Hello everyoneSorry it's been so long since I have updated my blog. I'm back in Melbourne after having wonderful travels with my parents and Jonathan. I'm sure you've heard most of the news from my parents but here is my version on it!!I met Mum and Dad in Cairns on the 7th of July, an emotional reunion followed by a lovely dinner. The next day we made our way to Port Douglas, but due to rainy weather we headed up to CapeTribulation. After an interesting ferry over the DaintreeRiver we arrived in CapeTrib and stayed there for a few days. We stayed at a lovely motel, Daintree Motel Retreat, we got friendly with the owners and they invited we come up and watch the place while they go on holidays next year!! While we we're in CapeTrib, we went on a Crocodile cruise, experienced beautiful beaches and the local animal life, including a Python snake in the motel! We left CapeTrib and headed to Port Douglas for a spot of Great Barrier Reef snorkelling, diving for Dad, and a fantastic visit to the Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, where we saw out first Kangaroo! I left the next day after having a lovely lunch in Cairns with Margaret's college friend. On the 16th of July, Mum and Dad arrived in Melbourne. I showed them all city sights and hidden gems; we went up the Eureka tower, the highest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere. We left Melbourne for the weekend and firstly went down the Great Ocean Road to the magnificent 12 apostles and then saw the cute little penguins at PhilipIsland. We also made up for my missed Christmas last year up in the Dandeong Ranges (Sassafras), where the charming Miss Marples restaurant we're serving Christmas lunch in July!And then to New Zealand, we arrived along with our tour guide Jonathan, in Christchurch on the 25th of July. Brian collected us from the airport and the next morning we met the whole family, Sharon, Sean (eldest boy), Emma and little baby Ruby. Our first day in Christchurch we visited Cathedral square and took a drive up the hills to view the Canterbury plains. That night we watched the All blacks V Australia, the first game of four of the Bledisloe Cup, unfortunately the All Blacks lost the Kiwis in the room weren't happy! The next day we made our way to Queenstown, the drive was spectacular all the sights looked like paintings. We stopped off at LakePukaki and Tekapo and took lots of photos of the stunning Southern Alps and Mount Cook, the Alps highest peak. We arrived in Queenstown and while we we're there we had two days of skiing, I was a beginner but I got the hang of it, well kind of. Mum and I indulged ourselves with an hour in a private hot pool with beautiful view of meandering rivers and snow capped mountains. Perfect! Queenstown was great, lots of Irish people and good restaurants. We left Queenstown and travelled back up to Christchurch through various weather conditions, snow, floods and desert! We had a nice farewell meal with Sharon and Brian. The next day we arrived in Auckland and there we enjoyed a fantastic live All Blacks match at EdenPark, a nice lunch at the Bramley's and farewell dinner with Mum and Dad up in the revolving restaurant in the Auckland Skytower. Mum and Dad should be on their way home from Bangkok, I'm sure your looking forward to all the stories. They seemed to have had a fantastic Round the World trip. Back in Melbourne now, back to teaching and everything is back to normal looking forward to my next travelling adventure. Hopefully conquer the West coast next!I'll be putting up all the photos up this week, lots to do. Love to all and hope everyone is well.Love NiamhJonathan says a Big Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!