The story so far

With ageing parents in South Africa and Australia and a daughter starting High School later this year, this is the only realistic chance we will get to do the big trip.

We've added stopovers in some of our favourite places, a month in Thailand / Malaysia and a couple of weeks in California, to give the kids a taste of life in very different countries.

We'll update the Blog from each country we visit, with our experiences from four different points of view.

The things that we are most looking forward to:

Graham: Thailand - snorkelling, food, people. Yosemite, a week of total R & R in Rarotonga, seeing family and old friends in Aus & S.A.

Frith: family, food, warm seas.

Heather: Ratonga Junction, Scratch Patch, Table Mountain, elephant riding, California

Rhiannon: Snorkelling, Jungle walks, elephant riding.