New Zealand – 20th Dec 2008 - Day 58

After a good nights sleep, we woke, had breakfast, packed, paid our bill and checked for replies from Richard and Kerry, who we were planning to meet so we could give them back the borrowed camera and phone. We were concerned to find no such reply. We had also left a message on their phones.

We drove back to Sydney stopping off at Bondi Beach. Nice place, but the weather was a tad cloudy and windy. We had a cup of coffee and cake on the beach front before driving to Richard and Kerry’s house. We rang the door but no one was in. John managed to find a good spot to leave the camera and phone and a bottle of “thanks very much” wine.

We drove to the Airport and checked in. Whilst queuing, we was Quentin and his kids checking into first class. Before we could say hi, they were off. We made our way to our lounge via a few shops where Fiona purchased Mazi, a very large stuffed Kangaroo toy. Nice memento.

John wanted to say hi to Quentin, so he managed to sweet talk his way into the First Class lounge. Very nice! Quentin was pleased to see him and they chatted for a while. They were off to meet his wife who was already in Dublin, where they were staying with family for Christmas.

Our plane left on time. The journey home ,via Singapore, went on for an eternity. Unlike BA flights, the beds in Quantas business do not go fully flat, so they were not so comfy.

We arrived back in the UK to quite mild weather. We caught a cab to Fiona’s Company car park, picked up the car and drove to John’s parents to pick up or dog, Heather.

We were back home now. It was all over. New Zealand has been great as had Australia. On hindsight, we would only have spent 4 weeks in New Zealand and would recommend others to go in January and February when the weather is better. Back to reality now!!

We have enjoyed our year off. It is an event that will stay with us both for ever. We have met some great people, some of whom we hope to keep in touch with. Its impossible to single out any exceptional aspects of our trip. All have been excellent and all have been very different.

Thanks to every one who has read our blog and who have sent us messages. We have loved all of them.

Australia – 19th Dec 2008 - Day 57

We both felt somewhat jaded this morning after yesterdays leach infested forest walk. Today was the day of our Wine tour of the hunter valley.

We walked down to the main gates where a chap picked us up by mini van. We drove to the starting point, picking up another couple of the way.

We met our driver, a portly lady called Marilyn and our horse, Fred. Fred was a large chap who looked very well looked after. We boarded our open top coach and began our tour. Nice way to travel.

Our companions were from near Darwin. He was only 24 but already a barrister. She was a recently divorced police officer with two young children at home.

We stopped at three vineyards in the morning. The wines were very good indeed, although the Organic wines were disappointing. We also tasted local olives and cheeses.

Our driver was happy to let both of us take a turn at driving Fred.

An enormous lunch was put in front of us. We hardly made a dent in it. After lunch the other couple left us. We travelled onto a few more vineyards before begin picked up by the mini van and begin taken back to out cottage.

It had been a very enjoyable wine tasting day. Today was also our last day in Australia and the last day abroad of our year long trip. Wow. We felt glad and sad all at the some time.

We chilled out in the hot tub. Fiona cooked a nice meal. We watched a DVD and then crashed.

Australia – 18th Dec 2008 - Day 56

After a breakfast we jumped in the car and drove to Barrington Tops, a World Heritage Area, where we had been told the walking and hiking was good. The walk we chose was to take us through forest, past some lovely rock pools and streams, to a viewing point where you can see back over the entire area.

Early in the walk, we came across some large friendly birds that looked like turkeys and then a rather deadly brown tree snake. Once bite and your dead in about an hour.

The weather was hot and humid but the forest kept us cool. We saw a brown snake early on and after an hour branched off the main track down to a stream where we paddled. John cooled off in the water.

We dried off and rejoined the track, taking a second branch half an hour later down to some sparkling rock pools. Fiona paddled and John took a swim.

After joining the main track again, we heard some rumbling in the distance. John thought it sounded like mining explosions from one of the near by mines. Fiona thought it sounded more like thunder. Fiona was not wrong. As we walked on the Thunder moved closer. Soon the skies darkened and the air grew very humid. The rain began to fall. After ten minutes the storm was well under way with almost constant thunder and lightening and monsoon rains.

We decided to stop and shelter under some trees, but after half an hour we were just getting cold. So we decided to walk on. It was then that John noticed a small leach on his arm!! We had not expected leaches. Anyway, he managed to scrape it off. As the rain fell, we decided it was time to turn around and walk back. Fiona’s top was now soaking, so we stopped so she could change it. After changing her top, Fiona noticed she too had a huge Leach on her sock. On closed inspection it had managed to get through the sock and was attached to her ankle. This was not good. After freaking out a bit, John managed to get it off, however, we took off her shoe, only to find six others attached to her foot. We ripped off the sock which worked. After checking the other shoe we sound the same. A second sock was ripped off. Fiona was now bleeding and we were both beginning to panic. We managed to get Fiona’s shoes back on. John then checked himself. He also had them on his legs and ankles. He managed to get them off.

After calming ourselves down, we began to sprint out of the forest, realizing that we had two hours of this before we would be back to the car. We had to keep stopping every five minutes to check for and detach he little sods. They seemed to be leaping at us every time we stopped. It was a terrible predicament to be in. John ran behind Fiona, watching the backs of her feet whilst Fiona checked the fronts.

After running for a hour was came across the side track to the stream. We took the track and reached the stream which was out of the forest. We stripped off checking ourselves for any more leaches. Luckily we only had a couple on our ankles and on our shoes. We bathed our legs and washed out John’s socks.

After a while, Fiona put on John’s socks (due to her shoes having a lower ankle support and hence allowing more leaches in). We jogged through the last half of the track, by which time the rain had stopped and the leaches were less active. On the was back we realised that, in all the commotion, John had lost his sun glasses. We looked for them but were unable to find them.

We reached the car, emotionally drained, feeling invaded and knackered. We drove to a nearby town, East Gresford, looking for petrol and a police station so John could get a police report about his glasses for the insurance. Scott, the local bobby was very helpful and assured us that the leaches were not harmful, just disgusting.

We went shopping, cooked a meal and watched a few DVD’s. We both slept badly, thinking about the leaches and watching the lightening through the blinds. We both felt itchy all night.

New Zealand – 17th Dec 2008 - Day 55

It was certainly a relief to leave the eco lodge this morning. This place is very quiet but also very dark and a tad depressing. We will not miss the non flush loo! After a quick breakfast, we drove to The Penrith Information Centre. A very helpful lady gave us directions to the Hunter Valley town of Pokolbin via the national route 69, a very pretty four hour drive.

The information centre in Pokolbin offered free wine tasting. However, it was too early in the day for us, so we asked them to phone a lodge that Fiona had read about in a magazine called Manzanilla Ridge (see: http://www.manzanillaridge.com.au/ ). We drove to Manzanilla and were greeted by it’s owner, Dominic. He took us down to our cottage. ON the way we passed a Kangaroo with a baby. The mother had a large slice out of her right ear. They both looked so cute!

The cottage was actually a massive house with a hot tub, BBQ, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a huge lounge and kitchen with bread making facilites, massive flat screen TV, local port and glorious air con.

Dom tried to book a wine tour for us on Thursday but they were already full. There was a horse drawn carriage wine tour available on the Friday, but that meant changing our plans. So, we used Dom’s laptop to cancel our booking at the Four Seasons in Sydney and emailed Richard and Kerry to cancel our Friday night rendezvous and extended our car hire until Saturday. We popped into the local town, Cessnock, to purchase some supplies and then chilled out with a class or two of wine on the veranda watching out for local wild life which includes possums, snakes, parrots and Kangaroos.

At dusk, we took a walk through our huge garden. This place has just four cottages based in 38 acres of land! During our walk we saw a few nervous Kangaroos who sat in the forest watching our every move. Was also saw a few wallaby’s, a troup of large ants and a nice lizard.

Our evening meal of Tuna pasta went down well. Fifi felt tired so went to bed. John could not resist making use of the hot tub. He sat in the tub listening to the hordes of night life and taking in the vast sky of stars.