October – November – December – 2024

By the time we got back from Las Vegas it was almost mid October

We weren’t home that long and we decided to take a trip to Prince George to visit Dean and Judy and do some face to face planning for our early in 2025 adventure to New Zealand and Australia
It was great to go spend a couple days with Dean and Judy, they are such great hosts

In late October we really started getting serious about planning for NZ and AUS
2025 calendars were printed out and dates and locations and routes started hitting the planning papers
There is so much to see and so much to do in both Countries, thank Heavens Brenda is so good at detail stuff like this, we are going to be busy

We had Kevin come for a visit for a couple days in October, he was here for his high school reunion

November arrived and the planning is going crazy
A rough agenda was drawn up We leave Kamloops for Vancouver on January 18th, fly to Auckland NZ on Jan 20th We arrive into Auckland on January 22nd and pick up our Campervan on January 24th
Dean and Judy are heading north and we are headed South and East
We meet up in Rotorua a few days later and then travel together until we take the ferry to the South island where we go our separate ways for about a week and we finally meet in Christchurch to drop off the Campervans
From Christchurch we fly to Melbourne AUS after a couple days in Melbourne we take the southern coastal route to Adelaide for a few days
After Adelaide we fly to Sydney for a week and Dean and Judy are headed North to Brisbane
After a week in Sydney seeing the sights we fly to Brisbane and drive north to Coolum for a week
Then it’s back to Auckland and the long flight home to Vancouver and eventually Kamloops?
This is a real “big picture” condensed trip itinerary there is a ton of stuff we are going to be doing

December arrived and life is somewhat back to normal with dancing, music, painting, friends, etc etc and of course Christmas planning

Just before Christmas we had an evening with 3 other families on the street It’s was called a Snow Ball Event where you start at one house with a drink and an appy then after an hour you move to the next home and every hour you move until you are at the last house
What a great way to connect with your neighbours and enjoy the Christmas Season

Then between Christmas and New Years we had an evening Music Jam Session at Tom and Paulette’s There was 3 guitars, 2 Fiddlers, 2 Ukuleles, a Banjo, an Upright Bass and a Drummer
What an evening, the music was fantastic, the spouses and guests sang along to the tunes, the buffet food and goodies at the break were tasty it was a very memorable night
A West Coast Kitchen Party

We stayed home this year for Christmas
Dean and Judy came down from Prince George and stayed with Sabrina, Mike and the grandkids
They very kindly invited us over for Christmas dinner

Final Note from 2024
Our total focus has been on trip planning for New Zealand and Australia
If we have seemed distant it’s because we are planning this once in a lifetime trip, thanks for your understanding

Happy New Year
Please stop back for a visit to this site we hope to keep it up to date as we travel around NZ and AUS in January – February – March 2025