Day 2 - Honk Honk

Our second flight - 12 hours long to Hong Kong (or Honk Honk as the girls call it!)

It started off ok - but with a midnight flight all you want to do is sleep! Air NZ took two hours to bring us our dinner - so at 2am we got brought a meal. I could barely take a single bite and Auke said no he didn’t want one. We don’t know what on earth was going on on that flight but we were both incredibly sick. It made for a very very long flight. Thankfully the kids were quite well behaved!

Towards the end of the flight, Lana and Mila got asked if they wanted to hand out the lollies to all the passengers. They were very excited!

Eventually the flight ended - we couldn’t wait to get back on the ground again. We made our way through customs which is very relaxed compared with NZ and Aus. Finally we were in Hong Kong! We tried to check into our hotel but they said we couldn’t until 11.00am. They took our bags off us and we walked back to the airport to find some breakfast. We tried Hong Kong Macdonalds which reminded Ali a bit of Hawaiian Macdonalds. The bread was sweet and the bacon was more like thick ham. After this we headed to the Airport Express so we could go to the bus station to get to Victoria Peak.

The airport express trip was beautiful! Hong Kong actually looks a lot like Wellington but with more skyscrapers.

The Hong Kong taxis are also really cool - they are all colour coded!

The girls made sure to yell Honk Honk at any chance they got. Once we had finished on the airport express we walked to the bus stop. It’s a giant building where buses are flying everywhere. After managing to stay alive and not get hit, we hopped onto a double decker bus for the last leg of the journey to see Victoria Pea. It was a beautiful trip!

At the peak, we took in the stunning views around us.

Thankfully we had a really nice day so the fog wasn’t covering the buildings. While we were admiring the views, the other tourists were admiring a different view - US! Everyone wanted a photo with the kids - there were actual lines!

It was here that the girls wanted icecream, but unfortunately both the gelato place and the tuck shop didn’t take credit card. Due to this we ended up eating at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant!

Ali only ordered an entree (short ribs) and Auke a burger as we were still feeling a bit off after the plane trip. It was delicious food though! Unfortunately Mila managed to smash a glass which was quite embarrassing!! The waiters there did a great job entertaining the girls by blowing up gloves and drawing faces on them!

Eventually it was time to head back. We once again piled onto the bus and this time took the top story so we could say we had been on the top floor of a bus! The driver on the trip back was so wild that everyone on the bus was screeching and holding on tight. It was here that Mila managed to go flying off her seat! Needless to say, we were down from Victoria Peak in no time and even though we were running a little behind schedule before, we weren’t any more!

We got caught in a little traffic jam close to the bus station. It was here that we saw rows and rows of flowers and papers that were all part of the Hong Kong protests. Later on we were told we were lucky we could go to avictoria Peak at all because apparently when the protests were on it was not able to be accessed due to the roads being closed.

At the bus station we got caught in a massive downpour and had to run back to the airport express station. Thankfully the rain felt more like a warm shower! We boarded the airport express once more and came back to the airport.

By this time, we were able to check into our hotel. The sole purpose of the hotel was to sleep for a few hours from check in time which ended up being about 3pm until 10pm when we had to check out for our flight. Of course this was the day they decided to do maintenance right above our room. We all showered and piled into bed. The girls fell straight asleep while Auke and Ali tossed and turned due to the noise. Even earplugs didn’t help!

Eventually Auke fell asleep. Eventually the maintenance noises stopped around 6pm and Ali fell into a restless sleep. At around 9pm, Ali woke up and checked her phone. To her horror, it said check in had closed for the next flight! With a shock she woke Auke up and we all urgently packed as quick as possible.

We went running out of our hotel room and to the airport as fast as we could. We skipped check out as we wanted to make sure we could sort our flight first. Thankfully the Air NZ app was telling lies, and all was well. It took another half an hour or so to sort out Titus’ ticket because once again he was travelling alone.

When check in was complete for our flight, Auke went back to the hotel to check out. We then headed to catch our flight. Sadly we didn’t get any souvenirs from Hong Kong as all the airport shops were closed due to the time - midnight again! Thankfully Starbucks was open so we grabbed a hot chocolate while we waited for our flight!