Articles from this Category
27 May 2011
I skipped the Tai-Chi at 0615 and went for breakfast at 0700 so that we would be ready for our excursion at 0800. We transferred to a smaller boat, the Bhaya Spirit with only two other people. The crew to customer ratio was 1:1 on this smaller boat, with the captain, the cook, attendant and […]
26 May 2011
We had decided to go a bit upmarket for our Halong Bay experience because we have friends who didn’t enjoy their budget outings. We were collected at 0800 for our 3.5h transfer to Halong City’s port. We took a stop a handicraft centre en route for a break and shopping (for the gullible). We departed […]
25 May 2011
We visited Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum this morning. The queue was a couple of city blocks but it was very orderly and moved at walking pace for most of it. To be honest, he didn’t look very different from Lenin. We then taxied to the Temple of Literature. This Confucianist temple is a quiet oasis […]
24 May 2011
Singapore’s Tiger Cub Check-in in around 0730 at Singapore Airport’s Budget Terminal was a surprise to me. It was much smaller than KLIA’s LCCT … and the place was more like a quiet hospital … whereas KL was like a busy bus station before Hari Raya. It became obvious that Tiger Airways is not of […]
27 April 2011
We woke early and counted the hours till we would fly out to Invercargill. It had been cold and wet in Stewart Island, especially in the place that we had been hosted in. Our flight to Invercargill departed at 0830, with a leisurely connecting time for our flight to Christchurch where we would connect to […]
26 April 2011
Peter operates the ferry from Golden Bay to Ulva Island, where there are various nice nature trails … the bird-song here is pretty amazing. You can see and nearly touch tiny Fantails, chubby Kererus and clucking Wekas. If you scuff your shoes on the ground, some birds will fly down and try to look for […]
25 April 2011
The day started off miserably … it was very cold (for us anyway), and it kept raining on-and-off. We tried hard to stay warm. Fortunately the sun came out to play later in the day and we were able to walk to Oban and grab a couple of delicious meals (for lunch) at he wonderful […]
24 April 2011
Kim has a former teaching colleague, Peter, that moved down to Stewart Island many years ago. We had talked about visiting but it hadn’t happened … until now. We flew from Auckland to Invercargill (via Christchurch) and waited for what was meant to be three hours for our 20-minute flight from Invercargill to Stewart Island. […]
10 April 2011
On the return train journey back into Dunedin, Air New Zealand rang to say that our flight had been delayed. The first leg to Christchurch was delayed and we’d miss our connection to Auckland. The kindly rebooked us on an earlier flight non-stop to Auckland. We hopped of the train near Mosgiel, which was closer […]
10 April 2011
We left the hostel and ate nearby before walking to Dunedin’s Railway Station. The rail journey to Middlemarch took 2h30. For most people, the journey was the destination as the route took us through rugged gorges, impressive viaducts, clear rivers and green pastures. But some people opted for a one-way journey so they could mountain-bike […]