Thursday, July 19, 2007

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

Friday, July 6, 2007

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

Address:

Any mail best sent via Rods work: c/- Rod Sharp, Virtual Eye Office, Amercia's Cup Media Centre, Port America's Cup, Valencia, SPAIN

TeamNZ, Monday 7 May

TeamNZ, Monday 7 May
Readying for the start of race 6, south course. Emirates Team NZ whizz past the media boat.

We love Valencia Oranges!

We love Valencia Oranges!

Cup racing schedule

3 - 6 April..... Fleet racing
16-23 April ... Vouis Vuitton Challenger - round robin 1
1-7 May .....Vouis Vuitton Challenger - round robin 2
14 - 24 May ...Vouis Vuitton Challenger -semi final
1-12 June ....Vouis Vuitton Cup - final
23 June - 1 July ....Americas Cup racing

The apartment

The apartment
Apratment living (all 580 odd of them)

Arriving at Valencia train station

Arriving at Valencia train station
Finally there!

Transport

Transport
This is the best way to visit daddy - 45 min bike ride down the promonade. You have to look out for trees and spanish ladies (Hunter found out!!)

Gullivers Travels

Gullivers Travels
In the old river Turia (river redirected long ago after continuous flooding) there are lots of playgrounds and bike tracks. The kids are playing on a huge giant Gulliver. There are lots of slides and stairs and ropes to climb. If you look hard you can see Gullivers head behind - the kids are standing on his arm.

The Spider Web

The Spider Web
A huge rope spider web on the beach is very cool to climb up (Mum only spent a very SHORT time at the top!!!)

The playground

The playground
It's not so bad having your cousins to play with every day!

The Bell Tower (Cathedral)

The Bell Tower (Cathedral)
Zoe took this picture of us on top of the Bell Tower- Easter Sunday

Views from the Bell Tower

Views from the Bell Tower
Glad we were there at 1pm and not 12 noon. The bell chimes on the hour.

View of Plaza del la Reina from the bell tower


At the top of the bell tower (Easter Sunday)