Another long weekend, another holiday. You don’t have to think too hard for excuses to get away over here, and this time we’re off to Wales, and more specifically horse riding in the Brecon Beacons National Park. We started the trip with a whistle stop tour of a collection of the best sights to see between London and Wales, starting at the infamous Stonehenge. We were up and on the road so early, Stonehenge hadn’t actually opened! However, there is not much that you can’t see from the outside, and somehow Rick convinced the security guard to take photos for us from within the fence. Next stop was Avebury, said to rival Stonehenge, but personally not a chance. The large stone circles are impressive, but not as good as the ones in Scotland, and besides Stonehenge ... read more

Hello there! No, you haven’t been caught in a time warp - I’m actually writing to you now about what I’m doing now... not six months ago! Crazy I know! But with a bit of luck a few things will change around here, and I might even keep this up to date, and fill in the gap between my last blog and now. Hey, miracles can happen! Anyway, what you really want to hear about is what I’ve been doing lately in London. I was fortunate enough to have James come and meet me at Heathrow to help me carry all of my belongings back to his place - something you really don’t feel like doing after being in transit for 30 hours or so (especially knowing you’re heading to work tomorrow!). Generally speaking, it felt ... read more

After two weeks in Spain and Portugal, it was time to spend some time in London and earn some money again! We only had a few days left to complete the construction of our departments raft for the annual WaterAid raft race on the River Thames. The theme this year was ‘007’ … and someone decided we were going to make the gondola out of Moonraker - I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time! The event was hilarious, there were six of us, including two guys dressed up as bond-girls complete with lipstick and ball dresses, trying to row our heavy, non-hydrodynamic raft down the Thames and back again! Numerous other rafts were sinking around us; I think we were laughing too hard to row! Haha! and by share coincidence we came ... read more

We were very excited to be going to the beach town of Lagos today, after the weather was against us at San Sebastian. Our one and only aim: sit on the beach, swim and generally do nothing. However, not everything turned out quite as we had planned… On the way there, we had a quick exit off the train at Tunes, to transfer onto the train to Lagos, and just as the train doors were closing I realised my day-pack was still on the train! Oh no!!! Us, along with everyone else on the platform panicked and we tried to run back on the train, but it started puling away just as we realised what had happened! James and I went to the information counter at the train station to try and sort some thing out. ... read more

We were not in Porto for long before we fell in love with it. Not only did we score a cheap room in a nice hotel - a huge step up from camping in army rows - but there were hills! Not something we get to see much of in London or Europe, but very much apart of our daily live back in NZ. We headed down to the Ribeira district on the edge of the River Douro. The area was so beautiful, full of old colourful building with bright paint and tiles along both sides of the river. We grabbed an ice-cream and walked along the river edge to cross one of the many steel bridges to ‘Villa Nova de Gaia’ on the other side, which is known for its many wine lodges. We got ... read more