The End
And so we are now at home, suffering a little from post travel blues, trying hard to acclimatise and finding the cold difficult to bear.
Would we do it again? Yes we would.
Did we learn a huge amount? Yes we did.
In general, all of the people we met were kind and caring, in fact the spirit of human kindness we encountered was probably often more than we deserved.
We started out calling the whole expedition a holiday, but somewhere along the way it became a journey, we have a bucket load of memories which will last us for the rest of our lives.
The whole thing was truly educative. We now have a much better understanding for example of Australian politics, life in Bali and the current situation in Fiji.
In America it was clear to us that it is not all sweetness and light, seeing tent cities in Los Angeles brings it home to you.
It is impossible to pick one best place or best memory out of so many, how can you compare the temples in Angor Wat to the fiords in South Island, New Zealand?
Thank you to all those who put us up, helped us when we needed it, or greeted us with a cheery wave or a smile.

And does the blog continue? I am not sure but if it does we will rename it landrathome, I imagine it will be up and running in a week or so. Thank you to the 2200 people who have taken the time to read this blog, who have encouraged me to carry on writing, who have forgiven my typing mistakes and ignored the grammatical errors. I would have appreciated more of an interaction with some of you to try and understand what you found interesting in these meanderings. All I hope is that you have enjoyed our adventures, who knows there may be more in years to come.

And back to Cornwall

After all the horror stories about Heathrow we found it very easy to negotiate. We landed not at a walkway but out in the boondogs with coaches waiting to pick us up. This might have been partly because we had an extradited criminal on board and we needed to land some where so that the police could pick him up. There was certainly quite a hold up before we were allowed to leave the plane.
We were through immigration very quickly , found our bags, and went out through customs all in about twenty minutes.
A very kind gentleman at National coaches put us on the next coach to leave for the Central Bus station , where we negotiated for the sum of eight pounds a change to a 1.20 bus,two hours earlier than we had planned
This definitely made the expedition manager very happy.we arrived in Exeter at 4.45, where we were met by our very good friends Geoff and Mary who bought us home.we stopped at their hous e for a quick cup of coffee and were back in our house by 6.30pm. We were both very tired but we also had a certain smugness a out responding we had achieved. As we drove across the border into Cornwall it started to rain, who could ask for more?.

Tuesday, our last day.

In reality we only had half a day as we were being picked up at 2.20pm. We had requested a late checkout and had been given leave to stay in our room until 2.00. 

After a fairly leisurely breakfast we headed off to the Beverly Centre again only to discover as we arrived at 9.40 am, that the shops didn't open u til 10.00. As they say open until 9.00pm you can't really blame them.

The expedition chief procurer of apparel went into overdrive and tried several dresses, trousers and tops on before making her choice. It was then my turn and I did manage to buy a couple of pairs of jeans. As a parting shot the expedition manager did manage to purchase a couple of pairs of shoes.

We purchased a wrap to eat back at our hotel and then took a cab there to make sure we were there in time to have a quick shower before we left. Obviously we also had to finish our packing and the master packer's skills were put to the test. Our new purchases were laid carefully on top of the packing that had already been done.

We left the room at 2.00pm paid our bill and lo and behold our lift arrived early, so we were suddenly on our way home. After a circuitous tour of Los Angeles we arrived at LAX airport at about 3.15. We found our way to the BA boarding area and stood in the queue. We were highly surprised to be beckoned forward by a gentleman who was operating the first class check in. We had a brief conversation and I asked him if there was any chance of an upgrade, he looked at our travel records and said "Well you certainly have travelled with us a lot" and then continued" however, it is avery full plane", before giving us our original seats as boarding passes. We honestly felt he had looked.

We went and had a beer and bought some duty free booze, before we had to get ready to board.

The same gentleman who had checked us in was collecting boarding passes and as we were in row 49 we were called fairly early, those at the back of the plane get on first.

As I got to the desk, I said " It doesn't look as though you have managed to do anything for us then" and he replied" I am afraid not, but let's wait and see". As he put my boarding pass onto the machine it was rejected and he then asked me to wait to one side whilst he called Rosemarie forward and the same thing happened to her boarding pass. After a couple of minutes we were given new boarding passes with the words that we still had a window seat but we had been moved further up the plane.

When we boarded we were very surprised to find that we were in "World Traveller Plus", with almost fully reclining seats, foot rests, calf support, and we were then given a choice of menu. It felt like real luxury to us, and I now need to write to Los Angeles to thank them.

We even got real metal cutlery with our dinner. The flight was good and we really enjoyed the comfort and the service we were given, it made the end of our journey very special.

If it is Monday it must be the Universal Studios

Never knowing what to expect or even whether or not we would like it, we booked for a day trip to Universal Studios. We knew it was a theme park and it is not something we would both readily do.
We were up again early to catch the 8.25 pick up and were taken back to Hollywood where we queued again and were allocated to a different bus.
That bus took us to theUniversal Studios about fifteen minutes away.
We got into the park and then had to wait ten minutes until it opened. We had decided to do the studio tour before anything else and walked fairly quickly to the trams that take people around. To give you an idea of the number of people there were we got on the first tram out, but were sat in the last of four coaches about two thirds of the way back. Say 50 people to a coach and you get the idea.
The trip was great and really extremely interesting. We visited several "lots" and stages, although apart from one TV show no filming was going on. We visited a Mexican town and were shown a flash flood, were taken underground to a tube station, which underwent an earthquake whilst we were  in it, including another flood. We visited a Wild West set on which John Wayne had worked , and an aeroplane crash site, on which Tom Cruise had worked. We also had a 3d encounter with King Kong and saw an American city set that has been used in several guises. The whole trip lasted about an hour and a half. Surprise surprise we both really enjoyed it.
After the studios we went to see Shrek in 4d and again we really enjoyed it, this is the future of television and cinema, we even got wet as the donkey sneezed and the spiders that appeared to drop into our lap made Rosemarie jump. We both had a good laugh .
We did venture down to look at the rides but the expedition controller drew the line at getting on one so we made our way to the special effects show, which was also hugely enjoyable.
By now it was time for lunch and we had a beer in a really believable Irish pub, before getting a sandwich in what looked like a French restaurant.
This is exactly what the whole day was about, smoke and mirrors, all the sets are very small, filming is a land of make believe, you don't always see what you think you do.
After lunch we visited the house of horrors which we both liked although they certainly made you jump and saw a Blues Brothers live R and B revue which was very good.
So there you go, you travel somewhere expecting the worst and have a relatively good time.we were picked up at 3pm and taken back to our hotel.
After a short break we went off for some retail therapy in Macy's department store in the Beverly centre before finishing the day with a Mexican Meal, not too bad for the penultimate day of our journey.

Sunday must be a tour of Los Angeles.

No rest for the wicked, we are up at seven to get picked up at our hotel for a Grand Tour of Los Angeles. A little bus picked us up and whisked us off to Hollywood where we had to queue for twenty minutes to get a voucher to be put on a larger bus. We were taken to the Hollywood Bowl first a fantastic arena with tremendous acoustics. It was a great thrill to be there anyone is anybody has played the Hollywood Bowl. Then for a reason best known to the tour directors we were taken back to Hollywood and looked at the walk of fame and the prints outside Graumann's Chinese theatre. It was very clear to us that John Wayne had very small feet.
We also saw where the red carpet is put down for the Oscar ceremonies and all that goes with that, huge black curtains are draped over shop fronts so that they cannot be seen, all pure smoke and mirrors, it certainly doesn't look quite as grand in real life. Basically the Oscar ceremony takes place in the middle of a shopping mall.
There was quite a lot of history of Hollywood and we had lunch in the Farmers' market an area full of food stalls of different types. In the afternoon we visited the city centre and then went to see the oldest house in Los Angeles which dates back to the 1830's , the Adobe House was really interesting.
After five hours on the bus we were taken back to our hotel and we then decided we wanted a walk so we trolled off to Rodeo Drive, couldn't afford anything although the Expedition commander came very close to trying on a four thousand dollar dress, unfortunately they didn't have it in her size.
We spent a little while looking for a bar to have a beer in and eventually found one on the walk back to our hotel. This was the bar you see in every film, long, dark and with jazz playing , to cap it all the beer was very good as well.
Dinner was in a steak restaurant and was superb, steak just as you imagine it. A pleasant walk back to the hotel before jet lag kicked in and we were off to bed. A interesting day in LA.

Our Last Saturday in Fiji.

The master packer had been very remiss as we had gotten a late check out at 4.00pm so we only had to wait an hour for our pick up. So a bit of Saturday morning was spent packing up. We left behind our plastic cups, cutlery and plates and left a note for the maid saying she could have them if she had a use for them.

We went kayaking and snorkelling and I met an Australian TV crew who were going to stay at the hotel for ten weeks, they were filming a top secret reality show in a deserted hut on a beach about three miles from the hotel. In the end they described it as putting ten pretty girls and ten pretty boys in the same room and see what happens. I assured them I was unlikely to see it on the BBC.

We had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the beach, finished our packing at came down to reception on time at four.

Imagine our surprise when we were told that our driver was there and we were on the road by 4.15. I had thought I would do the blog over a beer whilst we waited. Raj, our driver was very interesting and told us some home truths about the current political situation in Fiji.

We booked onto our flight to LA and got seats the expedition manager didn't like. We had a beer in the airport, bought a sarong, changed some money into American dollars and waited to catch our flight which was bursting at the seams. The Saturday night flight to LA from Fiji is clearly very popular.

The Air Pacific flight we caught was probably one of the worst we have been on. The food was not good, the inflight entertainment was very poor, the people in front of us had raging chest infections, I was sat next to a very large lady from Tonga whose arm made mine look like strings of spaghetti and who took up more than her fair share of room.

But still we were off to LA for more adventures so why argue?LA here we come!!!!!

Sorry Sorry Sorry

The blog has been a little quiet for the last few days as we have been rushing around.
Our last Friday in Fiji was spent, kayaking, snorkelling, swimming and sunbathing. In the evening we booked to see a demonstration of Fijian fire walking, don by a group of men from the island of Beqa.
When we arrived they had lit a fire and were heating the stones. The performance opened with some wonderfully harmonic acapella singing and then according to custom the stones had to be turned in a special way, before the fire walking could begin. Fire walking is strong in all sorts of communities, and I have to say this wasn't very well presented.
Something of the cynic in me tells me that we saw what we wanted to see several men, one at a time standing on hot rocks. At the end of the ceremony they covered the hot rocks with green foliage. Which did not immediately burst into fire!!!! In fact, it only just about managed rot smoulder. The hundred or so Australian who saw it first hand with us seemed to enjoy it.
There was a legend to go with the ceremony which was really interesting. After the fire dancing we went tot the Japanese restaurant and had a tepanaki  grill which was lovely. after the meal eleven hotel staff sung for us, and only us, "Issolaye", although some of the men messed around it was very touching. The harmonies they achieve sounded wonderful and we were truly touched.
The ordinary hotel workers are desperate for people like Rosemarie and I to return and in truth I think  we might one day.

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Life in Fiji as  previously described albeit with a couple of rainstorms in the late afternoon. Kayaking, snorkelling, swimming, sunbathing, who could ask for more?
Last  night we went to the sea food restaurant at the end of a small promontory here and this time we were given a table overlooking the sea which was just by a floodlight. As we sat down, the waitress pointed out to us a shark car circling below. At first we had trouble seeing it, but as our eyes grew accustomed to the light we were able to see not one shark but three. These were reef sharks about  two metres long and circled for some time as we had our meal. It isn't everyone who can say they sat and had a meal above shark infested waters.

When we got back to our room we looked reef sharks up and apparently they have no history of attacking human beings, but there is still something quite chilling about seeing a shark's fin gliding noiselessly through the water. This after all is the lagoon we have been snorkelling in!!!

The expedition manager was very pleased with herself as she took a solo kayak for the first time and did really well. She exhibited a host of learnt skills, turned it nicely and parked it next to a diving platform so that she could have a long chat with the well muscled young man who was sat on it. So there you go, she will be taking up kayaking as long as both the air temperature and the water temperature are warm.

 On Wednesday we went for a two hour walk along the beach heading East, in those tow hors we saw eight other people all but two of which were Fijians. The two were tourists having their hair braided just out side the hotel. We passed a small village and saw some people there, but coming back we came across a family of four walking on the beach. Other tourists in the hotel don't seem to want to leave its confines. This was exactly the same as when we walked the other direction last week. So who says Australians are get up and go explorers. OK we did do it in the late morning when only mad dogs and Englaihmen are about but you might have expected to see a few more fellow tourists exploring what is, after all, a beautiful coastline.

Our journey is coming to an end and there is an inevitable sense of sadness in the air, this has been a journey, on which we have seen so much, learnt so much and enjoyed the company of so many different people. It is not the time to look back now, but all the same the days seem to be slipping away.

A strange phenomenon.

Do you believe in something you can't explain? On our trip to the village our guide had told us about an island Beqa, just off the coast, which was famous for three things,one diving with sharks, two fire walking, this is the only island where fire walkers come from and three some of the people, on this island are renowned for having the ability to cure burns by touch.

It was explained to us that women in particular have this last gift and somehow absorb the heat.

When we were having dinner , as is our wont, we got chatting to our waitress who told us she came from the island, Beqa. I asked her outright if she had the healing gift and she explained she did. 

She went to to tell us that this gift is passed down the female side of the family and is strongest if it comes from a great grandmother. 

She went onto tell us that the gift was in her touch and in her present village, people came to her to ask her to cure burns and scalds. She also told us a tale about a neighbour's four year old who had been fairly badly burned in an accident and she had applied her gift over a period of four days, after which the remaining burns, by this time much reduced were treated in hospital. She told us that the girl, now eight, had no visible scars.

I can't explain this or how I feel about it, the cynic in me says it denies science, but who knows,our waitress was certainly very convincing. I share this story because is symptomatic of our journey, of the people we have spoken to and the learning we have had to undertake. Who am I to say that these people do not have such a gift?

Generally I found this encounter slightly more interesting than our trip to the village. The expedition manager and I sat down to discuss the village trip over a beers, and bit of us felt we had no better view of village life than we had had before.we weren't shown any farming, which is apparently how the village survives and we weren't shown anyone's house , all we saw was the meeting house and the school. Is it right that we expect people to become items of interest for tourists? I cannot imagine a school in England allowing tourists to visit four or five times a week, let alone bring the students sweet biscuits. So to stop this , what can I do? Not travel as a tourist or express interest in these things? 

If you follow that line then obviously you deny people who need it a very necessary income. Ther are other issues about Fiji that at the moment I cannot comment on that also cause me some concern.

Disaster, a trip to remember and Redemption part two.

And in her outstretched hand were the expedition manager's glasses. Redemption. Joy of joys. The expedition manager even managed a smile. Who could ask for more.
After we had disembarked Maria explained that the diver had found the glasses in the bottom of the smaller pool. I was, of course, really grateful.
The spectacles were carefully examined and pounced to have survived their ordeal, so I was a very lucky boy indeed.
On our return to the hotel we had a swim in the pool to cool off, and then had dinner in the restaurant before heading to bed.

Disaster, a trip to remember and redemption.

We had booked a trip than inland village called Namaumau as a chance  for us to see some of inland Fiji. There is only one main road here and that sticks closely to the coast. Apparently it takes 11 to 12 hours to drive around the whole island. So travel into the hinterland you either need a 4 x4 or you take a boat up one of the rivers. We chose the latter option.
We left our hotel at 9.10 but were held up by an Australian who we waited for but it turned out that he or she hadn't booked anyway. As a result we got away at 9.30.
After an hour on the us we arrived at Maria's house, where we could use the toilet and get changed I to our swimwear, it was made fairly obvious to us that we were going to get wet. We had imagined this staging post to be something grand but it was in fact only someone's house with the bedrooms used as changing rooms and two toilets, silly us.
After being given a life jacket the group was separated into eights and we were taken to our longboat, ours was called "Loverboy, the runaway." The journey up river was about an hour and a half, our outboard engine kept stalling,in a river swollen by rainfall the night before, which wasn't awfully comforting.
At one point we came to a fairly steep set of rapids. The expedition manger and I had watched to boat  in front of us make an attempt up them and slip backdown again, so that gives you a small indication of the amount of water passing through. Our turn to ascend arrived, up we went, the engine stalled and down we came, this happened thre times, then the captain rearranged the seating moving some us back in the boat. Another attempt which failed, at this point four passengers in the front of the boat were requested to leave the boat and walk along a stony ridge to the right. They disembarked and we had another attempt which was successful although by this time we had shipped quite a lot of water.
After a hour we stopped at the base of a waterfall where there were two natural pools people could swim in. The expedition manager thought she would like to try this although I couldn't as the first people to go in reported that the water was extremely cold. Anyway I was put in charge of the manager's possessions, her watch and her glasses, hat and top ,whilst she went swimming, and very glorious she looked as well.
When she came out of the water I gave her her towel, top, watch and hat and was then asked for her glasses. As I was wearing swimming trunks I had very cunningly folded these and put one arm into the v shaped neck of my t shirt, so I reached for them only to discover that they were no longer there. Major panic ensued on my part, I returned to both pools but could not find them, the manager was slightly more than furious. Maria came with me to search for the glasses but we couldn't find them and came to the conclusion they must be in the pools where I had photographed Rosemarie swimming. Maria promised to find a pair of goggles in the village and have someone dive I to the pool to find them. I was disconsolate, having worn glasses all my life I recognise how important they are. By the time we had got back into the boat for the second part of the journey the expedition manager had calmed down a bit and we had come to the conclusion this was a s legitimate insurance claim. I was still inconsolable.
We arrived at the village, were given a traditional welcoming ceremony, were sung some songs and then encouraged to join in some "traditional" dancing. The first dance was called the "bingo" and when someone called out" Bingo" you had to change partners. The second dance was called " Disco", which is exactly what it seemed to be, the third dance was a version of the "Conga" and was probably the most traditional of all.
After the dancing we were taken to the village school for 85 children aged 6 to 13. It was very basic and almost Victorian. Sme people had taken the children sweet biscuits which we felt was condescending and there was something about this part of the visit I didn't like. Perhaps it is the idea that children become like zoo animals an item of tourist attraction?
After the school we had a "traditional" lunch which included tuna sandwiches,but also roast chicken, papaya, salad and a root vegetable served with a spinach sauce.
Lunch over we were treated to a market of the villagers' handicrafts, before some farewell singing and re embarkation  to our boats. The journey down river was much quicker as we were travelling with the flow. We stopped for a ride on a bamboo raft ,which is the traditional form of travel, and after about half a mile of that we were put back into our boats to take us back to Maria's.
As we were in the last part of the journey, Maria's boat overtook ours and in her outstretched hand was

The weekend
Life in Fiji is hard, wake up, breakfast, swim, kayak, snorkel,go for a meal, bedtime. This is pretty much the story of both Saturday and Sunday.
We did manage to look around the gardens of the hotel on Saturday, which are lovely but not quite as big as you first imagine.they are immaculately kept,their whole purpose being to make the resort look impressive as you arrive. We found the health centre, the fitness gym, the squash courts sand the mini golf.
There are Australians here in vast numbers and a new batch arrived on Saturday as the some of the old guard left. Some are really nice but others are very brash and noisy. They seem to have left their manners at home and ask the staff for something  without a please or a thank you. Australia is obviously a very important market for the hotel as every price is quoted in both Fijian and Australian dollars. They certainly seem to have no qualms at all about coming to a dictatorship.
Interestingly there are also a large number of Indians and Chinese here. It is clear to me that these two races will form the great majority of tourists over the next decade.
We did have a minor disaster on Sunday which was partly of my making. As I stood up on our balcony to get the expedition manager a banana for her after lunch treat, the elastic clothes line pulled the chair it was attached to,on which I had been sitting, into the table, tipping it over and sending a glass crashing onto the balcony floor and two beers over the balcony to the floor three stories down. The major casualty was our sharp knife, bought months ago in Australia, which also fell three floors. The handle on it is smashed and it will now not be making the journey home with us. It certainly owes us nothing. The maid, luckily for me was out in the corridor and she immediately came in and swept the balcony. According to Rosemarie when she saw me collecting the beers can and the knife she started laughing.
On Saturday night we went to the fish restaurant here and had a great meal, we were the last to leave the restaurant and went to the edge to look at the fish swimming in a spotlight deliberately set so as to attract them. Because we had shown some interest the kitchen staff gave us some bread to feed them and we spent a very happy twenty minutes or so feeding the fish which seemed voraciously hungry. The expedition wildlife spotter wa avery pleased with herself.
On Sunnday we ordered one meal in via room service and the guy who delivered it took great interest in the fact I had Rosemarie's pay as you go SIM card in his hand, he showed Rosemariemhow to get the Internet on her phone for 5 Fijian dollars about £1.80 for a week and he was very lovely.
Our meal was food and we retired early as we had a big trip planned on Monday.

And so to Suva
We had booked a coach trip to the capital city, Suva, as explained yesterday so we had to be up with the larks and ready in the foyer by 9.30. We took much I fan tile pleasure in baiting the lady in the travel office as we passed at nine twenty pointing out that we were ten minutes early and that it was Friday. She had the good grace to burst out laughing.
The journey to Suva was fairly interesting and about two hours long. The closer we go to the capital , the larger the houses became and we were shown the president's house, guarded with razor wire, the parliament building which has been closed since 2009, the Australian Embassy and several other important buildings.
We were dropped from the bus at a major department store, surprise, surprise, and then we had three hours free time. We decided to walk to the museum about a mile and a half, but after twenty minutes in searing heat, we gave that up as a bad idea and went and found some lunch.
We ended up in a food hall, which is pretty like the ones we had been in, in Perth , Sydney and Melbourne. Globalisation is ruining small businesses. The only Fijian food available didn't look all that appetising so we ended up joining a long queue for a noodle bar where we had the biggest portion of chicken chow mein for two pounds. There was so much food on our plates that we couldn't finish it all.
After luch we engaged in some contraband purchasing to the back to the hotel, some wine, beer, cheese, ham and crisps were all carefully packed in the two rucksacks we had taken with us.
On the journey home our guide serenaded us with some Fijian songs and the journey flew by.
Suva is like almost every other major city we have been too only on a much smaller scale, it has a population of about one hundred thousand.The shops and supermarkets could have been anywhere in the world, apart from the displays of highly coloured floral shirts and dresses which the Fijians specialise in.
On our return to the hotel we were so hot and sticky that we both wanted a shower, imagine our frustration and dismay when there was no hot water pressure. The expedition manager sprang into operation and telephoned reception, not such an easy task as might imagine as they had changed their number from the one printed in our visitors' book. Anger was clearly expressed and we were promised a plumber would be sent to investigate, nothing happened so after a while we walked to reception and made our points again, the plumber was again called for and we went off to the bar for a drink. When we returned to our room the cleaner was there and we asked her if the plumber had been and she said no, the plumber had not been on the floor at all.
The expedition manager had by now had enough and decided to go down to reception again, I stayed in the room, fifteen minutes later two engineers arrived and investigated our concern, and ended by saying there was nothing they could do and the hot water would be like that for some time.
Just after this Rosemarie returned to say that she had complained but that her complaint had been cut short by a telephone call from Emma. By this time it had gone ten o'clock.
The next thing we knew was that the phone rang, which is a bit strong, as to be more accurate it squeaked. The duty manager wished me good evening and then asked me if we had unpacked. I felt the sudden rise of anger in me and pointed out that we had been in the hotel a week. He explained to me, totally ignoring my cynicism, that the hot water problem could not be solved quickly and that he proposed moving us to the other wing of the hotel. He invited .us down to reception to look at the new room he proposed moving us to which he assured me was a much better room.
The expedition manager was not pleased, as the master packer was supposedly having a couple of days leave. There then followed a pantomime where the duty manager and the two engineers who had been in our room and condemned the shower took us round from room to room waiting for us to make up our minds. We were shown two very nice rooms to start with but both had showers in the bath, when we said we wanted a walk in shower we were shown three more rooms on a lower floor, none of which passed muster by the expedition manager. After much discussion we settled on the second room we had been shown, made noises about compensation which were treated with calm resignation and disdain and we then had to get the master packe rack off leave so that we could move. To be fir we were told that we could just take our essentials and move the rest in the morning but both us wanted to get it over with. Thirty minutes later we were packed up and with the assistance of a porter and his trolley we moved to our new abode, complete with dark mutterings from the expedition manager. Three hotel rooms in less than a week, who could ask for more?

A day of daring do.

One of the things we have fallen in love with here is the chance Togo out and kayaking the lagoon together, today was quite rough and we had some fun with the kayak in the waves.
Imagine our surprise at one point in the trip when we spotted an empty canoe drifting about  eighty yards from us. We made up our mind to go and collect it thinking that some idiot hadn't beached it properly and it had drifted out to sea. As we went to collect it we saw a swimmer in the water about a hundred yards away and as he was waving a canoe paddle it became very clear to us that he had become parted from his canoe. So we collected the canoe and began to tow it out to him. I say we but the brave expedition commander had to do almost all of the paddling as I was towing the canoe. When we reached him, he was very grateful to see us. We pulled his canoe alongside ours and every lesson or instruction I had came back to me. We held his canoe front and back and laid our paddles across it , he was then able to clamber out of the water into it and was very grateful. Apparently he had been sunbathing in the canoe and had lost his paddle overboard, he then dived in to collect the paddle and the canoe had drifted away. Any way we felt very pleased with ourselves and felt that we had done our good deed for the day.
The rest of the day was spent snorkelling, which we are now really getting the hang of , there are some spectacular fish right in close to the shore here. We also went for a swim in the pool and just relaxed.
We had fun collecting our ticket to visit Suva by bus tomorrow. We had gone in to book this the night before and had paid for it to go on Friday. The woman in the office said there was some problem with the voucher printer and asked us if we could go back into the office on Thursday to pick it up, we , of course, agreed. So straight after breakfast we headed for the office to be told by a different lady that we had booked for Thursday and that they had phoned our room several times and that we had missed the bus. The expedition manager was not in the least it pleased and she let the lady in the office know it. The result was that we were rebooked for Friday, but every time we passed the office the lady called out to remind us the bus left at nine thirty, I took this in fairly good heart, but the expedition manager was all for starting another diplomatic incident. We knew we had booked for Friday, and had we booked for Thursday we would have been there on time.
A quiet salad in our room for supper and we were ready for bed, a big adventure in Suva tomorrow.

A quiet day.
I forgot to mention in my last blog that Rosemarie and I had a very close encounter with the President of Fiji. You may or may not know that Fiji is a military dictatorship.
On our way to catch the bus to Sigatoka we have to leave our room,descend a flight of stairs and then enter a long corridor which takes us to the reception area, on entering the long corridor we noticed two very large men in floral shirts looking at us and as we walked we caught up with a small group of people, the nearest to us dressed very smartly and on his shoulder another gentleman in full military uniform, in front of whom were two more fairly large men.
We said the customary " Bula" the well dressed man turned to look at us and smiled before saying" Bula".  The chap in the military uniform looked us up and down as though we were specks of dust on the Fijian foreshore and said nothing.We overtook this group and arrived in reception to find a fierce looking warrior in a grass skirt carrying an axe who then proceeded to sound a conch horn in front of this group as they descended the stairs. We asked the receptionist who these people were and we were told that it was the President of  Fiji. As Rosemraie said. " Well, I could have leaned forward and touched him!"
This is probably the nearest that either of us will ever get to a dictator.
Wednesday was a quiet day, we took a kayak out in the lagoon for an hour and then snorkelled seeing some amazing fish. Visibility in the water was not all that great as obviously there had been a storm offshore during the night, but we saw some wonderfully exotic fish.
The afternoon was spent reading and swimming and in the evening we ordered one salad from room service, which we split, we really love those plastic plates we purchased in Perth, and which are still with us. The idea of camping out in a resort such as this really appeals to us, we have cheese and crackers and ham for lunch,followed by an apple and have e ononmised in the evening. The hotel computer must think we are hardly eating.
The evening was spoilt by the fact we had to move rooms. We have been complaining for two days that our shower was scolding hot and that we had no cold water. Tonight even the cold water tap was running hot. The hotel in their infinite wisdom offered us the room next door, we couldn't quite see that this was going to solve the problem.
Whilst we moving the plumber arrived to go to room 335 and as we moved we heard them comlplain that their showere was boiling hot and they had no cold water. We took the opportunity to join in the discussion, which went on for some time. As we were now committed to move we did, and to be fair the showere seemed fine , but we shall see what happens. The expedition manager was not at all pleased at having to swop abodes but she did eventually calm down and we are now ensconced in room 329 rather than 327.
Nothing could detract from the joy we had kayaking and snorkelling, a great day, and one we truly enjoyed.

2000 hits.

In the six months I have been writing this there have now been over 2000 hits on this blog from all over the world. So a big thank you to all of you who have shown an interest.
The original purpose of the blog was to keep in touch with family and friends and we have been more than surprised at how popular this blog has appeared to be.

The blog has had readers in the USA, Russia, Venezuela, Chile, Australia, Spain, Latvia, Germany Cambodia, Malaysia and Israel. We don't know people in all of these countries so we are very touched that you have wanted to follow our travels.
This trip was described to start with as a holiday but for both Rosemarie and me it has turned out to more of an educative journey, we have learnt so much about very different cultures. We have met so many interesting people and we have enjoyed your company on the blog site.
We will continue the blog until we finish our journey and then who knows?
We may well start one called landrathome.
Thank you all once again for sticking with us. I can assure all of you that the expedition manager is surprised as I am at the vast number of people who appear to read the blog every day. We did ask once for your comments, but our daughter tells us that these are difficult to post, however have another go at sending us some and we will try to respond.
Who knows by the time we have finished the trip in less than two weeks now we might have reached 2500 hits.

A day trip

Although our resort is lovely there is absolutely nothing outside it , no shops or restaurants so you are in fact a captive tourist. Drinks are relatively cheap compared to England but if you want a bottle of water a litre costs 10 Fijian dollars or three pounds sixty pence, which is pushing the boat out just a little too far.
There is also no snack bar so you can't just go for a sandwich at lunchtime, you have to go for the full restaurant experience. This is fine but does work out rather expensive.
As a result we booked up for 10 dollars each to go on a shopping expedition to the nearest town. The nearest town is Sigatoka and is a bout forty five minutes away by coach.
We were picked up at 9.30 and taken very slowly in an ancient bus to go shopping. This is the same road as we have travelled before and once again there is not a great deal between here and there.
We were dropped off at a the market which was in fact quite a posh shop, the expedition manager and I made our way to a supermarket where illicit supplies were purchased. Several litres of water, eight cans of beer some cheese, ham and crackers, there appeared to be no bread. We also bought some sweet biscuits.we had hoped to purchase some salad items but the only lettuce we found was marked at 14.95 Fijian Dollars a kilo, roughly £5. Obviously one lettuce would have been less than this but it did seem a little exorbitant.
We trawled the fresh vegetable market as well but there was nothing. There was plenty of Okra, Aubergine, and chillies along with carrots and cassava but no tomatoes and no cucumber or lettuce.
This seems odd to us the climate here would seem to suit all of these things and yet obviously they are not grown. On the way home were taken to the obligatory craft shop where the expedition manager made a couple of purchases, one being a pice of art work for us to put on the wall.
So lunch for us will be cheese and ham on crackers with an apple as sweet. By the way we also bought eight cans of beer so the weight of rucksacks on the return journey was somewhat heavier than they have been.
In the afternoon, we sat by the pool and both of us had a swim, before we took a kayak out at low tide, we were very fortunate to see several exotic fish. In the evening we watched a Polynesian
dance troupe and had a cheap meal in the restaurant, both of us finishing the day in at state of happy tiredness,

A quiet day.
We had a late start following all of the excitement on our island yesterday. A peaceful breakfast followed by a quiet kayaking trip, which we both enjoyed before a light lunch in one of the restaurants. It is very difficult to camp out in this hotel as there Re no shops or restaurants anywhere nearby, thus you are in fact a  captive of the hotel.
We cunningly though have booked a shopping trip to the nearest town for tomorrow to stock up with essential supplies and some salad stuff so that we do opened to keep spending money in the restaurants here. We have been further held captive by the fact that this is the Easter weekend and all the shops have been shut for the Easter holiday. I have never been anywhere quite like this, a beautiful location, surrounded by nothing but half deserted fields and tropical forest. The nearest shop must be a ten minute car drive away so possibly thirty minutes walk along the main highway.
We went kayaking again in the afternoon, so you can see how much the expedition manager is enjoying this activity. We also spent some time on the sun beds around the pool and had a swim. It is a joy for me to be able to swim in warm water.
It is very hard to get your head around Fiji, there is no apparent industry, apart from farming and tourism, although there was small scale engineering around Nadi. There appears to be great poverty, but no one is starving, there are no beggars, and the gardens around the houses are well kept. The houses themselves look very basic, four walls and a corrugated tin roof. Most appear to have electricity although there Re no or few streetlights. The people are incredibly friendly and shout at you from the roadside with a friendly"Bula" (Hello) rather than a string of invective.they are always smiling and genial although they are on the large side.
In the evening we had decided to go to a Japanese restaurant in the hotel, once we had determined it was not all raw fish, I might add. This proved to be a theatrical experience, the chef was a real variety turn. Everything was cooked on a hot plate in front of us , and there was plenty of opportunity for the chef to display his culinary skills. He cooked fried rice and for this spears and eg thinly across the grill so it was about two feet long , he turned this into a very thin omelette and then asking Rosemarie to hold one end of a napkin and another guest sat at forty five degrees the other end, chopped the egg into the napkin at incredible speed.
He then put the cooked rice mix into bowls, he flicked one bowl in a complete somersault into a fellow diner's hands, he flicked another bowl in a somersault onto a plate I held so the rice fell out upside down, and finally flicked a third bowl about six feet to another diner, who had to catch it very much like a slip fielder in Cricket. In between all this he juggled with the salt and pepper mils and cooked a meal for six of us sat around the grill. Rosemarie and I shared prawns and a wasabi steak dish and they were both delicious . Our fellow guests, two New Zealanders and two Australians were all good company and we enjoyed our evening together. The couple from Australia were celebrating their first wedding anniversary, so Rosemarie and I bought everyone a drink to celebrate that. The meal flew by partly because the chef was so entertaining.
And so to bed.

A true desert island experience (almost)

We were up before six to be ready for our pick up at 7.15. Room service provided breakfast and we enjoyed that sitting on our balcony.
The bus stopped at every hotel on the way to the Port of Denarau and picked clients up, as we were the first pick up we were on the bus for over 3 hours arriving in Denarau at 10.30.
We were shown to our sailing ship and having boarded set sail for the Island of Tivua. This took an hour and a half but who cares, we were cruising in the South Pacific past several little islands, the scenery was marvellous, little islands with golden beaches over shadowed by bigger islands often some way off all set in the clearest sea I have ever seen under a bright blue sky.
On arrival at the island we were offloaded onto smaller boats to get us ashore. The whole island was just as you imagine golden beaches, pristinely clear water , palm trees and it took all of six minutes to walk around it.
We had a Cava ceremony , we tasted this national drink and both of us disliked it. It looks like the water you might take from a muddy puddle. After the ceremony there were several activities on offer, we went kayaking, had a wonder ride in a glass bottom boat over the coral reef and before we knew it it was time for lunch.
Lunch was a barbecue with salads and it was very tasty. After lunch Elias gave us our first snorkelling lesson and the expedition manager suddenly became the expedition diver. After almost mastering the basics, Elias took us out onto the reef so that we could see the very colourful fish there and allowed us to touch the coral to see it change colour. This was without doubt one of the most magical moments of this journey, We both said afterwards that snorkelling was not something we thought we would every do.
After our snorkelling adventure it was time to pack up to leave, and we sailed back to Denarau, they did set the mainsail and a jib and the catamaran we were on looked wonderful to us. As we sailed back to port we were serenaded by a trip of Fijian musicians and we enjoyed their traditional songs.
Once we were back on the bus we had another two and half hours before we got home, so on arrival at our hotel we looked and felt like two,well used sponges. A light meal and bed ended a day we shall both  dream about for some considerable time.

Saturday
After peace had been declared we were shown to a rather nice room and then went to the Italian restaurant for a light meal. We slept in late on Saturday and gradually got to know our new surroundings.
The resort is large has a long sea front and beautiful gardens.
In the afternoon we decided to have a go at kayaking in a double plastic kayak. As it was low tide we were only allowed about halfway out into the lagoon but we had a great time and soon struck a rhythm. The expedition manger was very pleased with herself and enjoyed it so much that she wants to do it again. I did point out it is a little different from kayaking in England on a cold December day.
However, the expedition manager likes to keep me on my toes so who knows where these new adventures will take us.
The coral and the sponges we saw beneath us were magnificent.
In the evening we had a beach barbecue for dinner , unfortunately it was held indoors because the weather was a little unpredictable. The food itself was a little disappointing, however it is hard I suppose to barbecue for hundreds of people and keep it fresh tasting.
After dinner we watched a Fijian dance group who performed traditional dances to thumping beat versions of ancient songs. They were very entertaining performing fire dances and a machete balancing dance that was worth seeing. We had to go to bed fairly early as we had to be up at some ungodly hour on Sunday to visit a desert island.

We're on the the road again part two

For some reason the blog machine failed to let me continue so I have had to start again.

Eventually the receptionist said that we should register and come back and sort everything else out tomorrow.
We declined this offer and pressed on until peace was declared, the booking was found and we were upgraded from a garden view room to an ocean view room. All is well that ends well. The expedition manager even apologised to the receptionist for declaring war and open hostility.
We ended our day with an Italian meal in Fiji and made our way wearily to bed. It was an Italian meal or a Japanese meal as these were the only restaurants open, just in case you were wondering.

We're on the road again.

Had we realised it was the Easter weekend we would have stayed at Andy and Sally's until the Easter holiday was over, but as there was nothing we could do about it we were forced to travel on Good Friday. Sometimes when you plan six months in advance you miss the really easy things.
After a quiet breakfast Philip and Sally drove us to the airport and we ar Ives in plenty of time, I have to say I have never seen Gisborne airport so busy, a plane. Full of people were waiting to get away for Easter, and two plane loads were waiting for relatives to arrive for Easter.
The plane was a few minutes late but we were ready, Andy joined us at the airport but as were delayed by ten to fifteen minutes said he had to make his farewells and go back to work. I think he was fighting back the tears. Eventually our flight was called, you could write,the flight was called ,because it was the only one. Then there were tears from Rosemarie and Sally and we all knew something very special had come to an end.
The flight to Auckland was smooth and we were a little late but as we had thre hours to waste it was no problem to us. The nice people at Gisborne had put our bags through to Fiji so we didn't have to collect them and we strolled from the domestic terminal to the international terminal.
In the terminal the expedition planner and chef do combat decided to take on the whole Fijian rugby team who were jumping the queue, despite giving away. About two and a half feet in height and several stone in weight she expressed her anger in no uncertain terms and jumped in ahead of quite a large chp, well he certainly towered over me. She was helped in her battle by the check in desk assistant who was desperately trying to get the rugby team into the right line but who was failing gloriously. I think Rosemarie should have been put in charge of queue formation at Auckland airport there is a definite vacancy there and she seems to have all the necessary skills and aptitude for the job.
The flight to Nadi was very bumpy and we were served a chicken sandwich for lunch. I have never tasted anything quite like it, it was however helped down with a very strong gin and tonic. Perhaps the cabin crew had been warned not to upset the expedition manager.
Our arrival at Nadi airport went smoothly and everything was going fine until Rosemarie went off to get a Fijian SIM card. The problem here was that we wanted the the travel company to rearrange our transfer back to the hotel from the first of April to the twelfth of April. This didn't seem to go down very well but part of it appeared to be our complete inability to get our argument across. Eventually after several minutes discussion the light bulb went on in the tour operatives head and she said she would send an e mail to the relevant person.
We were then introduced to our driver, Andy, and we loaded our bags into the back of  a minibus and set off. Andy was a cheerful soul full of conversation and with a pleasant wave or a honk of the horn to everybody and every thing. He insisted in shouting"Bula" to every  horse, dog or cow that crossed our path. He did tell us that his house had been destroyed in the cyclone that had hit Fini in January and that he and his family were living in a tent. Two hours later we arrived at our hotel. For the first hour we were able to see something of Fiji, which is very green and obviously very poor but the second hour was in darkness.

By this time we were very tired. The expedition manager was not ina particularly good mood at this point, and our registration proved to be a bit traumatic, the original four day say was found easily enough but our booking through a web based company could not at first be found. We drew up outr trusty iPad and showed the email to her and using the reference number she found the booking, the receptionist, then demanded, stupidly I thought that we print off the page and give it to her. This did not go down well with mission control, I was suddenly faced with a complete diplomatic incident. We were asked to log on at a terminal in reception and forward the emai to the receptionist, what is it about tiredness that makes you lose all of your marbles. First of we couldn't find the email and then once we had it on the screen we could've work out how to forward it. This was duly achieved but only with a modicum of good grace from the expedition manager, who kept telling me  over ahow

Stupid the receptionist was

Thursday
A day for the master packer.
The day started with yet another trip to the travel agent. I now know this office like the back of my hand and  can describe the chips on the desk and the scratches in the paint . The purpose of this morning's meeting was to pay for the tickets to England. Having established a price we went to the bank to widraw the money as Andy had Sally's card in his pocket at home.
Sally then withdrew the required amount  in cash and back we went to the travel agents all of 200 yards away.
The money was counted and the deal was done. I have to say Sally seemed very excited indeed. We then went to the Warehouse, a bit like Quality Seconds and bought our self some rocks goes for the princely sum of nine dollars a pair.(£4.50). These were purchased because the coral shore in Fiji is very sharp and Sally's friend Judy thought they might be useful.
Another and final trip to the supermarket followed, all of us forgetting this was Maundy Thursday and as the shop were to be shut over the Easter weekend, mass panic buying was taking place with the whole world and their dogs.
Back home for lunch, where Andy appeared to be very confused about what was happening and then the master packer swung in to military mode and with SAS like efficiency packed both the suitcases and the rucksacks.
I have to say I was very impressed, my job whilst this was going on was to download another 2000 photographs onto our memory and to make sure that Andy and Sally had a copy of all the photos we had taken whilst we were with them.
When Andy returned from work we walked to the Gisborne Wine Centre where we had some lovely Gisborne wines and a mixed platter. Gisborne wines were very good indeed.
The walk home was a little sad and we all retired to bed with that final day of the holiday feeling.I have to say here that Andy and Sally's sofa bed had been causing my back all sorts of problems as it is so soft, I asked Andy for a couple of boards to put under the mattress and this was my second night of the "new" bed. I slept much better and my back no longer ached, so who could ask for more. I only wish I had asked for the boards before.

Wednesday

A trip to the coast.
The day started with another trip to the travel agents, this time to see if Sally could get a ticket. She had decided that she would accompany Andy to England for the wedding. This was duly achieved and yes she could get a toilet on the same day for the same price. Both tickets were then put on hold for twenty four hours. A whole lot of secrecy went into this. After buying the tickets we had to takeAndy's lunch out to him as he had forgotten it. He rang us to say thank you and Sally used the opportunity to tell him she would be coming to England as well, he did seem a bit dumbstruck.
We then drove to Mahia to have lunch on the beach and the three of us had a great day out. Lunch on a picnic table overlooking the ocean and a post prandial stroll along a deserted beach.
All too soon we had to head back to pick Andy up from work at five o'clock.
We had arranged to the Andy Sally and Philip out for an evening meal to say thank you and Sally had phone the Wharf restaurant to make a reservation.
We walked to the restaurant and were shown to a table, when booking Sally had been told they were starting a new stone grill range, but when the menus came there was no sign of it.we asked where it was to be told they didn't do stone grilling at all, at which point it transpired that Sally had booked an entirely different restaurant. The Wharf took great delight in telephoning the other restaurant to tell them we would not be turning up. The meal was Ok although they charged us six dollars for some extra bread and none of us felt we would be rushing back there.

Tuesday A day of jubilation and disaster

Behind the scenes there has been a great deal of secret planning to get Andy to Emma's wedding in England in June and the master planner has been very heavily involved. So in the morning we went off to the travel agent to book his flight. As it transpired we put his flight in hold for twenty four hours to see if we could achieve a better deal on the Interweb.
We returned home complete with passport form, as his passport had expired and when he returned home for lunch he was presented with a fait accompli. He was genuinely surprised and overcome. After lunch I took Andy back to work and drove the car home again as we needed it in the afternoon.
We needed to go to a supermarket ket to do some shopping and so we set off joyous at our success at stunning Andrew. I parked n the supermarket car park so that I and to back out at ninety degrees.
The shopping was successfully accomplished and on our return to the car we stowed the shopping and I set out to get the car out of a tight spot.

The blog has been very honest and this is the point where I castigate myself. As I started to reverse, Rosemarie n the back seat alerted me to a white car approaching from my left so I turned to keep an eye on that and in doing so reversed straight into a red car parked illegally behind me which I didn't see. So there I was devastated , we stopped to inspect the damage , a severely dented front wing and left a not to apologise and to leave our telephone number so that the the owner could contact us.In thousands of kilometres of driving this was my first incident and I was really upset with myself. In fact I was nigh on inconsolable. As Sally pointed out , no one was hurt, the car was parked in an illegal position, certainly not in an allocated parking space, and no one else in the car had seen it. None of that made me feel any better.

Meanwhile the test with New Zealand was going on and England were in a desperate position holding on for a draw.so on our return home we we watched that for a long time before heading off to Andy's place of work to join him and some of the residents for fine dining. I felt awful having to speak to Andy about the accident but he was very forgiving. We watched the last few balls of the test and England hung out for a draw, it seemed to me that the whole country had stopped to watch the last thirty minutes or so of an absorbing contest.
The meal was good although I was so angry with myself I didn't feel like eating and Sally gave me a good telling off. It is amazing even though I knew  I was insured how low this incident brought me.
I didn't even pick up when we got home.
I have tried to be very honest about what happened here, and what I felt, it would be easy to have ignored this incident, and certainly there is nothing to laugh about in it. So I need to learn from my mistake and move on.

Monday resting

Poor Andy had to go back to work this morning so we pottered around during the day. I went off in to Gisborne to get my hair cut and whilst this was taking place Sally and Rosemarie went shopping. This does not necessarily sound like a good idea.

I was told to introduce myself to the barber as Andy's brother in law and did just that. He immediately took pity on me and told me that no one deserved that fate. I in my turn asked him to cut my hair fairly short, this was possibly a mistake as he then went on to remove most of it from my scalp. Perhaps I should just have asked for a trim. It is always a bit worrying when one goes to a strange barber and in this case I do appear to have got exactly what I asked for literally.

Sally and Rosemarie didn't actually buy anything which was a good thing. We did go to a few more shops and the expedition manager did find a pair of shorts that fitted her and so they were duly purchased.

In the evening various friends came to Andy and Sally's to meet and greet us. I was allowed I to the kitchen to create a plate of salami and a tomato salad. The evening went very quickly and we all had a good time. 

Two really quiet days like the ones we have just had are just what we needed. There is something about being constantly on the move which leads you to look forward to a day of rest and relaxation, I managed to finish a book that I didn't want to carry on any further.

One of the good things we did was visit the post office to send another parcel home. In fact we talked to a lady in the post office about the best way to do this and ended up purchasing a ten kilo box.

On our return we had the dubious joy of sifting through our worldly belongings and  sorting out what we could send back to England. After the difficult decisions had been made the master packer then got on with stuffing the items into the box, Stuffing is not the word the master packer would use.

This is a job that requires high level skills, rigid self discipline and a high degree of organisation.

All of these were duly put into place and the box was packed only to discover that a couple of items had been left out. Such is life.

A lazy Sunday
With so much travelling under our belt we were ready for a lazy Sunday. Another late ish start followed by breakfast out. This is an Antipodean habit that we could easily get into. We sat at Gisborne Wharf in the bright sunshine enjoying bacon and eggs. The only fly in the ointment was that Andy wanted his poached eggs well done so our breakfasts all arrived apart from Andy's which didn't arrive until he went looking for it about ten minutes later.
After our very pleasant breakfast we headed off to Warehouse to get Andy some workshops and then made our way to the joys of Pak n Save which reminded the two of us of Norman's several years ago. Card board boxes piled high above narrow alleys of goods.
This was clearly to be a day of  shopping as after the supermarket we drove to a farm to get some vegetables.
The afternoon was take up with the cricket and generally taking life easy before a dinner of steak cooked on the barbecue. All in all a relaxing day.
My views on the North island after our travels is that it it is very different to the South Island. The Bay of Islands was truly spectacular and one of our favourite places was the town of Russell. It had history in abundance, the town and the sea front was an easy walk from the campsite and the pub and the beer was good. Sitting on the seahore outside the pub watching two weddings processing down the esplanade to celebrate wil stay with us for a long time. We also liked the Coromandel peninsula and some of the beaches we have been on we have been fantastic.
The people have been very friendly and both us have been extremely well received everywhere we have been. There are still complete areas we haven't explored mainly because the expedition manager couldn't fit them in so I suppose that means we will have to come back again. Quelle domage.

Taupo to Gisborne

We were up at a reasonable hour knowing that we had a long drive ahead of us. There had been some talk of going out for breakfast but this was vetoed by the back bench committee and we finished our remaining pack of bacon with the last six slices of bread we had and some tomatoes. It turned out to be a very good breakfast.
The night had been somewhat spoilt by some noisy revellers who had kicked off at about two thirty am. However we were bright eyed and bushy tailed and after a little drive along the lakeside stopped to get some fresh bread for lunch and then headed off on the road home.
The drive out of Taupo was fine and we headed up towards Rotorua before turning onto the road to Murupara. This was a fairly boring drive along a flat plain through forests and onto the town of Murupara itself. We stopped there to visit the toilet and that may well have been a mistake. The town itself appeared to very depressed and the back seat committee refused to get out of the car at the toilets we found. I said if any one approached with a car jack they were to be repelled. However, with Rosemarie in the back of the car it would take a brave soul to try and steal the wheels.
The town had one of those odd feelings about it and Sally thought it was very much a drug town. Anyway off we set again with me at the wheel. Twenty kilometres further on the hard road surface ran out and we were driving on a dirt track.
Bear in mind now that this was one of new Zealand's major highways the equivalent of an A road in Britain. The road was narrow and wound its way up a fairly steep mountain, a safe speed to me seemd to be about 40 kmph and Andy agreed. We came across road works, where the road narrowed and at one point a "Give Way " sign which had been out up just before a blind bend to the right. Apparently I held oth hands up and exclaimed "Give  Way, Give way to what? The back seat committee thought this was highly funny but Areed that they couldn't see a thing.
We averaged about thirty five kilometres an hour for the next two hours but eventually arrived at Lake Waikaremoana where were greeted with some beautiful views of the lake.
Luncheon was taken at a motor camp site by the lake in a rather cold wind before we headed off towards Gisborne.
The expedition photographer and naturalist was delighted with her day's work. We had seen horses, a small roe deer, wild goats, four hawks sat in the road, and some sheep. In addition we saw a feral cat a donkey and some llamas. The hawks were very camera shy and all of them flew away before we had a good chance to get a quality photograph of them.
We arrived back in Gisborne at about five thirty and had fish and chips for supper before all of us fell into our beds at a very early hour.
The regal tour part two was over, but all of us had had a great time.

New Plymouth to Lake Taupo

We got away fairly early but not before Andy had bought a cold box off some English people who were heading home that day. They were asking fifteen dollars for it but Andy beat them down to ten, this was quite a good price seeing it included six cold blocks.
The problem for us was fitting the new addition into an already crowded boot. This required careful planning and several attempts to get it right. However eventually a careful plan evolved and we were able to get everything in, mainly by the simple ruse of collapsing the material cold box we had and putting the stuff from that into what the New Zealanders charmingly call a chilly bin.
We had planned to go and see some caves but before those we decided to visit some famous gardens in New Plymouth. We found the gardens easily and spent some time walking around the Great Lake and then we looked at the fernery  and the begonia house, where the blooms were fantastic. All of us agreed we would rather do that than spend some time afternoon.
The stroll we had took over an hour and we had to make a decision to press on. Well Andy and I thought we were pressing on but the joint navigators decided we should visit a walkway at Waitara, a little town , about ten miles out of New Plymouth, along the coast.
We had to stop at a garage to get some petrol and asked the attendant the way to the walkway, she almost fell about laughing. She pointed us in the general direction of the beach and was still chuckling when we left the garage. We found the beach and enquirer about the walkway again. The surfer we asked pointed out to us a rough path through the bush which we declined. We drove along the sea front and eventually found a boardwalk which ran from the sea front to the river mouth and along the river into the town. As it was of no length we decided not to walk it and carried on tot look for the white cliffs walkway ten kilometres further along the coast. This proved equally elusive although we did get to the beach at Oanero, where we found a little road that drove through a golf course and ended up at a semi permanent camp site on the beach front. We walked down onto the beach and took some photographs but couldn't find the white cliffs walkway. At this point we decided to look for a rock formation called the three sisters, but unfortunately they were  hiding as well and so well were they camouflaged that we were unable to verify their existence.
The drive along to Mokau was interesting and firmly spectacular. We stopped in Mokau to get a pie and took them as takeaways down to the beach which again was composed of black sand. It was hot again and we enjoyed our stop.
We drove to Te Kuiti and having decided not to visit the caves drove a quiet road to Mangakino, stopping for an ice cream on the way, this was a drive through remote countryside mainly sheep grazing and very small villages. We drove into Mangakino because two friends of Andy and Sally's came from there. We were singularly unimpressed with the town. The drive form there to Taupo was short and we began the search for a motel, we found we liked the look off on the lake front and Andy, with his great diplomatic skills was sent in to reception to negotiate. He returned saying  that had a room for three hundred dollars overlooking the lake or one at the back for two hundred dollars. We decided the cheaper one would do us. We sent Andy back in to complete the deal and then had to follow the receptionist to our room. We went out of the motel into a back street and at this point all of us wondered where we were going. We were led to what looked like a house and were more than delighted when it turned out to be a veritable palace. There was a huge hall and bedroom with a queen bed in it down stairs along with an en suite bathroom. There was also a huge lounge with a single bed and a sink and kettle. Upstairs there was an enormous lounge with a balcony, a dining area and another bedroom with a queen bed and en suite bathroom. This was clearly the best accommodation we had had in two weeks travelling.
After unpacking the car we walked into Taupo, had a drink in a pub, where the staff needed lessons in friendliness. We then strolled through the town and stopped to look in several closed shops. Again good planning paid clear dividends.
We made our way back to the house and sat on the balcony, where we watched the sunset over the large area of lake we could see and then had a tea of food which had been left over, a steak salad with avocado, tomatoes and cheese and biscuits to follow. Who could ask for more?

Wanganui to New Plymouth

Another hot and sunny day dawned and we were up and off fairly early having decided to take the coast road. We did have to go back into town to try the dress on, which highly unfortunately did not fit. 

We found the coast road fairly easily,but it proved to be a misnomer as it really didn't go very close to the coast at all.

We did find a lunch spot at Opunake on the beach. The spot was lovely but was spoilt by a cold wind and some local youths drinking on the beach in a no liquor spot. In the afternoon we visited several small beaches all uninhabited and at one narrowly missed seeing some Orca whales. We were told three whales had been seen from the beach swimming a few hundred yards out. However we were unable to see them at all. 

We did find a pair of flip flops for Andy on one beach apparently abandoned by their previous owner.

Andy was truly delighted that they were his size. We arrived in New Plymouth and found our room fairly easily. 

The excitement began when we had to find a supermarket to get necessary supplies. The expedition navigator got a bit teasy with Andy when he wouldn't follow her directions, but we did eventually find a supermarket and after that an outdoor shop for Andy to investigate.

The next thing was for all of us to find the beach so that Andy could go fishing. This required directions from the receptionist on the camp site and we found it very easily. Sally, the expedition manager and me all went for a walk along the famous New Plymouth boardway, which isn't a true boardway at all, being made of giant concrete slabs. 

We started by walking east away from Andy and after a kilometre or two we retraced our steps and walked back to see Andy, before walking westward back to our campsite. This took as slightly longer than we had thought due to the paucity of the map provided. We eventually found our way home worrying that Andy might have given up fishing and returned before us. Luckily he had not.

Another good meal and a bottle of wine followed by a fairly early  night marked the end of a really pleasant day.

Flemington to Wanganui

We left Flemington fairly early and headed off to Palmerston North to see Sally's niece and her partner. Rex had drawn us a map of the route using back roads on the back of an envelope and we used this to find our way.

Our first stop was at a woollen factory shop in Norseman where the expedition manager managed to us two nice Marino tops fairly cheaply.Andy bought some socks and Sally and I got nothing!!!

On to Palmerston North where we found Hannah's workplace fairly easily and then picked up her partner, Tracey before heading off to a bakery for lunch.

In the bakery, the expedition nutritionist said that we could all have pies and so we did. The pies were excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch.

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and we headed off to Wanganui where Andy negotiated a good deal for a motel suite close to the centre of town. 

In contrast to yesterday the day was hot and sunny and after we had unpacked we headed off for a trip up a hill in an escalator built in 1916. It cost us two dollars each to go up and two dollars each to come down. The view was worth the cost and Andrew and  I went up another tower to make the view even more spectacular.

After the hill we decided to drive off and look at the coast which proved to be slightly elusive. Not nay was it quite difficult to find but there was also a dreadful smell the beach with black sand was nothing to write home about. 

After the beach we had the obligatory tour of the shops in Wanganui and the expedition manager found a dress she felt she needed to try on. As with all careful planning we had of course arrived when the shops were shut. However she was so taken with this dress that she resolved we would have to go back in the morning and try the dress on.

Back to the motel we sat outside n the sun enjoying a beer before starting to prepare tea. We needed too run the oven on but none of us could work out how to light it and Andy had to go and ask the receptionist who came back with him to show us idiots how to so it.

A good tea, a good bottle of wine and we were ready for bed. Another wonderful day in North Island.

Napier to Beth
Apparently we didn't have too far to travel today and therefore we had a fairly leisurely start. We drove into Napier and went up Napier Hill to look down on the town. We did get a spectacular view of the harbour and the container port and watched a train full of logs arrive. After this we drove down to the town and wandered around the shops for a while looking mainly in second hand shops for a waterproof coat for Andy. We did buy some rolls for lunch and then made our way out of Napier heading for the Greenfield's shopping centre where we had been assured there was a very good sewing shop.
This was important as the expedition manager had decided that she wanted to do some cross stitch to while the hours away. The next hour was spent looking for a suitable cross stitch pattern, which we eventually found.
By this time we needed somewhere for lunch and found a suitable picnic table near a river. This was a delightful spot that was only spoilt by the driving rain and the cold wind. Again I was put in a dangerous situation as this was a tsunami flood area and there were warnings all over the place. Andy's put the car at ninety degrees to the table to stop the wind and we all sat huddled up eating our sandwiches.
As you can imagine this was a fairly quick lunch stop and we headed off to Hastings where we had a good look around the shops in the rain. What sort of town is it that has hanging baskets that a six foot man can walk into?  The flowers were very pretty but also quite dangerous for tall people.
More second hand shops were dutifully investigated and no waterproof was found.
We did spend some time in a hunting and fishing shop where Andy thoroughly inspected their stock of fishing gear.
After Hastings we set off to Waipukurau to see Sally's sister, Beth, who was looking after her grandchildren . At Waipukarau we visited yet another second hand shop which was not a second hand shop at all, we felt it had been represented as the "best second hand shop in NZ".
Beth had had a hard day teaching and when her daughter Rachel came home, we handed over child are responsibilities to her and headed off to Beth's house at Flemington about fifteen kilometres away.
We had a really pleasant evening with Beth and her husband Rex before heading off to bed.

The Gannet trip

We drove down to Napier and tried to book into Kennedy Park, talk about coincidence, but we were too early. The purpose of the day was to go to Cape Kidnappers to see the gannet colony. So having been refused entry to the holiday park we drove up to the site of the tour and had our lunch at a picnic table on the beach.

This was a windy lunch and after watching Andy fish for a while we headed off to get our tickets.
This proved to be another dangerous trip , much in keeping with many other trips we have been on, I am required to do dangerous things, like stay in a tsunami flood area or cross a major road four or five times just for the sake of it.

The trip to the gannet colony involved a nine kilometre trip along the beach on a trailer attached to a tractor. The trip started at low tide but even then we had to go in and out of the sea and get our feet wet. It was quite exciting. At the end of the nine kilometre trip we had to climb a huge cliff to see the gannets on their nests. As we arrived on the top of the cliff we were met by a seventy mile an hour wind and we had paid for this!!!! Personally I felt the whole trip should have resulted in me getting danger money.
Luckily for us at this point the sun was shining, but as we arrived back on the beach to catch the tractor home it started to rain. This was the first time it had seriously rained all the time we had been in NZ. We needed up sat on the trailer holding a blue tarpaulin firmly over our heads. The expedition photographer took about three hundred photographs of the gannets which is par for the course. It was a little difficult to work out how to hold on to the tarpaulin with one hand and the safety rail with the other. This was fairly hard but I also had to look after the expedition photographer and stop her falling off the trailer in her eagerness to take photographs.

On the way back to the starting point of the trip we came across a broken down quad bike on the beach so the tractor stopped and we ended up towing the quad bike and its two occupants along the beach as well. If we had not done this the quad bike would have been lost at the next high tide!!
 The trip took four hours in total and we arrived back at seven fifteen, there then followed a race to get back to the camp site, 20 kilometres away before eight o clock when reception shut. We managed this but of course had had no meal so we enquired if the restaurant on site was open. We were assured it was but were told we had to go to it immediately, as if they had no customers they would shut down. We dropped our worldly belongings off in our room and raced to the restaurant to find all the lights turned out. I managed to find an open door and started shouting and the two teenagers, apparently in charge, told us the  restaurant was shut but we could, have take always. As a result we all ordered fish and chips and having had a beer whilst we waited took our meals back to our room to eat.
We each had two little bits of fish and a mountain of chips. Still we were fed and the bottle of wine we shared made sure we went to bed fairly contented.

The weekend.
Joy of joys we were allowed to sleep in until eight o clock. After breakfast we were off to the local farmers' market which was almost over by the time we got there.
By the time we had got home David had rung to invite us all to lunch at a local winery. Andy took this as s signal to go and get the car washed and I volunteered to go with him. So far so good, until we got to the car wash and realised that neither of us had any money. After the return to the garage   I realised I had had my credit card with me all the time so I could have paid the first time around.
As a result we had to return home to get some money and by the time we had done this David and Zoe had arrived to take Rosemarie to lunch, so off we all went to the winery where we had a fine meal.
The afternoon passed fairly quickly and in the evening we headed off to Lee and Jane's for a barbecue , which was really nice.
The evening was pleasantly warm, and having been attacked by bugs the night before I was well prepared this time having applied insect repellant  before we left.
Lee did a really good job with the meal and we had a great time.A lovely evening with family.
Sunday dawned and we spent a quiet morning before heading of to  the airport to see David  and Zoe off at 12.30.
Having arrived and paid for our parking we learnt that Zoe had misread their email and that they had missed the plane. Several phone calls alter they were rebooked onto different flights, and we headed off into town to have lunch together which David very kindly bought.
 After lunch we headed back to the airport again to say goodbye to David and Zoe for the second time and we were there to ensure that they finally left. Airports are very soulless places and to spend so much time there on a weekend is not good for us. There is nothing like being at an airport when there is no one else around.
The afternoon passed peacefully and we had a lovely barbecue in the evening before heading for our beds.  A fine weekend.

Wahai to Gisborne
Up at a relatively early time for a long day because we had decided to go down the eastern coast back to Gisborne. We all packed in the car and had handed the key back when Andy, innocently asked if Sally had taken the fish he had caught that morning out of the freezer.
By way of explanation, Andy had got up at the crack of dawn to go fishing on the beach and had caught a fair sized red snapper. After the obligatory photographs of big male hunter with prize catch the fish had been gutted, a ceremony I was invited to attend and then placed in the freezer to make sure it was cold enough to travel.
Anyway, Andy thought Sally had packed it but she hadn't and if we had got much further the fish would have been left in the freezer.
We had to park the car and Andy raced off to reception in a manner similar to Usain Bolt retrieved the key and rescued the fish. Peace and calm were restored in the car.
The first part of the journey although interesting was fairly routine. We stopped for a pie in Opoteke and enjoyed both that and a cake afterwards. It is hard to believe that the national dish of New Zealand is the humble meat pie, which comes in all sorts of flavours. Steak and onion, mince, steak and bacon, steak and cheese to name a few. Interestingly we parked next to a cockroach control van and had a joke with him about whether or not he was often asked to park at the back of food premises. The driver had only stopped for his lunch.
The afternoon drive back along the coast was glorious.the sun shone, we had an ice cream and on the way home we stopped to see David and Zoe and Lee and Jane.
We only stayed there for a short visit as we had to shoot off to Gisborne to get fish and chips, the fish was enjoyed by everybody and we retired to bed exhausted.

Oweira to Waihi

After a night of traffic interrupted by noisy lorries we were up at seven for the long journey to Waihi.
We stopped on the way at Thames , a town at the foot of the Cormandel where we went to a quilting exhibition. The exhibition wasn't very special but the people were extremely friendly and the expedition leader seemed to have a fine time. She was loing for a cross stitch to do but we couldn't find one.
We also could not find a bakery to get some rolls for lunch even though we walked around the block for a while. Andy decided to take matters into his own hands and went back into the quilting exhibition to ask one of the ladies to recommend a bakery. He and Sally then went off to find it in a completely different direction to the one we had originally set out in.

We had decided to travel around the Coromandel peninsula and the next thing was to find a lunch stop. After refusing several picnic tables I being at this time the driver, found a bench next to the sea, where wer put our blanket on the ground and Andy went fishing. I was given some grief by the expedition manager for not finding a picnic table and lo and behold when lunch was over, we travelled 150 yards down the road to find a picnic table cunningly hiding behind a tree invisible from where we had had lunch.

The drive around the Coromandel was beautiful apart form one logging truck which tried to force us off the road on a bend in a very narrow section. My manager was all for having serious words with him, but as we had had to come to a grinding halt, he had continued on his merry way without a cre on his mind.
We had decided to have an ice cream on the way  but Andy who was driving by now filed to find an ice cream shop in any of the towns or small villages we passed through. So we eventually drives in Waihi and Andrew almost fell over himself in his rush to get down the beach to fish.
We n packed and went to join Andy on the beach where we watched him fish for a while. I had to return to expedition HQ as I was getting cold. Andy did catch a little fish, but it was upsetting ly too small and he had to put it back.
We had a great piece of steak for tea, a couple of bottles of wine  and spent a convivial evening chatting, enjoying listening to the sounds of the crashing surf. Who could ask for more?

Ruawai to Oweira

The morning started with an inspection of the milking parlour at Paul's farm, luckily all the cows had been through it and we were treated to viewing without any animals. This was a huge circular parlour which could hold something like 75 cows at a time.

We also got to look at the new slurry pit which was being dug which was about the size of an Olympic  swimming pool.

The parlour was not the highlight of the day however. Next we were off to the kumara(sweet potato)
Packing plant where Sally's niece showed us around, we saw the washing plant, the grading room and the packing process. Sally's father had been one of the first to grow kumara, however at the end of a scintillating tour we weren't even given any free samples. However we were given some pens and some recipe sheets, which was very kind of them.

Onwards to the kauri museum with an entrance fee of twenty five dollars each.this didn't sound very interesting but in fact held us spellbound for almost three hours. The history of the kauri tree and its valuable gum used in varnish Lino and paint was extremely interesting. One of the exhibits was a boarding house with different rooms showing different occupations, dentist, doctor, gum buyer etc.
One room was taken up with digging the Kauri gum out, another as a saw mill and there were several interesting gum exhibits. the gum looks very similar to amber one of the expedition manager's favourite gemstones. Luckily we didn't buy anything.

Outside of the museum we visited the pioneers' church and an early school. All in all avery interesting trip. As we were running late we had a pie in the cafe opposite the museum, which was OK but that is about all.
The trip to Orewa was fairly quick and we booked ourselves into the Hibiscus Palms motel.We had a walk along the beach and went to the supermarket for some much needed supplies, before Matt and Hayley came and joined us for the evening. We all went for a Thai meal which was also a little disappointing, in that it had no heat whatsoever. All in all this had been a pretty bad day for food.
We all returned to our motel room and spent some time chatting on our verandah, before Matt and Hayley went home and we all retired to our beds.

Russell to Ruawai

We were up relatively early and started on the road to see Sally's family on her home farm.
Our first stop was at Waitangi where the Maoris first signed a treaty with the British. This now a national site and was free for Andrew and Sally as New Zealand residents, but cost Rosemarie and I 25 dollars each.it seems to me that this is an oppressive tax on foriegners. The site is massive and beautifully looked after with magnificent views of the Bay of Islands. We visited the Maori meeting hall with some of the finest carvings we have seen anywhere in NZ. We also saw the official British residence set up now as a museum, which was really interesting. We walked down the hill to look at the longest war canoe in the world and then set off on the road again. This whole trip took about two hours and was very interesting both historically and in terms of the scenery.
The weather was good and we stopped in the forest to see Tane Mahuta, a giant Kauri tree in the forest. This tree is huge about a hundred feet around its girth and over a 120 feet tall.
We also walked down to see the four sisters, some slightly smaller kauri trees. These trees are very impressive and are lucky to have survived the logging of the twentieth century and now they are  almost national icons.
The drive through the forest was interesting and we made good time to Paul and Tina's house where we had a really pleasant evening with them and Peter and Jacky as well was Pam and herm partner and  Tony and his partner who spent most of the evening outside.
All too soon it was time to go to bed.

Off to the far North

Another bright day and we were up with the late larks to make the trip up Cape Reinga to the very northernmost point of New Zealand.
I should have mentioned in my last blog that several people seemed totally bored by a trip we took yesterday for wich they had paid fifty pounds and that a couple actually seemed to sleep all the way through it. One Asian girl in particular huddled down with her hood up and seemed to sleep most of the way.  She had to leave the boat when we got to the island but once we were back on board went back to sleep again.
The drive up to the Northern Cape took a little longer than we had thought. In fact it took us about four hours including a stop to get bread for lunch and petrol. Andy had asked someone in the campsite how long it would take and they said two and a half  hours so we were obviously doing something wrong.
The Cape itself after miles of windswept desolate countryside was worth the drive. The coast line scenery was fantastic and the sun shone for us. I imagine it to be a fairly desolate place if it is pouring down with rain and and a gale is blowing.
The Maoris have declared it a sacred site and ask people not to eat and drink there a request blissfully ignored by some people we saw who were busily making their sandwiches on one of the benches.
We walked up a hill overlooking the site although Andy refused to do this as he had walked up two hills the day before and then we went out to the obligatory lighthouse, all in the most brilliant sunshine.
By the time we got back to the car it was time for lunch and Sally said she remembered some tables a little way back down the road. About half a mile out of the site we saw a picnic table, but this was rejected as being unsuitable and down the road we went. Unfortunately the tables Sally had remembered were in a private campsite and so we continued driving for another two hours. I declared this was extremely cruel to those in the party who were feeling hungry.
We eventually found two tables on a grassy site but as we approached them Andy decided that he would drive by then to see if there was anything any better a little further up the road. I started to write my letter of complaint to Amnesty International at this point. There was nothing better and we were forced to return to the two tables we had found. I did tel, Andy , in no uncertain terms that if these tables were now taken he was in deep trouble. Luckily for him the tables were still free, and we enjoyed a late "high tea".
We drove back another way to the expedition base and surprisingly got there in about tow and a half hours but really we didn't care as we had seen some spectacular  scenery.
By the time we arrived at HQ our friends Julia and Fran and arrived and we went off in search of them. They didn't know that we were on the site and the plan was for Andy to go up to Fran and call her name out. This worked very well and standing back as we were we could see the puzzlement in her face as she hugged Andy and started to ask I'm how he knew her, she then saw me over Andy's shoulder and called Rosemarie and I "bastards". The same modus operandi worked with Julian as well. He had seen nothing of waht had happened to Fran as he was in the communal kitchen cooking their dinner, so in Andy went and started speaking to Julian , before dragging Julia out to where Rosemarie and I were waiting, in his own words., he screeched like a schoolgirl.
We all separated to have our dinner before Julian and Fran came to our room for a few glasses of wine. As it was a wonderfully warm evening we all sat outside having a merry time until at 10.34pm another camper came to complain that we were making too much noise, it was four minutes after the curfew time so we moved into our dining  room and carried on for a little bit longer. We all had a great time.

Dancing with Porpoises

We were up early to go on the cruise around the Bay of Islands we had booked and down on the quay in Russell waitIng for our boat at nine o clock. The boat was of course a fashionably ten minutes late and arrived full of passengers from Pahia.
We set off into the bay sitting at the back of the boat. The expedition photographer decided to stand to one side taking another thousand photographs and I reached for my fleecy to protect me from the wind.
About ten minutes into the cruise the Captain announced he had spotted a pod of dolphins and for the next quarter of an hour we cruised slowly alongside the twenty five or so porpoises that were dancing and leaping in the water.
We carried on cruising until we reached the lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour and then we were all instructed to sit down whilst the boat took us out to look at the "hole in motel rock", which was bout three hundred yards out to sea. The ocean was like a huge washing machine and I for one was glad that we had been told to sit down. This was fine until the expedition photographer demanded that I stood up to photograph the event. I ended up doing the dance of the drunk landlubber  unable to take a step in any direction and trying hold to find anything to hold onto with one hand whilst taking photographs with the other.
The dance of the washing machine was soon over and before long we were back n the tranquil waters of the bay.There followed a visit to a island where we dropped off for a hour. It was a bit like being marooned.
The captain had told us there was an excellent walk up a hill to the right of the quay where we had been deposited and we all set off like intrepid explorers to climb the hill. The view was in fact wonderful a huge panorama of part of the Bay with several islands clearly visible.
We had been given clear instructions about the time we had to be back on the boat and we made sure we were there on time, after all we did want to be left there.
The boat took us back to Russell and we were by this time so thirsty that we repaired to the pub for some liquid refreshment, which truly hit the spot. A short walk back to the campsite for lunch and then we were of to Flagstaff Hill. This gave us another huge vista of the bay.
Down back into Russell we went to Pompallier house , a French Catholic mission station which was very interesting. It had one of the first printing presses in New Zealand and printed religious tracts for the Maoris .I was a little annoyed that we had left our National Trust Card at home because had we had it we would have got in for free.
The day ended with a trip in the car to Longbeach where we relaxed in the late afternoon sun and Andy went fishing. There was great excitement when he eventually caught a fish and great disappointment when it was under the legal length limit.
A good supper and some conversation over a bottle of wine ensured a fine end to the day. There are not many days