24 Hours in Hong Kong

On our return from Wellington we stopped off at New Zealand’s immigration centre to pick up our passports just in time for our Friday departure to Hong Kong. At work, we began our first Lean Six Sigma training with three full days and twenty students going for their Green Belt certification. It was my first experience on the teaching side of the room and it was both fun and exhausting – even though I was only responsible for a couple of sessions.

Practicing a bit of Just In Time – Claire and I made our 11 hour flight Friday night and spent Saturday with Claire’s close friend from university, Charlotte, and her fiancé, Laurent. Good company and a vibrant city are more than enough to overcome a bit of jet lag.

Charlotte and Laurent took us out to lunch in the city walking through Hong Kong’s markets (pictured) and then on ferry through the haze to a neighboring island – Lamma – where we spent the afternoon hiking through old villages (temple on the island pictured) and beautifully green hilly countryside.

The last village we came to caters for visitors from Hong Kong with several restaurants offer fresh seafood – and I mean fresh – pulled from the fish tanks (pictured with Charlotte, Claire and Laurent) after ordering. It really was a perfect evening spent dining on the waterfront (pictured) and drinking Tsing Tao beers.

We caught the evening ferry back to Hong Kong, enjoyed the city light show through the haze, and had one last drink in Soho (pictured), where 20+ bars, each on a different level, line steep streets where outdoor escalators allow pedestrians an easy ascent.

Wellington

When I looked out over Auckland’s harbour Wednesday morning I could see the mammoth Queen Mary II (pictured). Normally a cruise ship would be hidden from view by the city, but the Queen Mary II, once the longest, widest, and tallest cruise liner in the world when it was completed in 2003, must have been too big for the normal spot, so it was berthed at the shipping port.

At 8 p.m., when I was finishing up after a long day, I could see the Queen Mary setting out to its next destination. Claire drove to pick me up with the camera and we raced down to the shore to watch it go – an idea shared by thousands of Aucklanders. Navigating the traffic and hunting for parking we just managed to watch it turn North in front of Rangitoto Island. We also had some great views of Auckland's skyline (pictured).

On Friday we raced to the airport and made our flight by 2 minutes to meet Bonnie and Phil in Wellington. Taking tips from Johannah and Scott (my flatmate in Oxford who spent 8 weeks in Welly) we trekked to the top of the Botanical Gardens, enjoyed an afternoon drink overlooking Wellington (pictured) and sampled several of Wellington’s restaurants perched on Cuba street. Saturday was particularly a tour of notable communists as we had brunch at Fidel’s (pictured) and dinner at Ernesto’s.

Saturday night we went to see a Nina Simone tribute show – a feature of Wellingtons Art Festival (sign pictured at Wellington Harbour) – with Grammy award winning singers who really brought the house down. Wellington really is a center of culture and arts with several galleries and show venues (pictured art galley square) and we couldn’t leave without checking out one of them: On Sunday we spent the afternoon at the national museum, Te Papa, learning much about New Zealand’s history and ecology.

February just seems so wrong

It's summer here and it's February, and that just seems wrong. Our plans today, well, we had to change them because of a tsunami warning. And that seems wrong too.

Two weeks ago we took a break from the Residency Application and wedding pre-planning to get away to Raglan, NZ, for a weekend. Finally, we found where all the American immigrants are hiding. It reminded us more of Ocean Beach California, where Dan and Alisha live, than other areas of NZ. Half the people we met seemed to be from the West Coast of North America, all drawn for the waves, or as one young waitress confided in us, for the guys that ride the waves.

The small green covered mountains nearby are a bit reminiscent of Hawaii, or at least how I picture it. Claire and I made a day of climbing to the top and loved the route through old farmland (pictured) and the views from the peak (pictured).

The following weekend, we celebrated the completion of our application for NZ residency (pictured - yes, it really is that thick) with a bottle of champagne provided by Claire's parents (we're one celebratory event behind). And then took a quick trip out to Muriwai Beach (pictured) - black soft sands, great surf, and the best place in New Zealand to see the Australian Gannet colonies (a gold crowned bird that flies from Australia to breed in New Zealand, and then flies back to Australia).

And now, we begin another marathon of sorts, no weekend is left unplanned for six weeks. My aunt Bonnie and uncle Phil flew in on Thursday. On Friday we had a nice dinner out in the city and walked to see the Chinese lantern festival in Albert Park (pictured). It was packed with people - a feeling we haven't had since a Friday night on the Piccadilly line. But worth it. Here are Bonnie and Phil are with Claire in the Domain - Auckland's biggest park (pictured).

Today we drove out west of Auckland in hopes of reaching Muriwai beach - but were thwarted by Tsunami warnings. We made the most of it though - there is a small mountain range west of Auckland called the Waitakere (Why-tack-er-ee) and we managed to find some great vistas (pictured) and a hike through 1000 year old kauri trees and a secluded mostly hidden waterfall.

Friday will find us in Wellington - my first time - where we will stay the weekend checking out the arts festival. And then not long after, off we fly back home to London. ;-) Can't wait to see you all!

The long stretch

So, our longest no-blog stretch yet. Let's play a bit of catch up. Starting just before Christmas...

With our great friend Joe Rice and my parents visiting, we ventured to the far north to celebrate the longest day of the year, and my dad's birthday, in Russell, NZ (pictured on the beach). Russell has deep roots in NZ history: as the Waitangi Treaty was signed between the throne of England and the Maori in 1840, just a stones throw away, Russell's bars and brothels were thriving. Now it's a quaint little town with NZ oldest standing church where Charles Darwin once gave money - we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was in Russell for the church.

The region is appropriately named the Bay of Islands, and on the longest day of the year we went on "The Cream Trip" - the historic boat trip to deliver milk and mail to the island dwellers which now serves the dual purpose of being a great tourist day tour. To our great delight, we saw pods of dolphin and orca (despite my great dolphin pics, we'll share Joe's more impressive video).

Joe treated Claire and I to a kayak / wine tour (pictured) in the evening where we met two characters - one the wine maker, the other our kayak tour guide who shared with us he has gone a decade without owning a pair of shoes.

The next day we drove up to the most Northern part of NZ to Cape Reinga (pictured with lighthouse) - where the Maori souls depart this world from the roots of an ancient Pohutukawa tree for the afterlife. Afterwards, Claire and I boogie boarded down some 100+ foot high sand dunes... as one does.

For Christmas we returned to Auckland, and Joe set off for a South Island tour on Boxing Day, my parents headed back to the U.S. a couple of days later, and then Claire and I flew to the South Island ourselves. We spent two days driving from Christchurch to Queenstown - seeing stunning turquoise lakes (pictured) - and up to Mt Cook - one of the few places on earth where icebergs exist in mountain lakes (pictured).

In Queenstown we met up with Joe, Chad and his girlfriend Divya, and stayed in a bach - rather luxury apartment with floor to ceiling walls of windows with stunning lake and mountain views. No one wanted to leave.

On New Years Eve, we went on the Central Otago Wine Trail and after a few vinyards I decided to make Claire my wife the old fashioned way (pictured).

On New Years Day we climbed Mount Iron near Lake Wanaka with Evan and Amanda - our friends from London whose family has a bach near Queenstown as well (pictured).

On our last evening - just down to Joe, Claire and me, we took the gondola up the mountain and had a couple of rides on the luge (pictured going up the chair lift - don't miss Joe in the background)

Now we're back to work and spending our weekends trying to complete the laborious NZ residence application while also trying to figure out where we can have a wedding in Oxford.

An engaging Saturday on Waiheke

On the morning of the day I would ask Claire to marry me, we woke up to rain.

My disappointment in the weather was obvious, and Claire, reassuringly and lovingly said:

"Oh, Tim, the weather doesn't matter; as long as we have..."

Here is the point where I thought Claire was going to say "each other," but in fact, she said:

"Oh, Tim, the weather doesn't matter; as long as we have appropriate clothing."

I melted. :-) We laughed.

In Claire's defense, that line stems from a childhood of annual family holidays on the coast of wales - where I'm told the Pullingers would go sit on the beach - even if it was raining - where they would settle themselves in under umbrellas and eat soggy sandwiches.

As it turned out, the weather was good enough and it didn't ruin my proposal surprise, and Claire said yes. The full story is best told with pictures - so please follow the link and read the captions. Be warned though, it may be a bit sappy, but I've always been a hopeful romantic. Thanks for reading!

http://picasaweb.google.com/timothydenison/TheStoryOfOurEngagement12122009?authkey=Gv1sRgCLPx--m_qYHsiQE&feat=directlink

While you were having Thanksgiving...

New evidence strongly suggests we may have a criminal in the family.

As an American, I suppose I grew up thinking Australia and New Zealand were pretty much the same. Not true. Aside from the differences in size - both land mass and population with NZ much smaller for both - and of course the fact that in Australia nearly everything in nature can kill you, whereas in NZ the most dangerous beast may be the defenseless kiwi, there are some interesting cultural differences. I suspected the two countries shared a similar brotherly love as the U.S. and Canada - full of banter but deep down quite friendly. As such, I was surprised to discover the genuine superiority the New Zealanders feel - as unlike NZ where civilized Europeans immigrated, Australia was settled by a "heep of convicts". When I proudly proclaimed we would be visiting Fort Denison and the Denison Lighthouse in Sydney, named after the former governor of New South Wales, my Kiwi colleagues looked at me with a mixture of pity and disgust. Apparently having an Aussie in the family is even worse than being an American. (Pictured - Fort Denison life preserver, Dad taking a shot of Fort Denison from the ferry)

But, we have to hand it to the convicts, they've built a pretty great city.

While everyone in the U.S. was fighting the tryptophan coma yesterday, mom and dad were fighting to stay awake after a 14 hour red-eye flight as we made our way on a ferry into Sydney Harbour to see the quaint little island on which Fort Denison has sat guard some 150 years. We baked in the sun and enjoyed spectacular views of Sydney, and Dad took picture after picture. (Sydney pictured from the fort)

In the evening we wandered around 'The Rocks', a fun area in Sydney with a bunch of shops, and stumbled upon a tiny pizza place, Zia Pina (pictured), which had been highly recommended - in great length apparently - by my dad's long time friend Larry. And admittedly, it was excellent pizza, and we dined under signed menus from some of the most famous athletes of our time (I was most impressed by Joe Montana). Dad wanted a picture to send to Larry, but was slightly embarrassed by the rocket which made the pizza look entirely too healthy (pictured). Rest assured, gobs of cheese and parma ham are hiding beneath the salad.

Today we'll make our way to the Opera House for a tour, and then off to Watson's Bay for a sit down meal at Doyle's, a relatively famous seafood restaurant right on the coast with great views.

A smelly birthday

After a month long photographic drought, we're back to having too much to share again.

Claire spent the worst two weeks of auckland's weather 'pottering around' between jobs, then we got our first taste of Kiwi weddings seeing our close friends Johannah and Fergus get married (pictured), and after Claire's first week of work at Telecom we drove down to spend the weekend celebrating her birthday in Rotorua.

Hoping to make the birthday girl's bday a good one, the surprise (for Claire) of rolling into Hamurana Lodge (pictured) had the desired effect. It's an impressive Tudor style 35 year old mansion converted into a lodge complete with a classic Rolls in the drive. We were hosted by a couple of attentive and courteous native French speaking men who arranged for champagne and cheese cake to be brought to our room for Claire's birthday the evening we arrived (pictured).

On Saturday, for the second part of Claire's birthday present, we went sailing on a 53 foot catamaran. It was just the two of us and the skipper, a nice Kiwi bloke named Matt who recently sailed the boat we were on from the Carribean to its new home in NZ. Claire got to help out sailing (pictured pulling up the main sail), and I just enjoyed the ride.

Rotorua and the surround area is the most active volcanic region in NZ. Part of our sailing trip included docking at a series of pools of varying temperatures fed by hot water springs only accessible by boat. It was a brisk day, with good winds, and a soak in the hot water pools - one too hot to stay in - made for a perfect day.

On Sunday we went to visit one of the three main volcanic parks - Wai-o-tapu "Thermal Wonderland". I loved it, although it does smell more than a bit of rotten eggs. The park has a series of natural pools (pictured the 'champagne pool') coloured by variety of elements prevalent in the hot water springs and volcanic vents. Nearby was a surprisingly entertaining set of mud pools constantly 'exploding' with bubbles of gas venting from fumaroles under the surface (pictured).

We ventured back in to Rotorua for a late lunch and stumbled onto a festival of sorts. Truly a surreal Kiwi experience, complete with wood chopping and boar hunting competitions (pictured). The crowds gathered to see two men race to chop through 50cm thick logs adjacent to where the boars were weighed and measured. Neither of us had witnessed a wood chopping competition before (let alone a boar hunting one), but it was hard to not be fascinated, and with a couple of Speight's draught beers we cheered along with everyone else.