Run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did Paris in one day...Impossible, but the result is all the children are already planning their Grown Up O.E to include this fascinating city. First stop was the Eiffel Tower - The Top and it was freezing... but incredible. We experienced The Metro, The Notre Dame, T shirt shops and French Crepes. We ran out of time and nearly missed our train back out to 'the country'. 4 flying Kiwis ran their feet off in a Paris train station.

Rapide French History Lesson

The aim of the day was not to drive but staying in a cottage in 'the country' meant an immediate excursion for food and we got wrapped up in the history of the local villages and our laundry feat. Our photos show some of our sights.

D D Day

A Driving Disaster Day:
Looking back to 24 hours ago I can't believe we did that... Solo Mum on the road with 3 Children, 10 hours, in foreign speaking land with Fast mad Frenchmen. I have the feeling when I get back I will have the confidence to do anything! Holly, Lil and Harry will have grown up so much....be far more patient, and have great navigation skills. We stopped at historic Rouan to see The 12th century Notre Dam, Joan of Arc's cross, and experience getting stuck a massive underground French car park! We had dinner standing up in a Baker's kitchen en route and crawled into our very rural cottage at 10pm............. exhilarated with achievement!

Allez!!

A Frenchman shouted 'Allez' to us today as we cruised passed in our Le Touquet Go Cart. Mum says we were experiencing real travelling today... we had problems with the language (getting Mum a cup of tea!), with money, the banks were closed, and the only food on the menu in all the restaurants was mussels and chips! which Mum really looooved. ;)

Bon Soir

Hawkley to Folkestone (huge queues for coffee) to Eurotunnel (delays) to Calais (right hand driving) to Le Touquet and it's a French holiday weekend, exquisite shops with petite stuff but thankfully I'm so tired I can't even remember my bank pin number.. However there is a beautiful beach to explore tomorrow after our croissants.

Kiwis on the run

Down to Dingley Dell. Richard and Holly took us for a run this morning think I might have mentioned needing some exercise...after another gourmet home cooked dinner! It was quite a sight for the villagers!
The rest of the day we spent in the grounds of an English mansion 'rambling' over the park and enjoying a picnic. and we wandered up to the local village pub for dinner What a perfect English summer day. And it only looked like rain!

We found Hawkley

Thank goodness for the splendid full English breakfast made by Sally and my brother Rupert because our car trip from Eastbourne to Hawkley took us 4 hours instead of 2! May have been something to do with 1 hours detour to Brighton by mistake!! We are now visiting Holly, Lily and Harry's real cousins (one of two) who is also my nephew, Richard and his wife Holly. They live in a beautiful little cottage in a quaint English village and we are lucky enough to stay with them.

Photo coming soon

Rupert's Mystery Outing

We stepped back in to war time Britain and visited Newhaven Fort. We experienced an air raid.

Down to the Seaside

3 hours south on the coast (well, took us 5!) Holly navigated and I negotiated the lorries on the M25. Visiting my brother and family in Eastbourne. Feel like we are Royalty on tour, having the most wonderful time. This is Eastbourne Pier. Before dinner, we viewed Beachy Head and learned about the horrifying history behind it, followed by a beer in the local.

The Hunt for Snakes and Spiders

Visited Whipsnade Zoo today. Favourites were; Mummy's the Reticulated Tortoise, Holly's, the baby elephant celebrating her 1st birthday with a pool party, Lily's, the Apple Snails and Harry's the spiders. we were all in awe of the snakes (except Mummy of course who used to work with them!)

London

I love London......Fi
London has so much history behind it, I've never seen so many old buildings......Holly
I liked seeing all the amazing sights off the open topped Big Red Bus......Lily
I liked the Tower of London and meeting The Beefeaters... Harry


Destination London/Westminster:

We travelled by train, tube bus and boat and walked the hard pavements till we dropped.
We went to Buckingham Palace, saw the guards and 'heard' them changing! We hopped on and off an open topped Big Red Bus and saw all the sights. Mummy was sad that most of the pigeons had disappeared from Trafalgar Square. We spent a few hours at The Tower of London soaking up the history via an audio player. H then fell asleep on the Thames cruise to Westminster! We took wet down Mum's memory lane and had dinner in Covent Garden entertained by a magician. We all fell asleep on the train home!

M6 & Fi

I collected our wheels today. Arrival at my friend's fabulous listed house was an experience, it was a Hill Race Day in the grounds; lots of beautiful old cars racing the steepest road in the world, and we were in a Saab! Getting through the gates wasn't easy! I then found my old self driving down the M6 motorway solo in my peugot. Robin Hood pub saved me en route.
Holly, Lily and Harry played football in Bedford.

How We Won a Plastic hammer

We started with a relaxing morning in the cottage followed by an exciting afternoon at The River Festival. We experienced a traditional English afternoon tea in the tea tents. Holly, Lily and Harry tried a hammer game where you had to hit the hammer down as hard as you could to make a bell ring. Harry got the bell to ring all 3 times but Lily and Holly couldn't do it. But we all got a prize which was a blow up toy.

The longest Flight Ever!

We left the heat of California still spinning from Disney but I was full of anticipation of our approaching destination England...but if I had known what was ahead for the next 18 hours I might have insisted on another dizzy day without a decent cup of tea. Take off was a little noisier than normal, just a feeling of flying through a cloud of 'not right?" After less than an hour the pilot announced his decision to return to LA! So we had to make small circles out at sea to dump 12 hours of flying fuel so we could land.. I have flown a lot (I know a long time ago) and had some interesting trips but flying with a dodgy engine and my 3 most precious things in the world (my children) is by far scarier than any other plane trip I've made before. Nearly 5 hours later we were on another plane taking off.. Arrival in England was fantastic and being met by a familiar face and familiar rain and grey skies. And rush hour traffic on a Friday at 5pm..took hours to get out of London but I didn't care at least we were Alive!!!! We stopped for a cup of tea at some friend and the children met the Northern Hemisphere pigeon..Then we stopped at a pub!!!!! 2 sips of beer and the rest of the day is a blur..we are staying a beautiful quaint 400 year old cottage but to avoid the ghosts we are camping in the garden!

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A World Of Colour

Here is a small video of the show we watched
the other night. 'A World Of Colour.'

Hot, Fast and Fun

California Adventure Day
We woke at 8.00am what a sleepy bunch of people. A muesli bar for breakfast - this is not enough Mom.
40+ degrees and off to Bug land, we watched a movie in 3D 'Tough to be a bug'. How tuff can it be to be a bug!
Brilliant we loved it. well apart from the scary bit with the BIG spiders coming to get us.
Next - a jelly fish ride, a short oscillating ride later and buzz lightyear was the next inspiration. Following dinner the world of colour show, the most amazing show in the world.

A Day To Remember For Ever

A dizzy start to day 1 at Disneyland in Los Angeles. 14 hours of magic. Our favourite rides were The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh (Mum's), Indiana Jones (Harry), Haunted Mansion (Holly), Alice In Wonderland (Lily). We all found the Space Mountain the most exciting, it was our last ride at 9pm and we had to do it twice in 20 minutes because of a major brake down first time. We wouldn't recommend twice to anyone!

At 9.30pm we sat on the hot pavement and watched an amazing fireworks display with thousands of other people.

The Never Ending Day

Since sleep wasn't going to be on the agenda for a while we thought we would start our adventure early by watching the football. (Mum's watch hadn't turned up so she hadn't got a clue what time it was anyway!) By 3pm we had finished packing and the house had never looked so clean. Grandma squeezed us in her car and drove us to the Nelson Airport. 


We flew off into the New Zealand sunset.





3.5 hours later we stepped onto the 747 to Los Angeles. Lily said "woooaahh is this a plane?!?" Harry dashed straight for his mini TV. After 12 hours of New Zealand Air entertainment and no sleep. (Harry had sore legs, Lily felt sick, Holly had exploding ear ache and Mum was hoping the plane wouldn't crash.)
We arrive in Los Angeles confused about the day and the time and what meal we are supposed to be eating next. We asked a whopper policeman for directions and found ourselves on a shuttle to the hotel. In our old fashioned room we ordered an up to date pizza. Holly announced she didn't like America! The day has gone on for ever and we are going to end it in the hotel pool in the summer evening sunset.

The Day Before

We are choosing what to pack, the suitcases are too big and Mum has lost her watch. Harry has locked his sleeping bag in his bag.