Here we are, back home in a very wintry Christchurch. Our day in Hong Kong was very, very hot and pretty rushed, but it was great to be able to at least get a look at the city after expecting to miss it entirely. It was a very interesting city, busy and crowded on the streets, but very clean (aside from the air). Also, the paradox between the markets and street vendors in Kowloon against the big business skyscrapers of Hong Kong just across the harbour is fascinating. As we had limited time, the purser on our Air NZ flight had given us really good instructions on how to get around and a couple of 'must do' things. It was a foggy day (as many of them are as it is really humid), so we didn't use any time going to "the Peak", but visited a couple of market streets and did the walk along the harbourside to see the view that you see on postcards.
It sure is something to see but I haven't been able to post up any photos of Hong Kong as the camera download cable is still in transit. One of our bags didn't leave london with us so is still in transit. It is the one carrying ALL of our new shoes, so I was very pleased when we arrived in Auckland to find that they had located it (when we left Hong Kong it was just "missing"). The Air NZ baggage service guy has just rung to say it will be in Christchurch at about 9pm tonight.
We arrived home absolutely exhausted. Because of the cancelled flight from London, we skipped a 'night' so - excluding the limited amount of sleep on the plane - we had been awake (and in the same clothes, eeeewww!) for 41 hours. When we arrived home, I did a bit of unpacking and laundry while Brett had a bit of a snooze. I decided to 'just sit down for a moment' at about 5pm and the next thing I knew it was 11am this morning! Brett says he woke me up and took me to bed at about 8pm, but I don't remember it at all.
So this is a sign off from our big adventure. We would like to say a really big thanks to those of you who helped to make it the best holiday ever. To Alan and Paula, Gaynor and Harry, Simon and Narissa - we are particularly grateful to you for letting us stay with you along the way and for the time and effort you gave us. We don't think we could have stayed away so long if we had been in hotels all the way, talking only to tour guides, concierges and people we didn't know so spending time with you and staying in your homes was really fab. Thanks to Amelia and Mike for coming down to London from Oxford, it was so cool to see you too. Big thanks also to Alex, who stayed in our house meaning we didn't have to worry about it and also enabling Daniel to stay at home without being on his own.
It has been great to hear from lots of people that they have enjoyed following us around Europe. We have got zillions of photos and video footage, but I promise we will only share them with you if you express interest! We have certainly got the travel bug and are keen to start planning our next adventure. Bye for now but stay tuned!
Barb and Brett xx
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