Well here we are in Oman and cooking...we have just taken a 5 minute walk to the beach and we were so wet we had to come back to the hotel...40 degrees and 48 is predicted for tomorrow....but back to the beginning....we were lucky enough to get upgraded to 1st class from Sydney to Dubai, a 15 hour flight....it sure was good to have a bed but you certainly notice the turbulence more lying down than sitting up...at one point in the night the pilot said to put our seat belts on but I just snuggled into the duvet and hoped I wouldn't fall out of bed....Michael thought it was great as he had a bed to himself...all the cubicles are for one person so you really have your own space....got into Dubai and our hotel at 3.30 am....bed 4 am to be up again at 7 am for breki and pick up for airport and flight to Oman....only a 1 hour flight but we didn't get to our hotel in Oman until 3 pm with delays so really looking forward to starting some real adventure tomorrow going up into the mountains in Oman....saw very little of Dubai as just in and out but we will explore that later but very impressed with everything and everyone in the few hours we were there....Oman quite different...they really have a lot to learn from Dubai...sort of the poor cousins next door and oh the arrogance of them....Lisa you will be interested to know that Michael got stung US$15 for a visa into Oman...we had to go to a visa point 1st but I was OK with my NZ passport....but when I got to the immigration desk...oh the arrogance of the guy and he wanted me to get a visa but I told him NO...he then proceeded to muck around and chat with all his mates whilst flicking through the pages of my passport... We seem to have walked miles already with trekking through airports....Dubai is massive.....and walking whilst we wait for planes to keep the circulation going!
Lyn Troughton...can you please give our blog details to David Troughton and Linda...also Rosemary...I don't have their email addresses...
Fiona...got your message but ran out of hours to get back to you...look forward to having a drink with you and Ken on your new deck on our return...
A small housekeeping matter.....talking to some of you before we left you mentioned you went into the latest post on our blog.....please page down to the bottom to read our introduction/overview of our 5 months away...and then hopefully the new posts will make sense....
Until next time....M & F

Hi All,

I am trying to load a new photo to ensure all is working correctly before we leave for Africa. This is our home we have just sold in NZ.

25th May and what a 2 weeks it has been....we sold our house at 218 Rangi Ave and we have literally had 10 days to move out as we fly out of NZ on the 28th May.....needless to say it has been a bit stressful but with help from wonderful friends, hopefully we are on track to get everything done.....I developed an aggressive caner in my ear which has meant many trips to Tauranga, 2 operations and a skin graft which meant we had to cancel our trip to the Noosa Food and Wine Festival with our Whangamata Wine Group...all very disappointing.....that's about us for the last 3 weeks and on the 28th May we fly to Dubai, have about a 5 hour layover before flying onto Oman for our 1st little safari so our next post we should be able to tell you all about Oman and then we fly to Ethiopia for our next safari and hopefully more info about what we have learned about these far off places!!!!  Until then....you can all add a comment to our blog if you want to by going into the comment section of the blog.....Love to all our good friends and family in NZ....Faye...

 hello,  today is the 22nd May and we are still moving house!