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Although New Zealand is renowned for its beautiful scenery, most of us
dream of overseas travel.
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In 2004, after a year of planning, with a lot of help from my internet friends, Ian and I
left the tiny country town of Piopio and began our whirlwind, three month long, trip of a lifetime.
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This 'e-book' is a 'photos and text' record of scenery, people, and things we found
interesting on our 2004 trip via Hawaii, to USA, Canada, and UK, then home via Vienna, Singapore, and Sydney;
in the order as we travelled.
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The maps show our zigzag travels through North America, and our travels in UK.
It is a work in progress and more will be added as I work through the over 60 Cds of photos.
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We are forever grateful to internet friends who made the trip possible - hosting us, taking
charge of our accommodation, and showing us their districts. eg one lady who had only known me from internet
drove the equivalent of 4 times
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the distance from London to Edinburgh to help us.
Our daughter Anne's generosity enabled much of our month in the UK and our visit to Vienna.
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In UK we caught up with Anne, with all Ian's cousins whom he had not seen for 50 years,
and met one of mine for the first time ever.
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How I wished I had a Travelling Scanner to copy the family photos.
I was delighted to buy one at Changi Airport, Singapore.
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With our son Karl having moved to Sydney, we added a stopover there to the original itinerary.
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We flew out of Auckland on 20th of April and saw the sunset from over Pagopago. Arriving in Honolulu late at night on 19th of April, the day before we had left Auckland, was the first of
many miracles of our trip. Our health and energy did not falter and although there were moments of 'suspense',
nothing really went wrong.
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In our 6 weeks in North America, we saw an amazing amount and range of scenery,
slept in 27 different beds, and experienced wonderful hospitality. Over the whole trip we met 60 internet friends,
and some of their families, over a hundred in all. In Vienna we wandered into a park shortly before the beginning of
a free open-air concert with the Vienna Boys' Choir and a film of the 2003 Berlin Opera. At Changi Airport in
Singapore we discovered two free bus tours for people like us, in transit in the airport for over 5 hours.
It took 4 months for me to really feel I had regained my usual energy, and begin work on this photo-record.
I do hope you enjoy my photos.
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