Today we dropped off one vehicle and picked up another. We have downgraded quite a bit. We now have a Nissan bluebird about 5 years old. We made it to Richmond today. As we don't have our bed on wheels we have booked into a cabin. It is very comfortable and at least Pete and I can move around at the same time. Yesterday we caught a bus into Christchurch and had a walk around the city. It was quite depressing when you see all the devastation that was caused by the earthquake. It reminds you of how insignificant we all are in the scheme of things. We drove through more spectacular scenery today. We stopped at the same bakery we had stopped at the day before.... read more

We got off to a great start with Pete telling the guys at security that he was carrying drugs. The guy said I hope you mean medicine??? Then Pete says to me you can put the passports away, we won't be needing them! Even after I say are you sure? Next stop the departure gate and yes sure enough I have to pull out the passports again! Anyway Louise 1 Pete 0!!!! We have arrived in Auckland and so far the people have been very friendly. We haven't seen much as we got in at 11.00pm. Pete of-course is checking out the breakfast menu. The stomach is pinching as we had our curried egg sandwiches confiscated at the airport!... read more

This is our last night in the eagle. We are at the caravan park in Port Broughton. We have had a wonderful holiday full of many great memories. We will be sad to leave the Eagle tomorrow but happy to be back home with family and friends. If we don't catch up with you over the next couple of days we hope you have a very happy Christmas and enjoyable New Year celebrations.... read more

We left Darwin yesterday after seeing Melissa, James and Thomas arrive at the airport from London. So I have now met all my great nephews and niece. Thomas is another very happy and content baby. He is just beautiful. We travelled to Mataranka and arrived at about 11.00 pm. We decide to stay in a motel and got going very early this morning. We travelled about 1050 km to get to Alice Springs. As the weather looked a bit threatening we decided to stay in a motel. We got a good deal at the Crown Plaza hotel which includes breakfast. We will get going early again tomorrow. I received some bad news this evening from Josh to say that they had their house broken into tonight. I hope that they are all ok and that there ... read more

We had another great day in Darwin. We started off by going to the Howard Springs park which is near by our caravan park. It was very impressive there. We must tell Amanda and Polat to take the kids there in about 4 years time. They will have a ball. We did a bit of shopping. We also went and had a look at Parliament House. There is quite a bit of history there about the 1942 bombings which was very interesting. We paid a quick visit to the Siva's and then headed home.... read more