We fly out of Heathrow on Saturday 14th January, our plane, according to Planespotter app, flies over Eastry about 11pm, so give us a wave if you're local. We arrive in Christchurch, New Zealand, their Monday lunch time, middle of Sunday night for those in the UK.
We plan to spend 3 weeks touring South Island, depending how much it wobbles, then fly to North Island for another 3 weeks. We have a week booked in Napier for the Art Deco Festival. Try googling Art Deco Festival, Napier, it's a huge event with loads going on. We have booked a one bedroom 1870s cottage for the week ( that's old by Napier standards which was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1931, hence the Art Deco architecture from when it was rebuilt) whilst there we will be meeting up with friends Pat and John Liddell and some friends of theirs. We will also spend some time with old school friends of Sues, Gill and David Day.
THE DRESS FOR ART DECO!!
After a couple of days in Auckland we fly to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia where we plan to visit places we didn't visit before in 2010, hopefully getting as far as Cairns and Port Douglas. We hope to get out onto The Great Barrier Reef for some snorkelling which due to an incoming cyclone we didn't manage last time. Sue will also have her 70th birthday in Brisbane shortly after we arrive.
On April 1st we fly to Perth, Western Australia. Our plan is to drive to Margaret River, south of Perth for some wine sampling. Wine sampling is something that figures quite highly through New Zealand as well by the way! We then drive north as far as Kalbarri, we had hoped to get as far as Coral Bay to get out onto the Ningaloo Reef for more snorkelling, but that is unlikely to happen. We finish up back in Perth for Anzac Day on April 25th and will certainly be going to the dawn service at the Western Australia War Memorial in Kings Park. We arrive back on May 1st in time for summer!
Those are our plans so far, but they could change!
