After a great few days in Hong Kong, we finally touched down in Auckland airport and a couple of hours later, we were dozing in the family van as Dad drove us all down to the orchard. The weather was glorious and we looked forward to a decent summer after a long and rather arduous year of winters (for me at least).

But two days later, the skies opened and it rained steadily for 7 days!

Fortunately the rain finally abated and the blue skies returned as they always do. The rain had nourished a dry and slightly arid landscape and suddenly there was a real growth spurt around the place.

Time to get mowing!

Well - the day has finally arrived.

After 20 years in the UK, it's time to return to New Zealand - at least for awhile - in order to spend some time with the family. More time than can be spent in one of my bi-annual 6-week visits.

This has of course meant that we have had to pack up and leave the house we have lived in for 13 years, and boy was that an exercise and a half. The amount of useless crap that one accumulates over that amount of time is quite gobsmacking. I took over 30 carloads of junk to the dump and we also managed to fully fill an 8-yard skip! That's not counting the hefty piles of stuff we also managed to unload in charity shops and on unsuspecting friends!

Once the packing was complete, then came the cleaning and by the time we handed the keys back to the landlord, our hands were cracked and bleeding. The unusual cold snap dropped enough snow and ice to hamper a few last minute plans, but fortunately, did not affect our flight out of Heathrow. Andy very kindly drove us up to the airport, where we rendezvoused with Tosh for a couple of farewell drinks and a few laughs. It was a somewhat tearful farewell for us all as we said our final goodbyes for a fair while and headed through the departures lounge.

We had a couple of "Oh Shit!" moments when the flight was delayed, thanks to the BAA muppets sending it to the wrong gate and then a power cut in the air traffic control tower, which plunged it into darkness for 45 minutes or more, but some 2 hours after our scheduled take-off time, we finally got airborne.

See ya Blighty - we'll miss ya

Hong Kong, here we come!