After spending the weekend at the bach, I took a couple of trips into Auckland city and around the area with my aunt and cousins to do some touristy stuff. We checked out One Tree Hill (the name is misleading, there used to be one tree which was significant to the Maroi, then a few trees planted in it's place by European settlers, then one - then zero when a Maori chainsawed it down in a belated act of revenge), Mount Eden, which has a massive (possibly mined?) crater in the middle, and some Maori stonefields where they used to live and build oven, caves and storage areas from the volcanic rock there. We collected some avocados off the trees in the public orchard on that excursion. While it probably shouldn't, given the temperatures, it amazes me the stuff that grows here: peppers and abundant lettuce in my Auckland aunt's garden, lemons and peaches at my other aunt's place in the countryside, NZ melons, blueberries and countless other fruit that I'd avoid buying due to air miles in the UK laid out in the fruit&veg shops).

We took a couple of short hikes around the area too, up through a golf course to the coast opposite Brown Island, with fantastic views across the water to the islands which dot the bay near Auckland; along the estuary; and up Pigeon Mountain (which is less mountainous than the name insists) on a gorgeous, cool evening. The views, the blueness of the sea and the beaches here are impressive enough, and these are nothing, according to my cousins, so I'm looking forward to seeing what else New Zealand has in store!

Me and my cousins also went up the Skycity Tower, the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere, one day. It had a lift-ride which would do nothing for any vertigo-sufferers who had braved the trip - the floor of the cabin had a glass panel in the floor, allowing those riding upwards to see the floor of the lift shaft receding further and further away! The viewing decks which circled the tower also had some 38mm glass panels embedded in the floor, allowing those who had confidence in engineering and physics to stand and gaze ever down to the ground far below [I took the leap/step, naturally - see picture]. Auckland's a nothing-special city (does anyone really come to NZ for the cities?), but it's close to the beach and some pretty awesome scenery, and AC/DC played here last night, so it can't be all bad!

written by  LizIsHere on February 5, 2010 from Auckland, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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Auckland is HOT! We drove to my other aunt's house where I met my cousins, who I haven't seen in over ten years! It was pretty surreal, we all look and are a lot different! It was great to see family though, and to have a chance to chill out a bit and plan my backpacking adventures. I'm staying in their garage conversion, which is really comfy, and also means I won't get under their feet too much!

The next morning we headed out early to a holiday home by the sea (or 'bach', pronounced 'batch', as they call them here) for the long weekend (like a British bank holiday; this one was for the last official weekend of summer); me, my aunt and uncle, my two cousins and one of their friends. The bach was at Matheson Beach, about an hour-thirty's drive North from the Auckland suburbs where they live. We passed through some pretty countryside, and lots of vineyards, on the way.

The bach was really nice, on two floors with a big wooden deck and only five minutes walk down a very steep winding hill to the sea (it was about ten minutes walk back up!). We arrived, unloaded the two cars and then went straight down to the beach, with our jandles (flip-flops, though wearing shoes round here, in summer at least, is definitely highly optional, which I love...shoes are annoying once you get used to not wearing them - well, unless you're walking on hot tarmac, as I found out!!) and togs (swimming costumes). It was a quite small but really pretty beach, the sea was deep blue, and there were high hills behind and to the right, and a tall rocky island out to the front, with smaller rocks with rockpools at low tide closer to the beach. Us 'kids' lay on the beach for while in boiling sun (it's real harsh sun here - you can get burnt in 10mins) and then went for a swim in the sea, which was pretty warm. Later on we drove to another beach with proper breakers, and body-surfed a bit, which was ace.

On the Sunday we drove out to Goat Island, further North of Matheson. Goat Island is a marine reserve area; the whole area is known as Goat Island even though it's actually only the island in the bay which has that official name. European settlers used to call any grazable island 'goat island' as a shorthand, because you would be able to graze goats there (simple!). As a marine reserve, the area around the island is great for seeing fish and other marine life. There lots of kids and adults snorkelling, and even a few proper divers, and I was really excited to snorkel. Although it took a while getting used to breathing through the tube, and there weren't as many fish as usual about because of earlier rough seas (sometimes you swim there and literally hit fish as you swim because there are so many!), it was still amazing to glide through the water with the fins and see different fish like maomaos (which used to come right up to the beach to be fed on dried peas by visitors, until the practice was banned when the fish started mobbing snorkelers!).

After Goat Island we went back to the bach and met up with some friends of my cousin who had come to stay overnight. We took the bodyboards down the beach and messed around on them, attempting to board on the small waves and jumping off the pontoon in the bay, before having a bbq in the evening and playing cards (they have a game here called 'Scum' which is basically the New Zealand version of 'S***head', and a really complex game called 500 which I can't even begin to explain... I'm no better at cards here than I am in the UK!). The Kiwis found the glossary of NZ slang in the back my guidebook which caused a lot of hilarity; they agreed that most of it was actually used in NZ, so I better get learning it! (I'm already starting to pick up their habit of saying 'ay' or 'eh' after every utterance!). Turns out a lot of English music is popular over here as well, one of the guys is a big fan of UK dubstep and d'n'b, including Caspa and Rusko, and one of his ambitions for a European trip is to go Glasto.

Talking only to my cousin, who's the same age as me, it had seemed like a lot of Kiwi kids were unambitious about travelling, but it seems that's mainly because NZ has so much to offer (these guys have a pretty cool lifestyle, lots of outdoor sports, beach-life, exploring the bush and hiking); but these guys had travelled and were keen to travel more (they called my trip me 'OE' - overseas experience) in particular. In fact one of them asked me, half-joking, half-serious, 'why did you leave Hong Kong to come here???'. I guess I'd probably ask them the same thing if they turned up in Nottingham or Liverpool!

Overnight it chucked it down, monsoon-style, so this morning we packed up the house and drove back to Auckland via a quick trip to Omaha beach, which looked like it would have been an ace beach if it hadn't been blowing a gale! The weather changes fast here in NZ!

written by  LizIsHere on February 1, 2010 from Auckland, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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Get up, check-out, get my backpack stowed away by the incredibly efficient hotel staff, and then return to the Jade Market. It's really muggy today, a change from the past few days where it has veered from warm to chilly enough for a hoodie.

Despite having been to the market once already, I still wasn't quite prepared for the tenacity of the middle-aged ladies who run most of the stalls - within minutes I find myself in possesion of three bracelets. I did manage to haggle a bit in the whirlwind, via calculator, as always, so i leave with a little bit of dignity.

I've got three hours to kill before I have to catch the bus to the airport, so I head to Kowloon park for an explore. It's a pretty place, a quite peaceful oasis just a step away from the madness of Nathan Road, with lots of pools and fountains. Today there's a woman instructing another in Tai Chi, an older lady using the arm-exercise equipment near the low-hedged maze, and as always groups of men clustered round checkers games. There's also small lake with flamingos and an aviary with cockatoos, parakeets and Chinese pigeons - the poshest-looking pigeons I've ever seen, with long luscious ruffs of feathers round their necks and a haughty look to go with it (if bird can look haughty, these ones did).

....One thing I have notied in the Hong Kong is the huge number of notices prohibiting things, and warning of prosecution for even the most minor infringements - you can be wandering along a peaceful avenue in a park when you are suddenly confronted with a large sign saying stop that - don't do that - you will be pun-ish-ed! It's kind of unnerving, though there seem to be hardly any police about here.

I jump the bus to airport in late afternoon for my flight to Auckland via Sydney. Only nine hours + three hours left. Easy-peasy.

written by  LizIsHere on January 28, 2010 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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At the ferry terminal, still a bit messed up from jetlag (it's a good excuse!), I made my first entertaining mistake of my trip, managing to pay out $85 HK for a harbour tour (complete with humourless audio), instead of the $2 cross-harbour trip to HK Island I'd been aiming for. Not only that, but I didn't realise you had to tell the boat steward where you wanted to stop, so I missed the Central pier and ended up trapped on the boat for the full hour round-trip, learning a few facts about HK and catching some pretty good views despite the mist, but mostly getting pumped full of info on where was best to spend my dollars whilst in HK (I'd spent enough on the tour, cheers). When I caught the commuter ferry back across later in the day, it was so much better; open sides to the boat, a buzz of people, and, of course, no freakin' commentary!

Once I finally escaped onto dry land I caught the bus up to the Peak Tram terminus to take a ride up Victoria Peak, the highest point on HK Island (1,817 foot, if you're interested). It's where the super-rich of HK live and it's really, really steep - to think in the 1800s European settlers expected to be carried up the in sedan chairs! It was steep enough for the tram ride to even be a little scary at first, especially when the ground falls away to the right and you could see right down onto the top of the skyscrapers of the city. But the views were awesome; across the forest of skyscrapers. At the top (the actually summit is out of bounds) you step out of the wood-panelled tram and into the Peak Tower - which is basically a shopping mall (yes, with a Starbucks even, gotta have that caffeine fix...) with a viewing deck slapped on top! Nice.

Since I hadn't bought a pass to the desk, I went to the outside viewing areas. It smelt so green - the slopes of Peak are mainly covered in forest, and nature trails weave off around the area. I spotted a couple of eagles circling below the stone viewing area as I looked down over the buildings below. It was too misty to see further than the island city itself, but still pretty stunning, and to be out in nature after the city was great - real fresh air!

After riding back down, my next uber-touristy goal was the Man Mo temple on Hollywood Road (odd street name). The temple was built in 1842 and is dedicated to (can you guess?) the gods Man, God of Liteature, and Mo, God of War. It's highly traditional in style again, and nestles incongruously on the shopping street, opposite a childrens playground, with towerblocks and sky-scraping buildings towering over it.
Inside the incense smoke and smell is even more overpowering than in Tin Hau; after a few minutes your throat tickles and your eyes water. Here there are piles of oranges on the platforms in front of the statues of the gods, and the chairs which carry the statues through the town during the temple festival are on display in glass cabinets. Outside in a large open-sided fire are piles of burning paper offerings.

Returning to the ferry terminal I cut down steep side streets with market stalls (where an old man drags a heavily laden cart upwards, fighting the gradient), and then come into the business-district centre of HK - here you could be in any city, except for the bright red & gold Chinese new year decorations everywhere.

Tonight I returned to the Avenue of Stars on the harbour to watch the Symphony of Lights, where buildings on both sides of the harbour are lit up and some shoot lasers into the sky. It was pretty good, for the view of the harbour at night, if nothing else; a very urban type of beauty.

written by  LizIsHere on January 27, 2010 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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On Reclamation Street (there's a mesh of english and chinese street names here, understandably), a food market stretches for three blocks, with stalls selling all types of fruit and veg, dried fish, tubs of pick'n'mix, incense, electronic goods and metal bits and bobs. I see men cleaving up whole ducks and chickens at make-shift open-fronted butchers shops, the wood frames hung with different cuts of meat, whole birds and dried-out pig-head skins (yum). At a fishmonger-type place, live fish are kept in tubs which spread out onto the pavement, a filter-system rigged up to them from a hosepipe, spilling water over the pavement and into the gutter. Down a small alleyway a man beats metalwork on a wood block, and at the market stalls the women stall-holders knit, yell across the road to each other and even, at a couple of stalls, doze off in chairs until a customer wakes them up to be served. It's busy and colourful, noisy and at times pretty smelly - the stink of fish, meat, cooking and rice filling the air and mixing with traffic fumes near the main roads.

I stumble across the Jade Market first, and immeadialy upon stepping inside am verbally mugged by stallholders eager to sell me bracelets, necklaces, rings and other trinkets made with jade varying in authenticity. Apparently jade has been used for thousands of yars to ward off evil spirits and calm emotions. Feeling a little too calm (sleepy) already, I leave and head on towards the Tin Hau temple.

The temple is set in a courtyard park, off a busy road, but although there are only low metal railings between the road and the park, it feels quite tranquil once you step inside. Huge Chinese banyan trees trail over the ground, tourists and locals take a few minutes rest on the two-seater, polished-marble-style benches, and groups of old men crowd round tables watching others play what looks like checkers - a sight which becomes familiar as I visit other parks in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island.

The temple itself is traditional Chinese style; a green roof, gold-painted characters above the door, and red embrodiered panels hanging on either side of the entrance. The building actually houses four temples, but the largest is for Tin Hau, goddess of sailors and fisherman (the temple used to be by the sea, but was moved), but who was also named Queen of Heaven by the mongol emperor Kublai Khan after she survived a great tempest. Inside the temple it is smoky and the air is perfumed from the incense stick bundles burned and wafted by worshippers, and from the large incense coils which hang from the ceiling in the centre of temple, with small trays beneath to catch the falling ash. A translated Cantonese sign says that these coils can be bought to bring good fortune to friends and family; they will burn for ten days once lit.
The atmosphere of the temple is so unlike that of cold&staid Christian churches; there is a sort of reception desk with a telephone, worshippers talk and guide each other through ritual and prayers, in one temple later on one woman even answers her mobile phone in the middle of a prayer! It's a bit chaotic inside, the backwall is cluttered with statues of other gods and goddesses apart from Tin Hau, though her statue has pride of place. The walls are hung with red material embroidered in gold, and ancient oblong finebrush paintings hang in glass frames. Bundles of incense are lit and wafted towards the statue of Tin Hau as part of a prayer ritual; these are then placed in a bucket of sand on the steps outside the door. Some worshippers also beat the large gold gong which stands to the right hand side of the door a couple of times before they leave. It's hard to know what these actions stand for without being able to speak Cantonese, but they were fascinating to watch.
The Tin Hau temple is flanked on it's raised platform by the temples for the city deity, Shing Wong, who ensure justice on earth and in the undeworld (a god of judges and soldiers), the Fok Tak Temple which hosts a number of deities, and the Shea Tan Temple, which is for the local gods of Kowloon.

After the temples I walk down Nathan Road and then along Prince Edward Road West to the flower market and Yuen Po Street Bird Garden. The lush perfumes of the flower market are a welcome relief after the backstreet smells around Temple Street, and the flowers themselves are a splash of colour in a area crammed - like much of Kowloon - with cramped, grimy apartment blocks dotted with dusty air-conditioner units and hung with washing, jammed up incongruously against modern, shiny glass office blocks and hotels.

You hear the Yuen Po Street bird garden and market before you see it. Or, more accurately, you hear the clamour of the hundreds of birds there. As I walk up the slope to the raised area where the garden and market are, a slightly mangy parrot peers down at me from a parapet, squawking at me - it takes a while of me trying to work out what it's saying before I realise it is talking in Cantonese!
The noise of the birds is unbelievable; there are hundreds here, most caged, some chained or wandering about with clipped wings, from tiny sparrow-types to cockatoos. Songbirds have always been popular pets with the Chinese, and some men have brought their birds along today to hang their cages from the trees which run along the walkway next to the market to show them off and let them sing. Their cages are intricate - even their food and water bowls are decorated, painted in blue on white china like a restaurant teapot, but their cages are small, and it's kind of sad to see birds contained in that way and unable to fly even a small distance.

On the way back to the hotel I go through a fun but quite complex process of trying to buy a few oranges from an old man's stall. There's lots of sign-language, great use of the ubiquitous calculator, a bit of confusion, and then finally smiles and relief as I get my oranges and he gets the correct money. Being white and blonde, it's impossible not stick out here, particularly on the backstreets; trying to pretend not to be a tourist as you might in Italy or America would be both hilarious and useless. Hong Kong seems intensely and excitingly foreign in parts, particularly on the backstreets, and yet amazingly familiar (the buses, Macdonalds - noooo!, H&M etc.). It makes for both a confusing and pretty fascinating experience.

written by  LizIsHere on January 26, 2010 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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I ordered something that look veggie at a street cafe on the first night, but after eating a few mouthfuls, an exploratory poke around in the bottom of the giant soup bowl turned up something that look like squid (well, I hope it was squid). It’s considered a little odd to eat on your own in China - all restaurant food seems to come in large, shareable portions, and everyone serve themselves from different dishes and eats from their own small bowl with chopsticks. It's considered rude to order a dish just for yourself if you're in a group. I got some odd (or perhaps just sympathetic) looks from staff and other diners when I sat down on my own, and soon learnt to ask for smaller portions when ordering. One of my favourite things about dining out in Hong Kong – apart from the staggeringly cheap prices – was the Chinese tea which is served with all meals, from the delicately painted blue and white teapots in the restaurants, to the chunky, yellow-lidded jugs at the pavement cafes.

written by  LizIsHere on January 25, 2010 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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