When Glynn changed jobs a few months ago, he became eligible to join the hospital’s holiday homes scheme and rent out one of their three houses for just $50 a night (about 20 pounds). As Glynn hasn’t had a real holiday for a very long time, we were really looking forward to a long weekend away and chose Rotorua in the central North Island as our destination. You may recall that we’ve been to Rotorua a couple of times before, once on our round the world trip and once with Margaret and Kevin, my aunt and uncle, when they came to stay last year. Both times, however, we were on a budget but this time we have been saving up our pennies so that we can do all the really cool stuff that Rotorua is famous ... read more

Some of you may remember that back in November last yeat and over Christmas, we were visited by my long lost school friend, Mia and her Canadian boyfriend, Isaac. That was when they first arrived in New Zealand about to embark on a year of travel and work. Incredibly, that year has now passed and Mia and Isaac are back with us to stay for a couple of weeks before heading back briefly to the UK and then on to Canada. As most of their time with us so far has been spent trying to sell their campervan and pack/unpack/repack a years' worth of accumulated stuff, we decided they really deserved a day out and about to take their mind of it all. Today was looking good weather-wise with broken cloud and some lovely warm sunshine ... read more

The last couple of weeks have seen a sudden onset of cold, wet weather just when we were starting to think spring was finally on its way. Then suddenly this morning the sun came out to play! Not wanting to waste the opportunity, we jumped in the car and headed south to Hamilton, about 1.5 hours from Auckland. Hamilton is one of NZ's major cities but with a population of around 130,000 it is small enough to explore on foot. We started our walkabout with a quick pitstop to Subway to buy our lunch and then made our way to Lake Rotoroa about 20 minutes away. En route we spotted a few unusual buildings, most notably a church that looks like a castle and an old water tower. Not very exciting you might think but in ... read more

With a head stuffed full of cold and a nose that refused to stop running, I had pretty much decided to not bother going out today, even though it's my last day in Sydney. Then, at around 11.00 am, my nan and Jeanie announced they were going for a walk from Manly to Shelley Beach and I was surprised to find I was actually starting to feel a little better by now and said I would join them. I popped on my trainers and headed out into the bright winter sunshine. My uncle Kev had said that if I was back by 1pm, he could give me a lift to the city so that I could exchange one of the electical items I had bought for Glynn the other day that had turned out to be ... read more

Halfway through my stay in Sydney, I felt the urge to finally get out and into Sydney's central districts. My nan and her friend Jeanie had originally intended to tag along but the long Bondi to Coogee walk yesterday had left them wanting to rest up back in the Manly apartment instead. My uncle Kev kindly drove me into the city, right into the heart of Chinatown where I was on a mission from Glynn (not God) to track down a particular electronics store and pick up some goodies that are hard to come by and much more expensive in New Zealand. The shop's address suggested it was located in building number 3, store number 39 but after almost an hour wandering around in circles and asking everyone I could if they knew where the shop ... read more