Off tomorrow to Wellington, to drop off car to Estelle and Aaron, and spend 2 nights with them. Then leave Sunday for Kuala Lumpur via Auckland. We have 4 nights there, then on to London. About a month there then Rome and Naples. back to London for Dominic's graduation. Then  a week in Copenhagen, then a few more days in London. Then Barcelona for a few days, then a month in the south of France. After that we have 6 nights in Paris. From there we fly to Japan for  a week there before returning to Auckland in early June.
Phew! That's 4 house exchanges plus several cheapish hotels, numerous flights, some cheap ones among them. Watch this space.

We are off on another traveling adventure next month! First stop is Kuala Lumpur, a city we have not visited yet, where we will spend 4 nights. Then we go on to London. We have a house exchange there which will make the whole trip affordable. Not looking forward to the UK in winter, although there will be lots to see and do as well as catching up with our younger daughter and son. After a month there, we go over to Italy for 8 days, spending our time between Rome and Naples. We will look at ancient Roman ruins, and sample Italian food and wine. Then we go back to London and another house exchange. At Easter, we will go to the graduation ceremony of our son, which is the main justification for the whole trip. After that we may have a trip to Copenhagen for 4 or 5 days, if our our home exchange arrangements come through there.  Then we fly down to Barcelona for 4 nights. Barcelona is one Spanish city we missed out on seeing before, we are looking forward to seeing the Gaudi architecture, and Catalan food!

 After Barcelona we move on to southern France, where we have another home exchange organized.  These home exchanges will make the whole trip much more affordable. We have about 1 month there soaking the up the French ambiance in a small town environment. Then we go to Paris for 6 nights. This trip will include side trips to Monet's garden and Versailles among other places.

Finally, we fly to Japan, where we will spend 8 days exploring the big smoke of Tokyo and catching up with friends in Tokyo and Osaka. Then back to NZ in the middle of winter.

We'll try to keep you posted.

2012 newsletter

This year both Philip and Mary turned 65, and started to draw NZ pensions. We made several trips away in our campervan, including a longish road trip to Taupo, Napier, the East Cape and Tauranga. We also did several shorter trips away in the ‘van. Now that the campervan has had solar panels and improved batteries put in, we are able to “freedom camp” and use much cheaper conservation campsites for our travels around NZ. We also visited Mary’s aunt and uncle who live outside Port Macquarie, Australia. On that trip we hired a car from Brisbane, and drove slowly down to Sydney.  Of course we also travelled down to Wellington for grandson Owen’s birthday party.

 A major project in terms of money and time, was the redevelopment of our back garden, to make space for a vegetable garden and fruit trees. In April, Estelle and Aaron left us to return to Wellington, where they are now living.  This year, we have had a break from taking homestays, but we will probably start up again in the second half of 2013. At the end of last year we traded in our trusty but aging Ford Telstar, for a much more modern Mazda Premacy, mini people mover. Grandkids love the fold out trays on the seat backs. We have joined a home exchange website, and hope to be able to exchange homes in 2013, in London, France and maybe other places within Europe. In later years, we are open to offers!

Philip

Philip had some work this year outside the house at AUT’s research office, doing editorial work. This paid for the upgrading of two computers, and the installation of solar power cells on the campervan. Again he did quite a lot of photography, including the annual calendar project, which will be a bit more widely distributed

this year (maybe 30 copies as against 5 or 6 last year)!  As he turned 65 this year he is now officially a pensioner. Like Mary, he has purchased a “Kindle”, and is joining the e-book revolution. In the mid-year he attended a very interesting and inspiring university course on art & photography.

Mary

.Mary continued to work at Whitireia in Queen Street this year.  Again she has Mondays off in exchange for rather longer days Tuesday to Friday. She is finalising the autobiography for Dorothy, and this should be ready by this Christmas. Like Philip, she is now a pensioner, but one with a fulltime job. But she can travel home from work for free with her “Super Gold card”.  With Philip, she attended a short continuing education course on Roman ruins in France and Italy. This gave us many ideas for places to visit on stopovers!

.

.Dominic

Dominic continued in his job at NTT Europe in London.  This year he completed his final paper for his honours degree in information technology, and expects to graduate in 2013. He is joining us for Christmas in NZ this year.

Estelle and Aaron

Estelle and Aaron returned to Wellington this Easter, after living with us for about 8 months.  They have bought a house in the Miramar area, and should be moving in just before Christmas. Aaron continues to work as a freelance IT consultant, and Estelle marks assignments for Massey University as well as being a full-time mum. 

Roselle and Stan

Roselle is still working at UCL in London while making progress on her PhD. Work this year has taken her to Paris and Tokyo, among other places. With Stan, she has participated in two marathons, one in Cheltenham, and the second in Amsterdam. They will also join us in NZ for Christmas. Before that they are planning to walk the Milford Track. We declined their kind request to accompany them.

Dorothy

Philip’s mother Dorothy is well settled at Northbridge retirement home, just around the corner from us, so we see her most days. She sometimes goes out with us for lunch or dinner.  She enjoys relating her life history for the book. The first part, her life in Cornwall to the end of WW2, should be finished by Christmas.

Gilletts

Motoko and Brent have settled into Brown’s Bay. Brent always seems to have several ambitious renovation projects on the go, but he still manages to find time to help us out with our home improvements.  Motoko is involved in the local playcentre. Rio is enjoying school and making good progress. Noah is talking now (in a mixture of Japanese and English!), with a vocabulary that is growing by the day. We join the Gilletts quite often for picnics, BBQs and family events 

We see Alice (an ex homestay guest), Csanad and daughter Lillian quite often, as they live about 15 minutes’ drive from here.

 Plans for 2013

In 2013, we plan to see Dominic graduate, in London, around Easter time. We hope to arrange house exchange(s) in the London area, and maybe in Europe, especially in Italy or France. We will be away for up to 3 months or so. Mary will probably continue to work at Whitireia on a full-time basis, although going part-time is an option.  We hope to get the fruit and vegetable gardens into a fully productive state. Perhaps we will start a long South Island tour in the campervan late in the year or early in 2014.

 

 

 

Brisbane to Sydney 2012

Brisbane to Sydney
Some pictures from our trip to Oz earlier this year. We drove down from Brisbane to Sydney,with numerous stops en route. Some very nice small seaside towns and country villages. Great seafood too! We loved the Lone Pine Koala Park in Brisbane, and the koala hospital in Port Macqaurie.

Our revamped vegetable patch in the newly redeveloped rear garden is progressing slowly but steadily. Hopefully the first veges will be growing there before long, and the fruit trees are looking good now (Except for the lime which looks rather sickly).

Back in New Zealand

We are finally back in Auckland. Now there is a lot to do in the house, mainly paint and paper and the garden. We are looking for some kind of work, and will probably take some home stay students as well. We've bought a car, and are busy organising phone lines, internet etc etc. It's great to have such a lot of space after the cramped conditions we had in the UK, and the even more cramped conditions in the van! Now for Christmas .............................

Life on the Road - Ireland

Ireland was great - very green,very wet, very.............. well Irish. We visited the Waterford Crystal visitor centre, which closes next month. It had some beautiful stuff, we saved a fortune by .. not buying anything! We did a quick journey around part of the Ring of Kerry, beautiful scenery, narrow roads. Fortunately we did not meet any coaches coming in the opposite direction. The Cliffs of Moher we impressive, as was the weather at the time ... very strong winds sending spray ABOVE the tall cliffs, and squalls of rain. But worth it. Philip is now a certified whiskey taster after our visit to the Jameson's old distillery. We will compare the Irish product with the Scottish version in a few weeks time. Blarney Castle was on the tour too, but neither of us bothered to kiss the stone. A highlightwas the Ben Ratty folk park, a collection of houses etc from different time periods and different locations. We stayed ata mixture of Travelodge hotels (they had a special), and camping sites. Fortuntaely our van was warm and cosy and leak proof! We preferred the van as we managed to stay in some really nice scenic places.

No photos this time as we are on the road.

Now we are backin London for Roselle's wedding. After that it's up to the north of England and Scotland for a month.