If you think the rain in Bolton is bad you should see what we have driven through today. The further north we came the heavier the rain. The roads were blocked and the rivers burst their banks. We were originally going up to Russell and the Bay of Islands but the power was off so we stopped here at about 1:30. I decided I would go for a walk and have a look at the town and see if I could buy some wine. I thought I would only be about 20 mins so I didn't tell ...

Jen's turn to write a blog entry... As you can see we're now in Auckland. We arrived yesterday afternoon after a pretty good flight. We flew overnight and managed to squeeze now 2 year old Noah into a 6 month old bassinet (OK he might have looked like he was doing the Hokey Kokey with legs and arms dangling out but he slept well so he couldn't have been too uncomfortable!) which meant Poppy had 2 seats to stretch out on - the result - 2 sleeping chil...

Yesterday we went to the beach a arranged and encountered our first rain. It was quite nice but put an end to sandcastles on the beach so we spent the afternoon eating and shopping. Today we all went to Hong Kong. Jennie and Sam went to Stanley market and left myself and Alex with the 4 kids. It was some challenge keeping all the kids together through the shopping malls to the underground station. This was Poppy and Noah's first trip on the underground and ...

We arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday evening after an 11 hour flight from Heathrow. It was very strange leaving at 10:20 in the evening on Wednesday and arriving at 6:00 in the evening on Thursday and the kids sleeping pattern was totally confused. Myself and Jennie didn't get much sleep on the plane or on Thursday night as the kids were awake at 2 am! We are staying with some friends, Sam and Alex and their 2 children Katie and Tom in Discovery Bay on Lantau...

We arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday evening after an 11 hour flight from Heathrow. It was very strange leaving at 10:20 in the evening on Wednesday and arriving at 6:00 in the evening on Thursday and the kids sleeping pattern was totally confused. Myself and Jennie didn't get much sleep on the plane or on Thursday night as the kids were awake at 2 am! We are staying with some friends, Sam and Alex and their 2 children Katie and Tom in Discovery Bay on Lantau...