Winter continues in Tauranga as the UK enjoy a summer heatwave.

29th June.

Simon, Tamara and the girls have just made it to England 62 and 1/2 hours after leaving Australia. Connecting flight from Hong Kong cancelled after Pilot was taken ill. After hours in endless queues, new flights and a hotel were arranged. Flight to Munich.... more cancellations and another hotel brief stop then final leg to Heathrow and to Richard and Rebecca in Chichester. 

The poor Flinders family must be cream crackered. The only good thing is that they are still young enough to recover!!!! Simon made it to Lords on Saturday to watch the Aussies beat New Zealand.

Tuesday 2nd July. Getting back into a routine and enjoying all the sport. Great win by the Cricket boys and the Girls football. Critical next games for both over next two days. Booked up again for the Gym and had first session today. Booked through until October when we return to Sydney for a couple of weeks.

Friday 5th July. Another rainy day so opted for the Cinema. Went to see Yesterday which was written and produced by Richard Curtis and had a real, feel good vibe about it. Lots of Beatles songs to take you back in time and Danny Boyles artistic influence on the screenplay............ loved it........ also saw it at the new Cinema at The Crossing, which is a major shopping area, close to us. Easy parking........ great way to spend a dull afternoon.

More photos from the Flinders. Firstly the house I was born in, Althorpe Street, Bedford,  .... secondly the house Jill and Lynn lived in when they were at Bedford PE college and then John Bunyan, Bedford's famous resident.

Sunday 7th July. Planned an early start as we were going to Facetime Flo for her party but there is no Wifi at the Hockey Club so all plans had to be shelved. Sorry we missed you.

 Disappointing result with the footy girls and a shock result re the Aussies!!!! Going to lunch tomorrow with Dave and Vrons and Sue and Rick, who have a follow up hospital appointment in the afternoon.

Get regular WhatsApp news from the Flinders family who are now in Poland.  They seem to be having a blast with their friends. Next stop London for four days and then across to French France for a week.

Theresa May leaving Downing Street.

Wimbledon is on every day with English commentators ..... Boris, Tim and  McEnroe. The only difference is that we are half a day behind and know some of the results. The other strange thing  about living here is that on these clear blue sky days, there are no jet vapour trails in the sky because nothing flies over New Zealand. Small planes fly internally but no big carriers over the Bay of Plenty. My Plane finder app is redundant!!! There are no cruise ships either during the winter months so my Shipfinder app is unused too! Having lived so long in the South East where we had scores of planes fly over us every day. .........just feels a bit weird to always see a pristine blue sky with no trails.

Monday 8th July. Met with D,V, R and S for lunch at the Orchard Bar and Grill.  Very nice food and occasion. Sue text after their hospital appointment and Rick is to have tablets as his chemo follow up so that all sounds much more manageable than having to trek up to Tauranga every week............... still if its done the job, well worth it.

First cricket semi final tonight between India and New Zealand. It starts at 9.00pm NZ time so we get to see the first twenty overs then watch highlights tomorrow.  Plus Wimbledon, going to the Gym,  our landlords calling in.............. life is so busy!!!!!

Thursday 11 th July . Wow Kiwi's. What a great win over India. Next up............ us tonight against the old enemy! OMG what a match against the Aussies. NZ v Eng in the final....... we will have to do an all nighter!

Eileen  and Dave sent this picture of the family sending her Mum and Dad and Frances' ashes off to sea in Sand Spheres! What a lovely idea and one those who live by the sea might want to bear in mind. Eileen's brother is the spit of her Dad!

16th July. The cricket has left me utterly speechless for two days. First the amazing win v the Aussies and then the final against New Zealand. What incredible drama and climax to a great tournament. We of course were wholly backing our English boys.... despite Barbs thinking otherwise.....Der! We only live in NZ and will only support them when playing other teams EXCEPT when they play against England, GB etc.  Ben Stokes was unbelievable to chase down those last runs. We are so pleased for everyone but do feel sorry for the NZ boys who fought to the end. It will be a long flight home.

Still getting daily news from the Flinders family. It will be amazing for the girls to see history at first hand. They went to the Bayeux Tapestry and the War Museum where most of the people buried were not even thirty.  

On an upbeat note, they seem to have been in foodie heaven and especially now in French France. 

All looks stonkingly gorgeous and typically French. What an experience for everyone but especially the girls. We had our own gorgeous supper thanks to Sue and Rick, fishing from their Kayaks and bringing us their own line caught, smoked fish which was absolutely fabulous. I made fish pie and Lynn made fish cakes. Thanks Sue and Rick!

Back to Pyes Pa. Still cannot get used to this being winter with Roses and Daffodils flowering at the same time plus Camellia's in the hedge row at the side of the house. Out the front the Cyclamen are still flowering........ very confusing. Now the Rhododendron is flowering!!!! Must be the start of Spring.

Last day in France for the Flinders family. Seems like they walked most of Paris and ate L'Escargots for dinner!!!!! Well done to you all. More iconic buildings.......

Next stop for them is Port Elizabeth, South Africa. I remember it well from the tour we did in 1993, the year before Nelson Mandela came to power. Port Elizabeth was our second international match after Cape Town.  The only thing more memorable than the match........ which we lost, were the monkeys in the hotel car park running a mok! Awesome trip though...... many memories  of that whole trip still remain with me.

17th July.  Gym again and then stopped for this photo. Pass this on the way to the Gym and always reminds me of Shell. 

Shell lives in Burnt Oak Cottage outside  Ashford. 

July 20th. The most exciting thing that has happened for a week is that I have followed a You tube video and changed the battery on our Dyson cordless hoover. After weeks of it playing up and not functioning properly, my online investigations led me to  the conclusion that the battery had not enjoyed its ten weeks at sea and was unable to hold its charge. A new battery arrived today and after watching the You tube video twice........ it is all fixed! I told you it was exciting news!

The Flinders are on their last leg of their trip in South Africa, staying with friends in PE and then Durban before flying home. Sport on TV has been excellent and we have enjoyed some of the Netball, Open Golf and Rugby.  We are booked to play golf in Mount Maunganui tomorrow as the weather has picked up and produced several sunny days. 

Golf was excellent as was the weather. We have decided to play golf on good weather days and get back into playing a reasonable game before joining Mount Maunganui Golf Club when we return from Sydney in October.

July 24th. More excitement at Kereru Place when my making of a cottage pie with the leftover Roast Lamb was rudely interrupted by Lynn, clutching her little finger, after an incident with a rose bush!!!! Suffice to say, as we put plasters on, this seemed like it required some professional intervention. I had seen an Accident Centre advertised on the front of our free newspaper that is a walk in for everything. The cottage pie was put on hold so we set off to get the little pinky looked at and Tetanus if required. After registering and paying the accident rate, $30.00, Lynn was seen by a nurse and then a doctor. One Tetanus jab and four stitches later we were on our way home.

 Great service.... have to return for re-dressing and check on Friday then one week on, stitches removed.  Lynn has pruned her last rose!!!!! We will leave it to our landlords in the future.  

More bad flying luck for the Flinders family. Direct flight from PE to Durban cancelled so had to fly via Joburg! Arrived half a day late....... oh dear. Let's hope their return flights to Aussie go without a hitch.

Friday 26th. A rainy day forecast so decided to see The Lion King Disney film. It was so realistic and  we could not work out how it had been done. All the movements of the animals we have seen at first hand were so accurate. Amazing! 

The Flinders family are back home safe in Sydney. Great to have shared some of their  European and African adventures. It will be good to catch up with them in October and get some of the stories behind the photos.  Talking of catch-up, we have spent the weekend  having coffee catch-up with Dave and Vrons. Then at night WhatsApping folks back home. Caught up with  Marshie, Barbs, Wendy Baker and Patsy (who is coming out for Christmas). E mailed cousin Jacqui, Janice and Karen Richards with exchange of news. A friend from work days is touring New Zealand early August so will be calling in for breakfast on the way to Hobbiton. Received e mails from Liz Cobb and Barbs re Cheryl Denne's funeral, which keeps us in touch. Welcome e mails too from Janet Chapman and Trevor after we spent four days watching son Roger Chapman at the Open. Congrats to him, coming in the top ten places. Sadly won by the broom handled German putter....... it surely cannot be legal!!!! We therefore feel that despite being 12,000 miles away, keeping in touch through e mails, WhatsApp chats and texts makes us feel much closer to home than the mileage, so thanks to you all for that.

That concludes this Blog.  Next installment will be just before we go to Sydney in October, which coincidentally will be 12 months since we left English soil. Wow, what a year!