There's no place like home.....

After a couple of days exploring Barcelona, and two nights in Singapore (saturday night visiting the Singapore Zoo on night safari - VERY COOL - wow! anteaters have very small heads!)...we headed home courtesy of Singapore Airlines........

We arrived in Te Aroha 9am on a cold but beautiful sunny winters day on monday.
The Southern Alps were covered in a fresh dump of pure white and we were greeted by smiling Kiwi faces. A fantastic end to a wonderful trip ........

...well, almost perfect......

...if only Rod hadn't left a bloody apple in one of the back packs...to be picked up at NZ Customs AFTER we had completed the forms, with "nothing to declare".... I should have known when the lady pulled the backpack aside and proceeded to speil off the ... "you packed the bag yourself?.... you read and understood the customs form?......"

$200 fine for a single APPLE! And to think how many pairs of shoes I could have bought in Singapore with that!!

Hmmmmmmm

Well, we are all home safe and well.
Thank you all who shared our journey through this blog site. It made you all feel so much closer.... We really looked forward to checking out the site on a regular basis to see your comments and learn of your own adventures.

Until next time........

Love, Janine, Rod, Zoe and Hunter
XXxx

Bugger!

What a race! Who would have thought we could have lost the match race by second!
VERY exciting..........and much harder to "stomach" than if Team NZ had lost convincingly.

A very flat tuesday evening.

So...we have comenced the packing up. Enjoying our last visitor, Wendy my second cousin from the USA who leaves today. I must away to book her taxi and think about packing the rest before we depart for Barcelona on tuesday, Singapore for 2 nights to arrive in Christchurch at 9am monday 16th. We are looking forward to seeing you all then.

Loads of love,
Janine, Rod, Zoe and Hunter
XXxx OOoo

Four - two .....

It's not over yet ..............

But unfortunately Rods results in the sweepstake are looking a bit better than Team NZ's odds and the All Blacks spirits after their loss yesterday. Not much to say other than we will have everything crossed today...........

Two - One

VERY EXCITING!
What a great race of tactics. We thought we had lost it after rounding the last mark....but the boys played a great race back to win. Fantastic!
Let's hope it's 3-1 by the end of the day.

We had taken a heap of photos of "out and about" the village ...but they have mysteriously disappeared off my camera. We will try and get some more for you today.

Two All!

Fantastic to see Team NZ pull away on leg three to end with a win today. Yippee!! Two all - bring it on!

We enjoyed a day of sun burn in front of the "big screen" at the village yesterday watching the first race and attempting to catch ourselves on camera with TVNZ. Forgot the "Hello Appleby School" banner but Hunter wore his All Black shorts with NEW ZEALAND printed across his posterior. By the end of the afternoon he had shaking his "toosh" to the offending Alinghi supporters (and man with swiss cow bell) down pat ...and managed to win him (and his toosh) a camera viewing on what I thought was a TVNZ camera. Turns out it was a camera man from "world feed" ... so sorry NZ...we have moved to bigger and better audiences!

The grass is always greener ....

Well - it was wonderful to get a change of scenery ...and we were actually looking forward to some cooler weather.........little did we know it was going to be almost single digits in Scotland! We managed to time the trip immaculately to co-incide with a week of rain...
Hump you say? Yes, I know you are now well used to it...... but hey it IS suppose to be Summer over here!

I did have a wee lump in my throat as we flew into view of green fields and hedges ......

We enjoyed catching up with Rods relatives in St Andrews (an hour north of Edinborough), and then a couple of days in the Lake District which is just beautiful. Visits catch up with friends in Newcastle and London with a ride on the "humungous ferris wheel" (the London Eye)...and of course a trip to Hamleys toy store.

One of the many highlights was a trip to a bird santuary on the Farn Islands (an hour north of Newcastle). We were excited to see Puffin birds (very cute)...but not too sure about nesting Turns and Shags, who, as any new mother would, fiercly protected their newborns by divebombing any intruder who passed along the 300m path from the boat onto the island. No amount of recommended waving hands above our heads stopped the attempts (yes -Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" reminded us of a wet sunday afternoon watching "Bambie"). However, Hunter took being "pooed on" with a sense of humour and it was well worth risking our lives for. We got VERY close to the birds on the tiny island.

We arrived back at 11.30pm on thursday night, 2 hours late when the plane was delayed...which under normal circumstances would have been "OK" had we not missed our one and only chance to attend the America's Cup Ball . Oh well - had nothing to wear anyway! I'm sure Niomi Campbell missed our catch up though.

On holiday ...again...

Well - you've got to make the most of these things!

Racing doesn't start until the 23rd June with the comencement of the America's Cup.
So we've got to fill in the time somehow!
We are planning to visit Rod's aunt in Scotland (via some friends in London and Newcastle)..and will be back on 21 June.

We have started saying good bye to some lovely friends we have met during our stay. Particularly a few from Victory Challenge ..... only Kiwis and Swiss left now!
We are looking forward to a few more visitors when we return from the UK.

Major excitement today - Hunter has touched the bottom of the swimng pool! He is now happily jumping off the side of the pool and putting his head under....... (a milestone for a boy who wouldn't get his hair wet 6 weeks ago!)
Zoe is "hyperventilating" at the thought of spending a day in Hamley's toy store in London.....

Hope you all have a good week.

Love,
J,R,Z and H
XXxx