Having flown out of London Heathrow on a rather cold and grey January 2024 evening Alison and I arrived in Hong Kong late the following day, but we were greeted by a nice bright cool view the following morning. It was lovely to see Hong Kong in bright sunshine for a change.

I had five LP12s to look after for clients on this part of our trip. The first of which was a Karousel Bearing upgrade and also an upgrade from Klimax Radikal 1 to the new Radikal 2 as this was the first opportunity to make these upgrades since my last visit in January/February 2022.

Having completed these upgrades, the following day we decided to continue our exploration of Hong Kong as there is so much to see and do. This time we set ourselves the challenge of walking from Quarry Bay to Jardine’s lookout, which was very high up on Hong Kong Island. The view from the top certainly justified all the effort in climbing those thousands of steps to get there. Many people don’t realise just how many green areas there are in Hong Kong and after descending from the peak for about half an hour, we were able to catch a bus into Central, saving our legs any further pain. Plus, I had another LP2 to set up that evening for one of my regular clients who also had a Karousel and Radikal upgrade.

The following day was a big day as I had two complete builds to undertake in one of the areas of Central where there are the most spectacular views from the windows. My clients were both interested in watching as I put their LP12s together.

Our final day in Hong Kong was a rest day of sorts and we enjoyed walking through the markets and then trying the new Kowloon coastal walk even though it was a little overcast.

The following morning, we were at Hong Kong International Airport ready for another long flight, this time to Melbourne in Australia where I had two clients to look after, but thankfully not on the first day as we needed to acclimatise and we had a great time having a walk and a good look around Mount Dandenong, which gave us some spectacular views over the city of Melbourne.

We left the LP 12 running in the following day and did some exploring around the coast nearby before heading into Melbourne, which is a really interesting city and a fantastic place to spend some time.

We returned to our client’s apartment in the evening for a full evaluation of his system and I’m pleased to say the LP12 sounded absolutely stunning.

On the next day we were travelling again, but not so far this time, just a little way to the southeast to an area called Arthur’s Seat, where again we were able to do some fantastic sightseeing and enjoy the wonderful wildlife and environment In the Melbourne area. Near the Arthur’s Seat cable car, we were reminded by a sign,  just how far away from home we were! However, no time to dwell on this as I had another LP12 to service and upgrade. This was another Radikal upgrade and Karousel to be fitted into a beautiful LP 12 with a Chris Harban plinth.  The client’s system was a little different to what I’m used to, but I have to say the system sounded extremely good and we pronounced ourselves very pleased with the set up before adjourning to the local pub for a really nice evening meal.

The following day we were on the move again, but this time it was more for recreation and exploration as I had completed all the work for all the clients I was due to see this time. We headed to Melbourne Airport late in the afternoon to a hotel at the airport where we stayed overnight before flying to Brisbane, another lovely city. It was considerably warmer than Melbourne as you might expect and we managed to visit the Springbrook National Park on one day and Mount Coot and the Botanical Gardens the following day, which afforded us fantastic views of the city and some wonderful opportunities to see yet more wildlife. On our final full day, we visited Morton Island for some schnorkelling and sand boarding!

All in all, a very full-on couple of weeks and a lot of travelling, but we needed to get back to the UK and we had elected to do it all in one go! So, flying from Brisbane in the evening to Doha which took 14 1/2 hours we had a two-hour break before a further 7 1/2 hours flight to London. Needless to say, we were tired but very happy if a little jetlagged, but I still managed to get into work the following day!