Day 2 in Singapore to home

Tree with 3 colours of flowers - don't know what it is called.








Birds in the Botanic Gardens that attracted a huge following of photographers with lots of huge equipment!



Behind the waterfall.



Is that Jim?



Day 2 in Singapore was much more enjoyable than day 1. We spent the morning in the Botanic Gardens with the bulk of the time in the magnificent Orchid Garden. It costs 5 dollars to get in but for some reason they mistook me for a senior so charged me only 1 dollar. They charged Jim 1 dollar too but that is understandable!

The rest of the day we spent along the river front enjoying the sculptures, the architecture and the asian food. We avoided the thousands of shopping centres which most normal people, I am told, would delight in!

Our flights home were only 4 hours late in total - much better than what lots of people had to endure. Brian met us at the airport and drove us home over very treacherous roads. He had the car equipped for all eventualities - blankets, food and water! An official at Frankfurt had noticed Jim's bare sandalled feet and wondered how Jim would cope with the weather at home - you should have seen the speed of him once he stepped into the many inches of snow in our back yard! Over the next few days our icicles were the talking point of the town - one was about 6 foot long going from the roof at the back to the ground. Fortunately the house was warm thanks to Ann, Evy and Geoffrey and I moved immediately into Christmas preparations. Once I had the shopping done on Monday 20th I had no objections to staying indoors until the thaw came. As I write this There is a light coating of snow which I hope has no intention of staying.

Further holiday plans - London, Spain and Estonia within thenext 6 months. After that - India? Canada? South Africa? I may even continue the blog for some of those trips. Till then...

Christchurch

Sculpture garden dedicated to people with dyslexia. Also evidence of the tendency down under (in both Australia and New Zealand) of dressing statues/sculptures.

The behind (and ample too!) view of a sculpture.

Teddy bears attempting to escape the Christmas rush!


The above 2 pics show the effects of the earthquake on a church. The tower was damaged and had to be removed for repair and the workers decorated it for Christmas!

This sculpture of an egg was uncracked before the earthquake.

The Our Father in English and Maori in the Cathedral.

Flying Archangels in the Cathedral - seemingly they fell during the earthquake but have been replaced.

At the time we were in Cathedral Square this is how long it was to the Rugby World Cup.

Playing chess in Cathedral Square.

The Cathedral Choristers during their Christmas recital.

The Cathedral.


We spent one day in Christchurch investigating the city and viewing the effects of the earthquake. When I was about to update things from Singapore on I realised that I had not recorded the sights of Christ church, so here goes!

A taxi from the airport hotel dropped us in Cathedral Square from where we hopped on to the very efficient and convenient hop on-hop off tram. The driver gave a running commentary pointing out landmarks and showing us evidence of the earthquake from which Christchurch is still experiencing after shocks. We returned to the Cathedral where we enjoyed the Cathedral's boy sopranos' Christmas recital. This was a real treat comparable to the Army Band's Remembrance Day recital that we happened on in Hobart.

Christchurch is full of sculptures and we noticed that many of them were dressed - we had noticed that in Sydney also. The most memorable sculptures were in the sculpture garden dedicated to people with dyslexia. There is a seat which talks to you when you sit on it and tells you the story of somebody (I've forgotten his name) who did lots of work highlighting the difficulties of dyslexics and set up a foundation for them. There is a sculpture of a young girl who has managed to enjoy reading despite her disability and a sculpture of a pair of shoes used to represent the founder of the foundation.

Our day in Christchurch was very satisfying as we visited museums, art galleries and a craft gallery as well as hopping on and off at various parks etc.

Christchurch to Brisbane to Singapore

A Singapore Sling - 26 dollars. Jim wouldn't let me have a second!

Raffles!


This sculpture was being made with the above plastic beakers.

Merlion Park.

The Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

The day's journey from Christchurch took 24 hours from getting up to going to bed again. We lost 3 hours in the journey to Brisbane where we met Bill and Jill, our exchangees in October. I had bought a book in the airport in Singapore but had finished it while waiting for our connection in Brisbane where I bought another. The Captain on the flight to Singapore could not get the in-flight entertainment to work so I had my book finished a good 2 hours before our arrival (I was wodering if I could claim the cost of the books from Qantas, after all I had to buy my own in-flight entertainment and it was supposed to be part of the air fare!). I then spent the time building cities on my phone- there were some rather shaky tower blocks but I put that down to turbulence during the flight. Jim normally watches the flight information re distance, air conditions etc so it was fortunate that he had bought a crossword book.

Singapore is beautifully lit up for Christmas we discovered during our taxi trip from airport to hotel. It is a city and I have not yet discovered a city that I really like. We spent yesterday touring for want of a better word (going round in circles, with Jim again disproving his belief that he has a good sense of direction and that he is good at map-reading! I, at least, realise that I am useless at this). A hop on hop off bus had been recommended but it had little in the way of commentary so I know little more than I did before I arrived here. We hopped off for a quick tour of the Botanic Gardens - impressive if you had time to explore. It was interesting to see the number of people who begin their day with Tai Chi at the gardens - just like in Vietnam. We might make our way to the Gardens again today if the weather is kind - that means not raining but still around the early 30s and high humidity (not really kind but I suppose kinder than the weather at home!). We hopped off again at the Singapore Flyer (big wheel), simply because we would have had to wait 5 minutes on the bus, not because we were inclined to see the city from the air and in the process get air sick!. We made our way through streets full of construction of one sort or the other to Merlion Park for some photos and a coffee and it was downhill from there - not literally, but getting lost and wandering about without a clue where to hop on again does not appeal to me! The afternoon found us sipping Singapore Slings in Raffles - that was less frustrating than getting lost again. Then the heavens opened for the rest of the day!

Today we will endeavour to appreciate some more of what Singapore has to offer before we begin the long trip home. We will be transferred to the airport at 8pm for flight just before 11pm. This will be a 13/14 hour flight to Frankfurt where we have about 5 hours before our connection to Dublin where Brian will meet us and ferry us home. We expect it will be picture and no sound until well into Sunday so don't tempt fate or you might be snarled at! After that we hope to get into the Christmas spirit in conditions less incongruous than in New Zealand or Singapore.

Any final photos will be posted after we get home - if Christmas preparations allow!

As you can see, pictures have been added!

Queenstown to Dunedin to Oamaru to Timaru to Banks Peninsula to Christchurch

En route to see Albatrosses.

Nesting Albatross.

Stewart Island shags. They come in 2 varieties - all black and black and white. The black and white ones are often mistaken for penguins.


The boulders on the beach at Moeraki - they are spherical and formed by the same process as pearls.
If you look really closely you will see our Yellow-Eyed Penguin.

Strange rocks at the side of the road where we were to see Maori drawings. Unfortunately we couldn't get up close enough as there had been a recent rock fall.




Views en route to Mount Cook.

The Church of the Good Shepherd on Lake Tekapo - it was hard to get a view without the swarms of cliucking ((interesting spelling there - thought I would leave it!) Japanese.

The view past the altar.

En route to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula.

A Pohutukawa tree in full bloom in Akaroa Harbour - this tree blossoms for Christmas in both New Zealand and Australia so they call it the Christmas tree.

Seagull posing at Akaroa.


Views of the Banks Peninsula.

The last few days have involved a lot of travel as we try to see as much as possible in our last days in New Zealand. After a brief stop in Dunedin we toured the Otago Peninsula going as far as Taiaroa Head to the Royal Albatross Centre where, unfortunately, we did not see any flying albatrosses but we did see 4 of 27 who are nesting. It seems, once there is an egg, one parent incubates the egg and the other goes to sea to feed for 4 or 5 days. Then they change roles and the other albatross can go to sea. One nesting albatross was very unfortunate as her mate left her for 14 days only returning on the 15th. This posed quite a dilemma for the rangers who did not want the nesting albatross to die of hunger but were reluctant to interfere with nature. However, all is well.

On to Oamaru where we decided to spend a few hours in the evening watching Blue (Little/Fairy) Penguins returning home after their day at sea. Before that we went to Cape Wanbrow in the hope of seeing a Yellow-Eyed Penguin, the 3rd largest penguin in the world and the most unsociable. Yellow eyed Penguins return to their homes a few hours before dusk so it is possible to see them in daylight as long as they don't see you. We watched one for quite a while but it was a good distance away and it was not possible to capture the yellow eyes on camera. The Blue Penguins were very entertaining and very noisy but we were not allowed to take photos - sorry Mairead! They come in on a wave and clamber up the rocks, many falling in the attempt. After fluffing their feathers, shaking their heads and holding their arms out from their bodies, all the time seemingly gossiping about their day, they come up as far as the track, appear to observe the safe cross code by looking right and left, and scuttle hurriedly to their nests. We saw about 100 of them. We were warned that some of them wander and are attracted to the spaces under parked cars, so we were to make as much noise as possible getting into the car - you should have seen Jim flapping his arms and shaking his head and ruffling the last few wisps of hair that are still clinging bravely to his scalp!

The next day we travelled from Oamaru to Mount Cook, via Oamarama and Twizel, on to Lake Tekapo and then to Timaru - very scenic even when there were clouds. Today we made our way to Christchurch via the Banks Peninsula. We lunched at Akaroa Bay in temperatures of around 26! Tomorrow we are going into Christchurch to see the effects of the earthquake and whatever else is to be seen. Then it's Singapore for 2 days before we make our way home to arrive in Dublin on the 18th.