Nine years ago today we arrived in HK on our way to Europe, and I messaged an old school friend who lived there to see if we could catch up. She was in Koh Samui at the time, so we couldn’t, but nine years later we are in the city at the same time.

We made the most of the late checkout time of 11am by sleeping in until 8am. I think Abi and I were both asleep before 10pm last night – it didn’t even bother us that Belle stayed up to watch Disney shows on the tv in our room. We packed and left our luggage with staff and took the free shuttle back to Disneyland. The train station is right at the entrance, and takes you one stop to Sunny Bay station, where you connect with other lines. Disneyland (probably not surprisingly) has one of the cleanest, most detailed platforms I’ve ever seen.

Alice was waiting for us at Hong Kong station and treated us to lunch at the American Club. Alice and I went to preschool together, and then our whole thirteen years of schooling, making her one of my longest known friends.

After lunch, Alice gave us some suggestions and directions and we walked down to and along Hong Kong Harbour. This was Abi’s city to research and we had to stop and assess how much we could fit in to the afternoon, so we stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and discussion.

We decided to skip seeing the Big Buddha on Lantau Island and instead head to Victoria Peak. We caught a public bus up, which was cheap ($2.50 each) but a long (45mins) bumpy trip! Once we looked around, we took the Peak Tram back down (8 mins). The Peak has some of the most expensive real estate in HK, but the fact there was only one lane up and down the side of a mountain, and bottlenecks in the traffic, gave me anxiety!

The Peak Tram was near the Zoological and Botanical Gardens, so we wandered through there before walking through the business district to get back into the train system. It appeared that Central Station was closest, but once we bought our tickets there, there was a LONG walk underground that brought us back to Hong Kong station – reminiscent of all the underground miles we had to walk in the Tokyo train system.

We made our way back to Disneyland to collect our luggage and head to the airport. Being there well before we needed to, the girls had time to explore some shops (where they bought me some Disneyland socks to say thankyou for our HK trip), and Belle even tried seaweed-seasoned McDonalds fries.

My left foot has remembered it is damaged so my ankle has swollen up and I am having trouble walking on it (and it is day 3 of 40 days 😩), so I appreciated the chance to elevate it (and ice it with McDonald’s ice 😂) while we waited for our 12.35am flight.

Our day started with breakfast in the Enchanted Forest cafe downstairs in the hotel at 8.15am. We didn’t book anything extra like a character meet & greet – even Belle feels too old now for that! But Mickey and Pluto roamed around the tables and were keen for photo opportunities. We then took a free shuttle bus to the park ready for its opening at 10am.

We started in “The World of Frozen” as it is the newest land and worked our way through all the other lands as well. All rides were only a 5, 10 or 20 minute wait. Abi kept a list of the rides we did in order (17), and we had time to choose our favourites to do again in the late afternoon – although by then the ride times were 20 – 40 minutes waits!

At 7pm we had trouble finding somewhere to sit and have dinner and queues for food were very long, and people were starting to claim areas to sit and wait for the 9pm fireworks (😳). We decided to pick one more favourite ride to re-do then intending to eat and leave before the crowds.

As the girls walked up to the entrance of their favourite rollercoaster for their last ride of the day, a young woman approached them and offered them her fast pass which was going to go to waste because she couldn’t use it. Instead of another 20minute wait to get on the ride, they walked straight through and rejoined me 6 minutes later!

The only restaurant with an available table on Main Street was The Corner Cafe. They had a set menu, but allowed the three of us to share the one meal. So after crab cake, margarita pizza and a Mickey waffle with icecream for dessert (which I struggled with only because it was served before the main), we headed back to the shuttle bus and were back in our hotel room ready for bed by the time the fireworks show would have begun.

It was Abi’s, Belle’s and my turn today – we were supposed to leave at 8am for an 11.15am flight to Hong Kong, but the flight was delayed three times (two of which we were still at home at least).

Isaac (and Millie!) dropped us to the airport, but I convinced him not to stay and therefore pay exorbitant parking fees…..which was a sensible idea until we had no one to take a photo of us before we went through Customs!

Check in and bag drop was DIY which was a bit stressful. I feel I have packed what I need but I haven’t packed well – knowing how many planes and trains are ahead of us, and having to pack a lot of layers, I have squashed a LOT into one suitcase and not taken a carry on. This is a decision I may appreciate often and regret more than once!

Belle was drug checked as we went through security (she is used to being “randomly” chosen), but needed an adult to be with her for the testing. Abi offered to as I was behind them in the security line, but the officer thought they were 16 year old twins and waited for me. Insult or compliment to Abi?!

We had a leisurely lunch at Sydney Airport and a look around the duty free shops, and I also had time to join the long line and get the GST refunded on my new watch. Our flight finally took off at 3.45pm and we used the time to catch up on movies we’ve been meaning to watch. I cried during Inside Out 2, enjoyed the Sydney backdrop in The Fall Guy, and dozed through IF, while the girls watched Harry Potter next to me and Abi reminded herself that Love Actually is problematic actually.

The flight was very smooth and our arrival at Hong Kong airport efficient. We caught a taxi to the Disneyland Resort because we were all too tired, which sadly used up the total small amount of HKD I had brought but immediately made me appreciate the decision to bring only one bag because the taxi charged 6HKD per bag.

We have finally climbed into our beds (which have little Mickey symbols all over the quilts) and it is 11.45pm – meaning it is 2.45am at home and we have been up and at it since 6.30am. Now to sleep so we can maximise our time at Disneyland tomorrow!

Group 1 left Sydney at 3.50pm on Friday. Ross, Jarrod, Sam, Tom, Luke and Cooper took 3 flights to reach Prague where they have checked in to their Airbnb and started their tour. They were arriving at 9.30am and hoping to be fresh and awake enough to hit the ground running.

Cooper had returned from his schoolies trip to Fiji the night before, so slept through much more of the flights than the others. Sam turned 18 while at the airport, and Jarrod sent us a photo of him in Abu Dhabi at 11.59pm on 6th December, saying it signified the end of his 31 hour birthday!

We have heard from them that they have arrived safely in Prague and are all excited for the reality of the many months of planning to begin. As for details of their days that are diary-worthy, I guess I will have to pester them to fill in the blanks later on!.

As part of our preparations, everyone chose a destination to research, and we met the weekend before departure to share a PowerPoint presentation on each location. Our plan is to repeat this when we return and present an updated PowerPoint of what we did in each place. “The cousins” (as Jess, Cooper and Oli are affectionately known) couldn’t believe that Aunty Nik was giving them a homework assignment for a holiday, but rose to the occasion excellently – Oli even had a section on coffee ordering in Rome just for me!