Nil:

Hey all! We're in New Zealand now, just arrived today after a very painless flight. Tom's relative, Anna and her little son Kori were kindly there to greet us at the airport, which was really appreciated. We only had one hitch when trying to pass through customs when we arrived into Auckland. The Customs Official asked Tom to go to one side so they could have a little chat with him before they'd let him into their country! A few nervous minutes went by as we went mentally listed everything in our luggage that might have caused the problems like areosoles and the copious amounts of ibeprophen tablets I carry with me to combat my migraines! It was all okay though, it turned out that Tom shares his name and birthday with somebody that the New Zealand officials 'are interested in'. What are the chances, hey?! I'll let Tom give you more details of New Zealand, because I want to talk about the Blue Mountains near Sydney. We took a 2 hours train ride out of Sydney to explore the bush walks and awesome cliff views of Echo Point and Three Sisters. The Blue Mountains really do have a blue hue to them and the mountain rage stretches out as far as the eye can see. The cliff walk gave us a little taste of bush walking in this awesome country, and we greatly enjoyed taking in the sights and sounds of Katoomba Falls. I loved Sydney, and I really loved Australia. But I feel we only scratched the surface of this country, if that! We'll have to go back soon, for sure! Lots of love to everyone back home.xxxxxxxxxxxx

Tom:

So here we are in Middle Earth, and the LOTR reference is way more appropriate than you might at first think, considering that Anna (our very generous host) has appeared on horseback as one of the riders of Rohan in the 2nd movie, on her horse, Toby!!! I've had the pleasure of meeting said horse, and I was suitably starstruck. It turns out that the directors of the movies asked locals to bring their horses (if they owned any of course) and appear as extras on the films. How's that for building community spirit!?! New Zealand is beautiful. Friendly locals, huge expanses of land unspoiled by human presence, and some amazing wildlife. We're going to explore Auckland tomorrow, so we'll let you know what we think soon. By the way we'd like to thank Ben and Anouk once again for their amazing hospitality back in Sydney - they were superb hosts. Love to all at home and blog yo'll soon.