SYDNEY We flew into Sydney airport, Emma gripping on to the armrests and Duncan taking in the great views over the harbour. Our old friends, Kerry and Neil, and new addition to the family Ivy, came to meet us at the airport, and took us to their home in Annandale, which was to be ours for the next week. We spent the afternoon and evening hanging out with them and Neil's sister Vanessa and her husband Ian over a barbecue and lots of beer and wine. Neil gave the A...

EVERYBODY NEEDS GOOD NEIGHBOURS… We were very excited to be arriving into Melbourne. Neither of us had ever been to Australia before, and it was a country that held a good deal of fascination for both of us. Emma had been keen to visit ever since she did a project on Ayers Rock in first school, and had looked after a family of three koala bears as a child (OK, so they were teddies, but that just made her all the more keen to meet the real thing). Plus her gran...

A KIWI CHRISTMAS The arrival into Picton on the South Island of New Zealand is stunning - the Marlborough Sounds are lush hilly fingers of land snaking up into the Cook Straits, and are almost deserted apart from the occasional house or boat. A beautiful entrance to the South Island, which has very different geological and natural characteristics from the North Island. As we were driving and trying to keep clear heads, we reluctantly decided against spending a...

CHRISTMAS IN QUEENSTOWN

NANA PIGGY AND THE IGGY SMILLS We arrived into Auckland airport on the morning of the 11th December after 13 hours cramped up like sardines in LAN Chile's economy class (not recommended), having lost a day somewhere in the middle of the South Pacific. A bit dazed and confused, we were bowled over when Emma's cousin Angela came running up behind us to give us a massive hug. Now that's the kind of welcome we like! First stop, McDonalds Café for a traditional NZ ...