Blogs of the Travel Bugs

By Russell Mawhinney

Travel is a big part of our life. It was travel that brought Susan and me together in the first place. I had been playing cricket in the UK, Europe and South Africa in the late 1980s. Unbeknown to me then, Susan was in roughly the same parts of the planet at the same time. We both returned to New Zealand in 1989 and both ended up back in Dunedin then. Not long after that we met.
And what did we talk about? Places we’d been and things that had happened along the way.
After we got married it wasn’t long before we headed off to live in Hong Kong, and of course this gave us a whole continent to explore that neither of us knew too much about before then. So by the time Ryan came along in 1997 we already had the travel bug well and truly, and we are now doing our best to pass it on to the boys.
I think we are winning on that score.
We figure they are going to learn more about life by experiencing first hand how people live in far flung places than they will from the couple of days in the classroom they might miss each time. That’s why they have kept diaries on tour – to record what they see and one day some of those things might take on more significance than the roller coasters and ice creams after all.
And it’s not just the places. It’s the people, the colour of their skin, the language they speak, the wealth and the poverty, the history and the heritage. The huge diversity of it all – the way each place out there is different to the last. The excitement and fascination.
Here are some of our blogs and photos from those times, which are some of the fondest memories of my life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Mackay
• Release date: Jan 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311606082

Book preview

BLOGS OF THE TRAVEL BUGS

Russell Mawhinney

Copyright belongs to Russell. Mawhinney 2012 ©

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD: The Travel Bug and How We Caught It

1. AN EXPAT FAMILY

Way Back Then

Show Me The Way Home

2. CLOSE TO HOME

Bali Hi

The Aussie Connection

Fiji The First Time

Fiji In Style

Island Time at Rarotonga

3. THE BLOGS: AMERICA

Blog: Practice Run

Blog: San Francisco

Blog: Oregon

Blog: Down The Californian Coast

Blog: Sideways

Blog: The Fourth Of July

Blog: The Big Smoke At Last

Blog: Stop Press: Nemo Found

4. THE BLOGS: AFRICA

Blog: On Safari

Blog: Cape Town Twenty Years On

Blog: Cruising The Garden Route

Blog: Slumdogs and Millionaires

Blog: Up To The Highveld

Blog: Hunting For The Big Five

Blog: Leo The Elusive Lion

Blog: Homeward Bound

5. DON'’T LEAVE TOWN TILL YOU'’VE SEEN THE COUNTRY

Great Walks of New Zealand

The Far North

Ninety Mile Beach

Powder Days at Queenstown

The Great Kiwi Summer Holiday

Living The Dream

6. THE BLOGS: ASIA

Blog: For Old Time’s Sake

Blog: Closing Deals Hong Kong-style

Blog: Beijing In Three Days

Blog: Terracotta Paranoia

Blog: Hong Kong Revisited

To my wife Susan, and my sons Ryan, Mitchell and Seth.

FOREWORD

THE TRAVELBUG AND HOW WE CAUGHT IT

Family Portait 2007 | classic day at Yosemite – Half Dome in the background

Travel is a big part of our life. It was travel that brought Susan and me together in the first place. I had been playing cricket in the UK, Europe and South Africa in the late 1980s. Unbeknown to me then, Susan was in roughly the same parts of the planet at the same time. We both returned to New Zealand in 1989 and both ended up back in Dunedin then. Not long after that we met.

And what did we talk about? Places we’d been and things that had happened along the way.

After we got married it wasn’t long before we headed off to live in Hong Kong, and of course this gave us a whole continent to explore that neither of us knew too much about before then. So by the time Ryan came along in 1997 we already had the travel bug well and truly, and we are now doing our best to pass it on to the boys.

I think we are winning on that score.

We figure they are going to learn more about life by experiencing first hand how people live in far flung places than they will from the couple of days in the classroom they might miss each time. That’s why they have kept diaries on tour – to record what they see and one day some of those things might take on more significance than the roller coasters and ice creams after all.

And it’s not just the places. It’s the people, the colour of their skin, the language they speak, the wealth and the poverty, the history and the heritage. The huge diversity of it all – the way each place out there is different to the last. The excitement and fascination.

Here are some of our blogs and photos from those times, which are some of the fondest memories of my life.

PART ONE

AN EXPAT FAMILY

WAY BACK THEN

Boracay with Jim and Laura

The travelbug was ingrained in Susan and I long before we ever arrived in Hong Kong. But it was honed while we were there.

In New Zealand, if you get a long weekend you go out of town, whereas in Hong Kong you go to another country. So for us Hong Kong was a base. From there we would see Asia. And Asia we saw. Well, parts of it anyway.

‘The Asian market’ people say. ‘It’s huge the Asian market’. Ha! There are dozens of Asian Markets and none are the same. All are colourful, haphazard, bustling places.

But we nearly fell into the typical work hard play hard expat trap. If we weren’t working, then we were probably in a restaurant or bar somewhere. Our married life was to meet up after work at Grappa’s Italian Restaurant in Pacific Place at lunchtime on Saturday. Have a pizza. Then browse the shops along with the thousands of other people who had nothing else to do and probably only a five hundred square foot apartment to go home to. Then we’d go back to Grappa’s and have a glass of wine, maybe two, take in a movie and go home. Not every Saturday, but often enough. You get the drift. Our life lacked ‘balance’ you could say.

Ryan looking cool at a year old | Dad looking fairly suave too I might add

But life in Hong Kong changed when Ryan came along. We met a lot of people at a similar life stage to ourselves. Starting out on the typical family path. Building towards their own 2.2 kids, compost heap and vege garden. Which in Hong Kong was more like 2.2 kids, amah and pot plant on the balcony. No space for a vege garden. That’s when Susan met Sally who was to become her best friend in Hong Kong, whose son Max was born a month before Ryan. And Sally’s sister in law was the obstetrician who delivered Ryan when he was born. I know. Small world.

So Hong Kong became fun. Disco Bay where we lived was fun. Often I would arrive back at Disco Bay on the ferry and Susan and Ryan would meet me at the pier. It was always balmy so we’d wander up to the Plaza and get a cold beer from the Seven Eleven or a coffee from Uncle Russ. And just chat to people, with one eye on Ryan who, at that age, was usually busy discovering all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

I can still see the bewildered look on Ryan’s face the first time we took him over to the real Hong Kong and we went on the MTR (underground railway). All those people! Ryan was in the front pack on my chest looking at me, then at the hordes of people, then back at me as if to say WTF?

By the time he turned two he had been to eight countries. And even though he can’t remember them, he knows he became a traveller at an early age. Mitchy, our next born, had only been to six countries by the time we got home to New Zealand. But then again, he was only five months old!

Oh, you can’t travel with children! people say. Just try and stop us. Looking back on it now it should’ve been hard. But it was easy. We just got on with it. Starting with places nearby in Asia.

Ryan was five months old when we went to Phi Phi Island for Christmas 1997. Scary to think that we were there at the exact time of year when the tsunami rolled through seven years later and completely wiped out the village. It was such a perfect place for a beach holiday. With Ryan being so young, it was probably easier for me than for Susan. Definitely, actually. But we both got in some diving. Turn about. Whoever was diving dived, and whoever wasn’t stayed on the boat with the wee man. He was always happy enough. So were we. Leopard sharks, fish everywhere and warm, clear water. It doesn’t get too much better.

Ready and under we go | Ryan getting used to the water – Phi Phi Island, Thailand

Talking about just getting on with it, I remember one time on a flight to Langkawi. Ryan was only little. That was back when there was one big screen to watch. Nowadays everyone has their own. Anyway, we had the seats right in front of the screen where the baby bed was. And every time Ryan sat up he blocked everyone’s view of the movie. He of course, thought they were all looking at him so he put on a floor show, waving and singing.

Susan – happy, healthy and relaxed | Boracay at sunset

That’s when you can tell who has kids and who hasn’t. People with kids at least grin if they don’t laugh. People without, they scowl. The looks you get from some people – it’s as if you’ve got a disease! We had to get him down from there.

Jim and Laura came out at Easter 1998 and we took them to our favourite beach place; Boracay, in The Philippines. Ryan was a year old by now. Again he was just happy playing away on the beach in between swims, eating and sleeping. No trouble at all.

Boracay is the classic tropical paradise. The only way to arrive is by boat and you can’t see a building until you’re a hundred metres offshore. There is one long perfectly white sand beach backed by a sandy walking path, then a line up of restaurants, bars, dive shops and places to stay in both directions.

Every day at about four o’clock, after another hard day of sun bathing, reading and dipping into the sea whenever it got too hot, you’d hear the ‘jing, jing’ of music coming from the bars. And wafts of barbequed fish drifting down the beach. Just teasing you. Then Jim would pop up and say wanna beer? What a question! Next thing he’d reappear with a round of dripping cold bottles of San Miguel beer for everyone. Bliss!

In February 1999, Mitchell arrived. We’d gone home to NZ for Christmas and Susan