Sydney, Australia 27 November - 1 December 2008

We arrived in Sydney after a flight that was too short to be an overnight flight but too long to be a short hop so we felt the effects for a few days. We were lucky enough to have rented an apartment off family friends in a nice area of Sydney and, for the first time in seven months, we had our own kitchen and lounge. It was absolutely fantastic and we ate our first proper home cooked meal since we left the UK. (I haven't included a map as Sydney is pretty easy to find...)

We were only in Sydney for four days but managed to get a bit of a feel for what the city was like and we were joined by Euan's brother Rob, who flew down from Brisbane to stay with us for a few days. It was great to see him for the first time in nearly a year!

Some Sydney suburb names reflected the UK and Paddington was one, with quaint tree-lined streets full of pretty wooden houses with wrought iron balconies.





Sydney even has a Hyde Park.



I was surprised by the Sydney Harbour and the bridge and (I hope I don’t offend anyone from Sydney by saying this!) I was rather under-whelmed. There is absolutely no doubting that the Sydney Opera house is a great piece of architecture and the setting spectacular.



We toured the Opera House and learnt that they’re planning an AU$400 million refurbishment, something we thought was quite ambitious given the financial state of things! The chap who designed the Opera House was Danish and had left Australia before it was completed. A real shame as, for a building designed in the 1960’s it was a real inspiration and way ahead of its time. As it turned out, he died the day after we visited so never got to see the structure he designed.

The Harbour Bridge was a lot smaller than I expected and was also a lot more boxy.



but I’m comparing it to the Auckland Harbour bridge that is a lot longer and doesn’t have the huge concrete stands at either end that seems to give it a boxy look. I’ll take a photo of the Auckland bridge and compare when we’re up there in January.



What did surprise me though was the amount of real estate actually on the Sydney Harbour, more than I’ve seen on any harbour elsewhere in my travels and I’m guessing that is all part of the appeal of living there.

We opted out of the AU$200+ Harbour Bridge climb but it was funny to see people heading up there, all kitted out like they were climbing some large mountain. It looked like they’d given them survival packs or parachutes judging by the bulky backpacks they had! If you look really closely at the second photo down you’ll see ant-like sticks walking on the top of the bridge.









I’ll be completely honest and let on that if it hadn’t have been for Rob, we wouldn’t have gone to a matinee performance of the ballet, Manon, at the Sydney Opera House which was actually really, really good! I really enjoyed it but wasn’t in floods of tears at the end like the English lady next to me. I was chatting to her and she’d moved from England to Manly and went to all the ballets at the Opera House. I think she knew her stuff so could tell me how this performance compared to others she’d seen.

We saw a slightly different performance shortly after we left the Opera House…. This lady was English and did quite a good performance that ended in her squeezing herself into this silly-sized box. She had some good banter but some of the jokes had people around us squirming – one very non-pc joke about Heather Mills didn’t go down too well with the crowd… there was a lot of squirming people around us mumbling disapproval.



Sydney has some interesting buildings



Darling Harbour is a great place to chill out on a nice day and while we were too late to visit the Navel Museum, there was a submarine and a few other boats moored up.



There was a sign and information on a lifeboat and I turned to Euan and “am I being stupid or is there meant to be a life boat moored here?” and wondered why he creased up with laughter. It was hanging above my head, as life boats do (not!).



It was difficult for me (with NZ being the next stop) to stay focused on what Sydney has to offer – I just wanted to get home! Next time, it I reckon it might be worth stopping off there on a trip heading north rather than south!

Hong Kong 21-26 November 2008

We arrived in Hong Kong airport to a fantastic welcome party consisting of my Dad, my step-Mum Grace and her brother-in-law, To. The last time anyone met or saw us off at an airport on this trip was Euans Mum at Heathrow and that wasn’t exactly a happy occasion!



It was wonderful to be picked up and taken back to where we were staying rather than have the usual hassle of finding transport to wherever we were thinking about staying. Bliss!

To is a brilliant tour guide and we were spoilt rotten right the way through our five-day stay, two of which were spent in Macao (see posting after this). We had a family dinner on our second night in HK with a side of the family I’ve heard about for over a decade, through graduations, weddings, births etc but never met. Here they all are!



Funnily enough, Edwin (far right of photo) attended Bristol University the same time as Euan did.

We were staying at Graces place in the Kwun Tong area of Kowloon



and the sheer number of apartment buildings in HK is staggering



Those that we saw were pretty secure, with steel sliding doors in front of a pretty solid wood door. This is in addition to security on the apartment block door, plus a concierge…. We didn’t think anyone would bother trying to get into someone elses apartment!!



I was pleasantly surprised at the open space on Hong Kong Island and even Kowloon has areas that are open. The parks in the morning are full of people throwing balls around, doing Tai Chi, stretching and many other weird forms of exercise that I’ve not seen before and some folk hike up this mountain.



To drove us around HK Island seeing the sights for an entire day but not after we got our whereabouts from the view from his Kowloon apartment. You can still see the old airport (the long straight thing in the below photo is the runway) and Euan remembered flying in here when his family visited in the early 1980s.



Thanks to To, we visited places in HK that we wouldn’t have done had we not had a local guide and transport; Stanley Bay, what used to be a fishing village of Aberdeen and Repulse Bay, named so because the British Navy managed to repulse the pirates from the bay



There are some very colourful and unusual statues at the Bay, there to protect the boats





Along with a temple



This is Dad, Grace and I at Repulse Bay



This is what was the old fishing port of Aberdeen, now a very built-up part of HK Island. You’d almost never know that there was an island not far off shore…. The apartments on the island look like a continuation of those on HK Island, a few hundred meters away.



The HK Island city shoreline is seemingly never-ending



and the neon signage is impressive



The city looks particularly spectacular at night



and if you’re ever in HK and planning a late night visit, get up Victoria Peak before 11pm…. it looks very different when its not all lit up (the lights go out at 11pm, as we found out at about 11:02pm). The below should be a lot brighter and colourful.



We knew the Hong Kong Squash Open was on but by chance we came across a temporary glass court down by the waterfront



and we were in time to sit in the free seats to the side to watch the mens and ladies finals. The mens final, between the Egyptian world #1 played a Frenchman, was great to watch.



To, Dad and Grace and had fun catching every form of transport possible! The boat traffic in HKs Victoria Harbour is never-ending and the ferries go back and forth every 10 minutes.



There are loads of folk from the Philippines who work in HK and on Sundays they all get together on their day off. The street was closed and it looked like they were having a great time eating, playing games and chatting up a storm.



We spent a bit of time around Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon and visited the Space Museum and the Art Museum. The area was actually quite cool, day or night and some of the surrounding areas had undergone a face lift.



Just across the harbour was the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre



We went up to the 52nd floor of the HK Finance Building where there is a (free!) exhibition of the history of the HK currency. Its actually quite interesting but even if you’re not interested in how money is made etc (the HK plastic-feeling notes are actually made of cotton!) its worth going up for the views alone





Dad and I were stopped by these kindergarten kids who wanted to ‘interview’ us for a school project. They were so cute!



When it came time for this little girl to ask her questions, she just stood very close, waved her hand madly in my face and smiled at me. The lady who was with her was trying to get her attention and get her to stop waving but she just didn’t do anything else!



HK is often very hazy due to the pollution from China which is a real shame as the views are quite something. We visited the Space Museum, Art History Museum, hung out with Dad and Grace and generally enjoyed being back with family! It wasn’t so bad saying good bye as we’ll see them again in NZ in mid- January.