Jali's Journey: June 2017

The Journey Home

We left Hong Kong for an evening flight bound for Dubai, where we would change for a flight to London Heathrow. The first 9hr flight was thankfully half empty so we had a lot of space on the giant A380 Emirates plane to spread ourselves out on the seats to try and get some sleep. The flight was memorably bumpy and we passed above an amazing lightning storm which flashed and cracked lighting up the clouds.

A 3hr changeover in Dubai in the middle of the night is never going to be ideal but we managed and on the last leg of the journey we endured a much busier flight. However, thankfully we had a lovely air steward near to us who was very kind and friendly with the boys. Ben definitely slept the best out of all of us and he doesn't even get a seat to himself!

We arrived at Heathrow at 7.30am, bleary-eyed but happy that we'd arrived safely and with all our luggage (and pushchair!) intact. Hooray! The boys had done fantastically, taking everything in their stride as usual. Now it was just a coach trip from the airport to Reading station where we met 'Grumps' ready with hugs, kisses and firm handshakes for us all. How strange that 6 months earlier he had waved us off at the exact same spot where we met him.

Over the next few days, we were 'introduced' back into life in England in the best way possible: well looked after by Granny Ann and Grumps in their village home in Wiltshire, surrounded by the most beautiful quaint English countryside that seemed all the more welcoming as the Spring sun shone down. Quite the homecoming.

The Emirates A380 that would fly us home

On the coach to Reading station, tired but happy.

Meeting Grumps again

With Granny Ann

The lovely village of Great Bedwyn

Walks in the English countryside

Canal boats

Cow parsley and parish churches and blue skies

Hong Kong Capers

After a month of travelling around Australia with all the packing and unpacking, we were pretty tired and travel-weary. Ready to come home to be honest. However, our 4-night stay in a smart hotel in Hong Kong was definitely worth it...

We had a 7hr daytime flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong which was hard-work with Ben only managing a 40-min nap. However Sam happily sat in his seat all the way, watching TV shows and playing on the iPad. We only prised him out for toilet visits and to stretch his legs. Arriving in Hong Kong, we - with all our heavy luggage - managed to somehow navigate our way on the airport express train and then underground metro. We popped up in Causeway Bay, near our hotel on a street so busy with people, traffic and neon. We were hit by the humid heat even in the late evening.

Our hotel was excellent - a really swanky 4-star affair and we were really looked after. A cheeky mention of our Wedding Anniversary (the following day) and wine, chocolates, cakes and a card were arranged to be brought to our room. Our view looked out over Victoria Park. Lovely. We had a fantastic time in Hong Kong and the boys loved it. It was indeed completely different to anything we'd experienced in NZ or Oz - a feast for the senses, a bonkers but amazing city. We loved riding on the old trams which wind up and down the busy streets with the skyscrapers towering above and all around us. A trip up to the mountain on the super-steep old Peak tram gave us a stunning panorama of the city skyline. We walked around the city streets admiring the glorious HSBC building and then walking around the gardens at St John's cathedral. Taking a Star Ferry across the bay to Kowloon allowed us to explore Kowloon park (and swimming pool!) and track down an old temple hidden amongst all the new buildings. We ate some lovely food, even though not all of it was quite what we imagined when we ordered it!

In a lovely chance meet up, we met our friend John who was spending a few days in the city. John lives round the corner from us in Manchester so it was great to see a familiar face and have coffee and lunch and a catch up at the excellent Maritime museum.

Looking out of the hotel room window

Lovely hotel room gifts

Riding the Hong Kong trams

Tram riding

On the Star Ferry

The city skyline at night

Late night

The view at the top of the Peak Tram

Norman Foster's iconic HSBC building

Some big shoes to fill

With our friend John outside the Maritime Museum

Road Trip to Melbourne

Our road trip to Melbourne took us to some lovely spots, mostly following the coast around the south-east of the country. We enjoyed a relaxing stay in Eden - a small town by a beautiful coastline. We spent three nights in a beach-front cabin that was just metres from the sea. A really special spot. We enjoyed some dips in the sea and found a lovely secluded spot behind some rocks with a perfect sea pool for skinny-dipping. The local area has a whale-fishing history and when the season is right, people flock to the area to spot whales. We enjoyed a day out exploring some of the historic whaling station sights and lookout tower.

A couple of nights were spent near Nicholson where we visited nearby Raymond Island - a short ferry hop onto a small island where koala's inhabit the local trees. There's a 'Koala Walk' that leads you down residential streets and you can look out for the furry creatures dosing in the trees. It was a great place for a picnic too and of-course the obligatory playpark session.

Onwards to Cape Paterson (near Inverloch) for a stay near the rough and rugged coast with some wet and windy weather. No sunbathing on the beach here, just walks in our wet-weather gear.

The journey continued to the end of the Mornington Peninsula where we caught the ferry in Sorrento that would take us the 40-min trip across the bay to Queenscliff. There were dolphins jumping through the waves as the ferry set off (Jonny missed them as he was in the toilet...). Queenscliff is a lovely little town and it's a shame we only had time for a one-night stay at a cosy old cottage with lots of character. We enjoyed fish and chips and a relaxing evening watching 'The World's Fastest Indian' (a great film about New Zealander Burt Munro who raced motorbikes).

The next day we set off to drive down some of famous Great Ocean Road. This starts in Torquay and snakes its way unsurprisingly along the coast south west of Melbourne. We had a lunch stop in Torquay with time to visit the Australian National Surfing Museum. This was a pretty cool place and entertaining even for non-surf buffs like us.

The journey took us through some pretty spectacular coast - beautiful scenes with huge oceans, rolling waves and vast skies. We stayed two nights at Apollo Bay in the Eco YHA there. This allowed us to take a day trip to the lighthouse at Cape Otway, Australia's oldest working lighthouse. Sam and Ben enjoyed walking up the narrow winding steps to the top where we enjoyed some special views out to sea. We then went on to see 'The Twelve Apostles', a famous spot on this route that is packed with tourists who come to see the cliff towers that stand tall and mighty in the sea along the coastline. It was certainly an impressive sight and unsurprisingly busy - not just with people on foot but with helicopters buzzing overhead giving people rides down the coast.

We left the coast and made our way to Melbourne - our final destination on our Australian adventure. We had four-days booked to explore the city and then to make our escape to the airport. With an Air BnB booked at a house north of the city in Coburg, we could take a train to the centre for some sight-seeing and much-needed souvenir shopping. While in Melbourne the sun shone and we enjoyed hanging out in Federation Square, riding the trams, walks in the Botanical Gardens, visiting the impressive ACMI - Australian Centre for Moving Image and walking down some of the quirky graffiti covered side streets.

The last night of our stay was spent packing and repacking our bags, throwing away the non-essentials to make room for souvenirs and travel keepsakes. The next day was to be an early start.