Tuesday, July 14, 2009

If we took a holiday....(or two)!

We started our holiday by having an eight night break at Hayman Island. Fabulous time resting and relaxing. Beautiful sunshine days every day, just a little on the cool side but still nice. We flew into Hamilton Island and were then shown over to the boat to get out to the island. We enjoyed some nibbles and bubbles on our way over. Got shown to our room and set about exploring. So beautiful on the Island.
First night we had a fantastic seafood extravaganza for 2, considering I don't eat a lot of seafood I really enjoyed everything on the plates. Scallops, prawns, oysters, Lobster, crabs, grilled prawns, 4 types of fish. Definitely no room for desserts!!
All the food we had was absolutely fantastic, which isn't surprising considering it is a luxury resort.
So a few shots of the resort.....





We also took a day trip to go snorkeling at Knuckle reef. What a great day. They have a semi submersible which gets you closer to the reef than a glass bottom boat does. We went snorkeling twice, enjoyed a lovely buffet lunch and had a quiet night.





While we were checking out we decided that seeing as we still had 6 days of holiday left that we would check out online specials for other holidays. So we booked for Hong Kong for 4 nights. This meant we could catch up with some friends and get away from the cold. We stayed at the Harbour Plaza Metropolis which is a great hotel on Kowloon side that we stayed at last time we went to HK in 2006. Beautiful and hot 30C when we got off the plane. Thursday night we were taken to dinner by a friend to a restaurant in ONE Peking building called Hutong. Fantastic food and breathtaking views from the 28th floor of HK side with the light show. Then it was off to the 30th floor for cocktails at AquaSpirit.



Friday night found us catching up with some friends of Rene's from a forum he is on and having a local dinner. So we trekked down to Causeway Bay for Typhoon Shelter Crab at Underbridge Spicy Crab restaurant. WOOOWWWWW what a feast!! Razor clams, Mantis prawns, welks, Mudcrab, congee. All delicious!!



After dinner we had a local dessert at Yee Shun Milk Company. All sorts of custardy creations, hot or cold.

Saturday we woke up to very windy day. After breakfast we headed across to HK for a trip up the peak. At the terminal we noticed a sign warning that Typhoon Signal 1 had been hoisted. so up we went looking for Hard Rock Cafe up the top, but no more proper Hard rock Cafe just a shop. So we had Bubba Gumps instead. That was delicious!! After lunch we wandered around and then found a sign advising that Typhoon Signal 3 hoisted. As we were making our way down in the tram the rain just burst from the sky. By the time we got from the terminus to the cathedral we were drenched. But that didn't stop wandering around the shops.




Sunday found us wandering the shops again with a long walk down Nathan Road. Then it was back to the hotel to finish packing and check out for our flight back to cold Sydney.

Thanks for having a look!!
Catch you soon

New Knives!!!

Okay so these are a few weeks old now but finally got time to post them. Bought these Macusta knives from THE CHEF'S ARMOURY in Sydney during their recent sale. Fabulous knives to work with. I have a preference for fine Japanese knives and love to buy them when I can(tax return will hopefully allow me to buy a few more!!

I guess it is a bit silly to carry on about knives but quality and sharpness are inmportant when using them!
Catch you later
V