To our family and friends Save up your pennies as I would love for us all to take a cruise together. The Royal Caribbean has a great one coming up in 2014 - what a great way to celebrate my 60th birthday!! So what have been the highlights - - our cabin with a balcony - taking a huge cruise ship into the fiords in the South Island - loved The Lord of the Rings Tour - the endless green country side and trees everywhere. Did I tell you about the "Shelter Brea...

Yes we are on the home run. What a wonderful time we have had! Yesterday and today have been full on "days at sea". Real cruise stuff going on all around us - I know you will be very jealous to know, we went to Making animals out of towels! We played Trivia and our score did not improve! Food continues to be an endless supply and as I type we are sharing a bowl of freshly coked chips by the pool....there goes another kilo of two heading my way. Showtime last n...

What an amazing day on board.Today we moved in and out of the Sounds on our way home. This great big cruise ship moved up and down these inlets with a level of elegance to be experienced to fully appreciate. We saw natural waterfalls, glacial pathways and huge trees clinging desperately to the side of massive cliff faces! Baby seals sunning themselves on rocks but the true highlight was SNOW FLAKES being blown down off the summits. As soon as you touched them ...

This morning we woke to this sunrise as we pulled into Port Charmers. The port for Dunedin which is about 10 minutes by coach to the CBD. What a beautiful town. A real mixture of circa 1850 and modern buildings. Population of 120k aprox. Again the main export is timber. We went to the Railway Gardens and meandered through the town. There was a huge craft market put on just for me - I am sure! Last night we watched the funniest hypnotist I have even seen! I crie...

Hi Family - today was a day of driving. We needed to moor the ship in a French Provincial town called Akaroa as the port of Christchurch silted up as a result of 11/12 earthquakes. To get to Chritchurch it was a tender boat from the ship to the shore and then a big tourist bus and a 90 minute drive to Christchurch which is a beautiful city but very sad. Many of the historic buildings have been demolished due to the damage caused by the quakes. However they are r...