Carolyn & Pieter's Six Month Honeymoon

We are getting married on the 21st September 2013 and heading off on a six month honeymoon hitting China, Tibet, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Loas, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and then heading home to London!

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And I'm armed with crutches!

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Some fantastic Aussie hospital terms. I can't figure out how to rotate the pictures. Waaaaaay too complex for me right now. Thank you Heather and Denis. Love it!

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Does this yellow garden stool look familiar? It was one of our first DIY projects on Design Meet Style. We wanted to freshen up this piece’s look and the solution is this weekend’s DIY.

The most difficult part of this project is deciding the color and pattern of your mosaic. We cut up a sheet of mounted mosaic tile, but you can do this with broken tiles, mirrors or even colorful dishes. To adhere the tiles, we traced the stool on SimpleMat, then simply peeled off the paper and got to sticking. To fill in the spaces, we chose an alabaster-colored grout. Be sure to use a sponge to wet your surface before grouting, then hold the groat float at a 45-degree angle to push the product into the cracks. Wipe the excess grout off the tiles, let dry for 24 hours, and voila! 

What goes great with this project? A playlist. Get your weekend “To Do” to a “Ta Da” listening to our favorite songs this week.

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We have come full circle. We started our honeymoon drinking champagne in the 1st class lounge in Heathrow. We are now slumming it in the business class lounge in Hong Kong on the last day of our wonderful six month honeymoon. Great memories and we didn't kill each other!! See you all soon! C&Px

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As neither of us had seen a whale before we signed up for the 7:15am whale watch cruise and we were not disappointed. I was also very pleased to have taken sea sickness tablets as there was a lot of swell.

Very quickly into the cruise we spotted a sperm whale and got to see it dive back down. They come to the surface after 45-60 minutes of feeding and stay on the top for 5-10 minutes so there is an element of luck in being able to see them.

The crew also come equipped with an underwater microphone to help locate where they are. The captain was letting us listen to the sound of the whales feeding and talking to each other.

We were so lucky to have four sightings of three different whales. Really amazing creatures and a very special day.

C&Px

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What a majestic sight watching a giant male sperm whale dive down for his breakfast. For both of us it was the first time we had seen a whale and we were lucky enough to have four sightings. Beautiful.

C&Px

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How we have got this far in life without visiting the sock machine museum is beyond me. Brilliant how seriously people take their socks in these parts.

More lovely hot pools and some seals! We came across a nursery where lots of babies were playing in pools and annoying their mothers.

Also had a visit to the pancake rocks and blow holes. The scenery here is beautiful, but not the weather! We have been battered with pouring rain and hail, makes us feel sorry for those cyclists we have seen out there!

C&Px

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The weather has been crap, torrential rain. We got one good day so we did a 5.5 hour hike to get a view of Franz Josef glacier. Quite special being able to see the sea and a glacier at the same time.

C&Px

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Yep, more vineyards.

C&Px

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We're into glacier territory and hiked our way up to the Rob Roy. Really spectacular as it's a hanging glacier. No one will be surprised to hear we found a vineyard to visit to rehydrate with views over Lake Wanaka. They have an interesting way of disposing of old underwear here.

Next up was Alexandra where we had a lovely evening with www.warmshowers.com hosts Kevin and Jenny. Kevin plied us with an excellent aged Riesling and a pinot noir made by him.

C&Px

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Moving house kiwi style!

When in Queenstown you have to take part in some of the adrenaline activities on offer. No way we were doing bungee so we went for a ride on the Shotover Jet which was awesome, especially the 360 degree turns. The boat takes you through a narrow canyon, inches from the rocks.

We also did the luge, getting into the Olympic spirit and all. It's safe to safe Dutch is never going to make the team. Apparently he had a 'faulty' luge :)

C&Px

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So all good hikes finish with a visit to the hot springs :)

C&Px

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We got screwed by the rental car company big time! We have ended up with this crappy 9 year old Mitsubishi Lancer with a Japanese radio. It is so crap but it does fit the bikes!

Christchurch was very interesting, we were stunned to see how much demolition and rebuilding is still going on following the earth quakes three years ago. The city looks like a construction zone, because it really is. The main shopping part has been rebuilt using shipping containers. Very resourceful. The cathedral in the top picture has been made out of cardboard. Very cool that the city rebounded after such devasting destruction.

C&Px

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What a stunning country! We are loving the scenery in NZ and really surprised at how barren and bare some of it is. We have been mixing in some cycling, hiking (or tramping as the locals call it) and of course we have sniffed out some vineyards. Starting in Christchurch, a few nights at Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook and then onto Queenstown where the weather turned against us. More time in the car coming up.

C&Px

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More family celebrations with Mum's 60th. It was also our last day in Australia, off to NZ next!

C&Px

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Congratulations to Tim and Tracy, married 14th February 2014.

C&Px

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