To Borneo we fly (with a brief stop over in Singapore, thank you Mal and Tony for your hospitality), met at Kota Kinabalu airport by my ecstatic mother, galloping towards us like a little pony, clothes lining us both into a group hug. Our stay was split into two halves, the first half we spent 6 days trekking through several national parks in search of different plants and animals many of which unique to the area. To Rachel's delight this included bats, snake...

Monday mornings tend to suck, and if I had been back in the UK it would have really sucked, being the first Monday after half-time signalling the half way point in the year. But I wasn't and I didn't have to even contemplate teaching London's next generation of Dizzie Rascals. Nope this Monday the sun was shinning, the birds were singing and me and the lady we're heading out to complete the tour de France of vineyards, having acquired some bikes and grabbed a map...

The week started with a trek up Fox glacier, a unique glacier due to its proximity to both rainforest and the coast, all squashed into a 30km stretch. Rach in particular had been looking forward to this, having studied glaciers during university. Walking up at the front of the group exchanging glacier related terminology like a right glacier geek "look at that amazing moraine"' "oh wow check out that fantastic accumulation zone". It was good to see the transfor...

Week 13 started with a trip to Milford Sound, a world heritage site, which as the crow flies is about 60km from Queenstown, but due to the Southern Alps, you have to drive 6 hours (one-way) -this is a blessing in disguise as the drive is actually the highlight, this is real Lord of the Rings territory, vast mountains and deep valleys. Milford Sound is pretty awesome too, shaped over 5 ice ages, each one tearing another deeper trench and then filling with sea wate...

No longer on Thailand time so the internet is considerably more expensive in New Zealand. So here we go. Firstly we flew from Bangkok to Sydney to spend 3 glorious days of sunshine hanging out on Bondi Beach, no chance! The rain poured pretty much from the moment we got there til we left. It was still great fun as spent this time recouperating, finally able to give our clothes and bodies a proper wash. We did the basic stuff any tourist does when they arrive in S...