Darren came with our family for a holiday in Fiji, where they all spent a lovely time swimming and exploring the Island, whilst I spent most of the trip being very sick (now I know not to munch on ice cubes anymore!). There was one funny trip down to the beach where Darren & Jeff went swimming and came running out so fast I wondered what happened, only to find out that there were 'harmless' sea snakes in the water but they didn't know this ! They also went parasa...

Darren & I spent four weeks driving around both the North & South Islands of New Zealand, what a beautiful country it is to visit. Highlights include : sailing on Milford Sound, whale watching in Kaikoura, wine tasting in Gisborne, driving through flood waters just outside Wellington, going in a 4WD bus along Ninety Mile Beach, Darren driving up the steepest street in the world in Dunedin, visiting the Maori cultural centre and smelly but spectacular landscape in...

The only person I had told about returning to Australia for a visit was my friend Jan, so she picked me up from the airport and took me home to surprise Mum, who was going to be in the hospital the next day for an operation. I will never forget when Mum opened the door and immediately started crying (tears of happiness, I hope !) when she saw me standing there. We talked for a couple of hours, then went to surprise Dad too. It was so good to be back there after n...

Next stop on my round the world ticket to Oz was for 4 days in New Zealand, where I met up with my friend Bill and we hired a car to go sightseeing around the top part of the North Island of NZ. It was a lovely few days soaking up the sun and trying the NZ wines ! It was great to catch up with Bill again and hear the goss about people still working at Macedon Ranges (where I worked for 4 years before leaving for England).

At least this time when I went back home for a visit, it was under better circumstances as it was for Christmas, rather than Mum having to be in hospital and being worried about her ! It was so good to see Mum & Dad at the airport when I arrived. I had only been home a few hours when Pete rang to say he was at the airport and would be arriving the next day too ! This was a wonderful surprise for me and so I got Mum & Dad to take me back to the airport the next da...