Las Vegas or bust(or to go bust)

Yes, yes another change of plan. Well we were informed that Vegas was cheap and good fun so it's always best to inspect for yourself, don't you agree.
We hit Las Vegas running at 8pm after an overnight from Fiji and immediately went for a small gawk which, lasted until 1am. J&K impressed by the spectacle and grandeur as you couldn't not be. We were beside Caesers Palace so after 12hrs sleep we nipped in for the buffet. Little did we realise that this would become an eating marathon and, a personal challenge to Jack's ability to down chocolate eclairs.
We roller coasted(and screamed) around hotels at 11pm, watched excellent circus acts free, stalked through hotels while one's jaw trailed along the rug in amazement at the scale and investment, watched the gondoliers in their boats inside The Venetian Hotel, strolled through San Marco Piattza, through the Arc De Truimpe, meandered down Parisian back streets, saw top London shows and watched in surprise at the gaming going on 24hrs a day. You could even have had a medieval dinner while watching real jousting within one of the hotels. The big surprise is that our hotel was £35 a night for four and food was inexpensive.
Our other reasons to visit were that we could and did, fly out to The Grand Canyon and visit the southern rim which is the larger end. It is so large that you can't take in the scale and you would have to have gone on a mule trip down to the bottom to appreciate the depth.(1 mile)
Jeni and I both reckoned we had seen more impressive sights in Australia.
The Hoover Dam was a good school day out as J&K had both seen it on The Seven Industrial Wonders of The World, TV series. Jack especially was looking forward to getting down inside the dam and viewing the guts of the wall. He's not around just now to pass on the facts and figures but, believe me it's impressive. We all agreed that we actually preferred the simple visit to the dam over the grand canyon.
We depart Vegas on the worst flight ever, 23.45 to Chicago, offload 3am, load on again 5am get to Indianapolis 6am. Drive to friends Steve and Michelle's house having missed a night's sleep. The reason the flights were horrendous was because we were running one day behind from Fiji and we could no longer get our original flights.
Steve and Michelle (American friends from Comrie) had moved home 3 yrs ago so it was great to catch up with them after being used to seeing them a few times a week in Comrie.
They showed us around the university and kid's schools and J&K were delighted to see even more dogs. Thanks Conors.
After 5 days of around 0deg it was time to pack the shorts and get ready for the temporary return to the UK.

pics. We took the hoover dam snap when flying over to the canyon. Just to get a scale there is a two lane road over the top. J,J&K at the canyon. Gondaliers inside the Venetian Hotel. Jenni in sequins.

Attempt 1 to leave Fiji(foiled)

Well all fun here, read on to discover a quick way to lose £1200 and 1.5yrs of life due to stress. Stress, we're on holiday of course there's none in Fiji.
We were on our way to the airport yesterday in the back of a pick-up like livestock. Mrs Hendry had the preferred seat inside while the family were riding steerage under canvas out of the continual rain that day. We got stuck within 3mins due to the dirt road being flooded and then again another few minutes with the road completely out of sight under 20” of the brown wet stuff. The driver was a bit timid so Sailosi was out of the back and waded through to prove the point we weren't going to dive into an old mine shaft. . We then got as far as the airport boundary where you couldn't see the road for 100mtrs either way. The local bar had water through it as did the airport building which was more river than anything else. The bridge to the airport was under 18” as were the roads. Quite a few people along Nukubalavu had their houses full of water. Sailosi and I waded through to the airport where we were told that it was closed although the runway was clear. Our plane didn't land although another flight did and this now put us back 24hrs. Back to the house for 4 hrs of phoning trying to see what we could do to get our flights back in order as there wasn't another out of Fiji to LA for 3 days. At one point we were sea planing out in the am to get a 10.30 to Auckland and back to LA. We made it out the following day and had to buy new tickets for £1200 with another airline to keep our date with friends in USA. All good island experiences. The flood really was a flash flood and for the sake of 30mins either way our flight would have landed. Jack & Kate naturally loved the quicky flood and had the advantage over us that they didn't see the £1200 floating off in the floodwater.
All the above won't put off a return visit in the future as we have had a great time, met marvelous people who would share anything with you, swam with beautiful fish and ate handsomely. It's so good to be somewhere that everyone speaks as equals which, lots of you will appreciate is certainly not the UK.
ps. Flood pics to follow as they have escaped me om my laptop. Gary

More good times in Fiji.
We had a good morning walking along to the local village by invitation of Andrea the gardener. It was hot as h... (certainly 35o+(100f+)) and humid, so by the time we got there the sweat was running off us and a hose down would have been ideal. We accepted kumquat & lime juice instead and met some of Andrea's family who, although they too thought it hot, certainly weren't dripping like us red-hot Scots. We were then taken into the village and I had to wear a ????(kilt) to meet the chief as all men wear the traditional dress. No hats allowed either and sunnies are certainly frowned on when personally visiting the chief. The chief is disabled so we all sat on a floor mat and Andrea gave him our gift of kava root, which was subject to a small ceremony. We were then invited to go forward and introduce ourselves individually. This then allowed us to be in the village and to have a look about. This being done we had a laugh as I said we had been sent by the Scottish Rugby Union to complain about the beating that Fiji gave Scotland in the sevens last week. This has been a great ice-breaker while here with lots of people. Fijians are wild about rugby, no wonder when they are so good at it. They were around 60 of them crowding round the TV shop window last week watching the final. Lots of shops shut and bars full for the match. I digress, back to the village...... Having thus appeased the chief, we were then able to muscle in on an official tourist trip to the village ( 6 bus loads of Germans who had all come off a cruise ship anchored in the bay for the day )– yikes, we're not tourists!!! We also brought the average age down by about 30 years. However, we did enjoy the spectacle put on by the villagers: singing, spear dancing, ceilidh dancing, kava ceremony, coconut milk etc. We then escaped the crowds back to Andrea's house for more drinks before walking back along the beach. Our trip out to the reef was foiled by a swarm of angry wasps which stung Jack, Kate and myself as we tried to get back into the house – very nasty. So instead of a swim, we took the bus to town and salved ourselves internally with an ice cream sundae after a curry in a tiny local restaurant where we all had our fill for a total of £3.50.
Sailosi (the housekeeper) is cooking dinner for us tonight- fish in coconut milk. Limes and coconut from the garden and he showed us how to extract the coconut milk by grating the flesh and wringing this through grass which has been soaked in the sea for a couple of days and dried – it worked and tasted very fine! Also treated to an amazing display of thunder and lightning over the sea and hillside. Another difficult day in Paradise!
PS. The children took their wasp stings like troopers, but their father not to be outdone had to let his foot swell up so he looks like he has gout, quite likely too. Three days on and you should see the size of his swelling.

Pics. Gary and Sailosi ritually mixing kava. Jen in dance mode at the village. Male spear dance.

Bula from Fiji

Bula from Savusavu, Fiji.
A quick 3hrs gets you to Fiji's main island from NZ – no sign of a coup. We then flew out the following day to Vanau Levu, an hour's flight in a few oil drums joined up with a wing stapled on top. It did come into the small craft category with almost having to slide along the floor to get to your seat to avoid cracking your head on the top of the drum.
Landing was amusing when I saw the pilot's view, he was aiming at a hillside. After a while a strip running into the sea could be seen and down we went. The pilots nearly took out the arrivals lounge when parking up with their wingtip. The best arrival Jen and I have had in years with the airport measuring 30'x15', very quaint and naturally no exterior walls to talk of. We were whisked away by waiting taxi and settled down for a bit of a run. I had hardly done up my seatbelt when we were told it was time to get out, we had arrived. 3 mins had passed.
We are staying in a terrific property set in 5 acres with fruits, flowers, bananas and coconuts all available for the taking. We have been getting the best Fijian hospitality from Sailosi the caretaker and Andrea the gardener. J&K are schooled on how to drop coconuts, which to drop, how to get into them, which tree provides a natural hollowed stem for a straw and how to present them to the parents with a hibiscus on top.
Jen is having a good time cooking breadfruit, about the size of a melon and actually tastes like a potato but grows up a tree; cassava roots which also taste like spuds and anything else we get at the market. We have a huge bunch of bananas hanging at the front door that Andrea brought in. He turned them upside down yesterday and put salt on the stalk to help them ripen.
Have tried brewing kava, the local grog which should give a fuzzy feeling, but need more practice so Sailosi is to show us how it's done tomorrow. Also have a bunch of dried kava roots to take to the local chief as a gift so we can get into Andrea's village proper. Jen and the kids have already walked along the beach with Andrea to his house so that the local herbal lady could look at Kate's sore fingers (heat rash as in Aus.) and were given a bottle of oil. Now we've been invited for tea!
Everyone here waves, smiles and speaks, and if local to the house, they introduce themselves immediately. Generosity is natural to them and they aren't looking for anything in return. I think this is the friendliest place that I have been in all my traveling. Even today we stopped on a back road to be bloody nosey at what was going on at a shed(see pic) and were immediately welcomed by the village men. They were heating coconuts to be able to extract the oil but they were also tasty as they gave us some. Unfortunately no oil for sale then. They were eating oranges and insisted we took some away with us and wouldn't accept anything in return. We had some banter about Fiji beating Scotland in the rugby this week and moved off. These people are truly generous when they have massively less income then anyone in Europe, but spend more time smiling than most too.
Just back from an amazing snorkelling trip just round the bay from the Jean Michel Cousteau resort – the biggest variety of tropical fish and coral in a small area – fabulous colours and shapes – see Jack's photos!

Pics. The coconut boys, the airport with bull and one pic which Jack took this morning from our snorking trip.

Farewell to NZ

Farewell to NZ again.
Jen having spent hours on the phone to Air New Zealand from the south island managed to get us “free” flights up to Tauranga using our existing round the world tickets. These tickets allow you, lets say, 40,000 kms and you must go in an easterly direction. This allows you to muck around with the dates at no cost, but if you change the routing then a service charge applies.
Back into Tauranga to say cheerio to Doug, Ange and weans for 5 nights. One of the musts for adults and weans alike was to get down to Rotorua to go the Luge. As you can see in the pics it's a concrete dodgems track down through the trees, then jump on a chairlift to get back for another hurl.
With a choice of three tracks, you can quickly convince yourself that full speed down the advanced is too easy, so lets try single handed quickly followed by a pirates eye -patch. This obviously builds until you try backwards in the cart, over the edge. A splendid morning's racing was had with bumping and cutting the competition off at the bends - perfectly gentlemanly conduct. I would have to admit that having a 120% weight advantage over the weans did have a small benefit. Who would like to see one in Scotland, I have a site in mind, a wee project for the return?
We managed to borrow a house out at Waihi Beach and took the 6 weans out for 2/3 days. The beach is 10kms long and gets a real pounding by the surf, but still safe enough to get thrown about in the waves. A grand fort was constructed with two defence walls to keep the high tide out, and bedecked in shells as a warning to the sea as to the quality of its construction. Some of us went down at 22.00 to inspect the high tide and got soaked through in the rain. All sound. Back at 08.30 and not so sound. Outer wall breached, well not there actually, but the inner wall intact, 1 All.
Jack the human fly actually manged to extricate himself from the 1 ton pile before the tide came in.
A good couple of days with the cousins before they went back to school. Jack and Kate were very disappointed not to be going back too?? It's too bad there is 12,000miles between Scotland and NZ
as the cousins do get on very well, even with the large time lapses between visits that are inevitable.
New territory beckons, Fiji in the wet season................

In Nelson, top of New Zealand's South Island visiting friends the Worsleys and my school friend Heather. Another easy spot to settle in with a good lifestyle, property prices inexpensive by UK standards, fruit and vegetables everywhere at bottom prices, ice cream, coffee and scones, beaches and oh yes, the sun. So will we leave? Read on........
Determined to do something energetic in the Abel Tasman National Park Jenni eventually found someone willing to take the weans out on kayaks for two days. Abel Tasman is only accessible by foot or sea, not a road in it. You can tramp right up it and book into their bunk huts overnight, believe me you don't want to be shy to stay in the huts. Once you are at the top you can call up a water taxi and get whisked away back to the start. How civilised does that sound when your blisters are fairly festering. What a brilliant job roasting about in a high powered water taxi up a beautiful section of coastline.
We set off with our double kayaks fully loaded with all camping stuff and supplies for two days for seven of us, Kyle our guide plus Dave and James from the UK.
Day 1 we saw lots, and listened to Kyle's story telling- true or bluff? on the way up the coastline to Anchorage Bay - our camp spot for the night. Kyle produced top end food for us including carrot cake, mud cake, pavlova, quite astounding what appeared from the bowels of the kayaks. He had us playing good games after dinner and he was excellent with J&K as were James and Dave.
Day 2 was wet when we started so it was on with the polyprop sexy leggings(see pic) and semit.
Kayaking in the rain was quite pleasant and seeing the coast in different lights was interesting. Morning tea/coffee and cake seemed all the better in the rain. We paddled out to islands where we got up close to fur seals and pups, watched a seal throwing a squid around for a few minutes until it was soft enough to swallow. There were bottlenose dolphins on the go too.
We finished the day in Barks Bay and were whisked away by taxi after loading on all our kayaks and gear. We didn't think that we had gone very far but you got a better idea of distance on the taxi. What was interesting upon return to the starting beach was that the tide was a long way out. In the water were about eight tractor and trailers. We selected ours and drove straight on. The taxi driver then became tractor driver and drove about .5km over the beach and back to the road to unload with us still in the taxi boat on the trailer. Back to base for an ice cream and an adult dinner out that evening. Steak seemed the choice having been out in the field for weeks now, or was it one night?
We stayed with the Worsleys for about 1 week in all and went camping with them too for a couple of nights. Although it's summer, we could see our breath one night when camping, memories of Scottish camping? The weather here too wasn't what they would normally expect. This is the one thing that we have consistently heard most places that we have been.
The Worsleys have kids of similar ages to ours - and a pool so the kids all used the pool lots. We were sorry to leave, but the North Island and Fiji beckoned!

Return to Australia Jan 07

Time again for the not so weekly janitor's report. This week I can say that all cockroach, ant, snake and wombat infestations have been dealt with in the appropriate manner.(allowing J&K to get in about them with sticks) Oz animal welfare groups are still hunting us down as we “speak”.
Since returning to Aus on Jan 7th we managed to achieve selling our Nissan for a decent price and immediately too, I almost had to walk home to achieve the sale. We had to get a hire car to cover the gap, however Jen managed to get a one-way from Brisbane to Sydney(1000kms) for £6 a day as our flights back to NZ were from Sydney.
We eventually found a shipping co. to use after a vast amount of dead end tracks and then packed up all our stuff. Kayaks, bikes and camping gear into anything we could stuff full. This period was naturally completely stress-free and not a bad word passed between the warring factions. G “I'm not paying for that trash to be shipped into Europe when it could be dumped”. G “Don't the French sell bed linen anymore?”. J “These items have more emotional attachment to me than you'll ever have”, and on it went. Not an occasion passed when one word would have done but it translated into a tirade. This stuff arrives in France in about 6-8 weeks when we should have finished counselling!
We managed a few tourist things before leaving Sarah & Darryl's after getting rid of all our baggage, emotional or otherwise. We made it up Mount Warning after delaying our departure by 24hrs to shin up it. We were virtually in the car to leave when Jen determined some severe exercise was required. Sarah and Darryl couldn't believe their luck that we were staying another night, again! It was 1200m high starting from 300m and quite severe at the top finishing the last 200-300m pulling yourself up on a chain at 45o. We watched an eagle cruise by when at the top and you could walk 360o to get the full view. We had another farewell dinner at S&D's before heading on to Sydney taking the slow route. We had 3 days before flying so we meandered down through Tamworth to visit the Country Music Festival for lunch. I managed, at Jen's insistence, a Chinese massage which involved the executioner walking on my back and legs followed by a kicking session into my back. Then when I thought I had suffered enough, he stuck a massive herbal plaster on my hairy back. This plaster 18cm x 9 stuck like a limpet for 5 days and gave no ground even after being soaked in the swimming pool for 1 hour. I took it like a man and wept for an hour after it ripped out every hair on the way off. The Chinese fairly like a joke.
After driving through the Great Dividing Range and the Blue Mountains we reached Sydney at 5pm and really had no problem in traffic considering it was rush hour in a city of 3.5m. Our apartment was superb with 2 balconies, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and kitchen on the 15th floor for £85 a night. J&K loved the height and the lifts which were“cool”.
The following morning, my 46th birthday, I was rudely awoken at 6.30am and forced out of bed. We found a taxi and headed off for the harbour bridge which, unknown to me, we were booked to climb up and over. We were lucky and were taken up on our own. After crawling through the underbelly of the bridge we popped up on the main structure and started up. Once at the top you got a fine view over the Opera House and Darling Harbour. While at the top we discovered through the guide that Sweeney Todd was on at the opera and tickets were available. After breakfast overlooking the OH we got the opera tickets.
Out the front of the opera house was a temporary tennis court which invited anyone to have a shot against the ball machine, the pro, have your serve measured and analysed. We had a bit of fun there. Afternoon at the museum and The Rocks and watching buskers, then we finished the day in the opera house which was very good and a good introductory for J&K. An excellent full-on day for our last in Australia.
We certainly have unfinished business in Australia and another 6 months is required in future to complete the circuit.

Fish, eventually.
Salty Sea Dog reporting.
Kate received a telescopic fishing rod for Christmas and to christen it we chartered a boat for the day for guaranteed results? A guarantee was what was required after Kate catching nowt around Australia. We motored 10kms offshore got the bait on and within minutes a snapper was over the side followed by 16 Kawai, good smoked but not cooked. We kept a couple and put the rest back. More than once they caught two at a time, brisk work getting them off the hooks and returned.
To change fish we moved nearer to shore for some Terayki and they didn't disappoint. Some 12-15 later we hauled anchor after the cool box was full with 20 odd x 2kgs a piece. Naturally a major fish gutting ensued at home followed by fish & everything for days. For the afternoon we went up onto Matakana island for some water sports. Jack & Kate were first out on the biscuit behind the boat hanging on for their lives. Mine host wasn't obviously concerned about bad press of the type,”Fishing charter operator has licence suspended after breaking children's bones”.(and wills)
When it came to my turn he decided that an old hand like me could take the 6g's trip. My god he was keen to meet the copy deadline at the press. After tearing all muscles I slipped under to the cheers from J&K safely onboard. After 10mins recovery I was back out on a mono-ski, bad mistake. Once my pride had been dragged around the bay enough I was winched on board like a wet rag. Another 10hrs sleep followed.
We kept up this “fitness” regime with a few hikes to the stage that my wasted muscles eventually wouldn't get me into the espresso bar without the bath chair.

Sand Boarding at Hokiango

We took a drive one day to catch a boat across a bay to a huge sand spit that was probably 50m high, all sand. Jump off at the other side and grab a boogie board, up the dune and come belting down but making sure you stop before the sea. Jenni used a new braking technique first(and last) run, she braked using her nose and lips, very ineffective. The rest of us stuck to traditional sledging methods sticking in you toes before entry into the sea. Kate failed on one run and in she went. Another exhausting expedition runing up sand dunes.

Gary

Not for the faint hearted, poles and paintball.
The children had requested (Nz'rs & Scots) a trip to a pole climbing centre to see how long their respective parents lasted before buckling under fear of heights.
The site consisted of 10-15m high poles joined up with wires, bridges and other tall apparatus. All with one thing in common, to test how far you felt like going. Going home didn't seem a bad idea at all at his point however, as we had paid we had to stay. Angus was raring to go so up he went and monkeyed along the wires at 10m. The chiels all romped through and graduated onto the shaky chain bridge with no hand holds at 10-12m. Quite the test, Jack fared best skipping over Billy Goat Gruff's death trap bridge while Jen had to be airlifted off.
The best news I heard all morning was that we had run out of time and couldn't graduate to climbing the 10m pole and jumping off to the trapeze bar. It would have been a humiliation for the family having their father weeping at the top and be taken off by one rifle shot.
The next challenge was the paint-ball firing range to vent all disagreements leftover from Christmas. How the children were looking forward to legally damaging the parents without a beating to follow. We teamed up with three others making ten in all and went into battle to capture the flag and retain it. The junior officers felt that an example should be set by a more senior member of the red beret command who would be backed by their massive fire power. Fine in principal until my own brother shot me at close range in the back, sinbin for him. After Jen and I doing our commando rolls and “Dirty Harry” manoeuvres we won the day.
Fish suppers all round and off to bed.
Gary(bruised, physically and mentally)

pics Kate on bridge and Darth Vader(Jack or Angus)

Waitomo caving & abseiling

Caving & abseiling Waitomo caves December 06
Jack here, today we went caving that was great fun. Granny and Grandpa sent us $$ for Christmas
which we decided to use at Waitomo. Our first trip in the morning was black water rafting and we rafted on inner tubes through a cave system that was full of glow-worms and even an eel. In the middle of the caves we had a hot drink and some chocolate to warm up before going into the water again. We tubed in the dark and you couldn't see a thing, it was pitch dark unless, we were under the glow-worms which did light up the tunnel. We changed out of the wet suits had lunch and then went for our second trip to St Benedict's caverns. First of all we had to abseil on our own down a crack in the rock which was 60m into a tunnel. The crack was really tight in places and Dad just made it. We then had to walk over a 3-4m log as the tunnel bottom had collapsed. On the way through the cave system we saw loads of stalagmites and stalagtites. The exciting bit was in St Benedict's which is a huge cavern only discovered 20yrs ago. To protect the cavern we had to go on a flying fox for 80-100m to keep us off the ground. Dad had to go first and the scary bit was we had to do it in the pitch dark. It was fun though. We walked on a bit until we came to a big stalagmite that was thousands of years old! We walked up some stairs and into an air lock that was cylinder shaped and we all squeezed in and shut the door. We opened the other door to find out we're outside. It was actually an air lock because the air would dry it out the stalagmites and stalagtites. We walked up the hill and into the van. I really enjoyed it. It was great fun!
Gary. We had a long day as we were up at 6am and didn't get home until 9pm. A good 10hrs kip that night. Another good NZ experience, thanks Mum and Dad. Oh, if you saw Billy Connoly in NZ he too did the flying fox through St Benedicts. An interesting 20secs in absolute darkness.

Mr Hendry reporting to all of you bored enough to be reading it.
Since entering Northern Queensland in Nov we have had a fairly fast scuttle down to Brisbane missing out loads in between. The reason for this is all based on us returning our camper for refurbishment and re-sale. This leaves us the decision to buy something else to continue in Aus and then ship to Europe to tour there, or not. All this sucks up an enormous amount of time. To see any campers we had to get to BB, hence the quick shift down the coast. We poked around loads and eventually left Aus with our limited brains burling. So, the decision has been stalled for NZ while we rest up from these awkward decisions.
We had our most unusual experience 2 weeks ago when we went to stay with my cousin Sarah and husband Darryl . They live 2/3 hrs south of Brisbane and 400m up in the hills with a great view from their terrace. We suddenly realised that we were inside a house, quite a novelty, the first thresh-hold that we had crossed in 3.5 months. We took 4 strides and stopped not appreciating that suddenly we had gone from our travelling box to infinity for strides. We also had a great thrill of a “real” bed, our 2nd experience in 3.5 months. J&K were too overcome with the transition and immediately moved into a cupboard under the stairs. They remained there with the dogs whenever possible. We got them out with ice cream and sealed the entry. We invited ourselves into S&D's for the maximum time limit which was flying out to Auckland on 12th. They helped us enormously and let us leave all our kit around their house and garden until return. Little do they know we aren't returning for the valueless pile.
We attended a Christmas carols concert in a wildlife park that Sarah works with one night. It was probably 15-20deg and very odd. It did occur to me at that point that in fact it is Christmas. It is very avoidable when you are doing what we are however, the Aus types like the Brits do cover their houses in some very bad lighting combinations. We have seen some bad enough to turn around and re-visit.
We are currently in NZ on the Bay of Islands in Russell where Jen and I almost bought a house in mid 90's. We luckily managed a house swop for France 4 weeks ago and here we are FOC for 10 days resting our weary brains and attitudes. There is no question that constant moving creates a potential crabbit environment. On day 3 in a house in Russell it's already obvious that the daily traveling tensions have gone and Jen and I are lighter hearted. We only have a domestic 3 times a day now, quite superb.
Jack and I have had 2 days sailing now and Jen and Kate 1. Our house swoppers are professional sailors and are living on their 40' yacht while we have the run of their house. Oh, we have invited them up to their own house for a BBQ Tuesday night. An interesting evening to come. The B o I has 144 islands so superb sailing terroritory. We had dolphins 3' off the hull yesterday jumping right beside us for 10-15mins. An excellent experience, they were a lot larger than the Aus dolphins. Kate and I saw a pair of them jumping 12' out and somersaulting.
We move to Tauranga(Doug and Ange's) for Christmas on 22nd and are there for 2 weeks. We do have my niece Conor flying in tomorrow for a week with us as she is off school.
While we are here we will head to the most northern tip of NZ where there are huge dunes. You can rent sand boards and then surf the dunes picking up a fair mouthful of sand as you go I expect.
We clear NZ shores on Jan 7th back to BB and currently we don't know what after that. We still intend to be in Trevignon February for a bit before moving on again. We will be back in NZ south island continuing on our original tickets when we clear Aus.
Pics. Kate with a large stick insect that Jack found on a tree.
Jenni and I with Byron Bay lighthouse in background. Australia's most easterly point.
J,K&I on the pontoon out on The Barrier Reef.
Bay of Islands lunch stop. Our yacht showing between the two islands.
Gary

Barrier Reef

Gary.
We have been in Airlie Beach which is famous as the access point to the 74 Whitsunday Islands now for 3 nights. We have had one day sailing for 10 hrs around the islands and swimming on the untouched White Island Beach. It is famous because it gets no jetsom and flotsom as the tides around don't come into the beach so it's pristine, except for boating tourists. Yesterday we motored 65 miles off shore to The Barrier Reef to a huge permanent pontoon which has the most amazing facilities. You could dive, snorkel, water slide, be massaged, glass bottom boat and semi submersible while out. We had 3 hrs there as it takes 2.5hrs each way. We saw some wonderful fish and coral and got some great professional pics. The pic of Kate behind the rasse(fish) is as it was. The rasse is 1m long x 60cm tall and Kate was about 2-3m behind it. A good 11hr day so an early bed last night.
We camped up on Saturday night at a speedway meeting which was a good way to combine the two. J&K enjoyed watching the m/bikes, m/bikes and sidecars/quad bikes and go carts racing on dirt for 3hrs. Jen cowered inside the camper quite delighted to get caught up with a diary and avoid the meeting.
Queensland is covered in sugarcane, bananas and mangos(60p each) with small railways all over transporting the cane to the processing mill. We have also bought Java bananas which are huge and taste quite different to the bananas we get at home.
Kate has a mango obsession which fortunately is cheap fodder.
We had an excellent dinner out last night which is only our 3rd since arriving in Aus.. Upstairs dining overlooking Airlie water front, no side to the building more tent like so airy. J&K had steak, dessert and a drink for £3.50, guess where we are going tonight?
Airle is absolutely moving with boats and yachts which provides a good gawk for Jack and I up and down the pontoons, drooling. We may come back in Jan on a 3 day trip which sails around the islands and you live on-board. Snorkelling and swimming as much as you can take. J&K certainly fancy it on an older clipper with lots of room and tarzan swings off the mast. I think J fancies a bit of pirate walk the plank treatment.
We have had an easy day today catching up on school, e-mail and internet related stuff. Some camp grounds have wifi internet access which means that you can connect up from your camper without having to move anywhere. We watched a film tonight outside in the campground free naturally, J&K delighted.
Moving south tomorrow and we aim to be in Brisbane around the weekend as we have a few camper showrooms to visit. Having had our toilet replaced for the 2nd time it lasted 4-5 days and has since given up.
Just had 2 possums running around our camper, J&K straight onto the case with the torches.
Kate reporting.
We went on a catamaran called Camira and we saw the Whitsundays and Whitehaven Beach. At eight o'clock we were on Camira and ready to go with 70 people on the 85 foot catamaran. After 30 minutes we arrived at Dreamtime Island and on the way people had been making use of the free drinks. At Dreamtime Island we picked up a few people. We set off again and had morning tea and then we keep on going until we came to Whitehaven Beach where we went swimming and played beach games for an hour it was great fun in the water with a football. Whitehaven Beach was so white and clean that it reflected the sun and the sand was not hot! We had lunch back on board that was great! Adults thought it was great because they gave you free wine and beer. Then we went to the snorkelling site that had a few fish but nothing else and it was rubbish. We came down the Whitsunday passage and a sort sail and then it was back to Airlie Beach.