Simple pleasures...

barefoot

bubbles



beach



burger

The end of the school year: a time for tests, and a time for class parties and trips...

Saturday, a bunch of Maggie's classmates and 12 parents jumped on a junk boat for an outing to Ung Kong Wan, Bluff Island. We were picked up in East TST and motored through Victoria Harbour, and around Clearwater Bay peninsula, to the bay. It was a beautiful, protected bay, with a "not too rocky" beach. Apparently there are reefs closer to shore, so will plan to go snorkeling another time. Unfortunately some people got a little seasick while motoring for over an hour to get there, but they took the speedboat to the beach for a bit to recover. A couple of dads hiked to up 100 meters from the beach for a panoramic view, while others swam, jumped off the boat, and road the banana boat. We had too much food, and not quite enough drinks - there was water, but that's not the kids' number one choice! Next time we'll know what to bring...


Seven beautiful moms! Didn't get a shot of the five dads...

From Boat trip 2010

Click the link "Boat Trip 2010" above to see more photos on Picasa and here's a video of some who jumped. Anyone get one of me or Paul?




All the kids except for Alex - I think he was tired out from swimming back to the boat from the beach with Paul.


Only a week to go - have a great summer everyone!

Friday was a holiday here and we were thinking of going camping, but the weather called for occasional showers so we decided to go on a waterfall hike instead. I'd come across this trail on the hiking maps as well as online so when some friends that said they'd gone before said they'd go again, we decided to hit the trail. We left from the village they lived in and walked about 3km to the start of the trail that went up another 3km to about 300m according to this chart. By the time we were headed to the second of three falls, it started raining. The last section up to the main falls was pretty steep - we were like mountain goats - and we would have to go back down the way we went up to get home! The kids were already wet from the rain, so had no qualms having a dunk in the pool. My quads were tired today, but Maggie and I still walked about 4km around town while waiting for Alex to finish his karate class. Click here or on the link that says Ng Tung Chai waterfalls below the photos to see more photos from our hike.

From Ng Tung Chai waterfalls

From Ng Tung Chai waterfalls

From Ng Tung Chai waterfalls

Sunday afternoon we went to Upper Shing Mun Reservoir for the first time. We made it to the northern tip and apparently there are waterfalls if we had gone upstream along the rocks that we crossed. It was beautiful - amazing that the trail around is only a few minutes from the busy-ness that is HK. Next time, we'll circumnavigate the whole reservoir or try walking back to our side of the pass (Tai Wai) via the lower reservoir. It doesn't look like there is any water in there now though - I think I heard something about a tunnel being bored for another road to the mainland...




View Larger Map

Happy 14th birthday, Maggie!

Today we went out to explore an area I've been meaning to get to for awhile now called Ma Shi Chau, a peninsula with Tolo Harbour on one side and Plover Cove on the other. It is now actually a designated spot in Hong Kong's recently established Geopark. I want to also get back out to High Island where the more famous polygonal rock columns are. We saw lots of neat volcanic landforms and we could have spent longer if not for the tide coming back in. You see, it's only accessible at low tides. Okay, I take that back, it's easier to access then, and you can see so much more. We had to climb out of the Sam Mun Tsai fisherman's village past numerous graves with great ocean views of the fish farms, the Plover Cove Dam, and Ma On Shan then back down to where the "official" trail started after crossing a tombolo, a landform like a sandbar, that connected the islets of Yim Tin Tsai and Ma Shi Chau. We enjoyed walking along the shore and checking out various tidepools along with the rocks. Alex said he wants to go back next weekend!

The weather for almost the whole week we had off for Chinese New Year was cold and cludy/rainy so we didn't get outside except for Monday and Sunday for a walk on the promenade between Deepwater Bay and Repulse Bay and a bike ride from home to Tai Po Waterfront Park and back...We did have lots of get togethers with friends for hotpot and other meals, but I didn't get any good shots of those. Photos below of Maggie, Sally and Alicia who have known each other since 3 year old playgroup days. Sally's sister Sian is also in the beach photo. The other youngsters are Cameron, Lucia, and baby Sophia.

We stopped at Science Park to check out a bike shop that sold recumbents - you can kind of see one behind Paul and we had our ice cream/popsicle break at the park before heading back.

Happy Chinese New Year!