I know it’s a cliche, but our summer here in the UK has simply flown. After our trip to France last week, we are now concentrating on finalising refinements to Poki and organising ourselves for our return to New Zealand, via Canada, next week. We had a wonderful visit to…
Preparations for Africa are proceeding at pace. The biggest step forward in preparations, has been the reconstruction of Poki. Over the month of August, Gumtree 4X4 of Ditching, West Sussex, have installed a second, stainless steel water tank, in the space behind the nearside rear wheel. It will be fed…
We’ve been back at our U.K. base in Wineham for over a month now. Poki has made a brief visit to Gumtree 4X4 for a start on some of the work Dennis would like done. There was insufficient time to work on the gearbox though. Gumtree, as is everyone else,…
We’re on a DFDS Ferry from Dieppe to Newhaven. It’s 3.05am French time and sleep eludes me. Mind you the lights are on and there are people chatting, some snoring. Jen though, is fast asleep. The drive back to France from Slovenia What an interesting few days we have had.…
Our drive from Bad Kissingen to Slovenia, through Southern Germany and Austria was pretty easy going as we avoided motorways. Poki struggled up and down 3 mountain passes in Austria. The scenery was spectacular. Dennis is concerned something is amiss with the gear box. We arrived in Slovenia in the…
We’re sitting in our camp chairs in the Municipal camp at Straubing in Germany. It’s 34deg and glorious amongst the trees and few other campers. This camp is much more expensive than French camps we experienced. But maybe not a fair comparison, as we are now back in Poki. A…
3 weeks since we left sunny California. Despite my fears our flight might be cancelled, our journey from San Francisco to Heathrow was painless. In fact British Airways exceeded expectations. Inflight service and crew were good. Certainly better than Air New Zealand. The only negative, a slow check-in due to…
Ten hours in an airport terminal is not a great way to start your travels. The alternative was a fight from Rotorua that would have allowed us an hour to switch terminals in Auckland, assuming all domestic flights were on time. Air NZ flight NZ8 to San Francisco was full…
The New Zealand Government has finally given the go ahead for the “Hermit Kingdom” to open up. This will happen in stages, dependent on which country you are from and your vaccination status. The border having being closed for 2 years. More importantly it means one can get back into…
In the absence of overland travel I thought a description of life in New Zealand under Covid conditions might be of interest to our international visitors? We are a country geographically slightly larger than the United Kingdom, with a population of 5m people. Approximately 16% are the indigenous Maori, of…