At last some real news from NZ

We have been to some outstanding places and seen some amazing sights while we have been here in New Zealand. On one of our trips on a boat in the Bay of Islands we saw some dolphins and one of them swam right under the front of the boat and this is it!! We have now moved down onto South Island and are driving for hundreds of miles on our way to Milford Sound which is supposed to be amazing. Will let you know about it later - hopefully not so long this time! The scenery here is fantastic and we went to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes yesterday - Thanks Ann for the suggestion. The weather is varied between dry and sunny, wet and miserable, and low cloud and not much to see!! Must go running out of time - sorry.

Latest from NZ!

Sorry we haven't been in touch for a week but we are having awful difficulty in getting internet access - we are currently in a museum in Wellington!

We are seeing some awesome sights - geysers, lakes, mountains, Maori culture and travelling lots of miles! We have been to Russell, Auckland again, Rotorua and Lake Taupo. We are setting off tomorrow early on the crossing to South Island and then travelling down the west coast for the rest of the holiday. We hope to put some picture on if and when we get better access to the internet. Keep watching and will try and spend longer on the blog when we can. Lots of love to all.

New Zealand

Well this is the first time we have been able to get access to the internet since we arrived in NZ - apart from spending £1 a minute from hotel in Auckland! We had good flights from Peru but two long airport waits - 8 hrs and 18 hrs. During the 18 hours in LA we took a bus tour round the city which was good. We met up with friends Gavin and Liz in Auckland and spent 2 nights in a hotel suite on the 23rd floor! Great views. Spent a lot of time in Devonport watching boats - what's new! Picked up motorhome yesterday and have just spent the night with Corrie and John in Whangerei overlooking boats and water - again! I used to work with Corrie and 4 years ago she moved out here from Polegate - its stunning and she sends her love to all of those she also worked with in UK!

We are now moving off to Bay of Islands and then south again. Sorry no photos available yet - might be a while but will catch up when we arrive at my cousin's in Sydney!!

Farewells and tears!!

We have finished working at the mountain project and were invited to a farewell party to celebrate and say our goodbyes. It all started at lunchtime with a lunch with Americo and Mary, the pastors of the church and the mountain project, and then followed by entertainment by and for some of the children. Part of this was face painting for helpers and a few children, Jean felt she had to be part of this activity and you can see the magnificent result! We followed this with a party for the children and then it was time to say our goodbyes. This proved to be quite an emotional time as some special relationships had been developing over the time we have been here. The results of this were some interesting effects on the faces of those who had been painted, streaky lines, washed out eyes and other similar marks!

Today we went to church in the morning where Chris and Encarni, members of our team spoke and translated and we had to say more farewells. This was followed by lunch in a local restaurant together with the pastor and his family - and, yes, you've guessed more farewells and tears. Tomorrow we have a rest day to do shopping, packing, re-packing, and generally getting ready to move on to New Zealand where our next part of our blog will come from.

Thanks for following our travels!

WOW, WOW and more WOW's

We spent Sunday and Monday sightseeing some of the important local historical sights. The most spectacular, of course, was Machu Picchu - WOW, Awesome, Outstanding etc etc. Words alone cannot begin to describe this magnificent Inca monument. Perched high up in the Andes, 20 minutes drive up a very winding road, this Inca town has fantastic views all around. If you have the opportunity to visit this part of the world this has got to be a "must visit" place. On the way to Machu Picchu we visited Moray which is thought to be an Inca site for aclimatising plants for high altitude. We also visited Moras which are Salt Baths now operated by local people. We arrived back from our visits very late on Monday night only to start working again first thing on Tuesday morning - not good. We only have two more working days left and then we can relax for three days before our next leg.

An exhausting week

We have come to the end of our first working week and are totally exhausted. Took time off yesterday afternoon and went into and went into town for a meal and then some sight-seeing. Roger spent the week making doors for the kitchen units and a pen to keep the toddlers safe while the mums are working and Jean has been cooking with the mums - they have taught us Peruvian recipes - everything cooked from scratch! Most of the team have been ill at some point - there is so much dust! However everyone is well enough to set off the Machu Picchu in the next quarter of an hour - a 2 day excursion. We had hoped to download some pictures of us working at the project - but haven't had time. Adios for now and we will add some more news after our trip!