Well, we're here: after a loooooooooong (painfully long) day of travelling, arrived in Cape Town right on time last night. Our flight left Sydney at a fairly reasonable time on Monday morning, but after fourteen hours, we were pretty beat when we touched down in Johannesburg. Customs was quick, though, and we had to recheck our bags for the connection into Cape Town. I did something rather embarrassing at the airport in Johannesburg. I was, as mentioned, really tired when we arrived, and I'd been wearing my glasses all day. I rarely wear glasses because my vision is so bad that [View Full Entry]

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So our last day in New Zealand has crept up, and tomorrow we're off to Australia for the weekend, and then onto South Africa on Monday. We've had a really great time here, and a BIG THANKS to everyone who was able to meet up (and to those whose homes we invaded!), as well as to Peter and Kathy for putting us up for the past few weeks. We had a rather touristy weekend. On Thursday we drove out to Katikati and spent the night at Paul's uncle's place, and it was nice to get to know his new wife and [View Full Entry]

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So we're now back in Hamilton at Paul's parents' place, after a very busy weekend in Auckland. We drove up on Thursday and met up with Juls for dinner (we were staying with her and her husband Chris, in their lovely home on one of the bays off the waterfront.) Friday was busy busy as I met up with some of my old friends for drinks, and then joined Paul and some of his friends afterwards. Chris and Juls took us for a nice walk on Saturday afternoon (of course we had an ice cream!), and then we went to my [View Full Entry]

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We're leaving for Auckland in the next couple of hours, where we'll be spending the weekend at Chris and Juls' place, and catching up with them and other friends. I've already got a date to meet up with some old friends from when I worked here on Friday night, and I think we're pretty well booked up for every meal until we leave there on Monday! Should be nice to see everyone and hear what they've all been up to. We've been having a relaxing time here, although we're slowly starting to think of the camping gear we need to buy [View Full Entry]

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... for a lovely engagement party. We had a really nice time - around forty people turned up last night, and there was a great barbecue and lots of food (of course.) The highlight of the evening was a cake we didn't know existed, featuring a giant photo of our giant heads. Hilarious! I'll post photos sometime while we're still in NZ. [View Full Entry]

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So I've not entered a blog for awhile. This is because we've been quite busy, and our internet usage has been a bit limited. We're now staying with Paul's parents in Hamilton, but their internet connection is slooooooooooow so we've now headed to an internet cafe to prevent hogging up their phone line. Let's see, where did I last leave off... guess we would have been in Nelson, which was enjoyable, if rather rainy. From Nelson we spent the night in Picton, which is the ferry port at the top of the South Island. Our hostel was okay - free apple [View Full Entry]

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We're now in Nelson, which is quite a nice easily walkable town - although the weather has been a bit gray and rainy over the past few days. Fortunately we're staying at a fantastic hostel right in the centre of everything, so it's easy enough to walk on the covered walkways as needed. Our hostel is called Accents on the Park, and is really, really nice. It looks about brand new, is absolutely spotless, and the facilities are really nice - the bathrooms are cleaner and prettier than plenty of hotels I've been in. Only downside is having to sleep on [View Full Entry]

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Meant to add this link to my site earlier - it's Sarina's website for her reusable diaper business! (And there are a few photos of little Maia as a baby on there, too.) http://www.nudeyrudey.co.nz So if you're interested in cloth nappies, contact Sarina! (I'm shameless on her behalf.) [View Full Entry]

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What a funny name. We've been doing a lot of driving over the past few days - we're now at just about the top of the west coast of the South Island. We've clocked over 1000km so far, and today we've got the day off driving, which is nice. Funny how lazing around exhausts you. So after we left Christchurch and wee Maia we arrived in Greymouth, and then onto Fox Glacier for our glacier hike. Now, I'm not into nature. I'm really not. I'm the sort of person who can be in front of an erupting volcano and barely manage [View Full Entry]

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Or "In Zid" as the locals would say, including my dear Paul. My internet time is about to run out - and has been a bit limited since we've been here - so this shall be brief. We arrived in Christchurch a few days ago, and had fun hanging out with Paul's friend Sarina, husband Aaron, and a-DOR-A-BLE 22-month old daughter Maia. She was lovely - so so cute and funny, and we enjoyed chasing her around. Christchurch is nice enough, although we'd been there before so not a great deal new to see. Last night we stayed in Greymouth, and [View Full Entry]

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