Ok so it is pretty spectacular driving through lightning storms! We were a bit late leaving home as everyone was so tired after a wild Wellington night last night, but we are on the way finally. The sky keeps lighting up and we are not totally happy on our metal car! When we drive through Bulls our family all have to come up with words that end in -bul...we always groan but we all do it anyway, it's laugha-bul really. It is a terri-bul game...at least the words w...

So the bags are packed... and the luggage in the picture is it! We are doing lots of internal flights in the US, and didn't like the thought of being charged for checking in luggage. So it seemed a great chance to try our hand at being a backpacking family. We each have one bag, and are using compression cells to make sure we still have room to collect things en route. We have an early start in the morning as we are driving up to Auckland to catch our night flig...

There's no place like home...Although that doesn't necessarily mean we want to be here! It always blows my mind that you can be swimming in a pool in one country in the morning, but then later the same day can be in a totally different country and climate. The flight was uneventful, Glen slept for a good chunk of it, and both kids got 4 1/2 hours, even I managed 1/2 an hour. Watched a few more movies and the time went quickly, 9 hours doesn't seem that long anymo...

Well we are finally here! After a manic day that felt like leaving was impossible, we actually made it to the airport, thanks to the ever patient Uncle Parry, and got successfully checked in through to Heathrow. So far I have failed to read a Christmas card a friend gave to me before I left ( something to look forward to when we get back). I also left my bag of fresh food for eating on the plane behind... Not so appealing when we get back! Still, a nice meal of f...

So the bags are packed, devices charged, passports etc at the ready... It must be time to go! A bit of a stressful lead up, so it will be great to finally get on that plane. 2 very excited children going to sleep way too late and waking way too early, so I'm hoping they will be catching up on their sleep deficit on the first leg to LA . Yeah, right!