Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2008…..Love from Mhairi and Bruce………… After returning back to Thailand from Malaysia we headed to Phuket to stay with Justin and Jo. Justin kindly met us at the bus station and it dawned on me that we would be taking a motorbike taxi home. Mhairi rode with Justin - so for her first trip on the back of a bike, she was laden with a bag on her back and front and one in her hand, shorts and t-shirt and in the madness that is Thailand. What an introduction to motorbikes (Mhairi was brave though and clinged on tight to poor Justin!) The first night we were there Justin and Jo had friends over from the school they work at for a small Christmas party, some of the guys ... read more

Kanchanaburi province was our next stop as we were meeting our friends there.....little did we realize how far this next adventure was going to take us! A couple of days before we met up with the gang we spent some time in the town of Kanchanaburi. On our first night there we went down to The Bridge over the River Kwai, made famous by the film in ’57. It is in full celebrations at the moment and there is a light and sound show recreating the history of the bridge. The performance tells you all that happened to the POWs and how it was built and then bombed. The show was excellent and definitely worth the 100 baht (just over 1 pound) for the ticket! On the other days around this area we visited the war ... read more

Upon landing in Bangkok we headed out to get a taxi to take us down to Pattaya (where Bruce stayed before and where Bruce’s dad was on holiday). Thailand as always did not fail to impress the farang (foreigner) bargaining for a taxi price which started at 2000 baht then quickly fell to 1300 baht after walking away! We were then treated to the usual standard of driving which meant breakneck speed and avoiding all manner of motorbikes and buses that glow with neon lights. If there are road rules we didn’t see many people adhering to them! After spending a few days with my Dad and catching up with some old diving buddies we got a bus up to Bangkok and headed to Siam Square as this was going to be our base for a ... read more

Well alas we did not make it to Milford Sound. The weather beat us again! It had been raining all night in Queenstown which meant it was snowing near Milford! Of course we didn't know that the trip was impossible until after we had got up nice and early and were picked up by our bus at 7:15am! But 20 minutes out of Queenstown the driver was informed the road had been shut because of heavy snow and avalanche risk. On the upside that left us with $155 back in our pockets! We ended up watching France vs Argentina which cheered Bruce up seeing the French get dumped to 4th place! We decided that Arrowtown would make a nice stop for the day and headed there. It is a really historic town as a lot of ... read more

The ferry ride over from Wellington was gorgeous and we were so lucky to have a nice clear day. The views were superb once we got into the sound of the South Island. After arriving in Picton we headed straight to Kaikoura where we spent our first night camping in New Zealand. We arrived and as you can see the weather was lovely but that was short lived and at midnight that night the heavens opened. We were a little bit wet in the morning but we soldiered on to our first trip swimming with dolphins, sadly they did not want to be found and we instead spent the time on the boat watching various NZ sea birds including albatross! After leaving here we headed to the Banks Peninsula and to Akaroa - a little sleepy ... read more