Manuel visits Bristol

Manuel arrived on Friday night and we had a great weekend showing him the joys of supermarketing shopping in Bristol (hot cross buns were devoured by the dozen by a certain visitor who now has the nickname Nibblet since parts of buns kept disappearing all weekend) and exploring some of Wales and England. It rained for the best part of Friday night and all day Saturday but we managed to find a place to picnic as usual ... but I'm getting ahead of myself...It was one of those weekends where we had great plans but managed to get distracted to even greater things. On Saturday, despite the rain, we headed off to Wales with the intention of visiting Tintern Abbey. It's meant to be a great place - but we've saved it for a nicer day. Chepstow was on the way and we spied a sign to the castle which has quite a good reputation as far as castles go. We enjoyed wandering around it, and saw our first toilet in a castle (later we noticed long drops were replaced by chamber pots in more distinguished houses in the Royal Crescent - was that progress??). The castle was built on a steep cliff and seemed to have featured in a number of land wars involving kings and queens. As Manuel pointed out when we stumbled across Farleigh Castle on Sunday that where Chepstow felt as though there had been sadness and war the atmosphere at Farleigh was so much warmer and hospitable due to its layout and purpose as a family home (although a wife was kept in a tower for 2 years cos she didn't please her husband). The castle is apparently the oldest surviving stone fortification in Britain. The bridge that we could see from the castle is the 'Old Wye Bridge' - on one side is England and the other Wales. It is cast iron (very attractive and we would have explored it more if it hadn't been raining and I hadn't left my backpack back in the museum). The tide falls and rises up to 40 feet here (in Nova Scotia the biggest range is around 46 feet).
Saturday remained fairly misty and after a picnic lunch in the band rotunda we wandered around Chepstow (which didn't take long) and into the museum where we sat in our first corrugated iron bomb shelter and read all about heroes from Chepstow at Gallipoli before returning to the car and driving home. On the way to Chepstow (well sort of if you take the long way round) is a little town called Tutshill - not very famous until recently when JK Rowling who used to live there wrote all about Harry Potter. We wondered how long it would be before there is a Harry Potter museum in Tutshill where she grew up or in Chipping Sodbury where she was born or in Portugal where apparently she wrote some of the books. We then gave up - the rain got heavier - everyone was travelling to Cardiff to see the final of the 6 nations (Wales vs France which Wales won - there were a lot of sore heads on Monday morning - particularly if you were a Welsh rugby supporter and also celebrated St Patricks Day in the weekend - yes there were a few who managed both)








We took Manuel around Bristol after having a typical English dinner at a pub (Manuel chose burger and chips - english - yeah right) and to Brunel's suspension bridge (we seem to take all our friends there). Sunday - after a very lazy start - we took off to Bath only to find that the half marathon was on and that road closures diverted us miles away from where we wanted to go (did we miss some of those little signs that told us where we should go?). We ended up in Farleigh where we saw some devastation from the recent heavy rain, another little castle (Farleigh Hungerford) built in the 1370s by Lord Hungerford who was Speaker of the Commons. The chapel was a lovely little family affair and the crypt underneath included 4 lead coffins of the 16th and 17th Hungerford family (and sadly some little children's ones as well) and some concrete ones still with their original painted decorations. We then drove to Bradford on Avon which we had been before but showed Manuel a canal, and looked for a 'real fish and chip shop' for lunch, but they were closed due to staff shortages or lunch just didn't extend to 2.45 in the afternoon. So, Manuel missed out on the English delight of soggy chips soaked in vinegar.

The half marathon was completed by the time we arrived in Bath and the only evidence that there was ever a race were a few runners limping along (some wrapped in foil to prevent hypothermia) and a large number of yellow witches hats and empty water bottles on the roads. We stopped at the Royal Crescent and second time lucky the museum at Number One was open. Fascinating place - where the rich came in the 1770's to stay for six months for the social season and the spas. Here they wined and dined, took a sedan to the spa (servants had to carry the sedan up the stairs to the second floor bedrooms afterwards as the rich were so tired from sitting in the hot water they couldn't manage the climb!!). The kitchen depicted the life of servants and animals. You know those little wheels that mice enjoy running around on. They had big ones for dogs so they could turn the meat on the rotisserie and churn the butter and if it wasn't a dog I guess the little children had the job of turning the wheel. We saw novel mouse traps (we were told that the servants skinned the mice, dyed the fur to match the wig colour and then cut them to the shape of the eyebrow before gluing them above the lady's eye - a fashion statement which I think I can happily do without!!). Then onto the circus (buildings are in a circle) and designed by John Wood, just before he designed the Crescent. Manuel and Harry enjoyed pretending they were in a circus. We found home quite easily and went around to a friends place for dinner before looking through our photos and going to bed (an early start to the week with dropping Manuel off at the airport).

This week was our first week back after spending 3 fun weeks in New Zealand. We've been really tired (perhaps two lots of jet lag in 3 weeks is taking its toll). We returned to England and the hope of spring. Daffodils are everywhere - and I have decided why English cities have lots of grass rather than flowering beds like in Wellington - its because in spring time the daffodils come up. Very pretty if only for a very short time. We have been frustrated this week with the problems of exchanging our drivers licences for English ones. Our international one only lasts for a year. The form says we have to post our passports away (no way we thought - that would impede our travel and we would risk never getting it back). So, we found out we can go to an office to show them our passport and have the form approved without posting it in but where are the offices? Glasgow, Nottingham, London and Swansea. So, a day off work travelling to Swansea during the week - not just one of us cos we have to go personally. The form also asks for a signature of someone who has known us for at least 2 years and has lived in England for at least 2 years. No one springs to mind for us (all our rellies seemed to move to England with the family on the boats back in the 1880's) and we've only been here for 10 months so our friends and workmates are all kind of new. So, we rang the 'hotline' again and they told us - that was o.k. we didn't need to worry as the office can endorse it when we go. We also heard a rumour that we couldn't drive while we didn't have either our NZ licence (which we have to post in with our application) or our English one (which we won't have) but that isn't true thankfully. We did both ring the hotline to make sure we got different people and the same answers which we did which is promising for any government agency. So, to get our license we have to plan another long weekend in Wales - what a shame...

A stopover in Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong at 5.00 in the morning – straight from Auckland and a day earlier than expected. I never could understand how people could get their travel days mixed up but now I know – it just happens!! We were lucky that we had looked at our tickets and could rearrange our Thursday to fit in all the people we had planned to see on Friday and that family dinner we were planning ended up being a burger and chips at the airport. It was a long trip – being night time we were meant to sleep but I was up most of the time fidgeting, looking out the window into the darkness and even sitting on the floor while Haz happily dozed some of the time away in his economy seat. I’ve decided that these long haul flights are better in the day – at least you are awake – you can watch tv, read books, look out the window, write the blog and look at our photos, and then go to sleep when you arrive rather than trying to stay up all day (which is what happened on the London leg and we have recovered much quicker). We had a trip to our Hong Kong hotel in a Mercedes (the courtesy hotel bus was full but we didn’t mind) and our first impressions of Hong Kong were – how could it be so busy so early in the morning, highly populated with clusters of very tall apartment blocks (and we found out later very small apartments), very clean and picturesque with 90% of the car fleet being ‘Toyota’.
Busy, clean, colourful, high.... It's a very clean city – cleaners out all the time sweeping the street often wearing masks – no litter. I initially thought that people didn't seem to enjoy their jobs but after getting to know them, perhaps they are just not morning people (after all they stay up very late into the early morning) but they are highly efficient, well organised (none of the bus trips were late picking us up – though we were the first to get on the bus each time - and we saw lots of school children walking in double file with their socks pulled up and their shirts tucked in).
It’s a city of contrasts and after a very early breakfast in the hotel we took to the streets to have a decko at the markets. It was a bit early for them – they didn’t open till 10, or maybe 11, or possibly 12 (after being open most of the night I gather). We wandered down Ladies Street, Sports Street, Electronics Street and to the Fish Street (the latter the lady in the hotel said we would enjoy seeing – she was wrong!!!! There was shop after shop after shop selling gold fish (I guess there isn’t much scope for other pets in such a crowded place – though we did see one dog and a few ginger cats during our weekend and a few strays). These little fish were either in very overcrowded tanks or swimming 4 abreast in little plastic bags of water not much bigger than the sandwich bags you can buy in the supermarket. We did see signs about fines for cruelty to animals but not in that street! Harry bought a flash drive, and me a pair of running trousers (not that I am going to run) and then we went back to the hotel for a rest from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong life. Having not a lot of time we decided to do Hong Kong by bus tours and spent the next day and a half on buses, boats and eating in restaurants. We noticed that the central area is very congested with taxis, buses, some private cars and trucks. Anyway, Hong Kong is into colours – red is for happiness, gold for power and prestige and green for wealth and prosperity. So, these are the colours that seem to be everywhere (except most apartment blocks are shades of white I guess for practical reasons). Red – the colour I never wear if likely to be in a confrontational situation as I have always thought it envokes anger. Well, in the Hong Kong culture it signifies happiness. So, it is all over - on shop signs, signs for womens toilets (men were blue), decorations in the temples, ethnic clothing, taxis on Hong Kong Island, road work signs, road closure signs. Gold – the colour that once only emperors could wear and their temples could be painted. Now it is everywhere – the buddhas, on the shop signs, on clothes, yellow and red chrysanths and dahlias everywhere. Green – the colour of the trees and the gardens. Although very densely populated there is plenty of greenery, although unfortunately not where the multitude live in small apartments in clusters of tall buildings. The harbour, thought to be up there with SanFrancisco (although in our opinion not a patch on Auckland, Wellington or Sydney) is lovely, well lit in the evenings but inaccessible from most of the apartments that are built around the shores. No places for cycling, roller blading, wandering from home for a Sunday morning brunch – except in the area by the centre where the tourists stay. Even the stickers that we needed to wear to show what bus trip we were on where gold, green and red (some other tours got sun hats so we will choose them next time). We thought we were over the stickers and being labelled after the tours but at the airport Air New Zealand staff also gave us a sticker so that if the gate changed they could recognise us and tell us to go somewhere else!!

There are fines for everything including spitting into rubbish bins and drains, throwing rubbish into wicker baskets (we never could find out what the baskets were for once we found out not to put our rubbish in them), smoking in public loos etc.
The other word that describes Hong Kong for me is ‘height’. The tallest building is 88 stories high – soon to be overtaken by one with 118 stories. 8 is the lucky number and 4 the unlucky one so if you own real estate on a floor with a 4 you are very likely to have bought it cheap and have some difficulty in selling it at a market price that other floors will go for. 4 means death and with a 1, 2 or 3 added to the 4 seems to mean that the death become more traumatic as the numbers go up. We couldn’t believe that most families live in these apartments (most are around 200 to 500 square feet – that’s about the size of our kitchen and dining room) and it made us appreciate both the home we have in New Zealand and the little terraced house we live in in Bristol.
Superstition seems to run fairly rife and there is one building that when viewed from an angle (designed by a well known architect) looks like the sharp edge of a knife. It is the home of the Bank of China. A CE wouldn't stay in his company apartment because it looked out on the building. The HSBC not far away also viewed it as a threat and so placed 2 cannons on the roof of their sky scraper pointed at the Bank of China. It has become quite a talking point. Lots of buildings compete for ‘best lit’ and many take part in an evening light and laser extravaganza that takes place every night. And did you know a dragon lives on the hill and a rather large building was erected with a hole in the middle to allow the dragon to continue to protect the residents of the bay (so it isn’t just taniwha that get special treatment). I didn't know you could get friendly dragons (except of course Puff). Hong Kong will be hosting the Olympic Equestrian events later on this year. They are proud of their racing heritage passed on by the English. The 2 race courses hosts 2 race meetings a week and the horses enjoy air conditioned stalls and 2 months off every summer (while most employees only seem to get 14 days annual leave). The race courses are private non profit and give their gains to either gamblers or to charities (like the park that now has 4 pandas living happily there). To save space the horses run around a few tennis courts and sports fields.
The people are proud of their local businesses (clothing, electronics, jewellery are three of the main exports – with tourism being a good money earner as well). We visited a jewellery manufacturer with some very impressive and expensive jewellery but we still get quite put off by the salesman not leaving us alone to browse. It is obviously a cultural thing again – but I am sure I would buy more if I could look in peace. The other thing that seems to be a nagging theme – is get your photo taken – even in this day and age of digital photos there is a real drive to have your photo taken and put on a plate with Hong Kong written around it. Admittedly the guy who seemed to be attached by his camera to the bus trips did take some quite good photos and we ended up buying one (but not the plate!!). We are also proud of some of the photos we have taken – though the smog does play a little bit with the clarity of them – but that reflects life in Hong Kong and China. It’s interesting seeing well known PRADA,Gucci, Levi, Body Shop, NOKIA, Marks and Spencers sitting quite comfortably alongside Cantonese businesses that sell local products (meats, fish bladders, clothing, watches, pearls and so on).
For both of us I think that the highlight was the trip to Lantau Island. Once home to only a few residents enjoying the green hills, walks and beaches the new airport was built and 10% of the Hong Kong population moved in to Lantau's newly built apartment blocks. A shock for the residents!! Traffic is controlled by only residents and businesses based on the island allowed to drive there. That means you have to change taxis (from red to blue) if travelling to the island from somewhere else, but it you are travelling to the airport you can stay in the red. Overnight, property values skyrocketed and now children left derelict houses by dead relatives are enjoying sitting on little gold mines. We couldn’t resist paddling in the south China Sea and wandering the golden beach (where you weren’t allowed to smoke, play ball or throw a discus, fly a kite, park a bike, fish, throw sand or stones but you could swim even though the shark net was down for maintenance).

We went to a little fishing village Tai O – it used to be a bustling town – but due to over fishing (the lobsters we saw would have been thrown back in NZ) the population has now declined to about 1800 and with about 70% of the population over 65 it looks as though it will close down in about four years we were told. The villagers lived on stilt houses with tarpaulin roof – allows for indoor outdoor flow I guess and some televisions were spied sitting on card board boxes (I did wonder about possibility of electrocution). It didn’t look like an enviable life and we wondered how they made a living until we walked passed a money machine in the middle of the stalls – ah tourists - that's us. There was one building called Tai O Liquor Store (the Chinese name for accommodation and food) but long since used for other things. Saw 2 lovely little authentic temples and some lovely smiling villagers. The little shops sold lots of interesting goods - most we had no idea what they were for - however, we did find out that the fish bladder once dried forms a gelatine for soups etc - guess that is the 'gluggy' material we often have in chicken and corn soup. Then onto the Buddha – which I can't really say much about –built in the 1990’s as a tourist attraction he stands 37 metres high and overlooks the valley and the temple below. Inside the exhibition centre we saw fragments of bones of the real Buddha and learnt a little bit about the history of Buddhism. Then onto the temple for lunch where we thought we would eat vegetarian food silently as monks strolled past in prayer like stance. Well – think again – busy busy – huge tourist attraction – hundreds of people, nice meal but in a huge restaurant catering for bus trips. Saw 2 monks (one talking on a cell phone) and there was no request to be quiet in the temple. Then on to the gondola for a 5.7 kilometre ride down the hill and back to the airport. Impressive – seeing an airport from up above – looked like little dinky toys moving around – and below a harbour at low tide with people wading into catch we presume shell fish.

We were lucky to enjoy 2 Chinese meals, one vegetarian and one at the floating restaurant. Both, though lovely, lacked the spices and curries that I was hoping the Chinese would use (thinking of Hot Beef in Chilli Sauce from our local Chinese takeaway in Johnsonville). I’m not sure, but they may have catered for the English taste. While sitting at the harbour one night waiting for the laser and light show three young girls came up asking if we would answer a survey. They were researching the differences between European eating habits and Chinese and asked me what I usually ate for lunch ‘rice, noodles, red meat, fish, vegetables or other’. When I said sandwich, they didn’t know what it was (my accent perhaps)– I could have said bagel, baguette, salad, to confuse it even further but decided to say ‘bread’ which they understood.
We have only ever been to Singapore and Hong Kong in Asia. Both are very European with English widely spoken. Our trip to Hong Kong has probably whetted our appetite to see more of the real Asia rather than the touristy bits and we just might like to walk some of the Wall of China at some stage – what an adventure that would be.

6.00 saw us back at the airport...I got hauled up by security as my hand luggage included something they couldn’t identify through the scanning machine. Oh yes, I was taking back a birthday present from friends for their son – beautifully wrapped. The customs officer apologised, carefully unwrapped it, looked at it, and then carefully wrapped it back up even adding cellotape. Never thought about that question ‘have you packed your own bags’ but at least our friends told us what was in the present.

We're in New Zealand

Monday morning we arrived back in New Zealand - although an uneventful (we were on time on both legs) it was a very long trip. We arrived at Heathrow on Saturday afternoon quite early (after scraping ice off the car window for what we hope is the last time) and read the newspaper in the lounge (found out that fellow kiwis had bought 6000 copies of a cd for their dogs - apparently the enjoyment is from watching your dog wagging its tail and getting excited while you sit in silence - is this really the country we call home?). We stood for an hour or so in transit in the US then were told to 'come on down to the gate if we want to board the plane' in a very broad American accent (it sounded like an invitation to a barn dance). There's no place like home - does that sound familiar? As I walked the streets of Wellington I felt like skipping along just like Dorothy did on the yellow brick road. So what is so good about Wellington. Well...
The weather - we can't always say that - but this summer has been described by most people I talk to as the best in a very long time. If the brown hills are anything to go by then it has been warm for quite a few weeks and we certainly enjoyed the high 20's as we explored old haunts and sat outside chatting and drinking coffee or eating dinners. The natural beauty...

...'There's something about the harbour' - I wandered around the harbour enjoying the different moods of the sea, watching people relaxing in the sea, on the beach, in canoes or just cruising the wharves on foot or roller blades. Waitangi Park is a different place than 9 months before with the flaxes, plants and trees all beginning to be established. There's something for everyone - a place to picnic, buy coffee, swim in the sea, skateboard. There's also all those interesting poems to read and some more information on the history of boats and people than before.
...and 'there's something about the hills' -we parked the car in our usual car park up the Wadestown Hill more than once and wandered down through Wadestown into town with the cicadas in full tune. We wandered up Mount Kaukau (fairly effortlessly compared to pre-cycle days) and enjoyed the view with the ships coming in, the planes flying over, the trains and cars moving below us. And enjoyed wandering over the fields in Eketehuna.

'There's something about this city of ours' ...I think it is all the special people we know - our family and our friends. We so enjoyed meeting up with our family and friends, going to our clubs and for long walks. On reflection, we had a holiday doing all the things we would have done 1 year ago as a normal part of our lives. It has reinforced what we already knew, it takes a long time to make precious relationships and in a new country we can't expect it to happen quickly. Sharon's party was great - Macs Brewery is a good venue, with fairy lights on the ceiling and we decorated the room with lots of photos of Sharon, a slide show and lots of balloons. It was a special time meeting our friends again - those that had supported us as a family and it reminded me of all the holidays and fun times we had with friends over the last 21 years. Harry ended up night clubbing at Boogie Wonderland after the party. I took Mike and his friend home and Harry went to collect Aaron's car from Reading Carpark. It closed at 2.00 so he went night clubbing with the others until he could get hold of me to come and collect him (all I could say is next time take enough money for a taxi - but actually I was quite envious cos I can't remember the last time I went clubbing).

And we knew where to go - we didn't need a map!! It is so liberating to drive knowing instinctively that to get to Karori, or Paekakariki, or Eketehuna you turn this corner and go around this roundabout and to walk around the shops knowing that Farmers is here, Kirks is there and the supermarket is where you last left it!! We can meet up with friends outside Chicago, or parliament and we don't need detailed explanations of how to find the venue. We enjoyed the kiwi food - what did we miss in England - barbeques, sausages and crisp fish and chips - we haven't overdosed really (just a few slices of bread with sausages and onions coated in tomato sauce and mustard when we passed the fund raisers by the supermarkets) and a couple of lots of fish and chips (plus potato fritters, spring and curry rolls and pineapple fritters) on the beach. Oh and Harry missed the Marmite (we bought some back - we almost had to pay excess baggage!!). We think we will buy a barbeque when we return and introduce the kiwi bbq to those in England. But there are a few things the same as in England

• jet lag - it doesn't matter where we are it seems to make us tired - sleep longer and later and a few days where the energy levels are a bit lower


• the dentist - they're painful in any country but more expensive in England (but it is good having free GP visits)


• the news - all papers seem to have the same amount of crime, politics, economics, good, sad and bad news - though Harry enjoyed the Dominion Post crossword once again and sudokos seem to be more difficult in NZ


• enjoying taking photos - we didn't have many of Wellington but now have heaps. I've tried to take lots from different perspectives so that we remember more views than just those of Oriental Bay. One thing I regret is that I wanted one photo of all my friends with Sharon and Michael from the party - but on the night forgot to organise it (too busy talking I suspect).


• the wind - yes Bristol has had some but probably not as frequently as our Windy Wellington.

Thanks to all of you special people who made our holiday one to remember and also make Wellington our home. It's a pity that we missed seeing some of you.