So we left UK on Sunday October 7th. Our first flight was between Heathrow and Dubai.

The plane was the A380 and we arrived in Dubai slightly late so a very fast walk to our next flight 😱

This is the view coming into Dubai as dawn broke taken on our iPad.

Today we went to the Temple in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Check out the link below to see the photos. When you view the images you can click to enlarge.

https://spark.adobe.com/page/0lTljNeOQuSkN/

Kris cooked us a delicious Indian Meal to celebrate his and Earng’s Wedding Anniversary.

Today was a day of thunderstorms so we went out to Central Plaza and had ice cream.

We set off for the beach this morning and on route Kris located a Geo Cache. Kris, Sophia, Guy and Gow found their first Geo Cache called Tao-Mor.

We spent the day at Loma Beach. Stunning beach and a new swimming pool since we were last here.

Glyn took these photos on his phone as you can see this is a beautiful beach.

Treasure Hunt today at Tha Lad Park.

Sophia and Gow loved finding the treasure that Glyn and Kris planted yesterday after their fright with 2 giant Thai Iguanas.

Tonight we went to Boom and Arm’s Wedding Reception.

We arrived in a huge thunderstorm.

Boom is a Thai Teacher at Kris’s school.

So we arrived at Khanom today. We are staying at Hallo Villa for a few days.

http://www.hallovillakhanom.com/

We had lunch by the beach.

Today we got up early and took a trip on a long tail boat to see the Pink Dolphins 🐬

The boat trip cost 1000Baht about £23. We were out for about 2hrs and we saw the dolphins.

Below is some footage from the boat.

After breakfast at Hallo Villa we set off for another beach.

Today we went for Dim Sum late breakfast at Rong Tiem in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Today Glyn and Kris filled the car with the empty beer bottles for recycling but...

At the end of the road a local Thai riding a motorcycle rode the wrong way up the road hit the offside of our hire car 😤

No one hurt thank god and Kris photographed the index plate of the motorcycle 🏍 before he picked himself up and rode off!

So the afternoon has been spent speaking to the Hire Company and Glyn had to attend the Police Station.

A big thankyou to Earng for the all the translation.

So with heavy hearts we said goodbye to Kris, Earng, Guy, Gow, Sophia and Marcus today 😥

Click the link below to see a few of our photos.

https://spark.adobe.com/page/MMUT3TTfLoO8K/

We called in at Kris’s school before the airport and i took a photo of this sign advising parents how they should dress when they pick up their children. There is no mention of “onesies”!

Today we spent the day chilling by the pool where we \240watched people birds, frogs and Lake Monitors.

Today we got up really early for our trip to Kanchanaburi. As Glyn would say “the middle of the night!”

First stop was the Death Railway Museum and \240the War Grave Cemetry.

Well i treated myself to a Thai Massage today wow what an experience. Every muscle pulled and stretched it was fab.

We took up the offer from the hotel of a Sunset River cruise that was free. It was only an hour but gave us another opportunity to see Bangkok sights.

So today we had a relaxing morning before we headed to Bangkok Airport for our flight to Sydney.

A slight hiccup with the transfer but we got to the airport in plenty of time to be told our flight was delayed by an hour.

Glyn and Dick wanted a burger so we found a pub in the airport and Glyn and Dick ate their burgers!

During the flight to Sydney we slept in between a screaming baby waking us at various intervals.

OMG 😮 there were so many different characters on this flight. I was tempted at one point to tell a male in his early 50’s that low rise jeans didn’t suit him and to act his age!

No boarding card for our flight from Sydney to Auckland so we were sent from pillar to post until we got one.

Dick purchased some whiskey for our stay in NZ. Photo below.

The flight from Sydney, Glyn slept but he woke up for \240food including an ice cream. The scenery arriving into Auckland was fantastic.

If you ever come to NZ be prepared for customs they check everything.

So after our flights and another hiccup with the transfer we arrived at the Copthorne Hotel and enjoyed a few drinks.

Glyn and Dick said we had been travelling for 29hours with the time difference.

Today is my birthday 🎁

We woke up at 7.30 and after opening cards, sending emails & making calls about future trips we set off to explore Auckland.

A big surprise Dick and Marcia treated us to lunch at the 360 Sky Tower Restaurant. A delicious meal while rotating around the views of Auckland it was fantastic.

We walked about 5 miles today our impressions are of this city, clean, scenic and no traffic queues.

Everyone is so friendly & wow so helpful.

Click the link below to see more photos.

https://spark.adobe.com/page/FsElVVmBtI9WA/

Up early today to take a trip to the Bay of Islands.

At the Bus Station we met our guide and driver Racheal.

Now how to describe Racheal...well she/he had a shoulder length red wig, long nails that were beautifully painted, boobs and a deep voice.

You can imagine Glyn and Dick’s face!

However Racheal was brilliant full of interesting facts and some great stories from his/her time growing up in NZ.

Our first pit stop was the Coffeepot at Kaiwaka. Delicious coffee & we had a yummy sausage roll.

We then headed on to Paihia. A quick briefing by Racheal & we went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

From here we went on a boat to Russell.

We could have taken the Minibus tour but we opted to have lunch by the sea. The sun was shining and quite warm.

I had a delicious Hugo cocktail and a BLT.

Everyone else had fish and chips.

We left Paihia at 4.30pm and got back to Auckland about 8pm.

The scenery throughout the day was fantastic.

So up early today to collect our hire cars.

A smooth process at Avis in Auckland and we have a nice Vauxhall car.

However Glyn had a minor mishap reversing out of the parking space...

Well we have arrived in Rotorua.

A very wet and grey journey here.

We went through our first Toll so we have paid our first $1.80 to the NZ government.

We stopped at a bottle store and bought beer and wine.

Total bill $75 = £38.69p

On arrival i spotted this street sign 😂

Today Glyn woke up feeling nauseous so he had some “Me Time”

Dick and i went an explored the town.

Dick, Marcia and I then visited Whakearewarewa - The Living Maori Village.

https://whakarewarewa.com/geothermal/

On our return Glyn felt a bit better so Glyn and i went to Rotorua Lake.

The weather is sunny but slightly windy.

We found another street name that we sent to Kris.

Well Glyn felt better today so he enjoyed a good breakfast.

So today we left Rotorua and headed for Lake Taupo.

On the way we stopped at a cafe and had a glorious lunch. Glyn had poached eggs.

Today we went fishing 🎣

Dick kindly paid us to fish rainbow trout on the lake.

We were on the boat from 10am until 2pm.

Dick caught the only fish worth keeping that has been delivered to a local smokers to be smoked. Dick will collect it on Friday.

Today we went to Napier. We drove along the Thermal Explorer Highway.

The journey from Taupo took us 2 hours. The weather was grey and horrible in Taupo but when we arrived in Napier it was 29degrees 🌞 with a strong breeze.

We walked around the town that has lots of Art Deco buildings.

The view from Bluff Hill lookout was fantastic.

Glyn and I walked along the seafront that has everything for kids. The beach had black pebbles.

We really liked Napier even better the town had blanket free WiFi everywhere.

Click below for more photos.

https://spark.adobe.com/page/CeGRGMPh0d1uN/

Another grey day here Taupo. So today we are driving to Kapiti.

A long journey and we saw this mountain!

So we have arrived at Kapiti. We are staying in a lovely bed and breakfast. The owner is very friendly and the accommodation is fab. The weather is wet and cloudy but we can hear the sea.

The owner has a number of native birds in the garden and a Californian Quail has been hovering by the front door.

We went to a local bar and enjoyed a snack!

Today we got up really early and visited Kapiti Island. We walked 5 miles and saw some beautiful birds and enjoyed a delicious lunch.

https://www.wellingtonnz.com/discover/sights-activities/kapiti-island-nature-reserve/

For more photos click the link below

https://spark.adobe.com/page/T98NtIVxwwChL/

So after a beautiful day in Kapiti we have arrived in Wellington. A parking nightmare here so we have decided we will return the cars to Avis tomorrow & get a taxi on Monday to the ferry.

We all enjoyed a Chinese meal & a few drinks. We are all tired as we have been up since 6am 😴

Woke up to a beautiful day. We have dropped off the cars so tomorrow we just have to get a taxi to the ferry.

Glyn and i went for a walk around the quay here in Wellington.

We watched the 10 gun salute.

So we are on the ferry and sailing to the South Island.

We had a free upgrade so we sat in the Premium lounge and ate a free breakfast.

Glyn went out on deck to film our departure and other views.

We have arrived in Nelson.

Absolutely stunning views on our journey from Picton.

Lovely new hire car too.

We had dinner on the seafront.

Today we got up early and set off on another day trip.

My first time Kayaking 😱

Arrived here by boat wearing damp clothes from our kayaking.

Beautiful beach and a lovely walk with stunning views.

Today we went wine tasting.

We visited three vineyards and tasted some delicious wines.

There were just 6 of us and the third couple were Irish who are living in Malta.

We had a delicious ice cream in Mapua.

We ended the day tasting beer and cider in the oldest pub in NZ.

http://www.moutereinn.co.nz/

We came back to Nelson and had a bite to eat in the local square.

https://www.baytoursnelson.co.nz/photos/photo-album.php?id=1494

We are in Christchurch.

A very basic hotel 😠

We found a local bar and had a drink.

Glyn and Dick had two pints 29NZ Dollars!

We found an Italian and had a meal, lovely restaurant and then we retired to our hotel after a visit to the bottle store for cheaper booze.

A four hour drive here today.

We stopped at Reefton for a breakfast.

Bye bye cars and we have driven a 1000 miles!

We got the 2pm train to Christchurch.

Wow what a fantastic train journey.

The only negative thing about the journey were the noisy Japanese tourists 😫

More photos in the link below.

https://spark.adobe.com/page/EYsE7tJdccjnk/

At our first Camp site.

There is a lovely Newfoundland dog next door called Benson.

We went Whale watching and saw a Sperm Whale and lots of Dolphins.

The trip was amazing and hopefully i have lots of film on our mini go pro.

We had a ham salad back at the vans with a few drinks.

WIFI not great so will update journal with photos as and when.

We said goodbye to Kaikoura and we headed West to our next Campsite.

I drove the first leg of our 4hr trip and Glyn did the rest.

We travelled over the Lewis pass. Wow wow so many different colours and stunning scenery.

We stopped at Reefton for a snack, fuel and shopping for our dinner.

Well we have arrived at our latest Campsite.

Dick describes the campsite as “shit” but maybe because it was hit by 2 cyclones in February.

But we are parked near the sea and we have power and WiFi. The toilets etc are clean.

Dick and Marcia cooked us spag bog yum yum.

The weather is grey and drizzly but the sun set is lovely.

We left Rapahoe and stopped for supplies at Hokitika.

We then stopped for a picnic by one of the lakes on our journey.

Once again Glyn and i shared the driving.

We are now in Franz Josef.

Click the link below for photos

https://spark.adobe.com/page/x2TJDlyn9r9uU/

We got up early to make our way to Glacier Helicopters.

After a briefing we were told the flight was cancelled due to the weather.

We decided to book a Quad Bike ride and just as I was putting my Credit Card in the machine the company said we can go Now!

So off we went OMG 😲 the flight was awesome.

We landed and what views we had. Glyn tried to throw a snowball at me but instead we wrote Sophia’s name in the snow.

A perfect landing and then we enjoyed breakfast.

Then we went on our Quad Bike which was such fun and Glyn the perfect driver.

After the laundry was done we retired to a local bar and had a few drinks.

Dick and Marcia went fishing but no fish for supper!

We then dined alfresco chilly but sunny.

We left Franz Josef and headed to Lake Hawea.

We stopped at a Salmon Farm and had a ham and cheese toasted sandwich. Glyn had the best poached eggs so far on this trip 😋

We then stopped at Haast and bought a few supplies for dinner.

After leaving Haast the weather changed and it became a lot colder and wet.

The lakes are fantastic and it reminded us so much of Scotland.

We have arrived at our campsite and put the fan heater on it is 7 degrees and wet ☔️

The receptionist was very friendly and the camp site is right on the lake but it is too wet at the moment to explore it.

We enjoyed a delicious chicken soup and cheese and biscuits for supper.

When we woke up this morning it was dry and 🌞 😎🤣 after all the rain we had last night.

The views were stunning

We went to Glenorchy today and we had a full hour on the jet boat. A few more 360’s 🤣🤣

The scenery was absolutely fantastic.

We did some funyaking along the river looking at more stunning scenery. They gave us a delicious picnic.

A fantastic day.

We returned from our boat trip and had a quick drink followed by a hot shower and headed into town for a meal.

A delicious meal and we returned to our camp site to drink some more wine 🤣

We have loved the scenery around Queenstown absolutely breathtaking. It is a town with lots of activities and certainly the busiest town we’ve been to in the South Island.

We loved the cute ducks too on our campsite.

Before we left Queenstown we stopped at the Britz depot.

Our fridge has not been working and everything was frozen. Anyway problem fixed and an opportunity to use the fast WiFi shame it wasn’t a decent time as we could have rung home.

We stopped at a picnic area in Athol to have some lunch. Dick had been to the local shop this morning and bought us lots of fresh goodies.

We then drove onto Te Anau.

Today we walked into town.

We did some food shopping and visited the local library to make use of good WiFi.

Later in the afternoon i went for a horse trek.

Loved every minute and my horse was called Bow.

I got back to the camp site and we had Chilli Con Carne for supper.

We got back from Milford Sound and headed into Te Anau for some dinner. We found a restaurant but we had to eat outside as a coach party had reserved tables inside 😲

A delicious meal and then we headed back to the camp site for a few more drinks.

A beautiful sunset.

Wow what a great place to see today.

Views were fantastic. Our coach driver gave us a great commentary throughout the journey.

We saw so many waterfalls and glaciers.

The boat trip was fab and we saw some seals.

The weather was good too 🌞

Up early for our drive to Dunedin.

Hardly any traffic until we got to Dunedin.

We stopped at Gore for a Pastie and a coffee 😋

We have arrived in Dunedin and it is cold and grey.

Glyn, Dick and i walked to the local pub and i enjoyed this cider.

We have arrived at Rakaia River Holiday Park.

It is wet and grey. We sorted our packing for our next journey to Sydney.

Dick made us a lovely soup and we had a few drinks.

Today we left Dunedin and made our way to Rakaia.

We stopped at Moeraki Boulders.

https://www.newzealand.com/int/feature/moeraki-boulders/

We stopped at St Andrews and ate the rest of our picnic food.

Our journey was good and we saw lots and lots of cows 🐄

Bye bye campervans. We gave all our left overs to some Dutch people who were delighted.

Dick and Marcia were dropped off at their hotel as they fly to Singapore tomorrow.

Wet and grey day.

We are sitting at the airport, free WiFi and people watching until we can check in.

We all had a final breakfast together I had the usual pancakes but I couldn’t eat them all.

We have had a great time here in NZ we have driven over 2500 miles and we met some real characters along the way.

We want to come back.....

So after a good flight we have arrived at our hotel in Sydney.

We sailed through customs and we think coming from New Zealand helped as we had already had the stringent searches when we arrived in Auckland.

The weather is wet and windy.

We are on the 10th floor and it has a balcony umm 😐

Well we walked 6 miles around Sydney today using our map.

What a fantastic city and so many Christmas decorations.

The weather was dull to start with but then the sun came out.

I had my hair cut at a local hairdresser while Glyn found us a pub for supper.

We stocked up goodies for our room that has a hob, fridge, kettle etc

Still lots to explore here...

Today we got up super early and went on a tour to the Blue Mountains.

The tour guide Kat with a K was super. Kat was really informative about the local history and had a great sense of humour.

We have been so lucky with all our tour guides on this trip.

We saw lots of views of the mountains and we went on a cable car and a train that had a sheer drop great fun.

A good mixture of people on the tour Americans and English.

We had lunch in a hotel and then we went to a wildlife and nature centre.

The day was finished off with a boat trip back into Sydney harbour.

We then walked back to our hotel through the very busy Friday night Sydney social life.

Glyn bought us a chicken kebab and we then relaxed with a glass of wine.

Today we took the ferry to Manly to see my cousin Raymond.

It was great to see him Sandy and his family.

We went for a walk along the beach including Freshwater.

We then jumped in their swimming pool and spa.

We all enjoyed a lovely meal and then Glyn and I headed back to the city.

We decided to do another walk today and we walked 6.6 miles.

We loved Darling Harbour and The Rocks.

It was 🥵 and windy. Glyn even had to eat his ice cream in the shade!

We sat at Circular Quay and enjoyed a beer but the wind was so strong that our rucksack went flying. Glyn held onto his beer while I retrieved the rucksack!

We got some cheese and had it with biscuits back in our room.

Bridge Climb today.

Our last full day today. We went to the Sydney Sky Tower and saw the views across the city.

Coffee stop and then we headed to the Quay and booked a boat trip.

After the boat trip we walked to Darling harbour where we had our last meal.

After a delicious meal we went back to our hotel and relaxed in front of the TV.

We have walked 32.7 miles since we have been in Sydney!

Time to go home 😢😢

At the airport extra early as our hotel wanted charge us for the room so we opted to come here early. Thankfully Emirates let us check our bags in.

We did ask about an upgrade to Business class.. just to Dubai would have cost us about £6K!!

So we are economy all the way 22hrs 😴

Home 🏠