Well hello there! So we hope that everyone had a fantastic festive season and 2013 is treating you well so far. We have in fact been back in the UK now for just over 6 weeks and it's been an interesting time getting ourselves resituated. However before I go on to much about being home, let us tell you about our last leg of the trip. When we last left off I'd just finished writing about New Zealand (which really was just an amazing time) after which we headed to Rarotonga in the South Pacific………

We landed on this beautiful island in the middle of nowhere really late at night, which is always a bit strange as you find transport and head to your accommodation without really knowing or getting a feel for where you are. This said however you really can't go wrong on a beautiful island and the next morning we weren't disappointed. I've never been on such a small island before and it's amazing to sit out and just hear the constant drum of the waves coming in from the deep sea and hitting the coral reef which kept us in our nice little bay of gorgeous sandy blue beaches. You could look out and see the reef and then just beyond that the sea went a deep dark blue colour where the sea bed dropped off, in some parts the sea bed dropped off several km's downwards - that can freak you out if you sit there looking and thinking about it too long! Rarotonga was perfect for us especially after New Zealand where we'd had an amazing but hectic time. A week on a tiny island to just mooch about - a much needed holiday! The week went fast and after 7 days of sun, lovely local food and just general relaxation we were ready to go and see some friends in Canada.

We left Rarotonga on 22nd December and touched down in LA on the 23rd where we stayed for 2 nights before flying to Vancouver on Christmas Day (great priced flights on Christmas Day). We spent a night in Vancouver and then were up and on our way to Vancouver Island to see our friends in Victoria. The journey over was a smooth and lovely ferry ride and as you go along you see lots of other smaller islands where people has built some amazing homes and just lead a bit of a out the way life, which after visiting we can totally appreciate. Vancouver Island is beautiful and although we were there only a few days we were spoilt and taken round to lovely sites, it was also just lovely to catch up with friends over the festive season. The time passed quickly and we were soon back on the ferry heading back to Vancouver before flying the next day to Toronto. This part of the trip was quite a quick succession of flights and visits and we were happy to get to Toronto to stay with friends for a couple of weeks to catch up on time zones, sleep and get rid of the horrible cold that I'd caught whilst moving around so much.

After arriving in Toronto and being made to feel so welcome we pretty much collapsed, I'm not sure if it was just that we knew we were heading home soon or just all the flying we'd recently done but we were all of a sudden so very tired! Luckily the lovely Turners let us just hang with them for a couple of weeks whilst we started to think about what we needed to do for when we returned home and just have a general laugh. Again it was a bit weird in that we were starting to already think and feel more like we were just away visiting friends before returning home to normal life, not so much at the end of an epic journey - it is strange how your mind can start to adjust before you even realise it. We had such a lovely time in Toronto, spoilt by our hosts and even treated to a delayed surprise wedding day celebration, with super yummy cake and a trip to Niagara Falls. We also had a meal up in the revolving restaurant of the CN Tower - super delicious and just cool to do. As always before we knew it we were packing once again and heading to the airport for our last visit of the trip ….. New York.

What a great place to finish our trip, we decided to splash out for a nice hotel and just be total tourists for 3 days. We stayed in Chinatown which I'd highly recommend, great food in every direction (right next to little Italy, so food choice galore) and so easy to get around from. We had a great trip here, met a couple of friends for lunch and drinks, got all the tourist spots in and also had the opportunity to go to the 9/11 memorial. As with all memorials we've been to through our trip I always worry how respectful and appropriate they will be and as with the others we have seen the memorial is breath taking and has been designed and built in such a way that you can feel the emotion and care that has gone into it for the remembrance of so many.

And then there we were, Thursday 17th January and it was time to head to the airport for our final trip home. It was pretty surreal and all of a sudden we weren't totally convinced that we had in fact been away for a year and we were pretty tired so started talking about where our next holiday should be…………

Thank you to everyone that was part of our trip, it's been an absolute pleasure to share it with you and we have the most amazing memories that we will treasure forever, until the next time - Z&Mxxx