Travelled up north to the Bay of Islands - We picked up the car (Toyota Corolla) and drove through some awesome countryside, north to the Bay of Islands. Our hotel is on the beach and we have a ground floor room with patio windows which open out onto this wonderful space. Ate in the hotel restaurant and next day we were up early. Left the car at the hotel and took the courtesy bus down the road to the dock area where we took a 4 hour trip to the Hole in the Roc...

After another 11 hours in the air we have now arrived in Auckland New Zealand. What a nice place this is. We dropped lucky at the airport as tthe hotel shuttle bus was waiting,so door to door service and the driver gave us a running commentary as he brought us in. Once again not much sleep and the time difference is now +13 hours. Fortunately our room was ready and it was a very nice room too. We showered and walked down to the waterfront where we found a n...

Sat at the airport waiting for the last leg of the journey. Both feeling shattered which is a combination of jet lag and an early start yesterday and miles of walking. The weather here has been warm but overcast the whole time and we are leaving as we arrived,in pouring rain. Let's hope Auckland has a bit of blue in the sky.

We have arrived in Hong Kong, our halfway stopover and have 2 nights here. After a night flight from London on Monday we arrived (as fresh as could be expected after sitting up all night on a plane) Tuesday morning but with the time difference it was afternoon here. We were expecting warm sunny weather - well we got the warm but it was pouring with rain and visibility was low so on the trip from the airport the views were nil. After a very short rest we hit th...

Well all good things come to an end, and this is the end of a truly memorable holiday. The flight home was good - long and boring but smooth. The transfer via tube at rush hour was ok, better than anticipated, and we are now on the last leg of the trip on the train back to Chesterfield. Once again the sun is shining and it's hard to find a cloud. Lets hope the rest of the month stays like this. Thank you all for reading this blog. I hope I didn't bore you to...