Happy New Year! Arrived in Los Angeles a little jet lagged but looking forward to celebrating the new year USA style! We met my friend Stephanie and her pal Michelle who had organised our evening of dinner and drinks for us! As we had been up for 38 hours we were pleased to last until 1.30am before giving in and heading to bed. The next few days were spent visiting the many shopping malls Santa Monica is famous for and picking up a few bargains!

After a busy family Christmas in Auckland it was a big change when we arrived on our Fijian Island to find only three other guests staying at the resort! Our accomodation, while basic, was right on the beach. We had a lovely relaxing time snorkelling, sea kaying and lying on the beach topping up our tan. We quickly adjusted to "Fiji Time" which is a pretty slow pace of life!

Merry Christmas! Had a great time meeting up with all the family in Auckland and enjoying a traditional kiwi style barbeque on Christmas day (with a few Scottish delicacies). Stuart flew in from Japan for a couple of days before going to Australia to spend Christmas with Mark, Carla and Brayden. On the 23rd everybody went for lunch then we embarked on a pub crawl around Auckland with Mick, Paul, Stuart and friends. We certainly enjoyed the shopping in Auckland wi...

Travelled up to the Bay of Islands, the northern area of the North Island. Went to hot spring pools in the rain and made face packs with the mud. Next day was beautiful for our trip to Cape Reinga, along Ninety Mile beach where we had a go at sand boarding and then tried the best fish and chips in New Zealand. On our last day we joined a cruise around the islands and through the Hole in the Rock.

We arrived in the North Island and met up with Aunt Anne and Uncle Mick and family. We set off on a tour around Whitianga and then to Rotorua where we bumped into two guys Maureen went to school with, Chris and Graeme! Maureen enjoyed an afternoon relaxing in the mud pools, in the evening we experienced a Maori concert and feast set in a traditional village. On our way back to Auckland we stopped in Mount Maunganui where we met up with James and Frances from Hel...