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[oeforthree]

Tom on being home:

We've made it. Exactly 365 days after Harriet, Baxter and Iset off on a long adventure around the globe, we flew back into Wellington on a spectacular autumn day. The waters around Kapiti Island were flat and green.

"We used to drive down that road!" Baxter shouted as we flew alongside the Hutt Rd. ("Er, not really," I thought.)

The poor little guy, delirious with tiredness, pumped on hazy memories of life before the big trip, sprinted up the airport gangway towards three waiting grandparents. And then, five metres short, he stumbled over onto the carpet in front of them. They scooped him up.

We celebrated the return with lunch at Maranui. Baxter rode the camel ride over and over, demanding 50-cent pieces from the grandparents to keep it going. We ate fish tortillas and avocado-and-tomato on toast - as good as ever.

Then we returned to the scene of our final party before we shot off - Harriet's mum's house in Lyall Bay. Memories of grandparental dancing and wine corks popping a year agowere vivid. Our stuff was still crammed under beds and in chests of drawers around the house.

Baxter went off with Harriet to pick up two little cousins from school in Island Bay. One eyed him up a little bit stunned; the other threw her arms around him. He was ecstatic.

I had two hours on my own for the first time in months. I did some washing, had a sleep and then stood staring out the window for a few minutes, wondering what to do.

First impressions of re-entry: green, light, sea, all over the show. Good coffee again. Guys saying "mate" and "magic" and "noworries" into their phones - actually talking like that.

Wellington the same - well, nearly the same. Like one of Baxter's games of "spot the difference". New pub here, earthquake work there.

We've made a few resolutions about our return home. Don't overdo the endless travel talk - hard when all our stories from the past year happened in other countries. Try to remember how good it's been whenever we've switched off our screens for a while. Unburden the flagging credit card - finishing our trip in America had its costs.

And then there's the rest, too: find Baxter a crèche or a kindy, catch up with everyone we left behind, and find a house to live in, preferably one with insulation and room for four.

No hurry on all of that, though. For now, it's enough just to watch Baxter take possession of his grandparents' houses and fridges again, and to breathe in that familiar salty air.

[oeforthree]

Nicaragua and Costa Rica

We had a few weeks circling Nicaragua and Costa Rica. They are both pretty special places. Nicaragua was the real surprise: great food, lovely people and a lake that was like something out of a myth. Costa Rica gave us a beach hit. We also had a lot of fun riding round on bikes sloth and toucan spotting. 

We did the whole thing using public transport, or riding "chicken buses" as the gringos appear to say. So cheap, so interesting, so slow. We're in Panama now polishing off this part of the holiday. We hit the US in about a week. We'll write more later, but here are some pics for now. 

xx

Pics: 1. Tom entering Lake Nicaragua from the shores of Ometepe Island; 2. buildings on the streets of Granada, Nicaragua; 3. baseball in Granada; 4. Baxter on the bus in Nicaragua; 5. Concepcion, one of the two volcanos on Ometepe; 6. Baxter in steam half way up Rincon de la Vieja volcano in Liberia, Costa Rica; 7. Jojo on the bus; 8. one of the playas (beaches) in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica; 9. Jojo in favourite location on the deck at our hostel in Puerto Viejo (amazing); 10. cathedral in Granada, Nicaragua. 

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Baxter and the cops

We're in Mexico. There are a lot of tasty tacos here. There are also a lot of men in cowboy hats, bulky utes rolling down the narrow streets, buckets of guacamole and salsa, multi-coloured papier-mâché skulls in shop windows, images of the sun, cacti, mariachi bands, and cops - loads and loads of cops.

In Mexico City, where we have spent most of our time so far, you see them in their polished uniforms with guns at their side standing on just about every street corner. You see them in squares, you see them outside shops, you see them sitting in restaurants having a coffee and a well-earned break… more here