Our last day on the North Island and half of it was spent in cybercafes changing plans. Lou had received a phone call from her cousin in Thailand asking her if she could do some work for 3 days. In Qatar. At the start of June.
Lou required money, Joy required a favour and as a [...]

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This morning began gently enough with a stroll along what passes for a beach in Taupo. In fairness, it it a lake that we’re next to (the largest in New Zealand) and not the sea so it can be forgiven for not having miles of golden sands. We had breakfast at a lovely café [...]

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 We had to check out at 10am (which seems to be standard across NZ) and for once we made it. Breakfast was going to be nice, healthy muesli but seeing as nobody at the KiwiPaka wanted to serve us we headed off for the Skyline Skyway.
A NZ$20 cable car ride up the hill (it’s not [...]

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 Having visited Heaven’s Gate while in Sa Pa, I thought I’d complete the set over here with a trip to Hell’s Gate. A localised collection of sulphurous deposits, steam baths, minature volcanos and boiling mudpools this site is run by Maoris and is historically of great importance to them. Many of the pools within it [...]

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 As Lisa still hadn’t decided to let loose her clutches on little Megan, we decided to hire a car and set off southwards. At some point shortly we expect a phone call r text to say she’s gone into labour. Most likely when it’s far too late for us to head back up and do [...]

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The last week-and-a-bit have really just been one big chill-out in Auckland. Overall I’ve done nowt except relish the delicacies I missed from home. Baked beans, proper milk, salt and vinegar crisps, chocolate that doesn’t taste like chalk. The cinema across the road has been well used despite the cost (damn their “blockbuster” pricing policy [...]

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For those interested, I’ve updated the gallery at Fotopic. It now has a fair selection of photos from Chiang Mai right up to Auckland.
I also noticed that they’ve added a little box on the left to be added to a mailing list for reminders when I put pictures up there. This is automated and run [...]

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 OK, OK. So I’ve not posted for a while and I apologise. I have my excuses. The main one of which is that I have been a little bit poorly – a hangover from the tummy trouble in Hanoi. Thankfully I am now able to last more than 20 minutes without a toilet trip so [...]

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 I’m typing this section up during my 3-hour layover in Singapore airport. I did attempt to check my email at one of the 200 free internet terminals, but the session crashed as soon as Gmail loaded. At least I noticed I only had the one email (I’ll get back to you tomorrow, Chunky!) so that [...]

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 (that’s “goodbye” – or it would be if I could get all the accents right)
Last night I had most of a full meal and some beer, so I must be getting better. I also got to watch some astounding lightning in the skies to the west of Hanoi. I’ve never seen lightning move horizontally before. [...]

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