Hi Everyone,
Well, I have made it back to New Zealand, Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud. The land of top loading washing machines that live in a room called a laundry and can be opened 5 minutes after starting to do a wash if you forget to put something in... among other things!
My trip to Paris was pretty good. The Metro strikes made it a bit hard to get around (though one of the key lines was still working). Had a hop-on-hop-off bus tour ticket for the first two days. The weather was very cold and a bit wet the first day and I spent the afternoon huddled under the sheltered bit of the top of an open top bus. I tried snails - the sauce was nice. Went to the Arc de Triumph, Eiffel Tower, the Galleries Lafayette shopping centre which has an awesome stained glass dome ceiling, the Grand Palace (an Art Nouveau building that also has an impressive ceiling and wrought iron work), Musee d' Orsay and the Pompidou Centre (which had just opened an exhibition on architect Richard Rogers). There are a few things I had to leave until next time (Notre Dame, The Rodin Gallery and the Catacombs - ran out of time!).
Back in London it was a crazy couple of days trying to get everything sussed before leaving. Managed to squeeze in visits to the London Eye and St Paul's Cathedral which had been on my things to do list for a while. The weather was stunning (maybe a little cold) and I had a great view from both. Saw the sunset from the top of St Paul's (at 4 in the afternoon!!!). Walking to the boarding gate at Heathrow I passed a lot of big images of London Landmarks. Most of them I could say I had been there/seen it - not bad seen I probably wouldn't have recognised them 8 months ago!
I spent one night in Hong Kong then flew to Beijing. I was a bit scared going to China, but my friend Yi met me at the airport and made sure we got into a legal taxi so that was great! I was a bit out of sync with the whole sleeping thing, and was pretty tired for the whole time I was there (its all a bit of a blur now!). I managed to go to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and ate Peking Duck (among many other Chinese Dishes!). Had a few issues with ATMs - couldn't get anything out of my HSBC account (even though HSBC stands for Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation!). Luckily my good old Westpac card from home worked - thank goodness for the overdraft!). One of the most enjoyable things I did was walking around the hutongs (old lanes and alleyways with single story housing) with Yi. It was a fun afternoon as we walked around with our cameras. We also called into a few of the small shops (I bought a hat that looks a lot like a tea cosy, among other things). To warm up, we went into a cafe for a hot chocolate - it was amazing, a really nice little cafe and I didn't feel like I was in China!
After China I headed back to Hong Kong for one night. Booked the accommodation on lastminute.com and ended up staying on Lantau Island, not near Kowloon in the city where I have stayed before. Was a bit worried about the transport to the Hotel, but managed to get the bus ok. Some of the road grades are as steep as 1:6 (they had signs saying this). It seemed to work ok and I wasn't to scared, but I did note that they are building a new road that has a much flatter grade! The prices seemed ridiculously cheap - bus tickets for an hour on a bus for about 1 pound. There was a great turkish restaurant about ten minutes from my hotel - I did enjoy the chinese food in China, but was a bit over it by then so the Turkish food was fantastic!
My favourite part of the time on Lantau Island was visiting the fishing village called Tai-O. I took a bus that took about 45 mins from the bay I was staying in. The village has many huts that are built on stilts. There is also a market where you can buy a lot of dried fish (if you wanted to that is...) among other things. I enjoyed walking around the village taking photos. There were a few tourists but not to many, and it was more relaxing than China probably due to two things - more people spoke English and people weren't harassing me to by things or begging. The weather was really nice (I even had to purchase a new hat - one that you see people in rice field wearing - would have cost about 2 pounds 50p). It was really nice not to be bundled up in thermals and a jacket etc, and to smell the sea air again!
The flight from Hong Kong was 40 mins shorter than it was supposed to be - only 10 hours something - fantastic! Am staying at my parents house in Te Aroha at the moment. My brother and his girlfriend are home from the UK (apparently his work permit has been approved in London and should arrive any day now!). My Dad's latest saying is something like "I had better go to work if I am going to keep funding this free hotel!"
We have managed to use up the internet allowance for the month already (it only started 28/11) and had to ring up on Monday and buy some more. I have been trying to upload all my photos. I think I am up to about mid/late October so far. If anyone wants to have a look the link is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wandering_surveying_triathlete/sets/ Apologies for the typos etc, been trying to get it done quickly while I have free net access!
Been talking to my old employers in Whakatane and it sounds like they might have work for me for three months at least and then I can reassess things. Still in negotiations, but don't plan to start until after Christmas as I want to chill out a bit first. Am off to Whakatane this afternoon (about 2.5hrs drive from here - why don't we have trains here?). Going to stay with some mates and catch up with everyone.
I think thats about all I've got to update you on. Its been good working/living/travelling/hanging out/catching up (delete as appropriate) with you this year. I've had a great time and will miss you guys (and crazy old London)! Will let you know if I plan to come back when I make a decision - don't expect it anytime soon though - it may take a while!
Take care and keep in touch!
Stacey
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Hong Kong
I guess I'll start with the flight - well, it wasn't too bad. I was sitting next to Barry. Barry was from Christchurch and was flying onto China for business. When I asked him what he did, he said "I buy and sell things". Right. Anyway, Barry wasn't a bad stranger to sit next to. He didn't elbow me too much and didn't get up and down all the time.
I managed to watch 3 movies on the plane 'Miss Potter', 'The Holiday' and 'The Freedom Writers'. I had been wanting to see the first two for ages, so I was pretty happy. My viewing of The Freedom Writers was interrupted when the guy behind me spilt his cup of cold water down the back of my shirt... Luckily I had taken my old hoody onto the plane, as I had to get changed because my T-Shirt was soaked. Luckily there was only about 3 hours of the flight left, and luckily it was just cold water - it would have been much worse if it was hot coffee, coke, wine, beer, rum.. the list goes on.
Once I arrived I had to wait about an hour to get the shuttle to the Hotel. I wanted to go to the night markets, but wasn't quite sure seeing that it was about 10.45pm by the time I got to the hotel! However, after seeing heaps of people (including females by themselves) walking around when I was on the bus, I decided to venture out and have a wee look. I came back to the hotel with 2 small oil paintings on canvas, which I think cost me about $8 NZ. I've been doubling the prices then dividing the answer by 10, I think that is the approximate conversion! After that, it was time to hit the sack (or really hard small bed).
This morning I went on a mission to see the Man Mo Temple on Hong Kong Island. The subway was pretty easy to use and just like South Korea so that was great. I hadn't been able to find much travel info about Hong Kong before I arrived at the airport. Whakatane Library didn't seem to have much, and neither did the travel agents. I'd seen pictures of the spirals/coils of incense suspended from the roof at this temple and they looked really cool, so I decided to check it out. Had to go up a street called Ladder Street (it was just a big staircase). Took quite a few photos at the temple, but can't plug the camera into this computer (they've hidden everything except the screen, key board and mouse) so you will have to wait a while to see them.
I also have photos of the bamboo scaffolding, a Hong Kong survey Benchmark (BM 3 apparently) some stormwater grates because the holes are diagonal not parallel to the sides, and Dad, a photo for you - new way of delivering gas bottles - get an old bike and secure at least nine 9kg bottles round the side and an extra two or three larger bottles on the front. Not sure these people would get a Dangerous Goods license?!
Carina, I know you will be wondering if I took any photos of people, and yes, there are some with some random people in them.
I found Nemo (and his twin brother/sister) in the gold fish markets. So many different fish, hanging in plastic bags with water. I felt sorry for the ones that were too big for the bag to swim around, and even more sorry for the ones that were floating upside down on the top of the water or lying still on the bottom :(
I also saw some really little turtles (about the size of a matchbox car I think) in the Reptile Shop so I took some photos of them too. I wanted to buy one but wasn't quite sure how it would survive the flight or whether I would get through customs.
The last stop was the markets, I forget the name. Anyway, if I had more room in my bag I would have bought heaps of cool stuff for my 'nieces' and 'nephews'. There was heaps of cool kids stuff with Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty, Elmo etc on it.
I tried to find some of the hazelnut filled waffle ball things that I'd had in South Korea. Had a bit of trouble with the translation and ending up with some kind of curried seafood on a stick, which I wasn't in the mood for. In the end, I ended up going to maccas, to use their clean loo's and get some food I could recognise. You can by cups of corn as a side order in Hong Kong. There is some useless information for you!
After that, it was time to go back to the Hotel to wait for the airport shuttle. There were no seats left, so I sat on the floor - after about 10 minutes they offered me one fo the seats from behind the desk which was nice of them. While I was sitting there, I read the guide to Hong Kong I had picked up last ngiht at the airport. I found out that I could have seen the incense spirals at another temple too - this particular one was about 50m from my hotel... Oh well, it was worth the adventure to get to the other one!
Right, I get kicked out of this travellers lounge in 17 minutes so I better sign off.
Look forward to seeing those of you who are in London real soon, and look forward to hearing from everyone else!!
Stacey
I managed to watch 3 movies on the plane 'Miss Potter', 'The Holiday' and 'The Freedom Writers'. I had been wanting to see the first two for ages, so I was pretty happy. My viewing of The Freedom Writers was interrupted when the guy behind me spilt his cup of cold water down the back of my shirt... Luckily I had taken my old hoody onto the plane, as I had to get changed because my T-Shirt was soaked. Luckily there was only about 3 hours of the flight left, and luckily it was just cold water - it would have been much worse if it was hot coffee, coke, wine, beer, rum.. the list goes on.
Once I arrived I had to wait about an hour to get the shuttle to the Hotel. I wanted to go to the night markets, but wasn't quite sure seeing that it was about 10.45pm by the time I got to the hotel! However, after seeing heaps of people (including females by themselves) walking around when I was on the bus, I decided to venture out and have a wee look. I came back to the hotel with 2 small oil paintings on canvas, which I think cost me about $8 NZ. I've been doubling the prices then dividing the answer by 10, I think that is the approximate conversion! After that, it was time to hit the sack (or really hard small bed).
This morning I went on a mission to see the Man Mo Temple on Hong Kong Island. The subway was pretty easy to use and just like South Korea so that was great. I hadn't been able to find much travel info about Hong Kong before I arrived at the airport. Whakatane Library didn't seem to have much, and neither did the travel agents. I'd seen pictures of the spirals/coils of incense suspended from the roof at this temple and they looked really cool, so I decided to check it out. Had to go up a street called Ladder Street (it was just a big staircase). Took quite a few photos at the temple, but can't plug the camera into this computer (they've hidden everything except the screen, key board and mouse) so you will have to wait a while to see them.
I also have photos of the bamboo scaffolding, a Hong Kong survey Benchmark (BM 3 apparently) some stormwater grates because the holes are diagonal not parallel to the sides, and Dad, a photo for you - new way of delivering gas bottles - get an old bike and secure at least nine 9kg bottles round the side and an extra two or three larger bottles on the front. Not sure these people would get a Dangerous Goods license?!
Carina, I know you will be wondering if I took any photos of people, and yes, there are some with some random people in them.
I found Nemo (and his twin brother/sister) in the gold fish markets. So many different fish, hanging in plastic bags with water. I felt sorry for the ones that were too big for the bag to swim around, and even more sorry for the ones that were floating upside down on the top of the water or lying still on the bottom :(
I also saw some really little turtles (about the size of a matchbox car I think) in the Reptile Shop so I took some photos of them too. I wanted to buy one but wasn't quite sure how it would survive the flight or whether I would get through customs.
The last stop was the markets, I forget the name. Anyway, if I had more room in my bag I would have bought heaps of cool stuff for my 'nieces' and 'nephews'. There was heaps of cool kids stuff with Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty, Elmo etc on it.
I tried to find some of the hazelnut filled waffle ball things that I'd had in South Korea. Had a bit of trouble with the translation and ending up with some kind of curried seafood on a stick, which I wasn't in the mood for. In the end, I ended up going to maccas, to use their clean loo's and get some food I could recognise. You can by cups of corn as a side order in Hong Kong. There is some useless information for you!
After that, it was time to go back to the Hotel to wait for the airport shuttle. There were no seats left, so I sat on the floor - after about 10 minutes they offered me one fo the seats from behind the desk which was nice of them. While I was sitting there, I read the guide to Hong Kong I had picked up last ngiht at the airport. I found out that I could have seen the incense spirals at another temple too - this particular one was about 50m from my hotel... Oh well, it was worth the adventure to get to the other one!
Right, I get kicked out of this travellers lounge in 17 minutes so I better sign off.
Look forward to seeing those of you who are in London real soon, and look forward to hearing from everyone else!!
Stacey
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Not long now...!
I've got two weeks left at work, and just under three weeks until I head off. This year has gone so fast with preparation for my OE. Last weekend I moved out of my flat. In preparation for life in London I have moved into a cupboard, at my friend Amy's house. To be fair to Amy, I have to tell you that the cupboard fits a double bed in it, and is pretty cosy really! And, I am taking up half the lounge with some of my stuff! The drive to work down Ocean Road is stunning - I am going to miss my beach so much! Before I leave, I also plan to spend a week or so staying with Julie and Matt, on the farm at Taneatua. That's all for now - lets hope the Blogs get more exciting when I actually start my journey!
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