Perfect Place For Parrot Lovers, Hotel Hana Lodge near Rotorua, New Zealand

 We had arrived in Auckland, a major seaside city on New Zealand's North Island. We slept off jetlag staying with friends for a couple of nights before driving south. Hotel Hana was our first hotel stop  near Rotorua, famous for its erupting hot springs.

As we drove up the drive to our hotel, a rabbit scampered across into the grass.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

An impressive, imposing, fun and friendly hotel, isolated at the end of a long drive through trees and bamboo, to a building with a grand staircase. 

To the side of the hotel is an outdoor pool. It was cold and some insects had settled, but we enjoyed the outdoor spa bath.having lifted off the lid, and the two person sauna, having switched it on during the guided tour from the manager. 

The outdoor area had towels. No shower but the compact house hotel was conveniently alongside. 

Our bedroom's en suite bathroom had amazing tiled floors. The hotel was full of colourful paintings by an artist inspired by Chagall. If you had a large holiday or investment budget you could buy one. The paintings were for sale

Sculptures were scattered through the grounds giving the whole place a surreal feeling. 

Best of all were the parrots in human high cages on the front slope.

The rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Sculpture at Hana Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Anything the hotel could or should add? Maybe showers by the sauna. And the outdoor pool could do with heating and daily cleaning with suction hoses or a greenhouse style cover with anti insect doors. 

The food was fabulous. Except for soup being too salty, but that was instantly replaced with an alternative starter. The croissants at breakfast were dry. 

However, you can forgive a couple of little glitches with a quirky hotel, obliging, chatty, friendly, informative staff - and those wonderful, beautiful parrots!

Why You Should See Changi Airport in the Singapore Garden City

Changi Airport repeatedly wins awards and this year with the giant waterfall opened in 2019 it is better than ever.
Even if all you do is collect your suitcase you see flowers and greenery everywhere. Giant palm trees stand over the banks of luggage trolleys. Grennery is apparently on the walls. (In most buildings the inodor and outdoor greenery is on a frame a foot away from the wall for easy of access, watering and maintenance.)
Tubs of plants are along the moving walkways or travelators. Greenery is along the edges of the carousel carrying your suitcase.


Changi Airport Interior. Trolleys and palm trees. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Giant palm trees and a wall of greenery. High ceilings. Space. Abaundance of trolleys.

What to see:

The Waterfall In the Centre of Jewel Shopping Mall
Walk along indoors to Jewell Shopping mall. A giant waterfall about five storeys high. Actually it does down two basements. Feel the spray at the top amidst the greenery. Or dine beside it at the basement where it is encased in glass.



At night on the hour you can see a light and sound show on the waterfall. Free.

The waterfall in the centre of Jewel Shopping Mall, Changi airport, Singapore, at night.

Video by Angela Lansbury.

The Butterfly Garden
On two levels. A delight for children and adults. Huge butterlifes land beside you ready to be photographed on sliced tree trunk stumps, which I presume have some food to attract the butterlies, or are just a convenient flat resting place amid all the surrounding plants.

Butterfly Garden. Singapore's Changi Airport. Free.

On site hotel
Again an indoor walk through the airport to the hotel on one side of the elegant terminal. (Unlike the hotel at Warsaw where you have to drag your cases through a giant concrete floor car park.)

Sculptures.
Strategically placed statues are sccattered around with plaques explaining their significance.

Railway - The MRT
Walk through indoors and downstairs to the underground railway, called the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport). Only one stop away at Expo you find the station has two exits. One takes you to the Exhbititon centre. (Check out what's on.) the other exit is to a shopping mall. Right next to the exit are two bargain stores.

Daeso Bargains
The large supermarket style Daeso is a Japanese company where everything costs two dollars. nearby is another bargain basement store, value. I bought a cheap four wheel suitcases. they also sell hats and chocolate, toothpaste and lots more.

Singapore flags on sale near the checkout at Daeso, Japanese Department store ner Changi Airport, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. copyright.

Daeso. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Free Tour By Bus
If you have about five hours to spare in the daytime, and want a quick view of Singapore, you have time to queue up for the free two-hour bus tour and get back in time for your hour or two in advance check-in.

If you have several hours, take the train anyway. Several stations have attractive sculptures or murals reminding you where you are.

Free evening's entertainment:
Toastmasters Find-a-club.

Useful Websites
Singapore
visitsingapore.com

Singapore Airlines
Singapore.air.com

Airport

Wikipedia
Wikivoyage
Wikitravel
Tripadvisor

See other posts by Angela Lansbury on Singapore, learning Chinese (Mandarin) and more.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

My Latest Discovery - Children's Illustration Museum in The Storybook Capital of America, Abilene, Texas, USA

Problem
What to see next and where?

Answer
I love literature and art.

I also love anything that's free. In addition to free admission, they have free fun art workshops for children on Saturday. Here's a free museum, in a place I have never visited. Abilene.

Didn't you love illustrated books as a child! I bet you still do.

It has changing exhibitions so you are sure to find something new. And a bookshop.

The idea for the place started with a meeting with the then Mayor and the illustrator, William Joyce, of a book set in Abilene. William Joyce is a co-founder of the museum.

See statue depicting the children from Santa Calls, "Childhood's Great Adventure" by Rick Jackson, downtown.

More statues are added every year in a ceremony.



By the way, the song Abilene is about another Abilene, in Kansas, which has an Eisenhower Museum.

National Centre For Childen's Illustrated Literature
Children's Illustration Museum
102 Cedar Street
Abilene
Texas
USA
79601

• Tel:+1-325-673-4586

Open 10-4 Tues-Saturday.
Closed Sunday and Monday.
One block away is the Grace Museum, which has lots of interactive activities for children. Also see the zoo.

Abilene Zoo. Photo in Wikipedia.

USA

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g30138-d12677273-Reviews-Adamson_Spalding_Storybook_Garden-Abilene_Texas.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Center_for_Children%27s_Illustrated_Literature

https://www.nccil.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Literary_museums_in_the_United_States

www.visittheusa.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker.

Service Station Entertainment: Sculptures and soft toys

I stopped at a motorway service station on the M1. Here's my picture of the entrance. Which services was I at? First I checked in Wikipedia.  The list gave two successive Moto services, both of which had Costa and M & S. Then I remembered that I had made a purchase and kept my receipt. I was at Moto Hospitality Ltd, MI, Toddington, Beds LU5 6 QG.

I went into the Services and headed for the toilets. On my way out I stopped to browse in the shops. They were still selling the scarecrow I had bought the previous year and used in my humorous speech in a humorous speech competition for Toastmasters International. 

I was looking in W H Smith for a toy which made a noise. I could not find one. However, I saw an emoji in bright yellow with a smile and hearts. Brilliant. I could use that to illustrate a talk on computing, or the importance of smiling, or Emojis, or Valentine's Day, or Love, or Symbolism, or Emailing. I hummed and thought about the price. 

Then I saw a badger. Larger. Perfect for a talk about wild life, and badgers, or childhood and toys. Nearly £10. I could save money by buying the smaller stuffed toy. No. I had to have the badger. I bought both. 

In a shopping mall or your local high street, you might go away and come back later. No good changing my mind later when I am an hour down the motorway. Besides, I had never regretted nay previous motorway purchases.

I passed the shop selling phone covers. I didn't need one. But I stopped to look and the assistant stepped forward to ask if I wanted any help. Yes, I wanted to know if he sold a red mobile phone cover, like my black one.  Mine stood up like a triangle on the desk so you could watch a film on your phone, look at a photo, or see instantly where you had put your phone. But mine was black and I wanted red. 

The price he quoted was too high for me. It was either £16.99 or £14.99, depending which model. The one I wanted was £14.99, but still double what I wanted to pay. I asked if he had something similar cheaper. He reduced the price by £2 to £12.99.

He opened three different packets to show me. He did not know what was inside. I suppose there are many kinds of phones and several kinds of covers for each. He seemed quite surprised by the different features and was as interested as I was comparing the different brands.

I said I didn't want to buy as they didn't suit and thanked him for showing me.

I glanced around and caught sight of a spiral collapsible car bin. At about £5, or £5.99 or £6.99, it was tempting.

Sculptures

I was leaving the building, pretty happy with myself, when I stopped in the front area to look back at what seemed like a modern version of Stone henge. When I looked closer, walking around, I discovered what looked like a group of stones was a couple of sculptures resembling tree trunks carved into goblins.

An interesting stop on the journey, part of the pleasure enhancing the holiday. Sculptures. Soft toy souvenirs.

All photos by Angela Lansbury, copyright.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.