The Adventures of Bill and Strange Panda

Resting before our trip home

2011-06-25T13:31:00.002+01:00

We had a great trip but we were tired so we slept until we went back.

Though there was the occasional pillow fight too!

Summer Palace, here we come

2011-06-23T15:30:00.001+01:00

We visited the emperor's summer palace. There was a place where Greg dressed up like the old emperor would have. It was traditional for the emperor to have a panda and platypus as a royal guard as we understand it.

Here we are perched above part of the palace.

The palace has some nice buildings in it but isn't how we normally thought of a palace: it's very open.

Holly took this picture with us at the palace.

I wanted to make sure no one missed me so I jumped in front of her for this picture.

More panda friends

2011-06-22T18:45:00.002+01:00

At the Great Wall, some of the other travelers picked up stuffed pandas of their own.

They seemed to be a little overweight but they were very friendly.

We played a lot and had a good time.

We even did a panda pyramid!

Back to Beijing

2011-06-22T14:34:00.001+01:00

At the bottom of the wall we ate some dumplings before heading back to Beijing.

On the way back into the city we stopped at the Bird's Nest, which was an Olympic stadium. Bill was blocking my beautiful face though.

On top of the Great Wall

2011-06-22T12:30:00.000+01:00

Once we made it to the top there were many nice views.

You can see part of the wall behind us in the picture. We climbed up that part later too.

The wall is really long, longer than any one panda and platypus can walk in a day.

Here's Holly, the bride, with us at the wall.

This is us looking back the way we already hiked on the wall.

Climbing the Great Wall

2011-06-22T11:45:00.003+01:00

We decided to climb the Great Wall of China. SP said it was built by his ancestors to keep out invading platypuses.

There was a statue of some famous Chinese warrior at the start of the hike.

There were a lot of steps up to the top of the wall.

Eventually we made it to the top though.

Li's parents' house

2011-06-20T11:40:00.001+01:00

We went to see Li's parents' house in a town near Fuzhou. They had a nice bench outside but the old house was tiny (and no toilet!)

A Chinese massage

2011-06-18T23:35:00.000+01:00

Everyone from the wedding went off to get Chinese massages late at night.

So SP and I gave each other massages in the hotel instead.

Panda Central

2011-06-17T15:20:00.002+01:00

SP was very excited when we got to the panda exhibit at Chimelong Zoo.

They didn't just have one or two pandas, but something like 12!

You can see they were doing the things pandas like best: lying around sleeping and eating bamboo.

SP really wanted to go in and socialize with them but it was not allowed.

A giant platypus!

2011-06-17T11:25:00.002+01:00

Bill found this giant platypus at the Chimelong Zoo.

The platypus was so big that Bill could ride on its back.

Here is Bill with the 'baby' platypus, who was also pretty big for a platypus.

Chimelong Zoo tigers

2011-06-17T10:52:00.002+01:00

The Chimelong Zoo near Guangzhou has the world's largest number of silver and golden tigers. Here is a silver one I got to see.

This Siberian tiger liked to jump in the water to catch meat to eat.

Here is a younger tiger growing up in a play area.

They also had smaller baby tigers in a special room.

Here are the cutest really tiny tigers.

Dinner time!

2011-06-16T17:51:00.002+01:00

We had a giant dinner after visiting the temple. There were many interesting dishes, including some chicken feet. Sadly not much bamboo or water bugs for me and Bill.

Chen Clan Temple

2011-06-16T16:44:00.003+01:00

We went to the well decorated Chen Clan Temple, which is now a showcase for different forms of traditional Chinese art.

You can see that the roof is decorated with many details.

Onwards to Guangzhou

2011-06-16T13:39:00.001+01:00

There was a few hour bus ride from Hong Kong to the wedding city, Guangzhou. We had to go through immigration as well.

We stayed in the very nice Garden Hotel, but we had to climb up on the furniture to see out the windows.

This is the view from our hotel room of the city.

At the Hong Kong Zoo

2011-06-15T10:35:00.002+01:00

The Hong Kong Zoo was near our hotel so we went to see it. It mostly had monkeys, like this one.

And there were a lot of birds. SP liked this crane due to its colours.

I think he was also impressed at how red these ibis were.

I saw some cool lemurs there too.

Sadly we couldn't stay long as it was against the rules for us to eat while we were in the zoo.

Dinner on a floating boat

2011-06-14T19:37:00.002+01:00

Greg went with us to dinner on a floating restaurant. The best part about it though was this place where we could put our faces and take a picture.

Visiting Buddha

2011-06-14T13:12:00.003+01:00

Greg and Dad took us to see a giant Buddha statue in Hong Kong called the Tian Tan Buddha.

You can see how big it is when compared to Strange Panda.

There was also a little shrine we visited near the Buddha.

A short hike away were the gates of enlightenment where we saw some sort of Chinese poem we couldn't understand.

When we were leaving the Buddha area we found this ox. It was a nice color I think.

On top of Victoria Peak

2011-06-13T16:04:00.001+01:00

Back in Hong Kong we took a trolley to the top of Victoria Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong. Greg was kindly holding us up so we could see the view of all the skyscrapers.

Winnie also helped us post for this nice picture too.

She was determined that we look like loving brothers in this picture, but I assure you that it was against my will that I was forced to hug Strange Panda!

We found another animal traveler at the top of the mountain, a cute girl bear.

Onward to Macau

2011-06-12T15:36:00.001+01:00

Li and Greg went with us to Macau for a bachelor's party with just the guys. This was the view from our hotel room. You can see many casinos because Macau is the Vegas of Asia.

Here was the most important part of our Macau trip, the nice bed we got to sleep in.

Here we are at the older part of Macau near the ferry.

Dim-sum lunch

2011-06-11T10:34:00.000+01:00

We went to lunch with Li, Holly and Greg. We had dim-sum where you get many different snacks. We had to figure out how to use chopsticks without fingers though. It required some teamwork.

I made sure to pour tea for everyone as that is a pilot custom in China.

It was all very delicious and we both enjoyed the food!

Arriving in Hong Kong

2011-06-10T20:37:00.000+01:00

Dad's friends Li and Holly decided to get married in China so we went out there for their wedding.

After a long flight to Hong Kong, we took the train into downtown Hong Kong.

Unfortunately we couldn't see much on the way into the city because it was night. But there were lights on the buildings once we got closer.

Here is our tiny hotel room which we stayed in. There are a lot of people in a small space so you don't get big hotel rooms there.

Wrapping up the trip in New York

2011-06-01T00:31:00.001+01:00

Our 2 weeks, 3 weddings trip came to an end with a visit to New York City. We took the train from Newark Airport to Penn Station.

We rented a small room in a random guy's flat and did lots of sleeping there as we were very tired, and Dad forgot to bring his small backpack to carry us around in.

After several days of sleeping we finally took a flight back home to Sheffield.

Wawayanda State Park, New Jersey

2011-05-31T18:18:00.002+01:00

After the wedding, Dad took us to Wawayanda State Park, which was near Carmen's house. She recommended it to me because of all the water bugs it has. Unfortunately it did not have any bamboo for SP. That shows Carmen likes me more since she recommended a place she knew I would like the most.

We went on a walk around the lake which went through a forest. We don't see many forests in England, so it was nice to see a forest again.

I went to catch some water bugs in the lake but SP was not so interested in them.

It was nice and sunny so we tried to make our bellies a little darker by lying in the sun.

This was a cool dam we found while we were on our walk. After the walk Dad went kayaking around the lake but he said it was too risky to take us as SP might fall in. He doesn't swim as well as I do since he is not a platypus. We both had a great time at the park and saw lots of other animals like geese, fish, a snake and a ground hog.

New Jersey wedding trip

2011-05-30T13:03:00.003+01:00

After Nissim's wedding in Paris we went on to Kathryn's wedding in Raleigh, then to Carmen's wedding in New Jersey too! It was quite a wedding-themed trip.

Dad was not sure where to go when we were driving in New Jersey so I read the directions to him while Strange Panda made sure we were going the right way on the map.

After our day of travelling and the wedding we had a nice sleep at the hotel.

Back to Paris for a wedding

2011-05-20T15:19:00.002+01:00

We took the Eurostar train to Paris for Nissim and Sarah's wedding. Luckily there was an empty seat next to Dad so we got our own chair.

We rented a flat in Paris and had a great time sleeping in it most of the time.

Dad was off at many wedding events so we spent the days checking email and the like instead.

Finishing in Madrid

2011-04-29T11:20:00.002+01:00

We ended our trip in Madrid. This was the view from the room we stayed in. Unfortunately Dad got food poisoning so we spent a bit too much time examining this view!

Of course on the way home when we really wanted to get back, our flight was delayed for three hours so we had a lot of time lying around waiting.

Off to Ciudad Real

2011-04-28T18:28:00.002+01:00

We took a bus and a high speed train from Fuente del Arco to get to Ciudad Real.

We had a good sleep in Ciudad Real at Jose Antonio and Elena's house.

Lazing around the house

2011-04-27T13:50:00.002+01:00

Dad went off to pick aspargus and thyme on the mountain while we lazed around in the house all day, since it was really hot and dusty outside.

Walking around the town

2011-04-26T18:23:00.002+01:00

We went for a walk around the town after picking asparagus. SP said it was dangerous to cross the railroad tracks, but you could see for a long way and Ade said there are only two trains a day to her village so we would be ok.

Ade's aunt was nice enough to let us stay at her empty house, so we had a good sleep there after our day of adventure.

Picking wild asparagus

2011-04-26T17:30:00.002+01:00

Ade showed us how to find wild aspargus near her village.

This was a particularly good one that we found and picked to take home.

We learned that the aspargus people sometimes eat is the baby shoots of the aspargus, much how SP likes the young bamboo the best.

Fuente del Arco

2011-04-26T17:19:00.002+01:00

Next we went on to stay with Ade, who used to live in Sheffield. That's her cute little village Fuente del Arco in the background.

And those are her hands holding us too! How lucky she was.

Tea at Café Hafa

2011-04-25T17:23:00.003+01:00

Strange Panda and I went to Café Hafa in Tangier to have their famous mint tea while staring over the ocean. Apparently lots of other celebrities have come here before us too.

We were so deep in conversation it took us awhile to realise our photos were being taken originally.

Touring the Kasbah in Tangier

2011-04-25T13:54:00.002+01:00

In the Kasbah in Tangier there was a nice garden where we took some pictures.

Here is one farther away.

This is a bench in the same garden.

This was on the fountain in the Kasbah's courtyard.

Bill and I are those tiny speaks in the center of the courtyard.

What else? Sleep of course

2011-04-24T11:23:00.003+01:00

Dad went off to Tetuan in Morocco but the weather was very wet so we decided to stay at home and rest instead.

Touring Ceuta

2011-04-23T13:40:00.002+01:00

Our hosts Raul and Ana took me, Bill, and Dad around town to see Ceuta.

Ceuta is a Spanish city in Africa which is next to Morocco.

Here's another good view of us and the city.

Off to Spain and Morocco

2011-04-22T23:44:00.003+01:00

Dad took us on a trip to Spain and Morocco. Our first destination was Ceuta, but we had to spend the night in Algeciras to get there.

There was a cool sink that Bill really liked as he could have a swim in it and still see the floor.

The next morning we took a ferry to Ceuta and got to see the exciting port machinery.

Another glorious mug of us!

2011-04-21T23:01:00.004+01:00

Dad says he's sorry there haven't been more pics, but his camera is misbehaving and rarely works now. He did manage to take a few pictures of a new mug he made which features us at the beach though!

Here Bill and I are parachuting into an ocean filled with snakes from the look of it.

Riding a wave on a surfboard

And relaxing on the beach in the sun!

White Christmas!

2010-12-26T13:07:00.002Z

It snowed a lot starting on the night of Christmas day, so we woke up to Boxing Day with a ground covered in snow. Strange Panda liked it a lot since he has natural camouflage in the snow, or at least he did until he got so grubby.

Christmas Day

2010-12-25T10:08:00.002Z

Finally it was Christmas day! We got up early from the jet lag, so we got to look in our stocking which was filled with lovely candy.

There were a ton of presents under the tree because a lot of the family was coming over this year.

After we opened all our presents, we had a lot of fun playing with the wrapping paper too!

Heading to NC for Christmas

2010-12-24T16:38:00.003Z

We headed back to North Carolina for Christmas again this year. Due to all the snow in London, we had to sit around in Sheffield for a few days before getting a new flight on Christmas Eve. The Chicago airport was fine though, with nice comfy seats for waiting in.

We arrived so late that Natalie and her family were already there and waiting for us!

Brief trip to the US for a wedding

2010-09-06T17:45:00.002+01:00

We had a brief trip to Maryland, north of DC to see Li's wedding.

Sadly we did not have much time to go anywhere so we do not have any more pictures. We had to build this replica of the US Capitol building since we did not get to see the real thing again.

Heading home from Sweden

2010-08-29T18:29:00.001+01:00

All good things must come to an end, and so it was with our trip to Sweden. Here we are on the train on the way back from the airport.

Exploring Uppsala

2010-08-27T11:54:00.002+01:00

We decided to go explore Uppsala. It is a small city so we could see a lot in a day. That's the cathedral behind us.

In case you couldn't see, this is a statue of a sheep. It was pretty cool. There were lots of ducks around too. You can see one if you look closely.

We toured the king's old gardens which are now the botanical gardens.

We got to pretend we were the king of Sweden and could fire our cannons at the cathedral.

Through Stockholm to Uppsala

2010-08-26T14:11:00.001+01:00

We went back through Stockholm to get to Uppsala. On the way we went to the Stockholm City Museum, where I found this lovely fluffy white rug to sit on.

In Uppsala we stayed with one of Dad's friends from Duke. This was our bed.

We were pretty exhausted after all that travel so we just went to bed.

Strange Panda explores the north part of the island

2010-08-24T17:50:00.001+01:00

Bill was tired so he went to bed and I went with Dad to explore the north part of the island by bike. We found this boat but we couldn't find any oars so we didn't take it into the water.

I knocked on this old miner's house but no one was home.

Here I am on the bike with the water looking very pretty behind me.

Continuing on to the island of Ranö

2010-08-24T13:01:00.002+01:00

After the military base we got to the island of Ranö. It had a nice little board telling us what was on the island, and asking us not to disturb any platypuses that we might find, as it was a nature reserve.

We made a nice friend at one of the farms on Ranö.

I decided to catch up on my reading.

Thankfully there was a nice bench to sit on by the beach so I was able to read in peaceful surroundings.

Joining the army for a bit

2010-08-24T11:21:00.002+01:00

After the windmill we continued on until we found a military base on the island.

The army was very nice and let me drive this giant tank.

This was my favorite army vehicle though.

Can you tell why? It's named after me! Koolest Platypus Bil (slight misspellings but I can forgive them).

Bill's big biking day out

2010-08-24T10:54:00.002+01:00

Dad and I rented a bike and explored the island, along with a neighboring one called Ranö.

There was a big, modern windmill in the middle of the island so we went to go see it.

There was lots of heather which was hiding delicious bugs.

It was much harder to see the water bugs because the water was quite choppy. I decided not to go swimming as a result.

I thought I would try some of my natural camoflauge here. Can you see me?

Utö Youth Hostel

2010-08-22T14:15:00.002+01:00

The youth hostel on the island had great views in the rooms.

But the best part was that we got our own bed. It was great!

Taking the ferry to Utö

2010-08-22T08:45:00.001+01:00

Bill and I took a ferry to an island called Utö. The ferry took three hours but it went past lots of pretty places. This is the inside of the ferry.

Looking out the window at the beginning we got to wave goodbye to Stockholm. That ferry in the picture was just like ours.

Wandering around Stockholm

2010-08-20T13:48:00.002+01:00

We walked around the city and saw lots of interesting places on the waterfront.

Behind us is the Vasa Museum and an island which is mostly gardens.

That's the old town in the background there.

Arriving in Sweden

2010-08-20T08:55:00.000+01:00

Dad took us to Sweden for a trip. We stayed at the airport the first night in a hostel made from a 747.

Here we are waiting for the airport shuttle to pick us up so we can take a bus to Stockholm.

Wasdale Head and nearby

2010-07-18T16:07:00.001+01:00

The next day we drove on a windy road in the fog to get to Wasdale Head. Anna is holding us in front of Wast Water.

We also went to Muncaster Castle which was nearby. It was pretty cool.

Muncaster Castle has an owl sanctuary, so there were lots of owls. Thankfully they were behind cages so they couldn't try to eat us.

I liked this one because it had really pretty colors.

Down by the lake

2010-07-17T18:13:00.002+01:00

After climbing the hill we went down to the lake shore to see the water up close.

I looked hard but I could not find any delicious water bugs swimming around on the lake. Maybe it was too rough for them. Maybe some other platypus had already eaten them.

Heading to Orrest Head

2010-07-17T17:27:00.000+01:00

Once we arrived in Windermere we decided to go for a hike since it was good weather. We started up a hill to a place called Orrest Head which had a great view.

We stopped to rest on a bench at the top of Orrest Head and enjoyed the view.

Here we are on the bench again.

Behind us you can see the view we were enjoying of Lake Windermere. It was very pretty.

Off to the Lake District

2010-07-17T13:14:00.002+01:00

Dad hired a car and we headed up to the Lake District for a long weekend with Great-aunt Anna.

Dad relied on us for navigation. Strange Panda thought the blue part was the land!

Dad let us drive a bit when we were in a parking lot. It's really hard moving the steering wheel and the pushing the pedals at the same time.

We stopped for lunch along the way. I had a healthy bunch of fruit, but Strange Panda just wanted crisps!

King of the Edinburgh Hill

2010-07-03T16:01:00.001+01:00

The city of Edinburgh is actually quite tiny. We were able to play King of the Hill on the main castle hill. I was King of the Hill the longest.

Bill did his best to push me off the hill though.

Around Edinburgh

2010-07-03T13:54:00.002+01:00

We spent the day going around Edinburgh. This is part of Holyrood Palace, where the Queen lives when she is in Scotland.

Bill was being silly and kept rolling off the ledge.

Here I am with Edinburgh city behind me. We went hiking up a big cliff.

Touring Scottish Parliament

2010-07-02T11:23:00.002+01:00

This is me looking at the nicely coloured outside of the Scottish Parliament.

Here's another picture of me at the Scottish Parliament.

Great-aunt Anna took this photo of Dad taking my picture in front of the parliament building.

Our day as university students

2010-07-02T09:25:00.001+01:00

Dad was graduating from the University of Edinburgh so we went up and got to sleep in the student halls for a couple nights.

We had a view of some of the residential campus from our window. It looked nice outside.

Hanging out with Sarah and Adam

2010-06-05T14:45:00.003+01:00

Sarah and Adam were very enthusiastic to be photographed with us, especially as we are so famous.

Bill thought he would pose with a Zoolander-style Blue Steel look. They were very impressed by it.

I took a different approach and wore sunglasses to hide my identity from all the fans passing by.

Relaxing at the beach

2010-06-05T14:10:00.003+01:00

We did a little bit of sunbathing, but we were sure to put on some sunblock first, as we both have white bellies.

I built a little fortress out of the sand molds.

Beach trip to Cleethorpes!

2010-06-05T13:10:00.002+01:00

We went to Cleethorpes for the day. We got to each fish and chips on the beach with Sam, Svea, Sarah, and Adam.

I didn't much like fish and chips - not even plants in it, but Bill said it was similar to fried water bugs.

Immortalized again!

2010-04-17T18:57:00.001+01:00

Dad has immortalised us onto another mug. I think I look a bit like a rabbit though.

Here is a friend from New Zealand, a kiwi bird on the mug too.

Conferencing in Swansea

2010-04-13T18:03:00.002+01:00

Dad took us to Swansea for a conference.

We had an OK view from our hotel, but it wasn't that great.

He was busy at the conference all day so we just stayed at home and rested.

We did find out about something called room service however.

They bring all sorts of nice cakes and things straight to your room. Sadly there were not any water bugs on the menu.

Waiting in Singapore Airport

2010-03-20T11:11:00.001Z

Halfway through our flight back we had a six hour layover in Singapore Airport. We got to see lots of planes, but it was quite rainy outside.

Looking around Waitomo

2010-03-18T17:00:00.002Z

Grandma and Grandpa came with us on our trip to New Zealand, and here they were near Waitomo, a cave full of glow worms that Bill kept trying to eat. This was a natural land bridge not far away.

Also we drove to a big waterfall nearby. It was our last full day, and sadly we did not see any other platypuses or pandas during the whole trip! They really should come visit, because it was great!

Leaving Mt. Doom

2010-03-16T14:35:00.002Z

After we threw the ring into the volcano, we had a look around and saw a nice cool lake we could go relax in. So we decided to go play around there.

The lake was very nice, but there weren't many water bugs unfortunately. I did look quite a bit. Maybe it was too high up, because there weren't really plants either.

Lord of the Rings

2010-03-16T13:33:00.002Z

Before us lay Mt. Doom. My mission, accompanied by my trusty sidekick Strange Panda, was to carry a ring up the mountain and throw it inside the volcano to destroy it.

Orcs sometimes threatened us, so I had to slip the ring onto my claw and become invisible, while Strange Panda used his extradinary camoflauge skills. Dad took a picture during one of these times.

However, being the ring bearer is quite tiring, so once Strange Panda had the bear the burden of helping carry the ring up Mt. Doom. The mountain was surprisingly steep and hard to climb.

Eventuall we made it to the top of Mt. Doom, with the crater below us. It was a bit colder than it looked in the movie, but oh well.

Finally I chucked the ring into the crater, thus defeating the evil Sauron and fulfilling my destiny as hero of the world!

Hiking in a bird sanctuary at Manawatu Gorge

2010-03-15T16:09:00.005Z

We stopped off for a hike through a bird sanctuary and saw lots of giant pigeons in the woods. The forest was pretty cool too, with lots of fern trees and other cool plants.

We had some lunch on the side of the trail to restore our energy.

Then we kept hiking for a little bit more.

We discovered a cool bench area to sit on where we could see down into the gorge below, and we watched a train pass by. We could also see some windmills over the mountain.

Ferrying to the North Island

2010-03-13T14:01:00.002Z

Dad went kayaking in the sea the day after. So we had to wait a day before heading to the ferry. This was a pretty overlook on the way to the ferry.

The ferry was a big boat, and it took awhile to get out to the sea. During our trip we passed a lot of pretty coastline.

Hiking at Golden Bay

2010-03-11T16:03:00.002Z

We went to the north coast of the South Island the next day and drove to Golden Bay, where we went on a hike with the sun setting.

The area was very pretty, and was part of the Abel Tasman National Park, which Dad went kayaking in the next day.

Sunset Point

2010-03-10T19:59:00.003Z

After hiking to the glacier, we drove up to a town called Hokitika where we got to see some kiwis in a wildlife centre. Then we went here to Sunset Point to look up and down the coast.

Glacier hike

2010-03-10T15:54:00.003Z

The next day we hiked up close to a different glacier. This glacier is called Franz Josef, named after a famous Austrian panda who discovered it.

There were a decent number of people doing the hike to the glacier, but I was the only panda we saw surprisingly. This gravel path used to be a lake 40 years ago, but the glacier erosion filled in the lake with rubble. That means we no longer need to swim up to the glacier, as that would be very cold.

Going on the West Coast Highway

2010-03-09T13:32:00.003Z

We were too tired to go to Doubtful Sound the next day. Then Dad went to do scary adventure stuff in Queenstown, so we just hung around the town instead. Finally we moved on towards the west coast. We had some great scenery while we were driving.

We did a swamp walk during the drive and Bill eyed the swamp hungrily for delicious water bugs.

We ended the day by visiting Fox Glacier. The glacier looked very black and white, just like a panda.

Here I am in all my glorious beauty before the glacier. I am definitely the more impressive thing, but the glacier was kind of cool too.

After all our driving and hiking that day, we got tired and collapsed at the hotel.

Walking around Lake Manapouri

2010-03-07T11:34:00.002Z

We went for a walk before leaving Te Anau and stopped by a lake, where Grandma posed with us for a picture.

Taieri Gorge train trip!

2010-03-05T15:43:00.002Z

Today we took a scenic train trip through Taieri Gorge, near Dunedin.

It was a bit rainy but the gorge was very pretty.

At the end of the day we drove to Te Anau, and fell asleep exhausted there!

Penguin spotting

2010-03-04T17:56:00.002Z

We flew down from Auckland to Dunedin and went to visit some penguins. They had a very lovely coloring, though one of them in this picture was molting.

We stayed the night at the penguin reserve, and it looked like we had a nice view out of the window. Sadly we were too short to see well even when we tried to lift each other up.

Meeting up with Mary

2010-03-03T20:23:00.003Z

We went over to Mary's house after the island. We met Mary in Sheffield but now she lives in Auckland. Her sofa was very blue.

She had a neat little balcony for us to get some fresh air on.

Mary made me a cup of tea as I was thirsty after all that climbing.

Here's Mary reunited with her laptop (and us!). Doesn't she look happy to see us!

Mary was holding Bill so she could take a picture of the city behind him.

Rangitoto Island - A volcano up close!

2010-03-03T13:15:00.002Z

On our second full day in Auckland we took the ferry to Rangitoto Island, a volcanic island in the harbor.

That's Auckland from behind us as we took the ferry. You can see the Sky Tower we climbed yesterday - it's the tall one.

The island was pretty cool - there was a lot of volcanic rocks, trees, birds, and some caves to explore. Plus lots of pretty views like this one.

We had to drink a lot of water as there was a lot of hiking on the island.

Below us is some of the volcanic soil and rocks. Off in the distance is Auckland. It looks so far away from there!

Auckland - The city of rocks

2010-03-02T13:10:00.003Z

We arrive in Auckland after two very long flights, and went to the hotel room. Thankfully we had our own ledge where we could put all our stuff.

This is a few of Auckland from the top of its large tower, the Sky Tower. Somewhere out there in Auckland are lots of volcanic hills. The city is built on top of them, so it is a city of volcanic rocks. At least that's how we like to think of it.

I looked down and saw some people walking around the outside of the tower with harnesses and fashionable orange jumpsuits. I wanted to do it but Dad did not think they would have one that fit me.

Off to New Zealand

2010-02-27T17:34:00.002Z

We decided to take a trip to New Zealand to meet a kiwi or two.

Dad got us first class train tickets down to London, so it was very posh.

We were bringing Mary her laptop, so we got to use it on the way there to watch TV on the train.

Birthday panda-bread?

2010-02-16T19:23:00.001Z

This is a bread that Sarah made for Dad's birthday. She said it was supposed to look like a panda on the inside, but that confused expression on my face says it all.

York Cub camp

2010-02-14T13:06:00.002Z

The camping trip was with the cub pack, and we went to a scout camp near York.

It was very pretty at the camp, though there were farms all around the camp.

Here we are getting ready to go home. I can't wait to get back to my normal bed!

Camping trip

2010-02-13T22:02:00.002Z

We went on a camping trip to York this weekend. It meant backpacking...

and sleeping in our sleeping bag. It was great fun!

Pre-New Year's

2009-12-30T16:32:00.002Z

Before New Year's, we went down to the beach. I found a good bedspread to practice my camouflage skills on, though Strange Panda stuck out a bit too much.

Once we left the bed to go look outside at the ocean. Home is way across there somewhere.

You could see a long way down the beach. It was very pretty.

My direction was not quite as pretty, though I got to see a long pier instead.

Visiting Paul, Keiko and Ray

2009-12-29T22:43:00.001Z

After Christmas we stayed with Uncle Paul and Aunt Keiko in our cousin Ray's bed.

It was a very comfortable bed as you can see.

Santa's arrival

2009-12-25T11:39:00.003Z

Santa showed up, but he was a lot shorter than we thought he would be.

Bill couldn't tell which was the real Santa!

With Santa here we could start opening presents up. Bill was sneaking over to open some of Ray's presents up.

Later we had Christmas dinner, and Bill got a nice hat to wear from a cracker.

Christmas!

2009-12-25T09:37:00.003Z

For Christmas we went to the US, and Bill got to meet Strange Claus, also known as Father Panda.

After I got dressed up Bill wanted to also, so he became a stocking stuffer.

The tree looked really big from down there.

And there were so many presents!

Beautiful bowls together at last

2009-12-12T19:15:00.000Z

Dad finally got around to making a bowl of my lovely face as well, so now there is the perfect set, just like the two of us together.

Our bowls were very popular at the Christmas dinner.

My bowl - it's the best!

2009-12-12T15:14:00.001Z

My face is so gorgeous, and you can see my little tail sticking out the top.

Here you can see my bill and feet which go over the edge of the bowl.

Here's half of the bottom of the bowl - with a tree with a tiny SP climbing it and the sun.

On the other half of the bottom there are yummy water bugs for me to eat.

Thanksgiving dinner

2009-11-29T23:38:00.002Z

Dad cooked us a big dinner for Thanksgiving this year, so we all got to eat lots of food.

There was nothing left at the end except the paper turkey and pumpkin. Strange Panda tried to eat the pumpkin but he said it didn't taste good.

Marathon all finished

2009-11-01T15:05:00.000Z

Here we are all kitted up in our marathon clothes - Strange Panda wore the shirt and I had a the number on.

After we finished they wrapped us up in a heat sheet to stay warm and gave us this shiny medal.

Here we are with our medal again.

New York Marathon - here we come

2009-10-30T11:38:00.001Z

So we got to take another trip to the US. This time we went there so we could run in the New York Marathon. We stayed with Dad's friend from college, Carmen, in New Jersey.

A lot of the preparation involved waiting and trying not to get injured. So here we are checking our email.

We also did lots of resting of course.

And we made a new friend Chloe the cat who also liked resting.

We also watched a bit of TV. Anything to keep busy and not get hurt.

Fun in the sun

2009-08-01T14:28:00.002+01:00

The family took a trip to the beach, where we got to do some nice resting, as you can never do too much.

The beach cottage was right by the ocean. We could look out the window to see lots of waves.

Unfortunately we couldn't see any sea-platypuses or sea-pandas from the window.

Visiting the grandparents

2009-07-23T21:25:00.002+01:00

We got to visit our grandparents and do lots more resting at their house.

Room with a View

2009-07-12T22:50:00.002+01:00

Our hotel room had a little balcony which we could sit on and watch the garden below.

There was a nice fountain which played music down below that we could watch too.

Off to the US

2009-07-12T20:06:00.002+01:00

We packed ourselves in Dad's bag for another trip to the US.

When we got there I was very tired so I went to bed, but Strange Panda ran around the hotel room a lot.

Garden of Delight!

2009-07-06T12:55:00.003+01:00

The best part about the fancy garden was the bamboo forest it had!

It's so hard to find good bamboo in England, so I had a feast of bamboo from this garden.

Fancy house on a hill

2009-07-06T12:50:00.003+01:00

On our last day we went to a fancy house on a hill and walked around their gardens. They had a lot of flowers.

They also have a fountain that Lindsay, Maria, Strange Panda and I posed in front of. Dad took this picture while we were all primping our hair.

This is the final picture, with us all looking gorgeous.