Over two days, I’d say maybe 55 hours it’s been since my last tart. That’s just marginally shorter than our flight over here, and honestly, I’m not dealing. At least I’ve not been spewed on through this ordeal. Lucky I have lots of wholesome outdoor activity to numb the pain. Managed to stretch the doze til about 7 this morning so definitely on the improve. Lazy wait for fresh bread to complete our breakfast basket, but I would have happily eaten the cake three times, but the bread was good. Suited up for our horse adventure which included fetching the horses from the paddocks, grooming them and cleaning their feet, which was fun and something we’d never done before. Not too long til we were in the saddles and headed towards the cliffs. We were mostly ... read more

It’s lucky I christened this blog the way I did, because this country has tarts in abundance! To the left of me, I have some delicious Portuguese Pastels de nata. These are nothing like the sugary soft things we get at home, which I confirmed with a second and a third after dinner. To the right of me, I have a peep show. Some entertainment watching all the comes and goings from our apartment window. Survived another long flight wedged between a wriggler and a spewer and managed another successful airport rendezvous with Geoff. Made it to our apartment and had a quick freshen before a late lunch in the heat and a quick trip to Belem for a look at the tower. The tiredness and heat meant it was a flying visit but at least ... read more

Hmm, it’s been a few days since I did one of these. Better get a wine. Or, better still, a trashy pre-mixed cocktail from the ABC Store. Now you’re talking! So, not wanting to let a day go to waste with transferring islands, everyone was ordered out of bed early to pack and head to Wailea for some horse riding and waterfall swimming. Our arrival was met with the obligatory waiver and cursory wave towards the helmets, which we chose to wear despite it not being required under our constitutional rights. We were assigned our horses and took our rightful place in line - I had to be second as my horse Dozer had recently been demoted from the position of guide and he was clearly smarting at the snub. We moseyed up the hill through ... read more

I’m so tired/relaxed/tipsy, I almost cannot write this. I’ll have some more wine, while watching the surfers the sunset from our balcony, and maybe it will get more entertaining. So we upped sticks from our beautiful view in Kauai and headed for another beautiful view on Big Island, just south of Kona. But not before we finished our final adventure activity with some tubing. Packed up all our stuff and drove just outside of Lihue where we were kitted out before being driven to the ‘backcountry’ to start our adventures The channels we were going to travel along were mostly handcut (except for one unsuccessful dynamite attempt) by immigrants to provide irrigation (for sugar I think) but now provide water supplies across the island…and tubing. A short safety briefing and we were tipped in to the ... read more

Quite a few days of activity! Lucky we have our grassy turtle view point to return to for relaxation and drinks! I was generous in my activity planning yesterday and allowed for a lazy morning of pancakes. Maybe it was just to fortify everyone for the terror that awaited - zip lining! A quick drive and check in before we were all kitted up and ready for our first line. Some important lessons in physics - fat people go faster, so Beeb ate our dust…didn’t mean we couldn’t hear her the whole time! Three relatively tame, but still exhilarating lines, while we were hanging vertically before we drove up the mountain to tackle the beast. Apparently it’s over 4000ft in the old measure…which would seem to me well over 1km in the new. The distance doesn’t ... read more