Village People Tordi is supposed to be a typical Indian rural village with different castes and religions living together in harmony. The pictures speak for themselves. Everyone we met in the village was keen to speak to us, show off their children and tell us about their lives. The children, in particular, were very outgoing and desperate to engage with us. They demonstrated their proficiency in English and mathematics by reading a paragraph from the life...

Time to visit James and Laura and their little doggies in Phuket. James had retired in December and moved to Phuket in January so we were very keen to see how they were getting on and what changes they had made to their villa. As an added bonus Margaret and Kenny would join us in a few days for some serious partying. The house was even more fabulous than before - the garden has had a complete makeover with the final plants having just gone in on the day that...

Perth Our journey to Perth produced the first hiccough in our travel arrangements. We were supposed to fly from Christchurch to Sydney and Sydney to Perth. Unfortunately, our plane was 20 minutes late arriving at Sydney International Terminal and the route to the domestic terminal, which is miles away, was clogged up with traffic. We arrived 5 minutes after check in closed and they wouldn't allow us to run through. Dimensionally challenged jobsworth boy told us ...

Kaikura (where the mountains meet the sea) to Christchurch But another thing first. In Picton, on the way to Kaikura, we stopped for lunch and a "comfort break". The local toilets, which were ultra modern, were situated in the middle of the town square. As Susan entered, the door automatically closed and she was invited to press the lock button. This initiated a series of electronically voiced instructions detailing the terms and conditions of the use of this d...

I peeped round the curtain at 6am the following morning and, sure enough, the dark outlines of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman were clearly visible against a lightening sky. Not a cloud in sight. Half and hour later we were yomping round Lake Matheson to the observation point where the best reflections could be photographed in the mirror lake. The mirror surface wasn't perfect, partly because eels kept surfacing and causing ripples, and partly because of a slight breeze ...