Today, Jan 2,2014. I hope everyone had a happy new year. Today was the start to a fantastic day! Woke up and went for a fantastic run thorough the most beautiful gardens across from our hotel, iguanas everywhere! Ran into town and had a delicious smoothie from a nice man who has had his smoothie place for 14 years. Then decided against a big breakfast that would have cost us $20 each, opted for "Pie Face " again, which cost us $20 total, Aussies are big on lattes, cappachinos,  mochas.  I just wanted a regular coffee, which is called a long black. But in the stores there is no ground coffee or coffee beans just Nescafé instant coffee. Good thing I brought some Starbucks instant coffee from home which I think is better than Nescafé.

Picked up our camper van and we were on the road by 11:00, with me navigating (scary) and with Tom trying to drive on the opposite side of the road (scarier). The landscape is fairly dry and all we've seen so far are cows and horses, Tom said he saw some road kill, wallybys or kangaroos. I think they are like our deer, hiding in amongst the trees. We got to our campground, it must be 35 degrees! Went for a swim in the pool, then went for a walk to the ocean, green parakeets in the eucalyptus trees, came back, had a beer, oh and by the way, everyone drinks Corona here! Played Rummykub, 1 for Wendy! Had a quick supper and watched the huge flying foxes (bats) come out at dusk. Washed the dishes and got into bed! Pretty early for me, 9:00. 

Hope everyone is well, xoxoxo.

January 1st, 2014. Brought in the new year by having a really great sleep in the Watermark Hotel. Woke up about 7, got dressed and had a lovely walk through the gardens across the road from the hotel. Walked down to where al the restaurants nod shops are and had breakfast at a place called "Pie Face". It was delicious, just walked around by the water and had a smoothie as we watched all the people. Came back to the hotel and got ahold of Savannah Vine, she is coming to the hotel and we will go have lunch. It is now 11:38. Beautiful sunny day. Had a great lunch downtown, got caught up on our lives, Walked back to our hotel, didn't get to meet Simon, off she went. It was so great to se her. A wee bit tired so We had a nap then went back downtown, looked at some of the stores, cool stud, I wanted to buy but thought I could wait. Had a snack at a Mexican restaurant then decided on supper at the "Pig'n Whistle". On some of the menus there was something called "bugs", we knew it was some kind of seafood so Tom tried some, they are big prawns! They were pretty good, it was the special at the restaurant and the waitress did not say how much they were, we'll they were a bit too much!!! Ended the night with a lovely walk back to our hotel, perfect temperature and watched the huge bats fly around in the park, geez they were big! Savannah told me their name, cannot remember now, good night everyone. 

We'll it is day 4 of our trip (2 days) travelling plus time change. Everything was pretty quiet last night, New Years Eve, a lot of places were closed but we did find our way down to the harbour and had a beer and some really yummy pizza. Did some more walking, starting to get busier by the harbour. Came back to our hotel, I was just going to have a really short nap, Tom came in and said let's go for a swim in the pool, it was a great idea because it felt way too good to lay down! That woke us up a bit, had a beer in our hotel, then went to our room at 7. I watched some tv played some games on the  but kept nodding off, finally succumbed to sleep at 8 o clock, no way to stay awake for the fire works. Happy New Year from Brisbane.

Waited at the Brisbane airport, lots of stores so lots to see and very good people watching! We got to fly on an air New Zealand plane painted with Hobbit material, I will attach a picture if I can figure it out. That flight was 3 hrs, so watched another movie, The Internship, Vince Vaughn and Like Wilson. I sat beside a fellow from Brisbane who gave us some pointers about Brisbane. Got a bus at the airport that took us to our hotel, Watermark Hotel Brisbane. Took about 1/2 hr from the airport. The weather is cloudy but warm. We got an upgrade on our room, now Tom is napping and I am doing the blog. It is now 12:20 in the afternoon. Will shower and go exploring. They said the fireworks might not be so great because of the low cloud cover.

Sorry if this blog is a bit mundane at times, but this will be my diary of the trip, so will mean more to me than you sometimes!

First day of travel....l

Well we made it to Auckland, and to tell you the truth the 14 hour flight was not bad. After settling in our seats with blankets, glasses, reading material, pillow, remote, shoes off, coat on coat off, finally decided on a movie, I watched "We are the Millers"and Tom watched "Elysium".That did help pass the time. One hour into the movie, supper was served, we had a choice of shrimp pasta or curry beef with rice, along with some Australia red wine! It was pretty good. At about 11 o'clock I took a couple of little white pills, one I had my ear plugs in, my eye mask and neck pillow I was ready to sleep, Tom was fidgeting around me but he finally settled down and I did fall asleep lightly, woke up and too another little white pills and the zonked until it was time for breakfast, 3:30 am.  That sort do revived us and arrived on time in Auckland . We are now waiting for our flight to Brisbane. Hello everyone!

First day of trip - travelling

We leave tomorrow, December 29th. The weather as we leave is -17 today, but is supposed to get better. It will be better for us!