25 Feb 2009: Final flight of the trip

DAY 61: HONG KONG TO LONDON

On the way to the UK.

Last night, I left the hostel in Hong Kong early and caught the bus to the airport, arriving at around midnight.

The flight from Hong Kong to London isn’t until 8.15am, so I took the opportunity to stretch out on a couple of seats and have a kip. This is the first time I have slept at an airport and it wasn’t too uncomfortable, not that I would recommend it on a regular basis!

Up at 4.00am and found one of the cafes had just opened, so sat down with a cup of tea. I spent a couple of hours on the free Internet doing some catch-up work on the blog, adding in some New Zealand visit items from about 11-15 February. This currently leave a gap covering my return to Rarotonga and a couple of days in Wellington. No pictures as yet, but I’ll format some shortly and add them later.

The trip has been cut short for reasons which will become obvious in the next few weeks, but not a topic for the blog at the moment.

This is likely to be the last blog entry from outside the UK on this trip, as I have to check in shortly and I don’t know if there is a useable wi-fi connection air-side. Other additions will come from London over the next few days.

It will be good to see people back home again – family and friends. Those of you who have kept me company in email and live chat and those of you who have been reading my musing as I travelled around the globe.

To all of you, whoever and wherever you may be – thank you for being there!

24 Feb 2009: Hong Kong, and I hate it

DAY 60: HONG KONG

I really despise this place.

Since I’ve been here, I have been accosted in the street about forty times with people trying to sell me accommodation, restaurants, fake watches and prostitutes.  I’ve also had one attempted pickpocket.  And, I’ve only been here for six hours.

In many ways, this is not a surprise.

I am here because I am on my way back home to the United Kingdom. It is a long story and I’m the ending is still being written.  My trip was scheduled to be for about six months, bringing me back to the UK in June. I will be back at the end of February.

The reasons that the trip has been cut short is due to what happened while I was in the Cook Islands. Nothing to worry about by the way! I’ll tell the story in full later, when I have a better and  more private connection than this Internet cafe I am suffering in Hong Kong.

 I know that people say Hong Kong is a fabulous place, but to be honest, I don’t see that. What I do see is a city/country of seven million people, all of whom seem to be on the street at the same time. It is the crowds I don’t like in many ways - it makes me feel claustrophobic.

I have never been in a place anywhere that I have wanted to escape from quite as much as here. Well, one place matches it actually – a rather unfortunate experience in a Wiltshire school about 10 years ago.

My flight from here is due in a couple of days and it can’t come soon enough.

17 Feb 2009: Crazy life this travelling

DAY 53: COOK ISLANDS

It is hot here today – again.

No updates for a few days, for several reasons.

Firstly, I am not in New Zealand at the moment, having back-tracked to the Cook Islands. I like thsi place so much that I wanted to come back again for a second visit. The place I am staying is great, but internet access by wi-fi is almost impossible and the local internet cafe connection is very s-l-o-w. When I find a better connection, I’ll catch up on the diary and pictures.

Well, I say pictures – that could be tricky. My digital camera stopped working properly this morning. Switch on and the screen is just pure white, with a black blob in the corner. It appears to be taking pictures and the zoom works, but until I plug it into the laptop this evening, I won’t really know. I don’t want to have to buy a replacement, as this one is only just over two months old. But, then again, I don’t want to not have pictures of the rest of my trip. Hey-ho!

Today, I went out on a fishing boat, met a local radio ham and visited a local FM comercial station. The station asked me to record a commercial for them – a fishmonger!

Enough for today – time for supper.

14 Feb 2009: Double Valentine’s Day

DAY: 50/51 ROTORUA TO RAROTONGA

Boy, is this a l-o-n-g day!

It all started waking at the YHA Backpackers Hostel in Rororua. Over breakfast, I met Lois, who came and sat at my breakfast table for a chat.

Leaving the hostel by 10am and into the car to drive north to Auckland. The GPS took an interesting route to avoid Hamilton, meaning I saw some more countryside and small villages, rather than more of a highway. It rained fror much of the journey, stopping a few minutes after I dropped off the hire car. Killing a few house in Queen Street Auckland and it was time to take the bus to Auckland airport.

The flight for Rarotonga left at 9.45pm, taking four hours. I crossed the international date line, flying east and almost exactly midnight. The clock moved two hours forward, but a day back. This gave me a 24 hour Saturday in New Zealand and, by the time I arrived, a 20 hours day in Rarotonga. In all, a 44 hour Valentine Day, without a Valentine in sight.

The Vara Bungalow where I will be for the next few days is a self-contained building with a bedroom/living room/kitchen in one, with a separate shower and bathroom. There is an outside deck facing the sea, which is about a quarter of a mile away.

Regular reading will realise that the trip to the Cook Islands is a back-track. I decided to take another lok at this beautiful place while I was still in this part of the world. There are other possibilities I am looking at as well, more of which perhaps later.

13 Feb 2009: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

DAY: 49 ROTORUA, NEW ZEALAND

Why do anything if you are tired?

The trip so far has covered some 49 nights, most of which have been in some sort of shared accommodation. Tonight was the first time that I resorted to earplugs to drown the snoring of two of three dorm-mates.

An interesting comparison from the UK last summer, was that I had to use the earplugs almost every night. Why do people in the UK snore more that in other parts of the world?

Today, I did very little. Walking around Rotorua, taking the occasional cup of tea and sticky cake was all I wanted of today.

Tomorrow is a long day, so an early night was called for.