I'll bet the excitement is REALLY building up now.You probably have your bags packed (how many times have your checked them ) and are ready to fly out the door tomorrow (your time). Have a wonderful flight

I second that

At last i am back in the land of the living after our great trip to OZ and new Zealand.
we had a ball with a few hickups on the the way when we landed in
Sidney 14th dec
my wheelchair wasnt there but flying with BA i wasnt that worried
we had a loan of one of theirs which didnt fold down but we were to ring next morning at 10am and it would be sorted, well it wasnt and they didnt answer the phone for 2 days and still no wheelchair. We didnt get to the blue mountains as the wheelchair wouldnt go into te boot of the the car we had booked they had none that was any good so that was out.
anyway we had a ball there and my children couldnt believe i didnt get into the opera house nor had i pics of it but the men i was with were much more intrested in the harbour bridge so that was as far as we got.
we flew to Christchurch on the 18th still with no wheelchair and had to buy one there which we did.
I saw a bit of christchurch and the surrouding area and it was heartbreaking to see the damage you have a beautiful country and the people were oh so friendly I was charmed.
we left for arthurs pass and boy it was something Kieran was doing the driving with
Frank co pilot and i was jelous as they had the best views
this is all for the minute i am still storing up my memories of a lifetime

Great to hear from you again Shi. It sounds like you had a truly wonderful trip.
What a shame about your wheelchair... I hope you were reimbursed by British Airways insurance for losing the original and forcing you to purchase another one. They should also reimburse you for the inconvenience and because you missed out on your trip to the Blue Mountains in Sydney.
Keep posting so that we can follow you as you reminisce each step of your trip 'downunder'.

great to hear from you Shi, and to see the brag book thread being used. Just the place for you to come and tell us about your tril, it's surely something to brag about.

Hi Am back again and still on a high
Kieran is home from Bury in the UK were he works
And I am in the midst of going over his pics
Well when we left Christchurch for Arthurs pass
I asked Kieran to take a pic of the name of each place we stopped for the night
As I would forget and that was no problem(I could just see them winking at each other when i said that)
Do you know the only pic of a place name i got is Knobs Flat i had to look up Google to see where it was (having 5 boys I know already why that one was taken!!!)
We stocked up the camper before we headed out from Christchurch as the boys were the cooks reroute
And you were right it was no problem getting Glutenfree bread etc even the hotel had GF bread I was delighted
Did I say when we were in Sidney we had a huge thunder storm and it rained for most of a day
Well when we got to Christchurch it rained again not as bad but rain and I thought Lord....
The road to Arthurs pass got more mountainy as we went and more beautiful it was so isolated we were enchanted.
Oh and it rained again and not soft Irish rain either!!
Micky and I were taking accommodation at night so all of us would have breathing space (that was a good idea!!) so for the first night we parked and the boys did dinner I went to lie down and the men put up the awing for their tea and smokes
They were trying to see how they could record how hard it was raining eventually they ran a short video with Kierans camera and the rain coming off the awing was something else.
The boys were to do a helicopter thing on the Franz Josef glacier next day and that was called off because of the rain the internet was down for the same reason they were not happy bunnies that evening.
We were on the road by 8am next morning heading for Fox Glacier and they couldnt tear me away from it.
I never saw water so angry and the huge chunks of ice crashing into each other was class
The mist or stoor as we would say here was the only thing that was cold we were in short sleeves now you know how we got so wet!!!
we parked and they pushed the wheelchair maybe a mile to the foot of the glacier it was worth it,(for me anyway) we were all snapping away like mad
it was still raining slightly but it didnt matter tho on the way back to the car the skies opened and I thought I would have been bounced out of the wheelchair with them running and laughing
We had a great time.
After lunch we headed off again we branched off to see a lake but when we got to the car park the rain wasnt taking time to come down
And the path to the lake was grassy too hard to push
we got our to stretch our legs anyway and we went to the toilet that was there and n ever did I see a toilet like it very eco friendly and that day with the rain and wind
When you sat down the wind coming up meant you spent as short a time as possible sitting!!! I decided I would use the toilet in the camper after that !!!
Must go sort some more pics good night

Oh Shi, I had a great laugh. I hope you post some photos, and more stories. I'll be looking forward to them Wish I could have seen youin the dunny. Was it a long drop? (hole in the ground with a seat over it) and STINKY

Shi, that was absolutely hilarious. What a shame you had all that rain, but it did give you all a lot of laughs.

I'm looking forward to the next instalment!!