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