We found him! We were soooo excited as we left for Nelson on a little plane with propellors. And there he was! Jumping up and down. We saw him straight away as we got off the plane. It was marvellous to see him and there were tears all round of course. He's being very stoic about the cuddles that are being demanded of him.... We were whisked straight down to the beach for the office social go-carting session to meet some of his colleagues and to see Jamie placed midfield with lots of smiles. We're staying in the Palace Backpackers with a bohemian vibe, high ceilinged splendour but a bit fusty. Free breakfast and good showers so not a lot to complain about. "Great News, Mum and Dad" said Jamie a few minutes after our arrival. ... read more

First the cyclone, (still waiting for the water to go down)….and now an earthquake…what a country! Hoorah the cyclone has passed….with lots of high winds and power cuts and closed roads but we were safely snuggled in our dodgy motel without power feeling very sorry for those people who were having to deal with landslides and damaged structures. We ventured out to find lots of trees down but we met a man who had driven across from Raetihi which is where we were heading and he confirmed that the road was open so off we went. So many trees down ….whole forests where the trees had been sliced off by the wind about 3 metres off the ground. The main Highway 4 is closed by a landslip just south of where we are staying so we ... read more

HOORAY..,.and here we go again! The rucksacks are packed, the "everything bag" is bursting at the seams and we are ready for our New Zealand trip. And here is our new family member and travelling companion...not-so-tiny Tim! He is an upgrade to our original and much abused 2 man tent. He has 2 doors so we don't have to climb over each other in the middle of the night and he is designed to accommodate 3 people! So we can either start taking paying guests or we can use the extra space to get our rucksacks under cover. YES! We are very grateful to Ruthie and Ben who have lent us Notso Tiny Tim (maybe just Notso for short). He is already broken-in and ready for action. Whoever knew that the New Zealand immigration department inspects ... read more

Since arriving back from the Galapagos we seem to have been running to keep ahead of the coronavirus problem and the inevitable but gradual closure of the infrastructure in Ecuador and world-wide. We headed straight for Tena, the white water capital of Ecuador and Pete spent two happy days reliving the days of “Lowe, Lowe and Lowe”. Some of you may not know this, but in his youth, Pete together with fearless dad Rowland and crazy fearless brother Geoff formed the sole all family competitive slalom kayaking team of the nation for a time in the 1970s. It seems unnecessarily churlish to establish a husband and wife team that might outshine the family trio so I graciously stepped aside and Pete went down the Grade 3+ rapids alone once I had given him a considerable amount ... read more

I am certainly not going to buy a Panama Hat while in Cuenca, the home of the famous and wrongly attributed headgear. They are indeed lovely and we have been to the Panama Hat museum as well as the famous Hortega y Hijos shop where the best quality hats are sold for $5000 which isn't worth translating into pounds, it's just A LOT. Apparently, the hats were worn by the workers who were constructing the Panama Canal and the hat was then christened Panama Hat when actually it should be called a MonteChristi hat which is a small town near Cuenca. It takes one person 2 years to weave one of the top quality ones so it certainly does not need to be squashed into my rucksack for a month and we are told that it ... read more