NZ

we've arrived in our longest planned destination stop. have toured round a fair bit off the north island. stayed with some relatives in auckland who were ace - kept us well fed, clean and warm. have bought a tent and a car ('Neville' - a toyota camry) and we're having fun driving round NZ. been up to the bay of islands, the kai iwi lakes (met up with family's family and had a hangi feast camping by the lakes with lovely fragrant longdrop toilets!), the coromandel penisula (hotwater beach - dug a hole to bath in the hot water), hamilton (took a trip to the waitomo caves to go black water rafting), auckland of course and now rotorua. the smell in the air here is awful - stinks of rotten eggs the whole time! but can't complain as we had the best day white water rafting today and tomorrow we're off to Taupo -hopefully to skydive depending on the weather.

The south pacific

Flew into the Cook Islands after a nice but short stay in Santa Monica (LA). Made a change to feel the heat again althought the humidity was very high. Beaches were beautiful and we had our own bungalow to stay in with a lovely swimming pool.

Christmas was a fun affair with a mixed traditions dinner with everyone else staying there too. A tad unlike home - bbq-ed and hot weather. was a great laugh. flew to Aitutaki for new years wasn't amazing as the dj was awful where we were but we soon left after they celebrate the new year in 5 minutes early!! and headed to the expensive resort over the water for some good old dancing.

Left Rarotonga to land into Fiji. Took a trip around the Yasawa islands and stayed on 2 islands - wayalailai and nanuyalailai. was really great. the guys learnt to dive and we all enjoyed joining in with the fijian traditions - bula dancing, kava ceremony and fijian foods.