Days 1 to 5 - And they're off!

It’s 5.45am in the morning as I sit here in bed in our little cabin on Waiheke trying to remember the whirlwind last few days. In front of me I can see the sun rising over the Hauraki Gulf, which is proving very distracting!

Our trip got off to a lovely start before we even left.  Lucky girl that I am, my folks and my sister had arranged a surprise pre-honeymoon pampering session with my make-up artist from the wedding (Claire) - so I spent my last evening at home for a whole month having my nails done etc and generally chilling out and catching up with Claire! It was a fantastic treat, so thank you very much to Dad, Jenny and Kim for organising that.

Kim also organised some fab special honeymoon t-shirts which we wore to the airport the following evening:

Sadly we didn’t manage to wrangle any upgrades with these, though they did generate a few comments from our fellow passengers!

We flew to Singapore with Singapore Airlines on the airbus A380, which is a huge double decker monster of a plane. You wouldn’t believe it actually manages to fly, let alone take off as gracefully as it did. The landing was rather bumpier though! I have just asked husband what he liked best about the flight and apparently it’s the fact it didn’t crash!! I on the other hand was impressed by the English subtitles on the movies and they mix up a mean Singapore sling on board too.

We landed in Singapore a little late, as we didn’t take off until nearly an hour after we were supposed to. In the short distance between leaving the air conditioned arrivals hall and walking over to the air conditioned taxi, you could feel how humid it was and the temperature hovered around 30 degrees celsius the entire time we were there – whether it was first thing in the morning or late at night, pouring with rain or the sun shining. Hence the need for all that air conditioning!

At our hotel, the Mandarin Oriental, we got given a room high up on the 18^th floor with fantastic views of the Marina Bay area:

The room itself wasn’t too shabby either!

They provided pretty much everything imaginable, complimentary fruit and bottles of water, Elemis toiletries and all the usual stuff such as shower caps and shoe horns etc. We were tickled by a box labelled ‘Hairbrush’ which we opened to find a razor and shaving cream inside – well I suppose that’s one way of negating the need to brush your hair!!

We got off to a Flyer – the Singapore Flyer to be exact. Similar to the London Eye, we could see it rotating away from our hotel window, so we decided to head over there for an impressive panorama of Singapore by night.

Top to bottom: The Singapore Flyer, Gardens by the Bay,
Marina Bay Sands, us on the Flyer, the Helix Bridge.

After this, it was fast approaching midnight local time so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to the hotel where we slept in the blissfully comfy HUGE bed until a tardy 11am the next morning (that would be the lack of sleep from the flight over then…)

Next day dawned cloudy and damp but once the rain had stopped we wandered over to Raffles and had some brunch at Ah Teng’s bakery before heading upstairs to the Long Bar for our Slings! 

The Long Bar was lovely, a little slice of colonialism with the sleek dark wood bar, wicker chairs and banana leaf (?) fans on the ceiling. It was a bit smaller and darker than I expected and busy even mid-afternoon but a pleasant atmosphere inside and true to form, groundnut shells crunching underfoot where you walked!  We sat at the bar and ordered traditional Slings which were nice, if a little weaker than the ones we had on the plane. Several handfuls of nuts later, we ventured back outside into the humidity to explore the Raffles courtyard and arcades and take some pictures of the skyscrapers about that dwarf this old hotel.

From Raffles we caught a taxi over to the Botanic Gardens and enjoyed a stroll past Swan Lake where we saw terrapins, catfish and koi – people were feeding these like we do the ducks in the park back home! 

We paid a small fee to enter the National Orchard garden which was well worth it, and we enjoyed discovering the many hundreds of orchid varieties there are. My favourite was the small yellow ‘Golden Shower’ which can be seen decorating the archways here:

The gardens are thoughtfully and imaginatively designed and we could have spent a lot longer there but unfortunately a wet weather attraction they are not and with the onset of yet another rain shower (this was monsoon season after all) we decided to cut our losses and head onwards to the Night Safari, our planned excursion for the evening.

Once at the Night Safari we got some respite from the rain whilst we ate (Bongo Burgers – you can take the boy out of Abingdon but….). It was still raining when we started the walking trails but due to the dense vegetation above and the many shelters along the way it wasn’t too bad. We walked all 4 of the trails and were pleasantly surprised by how many of the animals we were able to spot – fishing cats, pangolins, crocodiles, hyenas, bongos to name but a few. There were a couple of walk throughs which we did: the first being a Mangrove swamp full of bats including the largest in the world, the Malaysian Flying Fox. Our nephew Thomas would have loved it but Auntie Sarah wasn’t so keen! I much preferred the Wallabys!

We then caught a tram, which follows a different route and allows you to see some of the larger animals – elephants, hippos, rhinos etc. By 9.30pm we were straight on the tram. When the park opened two hours previously, so many people wasted time queuing for the tram, so our plan to complete the trail first had paid off.  An added bonus was that whenever the tram picked up a bit of speed, the breeze sweeping the humidity away was most welcoming.

When we returned from the Night Safari we were very excited to find wine and chocolates in the room, plus rose petals in the bath! It was rude not to polish off the food and drink, so we ended up going to bed in the wee hours, which maybe was not the best preparation for being up bright and early for our flight to Auckland the next morning. Finally, the sun decided to grace us with its presence and we observed a spectacular sunrise over the bay before heading to the airport.

Sunday was spent on the second stage of our plane journey, arriving in Auckland shortly before midnight. The transfer to our hotel a couple of miles away was easy to arrange – one free call and a shuttle bus collected us from arrivals. Unlike our previous destination, a fleece jumper was needed upon stepping outside!

Next morning, after a continental breakfast, another shuttle bus whisked us off to the nearby car hire premises. A Sunny saloon is to be our steed for the duration of our stay. However, we’re still at the getting to know each other stage – we've still not found rear windscreen wiper function yet! (EDIT: We have since discovered this is because there is no rear windscreen wiper!!) After a bit of a struggle with the gears, we successfully ploughed our way through the city suburbs to Half Moon Bay, where we were due to catch a ferry over to the island of Waiheke. Being in a different hemisphere takes a little getting used to and unusually for us, we arrived early, so actually had time to check-in, grab a bite to eat and configure our NZ sim card!

Looking back towards Auckland on the ferry over to Waiheke.

The ferry trip was bracing, but quick. Waiheke is a small island, so it didn’t take long to navigate round a couple of bays to find our accommodation – early again! The Heartsong Retreat is a relaxing environment, and you feel chilled as soon as you arrive here. We are staying in a lovely little cabin, which originally began life as a garage to the main house. We explored the grounds and wandered down to check out a boatshed where the property meets the sea at the base of the sloping site.

As it was still only mid-afternoon, we went off on a walk, which took us through the nearby Glenbrook Reserve. This was harder going than expected, with the path not being particularly apparent in some places. Our efforts were made worthwhile, when we emerged into a meadow area at the crest of a hill and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the bay. Following some more blundering about amongst the trees, we completed the second part of the circular route on tarmac. 

There was time for a quick dip in the spa pool – gloriously heated to 39 degrees and where we met other guests in the form of a Scottish/Kiwi couple who come to NZ every year. Sarah is now getting carried away making plans to do the same thing! This was followed was a wonderfully relaxing massage, which we had pre-booked through the proprietors.

Understandably, we were now both exhausted so rather than venture out in the Sunny, we opted for a pizza delivery for tea, which was scrumptious and nicely complimented by an excellent bottle of white from Marlborough. The day ended with us observing the fireworks, albeit at some distance, over the bay in Auckland.