Whanganui canoe trip, NZ

Just before Christmas Patrick and I did a five day canoe trip down the Whanganui river. It's NZ's longest navigable river and our trip was just over 90k. Our party consisted of Patrick and me in one canoe, a mother and daughter from the bay of islands in the second canoe and a german teacher on sabbatical and our guide from Gloucester in the third.
The stretch of river we were on flows through the middle of the Whanganui national park, the only way in is by boat or helicopter. It was true New Zealand 'rainforest' with the emphasis on the rain. We had two days of it and this meant the river rose three and a half metres, I suppose we were lucky we didn't have more. It was only a grade 1 to 2 river, meaning the 'paddling' and rapids were gentle, but the increased volume of water was still scary. We had three nights in tents and one in 'the bridge to nowhere lodge' (sort of), the long drops were testament to the famous kiwi spirit, or something like that.
Green was the predominent colour on the trip, although the brown of the mud coloured river in spate deserves a metion, tree ferns (pongas) were the predominent plant, duck the predominent bird, possums the top mammal, but its the sandfly that is the winner of both the predominent insect and the overall prize, it really does leave an impression on you...

Happy Christmas from NZ

A belated happy christmas from New Zealand. We celebrated it in the Hutt Valley just north of Wellington, at Erica's brothers house. We were hoping for the long-talked of Christmas Day on the beach, Southern Hemisphere style, needless to say it rained, so that myth remains. We're now back up in Hawkes Bay (currently experiencing its wettest drought on record) preparing for the big day.

sorted, stacked and stored, UK

A house-full of belongings looks like this. Everything we own - except for clothes and furniture - all packed and stowed in a second floor spare room at the parents. As we packed, we sorted and that meant we did a car-load at a time. One by product is West London charity shops still have some dreadful CDs, leisureware and soup bowls to shift. Despite the sorting, it still took seven or eight car loads and the spare room remained on the second floor - so much climbing of stairs. The good news is once back it's all packed and ready to move and the man and his van will have their day.

The CSV

It’s not without sadness we announce the decision to sell the Champagne Super Volvo, aka ‘CSV’, never spoken, but only sung to the tune of ‘Champagne SuperNova’ by Oasis. There's no need for a car when you're on the other side of the world.
It can be yours for just £3,499.00, a bargain for what is a great motor.

The photo shows the CSV resting in west london.

So what's the plan?

it's simple... we're getting married, not working and going travelling. Or getting travelling, not working and going married.

The itinerants itinerary is: first New Zealand for a month, we have three weddings - including ours, then Australia for a month - the east coast run, back to New Zealand for a wedding and in February we go onto Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. All of which should mean we're ready for three months in: Sri Lanka, India and perhaps Nepal. And after that back to the UK, another wedding and some choices.

It turns out that while less is more, more is also more, particuarly on the wedding front.

One month to go...... it's jobs, jobs, jobs

One month until we head for New Zealand. Whenever it comes up people say "you must be so excited, I bet you can't wait to leave."

Unfortunately the reality is much more mundane. We're organising bank accounts, sorting out mortgages, trying to rent out the house, putting everything into storage, selling the car and organising our lives so we can be away for ten months. So we would be excited if we weren't dealing with the stress of shutting down our lives. When we stop, all we can think about are the jobs still left to do.

But having said that, we also can't wait.