Papamoa, Bay of Plenty ,New Zealand

We are home after 27 months.

There is a frost every day that it is not raining. The coldest weather we have ever had since living in the Bay! However, the frost brings glorious sunny weather and we can eat outside.

We are busy unpacking our furniture and household things as they have been stored in a shed on our orchard. The tenants in our house left several months ago so the lawns and fruit trees are overgrown. We have a big job ahead to sort the trees and gardens out. There are oranges, limes, and lemons to juice and lots of cakes, sauces and jams to make using them.

We have been to visit John's 95 year old mum who is now in care. She remembered us but has problems identifying whether it is day or night. It is wonderful to see her again.

This is our last posting on our travel blog but not our last travel adventure.
We are already planning another trip for 2010 to South Africa. John, his brother and nephews want to see the World Cup soccer matches in Cape Town so we can begin another adventure from there.

Thanks to those of you who have followed our travels, written to us, added information to our stories, helped us, had us at your place, and added us to your circle of friends! Of course we look forward to seeing some of you in our neck of the woods.
Ka kite ano.

Melbourne, Australia

Phew, we are on the home leg of our travels. Had a great flight with Etihad as the plane was so empty there were no business class passengers, a couple of first class ones and those of us in economy had a whole row to themselves to sleep on.

We were picked up at the airport by our friends Pat and Barbara. We originally met them in London in 1976 and used to visit them when we worked in Melbourne in 1979 and 1980. They are both about to retire so we were able to spend quite a bit of time together. Pat is slowly winding down his electrical contractor's business and Barbara has reduced hours at a nearby rest home.

We went to an Australian Rules Football game with Pat and Barbara and were reminded of when we were at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when the Australians bowled the last ball underarm cementing their win over the New Zealand team!

We also managed to catch up with another friend from our teachers' college days. Neil and his wife and three girls live not far from Pat and Barbara so we were able to enjoy a meal with them and their daughters, Marissa, Jemma, and Aleisha (I hope I've spelt the names correctly). We were able to share some travel tips with the girls as they are off to South East Asia and Europe. We had them signed up to www.couchsurfing.org before we left the place!

When Kerri was four, her and I flew back from Melbourne to NZ and met Stjepan, his daughter Jasminka and her cousin Shane, on the flight. They parked their hired campervan at our place when they arrived in NZ and we have been in touch ever since. Stjepan lives near the Dandenong Mountains outside Melbourne and picked us up and took us for a drive around the area.

We visited Jasmine on her rural property in Kinglake. She lost her house, sheds and a couple of animals in the recent bush fires. They told us all sorts of stories of the horrific things people went through during that time. Jasminka was watching television with the curtains closed and the air conditioning going as it was a very hot night. The electricity went out and when she looked outside her deck was on fire. The fire took hold quickly and she was able to escape to her neighbour's house which did not get burnt. She has been living with her neighbour until a few days ago.

We drove around the area and Stjepan told us about the houses and shops that used to be there and we could see shops still intact and operating now while the neighbours' premises were cleared of debris. There were many properties with coroner's signs on them. These places are closed to everyone as they need to check for bodies and determine the cause of death and/or assess the properties.

We saw lots of crumpled corrugated iron rooves left from burnt houses and sheds but the majority of the places we saw were cleared of the remains. Many people are living in caravans, relocated houses, campervans and any buildings on their land that were untouched by the flames.

The rains have brought a lot of new grass sprouting up through the ashes. The eucalyptus trees have tufts of small leaves hooting out from every little knot along the trunk of the trees. These little sprouts look out of place on such tall trees.

We had a great meal at an Italian pizza and pasta restaurant organized by our friend Lyn. She used to work in the office of a school I worked at in North Melbourne and managed to get a group of ex-teachers from the school together. We had a great catch up after 20 years!

Our last night was spent with Kris who used to be my boss when I taught at a refugee and migrant centre in Melbourne. We enjoyed seeing the renovations to her house that had a historic listing.

Melbourne is just a fantastic city- our favourite one.