Kia Ora (hello in Maori), Hope you are all well! So sorry for delay in getting the New Zealand blogs to you! We arrived in Auckland on Sunday and spent a week with Liz (Anton's mum's friend from Fiji) and her two standard poodles, Richie McPaw (6 months) and Lima (2 years). Liz's husband, Hugh, was there on Sunday but left to work away in Nelson on Monday morning. On Sunday night, Liz's mum, dad, brother (Spencer) and his wife, daughter and daughter's husband came over for dinner. Liz cooked a lamb curry and a vegetable curry and Spencer brought over a chicken curry. I was so worried that they were going to be too hot and wouldn't be able to eat them, but they were fine and really tasty - Liz is a great cook! ... read more

Hi All, We hope everyone had good New Year Celebrations and are getting into the swing of 2012! Anton and I are now on a health kick as carbs, biscuits and chocolates have crept up on us and the clothes are feeling tight! We will hopefully be back to our normal sizes by the time we return home! Firstly I need to say 'woohoo' to Holy Cross as we came 1st in the Plymouth league tables! I'm so chuffed and gutted I wasn't there to share the celebrations. Well done everyone and a special shout out to Mrs Cotter who was instrumental in getting Holy Cross to the top!! Well, we had a few more days in Bondi after New Year and spent some time relaxing on the beach - which was full of gorgeous, fit ... read more

Hi all! We arrived at Newcastle (one of the oldest cities in Australia) late morning and found our hostel. It was a very grand building and reminded us of Harry Potter. We had a look around the hostel and then took the free shuttle bus to the shop to get some food. The weather was very wet that afternoon; luckily we had a dvd player in our room so watched 'The Hangover'. That evening the weather brightened up and we had read about carols in the park, which was next to our hostel, so we headed out to get in the Christmassy mood. We watched a church band play some modern songs and then we sang a few carols; it was nice but not quite as nice as being dressed in coats and scarves singing carols! ... read more

Hi All!! Once we left Jason, Deanna and Tenaya, we took the greyhound to Byron Bay. As Byron Bay was in New South Wales, we had to add an hour to our clocks and so, by the time we arrived at the hostel, it was quite late. We got settled in our room and went to bed for a very long sleep; until 11am the next day!! We woke up to very stormy weather, with extremely heavy rain every 30mins or so. We needed some shopping and were lucky to get into the shops in between the showers and get our food. We then spent the rest of the afternoon reading in bed, whilst it rained outside. Anton made us a lovely Nasi Goreng for dinner and we had an evening of scrabble and then another ... read more

Hi Bloggers!! We arrived in Wellington Point (Brisbane) just before lunch and were very warmly welcomed into Shane (Dot's son) and Glenda's beautiful house. They have an upside down house with the kitchen and living area having beautiful views. They also have their very own media room which is like having a small cinema in the house; Anton was salivating and now wants a bigger house to build his own media room!!!! We had a cup of tea with Bea and John and met Shane and Glenda's son, Ash, and then Bea and John left to visit friends and relatives in Brisbane. Once we were settled, Shane and Glenda took us for a walk to Wellington Point and then treated us to a superb lunch overlooking the bay; we felt so spoilt! They were so easy ... read more