It was a rainy afternoon when we arrived. Late in the afternoon I walked up to the town of Oneroa (5 min walk) to buy some groceries for dinner. It was getting less rainy so we all walked up to the Oyster Inn for a pre- dinner snack and drink. What a great place - Leigh and I sipped on some yummy Waiheke island wine and slurped some oysters (bluff and rock oysters) - they were delicious! The kids has some homemade lemonade and we chatted to the locals. The island...

It was an early start for us all in Sydney. We were up at 5am and then into a taxi to the airport. Check in was easy, then a quick bite and coffee and we were on our Emirates A380 to Auckland. Being an A380 there was plenty of room and after watching Star Wars Ep VII we were landing in cloudy and wet Auckland. We took the slow taxi into downtown Auckland. There is a lot of construction going on so a number of roads were closed. In any case we arrived at our ...

We landed in Istanbul three hours late....it was crazy landing as many of the passengers stood up as were taxing to the gate. In any case we got through customs (who knew Aussies needed a visa oh well). The taxi from the airport was madness...the driver went about 130 kph and went inside the beak down lane of many occasions. We made it into Galata around 10 pm so just went up to the apartment and the kids went to bed. The wallabies were playing England in the Wor...

We arrived into Rome Termini station a little after 3pm - it was a bit warmer than Firenze so jumped into a taxi to our apartment in Monti. The apartment is in a sketchy looking small street but is a charming place. We settled into the apartment then did a quick walk around the neighbourhood to the Roman Forum and the Victor Emmanuelle monument. We finally found a supermarket and bought some groceries for breakfast. We rested back at the apartment then went out f...

We landed on Saturday evening and caught a taxi to our apartment. We met our airbnb host Saed and he showed us around the apartment. It's a very Italian beautiful apartment. It was about 10 by now but the neighborhood was still buzzing so we walked around the block to a pizzeria (ghibillini) that has been recommended by Saed. It was delicious pizza - great atmosphere sitting under the stars in a buzzy Florence piazza - a fantastic intro into Italian life. The nex...