The travel log of Vic and Steve

Short blog post today. Written at 5am UK time - bloody time zones.  Monday was travel day so we swam, packed, had coffees and final breakfasts in the lounge and checked out. The shuttle arrived early and it was raining again. The cloud was low and hanging around the tops of skyscrapers and the rain meant we both dozed in the shuttle.  Hong Kong airport is huge and impressive with omg expensive shops - like a designer mall (eg Jimmy Choo and Gucci).  Due to brain fade we hadn't precheckedin so found we couldn't sit together.  Due to AirNZ crapness we found Cathy isn't a star alliance airline so no lounge access plus no Gluten Free meal ordered for me.  Otherwise our flights were pleasant enough. We both watched lots of movies.  Our flight was over an hour late so we eventually made it to Paddington via the over priced Heathrow Express at almost 11pm, in our hotel room by a half past. Cute wee hotel, tiny room but exceptionally cl...

One of the things I love about Hong Kong is the juxtaposition of the architecture, today we saw Ming and Qing dynasty buildings surrounded by motorway and skyscrapers, colonial brick buildings alongside towers of glass. This is a city of height, retail and service companies aren't just at ground floor so those older buildings seem lucky to survive to be honest.  Today we were also very touristy. Waking really early we headed out after 7am breakfast which is good and bad. The good is uncrowned trains and streets - security guards and street maintenance workers were all we encountered. The bad was everything closed.  Oh and it rained again. First up we headed to Hong Kong Park - again Imogen we walked right by this last year, how did we miss it. I was determined to see some turtles so we did! And large goldfish and in the cracks of the pavement tiny tiny frogs - like 1cm long.  We found a Gucci store for Rach (sent her pics already) in a beautiful mall th...

One of the things I love about Hong Kong  is the green belt and the occasional gardens breaking up the intense high rise landscape.  Checkin at Holiday Inn Golden Mile is 3pm yet 2 years in a row we have arrived just after 9am and checked in immediately. We do stay in a Club room - value wise inclusive of our food and drink, a galaxy phone with data and other benefits makes the price worth it. After a couple of coffees and lots of melon we had showers, napped and headed to the pool. Great swim but the sky was ominous until it rained, those giant drops that soak you in 5 seconds  flat.  Without umbrellas we decided to sit out the rain in the hotel bar watching a crazy intersection. It was 30 mins before the first nose-to-tail where neither car was damaged yet chaos ensured. Great entertainment (look at the cars passing the accident on both sides).  Steve was impressed with how many Tesla's there are, electing to photograph one instead of...

Not even a year since our fabulous Italian  holiday we are heading away again. This time London bound to see Donovan, Karen, Paul, Sophie, Steve and Prue - who I note hasn't left NZ yet.  New bags packed we spent a lovely day in Auckland with Imogen our sober driver.  Lovely Vegan Gluten Free lunch at Mimosa, a few wines in Browns Bay and shopping in Takapuna made for a great way to start the holiday. Steve and Imogen entertained themselves visiting North Shore HiFi while I joined our team meeting.  No shortage of things to do in Auckland on a clear yet nippy winters day. It is nice to come up here not for work occasionally.  I've just had the busiest week possible so am shattered, looking forward to a couple of days in Hong Kong before we hit London for a short 2 week stay. Gareth joined us for dinner and I write this from the new AirNZ lounge - very bright and clean.  Yay we're on holiday. Vic.   

My one regret about this trip is not taking photos of the English signs here in Hong Kong. Phonetically correct yes - like thunderstorm rating hoisted - but oh so funny. Today was checkout day. We had planned two sight based locations being the walled city and the Buddha. So after another fantastic breakfast in the Holiday Inn Golden Mile club lounge we packed up, checked out and headed by MTR to the gondola and big Buddha. Sadly the weather conspired against us and it was pissing down as we emerged but (silver lining here) we did get to do one thing we were going to miss out on - outlet shopping! And eat in a massive crowded Hong Kong food court.  Footnote, the train line to the gondola is the same one as to Disney. Who knew "let it go" was the universal anthem of every small child no matter their nationality.  Rain passed so we joined the queue for the gondola. Hong Kong tip - prepurchase your gondola tickets.  The view is awesome. We scrimped and ...

7:07am in the rooftop pool for a wake up dip then a leisurely breakfast and study break for Sam in the club lounge (omelettes and fruit for us non/vegans).  Then we headed off for a day on the island. MTR followed by a tram to the Western Market a building that could be QVB or Old Bank but has been chopped up so the ceilings are only visible in the top floor restaurant. It does have an entire floor of fabric.  The trams are pretty neat. We sat up top for the open window breeze experience and fab view. Hong Kong Island is the business district so newer buildings and flasher shops, cars and markets than Tsim Sha Tsui.  After the market Samantha convinced us to trek up to the Museum of Medical Science. Another colonial building with immaculate city managed gardens and public toilets outside. There we learned about everything from H1N1 to the plague of 1894 that decimated the population of Hong Kong and resulted in demolition of large sections of the city...

Day 1 continued with maximum touristy engagement. Our NZ based Chinese travel agents not only recommended our fab hotel (Holiday Inn Golden Mile) but also advised the only things to do in Hong Kong are eat and shop. Today we walked and shopped - well looked with no buying. First up the compulsory tourist photos of Victoria harbour. There we met teams of students on their orientation scavenger hunt - the amusing thing is 3 different teams took their "photo with a tourist" with us! Will be funny when they compare results.  Then we needed to conquor the MTR, bought an Octopus card (what's with the naming of these cards? Snapper, oyster, octopus). It was crammed as we were warned but the trains are amazing, one massive long continuous train with no wasted carriage cuplings - you can see the whole way with no walls.  Then we hit the markets. First up the flower market was beautiful, smelled fantastic and in 32 degree heat orchid shops had welcome air ...