While we were on our whizz round the world, Nigel published a daily picture on Instagram. For those of you who are not Instagrammers, we’ve reproduced the photos in 4 blog posts. This one covers New Zealand and Tonga. Day 13 and a fabulous first day in New Zealand. This pic is from #muriwaibeach on … More Round the world in pictures: Australasia
There are six bloody pockets in these hilarious zip off hiking trousers. Six. But despite five minutes of frantic wriggling and searching, I couldn’t find a single tissue. The cab driver, probably suspecting I had ants in my pants, now had to endure a couple of loud, theatrical sniffs from his female fare in the … More Tears in Tonga as we bid a final farewell
Nigel always wanted to swim with dolphins. But his first experience was swimming with whales instead. … More Swimming with whales – not dolphins
I’ve always loved ocean mammals – especially dolphins. And one of my long-held ambitions has been to swim with them … sharing their world as a guest. In fact, despite being in many places where dolphins are known to inhabit, I have never actually seen one in the wild. On the flight from Auckland to … More How I didn’t swim with dolphins
Our ‘man about town’, Faupula Saone, was showing us his neighbourhood and knowing that Jane worked for BBC radio, was keen to show us the station that he provides news items for. So we were marched into BroadCom 89.5FM and were met by 4 smiling, welcoming faces, including the DJ who was on air as … More Amazingly we end up on popular Tongan radio
We’d spent a couple of hours alone on a palm-bordered beach. Swimming in the South Pacific. No one in sight. Crystal clear waters. Now, it was pushing five, and we were a bit miffed about the prospect of missing Happy Hour cocktails at the hotel. We’d giddily knocked back two each the night before; then … More Tonga: The unexpected truth in a happy hour
We’ve absolutely loved New Zealand and we’ve learnt a lot too. Here are 10 things that we didn’t know about the country until we travelled here. 1-In spring on the west coast of the south island, people go mad for whitebait. When we stayed in the tiny village of Haast, the owner of our accommodation … More 10 surprising facts about New Zealand
Introduction: Time of year: September 2016 Purpose of trip: This was a one night stopover on our drive up through South Island, during our round the world trip. Why we chose this place: This accommodation was actually chosen for us by the travel agent who fixed the New Zealand leg of our 57 day trip … More Review: Murchison Lodge, Murchison, New Zealand
It was tea-break time for Diane and Jeanette at the general store in Ross on New Zealand’s little Highway Six. They sat at the wooden table outside the shop; as Di lit a cigarette and Jeanette sunk her teeth into a pink fruit bun. We were on a bench nearby, enjoying the ice cream they’d … More New Zealand: Amazing, astonishing and we’ve only just arrived
Cue Earth, Wind and Fire. Start digging out the knee-high, brown suede boots. Think about ordering logs for the wood burner, and sourcing those warming, home made soup recipes.Those are the kind of things I’ve always thought about at this time of year. But I only realised the other day that, for the first time … More Another kind of autumn…
2emptynesters 