The Final Blog Posting

Well, we've come to the end of the Big Trip 2008 and it's been a trip of a lifetime.... lots of interesting places and new sights and sounds. The natural beauty of the South Island of New Zealand, The beaches, rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. And it was so good to see Ray and Pat and the rest of the NZ Watkinsons. I suppose it's all about new experiences - and we have had lots of those.

Carolyn and I have had fun doing this blog, and we hope you have enjoyed it too.

To sum, some final stats: The total miles flown round the world:

And, a summary of the time zones and changes we travelled through. You can see that the 24 hours lost when we crossed the International Date Line exactly compensated for all the other changes. Which is what you would hope would happen, since we ended up exactly back where we started.

Until the next Big Trip!

Home.

We came back home to the worst traffic we'd seen in two months. And dull, freezing weather. And the sight of two months of mail waiting to be opened and dealt with: And we didn't see one Kangaroo while we were in Australia. But of course we have one at home:

Leg 10 : Hong Kong to London : 5989 miles

Well, that's it. The final leg.

Home on a British Airways Boeing 747-300, altitude 38000 ft; cruising speed 538 mph, all the way to Terminal 5, Heathrow, London.

Yes, we landed at Terminal 5 just 24 hours after it opened, and luckily survived, baggage and all.

Notice how the flight started due north from Hong Kong, crossing China, and then either Mongolia or Kazakhstan (I was asleep at the time) before entering Russia. We flew very close to St. Petersburg and flew over the Baltic Sea and then Holland. I thought it was not a very direct route and wondered if it was to avoid Tibet or Pakistan or something. But when you have a look on Google Earth, it is pretty direct. (Still can't get the hang of the world being round...).

Chinese Communist Propaganda Posters

We found the History Museum of Hong Kong very interesting, mainly for the view point of history from the Chinese side, and as evidence of the current Chinese political attitudes.

And I think the impression gained was that British rule was (definitely in the past tense) seen to be ambivalent (banking system, stability, financial growth) bordering on affection; but frowning at the Opium trade (Opium, made from the sap of poppies, is the raw material for morphine and heroin) and the resulting Opium War to enforce it.

Also visible in the exhibits was anger at the Japanese - the military rule during WW2 was a disaster, which still sours relations between the two countries today.

In 1997 Hong Kong became a "Special Administration Region" of China - the policy is "One country, Two systems" - can you imagine that happening in the UK? It's a good example of Chinese pragmaticness - they didn't want to kill the Golden Goose of trade and financial services in Hong Kong by introducing Communist culture into the terrority.

A side exhibition displayed propaganda posters from the 50s and 60s. The poster below is titled 'The Spirit of Daqing' and shows "Iron Man" Wang Jinxi in suitable heroic pose:

We also liked this poster, becuase it reminded us of Priya and Robi; it is titled 'We would like to be the doves of peace':

Hong Kong Container Port

We first mentioned freight containers in the blog when we saw the Port of Napier in New Zealand. As we already know, containerization is a fairly recent revolution in logistics and shipping. And here, in Hong Kong, we come to one of the biggest container ports in the world.
[below: the view of the Kwai Chung container port from the airport bus]

The dawn of the territory's containerization came in 1972 when the container ship 'Toyko Bay' arrived at Kwai Chung. By 1975/76, containerized cargoes already accounted for 51% of the total tonnage imported and exported through the port. In 1980, Hong Kong had elipsed Osaka to be the third largest container port in the *world*.

In 1987, Hong Kong had further ovetaken Rotterdam and New York to became the world's largest container port in terms of container throughput. handling 23.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).On average, some 231,000 ships, comprising both ocean vessels and river vessels for cargo and passenger traffic, visit the port of Hong Kong yearly.

Hong Kong at Night

It's big, bright, and, yes, fairly clever - The main business district at night. The frontage in particular is lit up like a Christmas Tree:

The small skyscrapers in the picture are tall - must be 50 or 60 storeys high. The really big one is therefore abolsutely massive - it's the '2IFC' (IFC stands for the International Finance Centre) and it must be well over a 100 floors high.

Hong Kong

It's like another planet. The contrast from Australian and New Zealand cities in terms of teeming humanity and the general hustle and bustle was obvious.
Hong Kong, although built and controlled by the British for over 150 years is definitely part of Asia. There is a sense of non-Western culture (again not something we had felt in Oz and NZ) and more similar to our visits to India.

And the reason why Hong Kong was built, wedged between a rocky island and a mountain, is BUSINESS. And that's with a really big 'B'. And with knobs on. And then some more knobs, and then, after a step back and tilt of the head to check the overall impression, another level of knobs on top of that. Yes, with all the trappings of Western big business life, it's as if the 1980s never went away - imposing city skyscrapers proudly proclaiming Corporate Land - men in business suits, women in power suits, earnest people in Cafes obviously having business meetings.

Leg 9 : Sydney to Hong Kong : 4587 miles

We leave the southern hemisphere and head back home, with a two day stopover at Hong Kong to break up the journey. Goodbye sun and summer, hello cloud and winter.

Our aeroplane was a modern Airbus A330-300 which is a 767 equivalent with a 297 passenger capacity. There are only 10 of this type of aircraft in the Quantas fleet. Crusing altitude was 36,000 ft; and it took 3.5 hours(! - it's a big place) to cross Australia (crossing the coast west of Darwin).

Sydney Revisited

Sydney is an interesting, lively city with lots of history. Everything that Auckland isn't, in fact. We were looking forward to our (brief) return, with a long list of the things we wanted to do, top of the list was a last bit of sunbathing at the famous Bondi Beach.

[below: a typical Aussie beach bum at Bondi beach on Easter Sunday (when I believe it was snowing in the UK)]

We also spend an interesting day at the city's Science and Technology museum, called the Powerhouse, walking through the Chinatown district on the way and doing some shopping in Paddy's Markets.

Darling Harbour was redeveloped in the 1980s to a modern, tourist and commercial centre. A replica of Captain Cook's ship, the HMS Endeavour, is moored there. The ship is surprisingly small in which to spend two and a half years of your life.

Carolyn and I had seen it before, back in 1997 when it visited Boston on a tour of the UK. We had mentioned the visit to Mum (Gwen) and Dad (Ted) and they came up to see it. We all knew that Captain Cook was Dad's hero. The Wikipedia entry for HMS Endeavour is worth a read, particularly the story of the ship hitting the Great Barrier Reef.We also found a nice pub, The Lord Nelson, which did good food, and more importantly, had its own micro brewery. Its ales were 'Trafalgar Pale Ale' at 4.5% which was served, like all the beers in New Zealand and Australia, too cold and tasted just like lager. Their flagship (sorry) beer was 'Three Sheets' at 5.0% which also tasted just like lager. Oh well.

Leg 8 : Cairns to Sydney : 1221 miles

It's the start of the long journey home; the first part is to return to Sydney where we spend the Easter weekend before flying to Hong Kong.
A little way into the flight, looking down on the blue seas of the Queensland coast, the Great Barrier Reef could be easily seen in the distance:

Bart the Croc!

While at Port Douglas, we visited the crocodile reserve. Everything crocodiles, lazing on the shore, in the lake, in the gift shop, and perhaps even on the canteen menu. There was an amusing lecture about lizards and snakes, but the definite highlight was the lecture about crocodiles, the star being Bart.

Bart was an old croc; certainly not the quickest croc in the swamp and I suspect that the management had given him rubber teeth. So, have a look at the video (sorry again about the quality) and decide for yourself if you could try a go at being a crocodile keeper...

Great Barrier Reef

It *must* be one of the natural wonders of the world. A vast coral reef, just under the surface of the Pacific Ocean, stretching along the coast of Queenland. Home to a myriad of multicoloured fish and other sea creatures.

[below: the Great Barrier Reef from space]
It was the first time Carolyn and I had been snorkeling and after an hour bouncing along in a fast ship to get to the reef feeling a bit sick, we wondered whether it was going to be worth it.

[below: Catamarans (ships with two hulls) are very fast, but this means that the travel is very bumpy!]
Wow! It was. It was a big help that the sea was warm for swimming (an amazing 27 degrees C) and the tour company provided good advice and the right equipment. Once you get used to a snorkel mask (breathing through the mouth, not the nose!)and get comfortable swimming about you experience a tremendous feeling of freedom in three dimensions. Remember this is salt water so you are more bouyant than in a swimming pool, so it takes very little effort to float. The feeling is one of weighlessness, and excitement of a new environment and sensation.

[below: What's this?? A monster from the deep?]

[below: No! It's snorkling dude!]

Tropical Weather in Port Douglas

After the sunny, dry weather in Sydney and for the journey north to Brisbane, we flew to Cairns in Northern Queensland and stayed for a few days in Port Douglas. The weather was totally different - it was their wet season, and we experienced rain and wind.

So what causes this tropical weather?

During the summer, the sea becomes warm (about 27 degrees - I know, I've swam in it). The prevaling wind is from the east, so as the warm moist air from the Tasman Sea is forced up over the mountains the air cools, condenses and clouds are formed. The resulting rain makes this area one of the wettest in Australia with an average of 12 feet of rain each year.
The picture above shows the beach at Port Douglas - notice the clear blue skies over the sea, and the clouds over the mountains.

Leg 7 : Brisbane to Cairns : 866 miles

So, just to recap, we arrived in Australia at Sydney, hired a car and took 10 days to slowly work our way up to Brisbane, and then a flight to Cairns in northern part of Queensland for the Great Barrier Reef!

Ficus Watkinsiana

The Strangler Fig, or Ficus watkinsiana to give its proper latin name, is a strange tree of the rainforest, with an interesting method of survival.

By using an adult tree as its host, the strangler fig avoids competition for light and nutrients at ground level. Its fruit (the fig, containing the seed) is tasty to birds and monkeys, so encouraging the seed to be desposited high in a tree's branches. From there, it sends long thin roots down the side of the tree to the ground to secure a supply of water and nutrients. It also grows upwards from the seed, reaching the sunlight available at the forest canopy before any other tree can do so growing from the forest floor. Eventually, the roots from the strangler fig become so thick to surround the original tree and kill it.

Australia's Wildlife: Pademelons

These cute little things are pademelons. They are like a small kangaroo or 'marsupial'. It feeds on grass, usually in the afternoons or evening. Surprising turn of speed when frightened.
A common sight at Lamington and quite tame, I suppose because of the familiar sight of people walking around. We talked about smuggling a couple home in the cabin baggage for our back garden. (it's surprising what you can take on board the plane in business class) However, we realized after half a hour running round the field with a home made net trying to catch one of the bugg**s, that probably they would only last a couple of nights with the foxes anyway.

Australia's Wildlife: Scrub Turkeys

Brush or Scrub Turkeys are quite large birds, and usually seen scratching around in the forest floor. They have an interesting nesting behaviour and an refreshing attitude towards childrearing, which could catch on with the human species.

[below: Scrub Turkeys were a common sight at Lamington]

What happens is the male turkey scratches up leaf litter and soil into a mound - about 6 foot (2m) across and 3 foot (1m) high. A hole is made in the mound in which the egg is laid. The mould must be damp otherwise not enough heat is generated to hatch the eggs.

Amazingly, the male turkey has very accurate heat sensor inside his upper bill and regularly checks the mound temperature by sampling the leaf litter. By adding or removing litter he can keep the nest at a constant temperature of 33 degrees C. Clever, hey? Well, that's not all.

And after all this trouble to ensure that the eggs hatch - guess what happens next?:
Yes, once the chicks are hatched, the scrub turkey parents feel that they've done their bit, and leave their offspring to make a go of it as they will. Modern progressive thinking! I feel that there is something here which all parents should seriously consider....

The view from our verandah

The accommodation at O'Reilleys was functional rather than luxurious - but compensated by the most wonderful view from the plateau, across various ridges and mountains far into the distance. And the sunsets!
No air pollution from industry; no light pollution from the city - us city bods forget what a true natural sunset does look like.

[below: the view from our verandah during the day]

[below: sunset starts. A good time to crack open a cold beer...]

[below: night time falls quickly, and is clear and cold even in summer]

Australia's Wildlife: Spiny Cray

Well, I don't know who was more scared - Carolyn or this creature she had just nearly trod on:It was sitting in a small puddle in the middle of the track we were followed next to a creek in the rain forest. I had to look twice - a crayfish? in the middle of a forest? and bright blue??

The cray started to slowly back away. We did the same. Later, we found some information about the creature - it was a Lamington Spiny Cray, and it commonly moves from one creek to another. There are nine species of the Spiny Cray in the National Park, varying in colour from bright blue to a distinctive red. Weird.

The Rainforest

We spent three days at O'Reillys hotel in the middle of the Lamington National Park. The place was totally different to anywhere we had been before. A bit like the Blue Mountains - a high natural plateau with impressive escarpments down to deep valleys, but this time the forest was on top of the plateau.
But a forest nothing like any other we had seen - this was sub topical rainforest.[above: The rainforest at Lamington]

Thick undergrowth, massive tall trees, vines, this was the nearest we had been to being in the jungle. Water everywhere, in puddles on the track to a myaid of streams, cascades and waterfalls. Lots of wildlife, producing an alien vista full of strange, noisy, unrecognized sounds.

[above: Rainforest Creak at Lamington]

The biodiversity in flora and fauna is astonishing - in Australia less than one percent of the total land mass is rainforest yet half of their bird and plant species, a third of their mammals, and two thirds of their ferns, bats and butterflies are found there. Not surprisingly, Lamington is listed as a World Heritage Site.

The best way to experience the rainforest is to walk in it, and well signposted tracks provided the means to spend most of our time at Lamington. ( Visibility is low and easy to lose the sense of direction and if you accidently wandered off the track, it would be difficult to find it again; you wouldn't want to get lost in rainforest).

[below: Carolyn at the top of an arial walkway, high in the treetops, looking out at the forest canopy. You can tell how high it is by how tight she is holding on to the safety rail].

Answer to Geography Question No.5

If you are interested in the bridges and the engineering feats required to build them (and who cannot be!) then you probably have found the question easy.

But just in case, here are the answers:

• Golden Gate Bridge - Suspension bridge
• Auckland Harbour Bridge - Cantilever bridge
• Sydney Harbour Bridge - Single arch bridge

If you got that right, well done! You won't be able to look at another bridge again without working out its design type.

And while we are deep, deep in Dadland, if you've ever been to visit Newcastle then the picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge would have perhaps jogged a memory. Remember that the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built by Dorman Long, who are based in Middlesborough, near to Newcastle. Then guess what the famous Tyne Bridge in Newcastle looks like?

Australia's Wildlife: Kookaburra

This is our best picture of a Kookaburra; it had been sitting, quite contented, on the top of a telegraph pole. Just when the picture was taken, it turned away and, I'm sure it made a laughing sound, flew away.

So here's a proper picture, taken from the excellent Australian Bird's Anonymous website:


Kookaburras are:

• The largest member of the Kingfisher family.
• They grow up to 47cm and weigh about 0.5 kg; and their bill is up to 10 cm long.
• They eat small lizards and snakes; before eating them they bash them against a rock or a tree to soften them up.
  

The beaches

There are many really, really, really fantastic beaches on the east coast of Australia, between Sydney and Brisbane. Just to make you jealous (and remember this was in March) here are some snapshots of some of them:

[above: The world famous surfing beach at Manly, near Sydney. We had taken a ferry from Circular Quay to the town; and enjoyed a couple of hours on the beach (it was too hot to stay longer) and then, after a cooling beer, and a wander around the surfing shops before taking the return ferry].

[above: This is a lovely day, towards the end of the afternoon, at a beach called 'Fingal's Bay'. We were staying near Nelson Bay (not to be confused with Nelson in New Zealand) and we really enjoyed our two days there - it was a smallish, friendly area, and reminded us of our time in Hokitika].

[above: Another great beach near Nelson Bay, this time one called 'One Mile Beach'].

[above: Carolyn having fun at the Byron Bay main beach].

Carolyn visits Scotland!

As we travelled north on the Pacific Highway, we stopped mid-way on our day's travel for a coffee and a bite to eat. On our way to Coffs Harbour, we stopped at a surreal place called Maclean - publicising itself as 'The Scottish town of Australia'.
The locals seem to take it seriously, and I suppose it's a good way to seperate your town from all the others situated on the Pacific Highway and attract the tourists and the curious (it worked on us); but we felt an overpowering feeling that it was all made up.
So, street signs were two languages, English and Gaelic; school uniforms were tartan; a Highland Gathering was held at Easter, a Highland Dancing Competition in June. You get the idea.
What seemed well over the top was the annual blessing of the tartan, called 'Kirkin O the Tartan' when, apparently, you can have your tartan blessed in the traditional way. And the telegraph poles. They are painted in tartan - each one differently of course, with the name of the clan also inscribed in case there was any doubt to its authenticity...

It certainly brightened our day, as you can see from the snap of Carolyn taken there:

[above: Carolyn, properly dressed in her 'McClifton' denim tartan, for her visit to the Scottish town of Maclean]

Bell Birds in the Blue Mountains

You have seen the mavellous pictures from our couple of days at the Blue Mountains; but you are missing an important aspect - the sounds.

The video (taken by our camera, so not the best quality in the world) shows you what it's like on the valley floor in the forest, and also you can listen to the noise of the bell birds.

When we first came across a bell bird (at Franz Josef, I think) it's song is so clear and simple that we jokingly called it a 'front door bell' bird. Now, in the Blue Mountains they are hundreds of them and so there is a constant clamour of ... front door bells. Listen for yourself and decide.

Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains are an unusual natural feature - they're upside down, with the normal height of the towns and roads on top of a plateau, and the wonderful views *downwards* from high cliffs into forest valleys. They should be called 'Blue Valleys' as a better description of what they are. Whatever the name, they are stunning.

Here is a picture, from a lookout called 'Sublime Point', across the main valley. Notice the continous escarpments running far into the distance - and the lush green grass? well, that's not grass, that's the forest canopy:


The scale is difficult to appreciate - my estimation was that it was about 1000 foot (325m) from where we were at the top of the cliffs to the valley floor; and we could see about 10 miles to the horizon.

The following picture, of a rock formation called 'The Three Sisters', taken from another lookout, Echo Point, perhaps gives a better idea of the vastness of the area:
Here is a picture of one of the many types of fern seen in the forest:


We had a fantastic day, walking along the cliff edge, then descending into the valley accompanied by streams and waterfalls, walking in the forest to the cable car to take us back up to the top of the cliff.