My first ever trip report - Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Oh My!
May 5, 2015, 5:04 am
#17
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: UK
Posts: 235
Great report, thanks for sharing.
Those bridge climb suits are a bit special aren't they, I have some wonderful pictures of me and my sister in them and to make matters worse it was beyond windy and I have outrageous sticking up hair too! Needless to say they aren't on display
The helicopter photos are great (both Uluru and NZ) and yes, it does look like a dinosaur ^
Those bridge climb suits are a bit special aren't they, I have some wonderful pictures of me and my sister in them and to make matters worse it was beyond windy and I have outrageous sticking up hair too! Needless to say they aren't on display
The helicopter photos are great (both Uluru and NZ) and yes, it does look like a dinosaur ^
May 5, 2015, 12:42 pm
#18
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: BWI
Posts: 1,782
Excellent TR. Seems like you had a bit of trouble every step of the way.
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
You might want to clarify for people that the IC hotel is the one on Salisbury Rd. I believe there are two in HK. We were there in August 2014 and there were seven amazing cars parked out front at one time.
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
You might want to clarify for people that the IC hotel is the one on Salisbury Rd. I believe there are two in HK. We were there in August 2014 and there were seven amazing cars parked out front at one time.
May 5, 2015, 1:21 pm
#19
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: IAD/DCA
Posts: 31,797
impressive first report !
good photos of one of the quay hotels (accor bought the hotels from mirvac) are useful. seem to recall balconies were said to be less common in sydney, and some of the quay hotels were said to have good views including of new years eve fireworks and opera house.
btw >
ayers property is run by http://www.voyages.com.au/ who has marketing franchise agreement with accor
in late 2013 voyages leased Longitude 131 to http://baillielodges.com.au/ who have run it since nov 1 2013
once baillies have improved it, worth considering return and including one or both of their other two properties
good photos of one of the quay hotels (accor bought the hotels from mirvac) are useful. seem to recall balconies were said to be less common in sydney, and some of the quay hotels were said to have good views including of new years eve fireworks and opera house.
btw >
ayers property is run by http://www.voyages.com.au/ who has marketing franchise agreement with accor
once baillies have improved it, worth considering return and including one or both of their other two properties
Last edited by Kagehitokiri; May 5, 2015 at 2:38 pm
May 5, 2015, 3:59 pm
#22
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 48
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm working on putting together a video as well as I experimented quite a bit with Hyperlapse when I was there. The video of the helicopter from Queenstown and the takeoff over the Remarkables is pretty cool.
The balconies were ok at The Quay. Table and two chairs but with a lot of wasted space due to the odd shape (they ended in a sharp point that was pretty unusable, I'm assuming it's so they could angle the window in such a way). You had a good view of the Harbour Bridge but couldn't see the Opera House at all. There were fireworks on the weekend we were there (as I believe there are every Saturday?) and the Intercontinental was the perfect place to view them from (all my photos of the fireworks are very blurry though).
The ownership of sails was a subtlety lost on me. It's certainly got Accor branding all over the hotel and I booked it through the Accor site. It certainly wasn't up to the standard of other Accor 5* hotels, and I say that as someone who believes that 5* is given out too easily (especially in Australia in my opinion).
Excellent point. Yes it was the Salisbury Rd one. We had a little bit of trouble throughout the trip, but nothing too bad considering the complexity of our itinerary and length away. The car in Picton was definitely the hairiest moment!
I'm actually terrible with heights, so it was quite a bold move for me. The guy before me was terrified and when we were chatting we both decided that we were both going to just go for it without thinking. He didn't listen to his own advice and it took him almost 5 minutes to actually jump! The crowd gave him a huge cheer when he finally jumped. So I sort of had to just go for it having seen how bad you can make it for yourself.
impressive first report !
good photos of one of the quay hotels (accor bought the hotels from mirvac) are useful. seem to recall balconies were said to be less common in sydney, and some of the quay hotels were said to have good views including of new years eve fireworks and opera house.
btw >
ayers property is run by http://www.voyages.com.au/ who has marketing franchise agreement with accor
in late 2013 voyages leased Longitude 131 to http://baillielodges.com.au/ who have run it since nov 1 2013
once baillies have improved it, worth considering return and including one or both of their other two properties
good photos of one of the quay hotels (accor bought the hotels from mirvac) are useful. seem to recall balconies were said to be less common in sydney, and some of the quay hotels were said to have good views including of new years eve fireworks and opera house.
btw >
ayers property is run by http://www.voyages.com.au/ who has marketing franchise agreement with accor
in late 2013 voyages leased Longitude 131 to http://baillielodges.com.au/ who have run it since nov 1 2013
once baillies have improved it, worth considering return and including one or both of their other two properties
The ownership of sails was a subtlety lost on me. It's certainly got Accor branding all over the hotel and I booked it through the Accor site. It certainly wasn't up to the standard of other Accor 5* hotels, and I say that as someone who believes that 5* is given out too easily (especially in Australia in my opinion).
Excellent TR. Seems like you had a bit of trouble every step of the way.
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
You might want to clarify for people that the IC hotel is the one on Salisbury Rd. I believe there are two in HK. We were there in August 2014 and there were seven amazing cars parked out front at one time.
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
You might want to clarify for people that the IC hotel is the one on Salisbury Rd. I believe there are two in HK. We were there in August 2014 and there were seven amazing cars parked out front at one time.
I'm actually terrible with heights, so it was quite a bold move for me. The guy before me was terrified and when we were chatting we both decided that we were both going to just go for it without thinking. He didn't listen to his own advice and it took him almost 5 minutes to actually jump! The crowd gave him a huge cheer when he finally jumped. So I sort of had to just go for it having seen how bad you can make it for yourself.
May 7, 2015, 8:32 pm
#24
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: IAD/DCA
Posts: 31,797
May 8, 2015, 12:31 am
#27
Join Date: Feb 2007
Programs: NZ Koru
Posts: 6,414
ZQN - AKL on ANZ Airbus A320 100
A very short flight at just over 90 minutes with a fair but of turbulence. The inflight snack was absurd. Have a look at the cheese to cracker ratio!
A very short flight at just over 90 minutes with a fair but of turbulence. The inflight snack was absurd. Have a look at the cheese to cracker ratio!
outside of 4-7 weekdays its just tea/coffee and vegie chips or an cookie!
May 8, 2015, 3:03 pm
#29
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 48
I can't believe no one looked at the cracker to cheese ratio and decided it was ridiculous. And sure'y if they wanted to reduce costs cutting the cheese would have been the way to go?! It's one of the most bizarre meals I've been served.