Hong Kong Rugby 7's

The main reason for our trip to Hong Kong was to attend the Hong Kong Rugby Seven’s tournament. This event had about 20 nations playing seven aside for seven minute halves. The football action was fabulous but the entertainment from the crowd was simply amazing.

On the Friday night launch my mate Neil and I found our way by mistake into the southern stand and we sat next to the funniest bunch of guys from the USA, UK, Aussie and Hong Kong....well could these guys tell a joke...one was so good I will need to practice and hopefully do it justice when I am next around ”the boys”. It was a bloody funny night.

We found ourselves back at the same location at opening time Saturday, alas the funny guys were nowhere to be seen, however we discovered that Saturday was dress up in your best costume day....and they all sat in the southern stand around us. We saw, bikie’s with stocking painted tattoos on their arms and legs making them look real mean, Marilyn Monroe’s, Fire Chiefs, Amy Winehouse (girls with makeup tattoos all over them), Matty Johns ”bring back the biff” boys, Amish people, Star Wars characters, cowboys, Indians, the hulk, you name it and it was there. However the most entertaining group was about twelve big guys from South Africa who were dressed in a pink Sharks rugby jersey board shorts and blue construction helmets.

These boys were in for a big day as we would soon find out.....games started at 9.30 and at 9.35 the chant went out from our little area SHOE...SHOE...SHOE...at this point one guy removed his shoe and held it up and pours in his 1 litre cup of beer into his shoe and proceeds to skull the whole shoe filled of beer which he does easily to the crowds delight. No more than 10 -15 minutes goes by and around us we hear the chant HELMET...HELMET...HELMET at which point previous shoe sculling man stands up holds out his blue helmet and people all around him donate beer to his helmet and again once full - proceeds to skull his helmet of beer and then put his helmet back on. Crowd is delighted with his mighty efforts...took me two hours to drink my beer and this guy does it in one minute. I think this guy was the smartest of all his 12 mates because he went first. As the day went on each guy was encouraged shall we say to do the SHOE skull and then followed by the HELMET skull. Each time more and more crowd participation in voice and beer donating. I don’t think these guys by the end of the day saw any rugby action and in fact I don’t think they would even know they were in Hong Kong....but the crowd sure was glad as Neil and I were as they sat two rows in front of us. I have never laughed so much and seen so many antics at one day at the football...unbelievable fun all day.

Imagine my surprise when reading the paper the next morning. The photo above shows the South African lads and a few others at the football in a news paper story that ran on Sunday in the South China Morning Post...if you look carefully you will see me in the photo!!!!!

That night when Dominique and I were walking back to our hotel room I noticed this car and said to D that it looked like a new Aston Martin sports car.

The grill was a give away but the lights where different, well to my amazement when I got up to the side it was only a two door car about the size of a mini!!!!!

Saturday night we went to a Japanese restaurant being managed by a friend of Neils. He insisted we do sample some high percent vol sake from his cellar. By the time he got to the 60% proof I was asking for only a few drops! It was deadly stuff.

It was above the streets of Lan Kwai Fong. For those who dont know, Lan Kwai Fong is party central in Hong Kong. Particularly for westerners. Here is a shot D took of the street as we were leaving.

There is no limit on drinking outdoors so people just buy a beer and stand in the street and chat. Each tiny bar was pumping out lound music, each competing with each other. Still they were drowned out by the competing chanting of the costumed lads having fun.

The cars are amazing over here this trip....Bentleys and Rolls Royces, Maserati’s everywhere...makes the little old Porsche look very common indeed. Check out this diamante grill and number plate surround on this Mercedes!

Anyway the football was a blast and will do again in the future....better start thinking of my costume ... anyone want to come?

Last day Macau

I was fascinated with the detail carved into the granite door way. This section was raised to support the door so it didn’t scrape on the ground.

A couple of the street signs in the older areas.

Chinese and Portuguese buildings next to each other.

A couple of the staff at our hotel were helpful with tips of local places to see. One suggestion was to go to Vila de Taipa. It was a small residential community opposite the Galaxy hotel. A very cute few streets with trees and public seating areas. We were drawn a mud map to a place that was famous for their ‘Pork Chop buns’.

We had to find the BIG coke bottle (6’ tall) and there was a little shop with a queue out the door. After a 10 min wait we had pork chops, literally still on the bone, lightly seasoned and crumbed in a bread roll. Nothing else.... but very tender and tasty.

Contrasts here...

On our last day we went to the City of Dreams, House of Dancing Waters show. I have been hearing about it since its conception and it was one of the reasons for me wanting to spend time in Macau. It truly was incredible. In a newly built indoor theatre the stage includes a massive pool. It would go from being a deep pool that enabled high divers to dive into it then within a matter of seconds, transformed into a dry stage. At time performers sunk or dived into the water and didn’t come up. Obviously they have sneaky ways to get out and find oxygen. Massive props would rise out of the water... It was like watching an amazing special effects movie, though with little discernible story line to follow!! The performers numbered at least 50 and they spent most of the time wet. There was no language so could be enjoyed by anyone. It is VERY popular with people travelling from far to see it. 2 shows a day, 5 days a week, and close to capacity seating each time. Seating was predominantly in the round.

After the show we had dinner in the Beijing Kitchen again. Excellent food at very reasonable prices. Our pre-ordered Peking Duck being carved at the table. Firstly he carved most the skin off and said not to eat it in the pancakes but to have it separately with sugar sprinkled on it. Was interesting and all of it delicious.

We stayed at the City of Dreams. The site included the Crown, Hard Rock and Grand Hyatt hotels. This is the view from our hotel room across to the Venetian and through to the Galaxy hotel.

The Hard Rock hotel had some memorabilia from different performers. You can see how impressed we were with seeing Elvis' shirt!

Galaxy hotel bar - relaxing in the ‘gorgeous’ chairs for a drink.

Next stop Hong Kong.

Macau - March 2012

Well the Budgen’s are on the go again...this time we are in Macau. We have been here for a few days and have covered many things to see and do and found some out of the way places for local foods as we do so well.

We had a great flight from Melbourne... very easy, pretty good seats and reasonable leg room. We landed in Hong Kong mid afternoon on Monday and took the ferry directly from the HK airport to Macau. Before we knew it we were at our hotel on the southern island of Macau (on the Cotai Strip) and enjoying a nice drink with Laureen who had arrived a couple of hrs earlier.

DAY ONE we headed off, walking through the City of Dreams (where we were staying) and across the road to the Venetian (morning tea was a local delicacy of egg tart – yummy baked custard tart – not too sweet and deliciously warm.

From there we jumped into a cab to the historic Portuguese centre and found it quite fascinating. Amazingly Macau was under Portuguese rule until 1999 and now it is a special administrative region (SAR) of the “People’s Republic of China” (PRC), and like Hong Kong operates as part of the one country but has two systems.

This is the view from the front of the facade below.

Many of the old Portuguese buildings are painted in lovely pastel colours, are very well looked after and are located in the central region on the northern island of Macau.

This facade is St Paul's cathedral which was destoyed by fire in 1835 (?) and they have maintained the facade since then.

Tiled panels in a laneway.

St Dominic's

Senado Square.

So pretty!

We stumbled across a doorway to municapal offices which lead in to this quiet tiled courtyard. Very peaceful for sure....

That night we had drinks in the lobby lounge bar and dinner in the hotels, Beijing Kitchen restaurant. Delicious cuisine from north China region!!

DAY TWO we jumped into a cab and went straight to the southern end of the south island to a region called Coloane Village. We explored the old Portuguese settlements to get a feel for the more traditional Macau and the simple way of life.... we found fascinating old Chinese temples - hundreds of years old. We challenged ourselves to try yet another Lord Stowe’s...... egg tart to ensure they were OK.....I can tell you...they are OK...... (today we have gone from buying one at a time each to now buying a six pack to ensure our stocks don’t run out...they are sooo delicious).

Next was a bus trip to Hac-Sa beach. Recommended as it is apparently famous for its black sand. Well let me assure its no Aussie beach. The black sand just looked like dirty brown to us and the water seemed full of minerals and the little waves rolled in. We were on the lookout for a little restaurant we had heard about called Fernandos. After a short walk past a few beach huts/BBQ’s stalls selling all sorts of BBQ’d items....the only one I could identify was octopus...and I was tempted....but alas lunch was not far away and there is only so much we can eat.

Note the thick layer of ash from the incense!

On searching for the restaurant we navigated around approx 2000 school kids on the beach having bbq lunches before we found our destination at Fernando’s. It was great, huge menu and busy which is always a good sign....we ate whole grilled sea bream, wood fire roasted Portuguese chicken, Macanese fried rice (has chorizo in it) drank sangria and rolled merrily back onto the bus and headed home to recover.

That night we headed back into the south of the north island to visit Wynn and the MGM casino’s....thankfully our hotel concierge wrote where we were going in Chinese so I only needed to give the card to our driver and away we went. The money spent on the casinos is amazing; it must be hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. They just go on and on, they have shopping centres around them with all the name brands, cinemas, restaurants of all types etc.. There are many unique attractions in the front entrances and its a competition as to whose is the best. Every casino has one to two each, from the “Dragon of Fortune”, “Tree of Prosperity” and one that fascinated me was the massive diamond at Galaxy casino which rises out of the crystal swan lined pond with the water fall following it skyward with the ever changing light show and dramatic music. All so tackily fabulous!!!

Tonight we are off to see “The House of Dancing Water” and later I have booked a table at the Beijing Kitchen restaurant (yes again) under the name of Mr Mark,( long story) and have pre-ordered Peking duck.....will let you know how it goes....
We wish you were all here to share this with.... take care
Much love
M&D xx

Wanaka - our last 4 nights before home

From Doubtful Sound - it was a 5 hr drive to Wanaka, which is approx 1.5 hrs north of Queenstown. Wanaka is also situated on a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains.

Our room was a 1 bedroom apartment at a fairly big resort. It was great to have a bit of space around us after the boat. We happily ordered in room for dinner on our first night and enjoyed this view from our balcony.

Next day was a lazy morning then out to check out the town. It was about a 30min stroll from our resort around the lake to the town centre.

We couldn't resist taking a photo of the entree Mark had for lunch. It was bacon wrapped scallops and were by far the biggest scallops we had ever seen.

These are a couple of photos taken of the lake from the town centre.

Our second day we took a drive around town and also to buy some snacks for a picnic dinner. This was part of the lake which winds away from the area we stayed in.

Imagine our surprise when the clouds lifted and we realised we could see a glacier from our apartment. When the sun hit it, it just glowed! Once the clouds came in, it was the first area to be hidden.

We took a couple of bikes from the resort and rode across the other side of the lake for a picnic dinner.

Major sore butts by the time we got back to the hotel.

Mark reading in the corner seat of our apartment.

Last full day there, we decided to check out the local wineries. The first 2 were quite small. Tasting was held literally at the kitchen bench of the owners house. Fun! They also were keen to show us the vines, pointed out what the different colours on the berries were from, how they trellis them etc.

The 2nd one also gave us a bit of a tour of their vineyards after tasting, and the amazing view they have of the Clutha River which constantly flows rapidly.

The final we went to provided tastings for several surrounding wineries as well as has a great restaurant and garden in the grounds. After showing interest, we were given a walking tour of their 1.5 hectare vege garden and to check out the sheep etc.

This is the view of their property (which was used for a scene in Lord of the Rings), taken from our table where we enjoyed a very late lunch.

We are now at the airport in Queenstown. Our route home is via Auckland, so a bit of a hassle. Apparently direct flights can be had from Queenstown to Melbourne in winter. We'll be keeping an eye out for one of those!

Doubtful Sound

Our overnight cruise to Doubtful Sound went like this:

- Cruise across Lake Manapouri to west arm (this included approx 70 ppl)

- Bus across Wilmott Pass to Deep Cove (end of Doubtful Sound)

- Cruise Doubtful Sound (from 12 noon until 9:30 the following morning)

There were just 5 passengers on our boat, an English couple and a woman from the Netherlands who were lots of fun. We also had a crew of 2. There was a large boat that had 55 on it and another that had around 8. We always prefer a more intimate experience.

During our time on the boat we glimpsed the other boats a couple of times but mostly it felt like we were the only ones there. There are also a couple of boats that take day trippers. They get about 3 hrs on the sound.

It is utterly incredible to be in such an environment, which of course the photos can’t do justice.

We made our way down the sound stopping a couple of times to look at waterfalls and to pull up the crayfish pots to get our dinner.

The crays were plentiful for sure! Mark was more than happy to lend a hand, ensuring he earned the biggest for dinner.

The opening of the sound from the Tasman Sea was quite rocky and passage through was limited. We stopped to check out some seals, including some very new pups before heading out to sea. It was amazing to realise just where we were in the world. We certainly felt a million miles away.

Once out at sea we did some drift fishing. After a couple of bites for the captain he said to pull up the lines and we would move to another spot.

I was winding mine up and was being told to go faster. I said it was not easy and possibly I was just weak wristed. The female crew member said “here let me do it” (in her preferred, annoyed school teacher tone). Then she said, “maybe you have something on it”. And there before I knew it, I had caught my first fish ever!!! Though I’m not sure it counts when I didn’t do ALL the winding in. In the end we caught enough between us for dinner and for more crayfish bait, which is what mine became.

After fishing it was more cruising and dolphin spotting. It was so amazing with a group of about 20 dolphins all surrounding and protecting a tiny new one!

Finally we moored in a protected cove for the night. This is the only building in the sound and is a remnant of old fishing days. Being a UNESCO site, it is very protected.

From here we went kayaking while the crew prepared our dinner. I had been VERY concerned leading up to this trip regarding sharks in the sound as it was open to the sea. I had my concerns alleviated when told they don’t come in as there is so much fresh water coming from the lakes, they don’t like it in there. (I only realised later – if the dolphins seemed quite happy, why wouldn’t sharks!!!!) Anyway I survived and LOVED it.

Now being alone, at water level in such awe inspiring place is just surreal. In the cove next to ours was a 3 drop waterfall coming down the mountain. There were mussels on alot of the rocks and the trees were different for sure.
In all we loved this experience and would recommend it to anyone. Being with a small group was best for sure. Others on the big boat said they had lamb and beef buffet for dinner! Eww where’s the seafood?!