Little Lists of Things.

Well, we arrived in Samoa (the day after we left...) and it is absolutely beautiful here. It really is just like a postcard, brilliant blue sky, turquoise waters and golden beaches. All the Samoans are very friendly, and everywhere you go you'll get a big smile and a "Talofa!" which means hello.

Firstly, can we all just say a big happy birthday to Isaac, teenager at last. Now he has officially entered teenagedom, Isaac and I have decided we are going to take over the universe with our wise teenage wisdom and the new Vans I bought him for his birthday (I am sick to death of socks with crocs. AGHHH!)

As our four month travelling experience now begins to draw to its close, we have all been reminiscing over our favourite bits, worst bits, places we'd go again, what we've learnt, etcetc. So here are our little lists of things from the holiday.

The Yules' Top 10 Experiences (in no particular order & there are many, many other experiences that we wanted to put on here, but 10 is a really nice rounded number, so we had to edit our long, long list)

1. Teaching in Udaipur
2. Taj Mahal / Fatephur Sikri visit
3. Lake Palace Lunch
4. Being with the Frankels in Oz, and the family BBQs
5. Whale Beach
6. Mum's Birthday in the wilderness, with no human contact
7. Doubtful Sound overnight cruise
8. Skydiving at Lake Wanaka
9. Mount Doom Walk, and the staying at the fancy hotel afterwards as a treat!
10. Abel Tasman walk/kayaking experience

Least Favourite Experiences

1. Safiya loosing her treasured pink hat, because Rafi threw it into the waterfall
2. Aliya's fainting fiascoes
3. All the homesickness
4. Isaac's having to do all his homework
5. Sand flies/other biting/buzzing/irritating insects all over the world!
6. Delhi belly!
7. The masses of luggage that had to be stored very compactly in the camper van... but we managed it!

What Isaac Got For His Birthday!

1. A slingshot
2. A knife (New Zealand hand made)
3. Vans (the cool pair of shoes)
4. Mini Vans (exactly the same but in Rafi's size, so they can look like matching brothers)
5. Crocs (because he lost his old pair and Dad was sick of him borrowing his)
6. Two t-shirts- one saying "DEATH. Our nation's number one killer"
7. Badges, one saying "I am NOT normal" and another one saying "Don't be so humble, you're not that great!"
8. A big sloppy kiss from Rafi

What We Have All Learnt Over The Holiday

1. Tolerance, especially of each other and our annoying habits, that we've all come to put up with, thanks to the camper van experience
2. Appreciating things more, especially the little things, and the things we normally take for granted.
3. Looking after our possessions (and not trusting Rafi with things that can a) melt, b) break, c) be thrown into waterfalls or d) be thrown at someone)
4. How hard it is to upload photos onto the blog!!
5. How much we miss and love our family and friends when we aren't with them/in regular contact with them!
6. To travel lightly, and not to buy too many gifts /clothes along the way!

So there are a few of the lists we have been comprising about our entire travelling experience. Here in Samoa we are relaxing and going over all that we have done and learnt over these past four months, and then making sure we have them stored in our memories. We are also trying to print photos and then make photo albums, which we think is a much nicer way of viewing photos than huddled round a computer screen! For the time being, for those of you who don't have facebook and can't see the photos from NZ that are currently on there, I have figured out a way to email them round (finally!) and I will pass the link onto mum who can send it to everyone whose emails we have.

I don't know what is going to happen to the blog once we stop wandering the globe, and we stop being the Wandering Yules...