England and Wales

16^th June

6 hrs passed fairly quickly but no real sleep. Heathrow T5 is fairly impressive, yet just another terminal building. Made our way out and shuttle bussed over to the rental car. Upgraded to a car with GPS, which meant it was a bigger car as it was all that was left. Bugger as big is NOT better in the UK. It is an AWD station wagon, diesel so a bit cheaper. Took us 20mins to figure out the GPS but got there eventually. A short drive over to Liz’s place which is really nice. She lives on a small island with no roads, just a small walk bridge. Needless to say the view is excellent with the deck finishing in the water of the Thames complete with small boat moored. We were rather tired so after saying hi and having a look around we had showers and had a snooze while Liz saw to some work. Roland and his son Andrew arrived later in the evening and had a bbq – yay normal food! Chris manned the meat – first time cooking in a very long time – but came out well.

17^th June

Visa application – waste of time. Gave passports for a Chinese visa.

See Big ben, parliament house. Buckingham palace, London Eye, Hyde Park, Trafalgar square

Caught up with Michael from the Antarctica trip who was travelling with his cousin.

18^th June

Visa again, Indian forms etc. 960 Pounds!!!!!

Crown jewels, London bridge, Shakespeare theatre

19^th June

Stonehenge, Old Sacrum, woodhenge, Avebury

Lunch at pub in avebury

Sandy’s friend Roland

Terry and Natalia in Wales

Dinner in local pub

20^th June

Left early morning and headed North to flint and across to a Conwy castle

Down toward London, detour via 2 more castles – Kenilworth and attempted to see Warwick but only saw the carpark- which was not supposed to take any longer.

Running late now as traffic is crap. Get back to Liz’s place, empty car and head to train station. Nearly miss next train as again traffic is crap. Always feel like we are rushing!

Get to bar B@1 an hour late, but everyone is there. Massive SA turn out!

Dinner in China town – nice but expensive and portions are VERY small, especially for Chinese food!

Bit more time at bar then head home. Home around 1am.

21^st June

Have to pick up Kate from airport, originally at 7am, but her flight delayed so leave at 9am. Louise is here already so she joins us. Get to terminal and Chris waits in “No stopping” area for a little longer than suggested, but area is not busy and there were at least 4 others doing the same thing. Kate had just arrived so only a 30min wait for her to get out. Picked up drinks on way.

Chris and James arrive a bit after 12. Start lunch. Robyn arrives.

HUGE lunch! Boat ride up Thames, we double kyack. Should have set foot pedals for rudder so did a lot of zig and zagging up and down till we found an area to pull out and adjust things. Better but were not up to another hour of it so headed back to the house to chill out. Hilarious watching the others in the boat with only 10cm of freeboard on the low side! Robyn and Kate on trip tomorrow, don’t know where or what they are doing! Robyn has to sort out a TON of clothes, takes AGES! Boys are taking them to hotel on their way home – only leave after midnight.

22^nd June

Lazy morning, drop Louise off at airport in the afternoon and head over to Grace and Andrews. Great catch up over a fantastic roast lamb dinner! Were really spoilt as they had NZ lamb and kumera! Cheers guys! Left there around 11pm and got home before midnight.

23^rd June

Passports are ready so after lazy morning we head into London to pick them up. Then head over to St James Cathedral which closes at 4pm! Picked up tickets for Wicked to see with Grace and Andrew. Made it back in time for dinner.

24^th June

Head down to the Isle of Wight for some sightseeing. Leave just before 10am, not an early start. Catch the 11:45 ferry over to the island. Got a same day return as it is considerably cheaper. Stopped to get some lunch at a supermarket and then started on our CCW loop around the island. Our first stop was to see the needles but decided not to take the chairlift down to the beach and drove on around the corner and stopped overlooking the beach. Had our lunch overlooking the ocean and a view of the white cliff faces. Moved on to a higher viewing area and went for a walk along the coast before heading back and aiming for the Osborne house where Queen Victoria used to live, or at least was a holiday house. Got there with half an hour before closing, we didn’t need more than that and wondered around the old house and gardens. Decided to go look at Carisbrooke castle even though we knew it would be closed, got there and went for a wander around the walls of the castle. Decided to head back to the ferry and caught the 6:30pm boat back to the mainland. Stopped for some Chinese food on the way – still in shorts and t-shirts so got crap service from the staff. Also food was a bit strange, oh well. Got back to Liz’s just after 8pm.

25^th June

Today we are catching up with Nick Walls for lunch and David with his sister and husband. Were planning on being in London around 12:30, but got a call asking if it could be at 12. Had to leave immediately and only just made it! Nice lunch and chatted for an hour before Nick had to go back to work. Headed over to Greenwich to see the GMT clock etc. On top of one of the only hills we have seen, so a bit of a walk up to it. Usual tourist stuff before heading over to the British Museum. Very grand building with interesting glass ceiling. Lots of Egyptian artefacts along with other things. Rosetta stone is here so finally get to see it. Nearly an hour here was all Sandy could take, so started heading over to Andrew and Grace’s place when got call saying Andrew was home – excellent timing. Pretty good with tube and train system so Sandy had us there is good time. A bit of a walk was good. Spent half an hour with Andrew and left a couple of things there till we get back in a couple of weeks. Head over to Claire’s house. Took about 35mins to walk it and enjoyed the walk through the commons. A very large open area filled with people doing all sorts of things, including fly fishing practice, soccer, running, cycling to name a few. Interesting when soccer ball gets on the road and the cars unwillingly start playing. No one seems to care. Very nice burgers and sausages for dinner and good talk with David and family. Leave around 10:15, were going to walk to main station but decide to catch tube to Waterloo and then train from there to save some walking. Missed our train by 1 min, so had to wait another 30 for the next. Oh well, can’t win then all. Home around 12:30.

26^th June

Chill out day today. Lazy morning, catching up on photos and this diary! About 10 days behind – eek.