The crossing wasn’t as smooth as the way out so I spent most of the trip out the back where the boat didn’t bounce so much. I got talking to a nice chap called Derek, a birdspotter from Essex. I won’t ever use the word “birdspotter” in a disparaging way again after the last couple of weeks (although I may still say bad things about Essex). He’d spent some time on Ulva during the daytime as well and got some great photos of the “robins” there. They’re apparently not really robins, but they were named as such way back when and the name stuck.

Apparently they used to be fed by people with tins of food, so if you head to the island and tap the top of a tin or a jar with your fingernails then scratch the ground as if you’re dropping things, they’ll flock around your feet. Using this method, Derek got up very close for some really impressive photographs. He also offered me a lift into Invercargill to save me getting the bus. I’d intended to get back to the I-Site and walk to the airport (about 30 mins plod), but this saved me the effort. Thank you Derek! In return I just have to send him any of my pics of Sirocco that came out alright. Fair swap!

As a result, I ended up at the airport at 10:00 with my flight not until 13:30. Quite a wait especially as I still hadn’t caught up on any sleep. I blew an hour watching a TV special on Komodo Dragons that Dave Haddock very kindly burned to CD and mailed me in Hanoi (I got it in HMC City when the hostel kindly forwarded them). Very interesting though overly-dramatised by the presenter Austin Stevens. Kind of like Steve Irwin, but more trying to make himself sound impressive than the animals. Great footage though.

After that, a few episodes of bro’Town which nobody outside of New Zealand will have heard of.

Finally my flight was called – slightly late – and I propellered off to Christchurch where my connecting flight was literally sat on the tarmac waiting for me. I’d barely go on board and fastened my seatbelt when the plane started to reverse out.

I arrived in Auckland pretty much dot on time and got the bus into the CBD to see Lou for the first time in two months. Food was had, DVDs watched and arrangements made for the next few nights. As Lou’s working shifts I can’t stay at her’s so I’ll be crashing with Indy and Lisa in Onehunga – thanks folks!

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Back to Auckland

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Perhaps in some small tribute to this man, about seven people boarded a boat at the harbour and were taken to a smaller island called Ulva, where they would meet an animal that has been brought back from the brink of extinction by the hard work of people like Mr Irwin. Not a dangerous bird – far from it – but just as valuable and worthwhile a cause as any of the snakes, crocs or insects that he used to specialise in.

Ulva itself is a comparitively small island and used to be used for the postal service of the surrounding area up until the 1950′s. The entire island bar one small section is now in government hands, the odd bit being a holiday home. We were arriving after dusk as the Kakapo is a nocturnal bird so I was unable to appreciate the island as much as I’d have liked. One of the guys who was on the trip – Derek from Essex – had been over during the day and had a great time. Maybe on my next visit!

As an added bonus, we found out on the way over that Siroccos’s keeper for the week was one Don Merton. Don has saved at least three bird species that I know of from extinction (along with a lot of help obviously), but has been the driving force behind so much work. He’s hugely respected in his field and rightly so. Douglas Adams is quoted as saying that Don has “probably done more than any man living to preserve the threatened birds of New Zealand”. I reckon he’s handled more birds than Peter Stringfellow, and that Don’s have been better looking.

We arrived at the dock and had to clamber onto land. Our pilot promised us he’d ship some more water in for our departure so that the boat could sit higher. We trusted him on that and headed into the darkness. Our two guides had a lamp each and we were individually supplied with a torch so that we could see the ground at our feet – there were some tree roots to be careful of. The island was very quiet except for the occasional bird cry. Our guide stopped us for a quick natter before we proceeded. When they started doing the trips, the first group were quite noisy and apparently – friendly though he is – Sirocco was visibly unsettled. The next group that went out were told to be very quiet, which they did. And scared the bejabbers out of the poor feathered beastie when he turned round to see an army of faces gazing at him. He literally jumped backwards. We were to settle on a compromise – “mumble to each other. Rhubarb rhubarb.”

As we mumbled and rhubarbed our way along the path, we also kept an eye out to the sides on the offchance a Kiwi toddled into sight. It has been known and they do start to surface around that time of night. Not tonight, though.

Five minutes walking and a couple more off the designated trail got us to Sirocco’s temporary home. A large wooden and perspex pen with climbing trees, feeders and the like inside. Sirocco had already tried to flee once by climbing up to the top of one of the trees and jumping. He almost made it, too. So they chopped a few feet off the tree in case he hurt himself trying again!

Sirocco was partly raised by humans as he had trouble breathing as a chick, and as a result is very friendly. He’s also huge and utterly beautiful. From beak to bottom, not including tail feathers, I’d estimate he’s a foot and a half long (50cm or thereabouts). His wings are impressive but definitely stubby in comparison to his body size and contribute to the flightlessness of the Kakapo. The other main factor is the weakness of the muscles used for flapping. Instead, the wings are used primarily for balance as the Kakapo climbs and also as air brakes as it jumps. A form of parachuting (or parrot-chuting as one wag put it) to soften their landing.

Far from being flighty, as soon as Sirocco realised he had an audience he walked straight up to the perpex and got as close as he could to his visitors. Even in the low light we could see him clearly, down to the whiskers round his face and his earholes – Kakapo have very good hearing. Unfortunately, the dim light made photographing our star for the evening very hard. I took over 200 pictures, but only a dozen or so are even worth working with. The running commentary from Don – a fountain of ornithological knowledge – was on a par with anything that David Attenborough could run off for the Beeb and without a script. Sirocco played to the crowd, and was even coaxed onto a “swing” to be weighed while Don fed him grapes from a jar.

Our visit lasted over half an hour, but seemed to be a fraction of that. I did hear a sound that I dearly hope many more people get a chance to experience – a Kakapo “skraak”-ing. Sirocco almost always does it for his visitors, and maybe in the future there will be enough of the birds that such a sound will be relatively commonplace.

We all thanked Don – it was truly an honour to meet someone who’s done so much worthwhile work – and were guided back to the boat which, as promised, was now sitting higher on the freshly-imported water. The conversation was active as we made our way back to Stewart Island, everyone seemingly on cloud nine after their experience. I think I may have “sold” a copy of Last Chance to See to one of our guides who’d “heard the name” Douglas Adams, but wasn’t sure where from. With any luck, she’ll be off to Dymocks the next time she gets to the mainland. T-shirts, beanies and pictures were available for sale, but I just didn’t have enough cash. What I do have are some pictures and the memories.

I’m not going to be twee and say that this was life-changing, but it was certainly eye-opening. I worked out a while ago how much this one trip for a 30-minute birdspot had cost me, but you know what? Who cares. I’d have paid twice as much to do it. Now, I know the people organising this make next to nothing from these trips. They’re doing this so that other people can be as lucky as they are and see one of these marvellous creatures, and also to raise awareness. I hope what I’m writing and what I’ve told everyone on my lead-up to this visit has done this.

There are a gazillion endangered species on this planet. The Kakapo is just one of them, but thanks to the hard work of people like Don Merton and the Department of Conservation these disastrous trends can be reversed. Admittedly, the Kakapo has been a relatively easy one to deal with given some luck. There were spare islands to house them on, males and females were found and the New Zealand government seem to care more about their native environment than many others in the world. The Kakapo, as a result, has been fortunate.

Kakapo poaching doesn’t happen. Their feathers aren’t used in some bizarre medicine, though many years ago they were prized in some Maori clothing. They have no natural mammalian predators (the ones they suffered from were all imported by us), so removing those threats on unspoiled land was a relatively simple if long-term job.

Other animals aren’t so lucky. Rhino, tigers, lions and the like have a major problem in that their most dangerous predator is… us. 200 people working to rescue these creatures can have all their efforts undone by one greedy bastard with a gun. But still, good people give up their money, time and efforts to try and save them. Simply because they deserve to be saved. Our world would be a hugely less interesting and magical place were these amazing animals to disappear.

So now a little plea. Same as last year for those who know me. It’s September so it’s perhaps a little early for this but come December please do not send me a xmas card. I’ll still be travelling and I’ll have nowhere to put them. Instead, locate a shop or a person on the street or the relevant web page and donate a couple of quid to the World Wildlife Fund. Or Save the Rhino. Or the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Or the Kakapo Recovery Program. Take your pick. Any of these charities or another one with similar aims. Just a couple of quid (or dollars or whatever). Help these people improve our planet, to give these animals a chance to spread and grow back to respectable and safe numbers.

I’m just happy I’ve seen a few of these creatures very close up recently. We’re running out of time faster than I like to think for many of them and if I can do anything at all to convince you to put your hand in your pocket – or even volunteer to work – then all the expense of travelling around and the time of writing this up is a small price.

Soapbox away again. 

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Kakapo trip!

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 I unpacked then walked round to the Department of Conservation office to pay for my trip to Ulva later in the evening. I also asked about any decent walks that would take a couple of hours and was given several suggestions.

A quick trip to the local store and I had beans on toast for lunch – the first time in over two months! Then I saddled up and went walking.

 Before I launch into all the details, Stewart Island is a phenomenally beautiful place. It has a tiny human population and the vast amount of it is unspoiled nature. Given how close it is to the Antarctic, the woods look almost like rain forest with thick trees everywhere and the birdlife is magnificent. At the start of my walk I was deluged with birdcalls, from the R2D2-like bleeps and farts of the Tui to squawks from huge parrots. As one point, I turned a corner to see an enormous bird with a scary beak and wide claws diving in to attack me. Well, that’s what I thought when I yelped and jumped backwards. It was actually a parrot braking in midair before swooping up onto a branch.

 In two hours of walking I saw three other people. They were together as a group and sat having a rest after just doing the same walk as me, but in the other direction. After that – nobody. It was wonderful. In places, the sounds of life were deafening. In others, there was no sound, especially on some of the beaches. Two birds wading about stabbing into the ground for insects or whatever and the sea barely whispering as it washed gently up and down on the sand. Utter silence.

I was toying with walking for another hour, but rain started to drizzle down and I didn’t fancy getting drenched. 

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Stewart Island

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I went with Knightrider – the only other bus service undertaking this journey does so during daylight hours and costs a fair bit more. Trains don’t run this far down, I don’t think, and a flight would have cost three times as much. My only regret is that I was being driven through some beautiful scenery… all of it after sunset so I couldn’t see it.

 Rest breaks were frequent enough, including a half-hour stop for KFC at 9:30. We also came to a halt around 10:30 for a driver change. It seems one guy drives from Christchurch down to here, then swaps buses with the northbound driver. That way he ends up back in Christchurch at the end of his drive, while the Invercargill based guy drives back to his own home. Smart enough.

There was a delay on the changeover as the northbound coach had a flat tyre. They couldn’t fix it, so had to wait for a towtruck. I’m glad I was heading south!

The coach itself was fairly small, comfy and had a telly at the front. In total, we watched three films: Entrapment, Mr and Mrs Smith and Arnie’s Eraser. I’d seen all three before and the volume was a little low most of the time due to the big diesel engine chugging beneath us, but entertaining nontheless. Reading wasn’t an option as the lights were out and I always nod off when I read on buses anyway. This isn’t comfortable and I often end up drooling on the person next to me.

 We offloaded most of the passengers in Dunedin, and five of us continued on to Invercargill, arriving there more or less at 3am on the dot. I managed maybe an hour’s sleep in the latter stages as I had two seats to myself at last.

Invercargill is chilly. Even I had to put on my loaned fleece (thanks Rob!) and my teeth chattered as I walked in search if the I-Site from where I would be picked up the next morning. Well – later that same morning. I didn’t bother booking a hotel or a hostel as it didn’t seem worth it for the four hours I’d be there. Besides, I had investigated and there is nowhere in Invercargill with a 24-hopur reception in the vicinity of where I arrived. I wasn’t about to fork out $100 for 4 hours, plus a taxi to the I-Site the next morning.

Stopping at a police station, I picked up a map and directions from a very helpful policewoman and found myself at the I-Site/museum at 3:20. Only five hours until my coach arrived.

The sky was clear, but the streetlamps glared so it was hard to see the sky. To the left of the museum I spotted an observatory. Storing my bags in a fairly large phone box, I walked round and the skies just cleared. There are no lights round the back of the observatory and it’s astounding how brightly the stars shone overheard. I was tempted to clamber up the observatory (the spiral stairs round it were open), but I spotted a security camera and a car in the car park. I wasn’t in the mood to be arrested as they may not have released me in time for my bus and ferry.

 I had walk slightly further afield, locating a petrol station (where I bought some munchies), a park and a war memorial. I took some nice night-time snaps and then bedded down for an hour in the phone box. This isn’t the first time this trip I’ve slept on concrete, but the last time it was pitch dark and around 30 degrees. In Invercargill, I had security lights blinking and it was nearer 6 degrees.

When I woke up, I meandered down to McD’s for some brekkie. Like Singapore, they have wireless. Unlike Singapore, it’s secure and unavailable to Joe Public. Boo. However, they open at 6:30, have very clean loos and you can watch the sun rise around the war memorial from the McCafé window so it’s not all bad.

While sitting having breakfast, I went through the local paper – The Southland Times. It’s typically “local” with “local” stories and 3-days-out-of-date international news, but it passed the time. It also contained a 150th Anniversary special about Invercargill with some nice pictures and history in it. I’d already noticed about a dozen streets named after UK rivers (Tyne, Don, Dee, Tay, Forth, Tweed…), but there was other nice trivia in there. Such as when vehicles were eventually regulated, there was a speed limit set for going around corners of 10mph. Also, Invercargill monitored its own traffic untill 1995 when it merged with the national department. The sepia photos of every mayor over the last 150 years was also quite an eye-opener. Some impressive beards before the turn of the 19th/20th century!

Come 8am, I wandered back up to the I-Site and waited for my bus to Bluff. It was a very small bus. In fact, it was a taxi. There were only three people to be collected, so the ferry company didn’t bother sending the bus out. Nice! The taxi driver and the other two passengers (two Aussies) were really chatty and the 20-minute drive to Bluff passed quickly.

The ferry terminal is located about as far south on the mainland as you can get. It’s quite close to an aluminium smelting works, and I think the company that own the works are one of the main sponsors of the Kakapo project. After a short wait, we jumped onto the ferry for the choppy ride to Halfmoon Bay on Stewart Island. Despite the catamaran design of the ferry, it wasn’t the smoothest of journeys so I stayed outside for most of it. Losing my lunch at Kaikora is still an all-too-recent memory. 

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Invercargill

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Apparently it was to check for drugs and stuff as I’d been to Thailand on my travels. My issue is that although I have been there, it was in March. Since then I’ve been to Vietnam, into New Zealand once, back into Vietnam and then through Singapore (where I’d have been given the death sentence for carrying anything dodgy if I was stupid enough to do so), then Oz where my luggage was checked with typical Oz-style thoroughness before going back into NZ. So let’s face it – given the timescale, had I bought any drugs I’m sure I’d have used the damn things in that length of time.

Anyway, as I said, the guy was pleasant enough and he didn’t even bat an eyelid at the three bags of piratebackup DVDs I’d purchased in Vietnam. In fact, he at first thought they were bags of photos I’d been taking on my trip!

So bags once more packed, I wandered through to be greeted by Rob who’d waited patiently – along with my ATM cards which had arrived that morning. YAY!

We stopped for some shopping on the way home and had barbequeued burgers for lunch. By this time I was famished and the food was very welcome. And rather delicious. We sat and watched Dodgeball which was still fun the second time around, killed a few (actually a lot) zombies in a game demo and then Rob went to collect Pam from the airport as she’d been up in Auckland for a work conference.

Tea was had and beds gone to.

The best night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks, and to top it all I had two cats on the bed for most of it. I miss having cats snuffling under my arms when I’m snoozing!

In the morning, Rob and I decided to go to the QEII leisure park and partake of the water slides. And swim. Because swimming is healthy. But mainly for the water slides. This turned out to be a really good idea. The leisure centre is superb with a semi-sunk ship with slides in it for the under-8′s, wave pool, circular pool with a “current” pushing you round, 25m pool, 50m pool, sauna, steam room, spa bath and five water slides (two of which you zoom down on rubber rings). All this for NZ$16 per person. Just a swim is only NZ$5. As it was a Saturday, the place was heaving but nicely so. The queues for the slides weren’t more than a minute or so and the larger pools were fairly empty.

After we towelled off, we drove round the corner to… mini golf! Rob had located four in Christchurch I’d not already been to and one was right next to the pool.

I won. But only by three strokes. Quite a nice course with some entertaining scenery, based on a “lost world” scenario. Two statues in particular really make things great, both squirting water. One of them jets a stream over one of the bridges you have to cross, so if it’s windy you could be in for a soaking!

Afterwards, we drove back to the house and checked the weather for Sunday… and decided that snowboarding was a no-go due to rain and fast winds. Ah, well.

It did turn out, the following morning, that the slopes were open but by then we’d have been pretty short on time. Mt Hutt is two hours away, I hadn’t packed and my bus for Invercargill departed Christchurch at 17:30.

So after batting ideas around for a while, we had lunch and Rob handed me the X-Box360 controller and I spent 4 hours playing Elder Scrolls IV; Pam painted, pastelled and in other ways was arty; Rob did internetty things; the cats chased wasps, dug holes in plantpots and – on the whole – were just cute.

In all, everything a Sunday should be. Utterly chilled out and relaxing.

My hosts gave me a lift into town for my bus around 5pm, even arming me with some supplies for the journey – one of Pam’s triple chocolate muffins. Like Elven bread, one piece of muffin is enough to keep anyone going for hours! If bigamy were allowed in New Zealand, I’d marry Pam purely for her baking!

Again, a “thank you” to the five of you (Pam, Rob, Merlin, Amber and little Mogglet) for two cracking nights’ sleep and a chance to wind down after all the travelling – and rest up for the next lot!

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Christchurch once more

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• 16th August – Bus from Hanoi to Da Nang
• 17th – get off at Marble Mountain and take a motorcycle to Hoa’s Place on China Beach
• 20th – get to Da Nang and fly to Ho Chi Minh City
• 24th – fly to Singapore to go to the zoo, night zoo and… erm… that’s it, really
• 27th – fly to Darwin
• 28th – arrive in Darwin. Do some tours of the national parks
• 31st – fly to Sydney for a day visit, sleeping in airport
• 1st September – fly to Christchurch
• 2nd – possibly snowboarding with Rob!
• 3rd – overnight bus to Invercargill
• 4th – ferry to Stewart Island to visit the Kakapo
• 5th – return to Invercargill then back in Auckland for a week or so
• 15th – fly to Brisbane
• *22nd-ish – fly to Melbourne

Flight dates will be confirmed shortly. Essentially, I’ll have 2 days to chill out on China Beach and forget about the rest of the world for a while. Then HCM City for the obvious tourist stuff. Singapore for animals, Darwin for nature trails, Sydney for some lumps of steel and concrete, Auckland for a rock gig and Stewart Island for a very silly parrot that can’t even fly.

Then back to Brisbane (rock gig), Melbourne (more parrots, this time ones that can fly) and after that… erm… dunno. But I need to figure it out before I return to Oz as they’ll want me to have an outbound ticket.

Just so people don’t think I’ve forgotten them – thanks to Indy, Lisa and Lou who’ve offered to put me up in Auckland; Pam and Rob who it looks like I’m now seeing in Christchurch (seeing them more now than I did when they lived in Liverpool); Elaine, Belinda and Albert who I’ll be seeing in Bris; Mari and partner and the Luxford family who I’ve never met and who are kindly putting me up in and around Melbourne! You’re all wonderful human beings!

Don’t forget to visit the 1000 Mile European Walk Site – it’s all for a good cause!

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Updated schedule

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More coming soon!

Also, check down the right hand side of this page for a rough itinerary of where I’ve been and where I’m going (and approximately when). I’ll be concreting plans over the next 2 weeks or so once I have my cashcard back and know I can move on.

Don’t forget to visit the 1000 Mile European Walk Site – it’s all for a good cause!

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Photo and Site Update

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Having spent a good few hours wandering around in the nice “winter” sunshine, I can say that the place is far from disappointing. The major disappointment was the number of displays with no animals visible, but given that this is winter that makes sense. Many of the creatures are obviously from different climates and had opted to hibernate. Sensibly given the later afternoon temperatures once the sun had started to drop.

 Entry is $18 for an adult and a full visit will take around 5 hours, more if you have kids in tow. More again if someone like me doesn’t resist the temptation to get them to shut the hell up and stop frightening the animals. Not that I’m saying some of the children were less than well behaved.

OK, that’s a lie. Some of the children were less than well behaved. In museums I’ll tolerate it. You can’t scare paintings into hiding in a museum. At least, I’ve yet to see this happen. If I did, I’d be impressed.

 
I managed to take well in excess of 200 pictures over the course of the day (let’s hear a cheer for high-capacity digital cameras), some of them even worth looking at more than once. The variety of animals was quite impressive, and the enclosures pretty good by modern standards. There are many places where you can get near hands-on experience with the animals, and by booking in advance there are “behind the scenes” tours. If I have the time in future, I’ll definitely investigate these. As it was, I got to feed a giraffe – worth the trip alone. Anyone who’s heard me rattle on about Chester Zoo will know how much I like giraffes.

There’s not a lot more to say about the day. We wandered round a zoo and saw animals. Some I really liked (the ring-tailed lemurs and red pandas probably topped the list) and some were moderately dull (alligators refusing to show more than their eyes – boo!). However, if you visit Auckland, it’s worth the time. The zoo’s also semi-attached to the MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) but we didn’t have time to visit both. Maybe next time!

 
Later in the evening we managed to lose another pub quiz with Indy and Lisa (and some other people, who also helped us lose – very kind). I’m just happy with the pictures I took today. Very much worthwhile. And I want a lemur as a pet. They’re the most laid back animals I’ve ever seen!

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Zoo!

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The Sky Tower is the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere and (I think) the 10th tallest man-made structure worldwide. It opened at the tail end of 1997 and took around half a million meat pies to build (I’m not making that up – it’s on a plaque in the main observation level). As well as go up it in a lift (or by stairs during special events – the record being 5 mins 7 secs in a 2002 challenge), visitors can pay a bit extra to clamber outside to a 1000-foot high crow’s nest, or choose to jump off the side in a controlled base jump.

At it’s peak, the structure is 328m tall. The aforementioned Vertigo Climb takes you to 270m, the Sky Deck viewing platform is 220m, Observatory restaurant at 194m and Skyjump platform the mad people at an insane 192m – the highest organised jump in New Zealand.

Courtesy of my YHA card, we got backpacker rates which were a fair bit cheaper than even the best “money off” voucher we could find in any of the tourist bumph. $18 each got us tickets including the extra little bit to the Sky Deck for a slightly better view.

 Stepping into the lift, we wooshed upwards at 18km/h watching the floor of the lift shaft dwindle all too rapidly into the distance through the glass floor. The day couldn’t have been better weatherwise. Visibility is reckoned at around 51 miles (82km) on a clear day and I don’t think we were far off that.

The sun shone down over the Auckland Bridge and the harbour, glistening off the water. Every building beneath us – which was every damn one in Auckland, obviously, as the Tower’s twice the height of the next tallest – was visible clearly. In the distance were volcanos (50 are apparently visible) and almost every landmark in Auckland. Loonies in blue and yellow jumpsuits were suspended for our viewing pleasure just outside the window as they threw away $150 on a 16-second controlled base jump. I’d hate to do their laundry.

Absolutely astounding.

 In various places around the deck, the floor has been replaced by 38mm thick glass. This is advertised as being as strong as the concrete that surrounds it. This makes it no less unnerving when you stand on it and look down to see absolutely nothing between your trembling feet and a building roof or swimming pool some 800-or-so feet below.

As well as taking a huge number of photos or the surrounds, and spotting Lou’s new flat, we had a quick snack in the lounge. There are three “eateries” in the tower, all varying in price and exclusivity. We went for the cheap one, obviously. Cup of tea, ham & cheese toastie and an almond Snickers bar I’d forgotten about and left in my trouser pocket when I fell asleep the previous night. Mmm.. squishy.

Time flew. Kids ran around utterly oblivious to the fact they were higher than Jimi Hendrix at a “bring your own” party. Pirates with awful accents wandered around telling stories (a promo for the upcoming Disney film). The sun started to dip slowly. I really don’t know how long we spent up there – easily 2 hours.

 Afterwards, we enjoyed the feel of proper more-than-38mm-thick concrete beneath our feet as we did a little shopping for Lou’s new flat and headed back to the hostel for dinner. There’s a great Chinese a couple of doors along and I reheated what I had left of the previous night’s chicken fried rice. Still 8 hours plus to the England kickoff, so we decided to do the sensible thing. Go to a club and get wasted.

This task duly accomplished, we staggered (very literally in Lou’s case) back to the hostel at around 2:30 to get changed then ran/limped to a nearby bar we’d spotted showing the match. Only it was full.

By the time we made it to the next nearest place, we’d missed 10 minutes but fortunately not too much action.

We all know what happened next. I’ll save my ranting for elsewhere.

Bed at 6am, asleep sometime after 6:30. I was too wound up to just drift off and sat reading for ages! We have some plans for the rest of the week, the highlight probably being a trip to the zoo on Wednesday or Thursday before I jet off back to Hanoi.

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Up the Tower

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Yup. Superman. On IMAX. In 3D (partially). With crappy sound, but hey – you can’t have everything.

The tickets were $20, around £6.50. This is how much a cinema ticket goes for in the UK anyway, and only a two quid more than the price of a regular matinée ticket here. Worth every penny.

Things have been great recently for superhero films. Three superb X-Men outings, Batman Begins getting us back on track after Joel Schumaker’s utter abortions, Spiderman throwing away all memories of Mark Hammond’s straight-to-TV nonsense of the 70′s, and now this. Absolutely superb.

The WB logo fades out with a little twiddle at the end that tweaks the memory. Then the music starts up. Short bursts like the opening chords of the Jaws theme. Then the full flury of that wonderful theme music, the overture that anyone aged 30 or over should be hugely familiar with. The hairs literally stood up on the back of my neck.

The director is Bryan Singer who did the first two recent X-Men films (coincidentally, the guy who was originally listed to do Supes ended up doing X:3) and it shows in the scripting and vision. The effects are utterly wonderful, but what shines through is the story. Anyone who is familiar with the original trilogy (let’s ignore Quest For Peace and pretend it never happened) will feel right at home with the little references. Kevin Spacey steps perfectly into Gene Hackman’s shoes as Lex Luthor – manic, scary, sneaky. The play between him and his henchwoman perfectly mimics that of the original The Movie. The other henchmen hardly say a word and wear black. More reminiscent of The Penguin’s hoods from the old Batman TV series, but they just work.

As for the new Superman… spot on. He really looks like a young Christopher Reeves. The little smiles, the raised eyebrows, the way he stutters around Lois when posing as Clark. Brilliant. No, I can’t remember his name as I type this up but then, nobody had heard of CR when he took the role all those years ago. As another bonus, the makers have seen fit to update the costume only slightly – it’s more of a Spiderman-like update than a Batman one.

Louise & Clark and Smallville along with the comics themselves have had a big hand in turning Superman into a soap opera over the last 20 or so years. There’s enough backstory and twists in Returns to let them do the same on the cinema screen. I for one and waiting for the next one. There’s no doubting it’s in the pipeline already and I only hope it’s as good as this.

Oh, if any of you out there have children who haven’t yet seen the original films then for crying out loud, get them sat in front of the DVDs immediately. Then take them to see this. It’s the best excuse you’ll have. I don’t need such an excuse. I’m a big kid and everyone knows it!

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You’ll believe a man can fly

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