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Cold shower at Uretiti Beach
Ali’s driving license has expired so I’m always behind the wheel. It’s the first time I’ve driven an automatic, and a campervan. I also haven’t driven much in the last 5 years, as we’ve been in China. Getting through the Aukland rush hour on the first day was hairy, especially with high winds across the Aukland Harbour Bridge. We’re now on quieter roads in Northland, sticking to the East coast to shelter from the gale-force winds. We’ve discovered a great country-wide system of DOC (Department of Conservation) sites can be Basic (a car park with water supply), Standard (+ toilets, waste disposal, cold showers) and Serviced (+ hot showers, cooking facilities). Last night’s Standard site at Uretiti Beach was in a sheltered dune area. The toilets come with a warning for ‘under 5s’ as they drop straight down into cess pit that’s pumped out by a tanker when it’s full. The showers are open-topped, which allows the sun to keep you warm under the freezing cold water. I screamed my way through my shower this morning and felt thoroughly fresh afterwards.

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The view from our Dept of Conservation camp site
 
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LEAF meet Vera the van
We picked up our 3+2 Traifinder from Freedom Campers today, from their depot just outside Aukland. After stocking up on food and other provisions at a nearby shopping centre we took to the road on the N1 North. 99 km later we arrived at a Maharungi Regional Park ‘Informal’ camp site by the beach in Sullivan’s Bay. This unserviced site with toilets, a cold water tap and a cool Ranger on an ATB was cheap and cheerful. A great introduction to campervanning. We followed a nature trail around the headland, wading over an estuary to visit an historic graveyard, full of Scots who settled here in the late 19th C. Despite our tide table research we found the water to be alarmingly high when we returned to the estuary. We still managed to cross by wading, not swimming and returned to the van for lunch. Given that the Spring weather is very changeable these days the van is great. We’ve come through the last 2 days of storms (which have taken roofs off houses and electricity cables down) in comfort, apart from the rear awning being ripped off the van last night, but that’s another story.

 
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Freda starting off the pigeon feeding frenzy
We didn't get out of bed until 10:30 (jet lag and general tiredness) but headed straight out after brunch. Our main destination was Aukland Museum, which took us through a huge park with trees to climb, birds to feed and various other attractions - soft grass, attractive architecture, friendly school groups. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the museum, where we learned about traditional arts, crafts and ways of life, the plant and wild life of the islands as well as the possibility of the volcano under Aukland errupting any day now. Well, that's what the girls took away from it and they are now ready to leave.
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Tree climbing in the park
[See Movie page for short clip from the feeding frenzy.]
 
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We boarded our plane to Aukland on Monday evening and had an uneventful overnight flight to New Zealand.  I got myself worked up that our food rations would be confiscated by the biosecurity inspectors but I needn’t have. The little sniffer Beagle dived its head into our picnic bag, but only because we’d had two apples in there a few hours earlier. I’ve never been ‘sniffed out’ by an airport security dog before and I felt thoroughly outwitted by the little canine customs control. His handler popped him a treat after confirming that he had correctly picked up on a fruit scent and they moved on to the next unsuspecting visitor. During the whole episode Freda and Edie kept commenting on how kind the handler was to the dog and what a good relationship they seemed to have.

There have already been many differences between here and China, not just in terms of treatment of animals. The main shock is the price of things. Charlotte warned us but I still didn’t predict a single green pepper costing £1.75/17 RMB. We have booked into the Aukland City Youth Hostel, which allows us to cook for ourselves. This evening we had pasta swirls coated in chopped tomatoes with chopped up hard boiled eggs. That’s it. Ali and I will spend the rest of the evening working out a daily budget to confirm that we can actually last 3 months. If you have any tips on cheap living in New Zealand, please send them our way.

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Snuggled up in our YHA room.
 
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A highlight for me today was spotting this air-freshener in the loo of a small. The basket of fresh lemon bits (presumably scraps from the lemon tea they serve) was hanging on the wall in the tiny cubicle. One of the things I love about Hong Kong is the frequent juxtaposition of old (tiled rooves) and new (glass-fronted sky scrapers), traditional (goods trollies and trams) and modern (the MTR), basic (bamboo scaffolding) and high-tech (designer shopping malls and everything in them), fast urban (Hong Kong Island) and slow rural (Lantau Island).

One thing I don't love about Hong Kong is the price of everything, including food. It's relatively easy to live almost anywhere (we have been) in China on a low budget, if you are willing to eat in small cafes selling local food. This is especially true now that price-tiering is illegal, except in touristy areas where vendors may still try to charge double. We were particularly spoilt in Yunnan where there's a year-round abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables. The good news about our budget-shock is that it's good preparation for New Zealand, where the first thing we'll have to do is find out what's local, seasonal and affordable to eat. I'm hoping it's going to be dairy products, which I have really missed over the last five years.

 
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Edie on the ferry from HK Island to Lantau
With the weather looking remarkable benign for this time of year we made a day trip to Lantau Island, home of a big Buddha, old fishing villages and many temples. We utilised  a number of modes of transport today - foot, ferry, bus, cable car, MTR (train) and tram, and the day went incredibly smoothly. Whatever they tell you, this really isn't China. For a start, one can be fined HK$1500 for spitting on or from a tram!

The first stage of our journey took us to the old fishing village of Tai O, on the western side of Lantau. Here we saw Tanka (boat people) stilt houses half on land, half over water, along with a wide range of dried fish. This area apparently hosts several colonies of the Chinese White Dolphin but, as a result of pollution, fishing and speedboats they are virtually extinct. We thus refused the boat trip touts and opted for a hillwalk instead, having to  run through the village at the end to catch the bus. The second bus trip on the island took us up to Ngong Ping and the large, bronze Buddha statue that graces the skyline. Running out of time we opted for the cable-car back down to sea level at Tung Chung before catching the MTR back to the city. This wasn't without Freda and Edie 'playing chicken' with a musical fountain on a square we stumbled upon.

It's nearly 11 pm now. The girls are tucked up in bed and I'm watching an electric storm over Happy Valley, from a large window on the 25th floor. The rooftop tennis courts I can see below are flooded and the fork lightening's piercing the skyline, already illuminated by tower blocks. It's dramatic as well as surreal, given that we can't actually hear the rain from the comfort of the flat. I miss the sound of rain our our roof.  

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Houses on stilts over the water of this small sea inlet. Although the stilts are wooden, most of the houses we saw seemed to be made almost entirely of silver-painted tin.
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According to the guidebooks, this 23m high Buddha on Lantau Island is, 'the world's largest seated, outdoor, bronze Buddha statue'. We've seen a larger (71m) seated Buddha, near Chengdu, but it wasn't bronze.....
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Freda playing close attention during the last stage of our descent to Tung Chung from Ngong Ping, where the large Buddha is located.
[See More Videos for some short movie clips]
 
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Making our way along Matheson Street
We've just shed our loads in Charlotte's flat in Happy Valley, on Hong Kong Island. Ali's Aunt (mum's youngest sister) has lived in HK on and off since the '80s. Her flat overlooks the racecourse, providing great entertainment on race nights, though one needs binoculars.

Our travel plans changed slightly today when we arrived in Shenzhen airport to find there is no longer a ferry link to HK. We took the bus instead, which worked out to cost half the price and drop us off within a ten-minute walk of the flat. Other's might have hopped in a taxi given the amount of luggage we had (over 100 kg between us) but it was just as easy to go by foot and, given that we are now both 'between jobs', we have to save the pennies/HK$/RMB while we can.

I have mixed feelings about leaving China. During recent weeks I've been feeling like I'm on holiday in the North, due to return to Simao for the new term. It's only now sinking in that that's not the case. Despite no longer working at the College, however, I am in regular contact with Hou Wanxia begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, my good friend and colleague in the Teaching Develoment Centre. She still shares her daily troubles with me and I find ways to offer support. It's hard to drop, so quickly, something that meant so much to me. Perhaps I don't have to for now.

 
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 We arrived at Howard's BEIJING (that's for Paul) flat yesterday lunchtime. We watched TV for the rest of the day and then went to bed at about 9:00pm after a hot bath. We haven't had a hot shower even for 6 weeks. Howard let us wear his "250 years GUINNESS" hats, they were slightly uncomfortable to wear. This morning we got up, had a couple of bowls of breakfast cereal, drunk a couple of glasses of juice, got dressed, watched TV, watched TV, watched TV, watched TV......  And now at about 7:37pm we still have't eaten dinner but I can smell it cooking. Bye for now.

[Perhaps this entry should be renamed 'neglectful parents'. Ed

 
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Last-minute internet access
As we pack up our luggage ready to leave the yard, we also prepare to say goodbye to the internet for now. It's hard work sorting through things yet again, deciding what to keep and what to jettison, especially given that we're not sure how the next few months will pan out in terms of jobs. We have packed up so many times in the last year and it's hard work after a while. A few items are harder for me to part with, such as my beloved coffee maker, bought when I won the Yunnan Friendship Award in 2007 so symbolic as well as useful. I'm hoping our friends in Beijing, Howard and Xialin, will give it a good home. And the blanket? A teacher in Simao Teachers' College gave it to me. I learned how to crochet and have been extending it since. It's now quite bulky and heavy and I'm considering taking it to New Zealand instead of a jacket! The only disadvantage is that it doesn't have pockets in which to pack other heavy items. I worry that we have too much stuff, until I remember that we're moving house and it then seems like a fairly modest collection of goods.

[No emails or blog entries until 8th/9th September]

 
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Freda, Edie & Xiong Mao at Home School
As the new school term opens in China, so does LEAF Home School, with only a small amount of complaining from Freda and Edie. I've reminded them that workbooks completed this week won't need to be carried to New Zealand, which in turn means having to jettison fewer toys and things. We're focusing on Maths and English in the mornings and arty things in the afternoon, with various fun activities inbetween. It's a challenge to remain patient with my own children, just as it's a challenge for them to remain polite and obedient with me as I move from 'mother' to 'teacher'. I let the dog remain under the table this morning just so that I had something to bargain with if need be i.e. "finish your work or the dog goes out", though 'dressed up' to sound a little more reasonable, of course. It's also a challenge to keep focused in such close proximity, and not feel that home, play and school life all just blend into one and are . I know that home-workers have various strategies for coping with this, like leaving through the front door, walking round the house and entering through the back door to start work. We haven't resorted to that yet but it's something I may keep in mind when Home School takes to the road for our New Zealand campervan trip!