Left Peter & Tanya's around midday to make our way South. We had a lovely stay with them. Thank you, thank you!! Enjoyed the drive South and the scenery, especially around Tutukaka and that whole coastal area. There's a group of islands off the cost called the Poor Knights and it's supposed to be an incredible dive spot. But, as we're not divers we decided not to go out. Stayed at a little B&B called 'Top Story'. Nice little place with a huge gard...

It's Tuesday night and we've had another great day with Peter, Tanya, Ellie and Sean, and Tanya's mum even joined us for a bit. After a leisurely morning, we took the ferry over to Russell to see New Zealand's original capital city. Well...it's really a village and it's changed dramatically from it's early whaling days and reputation as 'the hellhole of the Pacific'. Stories about lots of drinking & lawlessnes...use your imagination! Today it's a really ...

Just flying through Hong Kong on our way from Tokyo to Auckland. Unfortunately, we couldn't arrange to stop here now. I would have really liked to!! But, we'll just have to come back this way. Can't believe it's been 12 years since we lived here. I vaguely remember flying out of this new airport 4 days after it first opened. This is Pat's first time through. (He left HKG on the second to last flight ever out of Kai Tak.) It's dark and kind of cloudy so we...

As we make our way to New Zealand, we decided to go by way of Tokyo. Flights were working out better, and we get to see Joanna, Mark and their new baby Milo which we wanted to do at some point this year. Joanna's directions were perfect and we made it into the city without any problem. It was so nice to see her & Mark and to meet their little one. He's absolutely adorable!!

It was a year ago today that we our friend David passed away and we spent the day remembering him. Alan had flew in from SFO the day before and it was nice to be all together again. Of course, our rememberance celebrations included a few skype calls to other friends who couldn't be with us and lunch at MacDonalds. For the evening, Marilyn cooked up a storm and we had a lovely Alsacian dinner with Jan & Al joining the 5 of us. One year on, it was a happier...