All posts by SimonTheSailor

Auckland New Zealand.

Another good flight with Cathy Pacific. Met a nice lady who was going to New Zealand as her 93 year old dad had just been put into a care home. She was going back to sort some stuff out and visit family and friends. Funny how you get along with people some times with which you have nothing in common with. We chatted about all sorts including the funeral of Margaret Thatcher, the state of the economy, over population, the M25, and all sorts of other things.

This was mostly done whilst trying to explain to her how the entertainment system worked, shouldn’t have bothered as she got a book out and read that.

Landed in Auckland airport and it already felt like a friendly place. I thought I was going to get a lot of hassle as I only had a one way ticket it. Piece of cake, walked straight through with a quick chat to immigration. Bus into town and found the hostel easy enough.

The harbour area was only about 10 minutes walk away so very handy for most of the sight seeing trips. Unpacked, showered and went for a wander around town to get my bearings. Most of the streets down into town looked quite old fashioned compared to what we have got use to. All the people I met were polite and helpful. I knew I was in a nice place as the bus drivers do not have a cage built around them with shatter proof perspex. Had a couple of beers and wandered around town picking up tourist leaflets as I went. Saw a few things that sounded interesting so off to bed as my body clock had taken another shake up.

Bye bye Hong Kong

I awoke with a heavy head after a late night in the entertainment area.
Today was my last day in HK and the last day to finish off my trips with the Big Bus company. The green route took me from HK to Hong Kong island with the sandy beaches. Sadly the weather although warm was overcast and showery. Despite the threat of rain i sat in the open topped bus as we headed for the beaches at Stanly bay and Repulse bay.

One of the highlights of the green route was going to be a trip on a traditional Sampan boat. This turned out to be basically a crap old boat. The lady driving was far too busy eating to acknowledge us on board and as soon as the tour guide left the boat she rammed it in reverse whilst still eating her meal. It was interesting to see somebody drive a crap old boat that had two hand controls (one for the throttle, one for the steering) whilst still managing to shovel food in her face using chopsticks.

Big Bus tours Sampan Boat
Big Bus Sampan Boat

 

The second half of the trip was better as we headed in the other direction and saw the biggest floating restaurant i have ever seen in my life, quite an extraordinary sight.

hong kong floating restaurant
Floating Restaurant

She showed us the delights of the busy marina as she drove us through a lot of derelict boats, zig zagging to get the most distance she could in the small amount of space she had.

If you ever wondered how they did scaffolding in Hong Kong they use bamboo canes. I wondered how they would do it on higher buildings, well this one i counted over 30 storeys high !!

Hong kong
Bamboo scaffolding

 

I left the lady and the food behind to join my favourite red bus for the last time, i headed back to the ferry and back to my guest house.

More to add on this day but nearly time to get my flight to Auckland so i’ll update more later.

Looking forward to getting on the plane with my new favourite airline Cathy Pacific.