We got home last night so I'm writing this last blog from the chilly UK - a bit of a shock to the system coming from 35 degrees in Rio to freezing temperatures here! Our last blog left us in Sao Paulo where we spent one day and one night - unfortunately that one day was a Sunday so the centre of town was pretty dead (the only other people on the streets were the homeless and the preachers) and all the nice shops in the posh area we were staying in (Jardins) were closed. I'm sure Sao Paulo has a [View Full Entry]

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Dear All We loved Buenos Aires and ended up staying for five nights - we could have stayed longer but we are now against the clock before it´s time to come home (eek!), so we had to tear ourselves away and move on. There was so much to see and do there and it seemed to have a real ´buzz´. Plus of course the food is great, as long as you´re not vegetarian! We stayed in two different areas of BA: the first two nights in a trendy area with lots of bars and restaurants (Palermo Viejo) but in a horrible [View Full Entry]

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Some more photos - of Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand... [View Full Entry]

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Hello and Happy New Year! It seems like a long time since we last caught up with our blog - in fact we haven´t done it since last year! Sorry, this might be a lit of a long one... Hope everyone had a fun and festive break and is looking forward to a happy new year. We can´t believe what we managed to pack into 2008 - mine and Jen´s 30th, a month in NZ and Borneo in February, our wedding in August, along with those of several friends the same year, a trip around the world (almost), and the arrival [View Full Entry]

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Hello and Merry Christmas! I am writing this latest blog from Valparaiso in Chile, on a sunny Christmas Day. Since last catching up we have had a whirlwind tour of friends, family and the Coromandel Peninsula in North Island of NZ. We left Queenstown on a cloudy day, our Qantas flight being 3 hours delayed because the Qantas pilots aren´t trained to use the necessary navigational aids to take-off/land in cloud. (What??! Surely that should be standard in this day and age! Next time we are definitely going Air NZ, whose pilots are fully trained in such things.) As we couldn´t [View Full Entry]

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Hello out there! Well I thought it was about time I wrote another blog as it's been a while... We're now in Queenstown and enjoying some home comforts at Tim's parents' house overlooking the lake and dramatic mountains behind, but have spent most of the last two weeks on the road in a tiny campervan called a 'crib' and not really a campervan at all but a converted Toyota people carrier! What fun! We decided to stay in a campsite roughly once every two or three nights so have spent some lovely evenings in quiet spots by beaches, lakes and mountains, [View Full Entry]

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Hello All We're now in New Zealand and Tim is stocking up on all his favourite NZ crisps and chocolate bars that he can't get in England! The sun is shining at the moment but the weather is a bit cooler than we're used to. We've both just had haircuts and are feeling very smart. All in all we're feeling glad to be back to some home comforts. Our week in Bali was very enjoyable, with some relaxing beach time in Lovina on the north coast and then a trip through the beautiful rice-paddy and volcano countryside to Ubud, the arts [View Full Entry]

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Photos from India, Singapore and first part of Indonesia [View Full Entry]

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Hello All Since we last wrote, we have become Auntie and Uncle - Baby Girl Hobbs (no decision on name yet as far as I have heard) arrived two days early on 1st November. And she's gorgeous!! Meanwhile, we have been touring around East Java. We flew straight into Yogyakarta from Sulawesi, avoiding spending any time in Jakarta which doesn't sound like a very pleasant place for a tourist. Yogyakarta was great and the base from which to visit the ancient Buddhist temple at Borobadur and the ancient Hindu temple at Prambanan. Both were impressive, although Prambanan was badly damaged by [View Full Entry]

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Hello again Well since our last blog last week we've had a fabulous time in Sulawesi and are all set to fly off to Java early tomorrow morning. We survived the 14 hour boat journey to the Togean Islands which was a bit rough in the night, and even managed to get a bit of sleep in our tiny hot cabin before waking to a rainstorm at 6am as we arrived at the first port of call in the Togeans. Thankfully the rain had just about stopped by the time we arrived at our destination, Pulao Kadidiri at lunchtime. We stayed [View Full Entry]

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