Another year and another holiday. Just 10 days to go, not done any packing but I have been out to buy some walking boots, a new fleece and a down jacket, the sort that packs away in to a small pouch and weighs next to nothing. Fiona has started reaching things so I will have to start tomorrow, especially as we are going to Brentwood on Thursday for a few days. Lucy is moving house again soon and our help is needed, also we won't have that much time next week as we have the junior Chuckle brothers (otherwise known as Seb and Arthur) to look after for 2 days rather than our usual one day, its not just the day itself, there is certain amount of recovery time needed!

So our next trip starts with 4 nights in Hong Kong but we will be straight into it as we land at 07.35 so we will need to get some sleep on the plane. We have a few things already planned and booked in. After that its a flight to Auckland and 4 weeks driving around. We have had to change 2 things so far. Our drive from Blenheim to Kaikoura was supposed to be a leisurely 2 hours but due to the road being wiped out by the earthquake at the end of last year we have a 6 hour detour. We could have bypassed Kaikoura but its where we are going dolphin and hopefully whale watching. Then a couple of weeks ago a huge fire destroyed the wooden bridges on the train line from Greymouth to Christchurch so the Transalpine train service is suspended and there is a replacement bus service. However we have opted to keep the car we were going to drop off in Greymouth and drive to Christchurch instead. We did a long bus journey in Peru into Puno from Colca Canyon and Fiona is not keen to repeat the experience. Hopefully there will be no further natural disasters that affect us.