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Saturday, 28 February 2026

28 February 2026 Off to Japan from New Zealand

Well I've decided to do a bit of blogging for our Japanese stint of our travels, having spent the last 7 weeks in New Zealand.

We're currently sitting in the departures lounge of Auckland airport waiting for our late night flight to Tokyo after spending the afternoon in Auckland Botanic Gardens - definitely worth a visit if you're ever down this way. And it's free!! We particularly liked the 'kiwi' on the lawn.

I just had to have my last cheese scone and iced latte of the NZ trip whilst at the gardens. Unfortunately not as good as the Robert Harris scones (a Costa /Starbucks equivalent) which Amy and I reckon have been the best ones we've tried out.

Anyway, Ian and I have got an 11 hour flight, which is due in about 7am, so hopefully I'll get some sleep in between a few of the in-flight movies. Getting excited about this trip and our next adventures so there should be quite a few photos to share with you.

Tuesday, 12 August 2025

11-12 August Dolphin Spotting

Well the heatwave didn't quite reach the Welsh coast on Monday as we were pretty much in warm and dreary conditions for most of the day. We eventually had a bit of rain in the evening!

We spent our morning in New Quay with a bit of dolphin spotting from the harbour wall.

A huge fish and chips for lunch - glad we shared it!

Late afternoon we went blackberry picking. Something Dad always enjoyed when he stayed at the van. We took a lovely tub full for Mum when we visited today.

We took Mum for lunch up at The Castle Hotel where we could sit in the conservatory where it was cool in today's 30C+ temperatures. Certainly made a difference in the temperature when the clouds cleared. 

This evening's forecast shows a few more high temperatures so it'll be air conditioning on in the car when we drive back to Kent.

Writing this whilst in bed late this evening, I've just managed to give myself the heebegeebies ...... I had put the full ice cube trays upside down in the drainer to defrost overnight. Sitting in bed I could hear clinking and a metallic noise but at first couldn't quite work out what was making the unusual noise. It freaked me out a bit until I realised it was the ice cubes falling out of the tray on to the drainer! I soon emptied them out as I couldn't be putting up with creepy noises overnight 😄.