Flight & Hong Kong

Last Friday (27.01) my adventure was finally about to begin. After a relatively sleepless night, I went to Dusseldorf Airport at 6.45am. At that time, I still couldn't believe that it was finally happening. After a short stopover in Abu Dhabi, I continued to Hong Kong.

When I arrived in Hong Kong (28.01 - 09.00am local time), I had already been traveling for 23 hours. I couldn't sleep properly on the flight, so I was pretty tired. Nevertheless, I wanted to make the most of my 12-hour layover and see some of the city. To ensure I would return to the airport on time and have a stress-free time in Hong Kong, I decided to visit only two major attractions.

Lantau Island - Tian Tan Buddha

From the airport, I took a bus to the cable car station in Ngong Ping. There, you could ride a cable car up the mountain where the famous Tian Tan Buddha stands. The Buddha is a 35-meter high bronze statue located next to the Po Lin Monastery. The cable car ride was really great because Lantau Island is very green. Unfortunately, it was a bit foggy that day, so the visibility was limited.

For lunch, I went to a typical local snack bar near the monastery. I ordered mixed vegetables, which looked quite unusual at first glance.

Here are some impressions of the monastery and its surroundings.

In the afternoon, I took a bus from Ngong Ping to the city center. First, I visited a huge shopping mall and then went to the pier. The smog was so extreme that you couldn't see more than 300 meters, so unfortunately I don't have any photos of the skyline. Hong Kong is not only a large city horizontally but is characterized by its very tall buildings. Even residential buildings have around 50-100 floors, although the individual apartments are very small. Eventually, around 5pm, I became tired because I had nothing else to do but walk around. So I relaxed and went back to the airport to wait for my onward flight.

At 9.40pm, I finally departed for Auckland. An Austrian police officer sat next to me during the flight, and we talked a bit about New Zealand. Although I was extremely tired, I could only sleep a little. When we landed 10.5 hours later, I was relieved that I had made it for now. New Zealand has very strict entry rules and a special biosecurity check. To protect the unique wildlife and plant life, it is forbidden to import any food or plant products. Specially trained dogs search through the luggage for these items. I even had to declare my hiking boots, but it didn't cause any further problems. Once I had gone through all the checks and retrieved my luggage, I was warmly welcomed by Lara. We went straight to the hostel, which resembles a huge shared apartment. To overcome my jetlag, I wanted to stay awake until at least 9pm. So Lara, Michael (another German doing Work & Travel here), and I explored the surroundings a bit. Our hostel is located on a small shopping street with many bars, restaurants, and clothing stores. For dinner, we had a delicious burger that we ate in the park. At 7pm, we returned to the hostel. We spent a long time talking with Ben (a true Kiwi - he works as a ranger and has traveled a lot in NZ), who gave us many travel and insider tips. Finally, at 9pm, I was able to go to bed and slept through until 8am the next morning. Although we sleep in an eight-bed dorm room, I was so exhausted that I didn't notice anything around me.