London

We were very excited to land in London. London marks the start of an exciting venture for us. We hope to find a flat to live in and jobs while we are in London! Luckily we have wonderful friends in London who are letting us stay with them until we get settled. But here are a few snaps of our first week ...

On our first weekend in London we went to the London 7s to watch New Zealand play. At the 7s everybody dresses up. Guess what we went as? 

Minions! 

Some sights in London ... 

Tower Bridge

Buckingham Palace 

Weinsmister Abby (where Wills and Kate got married!) 

We have really enjoyed our first week in London. Miss Grant even managed to get some work and has done a few days supply teaching in London schools. It was really fun to be back in the classroom again. But this week we are off to ... Spain! To meet up with Miss Grants cousin. Shaun is excited about more travelling to another country. Stay tuned for photos! 

Shaun 🐑 

Turkey

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a long time! Things suddenly got very busy after arriving in London. 

Here are some photos from Shaun's tour around Turkey ...

These photos are of us at Pergamum. Pergamum is an old Greek city that the Romans took over. The ruins that are still there are fascinating! It is amazing to think how they built these cities all those years ago.

These photos were taken at Ephesus. More amazing ruins ...

 

This building was once a library ... 

And this is the biggest amputheatre in the ancient world ... 

After all those ruins it was time for some Turkish pancakes called gozleme!! Yum!! 

This is a Lady making a Turkish rug. In turkey they have beautiful rugs everywhere that are hand made by the local women. 

Pamukkale terraces. These terraces were formed by deposits of calcium from the ground. 

These were hot pools that you could paddle or swim in. (Although we didn't think they were that hot!)

We then moved on to Olympus, where we got to stay in these cool tree huts! 

In Olympus we spent the day kayaking and Matt even went cliff jumping! 

But our favorite thing in turkey was when we got to go hot air ballooning in Cappadocia! Check these photos out! We had an amazing morning watching the sun rise with 110 other balloons in the sky ... 

I wish I could put them all up!! 

This is the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

It was absolutely beautiful! Inside you had to make sure your head, shoulders and knees were covered. 

Blue Mosque at night. 

This is a traditional Turkish breakfast with Turkish tea - Shaun is missing his marmite on toast!! 

We had an awesome time in Turkey! It was a very cool country with lots of history to learn about and beautiful sites to see. But after 15 days exploring Turkey it was time to pack up and fly to London!!

Shaun 🐑

Gallipoli

Anzac Day at Gallipoli was an amazing experience to be part of!  

Our tour started when we arrived at Anzac Cove at 6pm the night before ANZAC day. We all piled into Anzac Cove with 4400 others and slept the night on the cove the Anzac soldiers arrived on. Over night they played lots of documentaries and speeches about the ANZACs, and those that could got a little sleep. 

At 5.30 Anzac morning we were woken for the dawn Ceremony. 

We then walked 6.3 km to Chunuk Bair - which is where the NZ memorial is. On the way we past many trenches and grave sites that have been preserved to remember the soldiers that died in the war. 

Around lunch time we were let into Chunuk Bair where we watched the NZ ceremony. 

We were very thankful to be in Gallipoli for ANZAC day - it was very special to be part of the ceremonies and made us very proud to be New Zealanders!! 

Sun setting at Anzac Cove the night before Anzac Day. 

Wearing our new Anzac hoodies. That say 1915 - lest we forget. 

Proud to be from New Zealand. 

Looking along Anzac cove. 

Kiwi and Shaun watching documentaries about Anzac Day. 

Dawn service at Gallipoli. 

New Zealand memorial site at Chunuk Bair.

The Turkish and New Zealand flags at Chunuk Bair. 

Shaun watching the service. 

Govener General laying a wreath on behalf of all New Zealanders. 

Shaun and Kiwi were famous!! Lots of people wanted to take photos of them!! 

Kiwi, Matt and Shaun down one of the trenches. 

Ko Samoi

Sorry Shaun hasn't updated his blog in a while. 

We had a fantastic time in Ko Samoi. We stayed at a resort on the beach. We had 2 pools at our resort and our room was the closest one to the beach! 

This is the resturant at the beach that we ate at. It was about 10m from our room! 

This pool was just outside our room. 

Shaun had a nice time in Ko Samoi relaxing at the beach/pool and shopping. He also met lots of new people and had lots of late nights staying up playing card games.  (But it was okay because he could sleep beside the pool the next day!) 

On the 14th April Shaun went to a party on an island called koh pha Ngan. Each month they have a big party at this island to celebrate the full moon. It was lots of fun with people dancing to different DJs on the beach. There was also lots of performers who did acts with fire. It was amazing to watch!! 

While we were in Ko Samoi it was also 'Songkron.' This is when Buddhist people celebrate their new year. They celebrate their new year with a massive water fight. Wow! It was crazy - the streets were just filled with people holding water guns and buckets. You couldn't walk down the street without being completely drenched in water. We bought our own water guns and got amongst the action! 

Streets filled with people holding water guns! 

Chelsea has her water gun ready in the pool incase anyone tries to shoot her! 

This photo was taken of Miss Grant just after a child drenched her with a bucket of water. 

After 5 days at Ko samoi Shaun, Kirsty, Chelsea and Holly flew back to Bangkok. We had one night in Bangkok altogether before Chelsea and Kirsty flew back to Australia and New Zealand. Shaun had the most amazing time travelling with these girls and was so sad to say goodbye. He hopes to travel with them again one day!! 

The same day that Chelsea and Kirsty left, Shaun's new friend Matt arrived. We have 2 more nights in Bangkok with Matt before leaving on our next journey! 

Dubai ... Turkey ... London ... Here we come!!