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US and Europe, June 12th to August 29th 2024 - Take off!

We weighed  in at the airport. It is not a competition and it is 😘 Which bag weighs more? Bill's or mine?...

Climate Restoration Pilot at Tirimoana School

Using Google slides, students spent the day going in and out of a mantle-inspired adventure:"An author had written a workbook called 'I am Humanity/Climate Restoration'.  She had taken it to a publishing company and wanted to see whether it was worth publishing. Students then went into the publishing company, called "New Earth".The students read the workbook leader by leader, did hands-on activities related to the leader's commitment, and reviewed the workbook as writers, illustrators and m...

Day 1 : Nieces and their Children go to Waiheke with Ranger Robin 22nd, 23rd and 24th April 2024

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The Magellan Explorer - First Three Days at Sea

This is the Magellan Explorer. It is a new and modern expedition vessel custom-built for Antarctic cruises, called a "small ship", capacity ~80 guests.[From the website:  "The ship features a glass-enclosed observation lounge and presentation room with state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, a spacious and stylish dining room, a well-stocked bar, a library, a meeting room, a gym, a sauna, and a medical clinic. The forward-facing observation deck leads to the ship’s bow, which is accessi...

Punta Arenas

We fly from Bilbao to Madrid where we stay in an airport hotel for a night.  Then we fly from Madrid to Santiago in Chile, and then are going on to Punta Arenas in the far south of Chile, where we will meet up with the Antarctic Heritage group that we are heading to South Georgia Island with - aboard the Magellan Explorer.  This is super exciting. We signed up for this trip 3yrs ago, it was postponed for a year during the pandemic, but  now it is here.It is to honour Shackleton's ...

Guggenheim and Walking Tour of Bilbao

Guggenheim and Bilbao walking tours over our two days in Bilbao.  And we have to move hotels in the middle as the first night's is fully booked tonight.  Just a nice walk through a park to the new one. ...

Biking Day Five

Today is our last day biking - to Bilbao - and not a long day....

Biking Day Four

Today is not as long a day as yesterday happily - and the rain has gone. But the hills have been much longer and much higher than we do in Waiheke.  But not necessarily steeper, so we are able to do them ok....

Biking Day Three

And into the 3rd day. The weather doesn't look great today and Miguel had said we can get a ferry to shorten the day.  Look on the map next and we can cut out the big loop by catching a ferry at the bottom of the loop. I am up for this. Laida to Mundaka. It looks like we could blow up a dingy and row across.  It saves a lot of cycling and we don't miss much scenery.  (We do miss Gernika, which will mean something to some of you.)  Given we know it will be wet today, this is s...

Biking Day Two

At the end of this day we stayed in Lekeitio. Here was our first sighting.  Below was our journey to get there. ...

Biking Day One

We meet Miguel from Basque Bike Tours. Today he is 61 and we don't find this out today at our meeting. I did notice he was happy though.[From his website]:  "By proposing stunning and picturesque bicycle routes we aim at helping people to discover the Basque Country. We offer high-class bike travel services by customising the journey programs and adapting profile tracks to each person or group."...

A last night in the UK, back to Biarritz to meet up with Bill, and bus to Sans Sebastian

Mémé gave me a ride from Swinton to London. I slept in the back a bit. We talked for some of it. ...

Swinton Sisters Retreat

I am here because of Roz. I am wearing the T-shirt I got from the first weekend retreat. It says Savage Weekend. She is Roz Savage.  The sisters are all friends of Roz's. How did I become a friend of Roz's? Roz was a friend of Swifty's (you might have seen him in the Paris blog).  We were at his place catching up 10 years ago.  Roz was staying. Bill, Roz and Swifty all went to Oxford, though Roz later.  Then Roz came to NZ and stayed with us. I was lucky to have a few days wi...

To the UK, Freddie and Simon's is the first stop

I...

St Jean Pied de Port

On one of our days in Biarritz we drive to St Jean Pied de Port for the day. [From https://caminoways.com/st-jean-pied-de-port-gateway-french-way ] :  St Jean Pied de Port is one of the most significant towns on the Camino de Santiago. Not only is it the finishing point for the Le Chemin du Puy Camino, Vezelay Camino, and the Paris-Tours Camino, it also marks the start of the famous Camino Frances.  The town itself was founded in the 12th century aft...

Biarritz

We leave our hotel early, and Bill goes to pick up our rental car.  We have breakfast at the Novotel as it is pouring rain. We spend the morning catching up on calls and admin. Then we go for a drive in Biarritz and still wet. We check in to our stunning hotel called Brindos....

Paris to Biarritz

We stayed around the hotel till about 4pm. We swim and gym and breakfast and lunch and blog and work and read. The hotel is lovely. Concrete walls and a simple industrial type of architecture.  This is our room....

A Visit to the Loam family in Santeny

Marie was our second au pair, we had five over a few years, when the children were very young. Marie had answered an ad in the newspaper to come to NZ - there was no such thing as an au pair agency in those days (1998). My beauty therapist (she did my eyebrows etc.) said she had advertised for an au pair and got three replies. She and her great friend were taking the first two, I could take the third.  That was Marie. She was 18. She was terrific and the funniest au pair we ever had. We hav...

Chilling at the hotel and Preparing to visit the Loam family

We have a day chilling, and then we watch Australia v Georgia at a rugby bar. I took this outside our window. Could it be a kereru? ...

All Blacks v Les Bleus

After our gym and swim and breakfast routine, we are going to meet an old friend.  But first we watch High Energy, a two-year-old filly we are in a syndicate for (with the fabulous Ken and Karen Breckon and others) is racing - in Australia. We watch her race.  Here you can too....

Reggio to Paris

We leave Reggio early and are going to Milan airport, and with Lachie.  He is flying back to the US for his study, but Chiara is staying in Italy to start the field work for her study. The Reggio train station building is cool. We are looking for carriage 8 again....

Jack and Becks arrive in Reggio Emilia

Jack is Lachie's cousin and Becks is his partner. They are touring Europe for 4 months, and they have today arrived in Reggio for 3 days.  A happy timing coincidence for us.  Lachie and Chiara give them a tour of the old city - including our hotel.   ...

Reggio Emilia Day 2

The view from our hotel window in the morning - market day in the piazza.  Market days are Tuesday and Saturday.  ...

Reggio Emilia with the Ficarelli's

We leave Milan.  A  beautiful train station which has been renovated. I am anxious as with Anna another time in Europe we missed a train. Bill is not very patient with my anxiousness and says we have plenty of time. Something from the past I have not put in the past and I am looking forward to being with my family. We haven't seen Lachie for 5 months. Finally, we got on the train.  Bill has booked his favourite number - number 8 carriage and no 8A/B seats, We also left from the no...

F1 Italian GP Day at Monza

"Will Max Verstappen enter the history books with victory at the Italian Grand Prix – a record-breaking 10th consecutive win taking the Red Bull driver to a rarified plane of success never achieved by any driver in Formula One since the championship began in 1950?" First we bought a shirt and a hat for Anna and Harry.  Harry's favourite team is Aston Martin. I wore the shirt because I did not want to carry it....