Winter update

I shall probably have to split this into at least two instalments as It's long overdue and a lot has been going on.
A couple of weeks into November, we caught the ST Malo to Portsmouth ferry as the first leg of our holiday. We had a very smooth crossing on the "Bretagne" and drove off to head for Wiltshire for our first stop which encompasses all of our family. We arrived in Dauntsey around 10.30 in the morning to visit Peter and Rachael.
Actually as soon as we arrived we were off again, Peter had a meeting to attend for the Midget car racing that he does with two of his brothers, Steve and John. So after a quick cup of coffee I jumped in his car and attended the meeting with him while Avril went off with Rachael to see to her horse.
We all got back to his house in the afternoon and had a very nice visit staying overnight and leaving in the morning when they both had to go to work.

We then headed off to visit and stay with David and Amanda and our grandchildren in Herts, we had arranged for us all to go out for dinner in Hitchin in the evening where we met up with Steve and Jenny. We had a lovely evening in Zizzi's an Italian restaurant.

The next morning we headed off again and visited B&Q and Tesco's to stock up on some things we find either difficult or expensive to buy in France. We then set off for Heathrow to catch our flight to our first stop in Singapore. We flew out on the new(ish) Airbus 380 which is huge and can seat up to 800 people!

The flight there was very comfortable and we both managed to get some sleep on our 12 hour flight. We stop in the Ibis hotel on Bencoolin  road, a very nice hotel right in the middle of things with easy access to busses and underground. I can recommend this hotel to anyone staying in Singapore.
Eating out is inexpensive with a good variety of restaurants in the area, it is also close to the huge Burgis market.

 

 

After a really enjoyable 5 nights there we got back on the plane for another 13 hour trip to New Zealand via Australia.

As always wen we got there is was like we had never been away Anna and the kids were there to meet us at the airport and we were soon at her house which has the most gorgeous view from her lounge windows overlooking Hataitai and the sea beyond.

 

 

Although they live on the other side of the world from us by staying there for the best part of a couple of weeks means that we really have time to catch up on each others lives but not so long to interrupt their way of life.

The position of their house means that there is a wide variety of beaches and coastline to visit all within about a 20 minute drive, some of the area is quite dramatic as you can see from the photo below.



 

I shall upload this now and carry it on later........