We are at the airport......

Hello everyone for what I think will be my last post!

At the moment, I am sitting in the Air New Zealand Lounge (which is very posh) waiting for our flight to be called. As Air New Zealand messed us around on our outward flight, they have given us free use of the lounge which is great! The kids are playing on PS2's, Emma is in the kids room and Andrew and I are filling ourselves up full of the free beer and wine and spirits etc...., no, only joking, I've had a coke and Andrew has had an apple juice (I know, we're wild) but it is all free.

I can't believe we are on our way home. Four weeks has flown by and even though I am looking forward to seeing you all again (well, most of you....) I will miss it here as so will Andrew and the kids. We have had a wonderful time and plan to return here as soon as we can!

So, for the last time, I will say GOODBYE, and I will see you all very soon!

Loads of love

Rachel, Andrew, Charles, Henry and Emma xxxxx

See you soon!

Have a good trip home and I am soooooo looking forward to seeing you all when you get back :o)

Hopefully your time in the glaciers will make your return to the UK a bit less of a shock temperature wise. Today has seen sunshine, sleet, hail, thunder and sunshine again!!!

From experience, I have found that the jetlag is not nearly so bad when you travel from NZ to the UK, so hopefully you will be back on the right time quickly! Mind you, as I seem to spend most of the night either feeding Oliver or trying to get him to go to sleep, you will at least have someone to call if you do find yourself full of beans at 3 in the morning.

Lots of love and see you soon,
Kate xxxx

Heading Home .............

We imagine you're now heading back in the direction of Auckland and the airport.

Just wanted to say it's been great reading your blog & following your trip around New Zealand.

Looking forward to seeing you all next week, catching up with all your news and seeing some amazing photos.

Have a safe trip home, we hope the flight back is as good as the flight there, (without the cancellation in Los Angeles !).

Take Care, See you soon

Love Ann, Tony, Amy, Holly & Ross xxxxx

P.S They both passed the Brass exam, (thank goodness, I don't think I could go through the stress of it again !).

The Glaciers

Hi everyone

We have travelled quite some way since I last posted a message. We are now in Franz Josef, which is on the west coast of the South island. This morning, we took a helicopter ride over Fox Glacier and Mt Cook. The glacier is huge! We even landed at the top of the mountain, right above the glacier, and managed to have our photo taken with the helicopter in the background. We all enjoyed having a snowball fight up there too!

Yesterday we stopped at Haast beach for a short while, which was beautiful. While watching the children playing on the beach, we spotted some Hector dolphins in the sea! There were loads of them, but a group of about 5 or 6 were surfing in the waves! It was amazing to watch, we even saw a couple of them jump in the air!
We have also been to Milford Sound and took a boat cruise there. It was amazing and the kids enjoyed the boat ride.

We are now on our way to drive along Arthurs Pass on our way back to Christchurch. We can't believe that our holiday is nearly at an end, it has gone so quickly.

The weather here today is lovely (again...!), hope it is not too cold when we get back to England.

Oh, we have also been travelling the past few days in the camper van which has been fun (well, it has for the kids). Andrew and I keep laughing at each other as we wonder why we didn't just keep to motels and the car! It's an experience we keep telling ourselves.......

See you all soon

Rachel, Andrew, Charles, Henry and Emma xxxxx

news from malvern

AT long last we can write to you.We have enjoyed reading about your holiday and the many many things you havebeen doing .At Easter Claire,Rob and Kerenza went to the caravan , but also came to malvern,meeting up with the Ripon Ransons. William , Joshua , and Rebecca,stayed for a few days extra and we took them to Cadbury World ,they enjoyed that and knew about it from Charles and Henry.Grandad and I have been up to London to see some exhibitions and enjoyed that very much. We have also been to Dorset to see Great Nanna and Great Grandma ,they both send their love.We look forward to seeing you when you are home.Enjoy the rest of your holiday,lots of love Nanna and Grandad

Just when we were getting back to normal............

Oh no,

We've just had an email from our school to say that it's closed tomorrow due to a faulty boiler !!, guess Tony will have to work from home. I was just thinking how nice it would be to get back to normal !!. I was rushing about trying to find trainers & PE kit, I can now relax again.

Hope you are still having a good time, the whale watching sounded great, & the picture amazing, how many pictures did you have of just sea before you managed to get that one ?. Is the weather still holding out for you ?. Its been a cold weekend here, snow again yesterday. Please bring back some sunshine with you on Sunday.

Looking forward to seeing you all, it seems you've been gone for ages. (I think the number of text I've used this month is down by about 50% !!)

Enjoy your last week.

Love Ann xx

Hi Monkies!

Was so lovely to hear your voices the other night!
Looks like you've been having a fantastic time! I bet you loved the speed boat! The whales photo looked amazing!
Can't wait to see you soon and hope you have lots of souvenirs and stories written down in your holiday diary!
All my love
Daddy x

Message from Mum and Dad

Dear All,
It was lovely to speak to you the other night,what a surprise.!.The whale watching sounds wonderful and the photos are great.Missing you all lots.So looking forward to seeing you all at Heathrow on your return.Hope Hugh and Gillian have had a lovely holiday as well.We are just waiting for the snow to return,it is forcast for tonight and tomorrow.Have some warm clothes on when you arrive back.
All our love,
Mum and Dad.

xxxxxxx to Charles,Henry and Emma

Wonderful Whales!

We made our way from Wellington on the 8.30am ferry to the South Island on Wednesdsay. The ferry crossing was a bit rough but we made it ok! We drove from Picton (where the ferry port is) through Blenheim to Kaikora. We stayed in a lovely cottage motel but had to leave early this morning as we had booked on the Whale Watching tour. When we arrived at the whale centre, an information screen was giving us a "sea sickness warning" due to high winds! The trips the previous day had been cancelled so we were pleased when they boarded us on a coach to take us to the whale boat. The boat took us about 7 miles out and we waited to spot some sperm whales. And spot them we did! It was amazing, two sperm whales (called Little Nick and Thaiki) surfaced at different times and could be spotted by their blowholes on the surface of the sea. We waited about 10 to 15 mins for them to dive again. When they dive, they take a final breath and then arch their back, as they do this their tail comes up out of the water which is the photo that everyone wants. We managed to take some and I have posted a photo for you to see. It was a really wonderful sight to see! After sperm whales dive, they are down for about 40-50 minutes, so while we waited for them to do that, we went a bit further in the boat to where there were lots of dolphins which are known as Dusky dolphins. They were great! Swimming along side the boat and underneath it too. Some of them put on an acrobatics display and were jumping and flipping all over the place! After the dolphins, we went back to see the two sperm whales resurface and then it was the end of our trip. We all really enjoyed it and would have liked to have done it again!

After this, we drove to Christchurch which is where we are now, staying the the Holiday Inn (kindly organised for us by Sarah Warren). We have been on the tram ride which took us around the city and we saw some of the sights. Tomorrow we are going on the gondola and for a walk around the city.

Here are some other photos from our holiday (at last....). It takes SUCH a long time to get the photos loaded so I'm not going to be able to do many.




lots of love

Rachel, Andrew, Charles, Henry and Emma x x x x x

P.S. Congratulations to Chris and Lucy on the birth of Eleanor, and to Chris and Gilly on the birth of Rosie!

Thank You!

Thank you all for your lovely congrats, it is hugely appreciated :o)

How amazing to think you are all in Wellington, very funny! I knew you would like Te Papa, it is such a great place to take kiddies. Bella and I used to go once a week and we never grew tired of it (well she didn't...). Did you manage to do a drive by of our house?

Enjoy Kaikoura, I hope the whales turn it on for you.

I am really missing you and think it is about time you came home now please!!!

Lots of love,
Kate xxx

Hi from Lewis again !

Dear everyone,
It sounds like you are all having a great time.
Sooty (our cute little pussycat) is in heat (not the magazine) and is looking for a date as she is very frisky and miaowing a lot. It is cute but apparently it is painful. She is going to be speyed in 6 days time at the vets.
I have got a level 5 in my maths and science which I am very pleased about.
The doctor at the hospital was very nice and said my finger is mended and I should no more problems with it.
Me and Dad are growing mushrooms from a kit - we will cook them on pizza or in pasta when they are ready.
We are looking forward to more photos on your blog
Love from Lewis qwertyuiopasdfghjkzxcvbnm,./;'[#]
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