Day 8 Aukland

The view from our window this morning.  Clear blue sky, sun shining and very acceptable temperature.  We have now just about recovered from the flight and had a walk around the city - very different from Hong Kong - it is a lot less frenetic and almost like the average UK city centre.  The other main difference is the number of yachts that continually arrive and leave from what is a very sheltered natural harbour.

We collected our hire car at midday and used the satnav to go to Mount Eden which is the highest ground in Aukland with an excellent view - no smog here.  Mount Eden is a volcano crater from a long time ago and the crater is grass lined.  Here we are at the top with another crater called One Tree Hill in the background.

In the afternoon we drove north of Aukland to a place called Snells Beach where we had arranged to meet part of Christine's distant family.  Here are Denise and Christine, both born Miss Woodcock, after a very enjoyable chat over tea with Denise and Kevin her husband.  Denise's family left St. Martin's in the 1800s to eventually settle in New Zealand.  Denise is very keen on genealogy and contacted us and hence this reunion.

We returned to Aukland (the satnav did not work properly for us this trip - operator error!) and have since had a very good Italian meal overlooking the harbour.  We are moving on to the Coromandel peninsular tomorrow.

Day 7 Aukland

No wifi at the airport yesterday and so two blogs today.  

During the flight we both crossed the Equator for the first time in our lives.  The flight was less peaceful than the previous one as there were several youngsters on board and we met some slight turbulence.  We arrived in Aukland on a beautiful sunny day with the temperature in the mid twenties.  We arrived at the harbour front accommodation and have quickly settled in.  The architecture is a mixture of old and modern.  We had a waterfront meal and will retire early tonight to complete the flight recovery.  We think we might like this country.

Day 6 Hong Kong

First of all I am posting a video of a bit of the lightshow last night.  A light? aircraft can be seen flying over taking in the sights.  The whole thing was rather special. 

This morning we quickly did our packing as we are leaving Hong Kong to fly to Aukland overnight.  We then thought we ought to visit the main shopping just to observe the experience but soon realised it was not for us – Chris had several offers to make him a tailor made suit!  After a short time we escaped into Kowloon Park which was surprisingly pleasant so we had a wander around and a sit.  We saw a load of terrapins in some pools and some attractive crested birds. 

Christine managed to find a favourite store in Kowloon! We then returned to the hotel for a drink, collected our luggage and went off to the Airport for the 7:15  flight.

Day 5 Hong Kong

An active and enjoyable day in this great city.  I posted yesterday a picture taken from our hotel bedroom.  The view is spectacular and outstanding but we both agree it doesn’t bare comparison with the view from our bedroom at home.  The views across to St. Mary’s through to Tresco are far better than anything that man could assemble!  I hope Colin and Sheila are enjoying it.  We are staying in Kowloon on the Chinese mainland and the picture showed the buildings on Hong Kong island where the main commercial sector is.  We looked for a local Chinese restaurant last evening but without much success.  There are Italian, French, German, Japanese restaurants and even steak houses around here but we couldn’t find an available Chinese.  Then we remembered our hotel had a Michelin starred Chinese restaurant and so we decided to push the boat out (not too expensive – no more than a meal at St. Martin’s Bistro) and enjoyed a meal whose quality was superior to any Chinese we had tried previously.  One thing we immediately felt when walking about was that the city has a good atmosphere, we feel perfectly safe and people smile a lot.

 The weather here is fine although at the moment there is a haze which our taxi driver explained was smog from the factories of China which comes this way in certain wind directions.  We did one of the recommended tourist things and went to the “Peak” on Hong Kong island and did the 2 mile circular walk round the park before descending in the funicular railway.  It would have been much more impressive if it wasn’t for the haze – as our photos show.

This evening we went to a steak house for a good meal and then went along the sea wall to watch a light show which occurs nightly at 8pm.  As you can see a lot of the buildings use lasers and other effects to do a Picadilly Circus on a far larger scale.  You can book to go on a boat to see both sides of the water but we were too late to book that and on reflection we are glad that we didn’t.

There is always some activity on the waterway between us and Hong Kong, ranging from 2 cruiseliners today, large container boats, pleasure craft and fishing boats.  A bit more than St. Mary's harbour experience.

Day 4 Hong Kong

View from Hotel Window across harbour

We have arrived safely in Hong Kong after an uneventful but tiring overnight journey where we lost 8 hours.  The flight came across Europe and former Soviet states before going above China, it arrived a little bit early and we cleared immigration and customs OK.  The arranged transport to take us to the hotel was there on station and we were soon whisked to the Intercontinental.  We are very pleased so far with the room which has a grand view of the harbour.  Well done again to Audley Travel.  We are going to try some local cuisine before retiring and having an active day tomorrow.

Day 3 Heathrow

We are now in Heathrow having had a smooth journey from Penzance on the train and Reading/Heathrow bus.  A time for relaxation and reading a newspaper etc.  I include a picture of when we went over Brunel’s bridge.   We are now safely through check-in and security and have less than 2 hours before we board.  So another uneventful day with all going to plan, a good start for the arrangements made by Audley Travel.  It’s then nearly 12 hours to Hong Kong and we hope we have an uneventful and restful trip.  

Day 2 In Penzance

We were hoping for a less eventful day and so it proved.  A miserable, grey, drizzly/steady rain day in Penzance and so just a short update.  We filled our time by getting some necessary items.  We collected our seaborne suitcase from the freight dock and then went to West Cornwall Retail Park (M&S, Next, Boots etc.) to finish our required shopping.  No wifi today so hopefully 3 days tomorrow.

Holiday Day 1 to Penzance

We have now made it to Penzance after one or two hiccups.  After setting up Button, Sheila and Colin we finished our final pack and set off from Lower Town at 11:30.  By then I had lost our Skybus ticket to Lands End but a quick call to Merryn, a friend on the check-in desk, and a replacement would be produced, so hiccup 1 was successfully dealt with.   As we were leaving Lower Town quay, Sheila produced her camera and took a picture or two.  I decided to reciprocate and looked in the hand luggage for my camera but to no avail, a more thorough search was no more successful.  I then thought I had left it at home and so I phoned Colin and asked him to look where I thought I had left it but he rang back even having looked in the Landrover with no sign of it.  We decided to carry on and have some lunch with Heather and Alan before I would come back to the quay and look in our suitcase.  Lo and behold when I looked in the case I soon found the camera and rephoned Colin to grovel and apologise for the trouble caused. Humble pie and embarrassment for me.   2^nd hiccup overcome.  After that we flew to Newquay and had a minibus ride back to Penzance where we met Christine’s Uncle Rodney for a meal in the evening – he had been to Penzance for a medical appointment.  So ended an interesting and eventful day!  No Wifi today so will post 2 days tomorrow.

Us in the Twin Otter on the way to Newquay.

Problem solved?

Yesterday I had a problem uploading a video and discovered that the maximum file size is 100mb and my 34 sec video in hd was 144mb and hence it would not function.  I have downloaded a file converter which has changed it from a mov. file to an avi. file and reduced the size to 3.4 mb and that has now uploaded.  We shall see if it works!  The video shows the interesting view from our window on Monday afternoon - it was raining over the Eastern Isles and the sun almost shining on Tresco.

Colin and Sheila Rowley have now arrived to look after the house and Button etc.  We have also had a phone conversation with Skybus and Lands End airport is still closed and so we shall fly to Newquay at 1600.  That is OK as we shall then be bussed back to Penzance where we will be staying Thursday and Friday nights.  At the moment it is raining heavily here but there has been no sign of snow.  Colin and Sheila came through a lot of snow on their journey from to midlands to Penzance on Monday.  We hope it is OK for the train on Saturday!

Packing almost done

Our cases are now almost packed, the weather looks fair for our journey to Heathrow and so it has worked out very well for us so far.  We started planning our trip in earnest at the end of September and after having words with those around we had sorted most of the places to visit and what activities to take part in.  We then contacted a travel agent called Audley Travel who come recommended and who specialise in long haul holidays.  We shall put those recommendations to the test!  We were allocated a New Zealand specialist advisor who then made all our travel, our trips and accommodation bookings with very little fuss and most efficiently.  (We were recommended one schedule, it wasn't exactly to our liking and so we suggested the things we wanted to do and they came back very quickly with an acceptable alternative.)  Us Savills are difficult to please but Audley were up to it.  The only initial disappointment was that we originally wanted to stopover in Singapore but we were too late for that and are spending a couple of days in Hong Kong instead.

Today I checked with our new travel adviser as our most helpful, previous one had left Audley at the end of December and everything is looking good for our travel on Saturday evening.  

I was hoping to upload a video on today's blog but it would not happen and so i am going to look into it tomorrow and see if I can manage it.  Technology is marvellous when it works!  I'd like to be able to use videos when we are in New Zealand.

I get around!

My wife thoughtfully bought me a satnav for Christmas and here am I in my old Landrover using it so that I don't get lost between Lower Town and Middle Town on the 11/2 miles of road on St. Martin's!

Seriously this is an important part of our holiday planning.  We bought a Garmin as currently they are offering lifetime map updates on some of their models and I discovered that you can download open source maps for New Zealand which are really up to date.  We thought this would be useful in NZ as we spent nearly an hour driving round the centre of Nottingham not so long back when we were trying to find our destination.  Most of the places in New Zealand are quite small but we are going to have to find places in Aukland, Wellington and Christchurch which knowing our form could waste a lot of time.  So we are packing the satnav and hope it gets through customs.

We have packed one case today as part of our preparations.  We are allowed 23Kg each hold luggage on the flights from Heathrow and 6Kg of cabin luggage but on the small plane we fly out from Scilly we are only allowed 15Kg total each.  We are sending the case weighing 20Kg on the Gri Maritha which is the freight boat which operates between Penzance and the islands.  It leaves Scilly on Thursday and we will fly on Thursday with 30Kg luggage  and collect our seaborn case from Penzance docks on Friday.  The complications of living on a small island!  We are due to travel to Heathrow by train on Saturday before flying on Saturday evening.

The job we left behind

We used to own and run the camping site on St. Martin's which was part of a farm tenancy but 5 years ago decided to take early retirement.  At the same time we swapped houses with the new owners, Ben and Caroline Gillett, so that they live in the farmhouse and we now live in the converted barn which they used to occupy.

 


Things are going well for all of us but those who regularly visit the campsite will not be used to the extent of the pool which is currently filling a lot of the site.  We hope to have some dry weather before the holiday time starts at Easter!

Middle Town beach with Tresco in the background

Most visitors in the summer will not be surprised to see how deserted the campsite beach is at the moment.  We have traditionally taken our holidays in the winter and so unless we go further south in the northern hemisphere we don't enjoy much winter sun but this year if the current weather continues we shall be OK in New Zealand.

Onwards and upwards

The new island Community hall is taking shape:

The new island community hall is taking shape!  It is growing daily and more sections arrived on our freight launch, The Lyonesse Lady, today.  The weather has not helped but they are still making good progress.

We are looking forward to better weather in the summer conditions of New Zealand but we understand they have rather a lot of rain too.

We now have our suitcases ready and soon decisions will have to made as to what can be packed and what is not essential - always difficult decisions for these Savills!

Where we live

Some more practice at blogging  - hopefully after feedback received, comments can now be added to the blog both anonymously and without belonging to certain web organisations.



We live on the island of St. Martin's (you may have guessed by now) one of the five inhabited Isles of Scilly in the UK.  St. Martin's has approximately 120 inhabitants and is 3 miles long by 1/2 mile wide ans stretches East to West.  It is the nearest of the Scilly Isles to mainland England.  It has a primary school, 2 churches, a pub (currently not occupied), a hotel, a post office/stores, a bakery and a fish and chips shop.

St. Martin's is surrounded by fine sandy beaches and our home is south facing 50 yards behind the beach between Middle Town and Lower Town.    It is a converted granite barn, originally built in the 19th Century and turned into a cosy home for the two of us.  We have quite a large garden and we enjoy growing flowers and vegetables.

Our cat and visitors

I hope nobody minds reading about our animal friends - it's good practice at blogging!

We have now only one very spoilt cat  called Button.  Here she is as usual making sure life is comfortable.  She is aged 4 and in the prime of her life.  We will be leaving her in just over a week but she is lucky that our friends Colin and Sheila Rowley will be house and cat sitting, thus looking after her every need.  We hope she behaves for them.

On our patio we also feed several times a day about 100 wild birds.  They come and almost demand feeding!  They are mostly sparrows but we also get blackbirds, song thrushes, chaffinches and a couple of collar doves.  We are very fond of the collar doves.  They nested in a palm tree in our garden in the summer and produced 2 fluffy chicks which have long flown the nest.  You can see one in the picture.  Another responsibility for Colin and Sheila.

"Big Bruiser"

Last but not least we have a feral (untamed) cat who regularly visits.  Christine has named him "Big Bruiser" because he is big and able to look after himself.  We know he is aged about 14 and considering his lifestyle he does not look too bad.  He visits us and one of our neighbours who also feeds him.  He survives quite well but we feel sorry for him in cold and wet weather.  He does not let us touch him although he does come close enough to pat us with his paws.  A real character!

Sunday on St. Martin's

I thought I would have another attempt at posting in order to get used to the process and let you how our day has been.  The time of the posting yesterday was all wrong - I am not sad enough (although I am probably pretty sad) to be up in the middle of the night writing a blog.  I have corrected the location and hopefully the clock is now set right.  


It has been dry on St. Martin's today which is a welcome change from a lot of our recent weather.  You can see from my office window view that it was a bit overcast but not too bad.

This afternoon we (the local Methodists) had our special joint service (with Anglicans) called the "Covenant" which we always have at the beginning of the year.  All went well - it was challenging - and because of the calm weather there were no boating problems with folks coming from St. Mary's.

On the way home from the chapel I took a picture of the current state of our new island community hall construction.  The walls are beginning to grow and the floor plan is now visible.  Everyone here is very excited about the development and we hope the weather allows the project to be finished on time - it looks as if the timber frames are ready for joining together.  When it is finished it will make a big difference to island life.  An ongoing story which I may have to update!

Preparing to go!

On top of Black Tor, Dartmoor

Chris and Chris Savill are rapidly approaching the time when they will set off on the biggest travel adventure of their sheltered lives!  On January 26th they fly from London Heathrow on their way to New Zealand via Hong Kong.  We aim to write a daily blog describing our experiences and how we cope with the different environments.  We know several people who have visited New Zealand from the UK and everyone speaks very highly of the experience.  We have planned to go for a few years and it is only now that we have got round to organising it hopefully while we are still fit and able.

It is our first attempt at a blog so please be gentle on the presentation!  Our background photo is of an open, empty road and that is what we are hoping for as we encounter this new situation for us.