Hello time travellers...oh no, that's us! having left Fiji and now located in Samoa, we are in yesterday mode as we are now 12 hours behind the UK world. Are you still with us Steve??? Joking chick. We are enjoying HOT sun and tropical plants...Quotes like..."Can you grab me a lime off the tree to go with my G&T please?"are all abounding. More than that, Zachary our nephew is positively gorgeous and good enough to eat! John has had a dive with his brother today a...

Bula to one and all! Arrived here 24 hours ago and just about settled into the routine of waking up, eating, reading, eating, reading, sunning, drinking, snoozing, drinking eating and sleeping. Sheesh. Very rural, peaceful with ping pong being about the most energetic thing on the agenda! BBQ night tonight. Serenaded every night too - John is learning well! Very chilled. Cannot.. type ...more... xxxxxxxxx

Well...it's a month on and we have returned to Auckland..somewhat sad to offload our campervan/mobile home...well we were until we saw the size of the hotel room!! Blimey!! I have to go looking for John it's that big! Beautiful view of the harbour to boot. We have revisited the Skytower today - tallest building you can see in the picture. Flying to Fiji tomorrow and looking forward to soaking up the rays for 4 or 5 days. Love to all xxxx

Arrived back in North Island after 3 hour ferry trip. Sun is shining. Only 4 days left in the van! A wind wand, some caves, Wanganui and a few other things on our agenda until we reach Auckland again. From there....it's FIJI hopefully!! Nice to see the Dowdeswell language skill set has started early with Zachary's recent message!!

On our merry way again today, leaving our memories of our glacial hike behind us. Yes we did it! 4th time lucky as it turns out. We had half a day of exhilerating climbing, falling (!!) and breathtaking scenery. We have captured most of it on camera and will download the pictures soon. The helicopter ride was amazing - virgin flight for both of us and boy was it worth it. Weather was perfect - finally, with blue skies and sunshine. Safely say it was worth the wai...