A day trip to Devonport

Gill's notebook:

Ist. day in NZ. Cloudy but warm. Sorted washing and ironing. Walked to cafe for breakfast - poor. Back to hotel. Went to harbbour area - ferry to Devonport, found supermarket. Small community. Back to hotel, food at Fed Deli - Goulash V. good.

Pete, F.B. post:

Auckland, not the most visually stunning place we've visited, but friendly with a lively food culture - honest and unpretentious. Struggling with jet-lag, brain like scrambled egg, hope it improves by tomorrow when we pick-up the hire car.

Auckland - mundane highrise with occassional Victorian remnants

Waterfront from the Devonport Ferry

Devonport - a pleasant suburb with interesting building from 20s/30s.

Lovely to see summer flowers

The Federal Deli - good beer, tasty food.

The 'V. good' goulash.

Both of us are suffering from jetlag. I woke, bright as button, at 4.00am. What to do - Gill snoring gently, hour until first light, so I sent the following 'catch-up' email to the kids...

We arrived in Auckland around fiveish yesterday, a little later than scheduled due to the closure of one of Changi's two runways which delayed our departure from Singapore. We've just slept solidly for ten hours, hopefully adjusting finally to yet another time zone. 

Compared to Singapore, Auckland feels familiar, a bit like Southampton down under. Though it's setting is spectacular the city itself is workaday. Singapore is not workaday at all, a place that looks to the future with optimism with skyscrapers that attempt to be sustainable and streets that pull of the seemingly impossible trick of feeling vibrant and orderly simultaneously. It does live up to its reputation for being squeaky clean, and clearly, judging by the plethora or ordinances posted by the municipality, Singapore is highly regulated; equally, however, the sense of order and propriety is also supported by the populace. It's a remarkably sociable and friendly place, we have chatted to lots of different people, all seem very proud of their city, and in many respects you can see why, apart from anything else, it is the most successful overtly multicultural city I have ever seen. 

All this does come at some cost. Though theoretically a democracy based on the British system, the same party has dominated since independence in 1965, the media dutifully supports the status quo, the core values of the Republic are wedded to social conservatism and dissent is not tolerated. 

Though the country is the third wealthiest in the world, due to the fact that only 38% of the population are Singapore citizens, and the majority of labour, both skilled and menial, is provided by disenfranchised incomers, then social inequality is endemic. If we do visit Sweden later in the Spring it will be a fascinating contrast, which is the joy of travel really. So, as a four day stopover, Singapore has been both a delightful and fascinating experience. We left it with a pang of regret, perhaps we won't return, for if we ever head this way again there are so many other possible stopovers - Bangkok, Ho-Ch-Min City, Kuala Lumpur - that a return to Singapore seems a little lame. I think we could get a taste for South East Asia, it has an exotic appeal. 

Anyway, looking forward, we pick the car up tomorrow and begin our month long wander through New Zealand. Today we are going to take it easy. The Ramada Aparthotel where we are staying is well equipped and comfortable. We have a washer-dryer which means we have caught up with the laundry sadly due to a lack of familiarity with the tumble dryer some of our stuff looks somewhat smaller than it did.
Anyway, we are heading out soon to find breakfast and a pharmacy - I need strong sun block as the UVA is broiling my head, even through light cloud. In our enthusiasm to walk the length and breadth of Singapore mum has developed blisters so needs plasters.
Hope you are all OK, we'll keep posting photos to Facebook and Instagram, and I will ramble on by email from time to time.

Dad
xxx