We flew to the Gold Coast, Australia on 4th November, arriving 5th where Barb (Dave's sister) and Mal picked us up and had two nights with them in Brisbane before flying on to Auckland on 7th November, arriving early evening.

Dave's mother was in hospital with a broken upper arm when we arrived home but then complications set in and sadly she passed away on the morning of 20th November. We had Hilda's funeral on Wednesday afternoon of 24th, and the rest of the family flew in from Australia the night before and Leith on the day of the funeral. All the grandchildren were there except for Jenny's Richard who is in England. She had a lovely service and Rachel spoke on behalf of all the grandchildren which was nice. Dave and I were at the funeral in mostly borrowed clothes because as we had been back packing around China and we had no good clothes with us - they were all down in Tauranga. It was just so lucky that we were home.

I flew to Christchurch for a week to stay with Cameron and Melissa on 10th so that I could see our new grand daughter, Amelie Jane and then flew back to Auckland on the night of 18th.

We stayed up in Auckland until the following Monday as Rachel and Co stayed on up until the Saturday and also to clear out Dave's mother's unit at the Retirement Village. Leith flew out at 6.30am on the Monday.

From Auckland we headed on down to Tauranga to spend time with my mother, who three days before was driving in her retirement village, put her foot on the accelerator instead of the brake and smashed up three other cars beside her own!! She was a bit battle scarred and in a bit of pain but by the time we got there was not looking too bad.

We left Mum's on Thursday (9th), picking up our pop top caravan, which we bought when home in May and spent the night with my brother Jeff and Marie and then went on down to Wellington to Rachel and Sean's the next day.

Dave crossed over to Picton on 12th Dec. on the 8.25am ferry and had a few days with Cameron and Melissa awaiting the arrival of Leith and Hannah on 16th and the three of them went down to walk the Milford track, starting on 19th. Dave will have to do a blog on the Milford track experience as they had quite an experience and were helicoptered out twice as the weather was appalling.

I spent the next ten days with Rachel, Sean & family and Mum flew down to Wellington on 21st December to join us and then we all crossed over to Picton on the morning of 22nd December. Mum and I picked up a rental car as there was not enough room in the car for six of us with Brodin & Daisy in car seats and we got to Nelson mid afternoon where Rachel & Sean had rented a Transpower house in Stoke, Nelson for 11 days. This house proved ideal with three double bedrooms, good lounge, a sunroom and a big section for the kids. Once Dave arrived he and I slept in our caravan.

Dave, Leith & Hannah arrived back in Nelson on the morning of the 24th and Hannah flew to Gisborne that afternoon to join her family. Mum and I went to the midnight service on Christmas Eve in the Nelson Cathedral and it was a lovely service.

Christmas day was a big day with Cameron, Melissa and their three joining us all along with Melissa's parents and Sean's mother and husband who live in Richmond. It was 6 years since all our family had been together for Christmas and at that time we had no grandchildren and now we have five! We had all the trimmings for Xmas with turkey, ham, Xmas pudding, Xmas mince pies and cake, the latter three I had made beforehand at Rachel's. The rest of the time in Nelson was spent doing various things around the area and spending time with Cameron and Melissa at the Rowling's (Melissa's parents) home and beach bach at Breaker Bay.

Mum flew back to Tauranga on 28th and Leith to Melbourne the same day but all their flights were delayed as the previous night we had a weather bomb go through and Wellington Airport was closed to all flights for several hours. However they both made their connecting flights okay.

Rachel and co crossed back to Wellington on 2nd January and we were all cleared out and gone from the house by 9am and we headed off to a Council campsite at Kina Beach between Motueka and Mapua where we spent three nights and on the night of my birthday - 4th we went to the Boat Shed for dinner along with Cameron & family and Melissa's parents.

We left Kina Beach on 5th and headed on down to Cameron's stopping off at a DOC site for the night just south of Springs Junction. We had a week down with Cameron with Dave helping with picking and planting vegetables and I helped out at 3 Farmers Markets on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday which I enjoyed but by the Sunday night I was pretty weary.

We spent a night at Spring Creek on our way north before crossing over on the ferry on 13th January, spent two nights with Rachel and a night with my brother, a night in Rotorua with friends and then on to Tauranga on 17th which was my mother's 85th birthday. My sister Wendy came over for the day and later in the afternoon my niece Tiffany and her partner from Melbourne came to see Mum which was a nice surprise for her.

The next day Wendy and I took Mum over to Rotorua as she had a specialist appointment. We spent another nine days with Mum who was not particularly well, but we all felt was nothing too serious. We had a few days in Hamilton and Te Kauwhata where we caught up with a few friends as well as did some work on our rental property in Hamilton.

We spent the night of 3rd February in Auckland and flew to Melbourne on 4th February to spend four nights with Leith and Hannah. Our flight to Melbourne was not without its problems - twice the plane turned around and headed back to Auckland off the East Coast of Australia to delay landing in Melbourne as they were having a storm. Then we were a few hundred metres off the ground to land when the plane took off back into the air again to abort the landing. Finally landed and then had to wait awhile before we could disembark as the baggage handlers are not allowed to work during a thunderstorm. Then the fun began - we had got off the plane at 10.30pm (Australian time) and we finally got our luggage at 1am!! In the meantime Leith and Hannah were driving round and round the airport waiting. If they had parked it would have cost them a fortune. There was only one baggage handling crew on and about 6 planes came in at much the same time as us and every time a storm passed through they stopped working and at one time they even went over to the domestic terminal. All in all a very frustrating night. However customs just sent us straight through which was a blessing.

Saturday afternoon I met up with an old primary school friend, Adrienne Bouzaid whom we had not seen for several years and on the Sunday we went down to the Mornington Peninsula and did some beer tasting at a couple of Micro breweries and were joined at lunchtime at one of them by niece Tiffany and partner Cam.

On the Monday Dave had a hearing appointment at Australia Hears as he lost one of his hearing aids down in Milford. The upshot was we have bought two new hearing aids for him at a third of the price we would have to pay in New Zealand and he is hearing so much better. He has now lost 50% of his hearing and when he first got hearing aids 5 years ago he had lost 40%.

We flew to Kuala Lumpur on 8th, had a 2 hour wait before catching a flight to Kota Kinabalu where we spent the night and then caught a mini bus from there to Kudat to rejoin “Pied A Mer” on the hardstand.