Barcelona 31 July - Maverick scribed by Toni

Squarkius – How’s my Spanish?  Not many birds around here to try it out on apart from pigeons.

We are staying in an apartment close to the centre of Bardelona in Catalonya.  How do they make these places three bedroomed when you can hardly swing a Kakapo?  And by the way please don’t!

So today….. It was a wanderous day – ok google I know this is spelt wrong.  I am trying to say it was a wonderful day wandering.  Can’t you get it!?

Anyway, we had a slow start as we put paperwork into action from the lost bag (Lucy’s) caught up on paperwork (Toni) or was that messaging Patricia – ok – yes it was.

We got out around midday and spent the time getting lost along all the streets, piazzas and fountains.  We didn’t visit a single church or cathedral though the sites were wondrous.

I hung out in the Apple store with John, Lucy, Sam and James while Toni sorted the lost bag.  Firstly she organised the lost IPAD location via Icloud so that potentially they could find the IPAD and then she told us the necessary serial numbers for the police report.

John, the kids and I played on all the apple devices for ages while Toni spent the time with the Police going through the motions of a bag left in a taxi (that the taxi company didn’t return).

Toni says this has been a very interesting exercise.  As Lucy had a phone and IPAD linked with Toni’s email and play store log on, Toni went to change her password.  Curiously she found that people had been logging onto her account in Queenstown and Wanaka.   – spooky music- is it a conspiracy. Password changed, things move on. 

Time at the police eventually produces a certificate to say what happened and something for the insurance company. 

Arrrggghhh, those children – how much have they lost?

During this trip there is a bit of a sweep going and so far….

James has lost 5 hats and a Macpac jacket.

Lucy has lost a backpack, phone, IPAD and a few other bits and pieces.

Sam has lost a hat, a pair of goggles and none of his squeak

John has lost a red shirt –( in the laundry) and a filling – replaced for 75 NZD in Cambodia

Toni has lost a receipt for Lucy’s phone….

So Southern Cross are doing kind of OK, though maybe the last claim will be highish?  Perhaps there should be a premium for children who are old enough to be responsible.

So where were we? 

Having done the stop at the Police and the Apple store we head down the Ramblers and stop at the market where John drools at the stalls full of every type of ingredient a chef would want and more to inspire him.  We eventually stop for Paella and the kids tentatively try.  We are told we should stop as this is good by one of the guests  - ahhh, no, he is the owner…. Still the Paella is ok, though quite expensive.  Topped up, we head towards the port though are distracted by all these wonderful looking alleys that lead to piazzas with – oh yes, ice cream and churros and for Toni a coffee….. a real coffee.  Sammy complains that the chocolate is too chocolatey.  How can one complain about that!

Back to the Ramblers for the amazing statues – was that Christopher Columbus?  We head across to the port in search of a toilet that doesn’t cost 3 NZD and then towards the cable car.  Why does there have to be an 80 minute queue?  Did no one warn them that in Glenorchy we do not queue!  We don’t do the cables car…

OK now to the beach.  Where is the beach?  It is a sea of people!  The kids build sand castles with sand and cigarette butts.  OK, we miss the pacific. Does everyone smoke here?

We’ve walked lots and lots, we’ve eaten Spain and it is time to go back to the apartment, so we jump on a V15 and then walk home…… 17,000 Kakapo steps for me today and that was easy in just 27 degrees.

The kids are asleep.  John has gone to bed too.  Haha, it is my time to terrorise the apartment, Barcelona and Football.  Do you know how good a kakapo is with a football!

Florence to Venice 24 July - Maverick scribed by John

Skwaaaaarrrrk! Bon Giorno, Bon Kakapo, it's off to Venice we go! It seems Europeans love trains as you can get a train from pretty much anywhere to anywhere and there are small cute local trains, rugged mountain trains, double decker trains, slow trains that stop everywhere and fast trains that hardly stop anywhere! Then there are the super fast pointy nosed bullet trains - they look pretty mean in a 'don't mess with me' sort of way. It's a shame that trains are about as rare as I am back in New Zealand.

We are travelling to Venice from Florence - by train of course - and are looking forward to watching the countryside from the window. So why is it so dark in this train with no views at all? It turns out that this is a brand new high speed line and it didn't want views and things to slow it down so 75.8km of the first 78km are in tunnels! That's as long as my lake back home! It cost five billion euros. I'm not sure how much a euro is, but I know five billion of anything is quite a lot.

Soon we are in Venice. It's an island so the train gets there on a long bridge and has to go very slowly because everything in Venice is balanced on hundreds of sticks that have been pushed into the mud. Even the great big churches. There are no cars here and everyone walks everywhere which makes me feel right at home. The streets are so thin in places I can touch them with my wingtips. I think they made a big mistake when they build all the roads here because they are underwater and you have to use boats to get around. There are Police and Ambulance boats, bus boats, delivery boats, garbage boats and strange canoe shaped boats where the driver has to stand up and carefully balance at one end with a large stick and avoid all the other boats going crazily fast. Strange.

The family have to stop every so often for something called 'gelato' it's a habit they have developed since arriving in Italy. It comes in every flavour except bird seed flavour, which is a bit disappointing.

It's a short walk up and over some bridges to our home for the next couple of nights which turns out to be a large apartment with space for everyone to have their own separate perch - no sharing of rooms which is a real treat. There is a strange contraption called a 'whirlpool bath' which Sam enjoys. It makes loud scary noises, not my idea of relaxing at all. John says that things were just different in the 70s, whatever that means.

Venice to Wiwanni Hut in the Swiss Alps 26 July - Maverick scribed by Toni

Molto bene – Squark Squark.  I have loved Venice.  The family have slept soundly in a beautiful old air-conditioned apartment right on the canal and I have been able to wander freely outside along the canal finding little pieces of left overs and talking to the nocturnal birds and conversing with the seagulls.  This water is confusing, it is salty – it seems strange to be in a medieval city with sea water flowing along the canals.

Today we say goodbye to Italy and goodbye to daily gelato icecream and board the train for Switzerland.  Today is a long journey.  A 20 minute walk to the Venice station.  It is a good thing we don’t get lost like yesterday.  From Venice station we head to Venice Mestre on the mainland and then on our big train to Milan.  As we booked late we were forced to get first class tickets that were another 10 Euro though this included free coffee and cookies and bigger seats so no one was complaining.  We change trains in Milan and travel on to Brigg.

The scenery slowly changes with the seaside slowly giving way firstly to the plains and then to the beauty of Lake Como and on upward to the mountains.  Looking out of the window the kids compare the scenery to home and play ‘hold your breath’ as you go through tunnels.  As we head out of Italy the train is boarded by the police to check and we are welcomed to Switzerland.

We eventually arrive in Brigg around 1:00 pm and buy tickets for Ausserberg and take out 300 Swiss Francs to pay for the taxi and the mountain hut.

The kids look out of the Swiss train with very few people, admiring the view.  The train has space for lots of bikes and the kids are curious about how the trains can be so organised.  John talks about his love of Switzerland, his time working in Wengen and the biggest controversy in Switzerland when a decision was made by referendum allowing the trains to run 30 seconds late at the discretion of the driver.  ‘Oh what it means to be Swiss’.  Apparently it divided the country!

As a none-too-worldly bird, one of the best parts of this holiday has been the discussions with the family.  Listening to the innocent observations of the children, their un-adulterated opinions and the great general knowledge and current affairs of John.  What an education!

At 1:50 pm on the dot we arrived at Ausserberg, walked our bags to the hotel and after a quick toilet stop, met the taxi at precisely 2 pm to take us part way up the mountain.

Our 15 minute $100 NZD taxi ride was worth every penny with stunning typical Swiss scenery as we switched back and forward to the end of the road.  From the end of the road it was a 2 and a half hour uphill hike at 45 degrees until we reached Wiwanni hut. 

Today the temperature is cool, the sky blue and we are treated to a stop in a lovely clearing overlooking the valley below. Time for the last of the pain chocolat and fruit before Wiwanni hut.  At each turn there are meadow flowers, wild strawberries and grassy meadows.  Eventually we fully break through the trees, the wind picks up and we head up the mountain in sight of the hut.  Fluffy mountain sheep with black faces that look more like poodles than sheep, rest under a rock.  Their bells notify the shepherds where they are.

On arriving at the hut we meet Guilika and are allocated to our bunk room in the more modern part of the hut, underneath.  The kids are thrilled to find a tight rope above the hut and a climbing wall up the side. 

Our lovely Swiss staff member Marianne cannot be at the hut as she has been rostered to the Jungfrau though she has given us welcome drinks.  Toni enjoys a herb beer and the children enjoy Rivella soft drinks.  We sit with Mike and Steve whom are on a climbing holiday.  Steve is one of the most qualified guides whom lives in Australia and guides in Europe though comes from the UK and Mike is an Englishman and Steves client whom lives in Andorra. 

The rain starts and the temperature turns cooler and wind rises.  The family are happy that they bought their jackets all the way from New Zealand. 

Dinner is really appreciated with a vegetarian meal for Sam, special pasta for Toni and lovely home-made soup, corn beef and an apple dessert that has something to do with a ‘knight’.  All the food comes from the village and the girls hike some of this up from the top of the road.  It is a new appreciation from John and Toni who admire the challenge of the logistics of supplying Wiwanni hut.  Whereas it would have been fantastic to see Marianne, it is great to understand where she works and what she does when she is not at Kinloch.

It is hard to sit and enjoy the meal without wanting to jump up and help.   The hut has its very own ‘Heidi’ and is almost a cliché – one cannot be more Swiss than Wiwanni hut in the mountains, our hosts and then light wood everywhere.  Benches with sheepskins and gingham tablecloths.

No-one wants to stay up late and soon we are snuggling down, shivering in our beds.  What a welcome change from the warmth of the last 6 weeks.  The wind rattles around the hut and we are glad for our shelter.  After a short time we are woken by what sounds like someone’s alarm.  “If you are doing a midnight ascent on the mountain, please get up and switch your alarm off so we can go back to sleep we think!!!! “ Arghh, but this is just the beginning…….. the night was not peaceful it would have been quieter if I had got up to Squarkkkkkkkkkk!

Hong Kong to Dubai 18 July - Maverick scribed by Lucy

Squaark! It's me again Maverick the kakapo reporting for duty! Today is our last day in Hong Kong! We woke up in our hotel feeling great, checked out and went to breakfast.  We went to a nice place not far from us "Pret a Manger" (ready to eat in French) Lucy had Pumpkin soup, James had a big yummy sandwich with bacon and other stuff in it, John also had a sandwich and Toni had a coffee. Crunch, Chomp, Gulp

We went in town to the train station and checked in our bags. It was really cool, we could just checkin our bags then see them in Rome. Anyway, after we checked in our bags, we went off to the maritime museum. Three words, too much info. There were three floors, all packed with information, the first floor was about how ships were made, what they did and what they shipped. The second floor was about rubbish, spotting ships and boats. The third floor was literally just lots of info, pretty much none of it to do with ships.like there was a robot hand that helped people who lost use of their hands in a stroke help relearn to use their hand. The robot picks up the brain signals and moves the hand for the person, then slowly, the person relearns how to use their hands. Anyway, other stuff like that was there. After everyone learned lots, they left the maritime Museum.

After that it was the to board the train. It was only a small train journey on the MTR. Nothing too exiting. We then arrived at the island airport, an airport on an island. We wandered around for a bit, then Lucy and John decided they were hungry, Lucy got a B.L.T from Subway and John got a Spicy Italian there as well. Lucy got a free Creamed soda with her drink and John got a drink for James.  My family didn't know what to do so they wandered around for a bit then went to the I max cinema and watched antman. After that it was time to board the plane.

The plane was massive! An A380! This meant big Magical Screens and good Magic Food! Lucy and James also got Free Stuff! This included: a backpack, a sleep mask, a notepad, a pen, a keychain aaannnnddd a complimentary chocolate. All 8 hours of the trip, Lucy and James watched movies, ate, and slept. The plane landed in Dubai at about 2:00 in the morning, Hong Kong time. We got off, then went to the gate. There are some nice benches here, I might just take a little na-....  Squaar zzzzzzz Squar zzzzz Squar! What was I saying? Oh yeah, I'll Just take a little nap... Squar, zzzzzz sqaaaar, zzzzzzz sqaaaau, zzzzzz.

Hong Kong Disneyland 17 July - Maverick scribed by Sam

D I S N E Y L A N D

Yippee waking up early again ;( but it is for Disneyland!  We are all excited for the amazing day that lies ahead of us.  Finally we get our train tickets and head on to the red line.  After a couple of stops we get to the yellow line and then we get to Sunny bay.  We get on the pink line to Disneyland Resort.

The train was cool it had Mickey Mouse windows and statues of all the characters from Mickey Mouse.   I really like Mickey Mouse, not just because of the TV show, but he looks very tasty.....

As we walk we see all the cool Disney characters like Bambi.  There is an amazing surfing Mickey Mouse.  We get tickets for Disneyland (so many tickets) and we go inside.  Everything was amazing from the point we arrived into Disneyland.  We walked towards Tomorrowland to go on the amazing Space Mountain ride.  We hop in the line and thankfully we have a lot of practice waiting in line (long story - literally).  Finally after what felt like forever we hop in our space ship (which isn't a good sign with rollercoasters) and sure enough we go really fast.  It was amazing it felt like you were flying through space.  Finally it stopped.  After we got off my bug sandwich threatened to come out!

We played the wandering game and head to Mystic Manor.  Mystic Manor was amazing.  We were on sleighs that followed a magnet trail.  The plot was that there was a music box that could bring stuff alive and you were in the middle of a museum filled with canons and stone dragons and you see everything come alive.  It ends when the monkey that opened it, closes it and everything goes back to normal.  

Off to Adventureland for the river jungle cruise.  It was cool, we lots of giraffes and zebras and natives trying to kill us.  They were not very friendly.  Then to the Grizzly Gulch with bears trying to blow you up. which was pretty much the title.  It was amazing!  It was so amazing I have to keep saying it was!  so it was really cool.  It was .... you get the idea.

To Toy Storyland for horse shoe ride,  We go on a massive horse shoe in a toy car and go backwards and forwards.  

We went to Fantasyworld and we headed to It's a Small World and it was cool we went everywhere in the world in one ride, crazy - even New Zealand was there.

Finally we head back to Tomorrowland to get wet - like freezing wet.  We spend about half an hour playing in water and then we leave Disneyland.

Dubai to Rome 19 July - Maverick subscribed by John

Skwaaark - good morning, or good evening - I really don't know which it is anymore as my VLP (very large parrot) Nav system is terribly confused by changing continents and time zones.

Last I knew, we were in Hong Kong. Now we're sitting - or trying to stretch and sleep on benches in a place called Dubai.  It's 2am in the morning, well at least it is somewhere, if not here. It's dark so I can't see anything but a cousin of mine who can actually fly once met an eagle who told him that a falcon friend of his had been to Dubai for competition flying and apparently the place is like a big beach, but without the sea and people live in big cloth houses called 'tents'

Oops - time to get on our flight to Rome. For some strange reason we have to get on a bus first and take a 20 minute tour of the airport. Maybe they are proud of their big airport in Dubai and want everyone to see that not everything is made of cloth. We go very fast from gates B1 to C something, past heaps of others and parked planes all over the place until the bus pulls up at ours all on its own at G7.

Next thing we know, it's dawn and we've landed at a Rome, got on and off a train to Trevestere, hopped on and off a tram and wandered down a narrow cobbled street to our apartment, where no one is waiting for us. Luckily there's something called a 'Ristorante' next door so the family have a late breakfast while they wait.

The "apartmento" is pretty small and very hot. I'm not sure I'll manage in here with all my thick alpine feathers, but opening all the windows gets a breeze going and if you sit just in the right place, you can almost imagine it's a cool breeze - which it isn't as its 37 degrees outside.

The family decide to stretch their legs and visit a flea market which happens each Sunday just down the road. I'm excited about buying fleas as they're much tastier than bird seed, but it turns out that a flea market is a name for lots of small shops that get put up in a street and sell, well, everything! While we are looking at stalls we find our first Nasoni, or Fontanelle - a street fountain which is gushing out water everywhere. The water is super clean and ice cool coming from springs deep underground. There's 2500 of these street fountains in Rome, all giving you free water to rinse your feathers in. And very refreshing it is too.

Sammy is delighted to have Pizza for lunch after which we walk through a maze of tiny streets with big old houses, shuttered windows, warm, ochre coloured walls and the biggest collection of tiny smart cars ever seen, which reminds us of our Toyota IQ at home, which we miss.

Back to the apartment where it is really hot and everyone is a bit jet lagged. Sammy is fast asleep still in his clothes by 6pm, the others follow him soon after.

Across China to nearly Hong Kong 15 July. Maverick scribed by James

 SQUUAAAARRKKK Maverick here on a rattley, noisy, shakey train bound for Hong Kong and its 2:am in the morning!  We've just been woken up by the guard and we're arriving at the border and nearly in China.

We're at the border, all the kids are tired and are waiting in the queue for our PassPorts to be checked and stamped. Sammy was nearly asleep and everyone looked tired. Once everyone was through we had to wait for the train to be checked. This took 2 hours and Sam sat on his bag and nearly fell asleep. That didn't do any good for his luggage. Finally we could go back to the train and James was quick to get into his bed. He was nearly asleep by the time everyone else got into bed. 

No one really slept because something happened, the trains generator stopped also the air con was off and the train didn't move an inch. There was a moment where the train started then stopped once again. Then finally the train worked and we were moving. It was really noisy. Making it harder to sleep. The train creaked, squeaked and whined but somehow everyone got to sleep.

When the sun rose everyone was up bright and early and on their beds looking out the window to see the rural area of China. There were rice fields and corn fields. Dirt roads and streams. It all looked very green until we got close to the cities...

We are at the end of the line for this train in the city called Nanning and the heat is unbearable! Even better,  we had to play the queuing game three times in a row to get our other train tickets. Every time we played the game the queue got longer but finally we got the tickets. 

We're setting off to the station for are BULLET TRAIN!!! This kakapo is gonna go over 200kph on the ground and I'm going to be the fastest kakapo alive! We caught a taxi and we are going to the station. We're nearly there. We're at the station and are eating lunch at a cafe in the station. Oh, did I mention this station is way better then the other intimidating station where we got on our over night train.

10 minutes until we board I can't wait. "Dun dun dun din" (speaker noise) " good afternoon everyone the bullet train on platform 10 and 11 is ready to board" said the speakers. Yes we're boarding are train. I'm so excited. We're on our train and its huge and its like a big snake and goes all the way down to the other side of the station. 

The doors are closing and now are shut. The train is starting to move and it wasn't shaking or squeaking it gliding across the rails like it was hovering and was starting to get faster and faster the speed was amazing 50 kilometres an hour, 60,70,80,90,100,110,120,130 and still going faster. Now the world is shooting past.

 The train went for 8 hours at its unrealistic speed and the kids where gazing out of the window. Looking at hills crossing rivers and passing cities in minutes. Until the sun went and then disappeared the kids then resumed to the games. Toni said " that we should do are blogs". We arrived at our station. We are at the west station but are not yet at Hong Kong. One more train to go until we're at Hong Kong.

We caught a taxi and set off for the East Station to get are next train. The taxi brought us on a 45 minute city tour that went in circles. John knew something wasn't right and asked to go right to the station or we'll be late. The driver said nothing. Then finally we got to the station.

The usual price of a taxi to the station is 80 yuan instead he charged us 180 yuan and dad took a picture of the meter.

We had arrived 10 minutes late and the train was gone this had done it for Sam and he was starting to cry even though it was just a train, ( he even cries about Internet ). We had to go on the train tomorrow. We had to book a hotel that was close to the station and call it a day and go to bed Sam went to sleep and luckily I also went to sleep. Then finally the place had gone quite and every one was asleep.

Global Roming – Caput Mundi 21 July Maverick scribed by Toni

Scoooorchhhh. Another hot day as everyone wakes with what feels like a fever.  Not quite, it’s just so hot.  Europe heralded the arrival of accommodation without air-conditioning or swimming pools and a constant temperature 7 degrees over the average so instead of 30 degrees, this year it’s 37 plus each day.  We have actually all laid around with heat stroke in the afternoon, though today we are heading to the Colesseum.

Breakfast is a delicious mix of fruit, yoghurt and bread and cheese.  Wow those Glovers are going all continental.  That rice soup in China was enough to finish them off as far as Asian food went.  Toni is happy having her coffee black and un-sweetened as well as natural yoghurt without all the sugar. 

So, the Colesseum - John has reserved online to prevent having to wait in the kilometre long queue to get to the ticket office for a free ticket.

We set out on our warm walk across the Tiber towards the Colesseum past lots of pillars.  “Squark Squark – you kids are ‘ruining my day’ ha ha.  Quite literally Rome is an incredible mix of buildings and streets in various states of preservation and decline making for an amazing atmosphere.  Take away the stench of urine, the rubbish and turn the heat down and this city is magic.  The water fountain serving ice cold water on every corner is a treat that every city would love.  Not least, to get rid of all these awful plastic bottles humans insist on.  I don’t want tiny pieces of plastic in my food chain thank you.

The Colesseum is huge, seating a mere 50,000 people.  Still an example in todays engineering world with it’s crowd controlling design with optimal people flow systems and staircases.  In its day one in every four people had a free ticket to attend the events at the Colesseum.  These included everything from historical re-inactments, to Gladiator matches with beasts from the four corners of the earth, to the half time executions whilst the emperor and party were having their interval feasts.  Tiered seating left the best seats down the bottom for the emperor and the senate whilst the ladies, children and slaves occupied the top tiers.  Ladies were able to spin and knit quietly whilst the gore was left far away in the centre. 

After the Colesseum we headed across to the Forum.  Just a wee small place – haha.  One of the things that Sammy insisted Toni did was to start reading the Heroes of Olympus.  Now Toni reckons this is just a great way to learn Greek and Roman history.  The children were all so looking forward to seeing Rome and were alive with information as we walked past the Temple of Jupiter and Vulcan.  John couldn’t catch them out with a single question.

The forum is a layered history dating back to the 7^th century.  It is an archaeologists play ground with 1200 years of ancient ruins.

By this time it was nearing the middle of the day and it was becoming very hot.  Time to walk back to the apartment then to lunch.  Rather than trust our gut as we had previously to find a restaurant we checked out Trip Advisor and found a place locally top-ranked on Trip Advisor.

This was a lesson in how you shouldn’t always trust Trip  Advisor.  The food was fine, though twice the price of where we had been eating on our few meals out, the atmosphere was not very good and altogether it was a disappointment.  You still get what you pay for when you find a savvy marketeer to help your business.  I prefer the ‘word from the birds’ and using ones own bird brain to check out where the locals are.

Back to the apartment for a rest whilst the temperature stayed above 35 degrees.  Not that you can rest in an apartment without air-conditioning in those temperatures.

Global Roming.  Great for blue skies, though not much fun for a feather covered giant parrot.  Maverick over and out.

Hanoi to Vietnam / China border 14 July - Maverick scribed by John

Sqwwwaaaark
It's early in the morning and John is going to see if we have been given visas to get into China. When I say 'we' of course I don't include myself as everyone knows that parrots aren't subject to border controls (unless you are tying to smuggle some live ones in your luggage) and in any case there wasn't a place to put any pet parrots details on the visa form.

It's a drawn out process getting a visa. Hop into a taxi to get to the Embassy. Fill in the forms,  take another taxi and come back 3 days later to be given a bit of paper. Jump on the back of a motorbike to go the Bank of China coincidentally 50m from where the family are staying, pay some US$, get a receipt, hop back on the motorbike, Rush to the embassy, hand in the receipt and get the passports! Phew - visas all approved.

John heads to the railway station to improve his already impressive advanced level 'demonstrating patience in a queue' skills. Buying a cross border train ticket requires lots of forms, all hand written, with separate forms for everyone and lots of other customers pushing up to the window asking questions and interrupting the form filling ticket officer. Getting the visa was the easy part.

The family have scored a late, 4pm check out from their 4 bedroomed home of homes and head to the Vietnam Army Museum, which has lots of information about wars and a great collection of captured American planes. Good to see some other things that can't fly! There is a collection of school children's artwork and John snaps a photo of one with lots of Doves on it, which Grandma Maggie would have loved.

After a final swim it's 4pm and time to leave Hanoi. Er, but the train isn't till 9pm. Does John know something the rest of the family don't? No. He just wants to perfect his 'patience when waiting 4 hours in a steamy airless dirty uncomfortable waiting room" skills.

All too soon, it's time to get on the train. It doesn't have seats - it has beds, and a really neat hat rack that I can perch on. 4 of the family and me in one compartment, almost overcome by the smell of Lucys' sandals, John safe next door.

No sooner have they fallen asleep then the family are woken up again by the guard,  have to bring all their bags into a waiting room and give their passports to the Vietnamese border police. I miss all of this as I'm fast asleep in a suitcase.....

Royal Halong Bay Cruise - The Day we Did Stuff 12 July. Maverick scribed by Sam.

We had breakfast we went to a cave we went biking went swimming and did other stuff
The end (Toni)"Hey!"  (Maverick)Squark! squark! (Toni)"don't give me any of that!" (Maverick)squark! (Toni)"No"

The Royal Palace Cruse

... Hi Maverick here and today we are in the middle of the royal palace cruse. Up early again (always getting up early) to have breakfast. Yay! a buffet not icky poo Asian food. We get lots of yummy food Sausages,Eggs,Bacon,Toast ect. A good meal for the one and only SURPRISING CAVE!!!!! Will there be Kakapo eating zombies maybe every family has to sacrifice one child to the gods. I don't know but it is SURPRISING!!!!! or maybe it's surprising because its not surprisingly surprising. We get to the cave what's surprising about it I don't know we're  about to find out. We get inside its big surprisingly big wait that's why it's surprising its massive three chambers little narrow hallways between them. After seeing lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of stuff we go away from the surprisingly surprising surprising cave and we go biking we have an amazing view 10 km in total to the middle of the island and back. After biking 5 km we finally get there have a nice long drink of water ahh the glory ends fast back on the bike to go back. Wait still we can't have a rest because we go swimming it was nice and warm at the top of the sea and cold at the bottom the goggles we used were really good so we could see all the fish and "Were Going" cmon can't have two hours without having to go. At least my feathers dried pretty quickly. Back to the boat for a nicereszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Oh hi again now it's dinner yay more food nom nom nom nom nom crunch slurp nom nom ahh now I'm full good night

Maverick in ‘Not quite Hong Kong’ and a roundup of Asia 16 July – Maverick scribed by Toni

KFC breakfast Guangzhou

Squeak – that’s all I can manage. We are supposed to be waking up in Hong Kong today, though we didn’t quite make it last night, as explained in my blog from yesterday.  The family wake up in their ‘Austin Powers’ style apartment, though there is no ‘yeah baby’ moments coming from their mouths as they pack up their bags to head to the next available train to Hong Kong.  

Guanzhou Apartment - Railway hotel

The hotel gives us all breakfast vouchers for KFC.  Sammy calls it the Kids Fattening Centre and the kids are shocked.  It doesn’t look anything like they imagined and breakfast appears in the form of rice soup and a kind or churro.  John rescues the day by getting some bacon and egg muffins for him and the kids and a coffee for Toni.  Toni, James and I enjoy the rice soup, though Sammy, Lucy and John definitely do not like it. 

Sammy powers in his massage chair by the swivelling TV

Our train is at 9:04 am so we have half an hour to breathe before making our way through customs and onto the platform for another modern high speed train taking us straight to Kowloon.

Hong Kong is our last stop in Asia before we hit Europe, James has been promised a visit to the modelling shop so he can stock up on Raspberry boards, servos and Arduino whatever that all is, Hong Kong Disneyland beckons as well as the usual tourist sites.

The sprial staircase above the card table leading upstairs

Asia has certainly created an impression, a better understanding and some real appreciation for the industriousness of some countries.  We’ve seen kindness, corruption and many different beliefs and religions.  We have only scratched the surface of each country we’ve visited and all we have are general impressions.

My family are from New Zealand and having seen some of their life, I can see how lucky they really are.  New Zealand needs to consider that it is one of the most beautiful places in the world, with rich agricultural resources, as well as clean air and water, and with global warming speeding our way, a very attractive climate less affected by warming than our neighbours.  4 million people in the whole country is so few.  New Zealand must seem like the ‘Elysium’ of the world to people in Asia and the rest of the world.

It doesn’t take a bird brain to know how important it is to manage the growth and development of this small country.  If I could fly, my air quality wasn’t great and I didn’t have much decent water around, you can bet that I would be heading to New Zealand and if they didn’t want to welcome me, I would be coming anyway.  I’d take over the nests of the other birds and steal all their food to ensure my own bird family survives.  Perhaps New Zealand should welcome a few more wise bird families to New Zealand, focus on the strength of the whole society and ensure it’s united in its values. If I arrived in a country where the values weren't clear I would certainly be chriping loudly to instill some of my own.

Personally I liked meeting the birds that had a sense of purpose and a faith.  Where religion was at play – god really did help those who helped themselves.  Why should New Zealand produce bird seed for all the new families? can they really afford that? how does that help birds learn how to thrive?  When you start handing out free birdseed, my feathered friends can become dependent and blind and incapable of harvesting the cherries in the bush.  What’s more they stop trading with the other local birds.  We are such a long way from global values though let’s find our great local New Zealand ones. The greatest legacy the Lee Kuan Yuew left for Singapore was not the wealth that was created it was the values that are shared today by everyone no matter their race, religion or family history.

New Zealand needs to welcome other birds that bring genuine investment of hard work and commitment to this country.  We don't want birds that just bring birdseed to feed fat pigeons.  We need more birds, let’s go out and attract the best ones and make it easy for them to come.

I am proud to be a Glenorchy bird and proud that we have our plan and our values in the Glenorchy vision plan.  We need to hold to our shared values and not let foreign birds come in and do things different to our shared values just because they have a lot of birdseed.  I, Maverick worry when too much birdseed is spread around.  It bloats the local birds and they can’t see straight.  Is this birdseed a gift or is it slow poison?  Can we still see our vision plan when we’ve been eating too much birdseed?

Anyway enough about birdseed.  I am glad to be leaving the smog filled areas in China.

We arrive in Hong Kong and make our way to Jordan and our shoe box sized apartment.  We are not there for long and head straight towards Central and up Victoria Peak on the tram.  The wait in the heat was long, though en-route we were able to see the history of the tram and Victoria peak.  People used to be carted up this monstrous hill by sedan chair.  Can you believe it?  It is one thing to be doing a Grand tour in the cooler climes of Europe, though hoisting an overdressed Victorian Man or woman on your shoulders in that heat seems ridiculous.  Anyway, once the tram was built it was much easier and what an engineering feat that was.

On top of the hill, we arrived at a peculiar building shaped like an ironing board.  How do we get out of here?  Desperate for the views we paced around the building looking for the exit.

Eventually we are rewarded and start the Hong Kong Trail.  This affords magnificent views with birds and butterflies and spiders added into the mix.  Victoria peak is where the crazy rich people live.  They pay somewhere in the region of 200,000 HKD per month in rent.  That is around 40,000 NZD per month just for an apartment to rent.  If the New Zealanders are worried about property prices in Auckland they should look and see what is happening in Singapore and Hong Kong.  You can’t really change a lot without severe intervention – local and open market pricing anyone?

We all loved our walk and stretching our legs, especially after all that time on trains.  Keen not to queue again we start making our way down the steep decline towards the star ferry.  Our plan is to be there in time for the laser light cruise departure.  With such a steep descent we all experience thigh burn, though no-one is complaining and I’m being carried, so why should I complain?.  John hails a taxi when we are nearly at the bottom of the hill.  He’s desperate for a cold beer and a sit down.  I can’t see the kids or Toni complaining too much.  The kids would love to sit down for something cold. 

We all headed to Pier 8 not realising quite what we had come to.  We thought the staff were incredibly rude, though then read that we were being served by people with learning difficulties.  It felt strange to see the opposite of what is normal happening, with staff appearing aloof and not wanting to serve you.  

Whistles weted, we headed to the Star Ferry as the sky started to glow pink and the lights starting to turn on.  We spent an hour cruising the harbour learning about the different areas and and the growth and changes in Hong Kong. Laser lights lit up buildings and flashed incredible displays.

8 pm was late enough and no-one argued when it came to a simple dinner or steamed broccoli and salad before a very early night.  The kids are needing all their sleep and rest before Disneyland tomorrow.