You know how when you’re getting ready to travel everyone has an opinion; a word to the wise tidbit for you?  Mostly, you tend to smile, nod your head and feign interest in what they’re saying.  Today, I was given a tidbit that was awesome, something I had never thought about but will definitely do before we leave for Paris.  But before we get to the tidbit…

I met Christine (via online) a little over a year ago, she is a B&B colleague.  She posts, on Facebook and her blog, the most beautiful photos of views from her garden and when you see them, you can’t help but wish yourself there.  She also tells many great tales of their cat, Spud. I invited Christine to share her lovely farm with all of us and I am fairly certain that once you’ve read the following, you’ll add Cornwall to your “must see” list!

I googled the phrase, “How cold is it in Paris in the winter” and I am baffled by the number of different opinions out there.  But before we get to the answer, how did we get along before we could use the word, Google, as a verb?  Remember encyclopedias?

Over the past couple of years we have not been able to travel as often (or as far) as we would have liked; sometimes life’s moments take precedence.

October 8 & 9, ’04 – Abi and I rented a car and quickly learned to drive on the “wrong” side of the road.  Actually, it wasn’t the driving that was the hard part, it was turning on the blinker when you wanted the windshield wiper!  Everything is opposite of what you know, that’s the challenge!  Oh, and driving round-abouts when you’re on the wrong side of the road, those are tough.  We drove our rental to the Tongariro National Park, the land of the Lord of the Rings.

October 8, ’04 – Our friend, LeRyna, was living in New Zealand for two years while studying for her Masters Degree.  She drove north and we drove south, or vice versa, and we met in the middle at Tongariro.  Later that evening we had at “The Station” and it was surprisingly fine dining and we had a grand time, especially when the train roared by and the whole building quivered just a bit.

October 9, ’04 – We originally made reservations to take the train from Auckland to the national park.  The owner of the lodge where we stayed overnight suggested we drive instead.  Although we lost our train ticket deposit, and the train trip would have been fun, we were so thankful we drove.  We would have missed so much!

October 10, ’04 – Pretty much whenever we were in Auckland it was raining and we learned that NZ weather is completely unpredictable.  Even the locals don’t attempt it.

October 6, ’04 – Abi and I said farewell to Australia and boarded our flight to Auckland, New Zealand.  We arrived in the early evening and took a cab to our hotel, and when I say cab I mean a mini-van with a trailer attached which holds all of the luggage and you kind of hope your luggage doesn’t get unloaded at the wrong stop.

October 4, ’04 – We said good-bye to Dustin as he winged back to Melbourne, the night before Abi and I took a full day tour of the local wine country.