Writing this in my hotel room in Santiago. Free wifi and one free pc in the lobby, but it's a bit short of software (eg no Word) so blogs may be a bit restricted. Also it's not so easy to transfer photos from my new camera ( see previous blog) so may have to wait a while for those. New Zealand was great. I spent most of my time with Neil & Barbara, either at their house in the centre of Wellington, or at their nut farm near Masterton in the Wairarapa about 1...

It's now 18:30 on 31 Dec, and I'm going to a hogmanay party at 20:00, so just time to update on a few of the more exciting things that have happened in NZ so far. More details later. Went to the South Island for a few days, taking the ferry from Wellington to Picton, and hiring a car in Picton. On the outward ferry, I went out to the foredeck to get a view of the scenery. As soon as I walked through the bulkhead to the foredeck, my expensive new lightweight fr...

2009 is nearly over, so at last I'm getting round to the blog for Brisbane! See the photo albums for Brisbane City, Brisbane City CAT, Caloundra and Dave's Creek. It's now about 3 weeks since I left Brisbane, and it seems longer. I was quite impressed with the way the city has developed (I had been before in 1984). Many thanks to all those who made my stay so enjoyable: Neville Patterson & family, plus Luis, Colleen, and Ben. One thing that sticks in my m...

See photo albums and video related to this blog. So far I have uploaded pictures of Perth City, Fremantle, John Forrest Park, Mount Helena and a video from a football match between Perth Glory and Sydney. I was staying with my old friends Don and Anne Veal in Mount Helena, which is in the Perth Hills some 40km from the city centre. Getting to the city involves either: a) bus to Midland (but only 2 buses in the very early morning and 2 in the evening) then a tra...

(See Photo Album related to this blog.) On Friday 13th I took my latest bike on its first real ride. (I had taken it on a test ride the day before, which ended in a puncture and big fat hailstones - somewhat unusual weather for late spring in these parts.) Mundaring weir is a local tourist attraction. Built to supply water to the goldfield towns. Unlike most UK schemes, the water is pumped uphill from the reservoir to the towns on the plateau above. There is ...