fair winds and following seas

My cruise ship makes stops at a few working ports not usually home to passenger cruise lines, they're far more practical and  industrial  and not at all g lammed  up for visitors like the cruise terminals are. At most of the working ports you'll see shipping containers stacked high in primary colours with speckled rust across the obnoxious corperate branding. There's a constant hum of machinery and giant cranes moving overhead that feel unsettling to walk beneath. Not the most pleasant start for  visiting  a new place. Here in New Zealand the working ports are mostly used for timber transportation and the first view sets the scene for these ports perfectly. Without stepping off the ship you can already smell the newly chopped wood and fresh mountain air, as you walk down the ramp to the dock you start to see logs stacked high at an impressive scale and variety, but still completely dwarfed by a backdrop of mountains that stretch the horizon. Trees, mountains a...

My last flight landed late at night in Nouméa, new Caledonia to meet the ship the following day. In New Caledonia there's virtually no light pollution so I arrive to a panoramic view of the stars spreading the full width of the skyline, glowing bright and clear. You can see way into the distance, it feels very open and everything is bordered by mountainous silhouette's. Far in the distance on one mountain there stands a luminous cross which looks very dramatic glowing alone in the dark and I can see what motivated them to stand it in this environment, it's a very striking and powerful image.  The soundscape is pretty special too, so many insects chirping in unison it creates a soft white noise effect and is very relaxing, I used to find the same thing at night in Bali and would take time every evening to sit outside and soak it in. I later learned these insects are called cicadoidea, the males create a constant sound while the females are responsible for the sort of click ...

I wasn't completely certain I would be let out of the airport during my 8 hour stop over in Hong Kong, so I was winging it all the way but trying to stay hopeful, airports really aren't that much fun regardless of how highly recommend they come. I filled out a landing card, they let me through and I headed to an ATM. From what I've heard card payment isn't widely used everywhere here, no idea of the currency exchange rate, I just put my card in and withdrew the second lowest amount it offered me, didn't want to waste time looking it up and didn't want to ask a random because I expect that's asking for trouble. Once I had some cash I headed to the ticket counter and bought a same day return to Kowloon for 105 Hong Kong dollars. This area is basically the image of Hong Kong we see in movies and postcards so it made sense to head here and tick it off. Luckily “feel at home” from my UK network works here so I have access to Google maps. I also met a lovely ...