Thames Embankment

We thought we had had our last YHA fire alarm in Manchester 2007, but here we go again from deep sleep, grab some clothes, down the fire escape and found it was a drill. Back to bed with jangled nerves. They took names so they would know who was not dead. (We were nearly last of the over 160 names to be called out.) I thought back fondly to our efficient fire drills at school - not one life lost!




In the morning we went by underground to the Thames Embankment, and crossed the Millenium Bridge to walk down the Thames.



Past the Globe theatre of W. Shakespeare fame. This is a reconstruction arranged by moviemaker Sam Wanamaker and completed in 1997.



The Waterford Bridge, The Anchor Inn.



Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind, a reconstructed ship that has been around the world.



HMS Belfast is a WW2 cruiser involved in sinking the German Scharnhorst. Its big guns have 14 mile range.



Tower Bridge dating from 1897 is a great sight, iron construction held together with rivets. It lifts to let tall ships through.



Our last place to visit was the Imperial War Museum.



Travelling by Underground is so convenient, trains each 3 or 4 minutes. We have only spent 5 pounds each from our Oystercards in 3 days.

London sights

After a good sleep we felt like checking out the local surroundings. Here's our YHA hostel, and a view down the street of Bolton Gardens.



Then onto the underground to Picadilly Circus.



Marble Arch & Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.




Over Hungerford bridge, built in 2000 to replace a bridge built by Brunel in 1864. It meets Jubilee Gardens, with buskers, a merry-go-round and the London Eye. And a spot for our lunch. Doug waved to the Emirates A380 on appproach to Heathrow. The crew have no doubt been in his coach.



Along the embankment and past Parliament and Big Ben.



Walking along past St James Park, leading to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen was out. Queen Victoria's statue was in.



A welcome break to sooth our sore feet in The Coal Hole. A pub from 1904, built in the coal celler of the Savoy. A haven for supressed husbands, not allowed to sing in the bath.



We headed back to the tube past Cleapatras needle. Made in Egypt in 1500 BC and brought to England in a steel cylinder by Erasmus Wilson. It was put overboard from the ship in a storm, recovered and erected by the Thames in 1879.

Hong Kong to London

We had a 2 hour stopover in Hong Kong. There were a lot of very interesting planes but we were a bit worried about the locals taking exception to big lenses.



This one from the plane window is an Air Indai Airbus A310.

Back on board for the twelve and a half hours to London we had great views of the mountains through China and Kazakhstan and these impressive cumulus clouds.



There was a steady procession of planes heading back towards Hong Kong on the same route.



We could follow the trip on the GPS view on the seat back.



A glimpse of Holland near Enkhuizen from 11500 metres as we neared London.

Finally in London, they had two immigration officers processing a huge queue of 'other' passports like ours. We took the free train to Terminal 5 to buy the Internet technology from Vodafone, then the Picadilly line to Earls Court to our Youth Hostel. It's clean, big, handy location, pity no cooked breakfasts.

Halfway in Hong Kong

Here's our Boeing 777 that has been a good flight so far. This post is courtesy of free Wi-Fi in Hong Kong Airport.

Off we go!

The bags are packed, the gardens are tidy, hopefully to be full of veges and potatoes and not weeds in 2 months time! Takeoff in 5 hours.

Lucy's Bridal Shower

Lucy's bridesmaid- to-be (Jani), and mum (Sue), hosted a very enjoyable bridal shower last Sunday. (16.08.09). There was a range of guests from Nana Loma to young nieces from Taranaki.
It was neat to meet Brendon's three sisters (two of whom had come all the way from Taranaki for the party), as well as Brendon's lovely daughter Teagan.



Memory game: we had to list all the accessories worn by 'the bride'.



We had the task of dressing a bride using a roll of cardboard, toilet paper and various other bits'n pieces. We won the prize (chocolate) for the 'most couture' gown. (darts and all - embellished with toilet paper roses.)

The 'How well do you know the groom?' game was hilarious. Lucy was given a chunk of bubble gum to chew every time she got one wrong. Pretty hard to talk and chew by the 6th piece.

Brendon's sisters knew Brendon better than Brendon knows himself so, to shouts of 'No!' and 'Wrong!' pieces of bubble gum were set aside for him to chew later.

Bubbly and delicious smoked salmon kept our energy levels up until it was time to leave.

We're all looking forward to the wedding!

Trip to Piha

Doug had a day off today so we set off to Titirangi to collect a starter motor for the Skyline. It was a lovely day so we packed a picnic and decided to drive onto Piha, once the deal had been done.

There was a fairly chilly onshore westerly blowing, so we abandoned our idea of a picnic on the sand and scuttled back to a more sheltered spot beside an estuary.




This friendly duck came to join us. She enjoyed eating out of Doug's hand.



After lunch, we set off for a walk up the beach. There was less wind by then.



What a spectacular beach!

A Silver Car for Dave

We had a very enjoyable trip to Te Awamutu so that David could collect the car that he had 'won' on Trade Me.

Our first stop was by the river in Hamilton. We had lunch and a bit of a walk as we were running a bit early.

We checked on the Spitfire - the one that we remember seeing at the Airforce Base, at Te Rapa, when we were kids.



They have made great progress on restoring the old gunship 'Rangiriri', since we were last there.



A more modern gun also featured - slightly obscured! We also enjoyed looking at some of the beautiful birds in the aviary.



A quick tweak to the Skyline, a bit of hand cleaner, and we were on our way again.



David was very happy with his purchase, and really enjoyed his drive home. The car looks lovely.