Homeward Bound

Well our time in England has come to an end. We spent Wednesday morning packing, had a lovely lunch with everyone out at a farm cafe, and then headed back to Fiona's for a bit before heading out to the ferry terminal just before 4 pm. We said all our final goodbyes to James' Grandparents and Fiona who all came to see us off onto the Ferry. We were met by a car service on the other side where it was about an hour and a half drive from Portsmouth to London Heathrow.

Our first flight from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur was practically empty - I really feel for Malaysian Airlines however I would be lying if I didn't say I was ecstatic to have 3 seats to myself....meant I got a reasonable amount of sleep on that first one!

We didn't sleep at all on the second or third, it was weird because we kind of got two nights in a row the way that it worked. But we practically fell into bed at 4 pm on Friday when we finally got home. And the next evening we got our beautiful Monty back :)

Well, it's been a fantastic holiday, I can't wait to go back! But I think our next trip will be to somewhere cheaper like South East Asia! I'm so glad that I got to meet more of James' family and old friends and spend some quality time with them all and to see the country I have heard so much about and from where my ancestors came from. I loved our week in London - being able to explore on the tube etc and the independence in such a huge city - but I think I liked Cornwall best because it reminded me of home :)

Thank you to all who have taken an interest in my travels, I hope you have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed sharing :)

Until next time!

Butterfly World and Amazon World Zoo Park

We started the morning by heading over to Fiona's to see off Ollie her son and James' cousin who had come down for a day to see us, come out for his grandparents anniversary dinner, and spend some time with his family on the bank holiday. Bill and Janine then kindly took us out to Butterfly World before lunch. We got to see many beautiful species from all around the world. 

White Tree Nymph

Citrus Swallowtail

Great Owl Butterfly

White Morpho Butterfly

 We also got to see a lot of the chrysalises and were privileged enough to even see one butterfly hatch out which was truly amazing!

All the Chrysalises lined up

 After a lovely lunch at Fiona's Molly and James had a rather interesting game of pool together...

While Gus joined in on very important family conversations.....

In the afternoon James wanted a bit of quiet time so he went back to his Grandparents while Fiona and I headed to Amazon World Zoo Park. 

There were heaps of birds and turtles:

           Some of the birds had amazing headgear...

         Some were Flamingos and Red Ibis...

                    

         and some were Penguins that were moulting....

                   

          But my favourites were the Toucans!

      

         And the Macaw that repeatedly said "Hello" to me! 

There were also heaps of other animals such as:

The Ocelot:

An Armadillo: 

Cotton Top Tamarins:

A Red Panda: 

And Wallabies:

           

Luckily much of the exhibits were indoors in heated environments to simulate the tropics so we were out of the rain for most of the time. Another wonderful day - our last in fact for this trip!
                             

The Museum and Osborne House

Today was another no photo day unfortunately - on my part anyway. We did however start the day by going to a photo exhibition at the Dimbola Museum by Chris Packham who is a fantastic wildlife photographer :)

Unfortunately the rest of the museum was a complete....uh...well lets just say there is practically nothing there but they did have some good displays of historic cameras. If they weren't about 200 pounds each I would have totally bought some of his work...or the whole exhibition would it fit in my house, but I satisfied myself by buying his latest book about 100 different of his photographs which was only 20 pound!

In the afternoon despite the persistent rain (we really can't complain as its the only rain on the trip so far!) we headed to Osborne House which was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's holiday home for them and their 9 children. I would have taken photos here of the outside and terrace gardens except it was pouring with rain and it wasn't a particularly appealing prospect and I didn't want to damage my camera. Inside photographs were not allowed.The outside of the house was a beautiful variety of orange and pink colours which were stunning even in the rain. It was also very interesting to see a dressed up Victorian royal house with all the belongings still inside, however I cannot say that Victorian house decorations are at all to my taste! It all seemed very cluttered too.

Here a couple of pictures from the English Heritage Website:

From the Terrace Gardens (not the house front)

The Drawing Room

The Children's nursery

Due to the weather we didn't explore much of the gardens which is a bit of a disappointment, or go down to the Swiss Cottage which Prince Albert built for his children to play and learn skills such as cooking in, or down to the beach. However we were well and truly wet enough for one day....so another time perhaps!

But a good day despite weather issues and wet jeans!

Owl and Monkey Haven

We had a pretty lazy morning today, I'm still not feeling my best and it was nice to just spend some time chatting to James grandparents (Bill and Janine).

After lunch they took us out to the Owl and Monkey Haven which didn't take us too long because it was quite small but it was a really pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Most of the animals had been rescued from zoos where they were bullied, and in the case of some of the monkeys, from the illegal pet trade. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos because they were all behind wire mesh and they don't make for very good photos but here are some of the animals we got to see with pictures from the Owl and Monkey Haven website:

Siamangs

The Javan Langurs (these have multiple stomachs like cows and can't eat bananas!)

Red Bellied Tamarins

Colobus Monkeys

We saw many Owls that looked familiar to us from our own Owl Encounter, but this particular character was new - the Snowy Owl (photo also courtesy of the Owl and Monkey Haven website):

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Fiona's and then back to Bill and Janine's for dinner (or the Hubbard's as Fiona calls them...)

Cornwall Goodbyes

Yesterday James and I spent the day at home in the lodge as I've come down with the Great British Cold as James' other grandfather calls it. So the day mostly consisted of watching discovery channel on TV rather than any sightseeing unfortunately, but I'm glad we didn't drag ourselves off to Falmouth on the train as I don't think I would've enjoyed myself much. However I did feel a bit better by evening and enjoyed the shared dinner we threw for Ron, Jenny and also Claire, Nigel and Cara.

But now our week in Cornwall is up and it is time to head back to the Isle of Wight for the last few days of our holiday.

We had to be out of the lodge by the leisurely time of 11 am which allowed for a slight sleep in and last minute packing, before heading round to Ron and Jenny's for the last time, where we were treated to a lunch of Cornish Pasties brought back from the bakery by Ron. We ended up leaving Cornwall at about 4 pm and got into the Isle of Wight back to James' other set of grandparents about 9 pm, ready for a few more days with the other side of the family before returning to New Zealand.

Tintagel, Launceston and Eden Project

This morning Mel, James and I headed off to the remains of the mysterious Tintagel Castle which is associated with various King Arthur myths, while John and Sam stayed with Ron and Jenny. We climbed a LOT of stairs!

       

But we got to see amazing views all around the headland along the way! It got very windy up on top which reminded me and James of home in Wellington - I think we were a lot more comfortable in the wind than Mel was!

       

Although Tintagel is essentially a ruin today, with erosion forces working against it, there is still a significant amount of foundation left and some amazing examples of the stonework. There is enough remaining to make it clear that in its day it must have been a formidable fortress with a great amount of land associated with it.

    

    

We also met a flock of very hardy looking sheep on the side of the cliff!

     

After a tiring morning of walking, we still had plenty of time before our Eden Project booking so we headed to Launceston Castle which was a much smaller affair and another Motte and Bailey Norman style castle similar to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. It was really quite beautiful and despite a few more flights of steps I'm really glad we came here. There were no complete building remains in the bailey, but most of the motte was intact and the views from the top were stunning - you can see how it was an important vantage point in its time.

More Stairs!

Foundations of long lost buildings

The view from one side out the top

After a late lunch at a nearby cafe in Launceston we finally headed over to our dinner booking at the Eden Project. The Eden Project is like a greenhouse crossed with a botanical garden on steroids. It's major attractions are the tropical rainforest biome and Mediterranean biome which are giant greenhouses kept to the correct conditions of where the plants normally grow.

One of the Biomes (photo courtesy of Eden Project)

I was also really keen to do the zip-wire skyride (longest zip-wire in England and it looked cool) and with the benefit of hind-sight we probably should have left for Eden Project earlier in the day, however we then wouldn't have seen Launceston Castle which would have been a shame too. But anyway I waited for about 1.5 hours all up to go on this zip-line where I got to fly like superman, head first down this amazing flying fox. It was worth it. But James was a bit upset because we only had half an hour left to go round Eden Project which to be honest is probably at least a half day activity. But we rushed around the Rainforest, had dinner, and then had a quick look around the Mediterranean (which is where we got to have dinner anyway, at a beautiful Mediterranean restaurant.

Ron and Jenny at Dinner

Martyn and Ron at Dinner