On Flying with Singapore Airlines

Do!

Ok, I can't leave it at that. The service is excellent (even though I didn't get an upgrade - I was brave enough to ask, so that's a first).

First flight - Melbourne to Singapore (7 hours)
We left Melbourne at 10:10 and arrived in Singapore at 15:30 (two hours back).
I had booked an aisle seat as I prefer being able to get up and wander at will. If you're flying I suggest you go here to see the layout of your plane and to pick a good seat. It also meant there was only one person sitting next to me and all she wanted to do was sleep - result! I'd also pre-ordered my meals - gluten free - which meant I was served before anyone else and could eat in peace. Even if you don't have any special dietry needs, I would recommend your doing this.

So, once you're on the plane you get hot towels, then a drink and peanuts along with your headphones for the on-demand entertainment (I watched "I am Legend", "St Trinians" and "27 Dresses"). After lunch we were given an ice-cream then more hot towels to clean ourselves. Regular offers of water and/or orange juice ensured nobody dehydrated and the mid-afternoon 'snack' was excellent.

Changi Airport, Singapore (7 hours stopover)
After much strong thought (and, therefore, headaches) I had chosen not to continue immediately with the second leg of my journey but to have a stopover. I'd heard from various sources that Changi airport is considered the best in the world and I can see why. Clean, spacious, frequent well-considered helpdesks (don't forget I was in transit), free internet, free movie theatre, lots of duty-free shops (yes, I succumbed) and, most importantly for me, a transit lounge and hotel. I booked into the hotel for six hours (£24) got a room to myself with a queen-sized bed, stripped and slept for five hours. Showered and feeling fresh I checked-in for the second leg. No problems at all.

Second Flight - Singapore to Milan (12 hours)
We left Changi at 23:45 and arrived in Milan at 06:45 (six hours back).
Same as before but with an added bonus for me. I was in the aisle seat of three. The man in the middle seat wanted to connect his blackberry to the on-demand entertainment system so that he could access the internet (amazing what you can do nowadays) but it wasn't working. So he asked to be moved. The cabin crew found somewhere for him AND his wife, leaving the two seats next to me completely empty! For the entire flight I had the benefit of three seats, no-one asking me to let them out and I could (and did) lay down across all three to sleep during the night. This meant it didn't matter that the people in front reclined their seats as much as possible as soon as possible. In addition to the food and snacks we were also given a goodie bag containing a pair of socks and a toothbrush with toothpaste. There were spare ones in the toilet along with combs, one of which I nabbed. And the blankets, made of polar fleece, were sized for adult human beings (instead of the cabbagepatch doll sized ones normally supplied).

I arrived in Milan feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, was met by M who whisked me off to his new house. I managed to stay awake until mid-afternoon when I took a short nap but I was a very bad guest later, falling asleep while he cooked dinner and not waking up until midnight (bad Shiralee, slap on the wrist).

So, overall, if you can afford it (and this was no more costly than any of the other airlines flying this route) I would heartily recommend Singapore Airlines. My economy class experience was fantastic so heavens alone know what the business/first class is like.

Limbo

I cannot believe it is so long since I last wrote, but in my defense I have to say that time has been passing really quickly lately, especially as I have crossed several time zones. I am now in Italy, having travelled back to Australia from New Zealand, then here via Singapore.

I can't quite describe how I'm feeling at the moment, sort of in limbo I guess. I know real life will be kicking in soon, as I have to start working again and I have to find a job from the autumn. I've been putting off considering it but now it's time to take a deep breath and shoulder my responsibilities.

Over the next few days I'll be writing about the remainder of my experiences and impressions of where I've been and what I've done these last six months but at the moment it all seems a bit much.

The lion sleeps tonight...

So let's see, what have I been doing since we last spoke?

Firstly, I encountered some stalkers. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen (although I'm sure you'd be horrified, mum). I was in Paihia which is a coastal town with a long sandy beach and, like all such places, it has a road with pavements along the top of the beach. The beach itself slopes down to the sea leaving the road about twenty feet higher than the water so as the wind comes off the sea, it rises over the land. Also, like all these places, Paihia has a lot of seagulls. There are two main species there: a smallish herring gull (similar to those found in the UK) and a larger brown speckled one - don't ask me for any more details, you know I'm hopeless when it comes to birds.

Ok, enough of the back story. I was walking back to the hostel along the beach road when I noticed two seagulls hovering, riding the wind, about ten foot above the pavement. They were using all their skills to remain in the same place, turning on the air currents and wheeling away and returning to the same spot if necessary. As I drew closer, I saw a woman standing on the beach, reading one of the notice boards. As I walked past, I looked more closely and realised that she was eating a bag of chips (hot, salty and yummy smelling). She was completely oblivious to the seagulls who'd positioned themselves behind her with a view to raiding/picking up any dropped chips. I stood and watched for a few minutes (the seagulls control was amazing) until she turned and saw me, at which point I brought her attention to the stalkers. Not being sure they were stalking her, the woman started walking along the road - and the seagulls followed her. I almost wet myself as I watched (and was thankful I was eating ice-cream).

Now, I know what you're thinking - nasty, evil, greedy birds (should be shot etc. etc.). What I'd like to point out is that they are smart, adaptable and lovely to watch (although I'll concede their cry leaves a lot to be desired). How many other animals do you know that can plan and execute such a manouvre?

Then I went to Auckland for two nights and met up with a friend for pizza (yummy). I stayed in a lovely hostel, marred only by the slug who hogged the tv. A local man who'd moved out of his accommodation into the hostel for a 'holiday' and spent almost all of his time asleep on one of the sofas with the remote control clutched in his hand, near to his crotch. As you can imagine, no-one was willing to try and get it off him. However, the woman in charge had no such inhibitions and made it clear that, when other people were in the room, he had to relinquish control of the control.

Finally, last night I went to bed early(ish) because I had to get up at 2:45am in order to be ready for the shuttle bus taking me to the airport. I had a 6:15am flight, which means being at the airport at 4:15am which means... now do you understand? The flight was smooth and arrived on time, and I had no problems getting to the hostel - I've even got a bottom bunk.

Today I'm doing admin stuff - laundry, shopping, collecting the stuff that J&D's friend has been looking after for me, unpacking, repacking and deciding what I need to send via freight and what I need to throw away. And all this while feeling pretty exhausted. Still I'll sleep well tonight.

What becomes of the broken hearted...

I am not happy. I went out to see the dolphins today (for the second time, I'll have you know) and they weren't in. Seems they'd had a better offer somewhere else or maybe the sea was too rough for them or maybe the sea was too calm for them or maybe they'd heard about the orca in the area and just decided to hide. I don't know. What I do know is that I haven't seen hide nor hair of a bloody dolphin throughout all my travels (yes, I know they don't have hair - let's just concentrate on my disappointment here, OK!).

This is the fourth time I've attempted to see (let alone swim with) dolphins. The first time, in Akaroa, the boat didn't go out because of bad weather. The second time, in Kaikora, the boat didn't go out because of bad weather (although the whale watching boat did go out). The third and fourth times have been here in Paihia where the dolphins deigned not to appear. I believe I am dolphin-jinxed and shall be adopting an attitude of "I don't care, who needs to see/swim with dolphins anyway!" whilst secretly crying myself to sleep.

I do have a voucher which entitles me to a free trip with the same company I've been out with twice already but, as I leave here tomorrow and the weather forecast is for even rougher seas, somehow I doubt I'll be taking them up on that offer. Having said that, the voucher is valid indefinitely so when I finally win the lottery and come back here, maybe I'll get to use it. Until then... damn you, you dolphins, how dare you be so cute and intelligent and how dare you play hard to get - you've broken (only slightly) my heart.

She'll be coming round the mountains...

I've had a mixed day. This morning I went out over the bay of Paihia (in the Bay of Islands area) in a HELICOPTER!!!!

It was only a twenty minute flight but it was well worth it. I've seen the land from the water and the water from the water but seeing the land and the water from the air is something else. The copter was remarkably steady with less movement than an old train, except when crossing from water to land when the uprising winds create a small amount of turbulence. I was sitting in the front seat next to the pilot and had a grand view of everything - there was even a hole in the roof to look through (but no sticking any part of your body out anywhere).

Then this afternoon I went on a swimming with dolphins cruise. Only there weren't any dolphins. I think I'm jinxed. I tried to swim with dolphins in Akaroa but there was a nasty storm (hail and snow). I tried again in Kaikora but there were high winds. Now I've tried again in Paihia and the dolphins decided not to show themselves. However, as we didn't see any dolphins or whales I got a voucher to repeat the trip, so I'm going again on Monday - keep your fingers crossed for me.

As I'm coming to the end of my long trip home, I find I'm less and less worried about doing things and thinking more and more about what I want to do next. I think I've seen all the wildlife (except dolphins) that I can stand, all the landscape my brains can remember and all the activities my body can cope with. Having said that I might try skydiving before I leave the southern hemisphere, who knows?

Polly put the kettle on...

I love hot water. When you've been travelling as long as I have, and some people travel a lot longer (two years is the record amongst those I've met), you come to appreciate the small things in life. Things like hot water. Do you realise just how much hot water you use? Every time you wash your hands, cook food (in water, obviously) or make a cup of tea (yes, mum I'm talking to you). Not to mention washing your clothes, heating your house (what did you think was in those radiators?) and having a shower. Nowadays, we tend to take it for granted but I can still remember boiling a kettle as a child to have hot water to wash in (and I'm not ashamed of the memory).

Here in Rotorua, however, it isn't the absence of hot water that's the problem. Rather, it's the over-abundance. This whole area is one big hotspot (pun intended) of geothermal activity. That means earthquakes, volcanoes, boiling mud and hot springs. The other thing that comes with geothermal activity is geysers (how do you say it - guyzers or geezers?). Geysers are wonderful to look at and even if the water is superheated as it comes out, it's almost cold if it sprays over you and it leaves your skin feeling soft (maybe because it's slightly acidic or alkali, depending on the other minerals around, and has taken the top layer of your skin off!). The hot springs are more varied. Some are so hot that they will take more than the top layer off if you're not careful. Others, however, are more gentle. Like the one I soaked my feet in yesterday or the one I'm going to bathe in tomorrow.

As well as being hot, the area is smelly. With geothermal activity comes sulphur (at least in this area) and with sulphur comes bad smells. Remember stink bombs? Sulphur. Bad eggs? Sulphur. Burnt popcorn? Sulphur. It does look pretty though and brings up many other minerals in it's wake. Thus we have bright yellow rock, orange rock, red rock, blue rock and green rock.

Unfortunately, after a while the smell gets to you. You think you've got used to it and you're enjoying the beautiful surroundings when, suddenly, BAM right across the nose comes that sulphur smell. It hasn't been too bad for me (mainly burnt popcorn) but some of the others here have been unable to eat and feel constantly nauseaous - even I was feeling queasy when I went to the local "Thermal Wonderland". Maybe they should market it as a weight loss centre!

The Kitchen Thief

After telling you all about my problems with socks, we had a rather nasty incident at the hostel I was staying in. There was an Australia/New Zealand rugby match and the hostel was screening it in the bar. The bar and the cafe of that hostel are open to the public, and the guest kitchen is just off the cafe eating area. In other words, it's also open to the general public but as a guest you don't think about that.

I was in there, talking to my new dorm mate when suddenly we heard a woman shouting "Give me my wallet back". We both turned to look and saw a woman arguing with a man. Sadly, both of us thought it was a domestic (unfortunatly they aren't rare, generally a woman travelling with a man who spends his evenings in the bar, runs out of money and raids her funds) and turned away. However, another guy (Canadian) saw what was happening more clearly and went to her aid. It turned out that the man was a thief who (with a lady friend) had cased the area, seen her purse unattended (she'd literally turned away for as long as it takes to fill a cup with water) and put it in his pocket. She's turned back just in time to see this hence the "Give me back my wallet".

Outside of the guest kitchen, in the cafe eating area were about twenty rugby players who'd come to eat before watching the match. Once the thief realised he wouldn't be able to get pass them with the woman and the Canadian demanding her wallet back, he turned nasty, threatening her with a plate then shoving her and making a break. The woman had seen him around before and thought he worked at the hostel so went and reported him to reception. That's when she discovered that he had nothing to do with the hostel! However, he was caught on CCTV and the police were called. She had to go to the police station the next day to make a formal statement and, obviously, was very shaken up. The daft thing is that she blamed herself saying that she shouldn't have left her purse unattended for even a minute.

It was obvious from this man's behaviour that this was a deliberate act, choosing a time when the hostel would be full of strangers, knowing that no-one would question his presence in the guest kitchen and waiting until there were only four of us in the kitchen before making his move. I hope the police catch him (although what would happen I don't know).

Overall, it opened my eyes. I had become quite lax about leaving things around in hostels in Australia and New Zealand (but not, in all honesty, in South America) but not now. Now my bag is across my shoulder and my purse tucked away. I've been very lucky so far. Although my bag was slashed in Puno (nothing was taken as I had a kilo of grapes in it) and some socks have gone walkies, nothing like this has happened. Let's hope nothing does.

Walking on the moon

Socks.

Such mundane articles and yet mine keep going missing. My beautiful, lined, proper walking socks (given to me by U) were liberated while I was in the Galapagos Islands, several pairs of my brown foot socks have gone for a walk and now the white ones I bought in Melbourne have disappeared. So I was forced to go shopping, after all, there is only so much walking you can do with the wrong socks. I now have three new pairs of thick calf-length socks with which to swathe my feet and reduce the wear and tear of walking around the city/wildlife sanctuary/museum etc. (I also bought a couple of men's vests for warmth but that's another matter).

In the meantime, here in Wellington, the weather has improved - so much so that I don't have to wear a vest, long-sleeved t-shirt, jumper, fleece and raincoat. Now I can leave the jumper and raincoat behind!

New Zealand is completely different from Australia (OK, I admit it, I thought they'd be the same except for the scenery). The accent, the attitude, everything - it damn well is a different country but one that I'd recommend visiting.

Postman Pat, Postman Pat...

I don't know if I've told you... I'm in New Zealand, land of "Xena, Warrior Princess", "Hercules", "King Kong" and, of course, "Lord of the Rings". I flew into Christchurch in the district of Canterbury (sound familiar?) on Wednesday evening and haven't really stopped since. A day of organising stuff then off again. On Friday I went to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. I had hoped to swim with dolphins, walk amongst trees and chill out. I started the walking then it started hailing, big time. Didn't bother with the dolphins as nothing was going out on the sea. It rained practically non-stop through to Saturday afternoon but I didn't let this stop me. You see, I'd booked to go out with the Mail run on Saturday morning - rain or no rain. So I turned up, was given the option of going (as the weather was so bad we might not be able to see much from the summits), decided to go anyway and off we went. The postie did her stuff (they also deliver newspapers), we stopped at a cheese factory (yes, of course I bought some cheese - this is me we're talking about), then later we stopped for morning tea in a church (home made muffins, I think - very welcome). We went to the top of the 'mountains' and down to the beach, I got to see most of the bays and some stunning scenery. I almost got blown over by the wind, the rain and hail semi-soaked me and a good time was had.

When I got back to the hostel, I realised I'd left my cheese in the postie's van (actually a 4WD because of the threat of snow on the summits) so went charging up to the post office. She hadn't returned there yet but another postie (Paul) took me up to where she was, I picked up my cheese and then Paul drove me back to the hostel - incredible and unexpected kindness! Lunch was cheese and crackers, sitting listening to the rain but by mid afternoon it had cleared slightly, so I walked to the other end of the village and went to the cinema.

Now, the cinema... From the outside it looks like a village hall. Inside there is a cafe (serving good food and drinks) and two, yes two, screens. I saw "Death at a Funeral" a good British film in Cinema 2. Now I've been in some odd cinemas in my life. The arthouse cinema in Plymouth where we sat on plastic chairs trying to peer around each other, the massive single screen cinema in Cairo where there were eight foreigners, six drinks salesmen (who kept standing between us and the screen) and three armed police officers (still not sure if they were there to protect us or prevent us rioting after watching a foreign film), the huge multiplex in Poland with more screens than good films to fill them, but this cinema, this one in Akaroa, is by far the best I've ever been to.

The seats are wide and comfortable. You can take your drink (hot or cold, alcoholic or not) in with you, there are armrests for your drinking vessel (I took in a pot of tea). The place wasn't in total blackout (one of my pet hates - why do people want to sit in the dark and watch films?) but, best of all, there were only SEVENTEEN seats. In fact my being there almost caused a problem when a couple turned up and there was only one seat left (nobody had counted on a tourist wanting to go to the cinema) but they squeezed in. A wonderfully civillised way to pass a rainy Saturday afternoon and the sun was setting as we left.

Up early again on Sunday to catch the bus back to Christchurch and then the coach onto Kaikora on the eastern coast of the southern island. I had booked dolphin swimming and whale watching here but it's done nothing but rain again and the dolphin swimming was cancelled. Hopefully the whale watching will go ahead, otherwise it's going to be a long day in the hostel watching tv and reading badly written books.

Tomorrow I move onto Wellington on the north island (bus then ferry). I'm hoping to go swimming with dolphins up off the north island so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, busy bee, busy bee...

Well, I finally made it to New Zealand. It's just a short hop across the Tasman Sea but I had to fly via Sydney which added a few hours onto the trip. I was shocked to find I had to take a train between the domestic and international terminals at Sydney and pay $5.20 for the privilege!

When I got to the hostel (one of the type I hate, with a pub/nightclub on the ground floor) I checked-in and went to my dorm. There were four other women there but one of them was 'keeping' a bottom bunk for her friend who was due to arrive at some time. Feeling somewhat tired and bolshy, I decided that that wasn't on and promptly moved the 'keeping' bag to the upper bunk and moved into the lower bunk. There were two young Americans in the room and they thought there would be a ruckus but the truth is I was asleep when the others finally arrived and everything passed off fine this morning.

I have been very organised this morning and booked all my trips for the next few days including whale-watching, swimming with dolphins and the Eastern Bay Scenic Mail Run. I've also booked my flight back from Italy to the UK - check out my 30boxes calendar for details.

This afternoon I'll be wandering around Christchurch but I have to say that my impressions last night (on the shuttle bus from the Airport) were "Hmmm, how very British". The temperature is about 10-15 degrees cooler than Cairns so I'm wearing my fleece again and, you know what?, I kind of like it.