This morning we were up early, and after a quick breakfast and quick checkout of the airport hotel, we joined the traffic heading into Cape Town city during rush hour. Even after allowing for traffic time, and leaving 15 minutes early (which with two kids is no easy feat), we were still late arriving at Table Mountain.

While we were struck in traffic on the motorway, we were able to see some of the “informal settlement’s” / slums along the side of the highway.

We arrived at Table mountain and met up with some of Dan’s family who are already over here on holiday. Table mountain overlooks Cape Town, and is very large with a flat top (although once you get on top of it, it’s not completely flat!). You get to the top either by gondola, or if you are game, you can walk up the mountain. No thank you. See below our view going up the mountain…

Yep that is THE stadium that has been all over the news after the Airlink flyover

When you reached the top of the mountain, there are lots of little trails to follow to see every view. We waived ‘hello’ to NZ, 11,000 km away, we stood right the edge (no safety rails here) and Karl spent a good 10 minutes telling Aunty Whitney to stand in the little holes with him. There was one rest stop with a seat, and the words: ‘Time is one of life’s most precious gifts’ with the offer to sit and enjoy. So we did. Well, Dan did. Chris was still hunting lizards

The lizards were everywhere at the top of Table Mountain, just out and enjoying the sunshine. Sometimes they were hard to spot, but if you did, you would find heaps. As Karl rightly pointed out to us ‘they have black eyes’

As per the request from daycare, our family photo

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The cloud moving during the few hours we were up the mountain was also an amazing thing to watch. During the course of the morning, the fog lifted and the clouds moved back. But it was still something to be above the clouds, and to watch the city emerge. We also watched the container ships cutting through the clouds out to sea.

At 12pm every day a cannon is fired to indicate midday. This dates back to early days when workers were on the docks etc, and it gave them the signal for lunchtime. We stood and waited for the midday signal. The first we saw was the smoke from the cannon, and then (because of the wind) we heard the boom about 10 seconds later. The cannon also signalled that it was lunchtime for us and so we ate at the large food establishment up the mountain, with small blue birds for company.

After lunch we headed back down the mountain, and as we had an hour or so to kill, decided to follow the coast for a brief road trip. We drove through one of the nicest parts of Cape Town and through to an area where were weren’t even keen to go up the side roads to make a U Turn. From the distance we were trying to decide if the properties were ‘fancy’ or ‘shanty’. Turns out it was the former.

We checked into our new hotel, which is near the coast and has lots of amenities, including a kids area and a number of swimming pools. We had pizza by the pool and all went for a swim, which wasn’t the warmest. Karl, however had a nice long play in the pool.

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It’s been a busy and full on day, being out in the sun all morning and getting up early, and so both boys went to sleep without much trouble. Hopefully there will be no wake-up in the night.

Good night,

Chris, Dan, Karl and Issac

So day 4 started off with all of us awake at 3am the dreaded jet lag had us awake for a few hours. Much perseverance we finally got back to sleep and managed a bit of a sleep in. A trip to the hotel restaurant sorted breakfast which we ate outdoors, another fantastic day weather wise.

We had not set plans for today which was good as upon arriving at our hotel last night we found the helpful team at O.R Tambo airport helped themselves to Chris’ Nikon digital camera from his checked bag. This changed the course of the day somewhat… We found that there is a bit of a loophole in most travel insurance where your baggage is not covered while it ‘is in the care of a transport provider’ and transport providers i.e. airlines here in South Africa think its a bit too hard to keep everyones stuff safe while in their care so pretty much accept no liability. Regardless we went through the motions with the South African Police Force (SAPO) to file a theft report. Police filing here in SA is very old school with manual paper for everything.

The Police found it interesting that the camera was wrapped up in clothes inside a small backpack so this was clearly someone who could see the x-rays and knew what was in my bag. The their even spent the time making sure to leave the clothes and bag behind and just the camera and lens kit were taken. The Police said it was most likely taken while being loaded onto the plane where there are not cameras.

So while it’s uncertain if travel insurance or the airline will contribute to a new camera, we decided we needed to replace it for the trip to Kruger park later in the month. We ventured out to Cape Towns largest photography store and were met with the security realities of SA. We were first let into a lobby area which then opened up to 2 man traps. from here we had a final area that staff released us into the store. 3 seperate secure areas!

Our journey to and from the camera shop also gave us our first glimpse of life in South Africa with people on the street, even one in a wheel chair. We saw first hand why the rule is; doors are locked and windows up in South Africa.

New camera in hand, from here we ventured into the waterfront to have lunch, explore the waterfront and gather some supplies. Lunch was enjoyable (out in the sun again) by the harbour watching the boats on the water and the birds flying around.

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After lunch we had a walk along V&A Waterfront, which is a vibrant, entertaining and enjoyable place to visit. The hotel we are currently staying at provides a daily shuttle or two from the hotel to the waterfront and after our brief visit, we can see why. There were many things we wanted to do there, but as our time was growing short we were unable to do so. We hope to be able to go back to visit before we leave Cape Town. A ride on the train and the Ferris Wheel are on the cards. We did take our photo in front of Table Mountain and Karl found a playground he enjoyed.

As Chris now has his new camera there were many photos taken, especially of Karl; “Daddy, get a photo of me with the water!” “Daddy, look at me on the bridge”.

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After the waterfront it was a quick trip to the supermarket (Isaac found this very boring), then back to the hotel, printing out the information for Chris’ police report, then a shuttle to Cape Town Airport to file his report. Karl found another playground at the restaurant at the airport, and so is making friends all over the world.

Today was our first full day in South Africa, but also the last hop on our journey. After a bit of a sleep-in we flew down to Cape Town. We will be spending the next 8 days here, before flying north again.

Although exhausted, it was not a restful night, and so the goal for today was to make it to Cape Town, get the rental car and find the hotel. Checking in was long a tedious, we will forever appreciate NZ’s automatised bag drop facility which stops the hour-long queues to checkin. The flight down was uneventful (another struggle at the gate to work out if the baby stroller was to be collected at the plane or the carousel) but we arrived. Checked in, then went to dinner with the kids crashing within minutes of the lights going out.

The hotel we are staying at for a couple of nights has large outdoor walking area. While we were waiting for dinner, we explored this and found lots of interesting things to look at in the garden, and a hidden kids playground.

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Cape Town was experiencing a very warm day today (30 degree high) and so off came the jerseys and long pants. Hopefully the nice weather and heat continue for a few more days so we can visit some of the sites of Cape Town. Don’t worry, this blog will get more interesting and there will be more photos once we get over the journey/ jet lag.

Good night (or should we say good morning)

Chris, Dan, Karl and Issac

We always knew that it would be a bit of a compromise between just wanting to get the horrible travel over and done with and breaking it up into more manageable pieces. Having both Karl and Isaac wake up overnight (in AKL) meant we started off the day without really enough sleep.

Overall we were up for about 26 hours, from 6am NZ time in Auckland to 10 pm SA time in Johannesburg. Isaac slept for 2 hours on the AKL-PER flight and having the seat with the bassinet really helped. Two hour layover in Perth (this was a good amount of time) and then on to the next one.

The PER-JNB flight was almost full, so there was no using spare seats as we did on the first flight. Karl was up until about 11pm NZ time and then finally fell asleep, Isaac went down, but woke every hour or so and needed to be resettled, Chris and Dan got under an hour apiece.

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After an hour long wait to get through customs, and a few confusing directions to find our hotel at the airport, we checked in about 10pm local time (9am NZ time Monday morning).

An average night sleep, and we are ready for our first full day in SA.

Here we go… This is our first time travelling since we went from this:

To this:

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Day 1, and we have travelled to Auckland. We are staying at a hotel in Auckland overnight before we begin our long journey tomorrow.

Nothing too exciting for today, just a quick flight down that was onetime (go Air NZ!), the walk to the hotel, a quick bite in the executive lounge (Isaac thought this meant we bite the table), a ride on the green bus for the fun of it and dinner at Auckland International airport.

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Early wake up tomorrow then the long haul flight. There might not be a post at the end of day 2, we will get that up as soon as we can.

Photos of the boys are protected. Message Dan or Chris for the password or if you’re already following us on Notabli the password will be in there also.

Good night all, next stop Johannesburg (via Perth).

Chris, Dan, Karl and Isaac