So here we are - It's a few days until we start our 76 day holiday away from home to New Zealand. We are all so looking forward to spending this time together, visiting friends, exploring the country, it's people and culture. Will we want to stay, to emigrate and start a new chapter in our life? Who knows! One thing for sure is that it's going to be a fabulous time.


We leave on the 23rd September on an Air New Zealand flight to Hong Kong. We have decided to stay in Hong Kong for 4 days as the full on 23 hour flight with Myles would probably take some recovery! We've always wanted to visit anyway. After Hong Kong we fly straight to Auckland to stay with some close friends of ours for a couple of weeks, Gavin & Victoria, who made the move to NZ a year or so ago after traveling around the globe and giving Australia a try. It will be great exploring Auckland and the Bay Of Plenty with them. Rach has been surfing the net and making some friends on the North Shore and the Coromandel that we plan to visit whilst we're in the area.

After Auckland we are hooking up with Rob, our long time friend and world traveller who runs a web site - www.helpx.net We plan to do a loop of the north island and parts of the south island, before returning to Auckland for a week or so for our return trip via a 3 day stay in Santa Barbara, CA.

Hopefully lots of video and photos will start to appear on the site, which we will try and sort together using some tags and geographic locations for people to search through. We also hope to produce a weekly podcast on iTunes that you can subscribe to also.

So off for now, sooo much work to catch up on before we go. Cx.

Well as I try to pack light (impossible me thinks with a 21mth old! - but here goes) - a million thoughts including my never ending list are racing through my head - I can't quite believe we will soon be in NZ and this being a possible place to live maybe??? How do I feel about this well apprehensive is an understatement - it's kind of clouding my usual excitement about such a fabulous trip, which I know is going to be amazing for all of us. I can't help thinking forwards to our future and we haven't set foot in the place yet!!!! I suppose we are soooo ready to do something different with our lives, especially as its taken us 12 years and a lot of heartache to finally be a family (but that's another book!) so the emotions are high right now.


As I pack being the practical mom, I'm also the emotional lady of the household! and balancing these two feelings sometimes send me into a spin. I'm sooo lucky to have such great boys in my life the big and the small! and I know the excitement is gonna kick in big time when we get to the airport!!! Well back to wrestling with the cases!

Heathrow never changes. Every time we fly from here it seems to get busier. Still I suppose the crowds will acclimatize us for Honk Kong! We never look forward to the terminal 3 experience. Saying this though, we had a very quick check in and due to the size of Myles's buggy and some strategic acting from him we were ushered through the security and passport control with almost VIP treatment. Who said traveling with children slows you down!


As I type this Myles is on his 2nd lap of the departure lounge and Rach is seeking refuge with a cold drink. We're all harboring a bit of a cold / virus at the moment - just been to Boots and it seems that the rest of the airport has one too! Going to the gate in a moment so will check in tomorrow.

Monday - Phew! - we made it - the flight was bearable and Myles slept most of the way - with a few interim moments of listening to classical music on the noise cancelling headphones Craig purchased (great buy), which I also used to get some sleep too with, so all in all we sailed through the first leg.

Arrival at Hong Kong airport is relaxed a true antidote to the chaos and mayhem at Heathrow although we got VIP service as Myles got upset at securty check in which was like a cattle market so they whisked us through all of the snaking queue - much to the raised eyebrows of those passengers without a crying child!! - so there are benefits to your baby screaming in public!!!

Apart from having one of our bags torn and having to go to baggage claim where a bowing assistant very graciously filled in triplicate and then duplicate our claim for compensation then offered a miserly sum of $200 HK!! for our trouble - he was obviously used to putting on the eastern humility that we agreed and went on our merry way to the airport shuttle desk. This was a breeze - we think job creation is the order of the day here as we are ushered by 2 attendants to a waiting area to be met by more attendants who ensure we get on our shuttle bus - which is air con and leather reclining seats!

We arrive at the Langham Place (wow!) Good choice Craig - and he's sorted us so we are whisked up to the Club Lounge to check in and leave our bags at reception. Once at the club lounge we are seated, given hot towels to freshen up and a drink of our choice, they coo over Myles and fuss over him checking that if he needs anything we are just to ask. We then decide to go the whole hog and upgrade to a suite (well worth it) this has two rooms a kitchen/lounge area and bedroom which has a bathroom off it where you can lounge in the bath and look through a floor to ceiling glass panel and listen to the TV piped into the bathroom from the 50" plasma in the bedroom! Oh yeah and to top it off we are given a bottle of champagne on ice and a selection of fruit and chocolates - which are enjoyed as Myles sleeps fast on the enormous queen size bed complete with fragrance pillow selection - well enough said!!!


So we wake around 3am local time and then get back to sleep and then wake again at 10.30am - we are on the 39th floor and the view is just like Blade Runner - and me and Myles sit on the window seat looking at the view of the ants below and the what seems like millions of windows on stick thin buildings soaring up and below us - we are so high up!

Tuesday we just chill out in the suite to recover from jetlag and a cold that has taken hold of us. This place is amazing - we get a call from reception asking us if we want to go on a guided tour which we'd shown interest in when we checked in but Craig told them we weren't feeling great with a cold and in 20 minutes a knock at the door and we had 2 pots of hot water, a dish of fresh lemon slices and two mini jars of honey and a selection of fruit and cookies - with compliments and to wish us well!!!

Craig has to work today anyway and is glued to the skype phone at the desk most of the day so me and Myles amuse ourselves and take a nap at around 4pm - we finally venture out for a spot of dinner and a bit of shopping - the young women keep cooing over Myles - he is such a babe magnet, we go into a toy store and the 2 girls in their keep taking pictures of him on their sony mobiles! All the female staff at the hotel say hi to him - he does his 'I want to be alone shy look' reckon he should be an actor when he's older - and this just makes them coo even more!!!

After spending most of our time 'glued' to the hotel and adjacent establishments, we are finally venturing out in to the wide world of Hong Kong. The combination of jet lag, the tail end of all round colds, work demands and the pampered surroundings of our suite we ushered in the usual Ray spirit of adventure and headed out early today.


We started with a breakfast of bacon and eggs all round - or backon in Myles speak. Now don't get me wrong - We've stopped in some nice hotels, but never in one where the breakfast place mats include all the days main headlines and weather forecast and never one where there there is a buffet featuring all the possible breakfast menus from around the world - Want to start with some sushi, then move onto a full English fry up, following by some nice spicy noodles and finishing with a continental spread - no problem all catered for here. I could go on, but to demonstrate a point - I normally get honey out of a jar - not a fresh rack out of a beehive!


Anyway will post some more later today as I'm sure it's going to be an eventful day - I did think breakfast deserved it's own post though!