Dear all

We have been back two weeks now and a very hectic time we have had, sorting house and photos, seeing friends and family.

Glad to be back - yes. Missing our adventures - yes! However, one of the things we learnt while we were away was just how special our beautiful country is and how we take it for granted or dismiss its beauty and diversity. Take a look at this sunset - stunning isn't it. I took this photo from our house three nights ago. We must keep remembering to look and see and appreciate the riches we have right on our doorstep.

Tracy and Gary xxxxxxx

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Hi all
Well it seems dear old blighty is still a fond memory. We are still in Singapore as our flight last night was cancelled. The upside of this inconvienience was being put up at the Sheraton (5 star) hotel near orchard Road, shopping mecca. We just had to have breakfast, lunch and dinner too (an eatathon). hard work I must say. Lots of great bathroom freebies. So, we are back at the airport for take 2. We are re-scheduled to fly singapore to frankfurt then Frankfurt to Manchester. Hopefully we will arive home sometime on Sunday afternoon, a year to the day when we left.

More anon..................

Lots of love
Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi all

We are using a computer in the hotel and cannot upload any new photos so this is the best we can do! It's our last day, we fly to Heathrow tomorrow night then get a connecting flight to Manchester to arrive at 8.30am on Saturday morning. I am sure we will be feeling fresh and perky after an overnight flight and 7 hour time difference!

We are making the most of our last day and just about to go to Singapore zoo for the day.

We had a lovely time in Bali and particularly enjoyed our last port of call there, a place called Amed. Just lovely, so quiet and relaxed with just the sound of the sea and snorkelling activity to keep us occupied. Highly recommended.

So, our travels are nearly over, we cannot believe a year has come and gone but Las Vegas - where it all started - does seem a long, long time ago. We have been very lucky both in meeting lots of good people and having a minimum amount of uchh factor, just the occasional coackroach and bed bug!

Its been the trip of a lifetime but has convinced us that its possible to fulfill your dreams, now and in the future.

We are so looking forward to seeing everyone and for our next adventures at home to start as we embark on whatever we will do next.

We are feeeling very excited about coming home - it feels a little like Christmas Eve!!!

We will be uploading some more photos onto the blog when we get back, until then, keep safe everyone and thank you so much for all your comments and messages over the last year. We count ourselves very fortunate indeed to have such great family and friends.

Lots of love to all of you and see you soon.

Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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See you all in a few days!

Lots of love to you all.

Tracy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Many times whilst we have been travelling, we have been reminded of how unexpected and near tragedy is to us. We left Peru days before an earthquake and Lake Tahoe in the states hours before a huge forest fire. In China, we were only a few hours distance from Chengdu and nearly went there to see the giant pandas.

Our thoughts are with all the people who are suffering in the Sichuan Province of China at this time. Having been to China we know how little machinery is available for construction work so it must be incredibly difficult and labour intensive to search through the devastation. A terrible time for China.

Tracy & Gary

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Hello all

Well, at last, we have been able to upload some photos and do a blog! Great stuff. We are currently in Ubud, the artistic and cultural centre of Bali.

We are staying in a wonderful place called Kakiang bungalows www.kakiang.com where for 20 pounds a night you get your breakfast delivered to you so you can enjoy it on your private balcony, afternoon tea and cake again in your room if you like, and your sheets and towels and room cleaned every day. Wonderful. Oh yes, you can also have a great evening meal delivered to your room for 6 pounds between you... and they bring a mosquito plug in every evening for you as well. Highly recommended. Its a very beautiful and simple place, lovely to look at with a very nice pool. Not everywhere in Bali is as good or at such a good price, you really have to shop around here a lot or you could be spending a serious amount of money. Added tax etc on drinks, food and accommodation ranges from nil to 31%!! So, it can make a big, big difference to your bill.

We are fine, we had a couple of days of stomach upset when we first arrived from something we ate in a restaurant. Tracy had a high temperature and was in bed for a day and a half. We have been extraordinarily lucky as it's the first time we have been ill with food related stuff during our time away. When you consider all the places we have eaten over the last year, we haven't done badly.

We are fine now and ready for a bike ride tomorrow to see some stone cave carvings nearby. We went to the art gallery today and monkey forest sanctuary. Its very, very humid here - more so than on the coast - so everything takes a while to do!

We are hoping to see a Balinese shadow puppet show (Wayang Kulit) on Tuesday and Tracy is going to have a traditional balinese massage, body scrub and flower bath (Gary is sticking with massage only!).

So, as you can see, we are making the most of our few days left because we will be back at home in 2 weeks.

We hope you are all well and looking forward so much to seeing everyone soon.

Lots and lots of love

Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Well, here we are in Bali, our last stop (apart from a couple of days in Singapore) before returning home. We have had an eventful few days - there is another blog on the other site from China with some more photos. I have managed to upload one photo from Bali on this site but cannot blog it for some reason. The connection here is painfully slow so we are not sure how many photos we wil be able to upload.

We are fine, we had an eventful time in Hong Kong on the way here - we were only stopping one night and the place we booked The Yes Inn turned out to be a building site - literally uninhabitable. What a nightmare. We managed to get a room instead at the Ibis for a staggering 60 pounds a night. Accommodation in Hong Kong is phenomenally expensive.

Arrived in Bali and had a two and a hlf hour queue in the airport to get a visa stamped. Not great. Then off to our accommodation the Patra Bali in South Kuta. its a lovely place but slightly reminds us of the Prisoner, its vast with lots of staff whizzing around in electric buggys. We are here for a week then going to Sanur. Haven't done much yet, sat by the pool yesterday which was lovely. Working up to some culture!

A big thanks to Tracy's brother Glennie for sorting our accommodation in Amed. What a star.

Will write again soon.

Lots of love to all

Tracy & Garyxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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HI all

Well, the foibles of communication here rumble on as now I cannot access the other blog and can access this one! How frustrating. Anyway We have managed to upload a few photos which is good news. Our journey so far: Shangahi, Hangzhou then a plane to Xian then an overnight sleeper to Pingyao which will be followed (hopefully) by a bus to Beijing. I say hopefully because its virtually impossible to get transport information here and everyone tells you something different.

What can we say about our impressions of China - on the downside lots of pollution, dust, dirt, thieving spitting and smoking. On the plus side, great beauty in unexpected places, helpfulness, young people who really want to chat with you and exchange views. Lovely buildings and sights.

The sheer number of people here can be overwhelming - 1.4 billion people live in China, something like 13 million in Shanghai and Xian. There are 44,000 people in Pingyao and no bank! Old and new are cheek by jowl, extreme poverty next to Prada shops in Xian. Its a country of contradictions.

We have stayed in tradition old guesthouses which has been very pleasant, they are always an oasis of calm and peace in any city.

I guess we are getting a little travel fatigued and are looking forward to having a rest in Bali. We haven't decided where we are going there yet so if anyone has any recommendations for locations/accommodation, please let know.

Anyway, thats all for now. Thinking of you all and hope you are well. We are thinking of Nick who is having yet another operation and is still in hospital (4 mths now).

Take care all.

Lots of love

Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi all

We have just returned from our last Aussie adventure - 3 days at Uluru and Kings Canyon. Getting up at 5am each morning , watching spectacular sunrises and sunsets, doing some great walks. We walked around the whole of Uluru 9.5km which was a fantastic experience as there were very few people who did the walk. Uluru itself is truly magnificent, no words to describe its compexity and texture, its many facets and colours. Its worth coming here just to see this ancient rock. We are really glad we did this trip last as its certainly been a great climax to our time in Australia.

We fly to Melbourne tomorrow and then onto Shanghai the day afterwards for the start of our China adventures. Only 2 months left!!

Hope you are all well and happy, we will be looking forward to seeing you all in 8 weeks. Look out for our first blog from China.

Lots of love
Tracy & Garyxxxxxxxx

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Love T & G x

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G'dday mates

Well we have been pretty busy since we left Airlie Beach, we stopped off for a few days at Mission Beach where Tracy was hoping to do a sky dive but the weather was so poor we had to abandon that idea. We were in search of cassowaries at Mission beach - alas did not see one but did see a Skippy lookalike.

From Mission Beach it was off to Cairns and more rain -our first week it rained nearly the whole time. It has stopped over the past few days so we have been very busy going upto Daintree, seeing crocs and tree snakes and pythons, doing a Turtle Tour with bushman Stewy and snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef in some rather challenging weather conditions!

We are staying with our friends Mandy & Graeme for this week at a lovely place calle Waterfront Terraces and they are being extremely hospitable and running us about all over the place and looking after us. We are going with them to see some of Mandy's relatives on Saturday in Tolga, about an hour and a half away, back Sunday for Easter eggs! BBQ tomorrow night by the pool with fresh fish and lobster (veggie sausages for Tracy).

On Tuesday we fly to Alice Springs for our final week in Oz - we are doing a 3 day tour to Uluru with adventure tours - should be good but very, very hot.
We fly out of Melbourne on April 1 for Shanghai and a totally different adventure awaits us there.

We hope you are all well and surviving the cold weather, thinking of you all and realising we will see you all before too long - how soon a year goes - we could do it all again!

Lots of love to everyone.

Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi all

Greetings from Airlie Beach. We have just returned from a 3 day sailing adventure aboard the beautiful tall ship, the Alexander Stewart. We had a great time despite the very variable weather, rough waters and strong winds for most of the time, so it was not picture postcard perfect. What made it brilliant was the group and the crew. Everyone got on really well and we had loads of fun. We were soaked by rain and waves most of the time and got to wear sexy yellow raincoats (as modelled by the group in various pictures). The highlight was snorkelling -when we saw some wonderful coral and fish - and mooring at night, enjoying good food and wine and great company. The crew were amazing and made it a very special experience for everyone. Our last day, the sun actually shone and we got to sunbathe on the deck which of course meant that everyone got burnt! Most of the group were able to get together last night for a farewell meal whilst others had to head off a little earlier. Its always hard to say goodbye to new friends after sharing such a magical time.

Back on land, the ground still keeps rolling and we are sooooo tired, I think from the effort of keeping upright in rough seas. Today it has poured down with rain for most of the day and the road north past Townsville is currently closed due to flooding. Rather worrying for us as we have to be in Cairns by 11 March. We had intended to go to Mission Beach on route for a few days but may have to develop plan B (C, D, E etc). We are due to stay in Cairns for 2 weeks, the first week we have booked an apartment and the second week we are very kindly being hosted by Graeme and Mandy which we are really looking forward to.

So, that's it for now, we hope you are all well and happy and we are thinking of you all as ever.

Lots of love
Gary & Tracy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi all

Well, as we said, we have been very busy and very lucky to get to Mon Repos conservation beach near Bundaberg to see some baby loggerhead turtles being born and crawling down the beach into the sea. What a fantastic experience, 136 baby turtles born and we got to see them close up and to feel their tiny flippers on our hands. We watched them go down the beach and into the sea then we went back to watch the guide dig the nest out and count the shells. The hole was 61cms deep - it was astonishing to think these tiny creatures had dug up and out of the hole. Even more amazing was a second small batch of hatchlings appearing under the guide's knees. There were about 20 in the second batch so it was a grand total of 156 babies. Only 1 in 1000 makes it back to lay eggs so everything possible is done to try to give them every chance of survival. The guides were great and struck the right balance between ensuring the safety and care of the turtles whilst ensuring everyone got to share the magical moment of their birth. Just wonderful.

We spent a pleasant couple of days in Bundy and went to the Bundaberg rum distillery for a tour and tasting - yummy. We then drove to Rockhampton for one night and went to the Great Western Hotel to see an indoor rodeo - alas - the contractor who should have supplied the bulls didn't turn up so we had to watch some videos from previous weeks rodeo escapades and then made friends with the locals in the pool bar (Gary lost!).

We have now arrived at Airlie Beach and are staying in a lovely little place called Sunlit Waters with great views over the harbour. Tomorrow we go sailing for 3 days with www.ozsailing.com.au on a tall ship called the Alexander Stewart. Lets hope the weather settles (its very windy today). Expect some photos of us snorkelling in our sexy stinger suits.

Hope you are all well, Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers.

Thinking of you.

Lots of love
Gary & Tracy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi all

Well, we have been very busy over the last few days. We took an overnight trip to Fraser Island a few days ago. What a strange place; its a sand island and has no roads and a 74 mile beach which is full of 4WDs hurtling up an down like a sandy M1. It is famous for its dingos and we certainly saw plenty of them! It has beautiful lakes and white sands and is stunning. Unfortunately, in the place we stayed, Tracy had a close (on the mouth!) experience with coackroaches in the middle of the night which took the edge off the enjoyment as you can imagine. It was a long wait until reception opened at 7am to deal with the problem. Fortunately, we resolved things in a satisfactory manner so it didn't spoil things too much.

In addition to the lakes and beaches there are also numerous rain forests - it really is a wild place and we were really pleased we made the effort to go; highly reccomended (apart from the cockroaches).

Love
Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi all

well, no photos of Koalas yet as we had to abandon our trip due to RAIN. Hopefully we will see some at some point during our trip. We are now in Noosa which is lovely, a really pretty place and yes, the sun is shining at last. What a difference. Last night we went on a sunset ferry cruise and saw this perfect sunset followed by a wonderful full moon over the river. magical. Noosa is probably the nicest place we have been to so far.

On Sunday we head off to Hervey Bay and we have booked an overnight trip on Fraser Island with www.fraserexperience.com Lets hope the weather stays sweet. Shortly after that we will be going on our sailing trip - Gary is praying for calm seas! Before that we have booked to see the baby turtles at Mon Repos near Bundaberg. Its all happening!

Hope you are all well.

Bye for now from the happy travellers

Lots of love

Gary & Tracy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi all

Well, the weather remains a challenge. There is a monsoon over the the East Coast which has created the worst flooding in many coastal towns for about a century. The highway has disappeared from view in many places. We have changed our plans about a million times already but currently plan to go to Noosa on Tuesday for a few days before picking up a car and driving up to Airlie beach to go on a sailing trip for 3 days. A few days ago, some tourists on a sailing boat in the Whitsundays (where we are going sailing) had to be airlifted to safety as the boat got stranded on some rocks and was sinking! That was the day after we had booked our trip. Ho hum. We are hoping there might be some improvement in the weather by the time we get there. On the way we hope to stay overnight on Fraser Island and see some baby turtles making a break for the sea on Mon Repos beach.

In the meantime we have consoled ourselves by going on the Castlemaine xxxx brewery tour and tomorrow, weather permistting we are going tothe Koala bear sanctuary near Brisbane. Expect to see some photos of there small furry sweeties.

We hope you are all well and happy. Think of us in the downpours - not quite the image of the Sunshine Coast.

Lots of love

Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi All

Well, its been a few days since our last blog - lots to cath up on. We left Sydney for Newcastle where we stayed a few days with Mandy who was incredibly generous and a fantastic hostess, showing us the delights of the wonderful surf at Newcastle beach and a great Aussie BBQ. Thanks also to Barry & Bronwyn for giving us an Aussie hat and towel!

A very big thanks Mandy for everything, we really enjoyed it and look forward to seeing you and Graeme in Cairns.

So then it was onwards to Coffs Harbour where we had booked a nice little place with a lovely pool and we were looking forward to a few relaxing days on the sunbeds. Alas, it was not to be as we have had 5 days of torrential rain. The most rain anyone here has seen for years with spectacular thunderstorms and power cuts. Luckily we had Sky TV so have seen LOTS of films! We are leaving today and the weather is beautiful. As we are going to Byron Bay, all is not lost as its another seaside resort.

After Byron Bay we are going to Brisbane and then deciding whether or not to hire a car for the remainder of the trip up to Cairns - 1700 KMS! - or continue with public transport.

Aside from being a bit damp, we are fine and enjoying Oz, it was a joy to stay with Mandy and get more of an insight into Australia and meet her friends all of whom were extremely friendly.

We hope you are all well and surviving winter - Spring around the corner.

Lots of love and thoughts to you all.

Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi All

Well, here we are back in Sydney, we spent last night at Darling Harbour watching some amazing fireworks as there were great Australia Day celebrations. We also met up with Gary's nephew Nick who is living here at the moment. We had a lovely lunch together then met up again at Darling Harbour for the pyrotechnics. We have had a busy few days here, we took a ferry to Watsons Bay, saw a couple of great photographic exhibitions at the Australia Museum and got burnt at Bondi beach (and pounded by surf!).

Today is our last day, we go to Newcastle tomorrow to stay with Mandy who we met with Graeme on Easter Island and who has very kindly offered to put us up for a couple of days, then its off to Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay and Brisbane. We hope to hire a car between Brisbane and Cairns but as ever it takes ages to work through all the options and check all the small print. Amazingly, there are very few days when we do nothing, in fact, none! There is always something to organise. Still, we will be at Coffs Harbour for a week so we are looking forward to a bit of chillout time.

We hope you are all well and looking forward to Spring.

Lots of get well wishes to Nick who has had to endure 3 operations and will be in hospital for some time yet. We are thinking about you.

Lots of love to you all, miss you.

Tracy & Gary

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Hi All

We have been in the Blue mountains for 4 lovely days, staying at a fantastic B & B - if you ever go to katoomba, stay at this place as it is outstanding. The little touches and magnificent breakfast are wonderful. The best place we have stayed in over the last year! www.lurlinehouse.com.au

The variety of birds in the Blue Mountains is mind blowing, we were glued to the binoculars. its a lovely, lovely place and only 2 hours from Sydney. We did a couple of monster walks, the first one involved descending 900 steps, we knew about it the next day and the day after! We had mixed weather but we were lucky to have enough time to take advantage of the dry days and watch tennis when it rained!

Love
Tracy & Gary xxxx

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Hi all

Well, we had to put this photo on the blog as it is exactly what you would expect when you think about Sydney. Interestingly, close up, it looks nothing like you imagine it and is a number of buildings not all connected together. Anyway, its pretty impressive as is Sydney. Yesterday we took a sightseeing tour to get a feel of the city as a whole. We are staying in a student suburb called Newtown which has lots of good restaurants and comedy for nothing! We are going on the ferry tomorrow to Watsons Bay and Manly before coming back to Darling harbour for some evening entertainment on the waterfront.

We are addicted to the tennis on TV (Australia Open) which is broadcast for about 12 hrs a day, great. Hard to tear ourselves away for sightseeing.

On Saturday we head off to the Blue Mountains for a few days and then come back to Sydney for another few days next week. We are staying in a lovely looking B & B in the mountains with full breakfast - luxury. www.lurlinehouse.com.au

Hope you are all well and happy and coping with the winter.

Lots and lots of love

Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Greetings from Melbourne where it is currently 40 degrees!! We are adjusting to yet another new country. There are a lot more people here than in New Zealand. Melbourne's population is the same as the whole of NZ though the whole of Oz is relatively sparsely populated (approx 20 million). We have had a good time here in Melbourne. We have been staying at St Kildas(similar to Brighton) which is very nice. We have been lucky enough to see a great Nick Cave exhibition at the Arts Centre and got tickets for the first day of the Kooyong classic yesterday where we saw Gonzalez, Roddick, Murray, Safin, Ljubicic Baghdatis, and Davydenkov -for 15 pounds each! amazing.

Unfortunately you will not be seeing any of Tracy's wonderful action photos as she has just managed to delete them. The first photo disaster of the trip. Nothing to be done but we leave first thing tomorrow so its impossible to get any more photos and of course the Kooyong photos cannot be repeated anyway. Boo hoo! More care in future.

We go to Albury tomorrow and then onto Sydney, a journey of 10 hours from Albury.

On other matters, a message for Nick, currently in hospital with two broken legs after being in a car accident, Get well soon Nick. xxxx

and a message for Jan who has had a family bereavement - thinking of you and lots of hugs and love to you. xxx

Love to all and miss you all
Tracy & Gary xxxxxxx

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Hi All

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas & Boxing Day. We certainly did! Gary had some wonderful New Zealand lamb and Tracy had super tasty tofu sausages! We had presents to open thanks to Kim and Nick and Katie so it was nearly like being at home - except the weather was 22 degrees!

After dinner we had a stroll down by the river, it was all very civilised. Christmas Eve we spent in a very crowded and jolly pub called Sullivans which was great. Christchurch is very compact so everything is within walking distance. Yesterday we did a big walking tour of the city and spent some time in the beautiful Botanical Gardens and mind boggling museum.

We are getting ready for New Year's Eve tomorrow as there are some celebrations in Cathedral Square followed by a band in our nearest pub where Gary is currently playing poker (a big thing in some pubs here and free!).

So all in all we are having a good time.

Have a delicious and sparkling New Year, whatver you are doing - cheers and good health everyone and all happiness in the new year.

Love
Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi All

Merry Christmas from Christchurch, our final destination in New Zealand. We arrived on Friday after saying a fond farwell to the camper van and hello to our one bedroom apartment at Stonehurst accommodation. The apartment is lovely and has everything we need to make our Christmas great, even though we are thousands of miles away from our nearest and dearest family and friends.

Christchurch is lovely, we haven't had much time to explore yet but will be doing so in the next few days. The weather is warm and the sun is shining so we are very lucky.

This will be our last blog before Christmas Day so we wish everyone a very enjoyable and Happy Christmas and hope santa brings you all lots of goodies. We have a New Zealand lotto scratch card to do on Christmas Day as our christmas present plus a box of surprises to open from Kim and Nick (many thanks).

Bye for now - we will let you know how many thousands we win on the lotto!!

Lots of love and Christmas hugs and kisses

Tracy and Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi all

A very quick blog just to show you the amazing photo of Tracy swimming with hector's dolphins at Akoroa. What an experience! At one point there were 8 dolphins right by her. Gary stayed onboard to take photos, not easy as they are incredibly fast moving little creatures. Hector's dolphins are very rare, only 7000 left and only found in New Zealand so it was a real pleasure to be up close to them. They were shy and playful and just wonderful.

Bye for now, another blog from Christchurch in a few days.

Lots of love
Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi All

Fresh on the heels of glacier walking comes kayaking!! We are in Motueka, the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park and yesterday we spent kayaking in the morning and then going by water taxi to Tonga island to see the fur seals and their cubs before walking back to Bark Bay to be picked up by the water taxi and taken back to Kaiteriteri beach. Kayaking was exhausting - it looked so easy in the photos but the weather was overcast and windy so it was quite rough and we were paddling against the wind. For the first half Gary steered from the back but at Split Apple Rock we changed over and he just became a front seat driver!! Everyone else we were doing it with was at least 25 years younger than us and that includes the guides! Still, we didn't do too badly.

Abel Tasman is really beautiful and even in dull weather the sea is turquoise and the sand golden. It is impossible to see the walking trails from the beach, they are well hidden. It takes days to walk from one end to the other as its a huge area. There are plenty of sandflies though and our bushman fly repellent was well utilised. The company we went with were really good www.seakayak.co.nz They were very patient and encouraging even when we were going round in circles with the kayak!

Tomorrow we leave to go to Hanmer Spings, not too far from Christchurch. We have only got 7 nights left in the camper van. Tracy will be crying when she has to give it back. Its been great and its so wonderful to be able to have the doors open all the time and eat outside lisening to the wonderful bird songs.

Our next campsite has a squash court so we will be having a go at that in between frisbee and poker. What a life!

Hope you are all well, thinking of you, take care all.

Lots of love
Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi All

Here is Gary during our huge 6 hour glacier walk/climb at Franz Josef glacier. We were really, really lucky with the weather as usually it rains 2 out of every 3 days there. The day we did our walk it was a glorious bright blue sky and burning hot sun. Our guide got severely sunburnt!! As we did the full day walk, we got to go much higher up the glacier and through tiny narrow passages, Tracy has got bruises on her shoulders from trying to squeeze through a tiny gap. We wore crampons on our boots to grip the ice. It was a fantastic experience and highly recommended but exhausting. www.franzjosefglacier.com

Moved on to Westport, having a relaxing day beofre a full days drive tomorrow to Abel Tasman National Park.

Hope you are all ok and full of festive cheer!

Miss you
Lots of love
Gary & Tracy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Well, the clock is ticking, we have been on the road 6 months now - hard to believe. We are enjoying life in the camper van enormously. Since our last blog we have been to Glenorchy - a small and beautiful wilderness with a population of about 200 people, Queenstown - home of bungy and numerous other adventure activites and Wanaka - home of the strange puzzling world and the enormous and totally mind blowing museum of Toys and Transport (check out the photo of Astronaut Barbie) and the fantastic Wanaka lake.

Whilst we were in Queenstown we went on the Shotover Jet on Shotover Canyon. This was a high speed, 380 degree spinning boat ride. Luckily for us it was a glorious day and the Shotover Canyon is a lovely green colour so it was stupendous to look at and exhilarating at the same time. The next day, we climbed to the top of the Cable car hill for wonderful views over Queenstown and the lake. On our last day in Queenstown we went to the park for a spot of frisbee golf and crown bowls, another glorious day.

We have been travelling up the west coast and are now in Franz Josef - home of one of the famous glaciers. The weather once again is fantastic, our next blog will be of the glacier walk. Coming soon....

Hope you are all ok, we are delightfully free of any Christmas paraphenalia which is a rare treat.

Lots of love

Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Dear All

We have had our camper van for a week now and enjoying it very much though space is at a premium and we have to be super tidy (not a problem for Gary!!). We are currently in Te Anau and yesterday we took a trip to Milford Sound. The weather was awful but as it rains 2 out of every 3 days there, it was to be expected. We did a cruise through Milford Sound for a few hours and got to see some amazing waterfalls up close. The rain and wind send the waterfalls backwards which was quite some sight. The Sounds are part of an enormous national park stretching millions of acres. It is hard to describe the scale of the area. Today we went to see a film which has been made about the Sounds over a 5 year period. It was fantastic and does give you a good idea of the enormity of the area. Luckily for you we have bought the DVD and will bore you all with it when we get back!! We leave for Glenorchy tomorrow where Tracy is hoping to do some more horse riding (Gary has declined further equestrian activities after his Easter Island experience).

We would certainly recommend a camper van for anyone coming here, it gives you great freedom and the camp sites are fantastic though you can also just stop in lots of places and stay overnight.

The weather is intermittently getting warmer but varies from area to area.

Well, thats it for now, we are just off to the wildlife centre and to buy a skipping rope as we both getting a trifle plump!

Lots of love to you all. Miss you.

Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi All

Greetings from Kaikoura

We have been here a few days now, its our first taste of the South Island. For the first 2 days the weather was appalling, freezing cold and raining incessantly. On the day of our whale watching trip, it was completely clear with blue, blue sky and very warm. The whale watching was at times extremely frustrating as we kept arriving just as the whale dived. However, persistence paid off and we got to see 3 whales on the surface. The one in this picture was known to the crew as Little Nick, another was called Big Nick and the other one was not known to them. You can see how huge Little Nick is from the photo! We also got to see a pod of about 100 Dusky Dolphins which was great.

Unfortunately our plans to go swimming with Dusky Dolphins tomorrow have had to be shelved as the weather is forecast to take a turn for the worst. Hopefully we will instead be able to go swimming with Hector Dolphins off the coast near Christchurch. Hector Dolphins are only found in New Zealand and are extremely rare with only about 1000 left.

We are staying in really good accommodation here with magnificent views. Tomorrow Gary is hoping to sample the crayfish when we go for a walk round the penninsula.

We pick the camper van up on Friday and our first stop after that will be Timaru.

Hope you are all well, thinking of you all.

Lots of love
Tracy & Gary xxxxxxxxxxx

ps enjoying New Zealand very much - they have vegimite scrolls here!!

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