Wellington - our final night in New Zealand

We had a very relaxing afternoon staying out of the wind and staying dry.

Our last dinner was at 'Hazel' which was amazing, we all enjoyed a lovely meal.

Wellington - Day 5

Our last full day in Wellington and the weather has turned nasty again, the wind today was very strong. We had a late start to the day as the weather didn't sound terribly good outside but we went for a run along Oriental Bay to get the adrenalin pumping...

Today we decided to take a look at the Te Papa museum to stay indoors out of the wind and rain.

Wellington Harbour and Days Bay - Day 4

This afternoon we drove around Wellington Harbour to Days Bay to take a different look at the city.

Day 4 - Blenheim (South Island New Zealand)

We had an interesting unscheduled overnight stay in Blenheim and in the morning we decided to walk into the city centre for a look around before heading out to the airport to catch our flight back to Wellington.

The flight back to Wellington in the afternoon was much smoother than the one the day before... We were all happy to be back in Wellington.

Day 3 - Marlborough wine tasting continued...

We had a lovely day visiting wineries and doing some tasting...

Day 3 - visit to the South Island (Marlborough)

We had a great day planned, wine tasting in the Marlborough wine region which apparently produces 70% of the wine in New Zealand. We had a 9:25 flight down to the South Island with Air New Zealand and after a wet and windy night their was some apprehension about flying in a small aircraft to the South Island on our 25 minute flight.

We were late departing as we were waiting on 6 passengers on a flight down from Auckland and their plane missed the runway on its first approach due to the wind and had to go around and try again. They finally got on board and we were away and the take off was very bumpy and it was like being in a roller coaster with lots of dips. Once above the clouds it became smooth until our descent into Blenheim on the South Island.

We had a great day traveling around visiting a number of wineries and mostly boutique wineries which was nice and we picked up a few good drops to bring back with us as a memento of our travels.

We also had a lovely lunch at Wither Hills and it was very relaxing and great food. The service was a bit slow but it was Sunday and it was busy.

On returning to the airport at 5:00pm we discovered that flights from Wellington had been cancelled because of the weather in Wellington and Air New Zealand deciding that flights using the Beechcraft aircraft was too dangerous. So we were rebooked to fly back tomorrow afternoon so we had to find somewhere to stay on the South Island overnight and wait our flight.

There are no photos to publish as they are on my camera and all the cables are back in Wellington.

Day 2 continued...

This afternoon we did a city tour and we had some amazing weather for the most part of the tour but it turned very cold towards the end of the tour...

We visited the South Coast of the North Island as part of our tour which points directly towards the South Pole... In the afternoon we also visited the famous cable car.

Day 2 - Windy Wellington...

We had a very long day yesterday traveling to New Zealand, with our plane having to turn around and head back to the gate to off load a sick passenger and that delay our departure by two hours. We arrived into New Zealand at 4:30pm and then made our way to our accommodation. The view from the top of our street is below.

Today we had a look around Wellington doing some shopping and just taking in the capital. We also wandered along the quay.

Wellington, New Zealand here we come...

Well the day has finally arrived for our trip across the ditch to the cosmopolitan city of Windy Wellington. We made good time and arrived in plenty of time for our flight.

Carnival Spirit sails into Sydney

Our cruise ship has arrived at Sydney to begin its cruise season... Looking forward to getting on board in July 2013 and seeing what all the fuss is about.

Bon voyage Europe!

Well we have left Berlin and travelled by train to Frankfurt airport and then flew with Qantas to Singapore and then Sydney...

Our final evening in Berlin and Europe

Well we had a lovely evening in Berlin as we prepare ourselves for the long journey home tomorrow. Of course it was a lovely warm evening with the sun setting on the buildings and hardly a cloud in the sky, shame it wasn't like this on other nights!

Berlin - day 4

Our last day of sight seeing and another busy one at that. We started out at the East Side gallery, which is a part of the Berlin wall that still remains today and has been painted. We then headed to Bernauer Street which was a street that was East Berlin on one side and West Berlin on the other, a very interesting memorial has been set up. In the afternoon we visited the Jewish Museum.

Day three in Berlin - museum day

Our third day was huge and once we have walked our feet off. We visited two of Berlin's museums and they both had so much to see. We also stopped at checkpoint Charlie, memorial to the murdered Jews and memorial to the homosexual victims of national socialism.

Day two in Berlin

We had a huge day yesterday and enjoyed our second day in Berlin. Here are some pictures that we took during our second day.