When you are so far away from home there is nothing you crave more than a little bit of family time. So when we landed in New Zealand on the 18th October and walked through arrivals at Auckland airport and were greeted by my lovely Auntie Rosemary, cousin Mark and his two adorable boys; Tayla and Charlie it was a wonderful birthday prezzie….later on we met Mark's beautiful wife Mandie for the first time and when she presented me with an enormous chocolate birthday cake, I knew we'd get along brilliantly ...(and we did!)... I also received cards from home and a fantastic rendition of 'The Happy Birthday Blues' on video from the Big Bad Wilf Band (Aka; Si, Tom, Jo, Pete and Matt) which was hilarious....thanks guys!!....certainly a birthday I will never forget!!

As normally happens in life the years had slipped by since I had last seen the New Zealand gang but within an instant we were showered with silliness, affection, generosity and love from people that I am very proud and fortunate to call my family....

The plan was to stay a few days with the kiwi gang and see the sights of Auckland then hire a campervan and go exploring on our own. The weather wasn't brilliant to start with but we had some fun.

Auntie Ro took us 'The Auckland Domain' the city's oldest park where we could see a fantastic view and look around the national museum on top of the hill.

While we were inside having a coffee, one of the museum guides approached and asked if we would like to go to a photography seminar. She said the guy giving the seminar was a well-known sports photographer for the kiwi papers and had covered the Olympics in London. His name was Brett Phillips but her kiwi pronunciation sounded like Brutt Full ups!!...Brutt was really interesting and his photos were inspiring and poignant and not only had he covered the 2012 Olympics and got fab shots of Husain Bolt and the like, he had also captured the aftermath of the Sri Lankan tsunami...beautiful but heart rending stuff..(you ve gotta look him up.!!)

On one of the days we had a visit from Mark's friend from work who said he was going through a mid-life crisis and had recently treated himself to a 1450cc, black and chrome Harley Davidson Softail. A beautiful machine which was so loud that it made your tummy rumble when it arrived outside the house and which you can probably hear in Wellington!!...

I have always had a bit of a thing for Harleys and was itching to have a ride. I sat on and pressed the start button but it was Charlie and Tayla that got a ride up the road on the beautiful chromy beast. So comical and slightly unnerving to watch a tiny five year old with no shoes on and little feet that didn't reach the footpegs go haring up the street in a massive wobbling black motorbike helmet, shorts and t shirt... fearless!! ..his little smile and giggles told us everything...

We spent some wonderful moments with Tayla and Charlie. Mark and Mandie have two very talented kids. Tayla picked up my cavaquinho and I taught him a few chords. Turns out he's a natural on the uke and Ray sat with him and showed him some sketching techniques, again, the kids got talent. On one of the days I climbed an old gnarly tree on the beach at Cockle bay with Charlie.. such fun little guys and a delight to be around.

I love Auckland, its clean, open and quiet (apart from the crazy beat music coming from the Blundell boys and their dancing!!) and the weather, although changeable (ok it piddled down at times) was mostly sunny and hot.

Most nights we cracked open a few bottles of red and it was lovely to sit and put the world to rights with Auntie Rosemary, sharing memories and comparing stories from the past...amazing to find out that in so many ways we are very similar. The catch up chats we had and Auntie Ro's wise words and kindness will always stay with me....just fab.....so all in all our first few days of Kiwi life were, relaxing and fun and happily completely cured me of my homesickiness (for now)…

On the Tuesday we hired a camper van and having plotted a sketchy route with the gang, Ray and I headed off with maps in hand to the southeast of the north island around the stunning Coromandel Peninsula to some very unstable, volcanic, geothermal, extremely smelly and potentially dangerous places!!...yay!!....