The Planning..

10th January 2017 - So, it's really happening. After a last minute panic to get a booking made by 6pm on 31st December 2016 to ensure the 2016 price was fixed, which included sorting out insurances, our 3 month holiday taking in 7 different countries is starting on 28th February and returning on 31st May.

Arriving in Bangkok on 1st March for 5 nights before going on to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia for a week as recommended by Rebecca. We think we'll probably overdose on temples and budhas during that time so it will be on to Bali for some rest and relaxation for eight days with a beachside stay in Seminyak and a couple of nights in Ubud in a hotel overlooking the rice fields. Hope the hotel is as lovely as it looks in the photos.

Then an overnight flight to Cairns in Australia arriving on 22nd March and pick up the hire car ready for our 13 day road trip to Brisbane. We then stay 3 nights in Brisbane before a quick flight to Sydney on 8th April. We've booked an apartment there for 5 nights close to Bondi beach and we'll take the opportunity to catch up with Lisa and her family. It will have been 15 years since we last met.

Leaving Sydney on 13th April we fly to Christchurch for 3 nights before picking up the motorhome which will be home for 3 weeks! We have 2,500 miles to cover across both South and North islands. We finish up New Zealand with 3 nights in Auckland before flying to Fiji.

Fiji is 10 nights on 2 islands and we will probably be ready to stay still after all that travelling in New Zealand.

The final part of the journey will be off to Los Angeles on the 20th May and another road trip taking in Death Valley, Las Vegas, a little bit of Route 66, the Grand Canyon and a couple of other places before ending up back in LA to fly home.

Having sorted out where we're actually going it's time for some finer details starting with checking the 19 page itinerary that Travel Nation have just emailed......and they're only helping to plan some of the trip, the rest is up to us.

11th January 2017 - 19 pages checked and 15 queries pinged off to Graham at Travel Nation! He's very patient (but earning a large fee).

14th January 2017 - more hotels booked on the Cairns to Brisbane part of the trip and started to look at hotels in the USA. Thank goodness for Trip Advisor, how did we live without it?

18th January 2017 - final hotel booked in Australia. Car excess insurance done. Day by day something else is ticked off the 'to do' list!

12th February 2017 - looks like I'm not very good at keeping a diary..
Everything now booked for the USA and we've spent the last two weekends planning the route around New Zealand and pre-booking campsites where we can. We know our limitations and hot showers and decent toilets are a must - the couple of nights we have booked without 'facilities' will be interesting.

We've realised it's the start of the NZ Easter school holidays as we pick up the Motorhome on Easter Sunday so may be busier than we had originally thought. They'll go back to school as we reach the

North Island. Now we can start to plan things that we want to do in each area - already booked a tour to Milford Sound from Te Anau. That will give Derek a day off from driving and at least with a guide we'll better appreciate what we're looking at. On the North Island we've booked the Hobbiton tour to see all things Lord of The Rings!

19th February 2017 - everything's just about planned and organised and we're just waiting to go. Not much left at all on the 'to do' list. The next major task will be packing the suitcases!

23rd February 2017 - left work today which felt quite surreal. Hard to believe I was there for 3 years, it flew by.

28th February 2017 - All packed and ready to go but then a last minute panic from Graham advising that second island in Fiji is undergoing construction work so he has suggested a couple of alternatives but there's no time to consider them now, we'll just have to sort it out en-route.
Then one final call for Derek concerning a job in Bristol half an hour before leaving for the airport.