Friday 31st - nobody to talk to

It's now coming up to 11pm so it's 10am at home but nobody is around, or up!!!! to talk to me. Wifi runs out in 5 mins so I hope all's well for everybody. Night night :-( x x x

Friday 31st

We are now totally over our jet lag and after a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast, we set off for our Glacier Explorer trip. As it was cold and grey we had to dig out our fleeces. Thank goodness we brought them as it was a bit chilly. We were transported to a car park and then had to walk a mile to were the boats were. After donning our life jackets and signing a disclaimer absolving the operators from any liability we set off.

We spent about an hour racing around the lake looking at the different icebergs before getting up close to the glacier. 

We even managed to get a lump of ice aboard our boat. 

Us stood on the boat with the glacier behind and the clouds starting to lift. 

The other half of our group. 

After we returned to the hotel we decided to set off and do a walk called the Hooker Valley walk to the Hooker Glacial Lake. It was a 10 mile round trip in baking hot sunshine but well worth it. Notice the icebergs floating in the lake. As they are newly calved they are still dirty looking and the water is a milky  colour because of all the rock flour.  Small amounts turn the water a beautiful greeny blue, like yesterday, but large quantities turn it milky. 

Us with another half hours walking left. 

I think we've earned a drink tonight so it's time for a shower and off to the bar before dinner. A truly brilliant day, especially the walk this afternoon. 

Thursday 30th

What a brilliant day. Started off with a lovely breakfast and then it was onboard the coach and another short look at Christchurch before driving to Mt Cook. 

Punting on the Avon River.

On the way we stopped for lunch at a small town called Geraldine, where we fully expected Peyer Kay to appear walking along the road singing Amarillo. He didn't but we could pretend. 

The day had started off fairly grey and overcast but David, our driver, told us that it would change later and we'd have blue skies and sunshine. Not sure we believed him but when we stopped in Geraldine a lady I was talking to told me that she'd just come from Mt Cook and that the sky was blue and the temperature 28c. A short while later, as we approached Lake Tekapo, the skies did clear and we were met with the most amazing view. 

As you can see in the photograph above, the cloud is trapped and can't get over the mountain amazing. The water was that beautiful bluey green colour from the ice melt.  We visited the Church of the Good Shepherd which must be one of the smallest churches in the world.

I've never seen a church before with a window behind the altar and don't imagine that many have the view below though.  Not sure I'd be able concentrate on the sermon if I could see that view out of the window.  

From the sundial below you can see that we are 11800 miles from London, just in case we didn't know. 

We soon moved on to Mt Cook and some of our group had decided to do a helicopter ride around the mountain. I'm afraid we chickened out and instead soaked up the sun and ate an ice cream whilst looking at Mt Cook. 

Our hotel is lovely and opening our curtains onto the panorama below was a treat. Mt Cook is in the middle of the photo in the distance. 

Tonight we had our welcome dinner with the best lamb we've ever had accompanied by New Zealand Merlot. Now we are suitably stuffed and looking forward to our day on a Mac boat tomorrow to view the glacier. 

Fed up

I've spent the whole journey slowly writing today's entry and I've just found that it's disappeared.  Pity I was being efficient and deleted all the photos I'd taken.  This is the only one I have because I've just taken it and went to the blog to add it but no blog. 

Ifan, can you see the international date line. I've no doubt you'll be able to tell nana all about it when we come home. 

Had hoped to get some sleep on the flight but it wasn't to be. Himself managed to sleep, or at least he was snoring, quietly, thankfully. When I said he'd had a good sleep, as predicted he said he hadn't slept. Not sure what he thought he was doing. 

Meals were good but by the time we had had dinner of steamed fish in a lemon and dill sauce, it was only five hours before breakfast would be served, chicken noodles, mmmmmm. We'd also been served apple and Ferrero Roche choccies during the night. Not sure we'll need to eat today. 

We have now started our descent so almost there. The temp is only 19c in Christchurch which is going to be a shock to the system after steamy Singapore. 

Checked in to our brand new characterless hotel. It's a new build because the previous one was damaged during the earthquake a couple of years ago and this is the result, awaiting demolition. 

It's quite sad to see so much of the centre of Christchurch damaged and either awaiting demolition or vast open spaces where once stood buildings. The cathedral was also damaged and just appears to be a monument to the quake and the 170 who died. 

The cathedral 

In order to get the city back up and running, shipping containers were painted and used as makeshift shops. A very effective, earthquake proof, novel idea. 

A tram trundling through a newly built shopping arcade. 

This is the Remberance Arch which was also damaged and is being renovated. Hopefully the renovation work will be complete for this years 100th anniversary of the Great War. 

Annoyingly the hotel policy is free wifi for only 2hrs in a 24 hour period so I'm going to have to plan very carefully in order to make the best use of it. 

Now it's time for a nap, shower and then dinner. 

The final leg on the outward journey

We are all checked in and ready for our onward flight. Only 10 hours flying left. The next blog will be from Christchurch tomorrow, hooray. 

Changi airport

Tuesday 28th

Had a very lazy day today due to blistered feet :-( after a long day walking yesterday. Not sure what went wrong because I wore my hotter shoes all last summer with no blisters! We still walked to Little India and wandered around Mustafas, a huge Indian 'department store' which is open 24 hours a day. John Lewis it wasn't. It's the first time I've been shopping whereby they sealed John's camera bag with a cable tie just in case he fancied helping himself to anything and not paying. Slowly wandered back and bought a nice pashmina, just in case we have any cold evenings in NZ. Walking through Little India felt very much as I would imagine India to be.  It certainly wasn't as clean and tidy as the rest of Singapore. 

Walking through Chinatown we were able to see our horoscopes for the year of the horse. 

Here's his

and here's mine

I hope you noticed he's a pig and I'm a tiger!

Enjoyed sitting by the pool and soaking up the sun for a couple of hours before sadly having to repack the suitcases and prepare for our onward trip. At least we feel well rested now and hopefully the 5 hour time difference between here and NZ won't bother us too much. 

Ifan, an interesting fact we've found out about Singapore is that it is 85 miles north of the equator. Can you find it on your globe. Silly nana thought it was south of the equator. Just shows how wrong nana is. 

Monday 27th - the end

Well it's been a very busy day and this evening we wandered around Chinatown but decided against eating as we couldn't find anywhere we really liked. Instead we opted for Thai chicken with cashew nuts and Thai fried rice. Very nice. 

We then walked to Raffles and had a Singapore Sling, what else could we have? The drink was very nice but the long bar was not what we were expecting. We were expecting opulent surroundings rather than a fairly dark bar dating back to the early 1900s. 

Well it's been a very busy enjoyable day and as we've been awake since 3:30 this morning and it's now 23:05, I think it's time to sleep. Night night all. 

It's still Monday 27th

 We are now sat in the bar on the 57th floor enjoying a gin and tonic. One floor below is the observation deck at a cost of S$23 each. Our guide advised us to come to the bar and buy a drink, that way we get the view and a drink for $S40. The most expensive drinks we've bought but worth it. It's a win win win. The bar is at the far left hand end of the bit that looks like a surfboard. Go any further and we'd drop off! The view is spectacular as you can see. 

Cheers. 

Monday 27th continued

Had a really good sightseeing tour this morning. 

Visited Merlion Park first. The Merlion is the tallest statue in Singapore and is the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It's meant to represent Singapore's origins as a fishing village. 

After Merlion Park we went to China Town, which is busy preparing for the New Year on Friday, the year of the horse and then on to Little India. We then visited a craft centre where they made the most beautiful pictures using cut and polished stones. Too expensive for us so we didn't buy.  

The highlight was the botanic gardens and in particular the Orchid Garden which has the largest display of orchids in the world. Here are just a few. 

Off for a swim now. 

Where we are

Hi Ifan, I know you're following nana and pops, well here's a map to show where we are right now and we've stll got nearly 5000 miles to go! It's a long way. 

Monday 27th

Up early (3:30) after a reasonable sleep. It was lovely to talk to so many via FaceTime. 12 hours flying and we can still talk face to face, withou wires, as Jackie would say. 

We are now breakfasted, having had a very leisurely feast to set us up for the day. Freshly made cheese and mushroom omelette with a side of sautéed mushrooms, followed by toast and fresh fruit. Lovely. I drew the line at chicken curry, jalfrezi and noodles!!

Explored the hotel a little and found this beautiful azalea display  I thought it was maybe artificial but it isn't. 

We then went to check out the swimming pool again. Can't wait to get into after our morning tour.

This beautiful orchid is next to the pool. 

So now we are getting ready to go out for our morning tour, which we are both looking forward to. 

More later. 

Too tired :-(

 Showered and changed and off out for a wander. Trouble is we are both whacked. 

Ended up finding some food, S$14 for teriyaki beef for the two of us. Mmmmm

Also managed to buy fresh milk so looking forward to a nice cuppa. I think the plan is to go back and get some shut eye ready for a 9am start. 

Up up and away

So far so good. We are 2 hours into the flight and we've watched half of The Butler and had our evening meal. We both opted for Tandori salmon which was delicious, followed by cheese and biscuits and white chocolate and cranberry ice cream. A couple of glasses, sorry  beakers, of wine and the stress of the last week has melted away. 

Himself looking relaxed 

Trolley dolly (take note Laure Hodgson)

Menu

Food

Drinks menu

Film watched, excellent. Quite unbelievable that black people have only become accepted in the USA in our lifetime. 

Here's the journey so far. 

It's time to settle down now and hopefully we'll manage to sleep and find the journey nearly done when we wake up. Night night. 

Journey seemed to pass quite quickly. Managed a little sleep and then it was time for breakfast, spicy beef noodles were very very nice but not my cup of tea for breakfast. 

We landed on time and are now checked in to our hotel. First impressions of Singapore are of a beautiful, clean city. Looking forward to exploring. 

All checked in

Well that's it, we're at the airport, checked in and through security. Now I feel we can sit back and relax. The only people in the Q for the remaining seats on the flight were those on our tour. We've ended up with two aisle seats so no holding hands and no shoulder to rest on :-( The only other seats offered together were on my no go list so thank you seat guru. 

One sleep to go

Well it's been a pretty traumatic week, I think what we need is a holiday! 

Quite why Singapore Airlines don't allow online check in when you are part of a group booking is beyond me. It now means that we'll have to accept our seat when we check in tomorrow but I'm armed with a list of all the seats we don't want, courtesy of seatguro.com. Fingers crossed we get a decent one. We don't want to end up with restricted seats that don't recline, like we had when we flew to Peru.

Thankfully jury service finished at lunch time so we've been able to complete the packing together. Annoyingly both cases were a kilo over so we unpacked and spent some time removing some clothes. It was easy taking some of his stuff out but much more difficult to decide what I wouldn't miss. I suppose I could have just removed some of his and kept mine but I would have felt guilty doing that. 

Well roll on tomorrow now. I'm looking forward to a gin and tonic on the plane and waking up in Singapore. 

Night night everybody.