We flew on NZ 1 from London via LA, landing in Auckland early Monday morning. We collected the hire car from Hertz then straight into town to see if we could check in at the Heritage, which given the hour, we were fortunate to do. We paid a few dollars more for a suite which meant we had a kitchen and, as we stayed in the more modern Tower block, we also got a washer/dryer.
The view from our room at the surprisingly good value Heritage. It wasn't much more than a good motel per night, though parking was extra!
We'd never spent more than a day in Auckland so this time we scheduled a 5 day stopover, just to make sure we weren't making a mistake in deciding to settle in Christchurch. We took a day or two to relax and for me to contact a couple of people I knew from my employer who were in NZ. We had a beautiful lunch up the Sky Tower, though my wife spent most pf the time feeling queasy! She said it was for dis-orienting going to the toilet, coming out and finding you're in a completely different part of the restaurant. It does move very slowly and I was initially convinced we weren't moving at all!
Having spent most of the time looking at housing, we also took a day off to visit Tauranga and Mt Maunganui. Despite it being the NZ winter it was a warm and sunny day and we even managed a quick toe dip in the sea!
We flew on an internal flight to Christchurch on the Friday. As we were traveling on the same itinerary we had the same international luggage allowances. While driving from the airport to stay with our relatives my wife made the decision that she still much preferred Christchurch.
Before the weather turned a bit nastier, I managed to capture some glorious sunsets. These are looking across the harbour from Redcliffs.
We drove back along the top of Summit Road.
We spent most of our time looking at houses, finally deciding on a beautiful house in the hills south of the city. Unfortunately we were outbid, so the search goes on.
Here's a flavour of some of the houses we were looking at (or should I say being shown, as some of them were very obviously pushing our budget!). I just realised, apart from the photographs (now gone) on the Harcourts site, we have no photographs of the house we were after!
We again manged a day off to go and visit Akaroa, via the excellent gallery at Little River. Akaroa is were the French landed to claim possession of NZ, not knowing the British had already done so. They decided to stay anyway.
We took the 'Tourist Route' on the way. Some nice scenery but twisty windy, narrow roads - and in the winter rather icy! Highway 75 is actually quite scenic in itself and is a lot better road.
It was very quiet, not surprisingly on such a dismal day though the weather was forecast to be a lot worse so we were quite lucky.
It is still said to retain it's French characters - by the standards of NZ maybe.
The Britomart Monument marks the spot on 11 August 1840 where a landing party from HMS Britomart "raised the Union Jack to demonstrate British sovereignty to the people on the Janks Peninsula.and the the French Corvette L'Aube which arrived on 17 August".
Towards the end of our time in Christchurch we got rather fed up with constantly looking for houses so went for a days skiing at Mount Hutt. It was right at the beginning of the ski season so only 2 runs were open, but enough for us to have a fun day. There were less than 200 people there so there were no queues! There were stunning views across the Canterbury Plains. Jo, having had a bad fall in France earlier in the year, kept to the Magic Carpet most of the day while I gained confidence on the Green then then the Blue runs. Shame there weren't any Red ones open.
It was definitely quiet, and all the better for it!
The ski complex.
More busy runs - NOT!
The snow blowers we going full tilt in an attempt to open so more runs for the weekend.
The closed runs looked fun.
It sure got a lot darker after the sun dipped below the rim!
The main ski complex and across Canterbury Plain.
The weather was forecast to turn and you could see the fronts coming in. You can see in this shot the narrow, un-sealed road up to the ski area. Chains are a must for non-4 wheel drives.
On the way back to Christchurch I snapped this real 'Lord of the Rings' view!
We flew back via Hong Kong on the way back to the UK. We landed early Friday morning and couldn't believe the heat and humidity after the near zero temperatures in NZ. We tried to check in at the Regal Airport Hotel (again, bargains can be had if you book early enough!) but it was too early - we were so hot and bothered after the overnight flight I managed to get them to let us shower and change in the spa. Just before we were due to join our tour we managed to check in - I expected better of an airport hotel, but I suppose official check-in time was 1400! After a great lunch we picked up people from a handful of other hotels and went to Victoria Peak, a great place to look out over the former colony.
One thing I was really surprised about was how British the place still is. The roads and landmarks haven't been renamed, government departments such as the police and customs have just replaced the crown in the crest with the HK lotus leaf design etc. In fact, there is evidence the local HK Chinese want to preserve the colonial aspect of their history.
We also went to Aberdeen Fishing Village, setting for so many films including one of the Laura Croft series. Apparently the whole afloat fishing village is dying way as the youngsters can have a better standard of living ashore. Our guide reckoned within 10 years it will have gone.
We weren't in HK long enough to try out the floating restaurants. This is where you catch the boats to go out to the restaurants.
They look spectacular.
But from the back they're not so nice!
That night we saw the spectacular Symphony of Lights show which is put on every night at 2000. Several firms and other government organisations have combined to put on a laser light and music show which spans the harbour. The best place to watch it is from the Kowloon side along the waterfront east of the Star Ferry Pier. We then caught the Airport Express back to out hotel - a revelation! Fast, quiet, clean, relatively inexpensive - puts the railways in the UK to shame.
I love Hong King and want to go back for a longer visit. I wouldn't bother getting a tour from the airport either, much better and cheaper to go in on the Airport Express and pick one up in town.
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