Back to Dan's for a brief stopover before travelling to Truro to stay with Kate, Rob and their family in their new house. A lovely, lovely house, helped Rob put up their clothes line. Glad to see that his garage is just as messy as mine! Went to watch Micheal play soccer, won 7-1, Rob coaches them. Went to see the tidal bore on the Salmon river, quite spectacular! Went to the local produce market in the centre of Truro which is a smallish country town with some b...

Landed at Heathrow, customs hall was empty so walked through to terminal 1. Strange to hear this funny language! In eventful flight to Manchester where we were picked up by Leslie. Made very welcome by the kids and Kelly the dog. Our first trip was down memory lane with a drive around the Wirral visiting all the old haunts and reliving escapades with a little embellishment, well maybe a lot. We hired a small car which has given us a lot of freedom. We spent time ...

Dan met us at the airport then home to meet the family, don't kids grow quickly? At Dan's there was a gathering of people all related to me!! Overwhelming!! Nice BBQ, nice bed. Looked around Halifax with Dan, has changed a bit, really picturesque. Travelled to Bridgewater to stay with Andy and Carla, went to the Maritime museum, very interesting, lunch at the Knots Inn very olde worlde. Very large beers, pints, not used to it yet but trying very hard!

We are at brissy airport ready for the off. A bit emotional at the farewell dinner last night, but we all got through it!! Jono and Mel kindly dropped us off. We have a 3 hour flight to Auckland, a 2 hour wait then a 12 hour hop to San Francisco. We weren't allowed any duty free as we were getting off in Nz. We'll be knackered by the time we get to San Fran.

Hotel nikko is pretty swish, located close to Union Sq. we had an hours sleep then took a tram ride to Fishermans Wharf, had a great meal at Aliosos overlooking the harbour. I had seafood sausage to start and fresh trout stuffed with mushrooms and herbs then wrapped in prosciutto, yum! Sue had slices of smoked salmon with a caper, lemon and parsley salsa then fresh sole stuffed with duxelle of mushroom. A really old established restaurant same family for 50 years...