Still away

I know many of you already read my travel page but I like to update here too.  The travel page is read by my father-in-law and he just loves it.  Every single time we talk to him he thanks me for the blog and says he loves what we are doing and how much he would have loved that himself.  

I basically keep the "Big Tess" travel blog for my own records as well.  I can look at the labels down the sidebar and quickly check when we were somewhere etc because believe me, you can forget! We go to so many places that it can get confusing.  

This trip has been very random and we had no idea where we were going or for how long.  After being restricted at home with medical appointments and minding the boys this was our first opportunity to be away for an extended time.  We could have gone anywhere really but have enjoyed exploring the places we have been to.  The weather plays a large part and places we intended to stay or visit often don't work out.

Other stuff... my daughter and her best friend are off on their "80s" theme cruise next week and I don't think she could be more excited if she tried.  Her friend is in a very difficult relationship (basically she hates the guy) but she has to stay due to having two children and one is severely autistic.  She has to rely on the partner for support in that so 'plays the game' of happy families for now.  It really is heart breaking because he really can be a c*nt and I don't say that lightly.  

For her, getting away from home (she lives in a different region of NZ) and escaping on this cruise with my daughter is heaven.  I can only hope that in time she will have the courage and means to leave her toxic relationship.  In the meantime my daughter supports her totally and their friendship is one of those special long standing ones—they have been friends now for over 25 years.

Today the sun is shining and the weather forecast is for at least two days of this brilliant weather so I'll leave this here and head off to a beach somewhere!

~ Lynda

I really must get more photos of me...

Poet's Bridge, Pukekura Park, New Plymouth.  Always gorgeous.

Wash day at the camp, I love to get clothes dry in the sun even though there are always dryers at camps.