ENGLAND-WALES-ENGLAND... The guy organising our breakfast at the Hotel in Chester was French, I was wearing my black NZ Football shirt – he was very keen to talk to me about the World Cup (especially the last one!). Generally the RWC isn’t featuring over here although now the final squads have been announced it might get some more press. Not surprisingly England cricket has captured the limelight at the moment, although nothing compares to coverage of football –it’s great! Today we left Chester and headed back into Wales, our first stop was the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The Aqueduct is an amazing feat of engineering especially when you consider it was completed in 1805 – it is the longest and highest Aqueduct in Britain and carries the Llangollen Canal over the Valley of the river Dee. The structure ... read more

WATERFORD TO DUBLIN Today we travelled up from Waterford to Dublin – Ireland biggest city. It was mainly a travel day – even more so because our visit to Dublin Castle had its time changed to 4.30pm – making it very tight as we leave at 6.30pm from the hotel for Dinner and Irish Cabaret. We decided to give the castle a miss (we’ve seen a few already!) and have a quiet afternoon to catch up on some rest. ON THE ROAD As we travelled across country we saw a number of war memorials in town centres – these were memorials to IRA ‘soldiers’ who had lost their lives in the struggle against the protestants – many had the names of the fallen listed. It’s hard to believe as you pass through one idyllic village after ... read more

WATERFORD TO DUBLIN Today we travelled up from Waterford to Dublin – Ireland biggest city. It was mainly a travel day – even more so because our visit to Dublin Castle had its time changed to 4.30pm – making it very tight as we leave at 6.30pm from the hotel for Dinner and Irish Cabaret. We decided to give the castle a miss (we’ve seen a few already!) and have a quiet afternoon to catch up on some rest. ON THE ROAD As we travelled across country we saw a number of war memorials in town centres – these were memorials to IRA ‘soldiers’ who had lost their lives in the struggle against the protestants – many had the names of the fallen listed. It’s hard to believe as you pass through one idyllic village after ... read more

KILLARNEY We have visited some awesome places on our travels so far and are having a fantastic time. However if we had to pick a favourite city so far it would be Killarney Ireland. We had never heard of the place prior to leaving New Zealand so it wasn’t on our radar at all, but it is just brilliant. To be fair it is regarded as a tourist Mecca in Ireland and is accordingly well geared up to cater for tourists – the town is full of Pubs and Souvenir Shops! It is big enough to have all the amenities but has very much retained the character of a traditional Irish city. It also borders a wonderful national park. Today we did the ‘Ring of Kerry’ at trip around the Iveragh peninsula (part of which went ... read more

ELVIS IS ALIVE! But before we get to that today we travelled from Sligo to Limerick for the most part via some smaller (B) roads. If we thought the main road were a bit rough then these ones bounced us all over the place! From Sligo we headed to a lovely little village called Cong, its claim to fame is that the John Wayne movie The Quiet Man was made there. Obviously it was some time ago (1952 I think) but the shopkeepers were more than happy to let you know! The roads in the small off the main track villages are very narrow and Cong was no exception. Unfortunately the correct way into the village was blocked by a car. With no owner in sight we had to go the wrong way up a one ... read more