Hey, thanks for dropping by...

What a great trip ! THANKS so much to Family Pidcock, Wellington, New Zealand and to Duffy and Bev, Sydney, Australia.

Today the 4 of us headed up to the Hunter Valley for a 'wine & dine' sleepover while John and Bev went straight to their cottage at Hawks Nest.

John and Bev hosted a wonderful garden party lunch with extended family that we had met on prior visits.

In the last few days we've taken the ferry quite a few times and each time we see more interesting sites and architecture.

Today we went to the zoo in Sydney which was the first time Brandon had ever been to a zoo !

We went for a walk through the Royal Botanical Garden and onward to the Sydney Art Gallery as well

The Waitomo Glowworm caves were discovered in the late 1800's and they were taken over by the government as a tourist attraction in early 1900's

If more of us valued food & cheer & song over hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. - JRR Tolkien

We started with a bit of drama as we had a fire alarm in the hotel in the morning while we were still sleeping. Bolt out of bed, a quick rush down 6 flights, grab a coffee from street vendor and climb 6 flights back up (elevators were busy with elderly and children)...Yes, we are awake now !

We arrived in Auckland this am, picked up our rental car and checked into our downtown hotel.

Laurie was able to take a day off and so we waited till the boys woke up from naps and then headed out to the Wellington Zoo

Visit with Fam. Pidcock, tickle Charlie's toes and snuggle Sawyer. Explore Wellington area.

Sweet! We have Heaps of clothes bro!

We went to the WOW museum, a collection of Wearable Art and Collector Cars. The Wearable Art is an exhibit of 'costumes' that designers enter into a competition.

3 day Kayak/Hike Tour - Wow what an incredible journey !

It started off as an adventure from the moment we arrived in Nelson at 7:30 pm to discover that our bags did not make it !!!

The Blue Mountains really do look very blue which is like nothing we've seen at home.

UPDATED - (More photos added) We chose these caves over the more popular 'Jenolan' caves as we thought it might be more Aussies and less tourists on holiday and the gamble and drive paid off.

Driving to Kangaroo Valley, Fitzroy Falls and end in Wombeyan Caves

Coomes Walk @ Currarong, NSW Australia

Landed in Sydney, quick connect with Duffy, and made our way to Shoalhaven

Spent a nice day visiting with peeps are YVR while waiting for our next flight, should be in the air again by 7:30 pm on our way to San Fran then onwards to Sydney !

We decided to start the holiday off abit early and stay tonight at the Four Points Sheraton at the Airport.

Ok, well we are off again to the great Down Under...

Hanging out with Duffy, Bev and all of the extended family in Sydney.

We have to say that our 1 piece of advise to reduce stress in Australia is to take a GPS with you when driving in and around Brisbane.

Our first impression of Cairns is that it is a really gorgeous area. The combination of mountains, lush green rainforest and long sandy shoreline make for a stunning aerial view when we flew in.

The real adventure begins today as we headed off for Darwin and then on into Litchfield National Park.

Only a slight glitch at YVR with our Visa's but fortunately Air Canada agent was capable and reissued the Visa at no charge and we were on our flight as scheduled

We're getting ready for the BIG trip to Oz. Trust me when I say there's a heck of a lot of things to take care of when going away for 7 weeks from home, pets, family, friends and of course...a business !