Waitakere! Last Saturday was a wild adventure day for us! Having seen a map, just to the left of Auckland was a large expanse of nature reserve, so Saturday's mission was to find it in the flesh. We set out on the bus in the morning with our packed-lunch. We bought a day-explorer pass and headed for, what, looked like, the nearest bus stop to our final destination. We hopped off the bus and began to walk.... two hours, and a few torrential downpours later, we f...

Just another week of saving lives this week! I saw a lady who hit her eye so hard when she fell that the pressure caused the coloured bit of her eye to squeeze out. It was wild and the surgeon said he'd never seen anything like it before. Staying for her emergency operation did cause me to miss the last bus back into town from the eye hospital, so it took me a fairly long time to walk, which resulted in a little concern back at the ranch... We had a little mosey...

Our third day in Auckland and I'm absolutely shattered!!! After arriving on Sunday morning (thankfully without our bags needing to be search/scanned, or without needing another pat-search) we worked out our way to the host family's house. Despite the warm welcome from the family, the weather was not being so kind, and the rain poured down getting us quite wet even in the 20m from the road to the front door! Glad we brought our rain coats then! Later that day,...

Venice was the destination today: we walked from the Santa Monica Pier (part of Route 66) along the beach to the famous "muscle beach" where there is an outdoor gym. We dabbled in the Pacific and saw some bikini-clad Baywatch-style lifeguards, their huts and their hypercool rescue cars. The shops in Venice were similar to those you might find on Torbay Road, but we were readied for such a treat when one of Jez's new friends from Blackburn described it...

We arrived into LAX late in the evening of the 16th June after an 11 hour flight (with slight turbulence). I had 2 main meals on the plane as I was not full after the first and there was apparently lots left over. Was bumped a few times by the cabin crew who were not able to steer thier trollys well, and one guy dropped a reasonally heavy bag on my head as he was getting something out from the overhead compartment. Still, arrived in one piece, and when through cu...