Saturday 10 August, 2013 – Hong Kong, China 

Today we were split into groups to do an ‘Amazing Race’-style race around the city – we were given clues, and had to take pictures and answer questions along the way. We went across to Hong Kong Island on the Star Ferry, took the MTR to multiple destinations, saw the Jade Market (How can you tell if it’s real jade? Real jade is heavy!), ran up Hong Kong Park to the Tai Chi garden and did some poses, went to the Avenue of the Stars to write down some names of Hong Kong movie stars (Jackie Chan of course!!!), and ended up in 2nd place.. all this took about four hours in total. By the end we were absolutely drenched, our feet were sore, and some of us had chafing in terrible places! It was a great way to see Hong Kong though, and to get a feel of how their public transport system work (70,000 people use the Star Ferry every single day).

After a few hours’ rest in the hotel room (feet elevated!!!) we went back to the ferry terminal to meet our transfer to Rainbow Seafood Restaurant on Lamma Island… I’m not a huge seafood fan, so I was pleased enough to be last off the boat and to have to sit at the non-seafood table. I was very surprised though when the food that came out was very similar to the Chinese food we have in New Zealand – take the Chicken Cashew dish for instance, loaded with MSG , cabbage, chicken and cashew nuts. I really wasn’t expecting that.. it was very tasty though. The restaurants on Lamma Island all have their seafood displayed alive in tanks.. some of these fish were massive and in tiny tanks. I found it quite sad to look at, but I’m a bit of a sook like that – a lot of people would be quite happy knowing just how fresh their seafood would be.

Coming back to Kowloon on the Rainbow Restaurant ferry was amazing – the smog seemed to create this strange green glow in the sky. The skyline with all the buildings lit up made for a very, very impressive view coming back in.