Day 7 Shakespeare Cliff

So I pay have taken a lot of photos today, that’s only because I ended up doing a lot more than planned, I walked to Buffalo Beach, crossed to ‘Ferry Landing’, Walked to Front Beach, Flaxmill Beach, up to Shakespeare Cliff, then down to Lonely Bay, onto Cook’s Bay and finally hiked up to Whitianga Rock!

Turtle Cove (the hostel I’m staying at right now) offers breakfast, just the usual cornflakes and toast, but there’s just something nice about getting a surprise free breakfast!  So after breakfast I headed to Lyon’s Park and walked along the marina up to Buffalo Beach 

 The Marina

 Walking along Buffalo Beach in the Morning was so pretty!

It was pretty early but there were lots of older ladies wandering around (apparently they walk along the beach every morning as their daily exercise in groups)

This sign made me laugh though!

After pottering about on the beach I caught the ferry (which lasted a grand total of 40seconds) and from there head up the road

This was the only shop at Ferry Landing!

I pottered along to Front Beach and over to Flaxmill Bay before I attempted the Cliff Trek

 Such a pretty walk!

Although these signs weren't fun to see!

Getting up to the top was pretty steep but it was incredibly well signposted for NZ – as in there were actually 3 signs along the 2hr path!

 Lots of photos of me!

After having lunch with this amazing view I headed down to Lonely Bay. This area (despite it’s name) is usually packed but since it’s off season I had the place to myself to wander about

Another hour and crossing a stream I got to Cooks bay, but by the time I got there the weather was turning, so I had to take shelter under a tree (hiding under trees is becoming something I’ve been doing too often at the moment!)

 It really was as grey as this picture looks!

On the way back to the Ferry I decided I might as well do the walk up to Whitianga Rock since I had time, the weather was holding again and with the luck I’ve been having I didn’t want to hold off doing the walk until tomorrow

 I'm pretty sure this is a Kingfisher? Maybe?

The walk was… interesting. I should have known, it started off by going through private land and that’s never a good sign if the DOC don’t opt to buy the entire path.

It was doing pretty smoothly, a few muddy slopes but nothing major, that was until I got further up and got to some weirdly cut stone stairs – which wouldn’t have been too bad but they were full of slippery wet leaves.

But that was OK but then I had to walk along a bit that was around 20cm wide with a steep drop on both sides… that wasn’t fun in the rain.

Oh and there was a blown down tree

Roughly every half an hour you find one of these little plastic triangles on a tree or on the floor, and it's so reassuring as then you know you're actually on the right path and haven't wandered off!

The run really started when I got to this. It looked like the path had just ended but then I saw there was something that looked like foot holes in the rock… so obviously I climbed up!

The view was incredible!

And I finished off the day with a spiced apple muffin! Not a bad day!

  

Sky Park

Today was all about the Marina Bay Sky Park. I couldn't decide whether it'd be better to go up during the day, so I could see everything, or at night since I adore the evening in the city. So, I did the only logical thing and went up twice!

The view was even better than I was hoping.

I zoomed in a little on china town as I love how it's nestled next to the towers of the financial district with the river cutting it off from the colonial region. 

obligatory photo of me and the view!

On the other side were great views over the gardens, including the two conservatories 

and a shot over eastern singapor

I was a little mesmerised by the boats just outside the reservoir. I saw them when I last landed in Singapore on my way home for Christmas from the airplane and something about seeing a working port is just really interesting… I've never seen so many ships in my life! And they dot the entire coast all the way to the horizon

Anyway I spent a good portion of the day pottering about Singapore, just enjoying the city. I did go back to the merlon as I realised after I went through photos I forgot to ask someone to take a photo of me and the lion and I kind of wanted one. 

Ignore the fact I'm wearing my sunglasses…

After pottering about I popped on some make up and headed back to Marina Bay Sands to attempt to get into the 'Sky Deck'. This is a club on the 57th floor with views over the city and it's right next to th pool which i wanted to see. 

There's quite a strict dress code, and there's normally a door charge which I didn't want to pay. Anyway I got in, and I didn't have to pay the $20 to get in as the bouncers were lovely to chat to! :)

I managed to get over to the glass railing and enjoy the sun setting over singapore 

I had to be ruthless to cut down the amount of skyline/sunset photos I uploaded - they are all so beautiful but I think these three may be my favourites, partly because you can see the different stages of the sunset. 

 I love this photo (perhaps because it took several attempts and my heart was in my mouth as I placed the bottle on the edge when it was so windy)

I'm so glad I didn't have to pay the door charge as my little bottle of tiger beer was $22! That's over £10… now I don't normally drink beer but I'm pretty sure that's expensive… 

The infinity pool of which there are hundreds of photos circulating online. You can only go in if you're staying at the hotel (2 guys who were in my hostel booked a room together purely so they could go for a dip) Got to say, it was pretty cool.

On my way back to the hostel I took my usual walk along the water front - where you can get the best views of the CBD and found a performance going on! I keep forgetting because it's chinese New Year there's some sort of performance every night, I've caught a few, but this one was my favourite evening. 

The dancers were hypnotising, and as such I only have one or two photos as I was too caught up in the various dances to even think about taking photos!

(I think this particular dance was my favourite)