And The Great Ocean Road. And Casterton. So much to see along the south west coast of Victoria. We headed out of Melbourne, leaving the hustle of the impending Grand Prix behind. First stop Geelong for coffee at Geelong Waterfront on Eastern Beach.  Always a quite pleasant place to visit, although the weather seemed to be a little against us, sunny one moment, rain the … Continue reading The Bool

Our patient and long term travel companions from down south thought it might be fun to have a little trip over to Adelaide. Beginning in Melbourne of course. Via the Great Ocean Road. So that’s what we are doing. Coincidentally, I already had one of my regular trips home the few days before. I say coincidentally, but probably more like it was organised around my … Continue reading Casually slipping over to Adelaide

Or TUM as it’s known. Twas a big day in Rotorua yesterday. We commenced the day with an early drop off of Alexei to the bus. The shuttle from Village Green to the start line commenced loading at 6.50am to 7.20am. We were there in good time. With good luck wishes we waved him off and headed back to the hotel. The intention was to … Continue reading Tarawera Ultra Marathon

I had never been to Rotorua. Or PooArua as my friends call it. Due to it being the hubba bubba centre of thermal pools in NZ. Notable for its geothermal activity – notably the Pōhutu Geyser, and its hot mud pools.  Notable also for it’s smell. It’s thick 💩 We are up here to support our Russian/Ukraine/Canadian friend Alexei. Who decided he would head here from … Continue reading Rotorua

This is my last wedding post.  And it’s a long one.  As I’e previously mentioned, this blog is my memory box. One day I will print the whole thing out and make it into a memory book. Then leave it in my will for my poor unsuspecting kids.  But readers (and future me), there are some good reasons I wanted to write the last few … Continue reading Back to the wedding…..

Yep, wedding week. But first I’m going to skip a little backwards and maybe a little forwards to continue on with my little story.  I have frequently mentioned, ok boasted to MoD, that I have an exceptional high pain tolerance. Post the ‘incident’ – that would be the car dooring – we have laughed about that one – its been clearly a BS statement. Apparently.  … Continue reading Wedding Week

It’s a funny thing that. Acceptance. It can take eons. Or it can take moments. Something I have had to do a fair bit of lately. I have told you about our wedding day.  The months leading up were incredibly busy. I had been working most of the year even though I ‘retired’ the previous year. In January, my previous employer asked me in to … Continue reading Acceptance….

This is going to be a long post. Actually, this is going to be a story over several posts. Bear with me.  Frankly it’s never been about you, my 12 loyal readers. This has always been my memory box. And this memory, I want to remember. Forever.  We chose a Friday for our wedding in Akaroa.  There were some concerns about the weather, given that … Continue reading The Wedding

No, it was the rain. On and On and On. We got up early and went for a walk before hitting the Matakana markets. Warkworth is quite hilly and it was nice to stretch out and see a bit of suburbia. Bigger than we thought with quite a lot of interesting pockets of homes. Stopped at the Chocolate Brown for a coffee, and to try … Continue reading Saturday – and the beat goes on…….

Our Tour Guide googled the best fish and chippery in NZ. Came up as the Monganui Fish Shop. That’s where we headed after our trip to Cape Reinga. Alas, it was only 5pm, we had just consumed a BIG bloomin ice cream and we decided to regretfully skip the pleasure of Monganui and maybe try for some back at Paihia.  As it turns out, subsequent … Continue reading Fish & Chips & Rainy Days