I know every two weeks!! A mixture of weak internet connection, organising travel location for new destinations and just having a great time with so much to see have all contributed to the delay. I hope you enjoy - perhaps get a cuppa or a glass of wine! We were ready to leave Australia and take up the new challenge, but our last fews days in Western Australia were so memorable. We celebrated Jeff's birthday in Mandurah- it has a man- made canal system where b...

We set out on this trip to fill in parts of the World that we haven't visited before and to understand the customs and culture of of each area whilst avoiding herded excursions to so call places of interest. It is therefore an exercise in finding the real rather than the commercial places by discussion with locals in bars and cafes, then to visit them under our own steam. In the three and a bit months we have been on the road I think we have achieved this. We hav...

We have settled into a very comfortable lifestyle in Australia, we are always busy and try to see as much as we can where ever we go. We know that we must savour and enjoy the last two weeks before we change and embrace new countries, habits, cultures and language, which we relish with enthuasiam. However the one thing that I have been rather surprised about is the temperature of the sea. The sunrays may be strong and powerful, but the vast expanse of water that...

Two weeks in Melbourne whizzed by. We were fortunate to have a really enjoyable day with Mike and Di, life long friends of Steve Wackett. We've met them quite a few times over the years at social events at the Wacketts, but we have never really had quality time together, just snippets of information over a glass of wine. You all know what it's like you never have a 'proper conversation.' So contacts formed, emails sent and date agreed. What a great day it was - p...

As we arrived at Melbourne airport and waited to go through passport control, we chatted to a NZ chap, very friendly and smiley. He naturally asked us about what we had liked and where we would like to go back to. My immediate response was,' Balclutha is a strange place - a moment silence, a rather uncomfortable silence.' 'I'm from Balclutha.' Another pause and while I'm trying to think of what to say, he smiled and continued. '..but I escaped years ago.' Phew!...