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Epsom, Auckland

Epsom, Auckland

It's good to be home!

It's Monday morning and we're finally able to start relaxing a bit. We have had a very busy few days since we arrived back in NZ. Wednesday and Thursday were spent unpacking in to our home. We've rented a house in Epsom. Thanks to Mark's organisational skills we secured the house while we were on holiday in England. We had seen only seen a few photos on the internet before we arrived but the house is just fine. It has 3 bedrooms, a garage and is situated on a quiet cul-de-sac in Epsom which is more central than where we used to live.

Our landlords live over the back fence (Joanna and Wati) and they seem very relaxed. They've agreed to put a gate in to make the section secure for the dogs. Joanna arrived on our doorstep last night with a box of Coconut Macaroons!

Anyway back to the story.

Mark flew down to Nelson on Thursday night to pick up the dogs. I flew to Wellington on Saturday to go to Ian's (my Dad's) 60th Birthday party. Mark caught the ferry to Wellington and was there for the last part of the family BBQ. It was a great day and I spent most of it telling everyone about our holidays. We also exhanged belated Christmas presents - one of which was a basket containg Christmas goodies - all the things we missed out on Christmas day in Munich!

We stayed with Mark's sister, Melanie, in Wellington on Saturday night. On Sunday we had breakfast with Melanie and Mike at a nice cafe in Lyall Bay (Maranui Yacht Club) before driving back to Auckland with Gus and Nina.

Nina and Gus have settled in here very well. They seem very relaxed about change these days. It's obvjous that they have been well looked after in Nelson (and slightly indulged judging by the size of Nina :-) )

This morning we went to One Tree Hill for a walk. Gus and Nina got very excited once they realised where they were going and they knew exactly where their old walk was. They also remembered where to look for rabbits and celebrated by having a roll in some cow dung. We're home now and they've had a bath. Mark is doing paperwork and I'm heading off to test-ride some bikes if I can.

Shanghai - Auckland -

Our final day in Shanghai started with Mark now infected with the dreaded cold that I had been cultivating for the past week. It was unfortunate for him given the long plane trip ahead. After breakfast in the hotel we packed and checked out. We caught the Maglev back to the airport. Didn't go so fast this time - only 300 km/hr! Our flight was running to time and we were glad to get on board around 1:00 pm. It was nice to be flyng Air NZ - a touch of home. Mark really wasn't good on the plane but a very friendly air hostess provided him with paracetamol, blankets and water. The flight was uneventful. The flight into Auckland was spectacular - a beautiful clear day. The central city seemed so small compared to some of the cities we've seen which have skyscrapers stretching to the horizons. The sea was calm and blue and the trees and grass looked so lush. After clearing customs we met our friend Barry who took us home for breakfast. There ends our holiday! Very pleased to be home.

Shanghai - day 2

Shanghai isn’t as pretty at Hong Kong but just as busy. The city has the same mix of chinese culture meets western society. Compared to Europe it’s very tourist friendly. All the signs are written in both English and Chinese and the people are helpful. One particular type of friendly chinese person is the one who comes up to you and asks “watch?, bag?, shoes?, DVD?, iphone?” Westerners stick out in the crowd and so we’re easy targets for this type of sales pitch. On the main streets you get stopped every minute by these people. The other people who stop you are the beggars who shake their cup in front of you and follow you down the street. In Shanghai we’ve seen a number of women with their children begging. With one day left to try and explore Shanghai we couldn’t really do it justice. We have a Lonely Planet guide with itinerary suggestions and we used that as a rough guide. First we made for a place called Yuan Yuan Gardens which is in the “Old Town” part of Shanghai. These gardens were built in the 1500’s and are comprised of multiple chinese pavilions set amongst meandering pathways and streams. The gardens themselves are immaculately planted. Jade stone was used to form the rockeries and it has a very rugged striking appearance in its natural form. The streams were teaming with carp. Next door to Yuan Yuan Gardens was Yuan Bizarre, a collection of craft shops selling tea sets, chinese fans, artwork, and antiques. We enjoyed looking around here and Mark saw a very nice teacup which he may go back and buy. For lunch we made our way to a part of town called the French Concession. This was Shanghai’s trendy area with large wide footpaths, trees lining the streets and all the designer stores. We stopped for lunch at a Chinese restaurant which looked popular and had a very nice meal. The waiting staff have been fantastic in comparison to Europe. There is always someone hovering nearby to look after you. We continued on to Xiantindi – a collection of shops in the French Concession which we looked around. ON our way we found the Shanghai Museum Shop and Mark has bought some nice cufflinks. We returned to the hotel mid-afternoon with jet lag setting in and had a quick snooze. In the evening we went back to the Bund to look at the skyscrapers lit up a night. We’re off to bed and pleased at the thought that tomorrow we will begin our journey home

Shanghai - day 1

Arrived in Shanghai at 7:00 am. Flight was on time. Hopped of the plane and caught the Maglev into the city outskirts. The Maglev is a very fast train and we reached speeds of 430 km/hr – very impressive. Afterwards we had to use the metro to get into the centre of the city. A very friendly chinese man saw us struggling for directions and gave us a hand. We arrived at our hotel at 10:00 and were able to check in. After a quick shower we left the hotel to explore. We had lunch at a local Cantonese restaurant and thankfully things are a lot less expensive than here in Europe. So far we have seen the Bund, an area next to the river with impressive old architecture. Looking across the river you can see Pudong which has modern skyscrapers which are also very impressive. Sorry we didn’t take the camera. We explored the main shopping street, Nanjing road, and Remnin square (city centre) before running out of steam due to jet lag. We were back at our Hotel at 4 pm and went to bed. Although we both work up late in the evening we managed to get back to sleep again before waking up at 4 am and watching some bad TV. We’ve just been down for breakfast and Mark had chinese wonton soup followed by japanese soup, pork dumplings, French toast, pancakes and croissants! I had cereal, pancakes, croissant and fruit. We’re off to explore now