Kia Ora from Auckland

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Hello possums! Oops sorry wrong country, but we have seen possums so it kind of counts.

Right for the first time we have unlimited access to a computer so we are going to backtrack a bit, in fact we are going back to the States for a brief visit. Highlights for us: Salem; went there intending to spend a couple of hours and move on but then decided to stay for the night so booked into a little house that looked nice. Door was answered by a lovely old lady called Kay who made us a cup of tea and told us some of the history of the house. It dated back to 1760 and was amazing, staircases and rooms going off in all directions with huge fireplaces and tons of antiques that she had collected, mainly from England. And to top it all off she had a cat called sabrina!! has to be done in Salem I suppose. Turned out that there was also a ghost cat apparently but we didn't get to see it, however hard we looked. Spent a brilliant night there and then found it difficut to leave kay because she had so many amazing stories to tell but we did leave eventually. Another highlight: grand Canyon, the flight over it was truly spectacular and then when we drove up there the next day it was just as good close up, but yes that was when Kimley got very scared by driving, in fact she never drove again! Had a brillant time in Arizona and even spent a couple of days in London Bridge, and that was after spending the night in Camden, we might as well have been back home. Then moved to California and Monterey after driving the Big Sur, and actually the Big Sur just aint that scarey! The road leading up to the Big Sur however was just a touch hair-raising!! Lots of hair-pin bends with sheer drops into the sea, for the first time in my life I was actually driving under the speed limit!!! Monterey was really pretty and I think all the sea lions have moved there from San Fransisco, because there were lots of them, all we could hear while trying to sleep was the darn sea lions who did not shut up all night. We were also lucky enough to see a sea otter and humming birds. The sea otter was a seriously cool dude, just riding the waves while bashing what must have been shellfish against a rock balanced on his tummy. San Fran was okay, not as nice as Jane had remembered it but we did go on to the Golden Gate bridge and Kimley spotted dolphins..... woo hoo! The other good bit of San Fran was riding the trolley bus on the outside... Kimley was not a happy bunny and kept threatening to kill us! She did relax eventually though and later admitted she had quite enjoyed it. Dense had great fun even though she was facing downhill and doesn't like heights! (P.S. Denise also stood right on the edge of the Grand Canyon... how brave was that!).

So came the end of our american adventure and we had to say good bye to Kimley, which was not good and it felt a bit strange to begin with, we kept looking around as if we had forgotten something! After a gruelling flight we arrived in sunny (raining) Auckland to be met by Mike (Jane's brother), and did a quick tour of Auckland with fish and chips on the beach. Then headed up to the Bay of islands from which we returned today. Beautiful place even though it did rain on us quite a bit! Got thoroughly drenched on a boat trip which was a lot of fun. Decided that we each want our own island, with helicopter pad of course. Cann i just say that driving is an awful lot easier when you are on the correct side of the road! The possums by the way appeared outside Mike and Paulas house on the first night we were here, how cool is that. After that we saw lots of them... squashed on the roadside... not quite so cool! While we were in the Bay, New Zealand had an earthquake, 6.8 in Gisborne which is on the North Island: did we feel it? Did we hell! they'd better have another one before we leave. We have decided that we are probably a jinx though as in the States we left ice storms in our wake and now earthquake in NZ.

The next update will include Denise's adventures on the water...... white water rafting and jet boating..... hee hee!

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Comments

[Mike]

Rafting
Hey Jane tell them all how many times you fell in while white water rafting! I have photos to prove it.