The Great, the Extreme and the homecoming
Trip Start
Feb 09, 2008
1
6
Trip End
Apr 03, 2008
Chandler's Ford, United Kingdom
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Monday 24 March 2008 - 20:57
Location: Aspen on Queenstown, Queenstown
A lovely relaxing day today in the remarkable Queenstown. Another perfect day for weather - pure sunshine with a cool wind - got to about 18 degrees celsius in the afternoon. Walked around Queensland Gardens, did some shopping, shared a delicious hokey pokey icecream (a creamy icecream containing crunchy fudge bits) and then sat on the deck in our room for a while. Went to the Skyline Restaurant this evening (on the top of the ski lift - just above town) - superb view, lovely food (6 courses!) and great company.... - the end of a lovely day.
Tuesday 25 March 2008 - 18:04
Location: Fox Glacier Hotel, Fox Glacier
Tuesday 25 March: A lovely day - mostly sunny with a small amount of cloud, and only a short sharp shower after we arrived in our hotel room. Visited Arrowtown which kept its 'Gold Rush' character very successfully. This was followed by stops at Thunder Creek Falls and Knights Point. But the highlight of the day was the stop at the Fox Glacier. I did not know what to expect so I was most impressed to be confronted by a huge wall of ice of differing colours ranging from a dirty grey to ice blue - this was feeding a river that flowed through the glacier valley....
Thursday 27 March 2008 - 09:24
Location: The Ibis Hotel, Christchurch
Wednesday 26 March - A very full day today! Started early. Saw the Franz Joseph Glacier this morning - seeing how the glacier just hangs in the valleys was fascinating - it is simply the temperature that stops it melting and flooding the whole area. A long ride then to our next stop through some lovely countryside, some along steep mountain roads others along the coast. The destination was Wanganui where there was the most dramatic rock formations (described as piles of pancakes) and raging seas that broke over the rocks and thrashed around an enclosed cove. The tour was completed with a trip on the Trans Alpine train from Arthur's Pass to Christchurch. The views of course were spectacular - it was also a engineering feat - so many tunnels and viaducts. Amazingly, the weather remained perfect all day, so our time in NZ has been blessed with unusually dry and sunny weather. Finally finished the whole tour with a lovely meal where we all said our goodbyes.
Thursday 27 March - Surprisingly met up with most of the tour at breakfast - so that took a lot longer than usual as we all said our goodbyes again. Now for our relaxed day in Christchurch........
Thursday 27 March 2008 - 20:02
Location: The Ibis Hotel, Christchurch
A relaxing day today - spent the morning walking around the Botanic gardens - lovely flowers and trees. The weather was warm and sunny, so we sat and relaxed in the gardens. The afternoon was spent around the market, shops and Christchurch Cathederal. This evening had a relatively early dinner at a lovely restaurant in an area of Christchurch along the River Avon called 'The Strip'. This week is the Christchurch Jazz Festival and we were lucky to have a live performance opposite our restaurant (we sat outside although the evenings are getting a bit chilly now) and listened to a great 3 piece band called 'Lindaeur' - a lovely end to the day. Tomorrow is a big travel day - Christchurch to Bangkok via Sydney with just an hour at Sydney - hope the flights are on time!
Saturday 29 March 2008 - 11:16
Location: Amari Atrium Hotel, Bankok
Friday 28 March - Had a lovely few hours wandering round the beautiful Christchurch parks and shops. Then travelled to Bankok. This was the most challenging part of our journey and, apart from the fact that the flight from Sydney was rescheduled an hour later, we arrived half an hour late at Bankok airport and therefore only 1.5 hours after we were due to arrive.....
Saturday 29 March - Late start this morning to catch up on sleep. I went for walk from the hotel this morning - the little local markets from ramshackled buildings are all true, but they are interspersed with very modern business buildings. From our hotel room we can see where awhole block of old buildings have been cleared ready for redevelopment. The traffic is franetic - but everyone seems to know what others are doing. We are about to meet our tour rep soon so it will be interesting to see what trips we decide to go on...
Saturday 29 March 2008 - 21:04
Location: Amari Atrium Hotel, Bankok
Met with Mr Mac - the travel rep - very vague person which did not give us much confidence to step outside of the hotel (so much for my hour walk earlier today!). Today still catching up on sleep so had a relaxing day round the pool - lovely surroundings with thick padded sun loungers. Very warm, even in the shade (yet another lovely sunny day), but being able to swim in the pool made it most pleasant. Ate in the hotel restaurant this evening - we seemed to be the only ones! - where is everybody else? - We are going to explore some options tomorrow...... starting with going to the world's largest (apparently) flea market - having seen some of the local ones on my wander I fear what we are about to see........
Sunday 30 March 2008 - 20:40
Location: Amari Atrium Hotel, Bankok
Great day today! - went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market this morning - I do believe that it IS the largest market in the world.We spent 3 hours there and I am sure that we only managed about a quarter of the market. The goods are good quality and well priced, Bankok is a peculiar place - the hotel is probably the best that we have stayed in over the whole tour but there is nowhere to walk outside. Also the hotel provides a free bus to a place but you have to make your own way back! So we got to the market easily and was shown entrance 23 to get in. Also, after I asked, we were shown where the Metro station was to get back to the hotel. After we finished at the market, we fortunately chose the right exit and a security person showed us how to get to the Metro station - we found that easily. It is amazing to go from a chaotic basic environment above ground to an incredibly sophisticated Metro system below ground. The shops were high quality, and we were there at the Underground Shop opening - a rock band was practising for a performance later - it was as loud as a rock concert that you would expect at a rock venue - the band was (I think) called Blackhead. The trains and stations surpassed the standards of the new Jubilee Line in London. We got to our destination station and got off without a hitch - but this is where the fun began. It was only a relatively short walk from the station to the hotel - so to double check I asked the Security guy at the station entrance the way - a mistake - he sent us in the wrong direction. I did realise early on when we crossed a river that I knew that we should not cross. We went back to the station and set off along a road - and after a short way was completely unsure that we were going in the right direction - so we took our tour guide's advice and hired an official taxi. Blimey, this was an adventure - it should have been no longer than a 5 minute journey. We started to get worried when he started laughing and talking to himself - this is after showing our hotel card (written in Thai so that he could understand) and showing where the hotel was on a map that we were carrying. Firstly he asked us to get out in the middle of the road - we declined. Then, with a further laugh he took us on a magical mystery tour - totally ignoring a red light and ending up going up a one way street the wrong way! Amongst beeping and gestures he did a u-turn and proceeded up another road. Things got better when he stopped, consulted a fellow taxi driver, reset the meter, did a u-turn over a central reservation (more beeping and gestures from other drivers) and proceeded eventually to our hotel - all for 80 pence! It has knocked our confidence of Bankok taxi drivers! Spent the afternoon recovering around the excellent pool and decided to eat and drink in the hotel - we had had enough adventure for one day. Tomorrow is the Temples tour - we are hoping that we have a normal driver tomorrow......
Monday 31 March 2008 - 20:56
Location: Amari Atrium Hotel, Bankok
Magnificently opulent - the temples in Thialand are remarkable. The fine craftsmanship and the attention to detail are mindblowing - the patience and dedication given..... Also, the temples are quiet havens in the bustle of Bankok. This we experienced in getting to and returning from the temples. Travelling through the streets of Bankok felt like being in a computer game where you could reset if you had an accident - but this was for real. Surprisingly we only saw one accident - a motorcyclist proving that it is life saving wearing a helmet as it caused a broken back window in the car in which he collided. We completed the tour by visiting a gem factory - amazing to see the very plush surroundings of the establishment set in old Bankok. This evening we ate at a local restaurant - we plucked up the courage to walk to a local restaurant we saw on the way back from the tour. It was clean but authentically Thai - the tables were outside in a tree covered garden. We had a lovely sweet and sour prawn and chicken and cashew meal with rice - and a couple of large Tiger beers. It was great dining in a restaurant with a atmosphere - even if it was a couple of old boys (a pianist and a violinist / bongo player) playing 1950 music (a throwback from colonial days I think!).
Tuesday 1 April 2008 - 20:09
Location: Amari Atrium Hotel, Bankok.
Another blue sky day - still in the mid 30s and humid - thank goodness for the air conditioning units! Took the hotel shuttle to the Maboon Krong Shopping Centre (fortunatley known as the MBK - a lot easier to remember). The shop had 7 levels including a bowling alley, 8 screen cinema, loads of restaurants and of course shops. One floor was exclusively for electronics. Had our meal there today - it was in the International Food Hall which had counters for all types of food from Muslim to Asian, Greek to Italian. Once you chose the dish that you require a card that you were issued when you went in was updated with the price of the food / drink that you chose. The whole thing was then reckoned up at a cash desk when you left - another example where parts of Bankok seems more sohisticated than the UK. Of course we had to find our way back to the hotel - went very smoothly this time. Took the 'Skytrain' - a railway system that runs over viaducts over the roads (a bit like New York - but the viaducts are higher and thinner, therefore not causing the dark areas underneath the viaducts). Then we needed to get a taxi from the station to the hotel - this time got one straight away and he took us directly to the hotel. The whole fare (train and taxi) was less than £1 each! The rest of the day was spent chilling out...... Tomorrow, we prepare to fly home.
Wednesday 2 April 2008 - 22:33
Location: Bankok International Airport, Bankok
Last day today - and it proved to be surprisingly enjoyable. We had visions of a long afternoon after checkout of the hotel at 12:00 before being picked up for the airport at 20:45. However, we leisurly packed in the morning and ate a light lunch looking at our view from the hotel room for the last time. We spent the afternoon by the pool listening to some plays and comedies - we were sat in the full shade (it was 36 degrees celsius again today and mostly sunny so we did not want to risk being sunburnt for the flight). But there must have been magic in the air because either the wind or some form of reflection meant that we had quite a tan at the end of the day...... The evening was spent at our favourite restaurant - The Steak Mao Restaurant. We ordered shrimp cakes thinking they may be some form of fish cake - we were pleasantlt surprised to be served up with Scampi - and they were delicious. Composing this waiting at the Gate ready for our flight to London.
Thursday 3 April 2008 - 12:48
Location: Chandlers Ford, England
Well we can now say that the BIG Trip was an absolute success - the last part of our journey from Bankok to Heathrow arrived 5 minutes early - took just 30 minutes to get through passport, baggage collection and customs (thank goodness we landed at Terminal 4 not Terminal 5) - National Express coach from Heathrow to Sourhampton was perfectly on time and a lift back to our house by Mark's (our son) girlfriend Claire completed a troublefree trip. The tour was organised through Freedom Australia and I can honestly say that the arrangements were faultless - this is impressive particularly as they subcontracted to AAT Kings for Australia and New Zealand (excellent service professionally delivered) and Travel 2 for all the flights. Considering that we had 18 transfers to and from airports - not one was late, all expected us when we arrived. This is the final posting for this trip - it was an incredible experience...... Now to plan for our short trip to Cypus in June.
