Australia

As many of you have noticed, our blog updates have been getting less frequent. We are missing our friends and family a lot now that its two months since we left but our efforts to keep up to date by blogging are not easy. We are not at the volunteer place in India so don't have regular access to internet & have to rely on getting this at cafes and hotels which is often slow, collapses or just very expensive and results in numerous public squabblings about who should get priority access!! We also have to fit sitting at internet cafes/hotel lounges around sightseeing. And this has just got more and more amazing.

We just cannot update photos of the last few days of our time in INdia at the Taj and with friends in Delhi (we have tried 3 tiimes wasting several hours of Aliya's time each time with no success). So you will just have to believe us when we say we have amazing photos of us at the Taj and Agra!

As for Australia, our three weeks there has gone by in a flash. We managed to reconnect with the Australian side of the clan and want to say a big thank you to Lee and Sally and their children and grandchildren and to Oliver for hosting numerous dinners and parties and taking time out from their busy lives to chat and explain the many delights of Sydney. We barely touched the surface as far as enjoying all that Sydney has to offer - ythough managed to fit in many lovley beaches, including Bondi as well as treks in the Blue Mountains, opera, a cruise, art galleries, shopping, some legal work before finishing off our trip by visiting Uluru (previuosly called Ayers Rock) and Katajuta. It was very spiritual to see these prehistoric places at sunrise and sunset and hear the various aboriginal stories of their creation.

We will definitely come back for more desert walks.And also to get Safi and Rafi together with their cousins 2nd removed (not sure if this the right relationship) as they loved meeting, Josh, Stephany, Olivia, Jeremy and little Ella. Safi treasures her pack of Pokemon cards that Josh gave her and we have all learnt how to play them as she has no friends of her age. She is really missing school and her friends too.

Now we are in NZ in the motorhome. it is 6.6 x3metres. we have to be extraordinarily tidy and quite quiet which is a big challenge for us. Mum is trying her best to make nice food using less than 3 pans and only as many ingrediants as can fit into the tiny fridge/pantry. We celebrated her xx birthday by sleeping in the van parked away from it all at Mount Sunday which is where they filmed the Edoras bit of the Lord of the Rings. very remote and desolate, very beautiful and cold!

we have treated ourselves to a hotel room for the night though Mike and Isaac think this is for wimps and have decided to still sleep in the campervan in protest! we will post pictures again, ICT skills willing and keep in touch with what we are doing more often.

lots of love.