Hong Kong At Night

This deserves a blog post of it's own. Like I said before Hong Kong is the most beautiful obscenity I have ever seen and I think the landscape at night demonstrates it well. Much to my annoyance my camera was running out of battery by this stage so I was forced to take tons of rushed shots, but I think they do it SOME justice at least. Every night at 8pm you can witness The Symphony Of Lights across the bay where the massive buildings across the bay covered in lights and lasers basically perform in time to music. It is one hell of a sight to behold and I very much advise you behold it! I was seconds from missing the start after launching myself down 13 flights of stairs and sprinting a kilometre in 7 minutes flat. Pretty sure that's some kind of personal record. It was most certainly worth it, enjoy the pictures!!

Yes I stole this picture off google, this is because I was far too busy gawping in amazement to actually remember to take pictures of my own!

Cultural Hong Kong In A Day

Cable Car Through The Mountains

For my final full day in Hong Kong I decided to play tourist and go and take in some of the cultural attractions. So early in the morning I caught a train and then took the 6km long cable car across the bay and over the mountains to Ngong Ping to visit the Po Lin Monastery and the Giant Buddha statue. I have to say it was fantastic, wandering around the village which is packed to the brim with souvenir shops you can waste a great deal of time browsing through chopstick gallery's and other such unique shopping delights.Eventually I made it to the monastery grounds, which are PACKED with incense sticks, you can buy incense sticks to burn yourself, some of which are about two metres in length and the width of a CD-ROM. Oxygen isn't plentiful there... Nonetheless the monastery had everything you would expect, chinese style architecture, tons of ginormous golden statues. Unfortunately I was too early to see the finished construction of the temple being created behind the original monastery which is twice the size, it looks like it's going to be spectacular!

Po Lin Monastery

However, despite that disappointment it's hard to not be satisfied with a giant 112ft tall buddha statue on a hill. Coming over in the cable car you could see it from MILES away. Although don't let them fool you into thinking it's some ancient statue, it was unveiled in 1993 so even I'm older than it.... well it took them 12 years to create but you get what I mean. It is very impressive and definitely worth a visit, just be careful of the buddhist monks, they may seem friendly, but just because they're in a religion where they've given up all their worldly possessions apparently doesn't mean they don't want your money. They're exceedingly good at convincing people to 'donate'.

The Giant Buddha From Cable Car

As one of the side attractions in the village there are performances by Shaolin Master Monks every day. They are to say the least, preeeeetty skilled. I managed to waste most of the remaining battery on my camera filming their antics. It was worth it.

Master Shaolin Monks

I then decided to get slightly off the beaten track and took a bus to Tai-O a tiny fishing village on the coast. It's surreal, like a poor man's Venice, everything on stilts, endless fish markets which quite frankly, stink. Because of the temperature they can't preserve dead fish wet, so you have two options, buy live fish or sun dried fish. Honestly the stench is quite something to behold! I took a 30 minute boat trip around the bay for an equivalent of £1.20, we didn't see any of the promised dolphins but it was nice all the same making our way through this village of stilts. Definitely try and give one of these fishing villages a visit if you ever travel here, it's quite the experience!

Once back in the city I took the chance to see the city at night, and in particular the famous Symphony of Lights. But that deserves a blog post of it's own! ;-)

First Taste of Hong Kong

Side Street In Hong Kong

I arrived in Hong Kong VERY early after drinking a substantial amount of free wine on the plane. Funtimes. Doesn't help that I swear to god that airport is about twice the size of Hoddesdon. Having been sufficiently "wow'd" by the first few city blocks that came into view I became oh so very much smaller when the bus reached the city itself. Hong Kong is the most beautiful obscene thing I have ever seen. People are packed in like sardines, so much so that on arriving at my accomodation (Ashoka Hostel) I found the receptionist sleeping on a makeshift bed behind the desk. First impressions WIN! Having to sit around for a couple of hours before being checked in left me in a very bad mood, fully ready to hate Hong Kong in all it's glory. It didn't take long for me to change my mind...

He has MASSIVE hands for a small guy..

When I eventually set off to explore the local area I discovered that all the comments I had heard were completely true. The place is LITERALLY just one huge shopping mall. It's made up of shopping centres, connected to eachother by MORE shops. Places where people actually live starts about 3 or 4 stories up. My building is 20 stories high, and it's a diddy one. This is a city that makes the human race feel very big, but the individual feel very small. I love it to be honest, I wandered around the city and despite exploring for a good 4 or 5 hours I REALLY didn't get very far. But I DID manage to get hopelessly lost... like more lost than I've ever been in my entire life. It was kinda good fun really, wander around aimlessly for a couple of hours till i decide I should ask for help then find my way to a familiar place once again and repeat the process. The fun would have gone out of it when it got dark though...

Everything's very cheap which is fantastic to say the least, including transport. It cost me the equivalent of £1.80 to catch a ferry and a 50 minute bus up to Victoria Peak that evening in the hope of seeing Hong Kong from up there at night. My hope's were crushed when I found myself at the top in a cloud. So my shopping spree continued in the mall at the peak instead!

Hong Kong

Goodbye New Zealand!!

Mr Nom Nom Has Style!

I didn't have long in Auckland before leaving New Zealand, but I made the most of it! After a lovely evening drinking wine and eating chocolate with Maia I spent the next day tracking down a bottle of wine for our evil prank on my father involving making him believe we had drank his wine. Which we kind of did, but we did get another bottle (the last one in the whole of Auckland! He had better be grateful!) I also had the chance to catch up with Jillian who took me out for some wine which quickly turned into a massive meal both of us were quite unprepared for! She showed me Auckland at night from the yaught harbour and introduced me to the maker of iwantoneofthose.com not a bad evening!

Getting a taste for Auckland Cuisine

My final day in Auckland was one of catching up on blog posts and general lounging around before briefly saying hi to a very knackered Rhiannon returning from some law conference in Australia and making my way to the airport for my flight. You can say many things about Kiwi's, but they are not subtle or indeed tactful it would seem. At the entrance to make your way through security you are confronted with a massive sign saying "This Is It Folks, Time For Final Goodbyes!". Quite frankly that just depressed me.

Me and (most of) The Freeman's (My lovely Auckland hosts!)

So, as the airport so aptly and cruelly put it, this is it. Goodbye New Zealand! The place where I made the transition between dependence and independence, between youth and adult. Oh sure the transition isn't over yet, but I've come a hell of a long way without it really feeling like I've changed at all. I guess I just understand myself and my limits a lot better now. I'm really gonna miss this country, it's amazing and I'd reccommend a visit to everyone, particularly if you're looking for a good place to do first-timer long term travel. I've met so many inspiring people on my journey, I'll remember them all and I look forward to seeing them again in future. So to all the people I've met, bye for now, thankyou for the influence you've had on the greatest adventure of my life (so far!) and make sure you stay in touch. Peace out!

The End of New Zealand

Final Week In The South Island- The Modelling Show

Trekking in Roxburgh

The week was spent preparing for a show that Monique was invited to be in. Monique was choreographing hard whilst I worked on creating her music mix for her to dance to as the epic opening of the evening. Of course it wasn't all work, especially not with snow around! As we once again took to the fantastic hot pools in Omarama for a magical evening where we saw wildfire electrical storms circling the valley on the mountains. It was unbelieveable! In the meantime I was continuing to cook my specialties and experimenting with new stuff, all good fun!

Trying Out Different Styles

The time came for us to make our way down south for the show where we were staying with the organiser ( a hairdresser called Holly from Roxburgh who runs the Belissimo Salon). We took the opportunity to have one last Roxburger and catch up with our friend Jess before knuckling down to prepare for the Tuesday night performance. The irony that it was all going to end where it began was not lost on us, it has been the perfect story. While Monique spent her days with her feet up, getting her hair done and being generally pampered, I became a general handy man fetching bits of staging and making coffee runs. Funtimes. I joke, I did really enjoy myself as I had plenty of time to head off on drives around the area and go trekking to my hearts content!

They decide it's time to play with my hair instead...

The night before the show Monique and I had an interesting experience in which we nearly died, narrowly avoiding hitting a massive cow on the road. (Thank god her car can't handle uphill drives well!) We turned round and tried to shepherd the cow off the main road, it was already dark and the cow was black, not a good combination. Unfortunately a car coming the other way didn't see the cow and despite us flashing our lights like mad, hit the cow. They did slow down on seeing us which was fortunate because if they hadn't it could have been a WHOLE lot worse! The cow was badly injured and dissappeared off down the road and these poor young teenager's car (whcih didn't even belong to them) was left terribly damaged. Never a quiet night in Roxburgh.

Monique In Action!

The Stylists In Action!

The next day was one of wild preparation. Thanks to nature providing a massive dump of snow there were many practical difficulties to overcome much to Holly's dismay (particularly as she was a tad hungover from our antics the night before!) however we pressed on and the venue was set up with the posters, staging and products in good time for the start. Monique's opening to the show went awesome (despite her insisting she forgot half the choreography) and everyone was hugely complimentary about it. The (by the way sell out) show involved 10 models 4 of whom were waitresses serving and keeping everything running smoothly. The other 6 were used to demonstrate hair styling techniques by Holly and another hair stylist called Nelson from Dunedin. The whole evening was 50's style with fancy snacks on offer, (for $45 a ticket you'd expect so...even if I did get in free...) whilst people chatted and looked at products laid out in displays I played piano which handily excused me from much of the clean up process! Hehe =)

Me In Action!

Wednesday afternoon I had a flight to catch from Queenstown. We were initially quite concerned because of the snow but we made it there just fine just in time to have Fergburger for lunch by the waterfront, where we got hassled by birds wanting a feed (much to our amusement!) As fortunately during the morning the Lindis Pass Monique was supposed to go through was restricted to only those with snow chains she could spend a bit more time with me before my flight. We drove a little down the way towards Glenorchy and used the time to transfer videos we both had of our time together. Then we drove to the airport. We must have sat outside the terminal in the car for about 45 minutes not wanting it to be over. I had never anticipated the act of leaving a car could be so damn hard. Eventually we agreed to 'just do this' and I got my bag from the boot. After one final goodbye I walked towards the terminal and she drove away. I was in a sufficient state to embarrass myself in the airport without really caring. I boarded my flight and flew north. Auckland here I come... again. Monique I love you and will never forget you, if you don't get your ass to Europe next year and come visit I will hunt. you. down. Just sayin'. =P

Leaving The South Island... Again

South Island Snow!!!!

I decided this deserved an entire blog post of it's own, with pictures galore of course! After a much awaited arrival (it was very late this year) the snow arrived in full force and dumped ridiculously huge snowflakes all over the shop conquering the puddles everywhere which had preceded it! Whilst Monique was at work I went for an adventure down the river to check out the stunning views and booooy was it worth it! We had some interesting close calls with getting trapped IN Omarama and Monique not being able to make it back there after dropping me off in Queenstown, but it all worked out nicely and we just got to appreciate the beautiful snow. Here are a selection of my pictures of it... enjoy!

Gives you an idea of the ridiculous amount of snow that fell!

Return To The South Island

Flight Back

Following my trip up to the the Northern tip of New Zealand I decided to fly back down to the South Island. I know some people may disagree with me on this decision (my father for one!) but it was my choice and I don't regret it, in fact, I fail to see how I'd have been as happy anywhere else!

Now we might as well make it very clear why I returned. It was to go and spend more time before I left New Zealand with Monique. I'm not going to go deeply into all the 'hot gossip' you may be wanting and please don't be annoyed if you find me not really wanting to talk about it. Anyway, this is what I got up to back down south!

I flew in to Christchurch where I met up with Django and Laura for a very nice reunion. Django is a legend who I was a bit gutted to have missed when I flew out so the opportunity to meet again was fantastic! After a night's sleep I undertook the longest day of hitch-hiking I have EVER had. It took around 8-9 lifts and I didn't even make it all the way to Omarama, only to Kurow! That wasn't too bad becuase Monique could pick me up from there and it was better than the wilderness I had thought I was going to be stranded in!!

NOT where a Hitch-Hiker wants to be at sunset!!

One Such Romantic Evening..

The next week was spent in Omarama, I had a marvelous time slobbing about, cooking meals, desserts and all that jazz before going and picking up Monique from her work at The Wrinkly Ram Cafe. We had some lovely evenings, very romantic and fun. Time being so limited we really made the most we could of eachother's company and ironically Omarama (crappy junction town of the Triumph 2000 breaking down) is a place with some of my happiest memories.

Lounging Around The Motel

On Monique's days off we ventured forth unto Dunedin, where we checked out costumes for Monique for her up and coming dance performance. After getting to see her try on various Burlesque style outfits, I began to understand the enjoyment behind this shopping malarky.. ;-) And also getting harrassed by crazy old men in the library when a minute silence for the Prime Minister's Wife quickly became 10 minutes of him shh-ing me and me telling him to get lost. Dunedin folk are insane. It was a trip involving lots of driving (all good experience for me!) so apart from some bowling and mini golf in Dunedin and stopping off to visit John and Pat, it was very much all gogogo!

Venturing to the Northern Tip of New Zealand

Rainbow Falls

Now fed up of Auckland's appalling weather I took 'The Naked Bus' (yes, you heard) up the coast to Kerikeri, the most northern biggish town. On arriving despite the weather being pretty rubbish I hiked to tracks around the town inluding the walking track to Rainbow Falls via the Fairy Pools. I wasn't expecting the falls to be as spectacular as they were, having seen what qualified as a 'big waterfall' in other areas of NZ I was suprised to find that after just an hours walk on the track you make it to a very gratifying, impressive sight!

Kemp House

Other sites I visited around the area included the two oldest buildings in the country, The Stone House and Kemp House, the latter built in 1820. So that's as far as NZ's history exhibits go, not even 200 years!! I stayed at Hone Heke Lodge, a very homely place where seasonal workers head out to pick Avocado's, Kiwi Fruit, oranges and other such delights.

90 Mile Beach

On my third day I took a tour up to the northern tip of New Zealand known as Cape Reinga. I have to say the tour was fantastic, costing around $135 you were taken right up the 90 mile beach, did some dune boarding (fantastic fun, if you don't mind getting soaked!) then up to the northern point where you got to witness the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meeting. Seeing two seas crashing against eachother is magnificant to say the least! The Maori say it represents sex. They're just being dirty minded if you ask me. But that's not the only Maori belief I learnt on the trip, they also believe that when people die their spirits walk up the middle of New Zealand to this point and descend down the roots of a pohutukawa tree into the sea to journey back to the mythical homeland where the Maori originally moved from. Frankly I'd like to ask the question what happens if someone cuts down the tree? Are their souls forever screwed? I'm not gonna do it... just saying though.. bit silly to put all your hopes on one tree which might die or something..

The Meeting of Two Seas

Couch costing $55,000

Kauri Staircase

On the return from the tip we stopped off at a gum-digging site where people used to dig down to the buried Kauri forests and take the gum-sap type thingy to be used as varnish. It has been compared to a 'gold-rush' and is very valuable, for instance Ancient Kauri wood is one of the most expensive timbers in existence due to it being thousands of years old. The picture to the right shows the most expensive carving in Kauri World show rooms, to give you some idea! It was a fantastic trip, concluded with fish and chips in Magonui in a building that extends into the harbour on stilts. Brilliant, I had a great time and thoroughly reccommend others to go up and visit!!

Mangonui Fish Shop

City Life- A Week in Auckland

Arriving in Auckland to horrible rainy weather (very much typical of my experience in the North Island unfortunately) but a very bright and chirpy Maia, as always! The weather for the next four days was horrific, I spent more or less the entire time indoors catching up on missed games console time and movie watching. Fantastic. I did do some productive things, like booking a trip up north and sorting out my accomodation in Hong Kong in a months time! Woop!

Auckland City

I spent some time getting hopelessly lost in central Auckland, the bus system is an absolute maze. Long story short I ended up somewhere a long way from where I intended to be. Not fun. The vast majority of the time was spent finding the things I wanted to check out rather than ACTUALLY seeing them. Auckland can be a beautiful city though, especially at night from Auckland bridge I found, unfortunately I didn't have my camera but it really is a magical sight to behold!

On a few of the days in the brief periods of sunshine between manic showers I did make it down to the beach in Mellons Bay, which was beautiful, a breath of fresh air and just a tad lonely. Nothing's as fun when you're not sharing it with any mates, so I resorted to hunting crabs in rock pools. And failed.

Sunrise in Auckland

However, I did have good fun in the evenings with Maia, sitting around eating chocolate and drinking wine infront of the tele. One night I cooked risotto for her and Rodney which was good fun, it'd been a while since I had last cooked a decent meal!

Mr Nom Nom- just look at the eyes!!