We had another trip back to NZ in May, leaving Miri on 22nd May and flying to Auckland with Royal Brunei Airlines which meant getting to BSB - the capital of Brunei. As we were not flying out until 9pm we had plenty of time to get there. We were picked up by taxi at 8am and just before he arrived the heavens opened with torrential rain which just did not stop. The taxi took us to the local bus station where we waited for an hour under an eve until the bus came. From Miri we went several kilometres to the border where we had to do immigration, then carried on another km to do immigration for Brunei. There the poor bus driver had to get out of the bus four times to shift cones in the pouring rain. Once through immigration, our luggage was roughly checked and then we got on a Brunei bus which took us to Kuala Belait, where we changed buses again for one going to Seria. It was very interesting seeing all the oil wells with the pumps working along the side of the road. At Seria we changed buses once again for a bus to take us to BSB where we finally arrived at about 1.30pm. Left our luggage at a travel agent's place that we knew (Alan Riches) and went for a late lunch and a look around the shops but had to be back before 4.30pm to pick up our luggage. After picking up our luggage we then caught another bus out to the airport. Had a few hours to kill there but had dinner there (didn't realise we would still get dinner on the plane) and generally filled in time like most people do at airports - we are getting pretty used to doing that!!
Had a good flight to Auckland where we arrived at 9.45am on Sunday 23rd May and were met by Jenny (Dave's sister) and Bill who then took us out to Dave's mothers where we all had lunch and we stayed the night with her and to get our car which we have kept in her garage at the retirement village.
The next day we headed to Tauranga via my sister Wendy's to pick up some things out of our storage container and then on to my Mum's where we stayed the night. Had an early lunch at Mum's and then had arranged to meet a guy with the pop top caravan we had bought a few weeks earlier on Trade Me in Rotorua. We then headed off down to Wellington, stopping off at my brother Jeff's for the night en route. Had one night with Rachel, Sean and co and the next morning caught a flight to Christchurch to spend a week with Cameron, Melissa, Scarlett and Flynn. Had a pleasant surprise when we got home to hear that Cameron & Melissa are expecting their third child, due beginning of October. For the first few days we were with them Melissa's parents were also down from Motueka and so we were all there to celebrate Flynn's second birthday which was held at Chipmunks in Christchurch along with a few of their friends as well. Was a bit of a shock for the first few days we were there as the temperature was 4 C - rather chilly to say the least. Dave and I helped Cameron at the Lyttleton Farmers Market in the freezing cold but was enjoyable - we enjoy helping at the markets. As always Dave is always kept pretty busy with weeding, planting etc. which is a continual process for them.
The following Thursday we flew back to Wellington to spend just over a week with Rachel, Sean, Brodin and Daisy. While there Brodin turned five and Rachel and I had a lot of fun icing a pirate ship cake for his pirate party that he had. Also went to Brodin's birthday party at kindy. Brodin actually didn't start school until the day after his birthday and we headed north again the day after he started school.
It was lovely to see the grandchildren again and they did make us feel so special, especially now that they are all a bit older and remember us now and both the 2 year olds - Daisy and Flynn are talking so well.
We were at Rachel's for Queen's birthday weekend and they had some of Sean's family staying as well so we slept out in our little pop top caravan and were very comfortable. Had a heater to keep us warm in the cold weather so wasn't a problem.
Did the trip back to Tauranga from Wellington in one day, stopping off at Jeff & Marie's for lunch. Not too keen on doing that trip all in one day again.
Had a few days with my Mum and while we were there Cameron, Melissa and family stayed a night as they had a 10 day trip up in the north island And had hired a big 6 berth campervan so they spent the night at Mum's in that. They also visited Dave's mother as they had not seen either of the grandmothers since Scarlett was a baby and she will be four in September. While at Mum's had a couple of friends come and see us plus we had a few business things to sort out while in Tauranga.
We then headed to Auckland for two nights but as Dave's mother is quite frail decided we would be just best to visit her as it is not so tiring for her so spent the Thursday night with our friends Grant & Lenore, Friday was spent getting boat parts to take back and then we spent the night with yachting friends Mary & Tony who have now bought a house in Point Chevalier. Saturday night we went to Ohinewai for our share group meeting and spent the night with Jan & John and headed off Sunday morning to spend a bit of time with Dave's mother and then back to Grant & Lenore's in the afternoon to put the car and caravan under cover on a bit of land they have not far from where they live. Had dinner with them that night and they took us to the airport and we flew out at 1.30am on 22nd June to Brunei.
Arrived in Brunei at 8.30am Monday 22nd and did the same procedure in reverse back to Miri, except we got a taxi ride along with several others from Sarawak Immigration to the marina, getting back there at about 5pm felling very weary indeed. NZ friends, Jim and Jenny Jobbins on Almathea had us for dinner that night which was lovely as we certainly had no food on board.