Where is Phil now?

Castles and churches, not a bad afternoon!

Saturday 14 May 2016 – Orford Ness, Suffolk.

In the previous post, I talked about how I had spent the morning and the early part of the afternoon visiting the wonderful Orford Ness, a National Trust wilderness area. A beautiful spit of land tagged on to the Suffolk coast, and separated from the town of Orford by the River Alde.

When I arrived back on the mainland from the ‘Ness’ it was only mid-afternoon and though it was cold there was still plenty of day time left, and plenty of things to see in the village of Orford itself.

Like all coastal towns Orford has a long history of fishing and shell fishing, there is still some industry here but I suspect it is now subservient to the tourism industry. Having a few old fishing boats lying around is never going to hurt from a photography tourist’s perspective either!

The older part of Orford has really embraced tourism; so well that you could drive through and not notice it was there at all. Just how it should be. The village is really pleasant to walk through, lovely red brick houses, nice old pubs, one tiny store, a village hall and a fabulous bakery/cafe. It is all subtle, there are no overt signs, nothing showy. Just a small village full of seemingly very friendly people. They do it well. So shhhhhhhh, don’t tell anyone or they will come along and spoil it. I must admit I fell in love with it, as I suspect do a lot of other visitors.

St Bartholomew is an old Norman church in Orford, originally built around the same time as the castle in the 1170s, though there were extensive modifications in 1300s. The chancel was walled off in the 18^th century and then collapsed in 1830. The remains were restored in the 60s and 70s and is a charming and peaceful little spot.

After a invigorating coffee and a totally unnecessary, but delicious slice of chocolate brownie I went to visit Orford Castle. I was surprised at how popular it was, a full car park and a number of other visitors. I thought it was only me who liked out of the way castles !

Orford Castle was completed in 1173, under King Henry II. The keep, for something so old, is in remarkably good condition and is the best preserved keep in the UK from that period. Though the castle lost favour with the crown after the death of Henry it still had some significance as Orford was a major trading port. More important than nearby Ipswich, which is hard to believe now! Unlike so many other castles Orford pretty much allows access to the whole building, there are loads of little rooms and hall ways and of course my favourite – spiral staircases. All maintained by English Heritage, who are doing a great job here.

I enjoyed my visit, the highlights for me were the old names carved into the walls, I like to believe they are original.

I am staying in Lowestoft overnight, I thought it was the nearest town with accommodation, but when I walked past I noted that one of the pubs in Orford had rooms. I looked it up when I got home as I thought it might be a nice place for El and I to visit in summer. At £270 a night (including dinner for two) I think we will have to pass! Orford is a lovely village though, and I will return now that I have a car.

Over my pre-castle visit coffee I looked through my ruins book and decided to check out St Andrews Church in Covehithe as it is pretty much on the way to Lowestoft and looked quite interesting.

The oldest part of the church remains are from the 15^th century. What is unusual about this particular church is that rather than it being destroyed by war or by royal decree it was pulled down by its own parishioners in 1672 when they could no longer afford the upkeep. The smaller church was constructed inside it – and is still operating today.

It is a lovely little spot, made a bit moody by some heavy handed editing to make the clouds look a bit fuller than they really were. Though to be fair to me it did actual drizzle a bit while I was there. What I liked about St Andrews is that there was some detail still left in the stone work, you could imagine what the building looked like with the tiled finish on the outside.

The amazing Orford Ness

Saturday 14 May 2016 – Orford Ness, Suffolk.

Wow, what a day today! It was so good I have had to make it a two post day. I love a day like this, and there should be/could be/would be more if I wasn’t so lazy or prone to prolonged bouts of procrastination. All I needed to do was to grab my camera and get out of the house, though it did help that I went somewhere amazing!

Last weekend I finally got around to buying a car. I have been pondering it for a while, but living and working London I have not had a desperate need to own one and if we did want to go away it is cheap enough to rent a car. However, there are always those things you need to do that require a car, and having to plan ahead to organise a rental, or book affordable train travel, meant we rarely did spontaneous trips out in to the country. Not having, or wanting to spend a vast amount of money on a car – I do hate them, I ended up buying a 2003 Lexus IS 300. With a three litre motor it is not the most economical or emissions friendly vehicle, but I wanted a car I could throw a mountain bike in the back of if I ever decided to do a riding trip. Thinking ahead, that is my motto 🙂

At the end of last year I bought a book about unusual ruins in the UK and there was mention of Orford Ness. The pictures in the book made it look interesting and as Suffolk is really easy to get to by car from NE London I decided to go and check it out.

Orford Ness is a 12 mile spit of land, pretty much entirely separated from the mainland by the River Alde and is accessed via a tiny ferry from the town of Orford. Orford is just under 100 miles from home, so a perfect distance for a first drive in a new car.

I left home pretty early, by my standards anyway, and made good time. Cruising down English country lanes shrouded in trees with dappled sunlight hitting the road has to be one of life’s real pleasures, I could have done this all day. I stopped once on the way to take a photo of a rape field. I think there is a law that requires all people who think of themselves as landscape photographers to stop and take a photo of a rape field at least once each year.

I arrived in Orford just after 10:00, when the ferry starts its regular run across to the Ness. Orford Ness, or at least this section of it, is managed by The National Trust, of which I am a member. They run a small ferry across the river and only allow 13 trips a day with a maximum of 12 people per trip. This reduces the impact of humans on the very fragile shingle environment.

In the 1920s and 1930s the site was used to test a wonderful new technology called radar, later, in the 1960s, it was a semi-secret location for atomic weapons research. Of course no bombs were tested there – these were all done in the US, but detonators and other components were designed and tested. Testing all these things like radar and detonators meant a heck of a lot of bombs were dropped here from the 1920s onwards. Wandering off the beaten track is not encouraged, and there are numerous signs warning of this.

It is also very popular with the birding community as there are a number of nesting sites across the marsh and shingle areas. Some of these areas are closed to the public at the moment while the birds are breeding, so only one of the three ‘walks’ is open today.

The boat ride over to the Ness only takes 5 minutes, there were seven of us on the boat, when I was leaving the ranger on the island told me there had been just over 80 people there all day, perfect numbers for me. My first photo on the Ness, flat, empty and big big clouds overhead. I was thinking that this was going to be a great day.

The first few hundred yards are past some swampy waterways, those more interested in birds than I am spent a bit of time here while I carried on going, heading for a bridge over a river and on to the shingly side. I stopped at the information centre for a look around, there was some interesting photos and history in there, I am assuming this warning sign is an old one!

There is a concentration of old buildings here and a few rusting, decaying pieces of machinery are reminders of when this place was busy with men doing manly things with bombs and technology. A lot of it is behind signs barring entry, though all the fences have been taken down so the restrictions are just based on trust. I liked that, and decided to not breach that trust.

I took a few photos from the bird watching hide, none of birds of course! I wanted to visit the ‘pagodas’. Remnants from when this was under the control of Atomic Weapons Research establishment (AWRE) and I was really looking forward to getting to them. They are one of the reasons I wanted to visit. They, and a lot of the scene here, remind me of the old computer game Doom.

There are paths that have to be followed to get around, as I said earlier there is a lot unexploded munitions on and under the shingle, and caution needs be taken at all times. These gates were leading off to one of the paths that was closed today, as always I was intrigued as to what was there.

From 1982 until 2011 the BBC World Service was broadcast to Europe from Orford Ness, and the transmission towers can be clearly seen further up the spit, past those gates.

The shingle area is covered in vegetation, some of it quite rare, another reason this is a protected site. The mix of the muted greys and browns of the shingle and the brighter colours of the grasses and wild flowers made for an interesting sight and hopefully I will get some photos that make the most of that variety.

My first stop was the bomb ballistics building; built in 1933 it was fitted with state of the art equipment to monitor the flight of bombs to help with designing aiming tables. The view from the top was really interesting, it was the only place that provided enough height to look down on the shapes in the shingle

The view from the inside was good as well.

I followed the red shingle road towards the black beacon for a while before turning off and heading towards the lighthouse.

The shingle is constantly being moved around by the sea and the weather, it almost appears to be laid out in waves, with vegetation growing on its crest. It was quite arresting. I was very interested to know (and still don’t) what the small square concrete pads are, there are a hell of a lot of them seemingly randomly placed.

There is a lot of old metal and track lying around, but not many exploded bombs – this one was conveniently located right next to the path.

The PO has been to most parts of the country, but I was surprised to find they had laid cables here, I guess they go to the lighthouse ?

The lighthouse is not managed by the National Trust, it is owned by a small local trust, who have open days, today was not one of those days, so I was unable to get in and have a look, but I expect the view from there is stunning. The light house and its neighbouring coast guard house just feel so isolated, as a bird flies they are probably only a kilometre from Orford, but the shingle and marsh and the river have them cut off, it feel like another world.

The light house is in danger of falling down now, the trust are trying to raise funds to save it. When you get round the far side you can clearly see why, the ground is almost completely subsided, the only thing holding this section together is the sewer.

Next to the lighthouse is a derelict building that was used as a coast guard lookout up until 1951, and finally abandoned in the 1960s.

The trail goes along the edge of the North Sea for a couple of hundred yards before turning inland towards the Black Beacon, built in 1928 to house an experimental new beacon.

I had a walk around looking for somewhere sheltered from the strong and cold wind so I could sit down and eat some lunch, but there was not a lot of opportunity so I just carried on going I liked the football sitting in the window of this building along with a pile of rubbish washed up by the sea.

Finally the path took a turn towards the old AWRE area, which I was really looking forward to exploring. I loved this gate, ensuring no-one passes along that road. It is a shame there is no longer any fence 🙂

The security fence has mostly been taken down, there are occasional fence posts and light poles still standing, and I particularly liked this one with its broken light arm laying at its foot.

There are a couple of interesting buildings here, this one covered in shingle for instance, there was no entry point though, but I have visions of a vast network of tunnels underneath the shingle, joining all these low, almost hidden buildings together.

Sadly, and to my disappointment there was no access allowed to the pagoda area 😦 I was a bit gutted by that to be honest. I guess I could have strayed in there for a sneaky look, but there a number of rangers around and I did not want to annoy anyone, and I do want to come back!

I cannot quite work out what this last building is, but you could at least get in the doorway and peer through into its rather damaged centre.

This photo almost sums up the Ness for me, darkness, dankness and decay in the buildings, and an almost arid nothingness outside. Like a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie. Love it!

I stopped for lunch here, before turning round and walking back, mostly the way I came, to the ferry point. Stopping to give some grass and then take a photo of these lambs on the way.

While I waited for the ferry I had a chat with one of the National Trust volunteers. He told me about some organised photo tours that take place three times a year and explore some of the places closed to the general public. One of those tours is an over night visit in July and I managed to book myself on one of the final places once I got home. I am very excited about that!

Just before I left I took a photo of where I am heading next, once I am back on the mainland. Orford Castle.

I was on the Ness for about four hours. I took more photos there (as you can tell) than I have anywhere else in a very long time. It is a fascinating, interesting, glorious place. Make a visit !

For the first time in ages I took and used two lenses. I have got into a bad habit of just using the 16-35mm wide angle lens, and at the occasional gig the 50mm. Today I used the wide angle and a 70-200mm zoom, I really should use the 70-200 more, it is a brilliant, if very heavy lens and allowed me the chance to get different angles and views. I want to improve my photography, so I should use all the tools I have to hand.

What a fantastic day, and it was only mid afternoon!

The beautiful bluebells of Chalet Wood.

Friday 29 April 2016 – Wanstead Park, London.

It is spring here in the UK, not that you can tell that by the weather. Two days ago there was a flurry of snow in London – admittedly if you had blinked slowly you would have missed it, but it was a snow fall nonetheless. I am blaming a cutting arctic wind that slices through to the bone if you are not adequately dressed. When I was walking home after taking these photos today there was a brief wind driven hail and rain shower that felt like mid-winter had returned. It was awful.

Only working a four day week means I have Fridays off, so I took the opportunity to nip out to Chalet Wood in Wanstead Park to check out the bluebell fields, hoping that it would be less crowded than I knew the weekend would be. El and I have been planning on visiting for the past couple of weekends but just have not had a chance to make it. With the season about to end I decided to go solo.

Having been to look at the bluebells last year it took me no time at all to find my way there from Wanstead Park Station, which obtusely is near Wanstead Flats, not Wanstead Park. The walk through the flats was quite nice though, the sun keeping the cold away.

Once I got to Chalet Wood and the bluebell grove I took lots of photos, there is no point in me saying any more really!

I liked the interplay between shadow and light between the trees and the way the small paths wound their way through the patch, allowing visitors to get in amongst the flowers without trampling them down.

I think this crow was guarding it’s small patch !

Fabulous – and not too many people there either. I had planned on getting there early to catch some early morning sun coming through the trees, but I didn’t make it, there was still some sun though it was sporadic, eventually leading to rain and hail on the walk back home.

Photos of Epping Forest.

Friday 22 April 2016, Epping Forest, London.

Ever since we got back from New Zealand and Hong Kong I have been suffering from a distinct lack of interest in actually doing anything, though if I am honest this malaise has been hanging over my head like a threatening rain cloud for a while. In the last couple of weeks I blamed the jet lag. Convenient. Yet wrong. Not that I have any other answer for it. Maybe it is just simply that I got lazy! I have had a couple of attempts at the gym since we got back and didn’t enjoy either of them, I feel unfit and slow, and at times a little miserable about it all.

Yesterday I read a post by Paul, a guy I follow on WordPress, about how getting outdoors and doing some exercise can make you feel a whole lot better. I know this, in fact I have known this for a long time, yet still I was doing very little about it. It is a great read, so check it out and it did make me determined to get up early this morning, get back to Epping Forest, take my camera and go for a good walk.

Then…… This morning. I had a poor sleep, again, second really bad night in a row. I was awake when El got up for work, and I planned on getting up and out the door before mid-morning. Once El had left, the malaise hit me again and all of a sudden I was planning on a day of reading and wasting time surfing the internet – doing anything but what I really needed to do. Shift my butt – and my head.

I was on my second cup of coffee, still in bed, reading Kiwi Trail Runner magazine when I came across another article about exercise and a healthy mind. This time I did make it out of bed. I am glad I did!

I took the bus to Chingford Station on the edge of Epping Forest. I had been thinking of walking home from Chingford using all the linked sections of forest that I use on mountain bike rides, but on the bus I changed my mind and decided to head into the forest and wander vacantly instead. Getting lost would be OK, it is not a vast forest and I sort of know my way about.

I started off walking up one of the many preformed paths, following a man walking a couple of small dogs at a much faster pace than I planned on mustering today.

I am trying to slow down a bit, I have always been a fast walker, and since being in London, I have got faster and more ‘aggressive’ in my walking, I have a rush hour head on all the time. I want to teach myself to relax, care more about the journey than the arriving. I think I did OK today. I noticed the smells of the forest, as soon as I was under the tree cover; the earthy smell of mould and rotting tree fall permeated the air, a healthy natural smell, not unpleasant. Just there and it felt good noticing it. Taking the time to listen and smell and really see was something I need do to more often.

I finally reached the end of the path I was on and had a few choices of dirt single track to chose. I wanted to try and find a silver birch grove I have passed through on my rides, which had become a favourite part of the forest. I have not ridden here all year – part of my slackness. I was blaming the mud – but I rode last winter. I was sort of scoping out the mud today with a near future ride in mind. There was a lot less mud than winter, but still plenty about.

Carrying on in what was the general direction of where I thought I wanted to go, I saw loads of trees I wanted to take photos of. I am a bit of obsessed with trees and forests at the moment, a very long moment I guess. At the start of the walk I was looking for something different to take photos of, there is a lot of tree fall in the forest, short roots and light soil leave them exposed to the dangers from a high wind.

With spring well under way, there is a lot green about, fresh buds mixing with old winter growth. There is not a huge amount of colour around, but seeing the trees starting to embrace the spring and lead us towards summer is such a good thing.

The other thing I was looking to take some photos of was the small stream that runs through this section of the forest, it was my target for when I headed back towards the station. I like the way it twists and turns every few metres. Next time I hit the forest I will walk the stream from one edge to the other.

More by good fortune than good planning I found the area I was looking for, a gentle hill that heads up in the direction of High Beach. I love this grafittied (I think) beach tree. Some of the dates stretch back a few decades.

This part of the forest is just stunning, and that was before I hit the silver birch section. It is a time of the year I really like in the forest, just as the leaves are starting to reappear on the trees, there is more light, softer more delicate colour and the shapes made by the branches and trunks are still visible.

And then I went a bit camera mad. One of the wise decisions I made when I packed a bag last night, and I did think twice about this, was to bring a tripod. I brought a lighter weight one, which I did regret as it did not cope well with the weight of the 5d. Next time I will take the big one. But the tripod allowed me to take better photos.

I spent quite a long time wandering aimlessly around the silver birch grove. The great thing about Epping is it is so small you just cannot get seriously lost. I didn’t bother with trails up here, just moved between the trees to the next location that took my fancy. I found a nice open space at the top of the low rise, where I stopped for a drink of water, a snack and a sit down on a pile of dead trees.

There was another lovely little grove of silver birches on my way back towards the station; I really do love these trees and just could not help myself and took a few more photos.

I must admit to getting a bit mis-placed on my way back, thinking I was in one place and then finding out I was somewhere else, just like I do on my bike rides. I saw a couple of small deer in this section, I was not quick enough to get a photo, but it was pleasing to see them, maybe one day I will come back with a bigger lens and do a bit of deer stalking.

I eventually found the stream again, so I walked along it for a while, taking photos here and there. These little bridges are pretty cool, I am assuming for mountain bikers to cross the small streams. I just like the fact they are there and there is no path leading to or away from them.

Soon enough I was on one of the fixed paths heading back towards the station. Except I wasn’t, I was on a path heading away from the station… Not terribly away, not 180 degrees, now that would have been embarrassing! Once I worked out where I was it was a fairly short hike back to where I started.

I was out for 3 ½ hours. 3 ½ hours of relative peace – you can hear the road from many places in the forest, but fresh air, lovely trees and semi-solitude. It was what the soul needed and I felt so much better than I did when I woke up this morning and almost did not go out.

I have now bought a book on English trees, it is about time I could name more than just an oak tree.

In other news – let’s drift back in time a bit to last week. I quit my job. I don’t have another one to go to, but I have a three month notice period, which just made looking for another job seem impossible. I have taken the risk and hopefully it will pay off!

P.S A question a few days after posting.

I have just looked at this post on a different computer from the one I edited the photos on. The photos on that computer were, in my opinion, a bit too bright and almost over-exposed. Do you see over-bright photos or over-dark photos ? I am interested to know so I can make sure I edit on the right computer! Please let me know.

Spectres @ The Waiting Room, Stoke Newington.

April 20 2016, London.

Bristol band Spectres’ debut LP ‘Dying’ made it through 2015 as my album of the year. There was some great music released last year, but Dying got played a lot and gets played a lot in 2016 as well. A follow-up LP is due sometime this year, and both times I have seen the band they have played new material that may or may not appear on this new LP. I will have to wait and see.

While I, and others, wait for this new album Spectres recently released a remix album of Dying called ‘Dead’. There are remixes by a couple of artists I really like, such as Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai fame, Richard Fearless and Andy Bell from Ride. The vinyl copy arrived on the day we went to New Zealand, but I did get the download code and listened to the LP a few times while I was away. It is OK, not fabulous, there are some great remixes and some that do nothing for me at all. I do like guitar noise far more than synths and computers.

When the band announced two shows at The Waiting Room in Stoke Newington I was definitely not going to miss out so grabbed a ticket before we went away.

I wasn’t overly keen on either support band, and being incredibly fussy I arrived at the venue at what should have been half way through the set of the second support. They hadn’t even started. I watched a bit of their set before retiring to the pub upstairs for a quiet drink and a seat. If I had arrived earlier and managed to have been closer to the stage with a better view I may have stayed as they looked like they could have been a bit of fun.

I went back down to the basement venue once the support audience had cleared and got my self a spot near the stage. I was hoping to get a few decent photos so took along the Canon 5d. I should have known from the last time I saw them that they would pretty much play in the dark. Sadly my old 5d does not do really low light – unlike the newer models, though I think even those would have struggled tonight.

I grabbed this one of the bass player during the sound check. The last time there was any light even closely usable for non-flash photography.

What did make some photography possible was the use of strobes from half way through the set, though they were poorly placed on the ceiling rather than down low, I managed to time a few shots right and got some images lit up by strobes.

Even though there is not much detail, and the guitarist is blurred, I like this photo the best.

The set was loud, I mean really loud, I have been to loads of shows over the years, but this was definitely one of the loudest I have been too. I am glad I took ear plugs. I usually take them but rarely use them, for tonight’s gig, they were essential.

The last time I saw them the set was just played on guitar, bass and drums. With the new remix LP they mixed it up a bit playing some tracks with a bit of electronica, it worked on some and not on others. It was still interesting. A fifth member came on stage for one of the tracks,

As they came on stage so late I did not get to see the end of the set. Disappointingly I had to leave to get the train home, so missed what was probably a good finale!

It was a good, and too short a show and I liked the venue as well.

Bright City, Big Lights.

Thursday 07 April 2016 – Hong Kong.

Given we were in a seventh floor room overlooking a street full of bars and restaurants it was really quiet in the room overnight, the gentle hum of the air conditioner keeping out any residual street noise and providing a white noise hum to send us to sleep. It was another comfortable night, I don’t think we have had a bad bed once on this holiday – remarkable!

We had breakfast in the hotel, bread, eggs, cheese and coffee while we discussed what to do for the day. We decided to keep it fairly low key and headed out of the hotel aimed for the nearby Hong Kong History Museum. I took a photo of our very skinny hotel. The Perkin.

We arrived at the museum just before a large group of young school children. We had only just got started on the excellent History of Hong Kong exhibit before we were overwhelmed by a wave of short people. We let them pass us by before we carried on. They were the first of many groups of children, well behaved children I will say.

The museum was really interesting, we spent a lot longer looking at the exhibits than I would have expected. Coming from New Zealand I am quite used to seeing Chinese culture around, dragon dances and lantern shows have been a feature of Auckland life for quite some time. Not so in London where there is only a very small Chinese community, and one that is pretty non-existent where we are in the north east. El found the lanterns and dragons and costumes quite fascinating.

As usual I was fascinated by the trees – I love the roots on these young trees, not sure if they are baby banyans.

I also really liked the paper bark trees outside the museum. The bark is incredibly paper like.

It was lunch time when we hit the streets so we decided to head to the iSquare Tower and check out one of the many restaurants there for lunch. They looked a bit fancy, lots of white table cloths and very expensive menus. We found one that was not too bad, and was nicely high up on the 29^th floor. I wasn’t really bothered by the menu, just wanted the view, and it was pretty good. The food was not bad either.

After lunch we took a round-about walk back to the hotel and headed up to Kowloon Park, another one of the big green areas in the middle of town. It is quite a nice park, well patronised by local workers enjoying their lunch as well as plenty of tourists enjoying a bit of solitude and green away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist and shopping areas.

One of the remarkable things I noticed in the park is that no smoking is allowed, highly unusual for Asia, and very welcome. I would like to be all PC and say I stand firmly against global corporations and the evils of companies like McDonalds, but I would be lying – well I am firmly against rampant globalisation, but I do like a cheese burger or two every now and then! We saw some people eating ice cream and decided we wanted one as well, the only ice cream stall in sight was McDonalds and the thought of a vanilla and sweet potato ice cream was too tempting, it was really nice too.

The park had some really good banyan trees to check out, the roots growing down from the branches and working their way into the ground are just quite amazing, nature at its most interesting and wonderful.

There was a water bird park, with a collection of flamingos, which I found a little bizarre.

I loved the rhinoceros hornbills in the aviary.

As the park edges up against some of the older and more residential parts of Kowloon, there are a number of residential tower blocks nearby, this block was just massive. Growing up in Auckland with a ‘quarter acre block’ – a decent size garden, I am just not sure I could really live in something like that, I definitely could not have children there. Each to our own I guess. If I was born here this would just be normal!

We left the park mid-afternoon and walked back to our hotel, which was not too far away, these two banyan trees made for a nice photo sculpture.

We had bit of a rest in the room before heading back out again, stopping for a glass of wine or two in the bar downstairs. We walked up Nathan Rd past the shopping centre and an entrance to the park we had visited in the afternoon.

We walked up through the early evening, the streets were crowded and it was nice feeling the buzz of a busy city in the evening. Not having a tripod I didn’t take many photos, and those I did were hand held.

We headed to the night market, and pretty much stumbled across it, sort of by mistake. It was vaguely interesting, as El said at the time it was like Walthamstow market, but dark. Maybe.

We were going to eat somewhere near the market, but most places were really busy, and we kept on going looking for somewhere to stop, but pretty much gave up in the end.

This place was not a food place and I did cut the first name off, but this is what we first saw when we came across it.

I have been looking for a really good example of a building covered in bamboo scaffolding, and naturally only found one in the dark, the light makes it look even more frightening.

We ended up back by the hotel without finding anywhere to eat so decided to go local and eat Mexican in the same building as the hotel. They did have the most amazing margaritas, massive. I had two Smile

That was pretty much the last act of our Hong Kong trip, and the good news is I survived unscathed, bonus!

The next morning we checked out and headed to the airport for our late morning flight. We had the world’s speediest taxi driver, luckily the roads were clear and we possibly set a record for the transit from down town Kowloon to the airport.

We were all on the plane on time, and were then advised there had been delays ‘in Chinese airspace’ and we would held on the ground for between 90 minutes and 2 hours. Joy – we already had almost 13 hours in the plane ahead of us. It was not the nicest flight, long and boring and I watched a stream of really bad movies.

It was a day time flight and as we were heading west we followed the sun all the way. There were moments when the sky below was free of cloud and the scenery was amazing, miles and miles and miles of nothingness, desert and dunes and occasionally a road blasting through. I assumed we flew over Mongolia and the Siberian steppes. I tried to take some photos on El’s camera but could not get to focus much past the dirt on the window.

We landed in London a little late and that was the end of the holiday. A good holiday!

I love this photo El took of me yesterday, my favourite holiday photo. I looked relaxed and by this stage my legs were not radioactively white.

Bright lights, Big city.

Wednesday 06 April 2016 – Hong Kong.

We had a fabulous time in New Zealand, and leaving was tough. I really enjoyed seeing my family again and with such nice weather for most of our time there, being outside in the warm sun was very pleasant as well. But things end and it was time to move on. There will be no more lovely cool pinot gris for a while.

Rather than heading directly back to London we decided to break the trip and take a couple of days in Hong Kong. El had never been there, and I had an ill-fated work trip there back in 2007. Unknown to me I had been quite ill for a while with a bacterial abscess growing in my liver. It finally hit the day I arrived in Hong Kong for a five day work trip. I spent one day in the hotel and then eight days in hospital, where they made me well enough to fly home to New Zealand. I didn’t see much of the city at all. I was hoping for much better fortune this time around !

After almost 11 hours of flying we arrived in Hong Kong first thing on Wednesday morning, the flight was OK, I dozed a little bit but would hardly say I slept. We decided to get a cab to the hotel, we had pondered getting the train, but the cab was hardly more costly, and seemed a reasonable option for brain dead passengers. As we had an overnight flight and arrived at 7:30 am I had decided to book a hotel room for the previous night so we could go straight to the room rather than having to wait till mid-afternoon. This was a wise decision, it gave us a chance to change, have a shower, a coffee or two and a wee relax before heading out for the day.

The ride in from the hotel was less painful than I expected, and the view was similar to that from the airport, a heavy low sky resting on the top of high rises. Which is not really representative of what HK looks like, it is surprisingly green and lush and hilly! The pollution at first was terrible, I am hoping it cleared rather than we got used to it as I didn’t notice it at all later in the trip. Early in the ride from the airport my throat was sore and my eyes burnt. The smoggy fog did clear and stay gone later in the day.

I had booked a hotel right in the centre of the tourist section of Kowloon, on Knutsford Terrace, a pedestrian only street full of bars and restaurants. When I booked the room I didn’t know this. I was really nervous that we were going to have noisy nights as we were only on the fifth floor. Luckily I was very wrong, and we had two great nights. I could not say the same about the view from the room though!

I do love Asian scaffolding, Bamboo is immensely strong, but I am not sure I would be standing on that deck.

It was late morning before we headed out the door, we had no real plan in mind. Stroll down towards the harbour and see what happens and what we felt like doing was as planned as we got. It was only 21 degrees, cooler than New Zealand had been, and not particularly humid either. Perfect weather for strolling.

The museum section down at the waterfront was closed for renovation, which was a shame as quite a large area of harbour side was closed as well. I really liked this building though.

Above the hoardings around the closed museum and on the far side of the harbour, loomed the magnificent International Finance Centre tower (IFC).

The view on either side of Hong Kong harbour is magnificent, tall towers and steep hills make for a great sight.

We were down by the Star Ferry building and it seemed rude to not get a ferry over the harbour from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.

The Sky 100 tower on Kowloon is equally magnificent !

We stopped for lunch in the mall in the IFC, sadly it was only on the 2^nd floor and not right up there with the big views.

From first observations, Hong Kong seems to be quite a new city, most of the buildings look to have been built in recent times, so it was quite nice to see an older and lower building deep in the shadows of the towers.

We walked through the central streets of down town Hong Kong and I have never seen so many high end brand shops, all the big names were there, more than once in some cases.

Though we didn’t catch one, there were a lot of trams on the lower, flat streets of down town Hong Kong. Vast sections of both down town Hong Kong and Kowloon are reclaimed land, and there is still a huge amount of work reclaiming more land from the sea. I heard that the IFC tower has foundations 44 metres deep!

We walked past the headquarters of HSBC and the Bank of China, both with their theme on the lion.

The French mission building really stood out as we started to wind our way up the lower foothills, as did St John’s Cathedral behind it.

We were looking for the Peak Tram, a funicular that went from the lower foothills up to the top of Victoria Peak. Built in 1888 it has been ferrying tourists up a very steep incline to the peak. It is quite a piece of engineering and is larger and steeper than I imagined. It is also very popular and we were lucky on our ride up to not have to wait long at all. There were much bigger queues going up when we got back down again.

There is a further climb up a series of escalators once we were off the funicular, though the view out of the window was a taste of what we would see from the top.

There was a southern US shrimp restaurant at the top, bizarre. We are in Hong Kong, not Louisiana. It even sold Forrest Gump souvenirs.

The view from the Peak is amazing, we had an OK day, we could at least see some distance, and we could see all of HK and over to Kowloon. I took a lot of photos, living in a large but low rise city, I love all these big towers, not so sure I would like to live in the middle of them.

We were up the top for a while, and had a bit of a walk around before heading down. The viewing platform is a rather odd shaped building.

With no sleep last night and being quite a walk from the hotel we decided to catch the funicular back down again rather than walk. Back down at almost sea level we walked through a small park towards the main shopping area. There are a few little parks around, for all its masses and height it is quite a green place, pleasant in parts.

Back down at the harbour side we caught one of the old Star Ferries back over to Kowloon.

That tower is really big!

It was a 20 minute walk back up to the hotel.

After a brief rest we decided to head to the bar downstairs at street level and have a couple of drinks before heading back out again, purely for hydration of course.

We decided to do a harbour tour tonight, there is a light show at 8:00pm every night over the harbour, with a lot of the building owners on either side lighting up their buildings or shining lasers into the sky, the photos we saw before hand made it look very spectacular, and a trip on a harbour is always a good thing. The walk back down again was more interesting at night, there is a lot of neon here.

I really liked this guy’s variation of ‘guy floating in the air’ – especially dressed as a monk in front of a giant CK advert…

The light show was a bit of a flop really, very unexciting. I am going to blame the clouds that swept in over the harbour, obscuring some of the lights, and rendering the lazers pretty much useless. It was hard to see what, if anything was going on. I did take a load of photos though, a lot were deleted as these were all hand held.

The show was a bit too long, and surprisingly it got quite cold, something I really did not expect. I was not dressed for coldness and got a bit shivery on the boat. I was glad to get off and walk back up to the hotel. We didn’t fancy anything big for dinner so grabbed some bread and cheese from an M and S on our street (it is so British here). We retired to our room to eat and drink a glass of wine sitting on our bed watching a Japanese football team play a Chinese team in the Asia Cup.

It was a long old day, but really good and neither of us ended up in hospital.

A trip to the zoo, a final day with Mason.

Tuesday 05 April 2016 – Auckland, New Zealand.

Last day in New Zealand – it has all gone so fast, 12 days is such a short time. Even though it is our last day I was looking forward to it as we were going to take Mason to the zoo. I love the zoo. Auckland Zoo do this cool thing where you can buy an annual pass for a named child and get a free un-named pass for an adult to go with it. This means any adult can take the child to the zoo for free. I think it is a wonderful scheme.

El and I did a fair amount of packing and organising before we left for the zoo with mum, we picked up my grandson Mason on the way and arrived at the zoo late morning. It was a glorious day, it will be good to leave Auckland on a good weather day – means the flight departure will not be too bad either !

The kids pass seemed to be well liked as there were loads of mums with prams making use of the lovely day. Mason seemed intrigued by what was going on.

There was not a lot to see for the first hour we were at the zoo, it was a warm day and the midday sun seemed to force a lot of the animals into wisely slumbering in the shade. Mason was sort of interested in what was going on, but there was not a whole lot of it. The zoo has had a real make-over over the past couple of decades, no longer do you see listless animals pacing in small boxes, there are far less animals but in much bigger and more appropriate enclosures. We did stop for a look at the lemurs.

I wanted to visit the Kiwi House, so I could show El what the kiwi bird looks like. They are nocturnal creatures, small, brown, flightless and defenceless. They are an endangered species, but I do not think they are on an immediate concern list. We did see a couple walking around behind their glass shields, though it was very dark, and impossible to take photos in.

We stopped outside so Mason could have a drink and a snack, he only stayed in his stroller for a few minutes and had been walking around for a while. He only has little legs. He also has a very cheeky grin.

After looking at the elephants we stopped for an ice cream, and in my case a much needed coffee. Mason and mum seemed to be very happy with their ice cream.

After watching some other kids playing, Mason wanted to go and walk around in the little fountain, so like a true kiwi kid, it was shoes off for a splash.

Mason finally found his happy place in the zoo, not with any of the animals, he found a bike. Mason loves bikes, cars and trucks, and these are some of the few words he has. He was very happy to be able to sit on the old scooter on display in the African section.

Then joy of joys, there was another bike!

The highlight for Mason, and for us watching him, was a small looped tunnel that led to a viewing window in the middle of the meerkat enclosure. He spent quite a bit of time running in and out of the tunnels with two other children his height – just short enough to stand up. It took us a while to tear him, and the other kids away, it was great listening to them laughing out of sight in the tunnel.

He also quite liked the meerkats, as did I.

That was pretty much the end of our loop of the zoo, a couple of hours had disappeared really quickly. Mason was knackered (I know how he felt) and he was asleep in the car before we even left the car park.

We dropped him off at home, and I got to have one last cuddle before he went inside. I won’t see him again for a while, hopefully I will be back in New Zealand before the end of year.

In the evening we had dinner with Mum, my sister, Mel and Dickie and Aiden in a Sri Lankan restaurant not far from Mel’s place. It was great to have kotu roti again, the food was excellent, and very good value. After dinner we said goodbye to Aiden, mum and my sister and Mel and Dickie took us to the airport for our flight to Hong Kong at midnight.

And that was it. Our time in New Zealand was over, all too soon once again. We had a really good time, we both enjoyed our road trip up north, and it was fabulous seeing family and friends again. It was especially good to be able to spend some time with Mason and take a few photos that will come back to London with me. El liked Auckland a lot more than she did last time, so the possibility of buying a property there is on the ‘maybe, one day’ list. We will have to see.

Thanks to mum and my sister for letting us stay, for looking after us. Mel, Aiden, Dickie, it was great seeing you and Mason again. Love you all and looking forward to seeing you on Skype and hopefully in the flesh November(ish). xx

Visiting and old friend with an old friend.

Monday 04 April 2016 – Auckland, New Zealand.

Like most bloggers I also follow and read a few other WordPress blogs and sporadically randomly read a few others. I like to see what is out there, what other people are seeing and doing and maybe get ideas about writing and photography for my own use. I recently read a post by a youngish guy, I think he was English, who had just left Auckland. He was moaning about how boring, expensive and unfriendly he thought New Zealand and specifically Auckland was. In between his moaning he described what he did in Auckland. Pretty much nothing, he never left the city. No wonder he was bored.

I, on the other hand, always get out of the city, and today was going to be one of those out of the city days. I had yet to see my good friend Vicki on this trip, there just hadn’t been time so far to fit enough time in, but I had kept a day up my sleeve just in case. Vicki and I usually catch up over a walk or a run somewhere in the hills, as I did not have a huge amount of time we decided to keep it semi-local and go to one of my favourite places in the whole world – Karekare Beach.

Karekare is on Auckland’s west coast, it has no shops, few houses and a toilet block was only built there in the last few years. It feels remote, yet it is under an hour from the centre of the city, less if there is no traffic on the very winding road. It is a magical place and I have been here to run, walk, swim and photograph many many times.

There was not going to be much running today, I am woefully unfit and Vicki is very very fit and would leave me for dead on the trails, but we had lots of gossiping to do so a good walk was definitely in order. We started walking along the black sand beach – following where we could find them, the trail markers for the Hillary Trail.

I have mentioned the Hillary in previous posts, it was created in honour of Sir Edmund Hillary, and is 75kms of interlinked trail traversing the Waitakere Ranges from South to North (or Vice Versa). When it was first created it was a rugged and gnarly walk using old hiking trails. Over the last few years, it is slowly being ‘dumbed down’ and made easier and safer – though it was never dangerous. This is to cater more for the walking tourist who may not necessarily want to get their boots dirty, well that is how it seems to me. This section along the beach did not exist when I left the country, the trail was back in the hills then.

Back in the old kauri logging days there used to be a train line running along this section of the coast, ferrying the great logs to Whatipu where ships used to take them into Auckland, the train line is long gone, but the old tunnel at Tunnel Point still remains, as does a rusting hulk of a cylinder.

I stopped to take a few photos of the small lake that has long been here, stuck between the sand dunes and the cliff face, over a rainy winter this whole area can flood as the water comes down from the hills and finds nowhere else to go.

One of the things I really love about New Zealand is, apart from some people, there is nothing dangerous, too bitey or poisonous living here. Wading barefoot and legged through a swampy flooded lake might not feel good on the feet, but at least no animal is going to try and kill you. Being the end of summer, there was no flood, and no need to wade barefoot through anything at all. The only life we saw were a couple of black swans.

We turned inland past the lake and headed up the start of the Pararaha Valley. The first hundred yards or so cuts through reed beds and the track is a low boardwalk. Designed to allow 365 day access to the area, though I have walked up here before when the boardwalk has been submerged as well.

And then it was UP ! Buck Taylor was always one of my least favourite tracks on a long run or walk, it is steep ! But the view back down over the entrance to the valley is always worth it.

I was surprised by how much mud there was when we got to the ridge line at the top, there wasn’t huge amounts, but I was surprised to find any at all, given that it is the end of summer. It was good to see the tracks here are still proper hiking tracks with mud and roots uneven steps. Just how I like it.

We followed Zion Ridge Track, it is pretty flat and a real joy to run on, the bush up here is really nice too, with lots of manuka, kauri and puriri trees leaving layers of crunchy leaves on the trail.

We came across this big old puriri tree, slowly being taken over by the vine like rata. It is a massive tree, ancient and twisted. Lovely.

Very soon we were on the cliff top overlooking Karekare Beach where we started. Looking back down the beach towards Pararaha Valley.

Karekare Beach.

Now you can see why this is one of my favourite places ! Beach, surf, hills, mud, trees, wilderness. What is there not to love about Karekare.

It was a great couple of hours out and about, Vicki is good company, a not too old friend, but one of my best friends and it was great to catch up. Vicki is the editor of Kiwi Trail Runner magazine and is very enthusiastic about anything trail and trail running. She gave me a couple of issues of the mag to take home with me as I was not quite up to date !!

She also stores my trail shoes at her house, to save me carting them back and forth from England. Now that is a true friend !

The end of the road–trip.

Sunday 03 April 2016 – Auckland, New Zealand.

Wow, our little road trip is over today, and we only have two more days in New Zealand before we head back towards London. We have a couple of days in Hong Kong to break the journey, which is a relief as the jet lag has hit me big time. Man, this trip has gone by so fast.

The sky was refreshingly gentle this morning, there is still cloud about, but it is not as dark and broody as yesterday. The view from the deck of the bach is down over Goat Island, our only destination of interest for the day, before we head back into Auckland.

After breakfast and a quick tidy and clean of the bach, the four of us headed down to Goat Island. The island is in a small marine reserve which was established, I think, in the 1970s. As a reserve there is no fishing or shell fish gathering allowed so there are literally hundreds of fish and other types of marine life.

It appears that fish are less stupid than you would think, around Goat Island there are big old snapper, rays, moki, mau mau – all sorts of species that make coastal north island their habitat. We used to do a lot of snorkelling here in the early 1980s, and you could and still can hand feed the greedy snapper. Go around the corner to Mathesons Bay and you will see no fish at all. All the fish came here Smile

I see that feeding the fish is no longer encouraged!

El and I were not going to go snorkelling, just a walk around, though Mel and Dickie ventured in for a look around after we had left.

The tide was quite low so we got to walk out a way on to the rocks so we could peer over the edge to look for fish, the water was quite clear but we didn’t see anything apart from a few tiddlers in the rock pools.

It is a nice beach, with some really cool gnarly old pohutakawa trees.

It was soon time for El and I to farewell Mel and Dickie and head back to Auckland.

We stopped in Matakana again, just for a quick for coffee, in a very crowded Sunday brunch type cafe before taking the hour long drive back to mum’s place.

Road trip over. It was good!