HAPPY NEW YEAR It is now 2008 here in New Zealand. Do hope you all had a good Christmas. We have been very busy visiting and people visiting Sheila and Mike. We have just seen in the New Year with lots of fireworks just like home. Today we are all going down to Lake Taupo for a week, staying in a cottage. Sheila has arranged a fishing trip one day and then an evening boat trip with BBQ another evening. We are also going over to Rotarua to the hot springs...

Saturday, Neil decided that we needed yet more excerise and took us by Ferry across the harbour to Rangitoto Island. He had visited this place last time he was in N.Z. (about 10 years ago). We walked (or should I say trekked) up to the top of this now extinct Volcano. Rangitoto was formed about 600 years ago. After reaching the summit which I must admit was well worth the effort we walked down (an easier way) to Yankee Wharf where we had our picnic lunch. From th...

We have been touring on the Coromandel Peninsular this week. Neil arrived last Thursday and Mike has lent us his car, so we set off on Monday morning. We travelled South to Thames and then took the Heritage Trail up to Coromandel Town, where we stopped for lunch. We then continued to Whittianga. We booked into a Motel for 2 nights and on Tuesday set off to visit Cathedral Cove. This took about 1 hr to drive to Haheui and then about 45 mins to walk down to th...

We are relaxing here at Sheila and Mike's. We went to a 60th Birthday party on Saturday evening and had a lovely time. We have been down to Mission Bay a couple evenings to walk along the seafront, have a coffee and watch the world go by. The weather here is very changeable although quite warm, Saturday morning being the best so far. We are off the the airport this lunchtime to collect Neil so hopefully he is bringing some really hot weather out here with hi...

HI We had a good flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles then on to Auckland and surprisingly we did manage to get some sleep. We have arrived at the unsociable hour of 5.30 a.m. Sheila and Mike met us at the airport and guess what - it was raining, just to make us feel at home!!!! It must be something normal as it rained the day we arrived on our last visit. Sheila said she had arranged it just to make us feel at home.