Singapore , last stop.

Singapore is our last stopover before heading home. Boy is it hot here! It is Chinese New Year so a lot of China town ( yes they have one ) is closed as it is a major holiday here. It didn't stop us having a lovely walk through the city, although you need good navigational skills to get across the wide roads. Car is king here. The city has managed to save a few of its older buildings and they make a contrast to the ever present high rises. While the city is clean, it isn't as sterile as I remember from 25 years ago. It seems to have a vibrant multicultural vibe with restaurants from all over the world. 

Last night we wandered into a precinct named Clarke's quay. We watched some lion dancers who seemed to be making the rounds, then ate an OK but rather expensive meal. Contrast it with today when we wandered into a food market named Lau Pa Sat festival market. We had a lovely dumpling and noodle dish as well as dim sum for less than £10 for the two of us. It was also much nicer. The place was full of locals stopping for lunch. 

So our trip is coming to an end. It has been a wonderful voyage of discovery.  And Phil and I are still speaking, so a win all round. Tonight was the perfect finish, a gin sling at Raffles Hotel.  

ends. 

Waltzing Matilda

There is a 2 hour time difference between Auckland and Sydney . This meant we got the best part of an extra day in Sydney. Ok it was an early start, but there is plenty of time to sleep when you are dead! 

Our hotel is in The Rocks, an old part of the city next to Circular Quay which is the transport hub of the city. It also means there are spectacular views of the bridge and opera house. When I was in Sydney 25 years ago, The Rocks was notorious. It had a reputation for being rough. I suspect that was because the housing was mostly social housing and the people working class. They also had a very strong community and fought to preserve their homes from developers who wanted to bulldoze the whole area and build high rises. To an extent they have been successful. A lot of the older buildings have survived. And there is still social housing. But you can tell it is still under threat. There are signs about that show the tenants are still fighting to stop their homes being sold to developers. The area is a victim of its own success. 

Anyway. We had to go see the harbour so spent a very pleasant if blustery, couple of hours cruising around. The harbour is lovely, and so is the waterfront property. The bay is the second busiest port after Hong Kong. I can see why, there were yachts dodging between ferries and naval ships. Talk about organised chaos. We hopped off at Darling Harbour. This is a modern development with the Maritime Museum, Madam Tousauds and lots of places to eat. There is also a wildlife zoo with koalas and lots of reptiles, including a massive salt water croc. And... we saw a koala move! Amazing as they sleep for 18 to 20 hours a day! 

See he moved! 

For once we wereactually somewhere when something I was happening. It was Lunar New Year and some big wigs were being entertained on the quay. There were fireworks and a lion dance and then they turned the Opera House red! 

The next day we walked around The Rocks , tried a few of the pubs, of which there are many. Phil went up a pylon of the bridge, I waited at the bottom and we generally had a great time. 

I really like Sydney. I will be sorry to leave. 

NZ, thoughts.

I will admit I was not really excited about going to New Zealand. This was hubby's holiday. I thought I would find it boring, wet and well, boring. I humbly apologise for this. How wrong I was. Every day was packed. In fact I think we may have overdone it a bit. So here are my pros and cons to NZ

Things I liked:

The scenery : it is just stunning. It has everything from glaciers to hot springs. Milford Sound is something I will never forget.

The people : I loved their sense of humour and bluntness. They let you know what they think in a very straightforward way. 

The food : We did not have a bad meal in all the time we were there. Their fish and chips are just amazing. Better than anything I have had in the UK. 

The wildlife : we saw possums, kiwis, dolphins, seals, albatross, kia, and other birds I have no idea what they are called.

Meeting/making friends: it was great to meet up with Scribble.

Things I didn't like.

Not seeing whales: as this was due to weather, nothing could be done about it.

Er......and that is it I think. 

New Zealand. I will be back.

Our last day in New Zealand.

What to do on your last day somewhere? Well as much as possible of course. After breakfast we went up to Shakespeare Point to have a look at Cook's Beach and Mercury Bay. Now I will give you three guesses why they are called that. I think the first is pretty obvious and the second was because he stopped here to observe the Transit of Mercury across the sun on 9th Nov. 1769. Of course the Maori had other names for the place, but now it goes by the English ones. 

After that we drove to Hahei bech, which is just gorgeous and took a water taxi to Cathedral Cove. I managed to get soaked. Then back to Hahei and off down the road to Hot Water Beach. Now this was the most interesting. Under the sands are fissures which let up hot water. You dig down and make yourself a mini hot tub. The area is only accessible either side of low tide, so it was odd to see a crowd of people wedged into a small section of a lovely beach. We walked over to see what the fuss was about. I stuck my toe in the sand and yelped as it was so hot. I seemed to have found one of the springs! So there we are. The Coromandel peninsula in a couple of hours! http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Water_Beach

After a lovely lunch of pancakes we drove over to Auckland , about a two hour drive. Another lovely B&B. Although things did not get off to the best of starts. As I was walking up the street, a woman walked across and a couple of seconds later I saw a young girl running after her. I knew she was going to run into the road. I yelled at her to stop, only to be greeted with a tirade of abuse from the woman who I assume was her mother. I pointed out I was only worried about the little girl, and was verbally abused for my efforts. I suspect she knew she was in the wrong and was feeling defensive. Now FYI 3 children were hit by a car here last week. They were between 5 and 10 years old. Luckily none of them were killed, but they showed on TV what had happened ( not the actual hit ) but again they had just run out onto the road, the driver stood no chance at stopping. 

Oh well. 

The rest of the evening was more successful. We caught a bus into the city and had a lovely time wandering around. We went up the Sky Tower which as stunning views across the city. It really is a lovely place. We sat and drank cocktails and watched the yacht races in the bay below. There are some very volcano looking mounds around as well! 

So there you are. Sydney is next on the itinerary. I shall try and gather my thoughts about NZ but as it is a 5am start tomorrow I think that is enough for now. 

Middle Earth

I know it is often said that FB friends are not real friends. Well I disagree. On the way up to Hobbiton we stopped off for a coffee and a chat with Scribble, who I know through a virtual pub on FB. It was wonderful to be able to put a face to the name, and we chatted as if we had known each other for years. She made us very welcome and baked some ace muffins. She is heading back to the UK soon, so hope we will get together once she does.

Then it was off to Matamata to get the bus to Middle Earth. We were very lucky only to have 14 on our tour, which go out regularly. You can either take a bus from Matamata or go directly to the site. It is a working sheep and dairy farm about 20 mins outside town.  It is truly amazing. You really can feel you are in the film. The original set for LOTR was mostly plywood and c.g.i. But when they came back to rebuild for The Hobbit, it was with tourists in mind. So the whole thing is built from permanent material and should last for 60 years. There are 6 full time gardeners employed there as well as a raft of tradespeople to maintain it. The detail is mind blowing. They grow veg which they use, the houses are perfect, down to lace curtains in the windows. The tour took over 2 hours and was well worth it. 

The drive up to Cooks Beach was longer than we anticipated which ment driving very bendy roads in the dark. But we made it safely and now have only one more day in the 

Land of the Long White Cloud. 

Rotoroua

We did a hop skip and a jump up to Rotoroua. The place is inside a caldera. Why so many people are Ok living in a volcano seems odd to me. There is a slight aroma in the place. Luckily my sence of smell is so off I barely noticed it. There is a real old world charm about it. The Bath House, which is now a museum, dates from the early 20th centuary and was where the rich and famous came to soak in the hot water and mud. They were prescribed various "treatments" which seemd to often involve electricity! 

We didn't get to see the geysers, but we had a wander around the lake, which in parts is a milky colour where the hydrogen sulphide bubbles to the surface. The local park has interesting features like bubbling mud and steaming water. They do make use of it, and we had fun sitting with our feet is a pool of hot water chatting to some other tourists, one of whom was from my home town in Ireland! 

In the evening we went to a Hangii. This is a Maori feast. Here they cook the meat for 4 hours underground. There was a show with singing and dancing, and then we went to a local zoo for some kiwi spotting. For all it is so corny and touristy, I liked Rotoroua. Next time we will see the geysers! 

http://youtu.be/ncnNegWEgvY

Wine , wine, wine.

Easy drive up to Blenheim today. We had arranged a half day wine tour. I did not expect to be picked up by a lovely lady called Fay in a very nice BMW to be ferried around to various vineyards. I must admit the bubbles they have here are ace.

Dolphins, Maori and a seal.

Kaikoura was both frustrating and exciting in equal measures. When we arrived we were told the whale watching trip we had booked had been cancelled due to the weather. So it was time for plan B. I just had to come up with one. After a trip to tourist info, we decided to go see the Maori Leap cave, a limestone cave discovered in 1958. It wasn't the biggest or most impressive cave I have ever seen, but it was interresting and worth it just for Barry the guide. 

We went for a walk up the peninsula to have a look at Southern Bay. Then we went out to the Lavender Farm, a little piece of peace and tranquility.  We had afternoon tea and lavender scones. After that we thought we would go and have a look at the seal colony. At this point I thought the wildlife had something against us. Not a seal in sight! Then one popped out of the water, just to have its photo taken, I think. 

Next day went more to plan. We headed off to see some dolphins. Now I am not a great swimmer or terribly fit, so why I thought it was a good idea to go snorkelling for the first time in the sea with a moderate swell, I don't know. But off I went. Very quickly I realised I was out of my depth, literally. I did see a couple of dolphins swim very close to me, before I lost my nerve and headed back for the boat. In retrospect, I could have stayed where I was and they would have come to me. Instead I struggled back and spent ages gasping for breath on the boat. But all was not lost. Once I recovered I had a joyous time watching hundreds of dusky dolphins jumping and playing around us. A little video taster. 

http://youtu.be/tsAZyrcb-BE

The trip back was exciting. We were racing a weather front. The wind had switched to the south, which is directly from the Antarctic. The boat was as more exciting than the wildest roller coaster. I loved it (not the case for all the passengers I'm afraid). The down side of this was when we went to see about our rescheduled whale watch, it was again cancelled. 

Back to plan B. This time it was a last minute booking for a Maori tour. http://www.maoritours.co.nz/

It was great fun. We were each given a Maori name, taken to a the remains of a Pa ( fortified village ), had tea with the guides mum and daughters and were taken on a bush walk. So day worked out OK. We will just have to come back for the whales. Next stop Blenheim and the wine tour. 

Christchurch

M

We were late arriving in Christchurch, so we had a rather rushed tour of the city. It was late, the place was practically deserted and very eerie and quiet, just the sound of pedestrian crossings beeping. The centre of the city is either in the process of being rebuilt or waiting to be repaired. The cathedral is in a sorry state and there is a debate as to what to do with it. Some want it rebuilt the same as before. Others want it left as a memorial and the original plan for the cathedral, which was in wood to be built. It will be interesting to see what they do in the end. 

There are lots of art installations around the place. The most moving is the 185 white chairs for each person who died in the quake.

But there is hope there as well. One thing about Kiwis, they are a resourceful bunch. Shipping containers are being used to hold up old building fronts, and for shops. 

They also have a cardboard cathedral, seriously! 

We drove around again in the morning. It was odd to see business men in suits drinking coffee outside a hut on waste ground. There is a lot of plans for a new city. I hope it works out for them.

More mountains

On the way up from Franz Josef to Greymouth we stopped at The Bushmans Centre in Pukekura (pop 2 ). It is described in the Lonely Planet as " an overly rustic cafe -shop with a pathological distrust of possums, animal rights activists and Auklanders".  We did enjoy the video about how they caught wild deer. They started out shooting them from helicopters, then, as the deer became rarer and more valuable for venison farming, shooting them with net guns and then jumping from the helicopters to capture them. They are hard men these Kiwis. 

We arrived in Greymouth to catch the trans alpine express. But it was late. So we went for a walk and came across a new memorial to the men who have died over the years in mining accidents. It was somewhat a surprise to see 29 names from 2010. It was the Pike River disaster http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_River_Mine_disaster  Possibly it had been reported in the UK but I am ashamed to say I didn't remember it. 

The Trans Alpine Express is a truly amazing train ride. http://www.kiwirailscenic.co.nz/tranzalpine/

There is a viewing carriage at the rear of the train, so heaven for train buffs. Not good for the hair though.

We arrived in Christchurch rather later than planned, so we did a whistlestop tour of the city. I found it very moving, so more on that later. 

Mountains, sea, glaciers and kiwis

 It is a long drive from Queenstown to Franz Josef, about 5 hours. But to be honest it didn't feel like it. The scenery just takes your breath away. When we left the mountains, we got to the west coast, which is just as stunning.

When we arrived at Franz Josef we dropped off our bags then went for a walk up to the glacier.  It is odd walking in a warm sunny evening towards a large sheet of ice. For LOTR fans, this is where they filmed the beacon lighting scene. 

After our hike, we relaxed in some hot springs, which I must say were very welcome, just like a hot bath, but with your bathers on ( see I am learning the lingo ). After yet another first class meal, we collapsed in a heap at our rather luxurious B&B.

Before we left the next morning we went to visit a couple of kiwis. They are so cute. Unfortunately the stoats and possums which were introduced by Europeans are doing their best to wipe out these flightless birds. Although to be fair the Maori brought rats and dogs to the islands. ( all mammals in NZ have been introduced by man! ) Anyway there are 5 species of kiwi. They can live for 50 to 70 years. They grow to over 1kg and if they can make it to this size they stand a good chance of surviving a stoat attack. They are monogamous and won't start breeding until 4 to 5 years old. They lay 1 to 4 eggs a year and the male does most of the incubation. And the eggs are 250-500g! There is a very clever scheme now running called BNZ Operation Nest Egg. You can read about it here. 

http://www.kiwisforkiwi.org/what-we-do/how-were-saving-kiwi/bnz-operation-nest-egg/

As you can tell, I was rather smitten with the little beauties. Unfortunately the cuddly toys they have of them are not as cute as the real thing. 

Milford Sound...WOW

The day did not get off to a promising start. It was teeming. Eventually we were on the bus and heading off. The driver was brilliant. He is Maori and was able to tell us lots about the area we were driving through. They have wild deer and pigs which are hunted to control the numbers. The rain forest is protected and a UNESCO world heritage site. It rains here a lot. They can get 10 METERS of rain in a year, so the shower we had was to be expected. It did mean there were lots of waterfalls.

When we got to the Milford Sound, the weather had cleared so the trip down the fiord was amazing. Everything you have heard about the place is true with knobs on ( oh yes, one of the places we stopped on the way down was called Knobs Flats! ) I don't think any pictures I have can get across the scale of the place. One of their permanent waterfalls looks impressive enough, but then you are told it is 150 m high, taller than Niagra Falls. The real treat was seeing a pod of bottle nosed Dolphins and their calves swimming under one of the falls. They even did a little jump for us. 

We had booked a flight back to Queenstown, but because of the weather it was dicey whether they would fly or not. We needn't have worried. It was somewhat strange when Prince Harry walked across the tarmac. Actually the pilots name was Stefan and he had a local accent, but you never know...

If I thought the flight in the jet was bad, it was nothing compared to flying in a small aeroplane. But the views were outstanding. It was an amazing day. 

Queenstown

Flying into Queenstown is not for the faint hearted.  Today is lovely warm and sunny,  but the approach over the mountains had the feeling of a roller coaster.  The plane, which was a good sized jet, banked and approached the airport with the mountains seeming to get higher and higher either side. Every time I thought we were about to touch down, another mountain appeared. I shudder to think what it is like in bad weather. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cNCQlCgb0SQ

Queenstown itself is lovely on the banks of a lake.  We even saw a steamer earlier.  A few pints of properly pulled Guinness and cider for me were enjoyed at Póg Mahone's Irish pub. And yes the name did make me snigger. 

Boy it is hot.

The temperature has gone up somewhat. It was mid 20 s yesterday. Today it is in the 30 s. So while walking around a rather hot Melbourne city, it was rather a surprise when it came to me how to speak aussie. Words generally may  not have more than two syllables. Eg Vegitarian = vego. MacDonalds = Macca. BBQ = barbie etc.

You want a what?

As Australia is an English speaking country, it generally makes it easy for us to get around. This is not true when it comes to ordering food and coffee. My first attempt at ordering a white coffee went something like this:

A cappuccino and an americano please.
A cap and a what?
americano, er white coffee
Huh?
You know large coffee with milk.
You mean double espresso ?
No, single espresso with hot water and milk will do.
OH a tall black macchiato .
Er..ok thanks.

This turns out to be almost correct. In future I need to ask for a tall black with milk on the side!

Something else they love here is their Parma night. Now I assumed this had something to do with chicken, as there was one on the sign. I ordered it out of curiosity. It is a chicken breast, butterflied and flattened covered in breadcrumbs, fried and served with ham and cheese, or Napoli sauce, served with chips. Rather tasty actually.

Oh by the way a half pint is a pot. On our way back to the house we saw a sign for Australia Day Thong contest!

Today we drove The Great Ocean Road or part of it. We joined it at Apollo Beach and finished in Torquay. It is everything you read about and more. Built as a war memorial after WW1, it  is carved out of the rock face on the edge of the sea. To drive it is great fun and the views are stunning. Yes, I paddled in the Southern Ocean, which makes 2 in one week, the other being the Persian Gulf.

Melbourne

"The first day in Australia was spent trying to stay awake. That 7 hours difference from Dubai is a killer. The next day was better and in the afternoon we went to find our new home for the week which I had booked through AirBnB. We are staying in a warehouse conversion in the western suburbs of Melbourne. Our hosts are lovely and we are a 2 min walk from the train station which gets into Flinders St station in the city centre in about 15 mins.

That is where we headed off to on Tuesday evening. Through the wonders of the web I had arranged to meet a group of fellow Discworld fans who by lucky chance, we're having a dinner in the Southbank area which has lovely views of the city. It was great fun to meet some locals. 

Today was spent trying to keep up with my aunts. Jane is 90 and Agnes 88, and to say they are fit for their ages would be an understatement. Phil drove and we went out to Yara Glen to visit some wineries. Of course I tried the " Bubbles " as it was described while Phil had a few small sips of red. Needless to say there is a bottle of bubbles chilling as I write.


I love the way they talk out here. To say they are direct and to the point, is an understatement. The Prime Minister is not well liked at the moment and there is speculation that he will be ousted by his party from his leadership position. The media are pulling no punches. In another story on tonight's news , a backpacker was attached in December. The BBC would no doubt describe his attackers as
" the assailants " , here they are called " the louts"! They are also somewhat more graphic in what they show on the news. They seem to be able to access cctv footage, for example a car ran into a cafe when the driver hit the accelerator rather than the brake. A man was knocked off his chair but luckily was unhurt. They also showed the aftermath with people helping and the driver sitting on a chair, obviously in shock. Imagine all her friends and neighbours the next day saying, I see you were on the news last night!

We plan to head for the coast tomorrow. It is going to be hot, about 27 degrees. I may even dip my toe in the sea.

Dubai ...oh my!

Dubai is an amazing place. It is very modern clean and safe. The city looks as if someone gave a bunch of architects a blank piece of paper, and said " go for it, you draw it and we will build it" ; and they did. More on that later.
We started our day with a lovely breakfast, although I decided to give the Foul Mademmoisel a miss. Then we went to investigate a wharf across the road. It was packed with dhows moored next to each other about 5 deep. Every so often a wagon with a container would pull up. The container would be emptied onto the quay and the contents literally manhandled into the open holds of the little ships. There was everything from car tyres to push chairs, to twin tubs, to computers and 40 inch LED TVs. They were all arranged in neat piles waiting to be loaded. Oddly there was no obvious security. We just wandered around. It was the neatest, cleanest dock you can imagine.

We were then picked up for a city tour. When we had been on a bus for 2 hours before we joined another bus for the tour proper, I was beginning to wish I had gone for a desert trip. We did get to see lots of Dubai. The tour as it turned out was OK. We had a look at some very expensive hotels, from the outside. Including the Sail shaped one, the  Jameriah . It costs between € 3000 to €18000 a night!
According to the guide the population is about 7 million. Less than 1 million are Dubai citizens. They are all millionaires as the sheik gives them gifts of money, houses and furniture when they get married. Certainly it was very rare to see an Arab doing ordinary work. Most workers are Asian. There are strong links with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also the Philippines I think. Our guide was Egyptian.

We visited the Dubai Museum which is in an old fort. It was worth the visit just to see hundreds of swifts darting around before roosting in the mud brick walls of the fort. It was a good little museum charting the rise of Dubai from two small settlements on either side of the Dubai creek to the sprawling place it is now. The stuffed seagulls on the way in were a tad odd.

The sheik who is responsible for everything that happens in the emirate is highly influenced by America and Europe. You can see it in all the amazing skyscrapers I mentioned earlier. The road signs have a very British feel, and even the plugs are the proper three pin variety.

After the museum it was a water taxi across the creek to the spice and gold souk. The spice market was interesting. I did not impress when I asked for some ras hanut. When I asked where I could get some, I was told Morocco ! The gold souk is something else. I have never seen anything like it. They literally had shirts of gold. Which brings me back to crime, or the lack thereof. It seems the local police force have very little to do. Commit a crime here and it is deportation straight away.

The streets are very clean, as are the cars. There is a £100 fine for having a dirty car.

After the tour we had a dhow ride while we ate dinner. Then we caught a taxi to the Dubai Mall, the largest in the world I believe, beside the Burj Khalifa an amazing 2,700ft tall building. We went to watch the fountain show which happens every half hour between 6 and 11 pm. The fountains were dancing to The Big Country music. And very impressive it was too. After that we went to look at the aquarium and the ice skating rink inside the mall. Yes they don't do things by half here.

What did I think of Dubai? To be honest I am not sure. It is a city as modern as you could hope to find. It is cleaner and safer than most. If you are looking for heritage and local colour, you won't find it here. It is a shoppers paradise.  I understand why people come here for winter sun. It certainly made for an interresting stop over. Would I come back? Maybe, I would like to see the desert.  But for now onward   to Melbourne.