Views from the port side of a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340. This must have been shot somewhere over the Russian Continent
It's dusk as we descend down into Hong Kong International Airport. Just before reaching the top of the thick layer of altocumulus cloud cover I take this picture to emphasise the affect of the setting oriental sun on our aircraft's wings structure. See how the total steely grey colour has taken on a pinkish hue - An amazing sight, which only lasts for a few brief moments
After disembarkation I take a taxi ride to my Hotel, The Eaton, Nathan Road, right in the heart of downtown Kowloon. The place is alive with activity, just like I imagined it would be
The following morning, Friday the 1st December. I'm up early after a very restless night's [non]sleep. I decide to explore Nathan Road and the surrounding side streets in broad daylight ...... [Oops! should have changed the camera's date/time stamp to local time - DAMN! It's five hours earlier than the time displayed, and actually just 08:19am in the morning]
My hotel, the Eaton, in all its shining magnificence; a superb establishment with excellent, friendly and overly helpful staff ...On my return into the hotel, at 08:40am, I make my way to the Reception and enquire about getting on a half-day tour of the region. “No problem meester Stanley ‘ooper, sir” - I’m told - “but tour bus it leaveings in five minutes – you all-leady packed-up ruggage in cases meester Stanley, sir?"
Of course, my luggage had all been packed since by around 04:15am !! - I deposit my belongings with the Concierge and just make it to the bus in time; handily it's parked right outside the hotel. I'm scurried into a seat by our very pretty and young Chinese tour guide, whose name is summin' like 'Yu Fook Mee'.
Good job I've gotta leave town by mid-afternoon to catch my next onward flight to Auckland!
The bus makes its way across to Hong Kong Island from Kowloon via the Cross Harbour Tunnel. Soon we're near the top of Victoria Peak, where I snap this classic view across the harbour back towards Kowloon.
With the camera's date and time stamp altered to the local hour, I briefly visit the Victoria Peak Tourist Centre. Can anyone guess how I managed to take this picture?
My fellow tour companions and I - just eight of us in total - take a ride on a Sanpan boat
They've got some odd-shaped buildings here
Some have even got holes running through the middle?! ...
... but the area has some great sandy beaches too - which are not exactly overcrowded!
All too soon it's Silver Bird Time again. An uneventful flight with Air New Zealand, on a more familiar Boeing 747, takes me to my next destination where I'll be stopping for the next 4 months and 6 days. I say goodbye to wings; soon I'll be saying 'hello' to my new two-wheeled ride (I hope!)---------------------------
On Saturday I stay in an adequate B&B near the Airport. The following morning I make my way across the City of Sails, in my little 'budget' hire car, to Howick, which is a sleepy suburb of Auckland located on the sout east side of the City. My hostess, Donna Pengelly, is out-and-about somewhere; however, she leaves me this note with a key taped to the front door. How nice is that?!
This is the view from my new front room .... WOW!!---------------------------
So with my sleep pattern adjusting slowly but surely to southern hemisphere time, my task during this first full week in New Zealand is to identify and buy a suitable 'dual purpose' [adventure-rally / road-touring] motorcycle, capable of taking me + pillion + luggage reliably across long distances on a variety of terrain including both (a) 'sealed' tarmac roads; and (b) 'unsealed' gravel-dirt tracks - in safety, with modicums of speed and comfort thrown into the bargain. Back in the UK, after weeks of research, I had already concluded that a Honda XL650V TransAlp would be the bike most 'fit for purpose' for the territory that I wanted to cover during the next four months. Luckily, just three days into the search, I found the perfect machine in Kerikeri; a medium-sized (by NZ standards) historic costal township tucked-away in the far north of Northland, North Island. This location, however, involved round trips from Howick, Auckland of 520 km (323 miles).
Three round trips to Kerikeri later; on Saturday 9th December, my new ride was safely relocated back in my temporary base in Howick. A quite immaculate metallic black XL650V TransAlp, complete with a 46 litre colour-matched top box; first registered a little over a year ago in November ‘05, with just 2,376 km (1,476 miles) recorded on the odometer … barely run-in! First owned from new by the seller, a 61-yo retired art dealer [British ex-pat], who quietly admitted that he really was no ‘born again biker’ – just as well, as this meant my good fortune!
I mentioned above that the bike’s acquisition ultimately involved three round trips from Auckland to Kerikeri. The final trip meant me having to scrounge a lift to recover my hire car from one of my co-guests who was also staying at the same B&B, the Cockle Bay Heights in Howick. A very amiable young 25-yo fella called Frank from Dresdner, East Germany. In return for his kindness, that took-up most of his weekend Saturday, I willingly paid for two full tanks of petrol for his beaten-up old 1994 Ford Telstar; plus a lunch during the return trip at the well-appointed Bridgehouse Lodge Restaurant, Warkworth, located about an hour outside of Auckland. I deliberately chose to feed Frank at this particular restaurant after remembering the fine meal we enjoyed there on the 18th January during my last visit to NZ earlier in the year.
Here's the Black Bewdy. It's no Honda ST1300 Pan-European, that's for sure, but it will get me around New Zealand over the course of the next four months, no matter what types of terrain lie ahead.
Now the work begins "customising" this machine to suit my particular ergonomics and other practical requirements. I hope to have this completed during the forthcoming next few days.
So this lunchtime - Sun-10-Dec - I arrange to meet-up with a good friend, John Cornhill, who was once-upon-a-time a private and corporate client of mine in a previous life. John is now newly retired and since August ['06] has been campervanning around Australia, and more lately - for the last five weeks - around both islands of New Zealand. We arrange to meet for lunch in the suburb of Manukau, near the airport, where he is staying for the night before flying back to Blighty tomorrow, Mon-11-Dec. Manukau is located about 12 km (7.5 miles) from Howick as the crow flies, but as I'm not a crow I take the 20 km (12.5 mile) road route instead.
Right next door to John's luxury campsite we find an excellent buffet-style restaurant, where you eat all you want - over as many courses as you want - for just NZD $24 [about nine quid). First course comprises of fresh: oysters, mussels, unshelled king prawns, calamari, fish stick, sushi something, + salads - all smothered in fresh lemon juice. Yummy!
Second course: could be anything from grills to meat or fish salads; we decide upon the baked honey stuffed ham, with roast vegetables and sweet gravy sauce with fresh pineapple chunks. Dubble Yummy!
Gawd! [burp] - What's for dessert? - Could go for cool jelly & blancmange + cream, or fresh fruit salad + cream/ice-cream, or loads of other chocky things, or a selection of biscuits and cheeses; but I have the bread & butter pud, whilst John opts for Christmas pudding & custard. Phew! [burp]
We retire from our table of fine fare - to just next door - back to the campsite, where John brews us a couple of cups o' nice English tea. We philosophise and contemplate the real meaning of life for an hour or so .... [burp!!]. Until we say our farewells around 3:40 pm. John mentions that he ain't looking forward to the trip 'ome ... neither
I pull away from the campsite entrance and head north along the Great South Road in the general direction towards Howick. Somehow my little rented Toyota isn't steering or sounding quite right, so I pull over into the first convenient lay-by. Damn! I gotta flat nearside front tyre. I utter the eff word - but only a couple of times. So it's out with the spare, jack & wheel brace. But hang-on? Surely I need an alan key to remove the hubcap, don't I? - Yep! sure do - but no alan key can be found anywhere within the vehicle, just an empty clip holder perfectly sized for such a tiny, but essential tool. I utter the eff word a couple more times! I find the car rental agreement in the glove compartment and try to phone the hire company to complain, but hear the automated words 'you have only 56 seconds credit remaining ... pip ..pip..pip..pip [et seq]' - Guess what word(s) I uttered next?! Fortunately I've stopped right by a small cluster of chalet-type 'economy' bungalows, so I venture into the midst of them and find a group of young Maori/Islander-type chaps and ask if any of them have a set of alan keys. Now, Maori Kiwi's have developed a distinctive twangy drawly slang (a mix of Te Reo & English) that had me scratching my head as to what precisely they were answering to my questions. I found the whole Q&A session with them very difficult and confusing. I felt like Matt Lucas’ character in the Little Britain 'Fat Fighters' sketches, as I was constantly responding to everything they said with, "Sorry, say again?" - "Again?" – "Sorry, again?" - Eventually I concluded that no-one around here had any alan keys. "But hey! does anyone have a set of screwdrivers; perhaps a phillips-head would do the job?" And sure enough, a suitable phillips-head was to hand, meaning that five minutes later me and my new Maori brother had changed the wheel, and soon I was on my way again. I gave brother Maori geezer-bloke 20 bucks (approx £7) for his kindness, trouble and time. I had to take his picture, just for the record. "Yoose puts me picture up on de internet ting maybe mate?", he asks. I reply, "Huh? - sorry, say again? sorry - ummm, yes dear, maybe" ... It's been an interesting day!
