Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

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Best of New Zealand

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Kia Ora, Hello again, unfortunately now back home in what is a sunny Stafford, the final few days of the New Zealand trip were spent in the beautiful Bay of Islands,from the 19th - 22nd,  although the weather was not the best, torrential rain and gale force winds .... we did manage to enjoy it. After leaving Auckland we crossed the harbour bridge, and made our way to the Kauri Museum, at Matakohe. Here we had time to experience this fantastic museum, and learn all about the Kauri tree and its uses. The afternoon drive was through a native forest, where we stopped to view the oldest largest of the Kauri trees, Tane Mahuta (the big tree), it is said to be over 2,500 years old, and stands tall in the forest (see pics below). Later we travelled through to our destination of Paihia, in the Bay of Islands, when we arrived we met with Lena, our guide from Culture North, she took us on a short orientation tour ending at the Waitangi Treaty Ground, where we had a vi...
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We are now back in the UK at least the sun is shining, nearly as warm as it was when we left LA. The last day (Wednesday) seen us heading to Hollywood, most of the group went off with Redline Walking Tours for an insight into the Hollywood "life", after lunch we travelled through Sunset Strip and Beverley Hills before arriving at the airport for the flight to London with Virgin. Alas it was time to say our farewells and hopefully take home some great memories of the 2, 493 miles that we travelled since arriving in LA on the 9th June, just a quick recap, San Diego and its old town, Phoenix and its heat, Sedona with its beautiful red stone rock formations, to the Grand Canyon and the memorable flight, to the glitz and glamour that is Las Vegas, through the desert to Calico the old silver mine town, and not forgetting the afternoon stop in Tehachapi, for that wonderful cream pie !!! next it was off to Yosemite to walk among those old sequoia, and marvel at the scenery and of cou...
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