February 2026

Yesterday on the bus exploration we passed a Denny’s restaurant. So at 09:00 we were there for an American breakfast. It is at a junction like in New York and beneath the Sky Tower. At 328m it is the tallest structure in the Southern hemisphere. It rises from the ground shaped like a Russian rocket […]

After checking in at our waterfront hotel we spent the morning on a bus touring the city. We took in the city centre and some of its volcanoes, now covered with parkland. Mount Eden is the city’s highest volcanic cone (196m). Within the volcano was a traditional fortified Māori village. From here there are views

Today was a getting there day. Our flight to Auckland, New Zealand, was another of 11 ½ hours that followed a Great Circle rote flying via Jakarta, to the northwest of Australia. The bulk of the flight was the crossing of Australia from the mining areas of Western Australia, the Great Sandy Desert, Adelaide, Canberra

Today’s bus tour took us to three key areas related to the communities that settled in the region before British colonialisation. First we visited ‘Little India’. This has Singapore’s oldest structures with Hindu gods watching over the area. The Sultan Mosque in the ‘Arab’ area is a blend of Persian, Moorish and Turkish design. W.e

We took the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour around the city. We conducted this 8 years ago and today we witnessed continued expansion of the city on reclaimed land. There are more high-rise buildings, but the past is still preserved and in many places incorporated into modern developments.

On the transfer from the airport to the hotel the temperature had already reached 25C. At lunch we ate at an Indian restaurant on the Boat Quay. Here for centuries trade with India and China had been conducted through settlements along the Malacca Straits by the Portuguese, Dutch and later the British. The evidence of

Our uneventful, though comfortable, Singapore Airlines flight (Airbus A350-900) saw us following a different route than normal because of the threat of American action in Iran which is normally crossed by this flight to Singapore. We flew to the east crossing the North Sea at 37,000ft and continued at this height across The Netherlands, Germany

Our transatlantic journey was uneventful until the arrival in Amsterdam. Strong winds were disrupting air traffic, especially for smaller aircraft. Our 777 landed but upon arrival we were informed that our flight to Manchester was cancelled. We were rebooked to fly to Paris and then on to Manchester to avoid the wind. We arrived home

A lazy day spent relaxing in the garden of the hotel.

We arrived at Balta Island after an overnight passage. Disembarkation and transfer to the airport took place. Whilst at the gate we saw 2 Land Iguanas to add to the species list. The Latam Airbus 319 was fully booked so with a short runway and a heavy load we refuelled in Guayaquil, the major port