NZ…… and HK

Introduction

This Blog is a sort of diary/journal about our trip to Hong Kong and New Zealand. It’s not a Travel Guide, just our experiences of these places: things we saw and heard and did and how we felt about them. We travelled to Hong Kong on 27th December, stayed for two nights, and then went on to NZ for a further 14 days. We loved every moment, and our only regret is that we couldn’t stay longer.  Each entry describes our day, finishing with my three best/worst things about that day. I sometimes struggle to think of three worst things, that’s how good it was! 

First, a little information about New Zealand: it’s in the Southern Hemisphere so its Summer is November to March-ish. There are two Islands, the North Island is sub tropical, the top of which is approx. 35 degrees off the Equator, while the South Island is mountainous so it’s cooler, rainy in Summer and snowy in Winter. The Maori name of NZ is Aotearoa which is translated as ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’. We experienced quite a lot of the Long White Cloud…..

History: the Maoris first colonised the Islands in the 1100s and Europeans in the 1700s. The two people groups signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 recognising British sovereignty, and New Zealand gained independence from the UK in 1947; the Queen is the Head of State. The population is approx. 4.7 million, about 75% are European descent, 14% Maori.  (This is mostly from Wikipedia, by the way). The fusion of cultures is fascinating and beautiful, I wish we could have spent more time exploring it. As I keep saying to myself, next time……

Day 1, 27th December: Weird, but in a good way

What’s weird is doing a long haul flight 2 days after Christmas. While everyone else is enjoying that indulgent post Christmas slump, we leave the house at 8am and are driven through a snow storm to Gatwick International Airport to start our adventure. C and K have kindly chauffeured us, so after bag drop, we treat them to breakfast (our first of three brekkies in less than 24 hours). Gatwick looks Christmassy in a business-like ‘we are an international airport operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year’ way. We say our goodbyes to C and K…..fast forward to finding our seats (in Economy, this trip is costing a lot of money) and prepare ourselves for an 11 hour flight, all ready to leave…..and then the Captain announces that we can’t take off because the plane has to be sprayed with de-icer.  The whole plane, not just the windscreen. This is supposed to take 20min and we watch with interest via the outside camera, as orange liquid is sprayed on the wings and the whole fuselage, which takes ages (well, actually 45 minutes.) And we’re off…..not much to say about a long haul flight except for the great in-flight entertainment and the yummy food. And the best thing ever, noise blocking headphones! I got a set for Christmas and they really do cut out most of the noise and have better sound quality than the airline ones for movies and music. So 2 and a half films, some music, a little sleep, 2 meals (including another breakfast) and 11 hours later…..we’re in Hong Kong!

3 Best things: 1. We’re leaving Winter behind.  2. Noise blocking headphones. 3. Great films/food

3 Worst things: 1. Delay in taking off. 2. Not enough sleep.   3. Arriving at 7 am, but for us, it’s 11pm.

Day 2, 28th December, Part 1:  Sleepless in Kowloon

 

Cost of train from Hong Kong International Airport to Kowloon Train Station: £7.50 each. Cost of Shuttle from Kowloon Train Station to Hotel: Absolutely nothing! Arriving at the station, we just have to find our Hotel (Metro Park Kowloon) from a displayed list and go to the pick up point for that hotel (K5) where an electronic display tells you when the next bus is due. The K5 bus reminded me of the Kingston bus numbers, no other similarities between Kowloon and Kingston noted! We travel through the unfamiliar streets, enjoying the culture shock, but being a bit too tired to really appreciate the jumble of sights and sounds. Arrive at Metro Park,  posh looking hotel in an ordinary street of cafes, mini supermarkets and shoe shops – a bit like having a hotel in Penge High Street. By now it’s about 10am and not surprisingly, our room is not yet ready. We can have a Superior room, ready now, but it will cost us…..we decide to go and explore for a couple of hours, even though it’s really 2am for us. We leave our cases and coats and go out into the street, where the temperature is a pleasant 24 degrees C.

Kowloon is on the mainland and is less touristy than Hong Kong Island. It’s more the industry and manufacturing side, while HKI is the financial and tourist district. We find ourselves in the middle of a steel manufacturing area, there are people welding and hammering, which does look a bit out of place in a narrow and busy shopping street. It’s also the Garment District, where clothes are made and then sold at the nearby Ladies Market. We also notice a huge YMCA building which apparently is also a budget hotel, favoured by families. We’re now starting to get hungry again…..and along the main street what do we see but that shining example of globalisation,  MacDonald’s. Time for our 3rd breakfast, and I’m falling sleep over my Egg MacMuffin and coffee. Then it’s back to the Hotel, where after a few more minutes, thank goodness, we are allowed access to our room. And joy of joys, a proper flat bed, don’t bother unpacking, just kick shoes off and zzzzzzz. And I’m going to leave it there, this is night time for us! Part 2 of 28th December next time.

Metro Park Hotel’s Festive Lobby

 Our Room – A welcome sight zzzzz

Day 2, 28th December, Part 2: Lights and Lasers, Sound and Symphony

Crashed out for about 4 and a half hours, wake up and it’s still only 4.30, how long is this day going on? Feeling refreshed, we head out to the Tsuen Wan MTR Underground train line and for 45p each we travel three stops to the Harbour area, which is arty, touristy, fun and……crowded. The 1911 Census recorded a population of 7,300. It’s now 2.1 million, making Kowloon one of the most populated places on the planet. All 2.1 million seem to be down by the Harbour this afternoon! We get our first sight of Hong Kong Island with its huge skyscrapers, just starting to show off its neon lights in the smog and fading light of late afternoon.

We explore the waterfront for a while and then pop into the Tourist Information to find out how to go about buying tickets for the Star Ferry to the Island tomorrow. While we’re there, we make an exciting discovery: at 8 o’clock that evening there will be the last performance of 2017 of ‘A Symphony of Lights.’ This is a light and music show, with lasers shone from the tallest buildings on the Hong Kong side and projections onto a large curved wall on the Kowloon side. All accompanied by music from the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. We have about 2 hours to wait, so we visit the ferry terminal, a shopping mall and the Cultural Centre, which consists of an Art Gallery and Concert Hall. A couple of shows I’d like to see, but it’s not possible this time round. Then time for something to eat, and we find a cheap and popular fast food restaurant. You choose your dish from pictures and a description and queue up to give its number and letter (luckily, in English) to the cashier, pay, and then queue up again with your receipt to pick up your meal. The only problem was, we had to collect our  meals from two different counters, our drinks from another counter, and it all got very confusing, being shouted at in Cantonese and trying to understand what we were supposed to do. Sat down with our meals, but I’m pretty sure we ate what each other had ordered……Back to the waterfront, and we manage to get a spot with a fantastic view of the light show and projections.  The buildings across the water look amazing, lit up with huge Christmas decorations and powerful green lasers reaching over to our side. And the projections are of a dragon flying through mythical islands and skyscrapers, fireworks and fields of flowers. With the dramatic music, it’s beautiful and oriental, and in the warm evening air, at last we’re feeling we’ve arrived on a different part of the planet.  The show finishes, the crowd applauds rapturously and we make our way to the taxi rank, too tired to take the train.  We show the name of the hotel to our driver and speed off through the night. Now, we’re not sure what the route looks like above ground, but it does seem to be taking quite a while. We stop at an unfamiliar building which the driver insists is Metro Park, maybe it’s a different entrance? We get out of the taxi uncertainly, and look up at the sign, yes, this is the Metro Park Hotel, but not the Kowloon one! Our driver has gone, so we hail another taxi and finally get ‘home’, having shelled out more than we intended on taxi fares! It’s 10pm, at last the night’s in the right place!

3 Best things:  1. Easy, cheap transfer to Kowloon Station and the Hotel.  2. Cultural and Waterfront area.  3. Symphony of Lights Show

3 Worst things:  1.  Jet lag – so tired!  2. Our room wasn’t ready (that’s not a complaint).  3. Being taken to the wrong Metro Park Hotel (that is a complaint).

 

 

    

Day 3, 29th December:  The Peak, I ‘heart’ you!

After a proper night’s sleep, time for a yummy breakfast, a truly international meal. Chinese (of course), Japanese, Full English, Continental breakfast, Danish pastries and more. Then it’s off to Hong Kong Island via the Star Ferry for the princely sum of 32p each! The crossing takes about 10 minutes and halfway across you can see the tall skyscrapers looming up on both sides.

First impressions of HKI are of a larger version of Canary Wharf, all glass and steel and shiny marble walls and pavements. We walk along a high level glass corridor which ends at a HUGE shopping mall, lovely if you like shopping, I don’t! Eventually we decipher the signs to the bus station and catch the No 15 to Victoria Peak, known locally as just The Peak. This is a mountain which overlooks the waterfront of HKI, a ‘must see’ tourist spot. The bus negotiates scary hairpin bends up the mountainside and we see huge skyscrapers in the valley below with their tops on a level with us, halfway up the mountain. We pass some prime real estate in a private gated development, super posh and they have their own bus stop! The only slightly annoying thing about the bus ride is the extreme air conditioning, everyone else has come prepared with coats on – and it’s 27 degrees outside!

Once at the top, the views are breath taking. There’s a circular walk right round the top so there are brilliant views on all sides. Hong Kong has the highest percentage of people living and working above the 14th floor. It must be strange to spend your day living in the sky. After a leisurely stroll taking lots of photos we visit The Sky Terrace (very crowded) for an expensive light lunch, we then join the queue for another ‘must do’ experience: the cable railway (or tram, as it’s known) which goes straight down the mountainside at a 45 degree angle. Our tickets say ‘The Peak, I ‘heart’ you!’, which is very cute. A scary few minutes, going very fast backwards, pinned to our seats and we find at the bottom that the tram stop is also the bus stop, so we get the No 15 back to the waterfront where we wander round an installation of giant fish constructed from scrap metal, and then find a Starbucks at the base of one of the skyscrapers and chill for a while…..we decide to head back and instead of the ferry, we take the Underground to the stop nearest our hotel, because it’s much quicker. Once we get back to the Metro Park, we feel a little weary after a day in the sun, so we get some snacks, including custard tarts, not something you would associate with Hong Kong, but they come highly recommended as a local delicacy. Night, night, flying to Auckland tomorrow!

3 Best things:  1. Trip on the Star Ferry.  2. Views from Victoria Peak.  3. Tram ride down the Peak.

3 Worst things: 1. Uber cold air con on the bus.  2. Over-priced lunch.  3.  That we don’t have longer in Hong Kong..

Middle Skyscraper is 100 storeys high!

Scrap metal fish with glass corridor behind

Crazy Tram ride

Shark and Escalator

 

Victoria Peak

Day 4, 30th December: Tai Chi and Pop Up McD

Another delicious breakfast which will hopefully keep us going most of the day. The last day of our Hong Kong Stopover, I’m so glad we did this! Our flight to Auckland is at 6pm, so we have almost another full day here. We catch the K5 back to Kowloon Station after breakfast, why, I hear you ask, when our flight isn’t til 6pm? Because we can check our cases in at the station and they will be transferred to the airport and, at the correct time, loaded onto the correct plane! I was at first a little unsure of leaving the cases on a big pile somewhere in the station and trusting that they would be put on the correct flight. Of course, it’s much more sophisticated than that! There’s a check in desk, you present your e-ticket and passport, put your case on the scale, the clerk prints the label and your case gets sent on its way on the conveyor system behind the desks. So, exactly like the airport.

We can get back to downtown Kowloon on foot so we follow a walkway from inside the station through a maze of a permanent construction site until we reach the beautiful Kowloon Park. This is a large green space, surrounded by the ever present huge skyscrapers, with tropical plants, fountains and ornamental lakes, complete with flamingos. There is also an aviary, play parks, exercise areas and an empty swimming pool. I don’t know why it’s empty, the air temp is 26 degrees, perfect for a dip and interestingly, there are a few Westerners sun bathing round the side!  We are starting to feel the heat so we sit down at some picnic tables next to a sort of McDonalds hut, which sells only drinks and ice creams. Refreshed with a cone and a drink, we sit and watch the world go by, which in this case, is a troop of boy and girl scouts of all ages, who seem to be doing some sort of treasure hunt. They run past in small groups, suddenly getting very excited at the sight of a flag attached to a lamp post, writing in their notebooks and running on. There seem to be hundreds of them, a constant trail of chattering kids, shouting with joy when they spot the flag. I would love to know what the message is on the flag, but unfortunately it’s meaningless to me!  Moving on, we find a group of ladies doing tai chi, they are quite far away and I feel it’s a bit intrusive to get closer for a photo. It’s fascinating to watch so I sneak a pic anyway (from a distance.) Lastly we visit the Cultural Centre, a museum with a fascinating history of the Hong Kong region, including pre- and post-colonisation by the UK. The most interesting part is the photos of the changes in the waterfront area over the last 200 or so years, unrecognisable now.

Time to go back to the station after a lovely day. We walk back via the enclosed walkway, which seems to have got longer and more twisty and turny.  We feel rather disorientated  because we thought we were on an elevated walkway when suddenly a lorry turns into a gap in the huge fence in front of us, we are actually at ground level. It’s hot, dusty and noisy and we’re glad to reach the air conditioned shopping mall/station complex. We pass an ice rink where families are enjoying a Saturday afternoon skating session. Take the fast train to Hong Kong International Airport where we count our remaining cash and find we have HK$28 left, roughly £2.80. Our last purchase in Hong Kong is a large cappuccino to share (from McDonalds, which seems to have featured a lot in the last 56 hours.) An hour later our flight is called, goodbye Hong Kong, it was great! Hope to see you again one day!

Three Best Things: 1. Checking luggage in early at the station. 2. Exploring Kowloon Park. 3. 56 hours in Hong Kong on HK$1,000 (£100) – they said it couldn’t be done!

Three Worst Things: 1. Hot, noisy, dusty walk through construction site. 2. Bumpy onward flight. 3. That’s it!