Here we go, here we go ...

Strictly speaking our Antipodean Adventures end very soon, when we leave New Zealand. We go home via California so I'll carry on blogging until we are back in the UK. The weather is turning, it is windy and wet now in Auckland and this adds to the feeling that it is time we started to think about going home.

So I have been doing slightly surreal things like supermarket shopping online for delivery the day we get back; I've ordered flowers for mum who will be in hospital for Mothers Day; and I've organised broadband to be connected and operational for our return. Its amazing what you can do from the other side of the world!

Of course we are going to miss things. The old chaps family; the old friends we've met up with again and the lovely people we've met along the way; the beaches; the cosmopolitan perks of Sydney; the restaurants; sushi; the nail bars; the g'days; even the stop/go man who holds the stop/go sign at roadworks instead of traffic lights; the fun number plates in both New Zealand and Australia - see our favourite in the photo below, my friend Justine way out in the wilds of Scotland, near Strontian in Ardnamurchan would enjoy that particular one as she was involved in a community nappy service; and so it goes on.

We will be back, we have all the northern half of Australia to visit yet and the north of South Island and the south of North Island of New Zealand to discover. The next Ashes series in Australia is in four years time, perhaps we should aim for that and do it all over again !

In the meantime California here we come!