We met up with Glenn & Joanna to join them on their tour through North Island. We spent the first day driving up to Napier, a seaside and wineland town (with lovely art deco buildings, if that's your thing). The next day we visited Mission wine estate, a beautiful building with a lot of history. Cue the wine tasting…. Then it was off to Taupo.

What a reunion! First time Don and his two sisters and mom have all been together in 15 years! Cause for a celebration!

Landed in Auckland and visited Rudy & Sunia, whom we haven't seen for over a year! It was so great to catch up with them, see the life that they've built for themselves and reminisce about our decade spent in the UK. Poor Rudy was snowed under with work, so Sunia took us sightseeing along the North Shore and showed us the difference between the rougher beaches of the West vs. the more serene beaches of the East. Then it was on a plane down to Wellington to vi...

Octopus Resort, Waya Island Due to our 5 hour flight delay in Hong Kong, we missed our boat departure to Waya Island and therefore lost out on an entire day at Octopus Resort, which we were very unhappy about as were really looking forward to this part of our trip. As compensation Air Pacific checked us into a hotel located adjacent to the airport for the night. The less said about that, the better. The next morning we got up extra early and were driven to th...

My impression of Hong Kong - busy, built up and expensive……. We landed at 10h30pm, took over 1one and a half hours to exit the massive airport and then caught the most expensive cab ride of our lives to the smallest hotel room of our lives. Our "room" (read broom closet) was on the 15th floor of a high rise building and if you don't believe the broom closet quip, check out these dimensions - 2.5m x 2m. (See the pics to believe it). The mattress of our ...