Unfortunately on Friday night Peg statrted a temp. We still took James and Cat shopping in the morning, which probably was a mistake for Peg. She went to bed and still is there on Sunday morning. However as a result of the shopping expedition James and Cat are now the owners of mobile phones. Greg and I walked down to the local harbour Saturday afternoon to view some new properties being built.The process is here that they sell you the land and you employ an ar...

On the Thursday the weather was very windy with very occasional spots of rain. We spent the morning in Margaret River Town doing some retail therapy- I ended up with 9 bags. I sought a coffee at one stage but was soon pressured back into service. Rather than hang around the rest of the day we decided after a snack lunch to drive back to Mindarie (Greg and Liz's house which is about 25 kilometres north of Perth centre but still in its suburbs!). Perth is a vast h...

We spent Monday walking the beach but got too hot inthe mid 30's so repaired to Indian Ocean pub for a drink and lunch! Afternoon Peg shopped and prepared dinner for us all. Tuesday we drove down to Margaret River - mainly freeway or wide road. 200 miles of flat country side - Western Australia does not seem to do hills. The towns down at the end Bunbury seemed fine - we eventually arived in Margaret River at our motel - This one is new and in the town centre s...

I went with Greg to the Perth stadium (Subiaco) today - Sunday - to watch Western Force (the Western Australian regional Rugby team) play Canterbury Crusaders (the NZ South Island regional Team) . With players like Ritchie McCaul and Dan Carter the visitors were favourites, although Force had players such as Matt Gitteau and Nathan Hinds. The game was very entertaining and was quite close with Crusaders winning 29 - 24. The stadium and atmosphere was different to...

Well after 4 weeks in NZ left for Oz. Views on NZ We found the NZ people extremely friendly. We underestimated the distances we had to drive - if we did it again we would plan 3 nights at each location, the roads are nearly all single carriage ways so overtaking has to wait till road is straight or there is a special passing lane. The economy is agricultural - even TV adverts feature selling Tractors. The vegetation is surprisingly tropical and has a jungle f...