17 January 2025
Up early and sadly starting our journey home. Caught the metro and RER to CDG airport. We got there at what seemed like a very early time but it took an age to get through check in, customs and security. Security in particular was horrendous and we ended up in the worst possible lane. The guy manning the scanner was flagging over half of the bags and there was only one person who was dealing with all the flagged bags. Both of my bags were flagged for reasons that were never explained and I’ve never had issues with them in the past. In the end we arrived at our gate only five minutes prior to boarding. I guess we had the advantage of not spending a lot of time waiting around.
We had been successful in bidding for an upgrade to premium economy for this leg of the journey. The extra leg room was very much appreciated. We sat on the tarmac for an extra hour or so – something to do with fog and deicing. Lisa was distinctly unimpressed as it triggered her after having to wait four hours on the tarmac for deicing last year in Frankfurt. I watched the Wolf of Wall Street which was fantastic and made me question why I hadn’t seen it before now. I also watched All the President’s Men about the watergate investigation by Woodward and Bernstein – it won a lot of awards but wasn’t a compelling movie. It was a good flight except my headphones had issues with the plug and so had to held in a particular spot or they didn’t work which was very frustrating.
18 January 2025
With our updated itinerary we were down to just one day in Hong Kong. We landed about eight am and the airport was a ghost town as we progressed through. There was literally no wait for immigration and we just nodded at the customs’ guys as we walked through. So bizarre that such a busy airport was so empty but a good win for us. Our bags were checked through to Auckland which also simplified the arrival for us.
We stored our other baggage and ran into problems with the public transport again. Why can’t all cities just embrace Apple Pay? Eventually we just gave up and bought tickets from a human counter then caught the express train into the city. First stop was a Starbucks for Lisa to feed the caffeine addiction and for me to have the first signature hot chocolate in several weeks.
Lisa was very keen for Uniqlo but there weren’t any close to our location in downtown Hong Kong so we caught the Star Ferry across to Kowloon. Lisa had success at Uniqlo. I was looking for shoes for the funeral but I had no success – everywhere we looked was horribly expensive.
We walked along the viewing platform by the harbour for a bit of people watching. I was talked into taking photos for two different people, not sure why but I feel like I’ve done a lot more photos for strangers on this trip, maybe I just look more approachable in my older age. There was one couple there with a dog having photos taken, very bizarre.
Next challenge was finding a spot for lunch. On our last trip Lisa had soufflé pancakes and was very keen for them again. Thanks to the magic of iPhone photos we were able to find the location and Lisa got her desired treat. I was keen for something more Asian and went to a restaurant close by for some pork with rice and eggs. It was very nice but when I went to pay I ran into a problem. They didn’t take visa and that was all I had. I tried AliPay but evidently the AliPay in Hong Kong is different to AliPay in Shanghai. I had to leave Lisa as collateral and venture outside to find a ATM. Thankfully I found one and was able to get my wife back!
We caught the Star ferry back to the Hong Kong side and then just went for a walk along the waterfront to kill some time before heading back to the airport on the express train.
We were back to economy for our flight to Auckland and we were both pretty shattered. This meant we focussed on sleep rather than movies and food. From Auckland it was then onto Tauranga where Will picked us up for the final leg of our journey back to Whakatane. First stop was to meet everyone (and I mean the entire extended family) for photos and dinner. We weren’t in a great state but thankfully we had been able to have showers in Hong Kong airport before departing which meant we didn’t smell too badly. It was great to see everyone even if my brain was only working at 50% of its capacity. Gail had sent my suit to Auckland where Sarah had it dry cleaned and bought down, it did feel good to be dressed appropriately and I’m sure Oma would have appreciated that – even if I was wearing my All Birds shoes!
The funeral the following day was very nice and great that so many family members could attend and help in the funeral. After the burial we even managed to sneak in a quick swim at Ohope beach. Then it was back to Christchurch the following day and back to reality…
Matt and Lisa's Adventures 
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