We’re coming home!!!

This is the last time I will write about our trip. Adam has put me to absolute shame with his extensive (but very well written) ramblings.

I´ll sum up our first week in South America:

1 day sightseeing in Santiago, Chile – a nice city surrounded by snow-topped peaks.

6 days, 5 nights (125 hours) on a bus travelling through Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia – monotonous desert, pretty green hills from Ecuador onwards, no washing facilities (baby wipes became my new best friend), uncomfortable, sometimes sleepless nights, bad movies with bad Spanish dubbing, loud trashy latino music as a wake-up call at 7am (sometimes when we’d just dropped off to sleep), shouted Spanish conversations at all hours, police checks, border crossings, 2 hour+ comfort stops, random chats at all hours, cheese and chorizo sandwiches every meal, every day. Let’s just say I’m relieved I won’t have to do it again.

We then arrived in Bogota, Colombia and were staying with Adam’s cousin Louise, her husband Diego and their 5 kids (Jonathan, 4 months, Samuel, 4 years, Daniel, 6, James, 8 and Laura, 10). They had just moved house and were so kind to allow us to invade their space amongst the unpacking! They are a lot of fun, and made us feel so at home. Also living in Bogota are Louise’s brothers (twins) Steve (married to Helena, with kids Grace, 2 years, Amy, 6 years, and Ashley, 9) and Phil (married to Maria, with kids Daniel, 15, Elsy, 17 and Heidi, 19 recently engaged and living in England). Steve teaches at the Bible Institute there and we were able to sit in on one of his classes on Revelation – Phil kindly translated as it was in Spanish. Helena home-schools the kids. Phil and Maria have an English school which Maria directs, really great to see her working there, she´s a natural with the students. They also have their church upstairs on the roof. Phil spends a lot of his time leading, encouraging and participating in discipleship groups (most of these meet in people’s homes or workplaces). These groups are a bit like our church small groups, they study the Bible in a methodical way, discuss it and chat and pray about their lives and their joys and struggles. Many have come to know Jesus and have had their lives transformed as a result of the biblical truths and the love they have been shown by the people there. It was a joy to meet some of these people and take part in Bible studies with them.

We spent time with the various cousins, having great meals, playing games, chatting, sightseeing, celebrating birthdays, sampling tasty Colombian treats made by Louise, playing with baby Jonathan (sooo cute), and visiting old friends of Phil’s in Fusa.

In the middle of our time there we had a trip with Diego to the Amazon to visit some people working with the tribes in the jungle there. Amazing to see what it was really like, again I’ll sum it up:

Wobbly boats, well made wooden houses, lots of fruit and fish, lots of tiny kids running around (to whom we gave lots of sweets!), church in the middle of the village, hot hot heat, rain and lots of mud, sickness and the poops (for one day for me, fun), dressing some nasty tree-burns (a boy shimmied up a tree without a rope tied between his feet, he got tired at the top and slid down on his inner thighs, ouch!),  monkeys, dogs, chickens, turtles, mosquitoes.

We then went to stay with David and Chris, Adam’s uncle and aunty, in Venezuela. On the way on the bus, we were awoken by what felt like some big bumps in the road, but realized it was a little more serious when the bus swerved and flipped and the window became the floor. In the few seconds before we stopped, the visions of the bus flipping over off the side of one of the many mountain roads we’d been driving on earlier that day were hard to shake. In Latin America, people like to scream and wail when there’s a crisis happening, and this only serves to heighten the impending sense of doom. The bus, when it had stopped, began to fill with choking fumes and we calmly got up from our position on the window (which was now the floor) collected our things and followed the people in front of us to the front windscreen, which had been smashed and had become the exit. People helped us climb over the barbed wire fence which had been squished and now overhung the field into which we were trying to climb. Turns out our bus had hit an oncoming pick-up truck, and it had been raining. As a result our bus had swerved and flipped into the ditch next to the road, ending up halfway into a farmer’s field. No one was seriously hurt in the crash, thank God. We waited for a replacement bus for 4 or 5 hours, attempting to communicate with various people who would approach us assuming we spoke Spanish.

We arrived to be picked up by David and Peter (Adam’s dad, David’s brother, who’d come over from England to visit the various relatives in Colombia and Venezuela)

We arrived in the early hours at David and Chris’ apartment in the Bible Institute there. So great to see them. The next few days were spent doing the following:

Making music, going up to 4200 metres shrouded in cloud, eerie and fun, eating tasty Venezuelan treats, putting a sling on my arm (realized I needed it when it became too painful to lift my arm to shake people’s hands at D&C’s church, I looked like I was doing a robot dance), seeing Isnotu (a “spiritual paradise” –  I´d beg to differ) a town full of Catholic idols, looking around the Institute, seeing beautiful sunsets.

The next two and a half weeks have been spent with Joanne (Adam’s cousin), her husband Luis, and kids Joshua and Jordan, 13, and Benji, 7. They live in a city called Puerto Ordaz, which is on a big river with lots of Dams and waterfalls (v beautiful). We’ve been hanging out with them, meeting their friends, having lovely trips to the river and orange grove, meeting lizards and big fish at parks, playing volleyball, Wendy’s icecreams, castles, sunshine, trampolines, malls, games (dutch blitz and phase 10), Pizza Hut, seeing various creatures – snakes, tiny frogs, baby birds, lizards, a parrot, big ants and a locust. All in all a great time with a great family. And they’re about to move house so even kinder of them to have us!

We fly tomorrow morning to Caracas, then from Caracas to Madrid tomorrow evening, then to London Heathrow, arriving Friday morning, hopefully with our baggage (it’s made it this far!). Then many reunions with many wonderful people, then we need to work out what we need to do. I for one am VERY excited, I hope you are too.

Addington Times

I’m now in Venezuela, MUCH has happened.

Let me take you back to Addington, a district of Christchurch. We arrived there on March 14th. The people who live there went above and beyond in looking after us for the following two months, we made some great friends and it was the most impacting time of our whole trip. The following blog cannot do justice to the people there, but to give you some idea I’ve written a bit about them…They have this mission statement:

“We strive to be a redemptive community of faith, sharing the gospel in word, sign and deed. So we move into the same neighbourhood and go on the journey of learning to love God, Each Other and Our Neighbours (locally and globally).”

So they live in close proximity or in the same house in different “hubs” in Addington, which is an area with a mixture of mid-range, low-cost and council housing. Our hub was at Ants and Sandy and Bruce’s house. Ants and Sandy have 2 girls, Hanna aged 7 and Olivia aged 5. They own the house with Bruce and also live with Harmony, Tai (in a pop-top – a caravan with a canvas top) and Josh (in a shipping container in the back garden). Next door live the boys, Matt (Belly), Matt (Barus), Mike and Jared. Also met Barus’ girlfriend Anna and Jared’s fiancé Cally, both lovely. This eclectic mix of wonderful and very normal people have dinner together every night, devotions (prayers) every other morning,  Thursday is “hub” night and this is a time of sharing honestly about the good and bad of the past weeks in trying to love God, each other and neighbour. Every two weeks they meet as a whole community to learn from each other or an outside speaker about different aspects of community and how to love people better, and to share the struggles or the joys of the past weeks. Wednesday evenings it’s Life Groups which include netball (which I LOVED), cooking club, crafts, movie/doco night, bible study, and a few others. The aim of these was for them to be open to people (often those on the margins) to get involved in stuff they would enjoy and that there would be people there who they could connect with on a regular basis and form meaningful friendships with.

In another hub is Kathy and Ian and their kids Laura (14) and Richard (20ish), who live with Catherine and Caleb and their baby Ari, and Tess and Shauna, and Andy and Pauline (who live around the corner and let us house sit for a week – kindness!), in another is Age(Adrian) and Ally (Catherine’s sister) who live with Alice, and Linda and  Joan who live in small flats behind their house, Ruth and Matt (who also live around the corner) and their kids Mia, aged 4, Alex, aged 2 and Gabrielle aged a few weeks. Another hub who all live on the same street are Adam (a wonderful man) who lives with Canadian sisters Steph (lovely baking) and Heather, Nicola (Kathy and Ian’s daughter) and her husband Simon, Brendan and Lin and their kids Chloe (2 years) and Finn (a few months), Stefan and Marion and their two kids, and Tim, Erin and Christy. There are also others who don’t live in Addington but are still very much involved with the community there.

Ants and Sandy were an absolute answer to our prayers, they took us under their wing, we had dinner with their hub every night, they hung out with us, and sorted out places to stay for the entirety of our time there. It went as follows:

Caravan in Ants & Sandy & Bruce’s garden

House in Parlane Street with Jolyon (?spelling) who works as the Justice Community person

House sitting at Andy & Paulines (lovely warm couple who also let us stay in their family’s bach – holiday home in Queenstown!)

Di Sargeant’s (Di is brilliant, she is sooo funny, and also such a great encourager, you talk to her and it feels like she’s seen into your soul. She works with Ants at the local church. Special lady, in the best possible sense.)

House-sitting at Joan’s house (next door to the wonderful Linda)

Adam R’s house with Steph & Heather for our last week , these guys are great, really fun and sparky, Adam entertained us with his amazing dancing (seriously good) and they make tasty puddings!

Various members of the community had a vision to create a space for people to hang out, hold meetings, and raise awareness on global issues, and also to create a business to provide work for those struggling to find any, and to donate much of their profits to places that needed it. So they bought a building on the high street in Addington and literally transformed it from an old mechanic shop into Addington Coffee Co-op (see www.addingtoncoffee.org.nz). The cafe is bustling and has a timeless look (the brainchild of Belly and Barus) with old lanterns and bicycles hanging from the beams, beautiful photography from Stefan covering the walls, old wooden tables and chairs, sofas, and a great atmosphere that’s relaxed but still remains professional. They recently won an award at the Breast-feeding friendly cafe awards. That’s what’s great about the place, it’s a place where locals come for great, reasonably priced coffee, business men can hold meetings(in the boardroom), students can study, mums can bring their kiddies, and people from everywhere can hang out and enjoy the yummy breakfasts and light lunches or meet for tea, coffee and cake. They bring in the global community by buying their coffee beans from growers who give their workers a fair wage and good working conditions, and by selling t-shirts and bags made by Freeset, a business run by Josh’s parents in Kolkata in India. This was set up to “free women who were trapped in prostitution (forced into this by poverty), by teaching them new skills, giving them fair wages, health benefits, pension funds, literacy classes and daycare for their children”. Jared and Jeff are in charge of the promotion, distribution and selling here in Christchurch and further afield.

Thanks to Belly, who manages the place, I had the opportunity to help out on a few shifts and saw a little of the ins and outs of what it is to run a cafe, and met more lovely lovely people as a result – Christy, Eva, Hannah (Jeff’s wife) and Paul the highly skilled baristas(along with Belly), Lisa (v talented in all things catering/crafty/arty), sisters Lis (who  thoughtfully lent me some warm clothes, she’s Josh’s girlfriend) and Alanna, Rachel, Sally (v sweet), Robin, and the chefs Elma, Dan and Tim. Good times and much patience shown towards me the newbie, thanks guys!

Things we did and highlights of our time there:

Daily life with everyone – good chats, games with Sandy and Harms, ukulele playing from Hanna, Pictureka! with Liv, movies at the boys’ house (and Mike’s amazing baking), frugal Friday at Pak’n’Save, Josh’s “have a holly, jolly Christmas!” hat and fart machine, walks in the park with Ants, Bruce’s after dinner mystery give-away sessions,  sleepy devotions (and Ants’ morning hair), Skip Bo with Harms, Livvy the make-up artist.

Helping Adam R finish off the shipping container he’d transformed into a small flat, learning to prime metal, chisel a door and fit a door handle and assemble a shower.

Netball – with captain  Jared ¨J-Dog¨ Gardiner, we got thrashed almost every week but you’ve got to be in it to win it!

Fun times hanging out and working at Addington Coffee Co-op, great coffee, amazing food, even better company.

Easter Camp 2010 – a camp for 4000 youth from across the South Island, organized by Arnika and Age amongst others, shared a chalet with Dave and Justin and enjoyed their shameless mocking of us “Brits”, helped supervise activities (slippery soccer, hand sanitization and “Pash Patrol”), got gunged, met the awesome Hannah Dunlop (she is a very fun lady), hung out in the fair trade café and listened to Si’s brilliant jazz guitar and heard some v good worship music courtesy of band Satellite (Ally, Catherine and  Anna all play/sing/write the songs).

Recreate Camp – helped at a camp for about 20 young people with intellectual disabilities, sooo much fun and uninhibited joy in that place! Organised by Mark, a lovely guy married to Diana.

Staying with Di – little pressies, Skype party, late night chats, lizard jam, The Life Aquatic and good morning notes.

Good times at Adam R’s house – The Mighty Ducks, New Moon, Nicola and Adam R’s dancing and Si’s and Steph’s amazing baking.

Picnic at Rapaki beach on Sunday afternoon with Sandy and the girls – finding strange amoebic creatures and crabs in the rock pools.

Dinners at the Gardiners’ – Maurice and Nola (and Lisa and Luke), awesome family, very creatively gifted and generous.

Scrabble with Ally and Joan – discovery of all possible two letter words – enlightening!

Cups of chai with Linda – great lady, also a great encourager

Cleaning out the warehouse behind the café – Water blasting!

DVDs at the boys’ house and Mike’s afghans (a biscuit name)

Day out with Bruce and Belly showing us some unknown Christchurch gems – tiny hidden bays, great coffee, old railways, big icecreams.

Josh’s birthday at KFC. My effort was shameful, I think little Hanna ate more chicken than me!

ANZAC Dawn Parade – (Remembrance Day for us Brits) the last post gets me every time. Followed by porridge at Jeff & Hannah’s. Something really fun about everyone getting up while it’s still dark!

Le Bons Bay – puke inducing windy hilly driving, stunning deserted beach, hunting for mussels, Josh’s near drowning, Harms’ fully clothed swim, warm fires, eeling at night with sharpened sticks for spears.

School – Helping out with Lisa’s breakfast for mums and dads, Ally and Nicola’s choir, playing parent helpers at events.

Craft group – Ally’s origami, Catherine’s crocheting, Sandy’s boxes, Tess’s baking.

Surfing at Sumner – Cold surf, piddly waves, still fun tho.

Dinner at the Memphis Belle with Hannah D and Johnny (who’s now in England, coming to Soton v soon!) – great people, amazing pizza, Nazi memorabilia on the wall.

Sumner with the Watts – sunshine, fun water filled cave, wet clothes, Hanna the street urchin.

West Coast with Sandy and Ants – classic NZ bach, warm fire, stunning sunny walks, mushrooms, fish and chips on the beach and a rainy drive home.

Last night with the hub – Chinese at North & South,  drinks, cigars, Anna’s “cake” cocktail and table football at Goodbye Blue Monday, karaoke courtesy of the losers Josh and Belly, ice creams from Pak ‘n’ Save, late night Role Models, getting locked out of Adam’s house and waking him up in his underpants.

Goodbye puddings – great to be able to see everyone before we left, amazing puddings thanks guys!!

After our many goodbyes, Josh took us to the airport in Christchurch and we flew to Auckland feeling sad to be leaving everyone, not knowing when we’d ever see them again. Strange. We stayed with Lisa and her family again before we left, really precious time as we don’t know when we’ll see her again, sadly Tom was still away working in Europe. Ruby, who’d been a small kitten last time we saw her, had doubled in size! They took us to see some beautiful parts of Auckland, namely Devonport where Tom and Lisa had had their wedding reception, stunning houses right on the beach, very nice. Also went up Mount Eden (an extinct volcano with a cool crater) and met (very randomly) my former colleague Hattie! Small world!! We got to go to Lisa’s church (where her dad, Bruce is the pastor and where she, her mum, Maude, sister, Krysta and bro Dan all sing/play in the worship band) and it was a joy to be there and listen to Bruce speak. We were treated to lunch after church then went to the airport to fly to Santiago, Chile, for our next adventure!

Taken In

Finally updated, sorry for the lateness of this again!

We spent a few lovely days with Rob and Liz Cleland in Whakatane, a precious time when we were able to chat about life and God and were really blessed by their wisdom and love. We were able to share with their home group about life in Southampton, and they were encouraged that what they thought was a dying church scene in Britain is in fact alive and well. They shared some amazing words of encouragement for us and we left feeling revived and full of purpose. We prayed about what to do next, as we had two and a half months ahead and were realising that the times we had enjoyed the most and the places we had connected with the most were where we’d formed meaningful relationships with the people there. We’d heard of Spreydon Baptist Church, in Christchurch, at Soul Survivor in the UK during the summer, as one of its pastors Ants Watt had been speaking there about living intentionally in community and it had really stirred something in our hearts when we’d heard him speak. We intended then to head for Spreydon and offer to help where help was needed in their community. We emailed Spreydon to warn them we were coming!

We then headed down through the following places and I’ll sum it up for you (read Adam’s blog for more detail, but for catching up purposes I’ll be brief):

Rotorua – Other-worldly, big milky green lake, steam vents, bubbling mud pools, nice town, smelly sulphur.
Taupo – Iron Man New Zealand (big crowds for that bit), lovely free riverside camping, Huka Falls, scary mountain-biking, Baptist Church lovely people.
Wellington – Beautiful buildings, narrow streets, museums, poetry recital, trams, pier jumping, baptisms and sunrise swims in cold sea, pretty surrounds.
Ferry to Picton – Marlborough Sounds, secret inlets, salmon farms, isolated houses only accessible by boat.
Picton and Linkwater – Stayed with Rob’s sister Sharon on their hillside farm, stunning views from newly built farmhouse.
Kaikoura – Vineyards on the way, German hitchhiker, whales, hail storm, seals, Irish pub, quilts, beaches and mountains

On the 13th March we arrived in Christchurch, where we have been for the past two months. We’ve been blessed beyond what we could have hoped or dreamed by the amazing people here and by the God who knows what we need when we need it. As we drove into Christchurch on that first day we prayed that we would find a good place to park our car for the night that wasn’t too far out of the city. During our trip we would often arrive in a place just before sunset and struggle to find a place to stay near public toilets that were still open, then set up our air mattress and cook in the dark. We were very aware that freedom camping had been getting a bad name from the selfish few who will poo and dump their rubbish wherever is convenient for them, so wanted to make sure we were somewhere where we were allowed to be! We drove to the seaside area of Sumner and within minutes we had found a suitable site where other campers had parked. After a little while we were approached by a lady with a clipboard, and I assumed she was coming to tell us off. Instead she gave us a $10 petrol voucher for filling in a questionnaire on freedom camping and told us we were not breaking any laws, and that the local council wanted to improve relations between campers and local residents!

The next morning we went to Spreydon Baptist Church (SBC from now on) and prayed that we would meet the right people and that God would have control of the situation. We walked into the church a few minutes early and sat down, leaving one space next to the aisle and another space between us and the next person. I then felt compelled to move up next to that person and make an effort to talk to her, as if I couldn’t start with something that simple we would have problems! This however left 2 empty seats next to us which were occupied by the lovely Sandra and Richard Helliwell. They introduced themselved immediately and we chatted for a bit before the service, explaining what brought us to Christchurch and our travel plans. Afterwards we continued to chat and they invited us for lunch. On the way they stopped at the bakery for some bread, and while Richard popped to the shop, Sandra said they’d been chatting in their car and wondered if we’d like to stay for a few nights!! We said yes please! We also had our friend, the wonderful Hannah Ford coming to stay, so said that we would see what her plans were before saying definitely yes. They then said, “oh we have another spare room, if she doesn’t have accommodation booked she should stay here”! Wow. The Helliwell’s newly custom built house is in the area of Cashmere, up on the hill looking over Christchurch and the mountains beyond, stunning views, better than any hostel or B&B!! To top it off they have a hot tub on the balcony!!! We didn’t expect even a lunch invitation and we ended up with this! God is good!!
We went to the evening service at Spreydon where we met Ants, who already knew we were coming as the email we’d sent to the Spreydon Admin people had been forwarded to him, sweet! We arranged to meet him the next day, after picking up Hannah from the airport.

So our week with Hannah was great, we picked her up at the airport, not able to find her at first as she’d turned blonde! She was delighted to meet the Helliwells and as astounded as we were that they would let three strangers stay in their house, no questions asked, no strings attached! Again, to summarise, our week with Hannah involved the following:

Christchurch – meeting Ants at the Addington Coffee Co-op (when he asked “so what are you doing here??”), wandering around the Arts Centre and Botanical Gardens then dinner with S&R.
Lyttleton and Diamond Harbour – Beautiful sunny day, little ferry to tiny harbour and L&P in Godley House, big ice-creams, cool eclectic shops in Lyttleton, dinner with Ants and Sandy Watt and some of the Addington Community.
Christchurch – Haircuts for the Browns, Truly Scrumptious (little shop and tea rooms near city centre), Art Gallery, New Brighton Pier, milkshakes by the beach.
Hanmer Springs – pretty town, great views from Conical Hill, a couple of hours in the natural spa pools, and yummy curry for dinner at the Raj Mahal.
Akaroa – stop for lunch in Little River, beautiful drive, Le Race (cycle race from CC to Akaroa), galleries, pretty harbour, pizzas at the Bicycle Thief (in CC).

The next chapter will follow on swiftly from this one, when I will endeavour to explain how our next 2 months unfolded…

Happy days

Wow! I really should have blogged sooner, this post may be a long one…

We arrived in Auckland to be greeted in the airport by our friend Tom, and he took us straight to their church to pick up Lisa, his wife (both Lisa and Tom lived with us for a short while in Rockstone Lane). They then drove us to Whakatane, a coastal town where Tom’s lovely parents Liz and Robert live on their dairy farm. We were warmly greeted and made to feel really at home there, with a beautifully made bed, hot showers, a fish and chips dinner and great conversation! The next day Tom and Lisa showed us around the little town of Whakatane and the nearby Ohope, a village with a gorgeous surfers beach. We had a huge icecream there. New Zealand does food very well! We met Tom’s sister Hannah on the way back at a pretty cafe called the White House(absolutely nothing like the bar of the same name on Above Bar Street!). We spent the afternoon looking around the farm, watching Rob milk the cows and riding the quad bike, fun! Liz made sure we were very well fed with roast lamb for dinner!

The next day we took a very choppy boat ride out to White Island, the most active volcano in NZ! I felt sick within minutes of leaving the harbour and proceeded to throw up twice on the journey out there. I took great pride in my silent, neat puking, especially when surrounded by somewhat more vocal and messy pukers. The crew were amazing, running around with sick bags both new and used, and washing the deck clean of regurgitated breakfasts. White Island is a submerged volcano with only the crater showing above sea level. There is a huge gap in the side where you can walk onto the crater, where you will see hot steam billowing out of yellow sulphur rimmed vents, bubbling mud pools and green/blue lakes with negative acidity! The eggy stench of sulphur is inescapable, and when one has spent two hours almost vomiting, it doesn’t exactly help matters…That said the island was incredible, to walk through the crater of an active volcano is other worldly and strangely beautiful. We left Whakatane and drove to Auckland that night.

We stayed with Bruce and Maude, Lisa’s parents, in Auckland for a couple of days while we looked for a car. Lisa’s sister Krysta and brother Dan also live at home and it’s a lovely, lively household full of love and laughter. Again we were made to feel right at home, such kindness!! They also have a kitten, Ruby, who I’ve already mentioned, and she is delightful if a little scratchy at times! After various emailings/phonecalls/texts we viewed a car and it looked good, so we bought it. During our time in Auckland Tom took us to the nearby Bethels Beach, a black sand beach with rugged cliffs and stormy seas. We also took the bus into town one day, which was so strightforward it was beautiful! We went up the Sky Tower which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, and saw amazing views of Auckland City and around. Also had some very good coffee, joys!

The next day we set off in our newly acquired station wagon, bought an air bed and some cooking stuff and set off to the North! Our first night was AWFUL. After driving all day we found a place to park on the side of a gravel road in the middle of nowhere as a last resort as it was getting dark. It was a very hot day and it didn’t cool down overnight, we wanted to open windows but couldn’t because every time we did, we’d hear more mosquitoes coming in to eat us! Apparently the police pulled up at one point and shined a torch in Adam’s face, then drove on, I was asleep by this point but Adam was awake until about 4am. The next day we drove to a nearby beach to cook breakfast and were both thoroughly miserable at the thought of 3 months of nights like that. We prayed and decided to aim to camp at the free Department of Conservation campsites, to get there well before sunset and to set up our air bed in good time as well so we could shut the car then and keep out the dreaded bugs!! Since that hideous first night things have been sooo much better. We spent our first week camping in the far north of the north island, staying in a lovely basic campsite by a stream. We washed in and got our water from the stream, went to 90 Mile Beach (which is actually more like 90km long) and visited Cape Reinga, the furthest accessible point north, where the South Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet. It was amazing at Cape Reinga as you saw the sea get whipped into a frenzy of strange currents and crashing waves at the “Meeting Point”. Near Cape Reinga was also Te Paki giant sand sunes, which were giant! We climbed them and felt like we were running from Jafar in Aladdin. After our time in the northlands we made our way back down to Maude and Bruce’s place for the night to say hi and do some washing! On the way down we stopped in Waipoua Forest to see some big Kauri trees!

We then headed for the famed Coromandel, where New Zealanders go on holiday, so it must be good. We were planning to meet Tom and Lisa down there at the weekend. Our first night was spent in an overpriced campsite in the Kauranga Valley where we had to stay as this was where one of the walks started that we planned to do the next day. We met a lovely French lady called Sophie at the campsite, she was travelling on a bicycle around the north island. She joined us for a hearty chilli dinner and offered us her spirulin (mould), telling us it is “good for health, good for the stomach”. It was mould and it tasted of nothing, but we politely tried it. The next day was spent walking through forest along vertical tracks that can be more accurately described as small streams littered with ankle-breaking rocks. And then came the rain – we were thoroughly soaked to the skin, then only had a river to wash in afterwards. That evening we made our way to Cook’s beach, stopping for a well earned hot chocolate in Paihia on the way. We arrived at the bach (holiday home, pronounced “batch”) mid evening and made some dinner (re-heated hearty chilli) and did a jigsaw puzzle. This was highly satisfying and made us feel right at home. The bach is situated right next to the beach in a sleepy little place away from the main tourist activity. The next day we rested our aching legs, started another puzzle and awaited the arrival of Tom and Lisa. When they arrived (with a coolbox full of great food) we headed straight for the beach, had a swim and followed Tom into a cave only accessible via the water. It was amazing inside, a roofless cave where some fool-hardy youngsters jump into the not-so-deep water below. We then had a barbeque with some massive steaks. A good afternoon.

Tom and I went swam around to Lonely Beach in the morning in somewhat choppier sea, it was just around the headland and was actually not so lonely, there were people who’d used the more traditional (walking) method to get there. Very lovely though. In the afternoon we went to Cathedral Cove, where we were told the beginning of the new Prince Caspian was filmed. Really should watch that film again, can’t remember it at all. Cathedral Cove was surprisingly busy as it is a 45 minute walk downhill from the car park. There were people everywhere, but it didn’t detract from the amazingness of the cathedral-like archway and the clear blue sea with big waves! Our favourite beach so far, if it wasn’t teeming with people! The next day we were awoken by a siren at 7am which I jokingly suggested might be a tsunami warning. Turns out it was – we were then woken up by a banging on the window, we went outside and heard the locals chatting about a big earthquake in Chile, that we were on standby for a possible tsunami! We listened to the radio to find out the seriousness of the situation and were relieved to hear that non of the Pacific Islands had had anything to worry about. By the afternoon it was said to be not really a problem so we went down to a little harbour to see if we could cross on the tiny ferry to Whitianga. When we got there the ferry wasn’t running as the sea level was too low. As we watched, the sea came back up to high tide level within 20 minutes, and then back down again within another 20 mins. Pretty crazy to see but we were assured we were safe. Tom and Lisa left late afternoon to go back to Auckland for work on Monday morning, and we stayed another night. Then we left for Whakatane for another couple of nights with Liz and Rob, Tom’s parents.

Island of wonders

I write to you whilst attempting to placate a playful 9 week old kitten called Ruby, who is trying to to play with my hair and face. Cute but a bit scratchy! Don’t worry, this is not a disease ridden feral cat from the streets of Bangkok, but a delightful domesticated beauty owned by our friend Lisa’s parents, Maude and Bruce, who very kindly put us up for a few days in Auckland while we looked for a suitable road-tripping vehicle. Yes, we are now in New Zealand. We have already done the Northland (that is, north of Auckland) but details of that will come later…

To back-track, we spent most of our two weeks in Thailand on the hilly, jungle-covered island of Koh Chang. We stayed in the tiny fishing (and now tourist) village of Bang Bao, at Cliff Cottages, a resort on a peninsula a little walk away from the main pier, with it’s own beautiful little rocky cove on one side and white sandy beach on the other. Cliff Cottages is peaceful, relaxed and very pretty. Our little wooden hut was up on the (surprise, surprise) cliff, overlooking the clear water where we could snorkel and swim. We had a bed, a fan, a mosquito net and a balcony complete with hammock. The toilet block was a short, sometimes muddy, walk away. We spent our time very lazily on the whole (Adam was not in the best of health – he’s better now) with a brief spell of jungle-trekking activity! This was surprisingly less scary than one would imagine, even when we did encounter creepy crawlies! Our group was an eclectic mix of nationalities and ages, the youngest trekker was only two, carried throughout by her lovely (brave) parents. The scariest moment happened when swimming in a deep pool at the bottom of a waterfall (sounds idyllic, I know) as a young Chinese man decided to jump in without telling anyone he couldn’t swim! As I watched him flounder and then start to sink I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him over to the side. He, in his panic, did not relax and allow himself to be dragged but thrashed around and began to drag me under too, but thankfully an older Austrian man noticed him too and helped me pull him to safety!! Our regular haunt for dinner was run by a lovely Thai lady who couldn’t do enough for us, sooo sweet! We made our own scrabble set too, that was another highlight! What a busy life we lead!!

Adam has written somewhat more extensively about our weeks in Thailand, feel free to follow the link!

We left Thailand contented but even happier to be on our way to see friends in New Zealand! There’s nothing like church family!!
I will continue in due course with details of NZ fun!!

With a little help from my friends

I write to you from the middle of Bangkok!! We arrived yesterday evening having already booked our accommodation, which we’ve realised is not always the best idea as those who create the websites for such establishments utilise a fair amount of poetic license, the pictures alone suggest such elegance and comfort that you wonder how they can charge such reasonable room rates! When you arrive it all becomes clear…
Anyhoo, we spent our last week in the Philippines in San Juan, La Union, the aforementioned surf resort. Since blogging last we met some great people, Will from Canada, Gustov from Sweden, and especially Mary from California and Amelie from France who we spent time getting to know over the past couple of weeks, lots of nice girly chats (which Adam patiently endured), sunbathing and surfing. The surf was very changeable, one day lovely and kind for beginners such as myself, the next big and scary! Managed to totally spook myself one day as Mary and I made our way through the large and powerful shore-break (http://www.usoceansafety.com/safety/popup/shore.asp), I was basically too slow at getting out there and convinced myself that I was going to be absolutely pounded if I tried, so I left the water. Feeling defeated and a little embarrassed (as I also had an audience of several very skilled Filipino surfers and various sun-bathing tourists), I sat on the beach trying to psych myself up again. Adam arrived at the scene and Mary (who had successfully made it through the surf) came back to see if I was okay. I admitted I was scared and they offered to help me get back out into the surf. After swallowing my pride, I allowed them to help me, and Mary and I made it through the shore-break and I ended up feeling less like a loser, yay!
We returned to Manila for a couple of days before our flight to Bangkok, and enjoyed a full day of searching through three different malls (which were thankfully next to each other) for the best possible deal for a new camera. Our camera, after a couple of days in San Juan, decided it would stop taking proper pictures in the day – outside, at night time, yes, but in the day, or in a well-lit room, no. We found and bought a good camera and we pray it does not play up.
We had breakfast with the Migrasos on our last morning in the Navs Headquarters before heading in a taxi to the airport. We had a good conversation with the taxi driver and he did not rip us off, hooray!
Bangkok is as busy and noisy and smelly as people say, but I’ve found it quite fun! We’re staying just off Khao San Road which is a hub of tourist activity, you see many studenty gap year types but also middle aged couples and even some young families. There are stalls and shops selling food, t-shirts, dresses, flip flops, sunglasses, jewelry, bags, knives, tattoos and lots of bars offering cocktails, food and “ping pong shows” (for the innocent among you I shall not elaborate). Coming from Manila where people gawp at you because you’re the only white person they’ve seen for months, to Bangkok which is crawling with backpackers is an interesting change. Strangely comforting.
We were taken today on a tuk-tuk tour of various sites around the Khao San Area. First we viewed some monuments and Buddhas. Next, our driver became absolutely convinced that Adam wanted a tailor made suit, and proceeded to drive us to the most expensive tailors he could find. Three in total. The first time was the most embarrassing as we were brought into the shop, taken upstairs and into a plush office, the walls lined with various expensive fabrics, given complimentary bottled water, and given catalogues to flick through while the salesman gave us his pitch. At the end of this we asked for some prices, he said 250 Pounds Sterling and we said sorry goodbye! He led us out with the helpful words “you should have told me at the start” as we continued to apologise for wasting his precious time. The next tailors we walked in, asked for the price saying “we don’t want to waste your time”, he told us the price, and we left. And the next place. Our driver seemed surprised that we were so speedy in our decision not to buy anything, and proceeded to take us to what he described as a “big factory”. This sounded cheap and promising. What he didn’t tell us was that it was in fact a jewelry factory. Again we politely went into the building he’d driven us to, were given a guided tour of the jewelers making the jewelry, and were then taken into a huge sales room filled with gold and silver rings of varying carats. I tried some on and made appropriate “yes it’s lovely”s and “how beautiful”s, and after showing us a few promotions, the sales lady thankfully left us to browse at our leisure and we escaped unscathed! Hehe what fun!!
We are off to the weekend market tomorrow which apparently promises many bargains, then Sunday we take a bus to Koh Chang, an island about 6 hours from Bangkok, to stay in a cliff top bungalow!

With Hope

Alona Beach is on Panglao Island just at the west of Bohol, a white sandy beach with clear blue water, lots of resorts along the seafront and therefore lots of tourists. It’s a divers haven with amazing reefs and warm warm water. We stayed at Citadel Alona Inn, a short walk from the beach but much cheaper than the beach side resorts. It was a lovely place, very well kept and organised with really sweet, polite staff and a British owner. Cold showers again although this is becoming almost normal now! We spent the first couple of days getting our bearings, sunbathing and being offered massages on the beach by random women wearing light green scrubs. They are quite persistent! I unfortunately became ill again, the sore throat and general exhaustion combo rearing its ugly head for the third time during our trip. We therefore played lots of scrabble on the balcony and I felt like some sickly woman in an old infirmary being visited by a kind young man who would play board games with me all afternoon. I then had a sort of mini-meltdown when I came to the realisation that as a result of our self-imposed budget restrictions we were not really doing anything hugely exciting, simply spending our money on accommodation, travel and the most basic of food. This combined with illness, being in a strange place and missing people hugely brought us both to breaking point when we realised that all we really wanted was to go home. We prayed and almost immediately felt that the answer was our meticulous, almost obsessive budgeting, that, in the world’s eyes, would be considered sensible, shrewd, but with a heavenly perspective actually felt foolish and wasteful! So we scrapped the budget book and decided to trust in God and start LIVING! We celebrated that evening with a beautiful meal on the beach, and booked a Bohol island tour for the next day, and for the first time in weeks, felt peaceful about what we were doing! Yes!!!!
The island tour was with our guide JoJo on the back of a motorbike, so much fun! We saw some Spanish dudes around a table, tarsiers (the most hilarious little creatures like a cross between a bush baby, a rat and a monkey), monkeys, an amazing man-made forest, the Chocolate Hills, the Loboc River which we cruised down with a buffet lunch, a very cool cave (well actually it was warm, strange) and a big old Catholic church where I was given a shawl to wrap around my naked shoulders as this is considered “inappropriate” in a house of God. Hmmm. That evening we met the lovely Charmaine and Joseph, a Filipino couple who were on holiday. We played scrabble, drank rum and coke and ate their food, it was good. We hope to meet up with them in Manila in a few days.
The next day we got up at 6am to go for a boat trip which included dolphin watching, snorkelling and island hopping. See adam’s blog for more details, suffice to say, it was interesting! Within 2 days of taking self prescribed antibiotics I felt sooo much better for the first time in weeks, awesome.
We also visited Bohol Bee Farm, an organic farm with holiday huts and a beautiful restaurant. We were given a very comprehensive and hands-on tour of the farm and ate flowers for lunch, needless to say, impressive! I’m sure Adam will delight you all on our return with his newly discovered bee-related trivia whenever the subject arises…That evening we met a British couple who were staying at Citadel, Steph and Will. We chatted to them about possible Thailand plans and awoke to find, to our delight, a mini guide to Thailand that Steph had made the previous night and put under our door! The kindness of strangers!! We left Citadel late morning and travelled to Tagbilaran on the mainland of Bohol, checked into a hotel as we had a flight the next day at lunch time, watched Sherlock Holmes at the cinema at the mall, then came back to our ant infested room and watched 90s films on cable TV all evening, Rob Lowe as a jack-the-lad Navy Seal with a moustache, inspiring stuff.
We then flew from the very basic, under-construction Tagbilaran Airport to the very beautiful, state of the art newly refurbished Ninoy Aquino International Airport. This was strangely comforting. It’s interesting to come from England where everything, generally speaking, has the appearance of being clean, fixed or finished. The Philippines, a country which is still developing, has a massive gap between the rich and the poor. You’ll see huge areas of construction/development of beautiful malls, hotels, roads, etc, then other areas that are run down, with big potholes in the roads, rubble everywhere and whole families living on the streets. Speaking of malls, we spent the whole afternoon in the Mall of Asia that day, we enjoyed mooching around the shops and, glory be, Starbucks. Beautiful smooth coffee, amazing chocolate hazelnut cheesecake/torte, wow. I love you Starbucks. How I have missed you. We then made our way across the city to the bus terminal and took the night bus to San Juan which promised sun, sand and surf. We arrived at 5am which was slightly earlier than intended and proceeded to sleep in a bus shelter for 2 hours until sunrise. Classy. We were then VERY kindly allowed to check in early to Lola Nanny’s Surf Retreat at no extra cost, and slept the morning away. When we awoke we headed to the front of Lola Nanny’s and looked out at the beach, we had arrived! Sunny, sandy, surfy, blue skies, friendly people, good food, yes. We’ve spent the past few days surfing, meeting new people, and Emma and Alan who work at Lola Nanny’s are especially lovely, with a real gift for hospitality. We went the other day with lots of other peeps to a nice surf spot called the Cement Factory, so named because just by the beach, there is, in fact, a cement factory, and not a lot else. It’s great here. So that’s me up to date! Wow.

Journeying

I arrived at the internet cafe and logged onto facebook, as per usual, and was shocked to discover that a friend of ours, Fay Martin, had died unexpectedly of natural causes. She was beautiful, gentle, caring, brave and thoughtful, and we were privileged to have her as part of our church small group until she went abroad last year. This was such sad news and we’re praying for her family and friends, that they would be comforted and feel some peace in the knowledge that she is with Jesus now.
On a lighter note, I am now well. I self prescribed some antibiotics as my throat and ear thing went away then came back for the third time in 2 months. After two days the pain was gone and I felt better than I had for long while, thank you Jesus!
Since my last post we’ve done A LOT. We spent a few more days in Daet, met a group of British peeps who were traveling through the Philippines. New Year here, even in the sleepiest of little surfing towns, is a frenzy of fireworks (the use of which would probably be illegal in Britain, especially the way they handle them!), drinking, dancing and, of course, videoke. Again we participated, good sports that we are, and a good time was had by all. A bit more surfing was done, although the currents were very strong and a little scary at times, obtained a monster bruise on my left arm from Adam’s flailing surfboard at a moment when I foolishly came a little too close, the kind of bruise that can’t be hidden and means that even more staring/pointing ensues, what fun!
We left Daet and began our journey to Cebu, which took about 2 and a half days in all! Traveling from A to B is quite difficult here, the infrastructure is such that what should be one boat journey is in fact 3 boat journeys and 3 bus rides, not to mention jeepneys and tricycles in between! We got to Cebu City late at night, exhausted but happy to finally be there. Cebu is a nice city, much cleaner than Manila, more green spaces and much more used to us Westerners. We had our first hot shower of the Philippines which was absolute bliss, and watched cable TV movies all evening in our good standard hotel room after a very lovely dinner in a local restaurant. We explored the malls and I bought a rash vest, essential. We then headed for Bohol from the sea port which was pretty difficult to describe to the taxi driver, but we got there.
A short boat journey and a new friend later and we arrived in the port town of Tubigon. We went for an evening drive to Sagbayan Peak, a mini Chocolate Hills (that will come later), with Elma. The next day we traveled to Panglao Island, to Alona Beach where we intended to spend the next week. I will leave it there as I am about to be thrown out of the internet cafe, sorry this is so brief, will update again asap!!

change is good

Our last week in South Africa was great, we were again sleeping in beds without the threat of gale-force wind exposure! Marlon and Rene invited us and Sheila, who was also visiting from Southampton, to come on the Impact Centre staff away day at the Farmyard near Stellenbosch. We had a braai, sunbathed and swam. We also partook of braai the following day at M&R’s house with some of their lovely friends and introduced them to Eton Mess. They, of course, thought it was wonderful. It was.
Thursday saw the arrival of the Wills family, Gary, Julia and Ed, who are fellow City Lifers from Southampton. It was great to see them for a few days and we enjoyed a turkey Christmas dinner on Friday with them and some of M&R’s family. Previous to said dinner we had mentioned to Pastor Roger, Rene’s dad, that there was such a thing as a pudding with ice-cream baked in the oven…and so the challenge arose to make baked alaska. 7 minutes in the oven later, it came out perfect, the meringue golden and the ice-cream still frozen, whoop whoop! Meringue has become something of an obsession for Adam, I think he made it 4 times that week. Saturday we had breakfast at the massive Rhodes Memorial overlooking Cape Town, then in the afternoon Rene took Sheila, Adam and I to the Twelve Apostles Hotel for high tea. The hotel is nestled at the foot of Table Mountain’s Twelve Apostles, and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean, beautiful. Sheila left for the snow bound UK that evening.
Sunday the 20th of December was my birthday!!! We went to church in the morning where Gary spoke on the hope and healing in the Christmas story and Roger kindly thanked us for being there and we thanked everyone for being so so kind!! M&R very kindly lent us a car for the day, so we then, at my request, headed for the mall! We had a nice lunch at Mugg and Bean, where they do MASSIVE cakes, then shopped (I got a nice t-shirt from my husband), then went to see Avatar in 3D, it was very good and when I wasn’t thoroughly absorbed by the amazing graphics flying out of the screen at me, I couldn’t stop peeking at Adam and laughing at him and myself in our 3D specs, we looked particularly ridiculous!!! A lovely birthday!
The next day M&R again lent us the car so that we could drive around the Cape Peninsula. We stopped in Fish Hoek and ate some snoek, stopped in Simon’s Town and saw some antiques and a cute jazz band playing Christmas classics, at Boulders Beach Adam swam and we both saw penguins on a sneaky free beach we found down the coast from the 3 pound a go official “penguin beach” hehe! Penguins are strange creatures, very cute, they were walking straight past us like we weren’t there! Then we crossed the Peninsula to a beautiful surfing beach at Scarborough before heading to Chapman’s Peak, a rather treacherous but absolutely beautiful pass around various cliff faces leading to Hout Bay. The whole day was filled with awesome scenery, I would highly recommend a trip if you’re ever in Cape Town. I felt pretty exhausted the whole day which was a shame and I put it down to being hormonal but it turns out I was just ill!
After saying our goodbyes at the Impact Centre we went back to pack our fresh laundry then headed for Cape Town International Airport. It was odd to say goodbye to Marlon and Rene after so long, it felt like we weren’t really leaving…However, 11 hours later, we landed in Doha where we would spend 18 hours in transit in the glorious Quiet Room. By this point my throat and ears were really sore. I slept for almost the entire flight to Doha, then about 5 more hours in the QR. To my absolute delight there was, in the QR an abandoned brand new copy of the last book in the Twilight series, a book I had been reading at Rene’s but hadn’t managed to finish – I believe God put it there as he knew it would occupy me for the next 10 hours – he cares about the little things! Having finished the book with 3 hours before the next flight I then wandered around the airport with Adam and realised quite quickly that I should not have given up our precious QR seats. No matter. Listening to Regina Spektor whilst doing sudoko in the middle of a Middle Eastern airport can be quite relaxing. The next flight was 8 hours long, I again slept for most of the time, only waking to eat and medicate. Adam was an absolute love as he asked for water, panadol, and boiled sweets to ease my poorlines. The descent was interesting for my ears which have yet to properly pop!
And so we arrived in Manila. Our bodies felt like it was 6am, it was in fact 3pm. We got an expensive taxi to the Migraso’s home in the Navigators Headquarters in Manila. I began to perk up when we were greeted at the door by DaiDai (diedie) and NoiNoi (noynoy), the two eldest kids of Kuya Bobot and Atta Jean. The youngest is BB (“baby”). They showed us to our room 5 floors up which is a dorm with just me and Adam in it. The heat is not as intense as it could be, it’s about 28 degrees most days with about 75% humidity! We slept for a couple of hours then joined the whole family downstairs. They then invited us to join them and some friends for Christmas eve celebrations. This involved a LOT of food (we’re talking 3 main meals served throughout the evening), a crazy filipino film (about two ladies who are twins in their 40s, one’s a mad business tycoon and the other’s a simpleton and they live with their put-upon widowed father, funny but strange), and the dreaded VIDEOKE. Videoke is big here, and as most of you know, I’m not the biggest fan of Kareoke as a general rule (pride issues), and tried to stress that I was VERY tired after the long journey and my throat was VERY sore but they insisted, and, in the effort to be polite, I sang not one but TWO songs, cringe. I know some of you must love it and I’m sorry I do not. It was nice and humbling though.
Christmas day was meant to be spent with the Migrasos and Bobot’s brother and his family. As I awoke at 7am with an intense headache and raging ear/throat ache, my new favourite superhero, Adam the Brown, went to tell the family that I was ILL. He returned with Kuya Bobot and they were both laden with a jug of water, ibuprofen, paracetamol, vitamin C, fruit and cake. After fully medicating myself I slept until 3pm. Adam also slept as he was somewhat exhausticated. What a Merry, Merry Christmas. We then went to get soothing soothing strepsils and some Christmas gifts from the mall. I lasted an hour then went back to bed. Boxing Day was better, DaiDai showed us the wet market where she was keen to show us a chicken being slaughtered, and of course we obliged. Hopefully this new experience will prove useful at a later date, Badger, when it comes to killing livestock at 19BB. We also went to the mega mall the next day and bought some essential items. We have also discovered that we (white people) are somewhat of a novelty here, and this brings with it A LOT of staring and pointing and giggling. This takes some getting used to, but once you realise that it is not your skirt tucked into your pants/pen on your face/that you have a third eye, that in fact people are just curious, it is possible to function without paranoia.
Monday 28th consisted of a bus journey for which we arose at 3:30am and waited for 4 and a half hours (during which we were swapped from one bus to another twice and I phoned my lovely family at home) for the bus to leave eventually at 8am! We arrived in Daet, our destination, at 18:30 and found a hostel at the beach with rooms for 5 pounds a night, bargain! The people here are lovely, very welcoming. We discovered that night that the people in Daet also love videoke. They have some interesting interpretations of classics such as “Seasons in the sun” and “Candle in the wind”, which is a delight to hear continuing into the early hours.
Yesterday we went shopping, today we went surfing. Our instructors had different approaches, mine much more vocal and instructive than Adam’s, it was good but exhausting, the water is warm here so no need for wetsuits that does mean more cuts and grazes. We didn’t see any sharks. We continue south on Sunday.
I’m still pretty tired, my throat is still sore and my left ear still hasn’t popped, it’s irritating and I’d appreciate your prayers!

Me-Julie and the flying chairs

So Monday we handed back the hire car, arriving to rain in Cape Town, the first we’d seen. René the angel Parker kindly picked us up from Value Car Hire and drove us to Ashanti Backpackers, our home for the next week. We pitched our tent in a sandpit with approximately 2 inches between us and the neighbouring campers, nice and cosy…That evening we caught up with our old overlanding buddies in a restaurant on the much anticipated Long Street, apparently THE place to be if you’re young and happening in Cape Town. It’s definitely bustling and vibrant and I felt surprisingly safe which is nice. On Tuesday Julie and Natasha flew to CT from Port Elizabeth one day late as there had been bad weather at PE. That afternoon we went to Mr Pickwicks, the sign outside claimed that they served “the best milkshakes in the world”,  a claim that hadn’t escaped Adam’s notice, and had to, of course, be tested. It was very good milkshake.  That evening we went briefly to a Cuban bar where one of the staff insisted upon taking us on a detailed tour of the whole establishment, toilets included! It was very plush with random porcelain vases and figurines of Jesus everywhere, our guide emphasised “they are all for sale”, delightful! Then we went to an open mic night at a local bar which was good, reminded me muchly of the Candle Club at The Talking Heads in Soton. One guy shouted his songs, the other had a lovely voice and sang in French, beautiful.

Wednesday was relatively chilled, but we still managed to walk about 6km and buy a painting! The next day Adam did lots of civilised cultured things such as visiting Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned) and District Six. I, instead, went to the beach with Julie and Natasha. To be fair, the beach is one of my favourite places and Julie one of my favourite people, so this made perfect sense, and it didn’t do my tan any harm either! Friday J&N went on a tour of the Cape Peninsula and A&I went to the National Gallery, they had an exhibition on the Nobel Peace Prize Winners, v creative and informative. We had a braai in the evening then went out for drinks on Long Street.

Saturday Julie and myself enjoyed the shopping delights of the Waterfront whilst Natasha went to the Aquarium and Adam, again, appreciated more of CT’s history at the Castle. We all then met at Spur Steakhouse for dinner on the balcony, where I had a near-death experience with a gust of wind, 3 chairs and a bottle of ketchup. I was somewhat on edge for the rest of the evening and the next day as I more fully appreciated the lethal nature of plastic furniture. This was not helped by the gail force winds that blew through our campsite, necessitating an impromptu sleepover in J&N’s room that night. On Sunday morning we bid J&N adieu after a thoroughly joyous time, feeling strange that it would be 7 months before we’d see them again. We visited the Jewish museum with our overlanding friends Frida and Christian, then were picked up by the angel Parkers who took us again to their lovely home.