Explosions by Emma

Yesterday we got the MTR (an underground train) over to Kowloon to go to some of the huge shopping malls that Hong Kong has. Only my Dad had any luck with buying anything. Megan and I had much more luck at the 'ladies market', where we bought some souvenirs and presents. The market was packed full of people. As we walked round, it felt like we were going round in circles, as lots of the stalls had the same things. I have learned to negotiate with the stall holders at markets, which has saved me lots of money. Don't try this at Tesco or Asda....it just won't work!! In the malls, there are lots of decorations for Chinese New Year. This is the start of the year of the horse.

Our friend Avinash said that he thinks I must have been born in the year of the monkey because he says I am like a cheeky monkey.

(The one on the right is the cheeky monkey!!) Later on, we headed to the Indian restaurant which Avinash had organised for us back on Hong Kong island. The man showed us to our table on the outside deck.

The lights from the skyscrapers were glowing and sparkling, and we could see right across to Victoria harbour, where the fireworks were going to be going off.

We had something to eat then went to stand at the edge of the deck to get the best view. At 8 o'clock, the fireworks started. We had to wait 17 hours to see the fireworks in Sydney, but the fireworks for Chinese New Year were much better. Did you know that the Chinese invented fireworks? You could tell they knew what they were doing!!! The fireworks went on for 20 minutes. My favourite ones were the ones that looked like flowers. Others looked like someone had thrown 1000 bags of glitter in the air; it looked like a big fruity burst of colour. Afterwards I closed my eyes, and I could still picture the fireworks.

We thought the fireworks were a great way to end our trip. When it was time to go, we said goodbye to Avinash, and headed back to our hotel. Today was awesome. We are just about to go the the airport to head for home. I feel sad that the trip is over, but I am also happy to be going back to see friends and family. I hope I remember this trip in the future. We have had a brilliant time; had some great adventures, and saw some amazing things- I feel very lucky. I have enjoyed having Megan with me; it wouldn't have been as much fun without her- we have had a 'lol' of a time. This will be my last blog entry.....for now!!!

Hong Kong - bye, bye big trip!!! (Megan)

Over the past four days, we have been in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year. This is like our new year celebrations, but it is the lunar new year. In Hong Kong there are loads of massive skyscrapers. There is a point where you can go up to the top of a mountain and see a huge chunk of Hong Kong. We got on a bus to take us up to the top, called the peak. As we sat on the top of the bus, I couldn't see the road, so I kept on thinking the bus was going to fall off the road. When we got to the top, we walked up to a viewing point.

There was some binoculars at the top, so when we looked through them we could see for miles. There was even a building that we zoomed in on, and we could see all the detail on it. The city was coated in an amazing coat of mist; it was so pretty. When we had finished looking at the view, we headed back to take the tram. It was a very steep hill to go down, and we were worried that the brakes would break. The views were breathtaking.

When we got to the bottom, there was a MASSIVE queue to get on a tram up to the peak. We visited a few shops on the way home. Whilst we were in Hong Kong, we kept on visiting our friend Avinash, so that night we went to an Italian restaurant with him. The next morning, we went on a walk to a place called Victoria Park.

There was loads of exercise machines, so Emma and I spent ages on them. There were quite a few statues in the park. Emma kept posing. :).

Once we had finished our walk, we met Avinash and and got on the star ferry to go to the mainland.

This is where the new year parade was going to be performed.

We headed over to get some dinner, and then went to wait for the parade to start. We got a very good spot. About 5 minutes before the parade started, some little floats came round. We kept on seeing the number eight. It is supposed to be a lucky number for the Chinese. There were lots of bright floats with loud music. They were very pretty. There were also dancers, musicians, people on stilts, and people juggling fire.

This year is the year of the horse. Once the parade had finished, we headed back to the hotel. As you may already know this was our last blog. I hope you have really enjoyed reading them. I am really sad to leave, but am really excited to be seeing everyone again. We have had an amazing time, and we've done lots of things that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Hot, hot, hot by Dean

So i thought i would give Megan and Emma a night off from the blogging. You might not be surprised to learn that it is not always so easy to get them to do it. This is especially the case when Australia's Got Talent is on the gogglebox or Emma's particular favourite...Australia Border Force. New Zealand telly is pants! One of the quirks that we have enjoyed in Australia and New Zealand, isthe lack of imagination when it comes to naming animals, bays, mountains, plants etc etc. It is a bit like Catchphrase ....say what you see. So many things are named so literally; like the lizard that has a very blue tongue, yes the Blue Tongued Lizard. I could go on and on and on. Anyway back to the blog. Today we went to a beach that legend has it, has 60 degree c water running underneath it. Guess what....it is called Hot Water Beach. You have to get there one hour either side of low tide, and our luck was out as today that was 9.30am and we are a two hour drive away. So we dutifully got up at 6am to be on the road half an hour later. Our motel supplied us with spades that an Irish navvy would be proud of. When we got there, we saw a few other people digging in a spot so we headed down beside them. It took us two attempts, but we quickly found the hot water. It was actually scolding in places. We dug out a nice little bath, and had a lovely relaxing lay down.

It really was quite surreal. The girls got too hot very quickly, so went off to build a cooler one for themselves.

We stayed for about three hours, by which time Katy and I were too hot to stand it anymore. So then we went to Hahei Beach, which was nice. We hung around for a bit, had some lunch and then after a nice walk to the rocks I got bored as usual.

So we we then went to Cathedral Cove, which was a hour or so walk.

Once again, as per usual in New Zealand, it was view after view after view.

It was a lovely little spot, and if you know the Narnia films well then recognise the arch. That's another film we will have to see on our return.

After that we have come back to our motel. I am now sat on our terrace enjoying this view.

You won't hear from me on this blog again (the girls will blog from HK) so I would like to say a few words....ahem. Like Australia and all the countries in Asia that we have gone to, New Zealand has done us proud with great weather on our last day. Tomorrow we drive to Auckland to get ready for our early flight to Hong Kong the following day. New Zealand is the most spectacular place, and just like Australia has very friendly people. It's been wonderful to visit it, and we feel blessed. I am pretty sure Katy and I will be back one day. Speaking of Katy....what a fatastic wife I have. She has planned it all to perfection, and we just would not have gotten half as much out of the trip if it had not been for her meticulous research and preparation. I keep telling her there is a business in there somewhere, but she won't listen to me. Thanks Katy for working so hard on this, we owe you a lot. Thanks to our kids too who have made it even more enjoyable, watching them making the most of it. I have a memory etched into my brain of the girls diving down to stroke a turtle on the Great Barrier Reef that will be with me until I pop my clogs. They have been so well behaved (well occaisionally they have needed the odd quiet word) and been up for adventure so much that they have put me to shame. I hope they remember it.... So Katy and I leave New Zealand soon with heavy hearts that our adventure is nearly over. Megan and Emma on the other hand are desparate to see their granparents on both sides of the border. I fear for my Dad when he meets us at Manchester; I think he will get winded. Would i do it again....absolutely.....I will treasure our family memories forever, and promise to bore you all to death when we get back. Worrying about the pension etc can wait a bit.... Until we do it again.....

Caves that make you say 'WWWOOOOWWW!!' by Megan

Today we went to Waitomo caves. There are hundreds of different caves under the ground there, and we went to 3 of the bigger ones; Ruakuri cave, Aranui cave and the glow worm cave. First we went to Aranui cave. On the way to the cave, our tour guide showed us some plants such as the native fern (the silver fern), and a plant traditionally used by Maori peolpe to help with illnesses such as headaches, toothache, and stomache aches. When we reached the cave, we saw loads of rock formations known as stalactites and stalagmites.

They look like icicles, but made of rock. They are formed by calcium in a drop of water coming through the cave roof. When the water falls, the calcium is left behind hanging from the top, or it begins to grow on the floor. This happens loads of times until a stalactite or stalagmite is formed. An easy way to remember which is which, is that stalactites hang on to the roof tightand stalagmites mightmake it to the top one day. It takes 100 years for a cubic cm of the stalactite or stalagmite to grow. Sometimes stalactites and stalagmites reach each other in the middle, and form a pillar as they grow together. We carried on walking until we got to the highest part of the cave known as the cathedral, where the acoustics are really good. Our guide sang a traditional Maori song, and her voice became really loud. She had a beautiful voice. When we came to the end of the cave, our guide showed us what looked like a small village that was made out of rock. If you used your imagination, you could see anything.

The next cave we went to was the Ruakuri cave. This was similar to the first cave, except it had some glow worms in it, as the river running through it attracted bugs, so it was perfect for them. When we entered, we had to walk down a massive spiral.

This entrance had had to be built, as the original entrance was blocked off. This was because it was the burial place of some Maori chiefs. At the bottom of the spiral there was a small waterall. When they placed the rock under the water fall eight years ago it was flat, but now the water has carved some channels in it.

We carried on walking, then the guide spotted some glow worms up close. They looked just like slugs, but on a diet. They let down small threads to catch their pray.

If they had had enough, they would leave it dangling until the next day. My Dad managed to take some photos of the glow worms up close, when they were further away, the camera didn't pick them up.

The last cave was the glow worm cave. We had a little walk around, and then our tour guide took us to a boat. When we set off, there wasn't many glow worms, but then suddenly.......BAM!! Thousands of glow worms were everywhere. We weren't allowed to take pictures in this cave, but we could have just taken pictures of the night sky as that's what it looked like; it was beautiful. We were all amazed when we saw thousands of magical glow worms above us, as we glided silently along the river. It was so peaceful.

It is amazing to think that something so beautiful exists naturally.