Expanding Horizons

In an idle moment I had mentioned to Samantha (my darling daughter) that, whilst visiting Australia, it might be opportune to take in New Zealand at the same time, since I have never visited the islands despite hearing how beautiful they are. Almost overnight I was presented with a copy of the 'Insight Guides' to New Zealand and the exhortation that, "it would much too good an opportunity to miss." So, it looks as though my trip will be extended a little so it is likely that I will be setting off some time in August now, instead of September. Good job I hadn't booked my flights yet.

Talking of flights; as you can imagine, I have been doing a considerable amount of Internet searching trying to find the best deal, without having to commit myself to specific dates. This has proven to be rather frustrating, so I am now contemplating discussing the entire trip with a professional travel agent to see what sort of a package they can put together. I will keep you posted as to how I get on.

I promised you some photographs of previous visits to Australia and I am in the process of digitizing those from 2000, which was my first visit with my dear departed wife Christine, and I will have some of those for you next time. In the meantime, here is one of myself with daughter and grandson (Matthew) shortly after arriving at Willunga, SA where we stayed with my sister Valerie and her husband Nick. Willunga is approximately 40 Kms south of Adelaide and this photo was taken at Aldinga Beach.

As indicated in my profile, I recently retired on reaching my 65th birthday and I am already wondering how I ever had the time to go to work. However, for my birthday, Samantha has purchased for me a Tandem Sky Diving experience (I told you she had designs on the house). The 'experience' is booked for 6th April and I am really looking forward to it but I am wondering if I should defer booking my antipodean flight until I have safely completed the descent. I will keep you posted on the event and may even have a video to show. Because of my advancing years, I have had to get the doctor to certify me medically fit to undertake the jump so, at least he thinks I should survive.

Talk to you again soon.

Planning

I should know better I suppose. My dear mother would have said, "you want your bumps feeling". ( A quaint expression indicating that I was a bit eccentric) and my dear departed wife, Christine, would simply have said, "your mad." My daughter, Samantha however, seems to be all for the idea, although I believe that she has designs on the house.

Having now reached retirement age and having no particularly strong ties I am now planning a 3 month (approximately) trip down under to do a spot of vehicular assisted walkabout, and I hope to document the planning and execution of my peregrinations (traveling or wandering around).

Perhaps you would care to accompany me on my journey, although I don't intend to physically travel until September 2010. However, planning the trip promises to be a journey all of its own.

Let me have your thoughts and comments and I will try to keep the journey as interesting as possible.