royals that aren't in Westminester Abbey, and the more recent ones. Henry VIII, George VI and the Queen Mother just to name a few (plus I can't remember the others and can't be bothered getting up to get the guide book). While the Chapel doesn't have the grandeur of St Paul's Cathedral or Westminester Abbey, it is still an impressive sight.
One thing that caught me was this little alcove of finely carved wood placed in the wall to the left of the high alter where Catherine of Aragorn (Henry VIII 1st wife) would sit to hear mass away from the commoners. As I stood there I felt humbled again, by the people who have walked where I was walking. It was rather emotional (maybe I was just tired again). Also Rowan noticed in the Knights/Order of the Garter which have seats just in front to the right and left of the high alter the Kiwi and ice pick helmet (helm) of Sir Edmond Hiliary (all the current living knights have their helms displayed here). He is the only Kiwi in the order, and now that the NZ honour system has moved away will be the last Kiwi in this order. Mind you he is probably the first as well.
After moving through the chapel, we went outside and I got a picture with the guard. He never smiled, which I suppose is to be expected. We brought a couple of things from the town (one piece of silver from the silversmith that worked for the Queen Mother), and then had lunch. Madeleine picked us up after that and we went home.
We took Michael and Madeleine out to dinner that night, we even risked another English pub, although this one was very nice. A very pleasant evening to finish off a very pleasant day.
R&M
We wondered around the town of Winsor for a while before heading up to the Castle. Winsor is pretty much as I expected, a small town based around the tourist trade, but also has kept alot of its heritage. Well from what I could make out anyway.
We walked across the Thames River onto the Eaton side and took some pictures of the Castle and stopped in and had a coffee at a shop on the river. It was very serene, sitting there next to the River, looking up at the Castle. Ian will know exactly what I'm talking about as I remember him trying to describe the way he felt when he and June finally made it to a place in France that they had been wanting to go too for a long time. I imagine the feeling was the same, finally here I was in front of what I thought was a real Castle (finally one that looked like a Castle :) ) all the way from New Zealand, I was in a place I had been only dreaming of and now was reality. It was a very emotional moment.
Anyway once past that ... we headed off up the road, back over the Thames and off to the Castle. It was amazing walking around, its been on this site for about 800 years. They have replaced the moat with gardens, which are simple, but very nice all the same. We went into the State rooms, which weren't as flamboyant as the rooms in Buckingham Palace, but still very stunning. One part had been destroyed in a fire in 1992, but now has been restored to what it might have been like when Charles I ruled. All round the Castle you could see the Royal initials of past Kings and Queens. Although Buckingham was the main residence, I could see more of the Royals in this Castle than in the Palace.
We then moved onto St George's Chapel, which pretty much holds the Royals that aren't in Westminester Abbey, and the more recent ones. Henry VIII, George VI and the Queen Mother just to name a few (plus I can't remember the others and can't be bothered getting up to get the guide book). While the Chapel doesn't have the grandeur of St Paul's Cathedral or Westminester Abbey, it is still an impressive sight.
One thing that caught me was this little alcove of finely carved wood placed in the wall to the left of the high alter where Catherine of Aragorn (Henry VIII 1st wife) would sit to hear mass away from the commoners. As I stood there I felt humbled again, by the people who have walked where I was walking. It was rather emotional (maybe I was just tired again). Also Rowan noticed in the Knights/Order of the Garter which have seats just in front to the right and left of the high alter the Kiwi and ice pick helmet (helm) of Sir Edmond Hiliary (all the current living knights have their helms displayed here). He is the only Kiwi in the order, and now that the NZ honour system has moved away will be the last Kiwi in this order. Mind you he is probably the first as well.
After moving through the chapel, we went outside and I got a picture with the guard. He never smiled, which I suppose is to be expected. We brought a couple of things from the town (one piece of silver from the silversmith that worked for the Queen Mother), and then had lunch. Madeleine picked us up after that and we went home.
We took Michael and Madeleine out to dinner that night, we even risked another English pub, although this one was very nice. A very pleasant evening to finish off a very pleasant day.
R&M
London Day 3
Day three in London sees the last day in London. We packed up all our things very messily just to that they would fit and put them in the baggage room and went out to explore. Today was the missed Westminester Abbey and Buckingham Palace and we thought we would try the subway.
Wondered down to the Bayswater underground staton, we had already worked out which station we needed to get off at, got a day pass (was only £6 each) and trained off to the Abbey. Didn't take very long and it wasn't rush hour so the train wasn't very packed, but still there were lots of people on it.
Made it to the Abbey with no hassle. Wondered around the Abbey for a couple of hours. This was quite amazing here lay tombs of Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses and all kinds of people that influenced Britain King Henry VII, Elizabeth I, Mary, Charles and many others (except of course Henry VIII who rebelled against the Church and is buried at St George's Chapel at Winsor. (Can you tell I'm learning lots about the royals). What was funny at the Abbey was we ran into the Ozzie couple that were on the Hong Kong Tour with us. Small world even over here.
After walking around the Abbey for a while we then walked up to Buckingham Palace to try and catch the changing of the guards. We you know what happens when you rush, something goes wrong... it sort of it, they decided not to change the guards that day, so we waited around for 30 mins for nothing. But oh well, that happens. Then we had to wait in line for about 30 mins to get tickets to go into Buckingham Palace, and we decided to go to the Mews (Stables) as well.
The carriages are quite spectacular, not exactly what I thought, but still it would be cool to ride in them. Got to look at a couple of horses wow, but hey now I can say I've seen Royal Horses. The stabes were amazing, each horse is named by the Queen and had two name tags, one that hangs in his/her stable and the other goes with it where ever it goes. Useless bit of knowledge for you.
We finally got into Buckingham Palace, and I wasn't sure what to expect. The rooms were amazing, drawing rooms for africa and each a different colour, lots of armour. Each King or Queen had remodelled something to put their stamp on it (sometimes because of fires or damage to a particular area). Its incredible to think how many Kings and Queens have walked the same halls I walked. Not that the royals intefere with our lives but it is still humbling. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but once we got out into the gardens we could. And the gardens seem to go for miles around. If only my garden could be that big (hmm maybe Rowan wouldn't like that, he'd have to mow the lawn, and he'd probably make me)
We looked at the time after Buckingham Palace and knew we wanted to get to the train station rather early for Madeleine to pick us up so that we weren't in rush hour traffic. so we caught the train back to the hotel picked up our gear and trained to Ruslip Gardens, where we'd meet Madeleine (whom Row had not seen since he was a young teenager). As it was it was easy to recognise her, she was waiting just outside the train station for us. It was nice to see a warm and friendly face.
We got back to their place, had a couple of much needed drinks and a nice home cooked meal. Went to bed reasonably early, we were still trying to reset our body clocks to London time.
The next day awaited, but it was after a nice long sleep.
R&M
Wondered down to the Bayswater underground staton, we had already worked out which station we needed to get off at, got a day pass (was only £6 each) and trained off to the Abbey. Didn't take very long and it wasn't rush hour so the train wasn't very packed, but still there were lots of people on it.
Made it to the Abbey with no hassle. Wondered around the Abbey for a couple of hours. This was quite amazing here lay tombs of Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses and all kinds of people that influenced Britain King Henry VII, Elizabeth I, Mary, Charles and many others (except of course Henry VIII who rebelled against the Church and is buried at St George's Chapel at Winsor. (Can you tell I'm learning lots about the royals). What was funny at the Abbey was we ran into the Ozzie couple that were on the Hong Kong Tour with us. Small world even over here.
After walking around the Abbey for a while we then walked up to Buckingham Palace to try and catch the changing of the guards. We you know what happens when you rush, something goes wrong... it sort of it, they decided not to change the guards that day, so we waited around for 30 mins for nothing. But oh well, that happens. Then we had to wait in line for about 30 mins to get tickets to go into Buckingham Palace, and we decided to go to the Mews (Stables) as well.
The carriages are quite spectacular, not exactly what I thought, but still it would be cool to ride in them. Got to look at a couple of horses wow, but hey now I can say I've seen Royal Horses. The stabes were amazing, each horse is named by the Queen and had two name tags, one that hangs in his/her stable and the other goes with it where ever it goes. Useless bit of knowledge for you.
We finally got into Buckingham Palace, and I wasn't sure what to expect. The rooms were amazing, drawing rooms for africa and each a different colour, lots of armour. Each King or Queen had remodelled something to put their stamp on it (sometimes because of fires or damage to a particular area). Its incredible to think how many Kings and Queens have walked the same halls I walked. Not that the royals intefere with our lives but it is still humbling. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but once we got out into the gardens we could. And the gardens seem to go for miles around. If only my garden could be that big (hmm maybe Rowan wouldn't like that, he'd have to mow the lawn, and he'd probably make me)
We looked at the time after Buckingham Palace and knew we wanted to get to the train station rather early for Madeleine to pick us up so that we weren't in rush hour traffic. so we caught the train back to the hotel picked up our gear and trained to Ruslip Gardens, where we'd meet Madeleine (whom Row had not seen since he was a young teenager). As it was it was easy to recognise her, she was waiting just outside the train station for us. It was nice to see a warm and friendly face.
We got back to their place, had a couple of much needed drinks and a nice home cooked meal. Went to bed reasonably early, we were still trying to reset our body clocks to London time.
The next day awaited, but it was after a nice long sleep.
R&M
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
London Day 2
Day two: got up relatively early, about 7am, did the usuals and went down to breakfast, surprisingly there was a really nice breakfast on offer for free. Lots of cereals, toast, fruit and bread rolls, and no kiwi butter :( oh well. Had a hearty breakfast and set off on a 20 min walk to find the hop on hop off bus tour place.
Actually went in the right direction today, must have been jet lag yesterday. Walked in Hyde Park, which was a nice change to the city life, heaps of people out jogging or walking, a few dogs around too. Caught the bus and listened to the commentator talk about London. Got our first glimpses of London from the bus. Wow the streets weren't too narrow, but all the buildings were three storey old brick place... Most of them also had stone work as well, it was quite a sight compared to what we were use too back home.
Went past Trafalgar Sq, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye (not that great) over the Thames a couple of times, even on the famous London Bridge. Don't really know why its famous its just a bridge and the bridge next to it is far more famous, the tower bridge. We got off at St Pauls Cathedral. Its amazing, to think that a cathedral has been on this site for over 500 years is just unbelievable, well not really, but you know what I mean. The stone work on the outside was incredible. We weren't allowed to take photos on the inside so we brought a guide book to remember. But we did go up to the whispering galleries to take photos and then up again (in total 434 steps) and got the most amazing view of London. It was very breath taking. We even found a memerial for those British Soldiers that fought and died in New Zealand during the Maori wars. It was interesting to see as we don't have anything like this at home. No one cares about the Brits that died.
After spending a couple of hours walking around the Cathedral, up to the top and down into the crypt we got back on the bus and went down to the Tower of London. This was actually a big medievil fortress, much bigger than we realised. It houses the Crown Jewels which we saw, an old amoury with lots of old guns, pikes and amour and also a room for spanish weapons captured during the Spanish Armada.
We stopped and had lunch here, but it was about 2pm by this time... We walked around the grounds for a while and then headed down to the prier to catch a boat down to Westminster to see the Abbey and Big Ben.
The cruise up the Thames was uneventful, but we did get a good view of the Tower bridge and the London bridge. We had to stop at the London Eye because the boat we caught didn't go as far as the Abbey. So we got out and walked. We walked around Big Ben, realising that we couldn't go in, so we had a look at the Houses of Parliament which are quite detailed, but decided we didn't want to go in there (had enough of politians at home). So we walked across the road to Westminster Abbey, but unfortantely it was 3.45 and the last admission had already gone in. So we thought we would walk to Buckingham Palace. Finally found our way there, didn't take very long, took some photos and then thought we'll walk home...
hmmm... now that wasn't the brightest move in the book. Took us until 6pm to get back to the hotel, we walked the length and breath of Hyde Park, which is probably about 2.5 km long and about 1 km in breath, but you have to take into account we went in the wrong direction a few times and detoured to check out places of interest.
In the end a long day well worth the time and blisters. Only bad thing, decided to go out for a English Pub meal... it was crap... crap beer, crap food, bit of a shame really, but we at least learnt where not to go to eat.
In bed asleep at 9.30pm tired, but really still couldn't believe we're finally here...
R & M
Actually went in the right direction today, must have been jet lag yesterday. Walked in Hyde Park, which was a nice change to the city life, heaps of people out jogging or walking, a few dogs around too. Caught the bus and listened to the commentator talk about London. Got our first glimpses of London from the bus. Wow the streets weren't too narrow, but all the buildings were three storey old brick place... Most of them also had stone work as well, it was quite a sight compared to what we were use too back home.
Went past Trafalgar Sq, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye (not that great) over the Thames a couple of times, even on the famous London Bridge. Don't really know why its famous its just a bridge and the bridge next to it is far more famous, the tower bridge. We got off at St Pauls Cathedral. Its amazing, to think that a cathedral has been on this site for over 500 years is just unbelievable, well not really, but you know what I mean. The stone work on the outside was incredible. We weren't allowed to take photos on the inside so we brought a guide book to remember. But we did go up to the whispering galleries to take photos and then up again (in total 434 steps) and got the most amazing view of London. It was very breath taking. We even found a memerial for those British Soldiers that fought and died in New Zealand during the Maori wars. It was interesting to see as we don't have anything like this at home. No one cares about the Brits that died.
After spending a couple of hours walking around the Cathedral, up to the top and down into the crypt we got back on the bus and went down to the Tower of London. This was actually a big medievil fortress, much bigger than we realised. It houses the Crown Jewels which we saw, an old amoury with lots of old guns, pikes and amour and also a room for spanish weapons captured during the Spanish Armada.
We stopped and had lunch here, but it was about 2pm by this time... We walked around the grounds for a while and then headed down to the prier to catch a boat down to Westminster to see the Abbey and Big Ben.
The cruise up the Thames was uneventful, but we did get a good view of the Tower bridge and the London bridge. We had to stop at the London Eye because the boat we caught didn't go as far as the Abbey. So we got out and walked. We walked around Big Ben, realising that we couldn't go in, so we had a look at the Houses of Parliament which are quite detailed, but decided we didn't want to go in there (had enough of politians at home). So we walked across the road to Westminster Abbey, but unfortantely it was 3.45 and the last admission had already gone in. So we thought we would walk to Buckingham Palace. Finally found our way there, didn't take very long, took some photos and then thought we'll walk home...
hmmm... now that wasn't the brightest move in the book. Took us until 6pm to get back to the hotel, we walked the length and breath of Hyde Park, which is probably about 2.5 km long and about 1 km in breath, but you have to take into account we went in the wrong direction a few times and detoured to check out places of interest.
In the end a long day well worth the time and blisters. Only bad thing, decided to go out for a English Pub meal... it was crap... crap beer, crap food, bit of a shame really, but we at least learnt where not to go to eat.
In bed asleep at 9.30pm tired, but really still couldn't believe we're finally here...
R & M
London Day 1
Flying again... hmmm flying through the day ... another hmmm... not the most fun we've ever had as some of you can imagine. It was damn hard work. Although in saying that it could have been worse.
Ended up finally at our hotel (basically a backpackers) about 3 hours later. That was ok, but what wasn't was walking into our room and smelling the amount of smoke... it was awlful, went back and got another room and it was tiny, but we much prefered that to the smoke... I've decided that there is a common theme here... Ended up going out for a small walk in completely the wrong direction thanks to me, but we did go to a burger place that is very similar to Burger Fuel, and about the same price, but the burgers were much better. So that was all good. 8.30pm in bed asleep, it was a long day.
Ended up finally at our hotel (basically a backpackers) about 3 hours later. That was ok, but what wasn't was walking into our room and smelling the amount of smoke... it was awlful, went back and got another room and it was tiny, but we much prefered that to the smoke... I've decided that there is a common theme here... Ended up going out for a small walk in completely the wrong direction thanks to me, but we did go to a burger place that is very similar to Burger Fuel, and about the same price, but the burgers were much better. So that was all good. 8.30pm in bed asleep, it was a long day.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Hong Kong
Well its 7am Hong Kong time, so about 11am NZT and Row and I are sitting in the United airport lounge sipping rum and gin.. what a life... although we did have to get up at 4.30am to do this.
Day 1: Arrived in Hong Kong at 6.45am (Hong Kong is 4 hours behind NZ but the same day). Felt really tired, there was a bit of turbulence which kept waking me up, and not only that the excitment of finally going on our trip. The flight only took 10 1/2 hours, even though we thought it would be 13 hours... so that was all good. Managed to get ourselves lost looking for the bus that was transfering us to the hotel, thought we were going on the tour that morning. Thank goodness we weren't, I needed a sleep. Finally got to the Hotel, had to wait for the room, this gave us time to have a decent breakfast. (You can never get away from NZ... they had NZ butter at breakfast, although it was nice to know) The first room we got was two single beds, smelt like a smoker had just left, so we asked for another room, which was nicer.
First impressions of the city: Lots and lots and lots (to infinity) of tall apartment buildings. I thought there would be more cultural buildings. Obviously the number of people in the city has an impact on this, but still I could never have imagined this. The entire city is high rise buildings. 6000+ people per sq km, and $40,000 per sq foot for an apartment. Compare this to Australia which has 3 people per sq km. She didn't know NZ.
Slept for a couple of hours and then made our way to the tour pick up point. We toured around Hong Kong Island. We were very lucky we didn't fly in on the 9th, there was a typhon.... So we are in the tail end of the horrible weather. Not that nice, but its still really hot... was 27 C at 7.30am. The tour was great... We didn't go to the top of Victoria Peak (the highest point in HK) because we wouldn't have been able to see anything, so we stopped at a look out point, which still had a good view over the city. We also visited a fishing village which quite literally lived on the water. Mum and Dad, it was interesting looking at the boats from the point of view of bus, they weren't that big, but when you know what you can fit into a bus you have more appreciation for how big a space really is. Also saw this really big floating restaurant, and nothing in NZ compares, it was huge, basically the size of a small mall back home.
After the fishing village it was off to a Jewellry Manufacturer. Oh my GOSH!!!! if only I had lots of money to spend. I found an absolutely gorgeous ruby and diamond ring. It was only over $10,000 HKD (the exchange rate is about 6 HKD to 1 NZD). I had to leave it there, very depressing :) but then I had to think about our trip ahead no point in having a beautiful ring if I can't do anything else on our honeymoon. We ended up buying a very beautiful dancing couple which is hard to describe, you'll see it when we get back...
Then it was off to Stanley Market... Well apart from the rain which was bucketing down, the market wasn't much. We brought a table runner which will remind us of HK without taking up too much space, but apart from that, things weren't that cheap. Pretty much just stalls of bits and pieces and although there were many stalls, every 3rd shop sold the same thing.
Then back to Kowloon, under the Aberdeen and No Excuse Tunnels. A woman at the airport had suggested watching the laser show on every saturday night, and because its the 10 yr anniverisary of China taking back HK they had fireworks as well. We joined another Kiwi couple (from Blenheim) and a Aussie couple (from Port MacQuarie (Shaz and Stu will appreciate the irony of that place) for dinner at a chinese restaurant and watched the show. It was really nice having dinner with other people and hearing about their travels. Wow they had been to so many places (they weren't travelling together), it was interesting listening to their stories and in some cases we could comment but in most we couldn't. But they were wonderful people.
The laser show was a bit of a let down, basically because of the weather we couldn't see anything. But the fireworks, WOW double WOW, they were amazing. I've been in the US for two 4th of July's and they didn't come close (sorry Mary & Bryon). the finale was incredible. The whole show was a dance of a fireworks, it was truly amazing to watch, everything was co-ordinated, even the colours. By this time my eye lids were about ready to close (it was about 1am NZT), so we walked back to the hotel, about a km. Somehow we lost the Ozzie couple, don't know what happened there. We got everything packed and ready to go, because the wake up call was for 4.30am and went to bed.
Even though the weather was crap it was still a nice day. Although both Row and I agree, it was nice to stop over here, we wouldn't want to spend more than another day here. Definitely glad it wasn't a week.
Now we are just waiting for the boarding call for London, another thing I've extremely glad we didn't do, and that's fly straight through to London, I definitely had enough of the plane trip over here, to get back on it for another 12 hours... argh!!! I might have gone crazy... hold on Row says I already am. ahahaha.
Anyway the gin glass is almost empty so I'll leave it here. Love to you all. Row and Megs xxxx
Day 1: Arrived in Hong Kong at 6.45am (Hong Kong is 4 hours behind NZ but the same day). Felt really tired, there was a bit of turbulence which kept waking me up, and not only that the excitment of finally going on our trip. The flight only took 10 1/2 hours, even though we thought it would be 13 hours... so that was all good. Managed to get ourselves lost looking for the bus that was transfering us to the hotel, thought we were going on the tour that morning. Thank goodness we weren't, I needed a sleep. Finally got to the Hotel, had to wait for the room, this gave us time to have a decent breakfast. (You can never get away from NZ... they had NZ butter at breakfast, although it was nice to know) The first room we got was two single beds, smelt like a smoker had just left, so we asked for another room, which was nicer.
First impressions of the city: Lots and lots and lots (to infinity) of tall apartment buildings. I thought there would be more cultural buildings. Obviously the number of people in the city has an impact on this, but still I could never have imagined this. The entire city is high rise buildings. 6000+ people per sq km, and $40,000 per sq foot for an apartment. Compare this to Australia which has 3 people per sq km. She didn't know NZ.
Slept for a couple of hours and then made our way to the tour pick up point. We toured around Hong Kong Island. We were very lucky we didn't fly in on the 9th, there was a typhon.... So we are in the tail end of the horrible weather. Not that nice, but its still really hot... was 27 C at 7.30am. The tour was great... We didn't go to the top of Victoria Peak (the highest point in HK) because we wouldn't have been able to see anything, so we stopped at a look out point, which still had a good view over the city. We also visited a fishing village which quite literally lived on the water. Mum and Dad, it was interesting looking at the boats from the point of view of bus, they weren't that big, but when you know what you can fit into a bus you have more appreciation for how big a space really is. Also saw this really big floating restaurant, and nothing in NZ compares, it was huge, basically the size of a small mall back home.
After the fishing village it was off to a Jewellry Manufacturer. Oh my GOSH!!!! if only I had lots of money to spend. I found an absolutely gorgeous ruby and diamond ring. It was only over $10,000 HKD (the exchange rate is about 6 HKD to 1 NZD). I had to leave it there, very depressing :) but then I had to think about our trip ahead no point in having a beautiful ring if I can't do anything else on our honeymoon. We ended up buying a very beautiful dancing couple which is hard to describe, you'll see it when we get back...
Then it was off to Stanley Market... Well apart from the rain which was bucketing down, the market wasn't much. We brought a table runner which will remind us of HK without taking up too much space, but apart from that, things weren't that cheap. Pretty much just stalls of bits and pieces and although there were many stalls, every 3rd shop sold the same thing.
Then back to Kowloon, under the Aberdeen and No Excuse Tunnels. A woman at the airport had suggested watching the laser show on every saturday night, and because its the 10 yr anniverisary of China taking back HK they had fireworks as well. We joined another Kiwi couple (from Blenheim) and a Aussie couple (from Port MacQuarie (Shaz and Stu will appreciate the irony of that place) for dinner at a chinese restaurant and watched the show. It was really nice having dinner with other people and hearing about their travels. Wow they had been to so many places (they weren't travelling together), it was interesting listening to their stories and in some cases we could comment but in most we couldn't. But they were wonderful people.
The laser show was a bit of a let down, basically because of the weather we couldn't see anything. But the fireworks, WOW double WOW, they were amazing. I've been in the US for two 4th of July's and they didn't come close (sorry Mary & Bryon). the finale was incredible. The whole show was a dance of a fireworks, it was truly amazing to watch, everything was co-ordinated, even the colours. By this time my eye lids were about ready to close (it was about 1am NZT), so we walked back to the hotel, about a km. Somehow we lost the Ozzie couple, don't know what happened there. We got everything packed and ready to go, because the wake up call was for 4.30am and went to bed.
Even though the weather was crap it was still a nice day. Although both Row and I agree, it was nice to stop over here, we wouldn't want to spend more than another day here. Definitely glad it wasn't a week.
Now we are just waiting for the boarding call for London, another thing I've extremely glad we didn't do, and that's fly straight through to London, I definitely had enough of the plane trip over here, to get back on it for another 12 hours... argh!!! I might have gone crazy... hold on Row says I already am. ahahaha.
Anyway the gin glass is almost empty so I'll leave it here. Love to you all. Row and Megs xxxx
Monday, August 6, 2007
5 Days to go
Auckland NZ still, Rowan has 3 days of work left and I have 4. The countdown has really begun now...
We drove down to New Plymouth on the weekend to drop Orion off at Grannie & Grandad's. It was very sad leaving him behind. We picked up the tickets etc, its finally starting to feel real... but it will be more so when we get on that Plane.
Trying not to stress at work, but that never not happens... I'll be glad when Thursday comes and Friday is a day for finishing to pack and cleaning the house... Then Hong Kong here we come..
MJ
We drove down to New Plymouth on the weekend to drop Orion off at Grannie & Grandad's. It was very sad leaving him behind. We picked up the tickets etc, its finally starting to feel real... but it will be more so when we get on that Plane.
Trying not to stress at work, but that never not happens... I'll be glad when Thursday comes and Friday is a day for finishing to pack and cleaning the house... Then Hong Kong here we come..
MJ
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