07.12.07 Woke up to another sunny day and got ready for the final stage on the North Island to the bottom part with the capital city Wellington as the main attraction. Tine had planned a short detour to Bunnythorpe just outside Palmerston North to visit the local primary school, the reason for this was that the principal of Bunnythorpe school, Mr Doug Drysdale, had been visiting her school in August ’06 as part of an exchange programme with her principal - you could wonder who got the better end of that deal. Unfortunately, Doug wouldn’t be able to be there himself [View Full Entry]

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29.11.07 Drove on towards Taupo and besides seeing a lot of dead Possums on the road it was a quiet drive. Stopped at the Huka Falls, very impressive and the water was crystal clear. A bit further up are the Aratiatia Rapids, they supply the whole region with energy and every two hours the operators open the floodgates to let the tourists see the water flow freely. Together with the power stations that exploit the surrounding geothermal area these two power sources provide 5 % of the total energy demand of New Zealand. Just before we drove into Taupo we stopped [View Full Entry]

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23.11.07 Finally the day especially Eskil had been looking forward to arrived. We were going to pick up our camper today. Everybody was a bit excited to see what our home for the next 5 weeks would look like. After a long and thorough introduction to all the technicalities we finally were allowed inside the van. It looked really nice with a lot of luxuries such as tv, dvd, microwave etc. Drove off towards Coromandel Peninsula and Hahei Beach. We started with some beginner difficulties and while driving everything in the kitchen made an enormous noise because we hadn’t packed th [View Full Entry]

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13.11.07 Tine woke up reasonably early, wonderfully re-freshened. We succeeded in cooling our room to a comfortable temperature after we arrived and then we fell a sleep immediately. But - one thing is a cooled room another is reality when you step out into the tropical heat and then in the rainy season. You could cut through the air, it was so humid. Tine had a look around. Our room was just next to the pool area and the Old Fale restaurant. Very nicely made with lots of palm trees and blooming trees and bushes. A Fale is the name of [View Full Entry]

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5.11. 07 Glad we had a taxi to the airport. Had a coffee and bought a couple of t-shirts and postcards. Boarded the plane (Emirates) which looked very nice but unfortunately the entertainment system wasn’t really working and after serving breakfast the crew more or less sat down the rest of the way due to turbulence. They did, however, manage to retrive the trays before we landed. Who wants egg in their lap? So finally we’re in NZ. Took a long time to get through passport control and even longer through customs. Had to check Eskil’s didgeridoo and my cutting board, [View Full Entry]

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31.10.07 Originally we were supposed to have been on a day trip around the island today, but Tine had asked to have it postponed till tomorrow, because of the long travel day yesterday. We just had a day by the pool. Eskil must have been in the water at least 6 hours. Tine had a walk around the resort. Everything is fenced in because of the dingos that are roaming here. They are wild and can be quite dangerous. There are warning signs many places and instructions on how to react if you encounter one. Seen and heard many sulphur crested [View Full Entry]

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25.10.07 Early rise today as we had to be out of the appartment before 10 am. More difficult to pack our suitcases already after one week. That isn't promising! We took a taxi to pick up our rental car which turned out to be much more expensive because we decided to buy of the liability of 10000 $. We managed to get out in the traffic and out of Sydney without great difficulty, what a relief! We took the Pacific Highway towards Newcastle and it took us 2 hrs on a partly scenic drive to Raymond Terrace where we stopped to [View Full Entry]

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16.10.07 At last came the day that we've been looking forward to with all kinds of different emotions. Once on board of our flight the children we're very excited when they saw that everyone had a small dvd screen and a remote control, but it was more fun for Freja than Eskil and it ended up being a long flight for Eskil. He was especially annoyed with not getting any dinner but breakfast at what for him was late in the evening. Freja however enjoyed the whole trip thoroughly. We landed in Singapore at approx. 23.30 and had been advised to [View Full Entry]

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To all of you who have wished to receive our travel blog. We are beginning to feel a bit stressed and the children are a bit apprehensive about going away for so long. We still need to pack our suitcases and Eskil has to visit his school on Monday because he forgot to bring his school books with him home. I wonder if he did it on purpose to avoid doing anything the next 11 weeks. I know that it was hands up for him when he realised that yesterday was the last school day this year. If you are wondering [View Full Entry]

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Hej Alle, Først og fremmest her for at prøve det hele lidt af vil jeg skrive vores rejseplan. Den første rejseplan jeg fik sendt ud var blevet lidt uigennemskuelig, så her kommer den for 2. gang. Vi starter d. 16.10.07 fra Kastrup kl. 11:20d. 17.10 lander vi i Singapore kl. 5.30 (dansk tid 11:30), hvor vi bliver kørt ud til vores hotel Furama midt i Chinatown. Desværre har vi først vores hotel fra kl. 14:00, men vi kan heldigvis ligge og slappe af ved poolen da det jo faktisk er midt om natten vores tid. d. 18.10. flyver vi kl. 9:30 [View Full Entry]

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