The Harrisons

We are pleased to announce that our second son Jesse Jireh Harrison was born on 17 October 2011.

Greetings from Minneapolis!  We moved to the Mid-West at the end of July, and are now living with Edelweiss’ Mom in her apartment.

I wanted to do a final update with some details for the technically minded.

As far as technology goes, the trip went great as well. I wasn't quite sure how the data roaming bill would end up, so before I left I set up my trusty Nokia N95 with all the maps we would need around Europe, and I tried to use free wifi where I could.

The mapping worked amazingly well. Getting lost seems to be a thing of the past. We might not have always been exactly where we wanted to be, but with Anna on the phone (with the help of a physical map often), we always got to where we needed to (helped by not often "needing" to get anywhere.
The worst part of the whole mapping side of things was that I missed downloading Belgium and Ireland maps. Using the Nokia N95 built in mapping meant the phone didn't need to connect and although I prefer looking at Google Maps, it kept track of us the entire time.

As for data roaming. I was annoyed. We started off the trip, trying to use McDonalds free wifi where we could, but it was a little hit & miss. And usually we bought food, which started getting expensive for free wifi. At the turning point in our trip (the quick drive across France), I decided price didn't matter and we started just connecting whenever we needed to. Technically, the data connections were fine, it all "just worked".

When we got back I was full of dread opening the bill - to find our entire data roaming bill was around $10. I was annoyed that I hadn't used it from the start & more frequently! I've heard a number of data roaming horror stories but using my N95 to download text email resulted in a bill less than we were spending at each McDonalds.

On the way home we had a long stop over in Brunei, from 8 in the morning to 10 at night.

We took the opportunity to take a tour of Brunei, when we arrived in the airport, there was a free one hour tour which we were advised to take before deciding on a longer tour. We did that and had a good trip around the city, then we headed back into the airport to book our next tour. Only to be told we were only allowed out of the airport once! So with twelve hours still to wait, we were a little dissapointed! Thankfully, the airport seems to be run by a group of very young, eager, twenty-something year olds, who spoke nicely to the customs people and we found ourselves back outside again!

The tours were definitely worth while with some amazing sights and a little propoganda. The Sultan is not only very wealthy but also very generous to his native Bruneians. Gold is everywhere, petrol cheap as chips (50c/L), healthcare is only $1 - regardless of what needs to be done. The Sultan has 7,000 cars and employs people to start them every day. Back in 1972 Queen Elizabeth visted, so the Sultan built her a palace and gifted it to her. So she used it for the visit and to this day there are staff to keep the palace clean & tidy, although it has never been used since. We heard many such stories like this - it was truly a facinating place to visit.

That was the end of our trip. The whole trip was amazing, from one exciting place to the next. We look forward to talking about for the next 20 years of our lives!

Well today was Darren's day so you don't really need to ask what we did. That's right we drove. After another great breakfast we went across to Killarny on the other coast of Ireland which took all of an hour, then we drove around the lovely Ring of Kerry stopping to look at waterfalls, amazing views over sea and valleys and we even took a couple of minor (really minor!) roads over passes - mostly single lane only just wider than the car. The landscape for the whole day has been rocky. Farmland littered with stones of all sizes. The paddocks seem so full of rock and tussock grass there hardly seemed room for anything else. In the passes there were rugged rock faced mountains all around us similar to Queenstown. It was truly worth a look.

I saw a sign today which I meant to comment on after France. A deer warning on the road. Despite there being deer warning signs almost continously through France, we didn't see a single one. I think they were making it up. I also need to comment on Ireland's road numbering. They love numbering their roads. This is usually quite helpful however they may have gone a bit overboard, as we came to quite a number of intersections where all three roads leaving the junction were the same number - this turns from helpful to total confusion. Today as we were driving we had some spots of rain. We haven't had this before on this trip, so maybe we'll go home now. Tomorrow we head to London, the next day we'll start the journey home.

So before we leave for Ireland we have to say something else about our Guernsey hosts, Jordan and Hannah. They were amazing, sorting things out for us, loaning the van, giving up work, convincing their friends to take us places, showing us around, lending us everything we needed for Europe, arranging ferries (& then rearranging!), amazing bbq's, giving us something amazing to do every single day we were there, and providing perfect sunshine days. Thanks is not enough. So after one more bbq Monday night we got up early Tuesday morning on yet another perfect blue sky island day and flew to Ireland with half a day stop off at Gatwick airport.

We got up early and made our way to St Malo, easily finding the ferry terminal. The trip over was quick & direct to Guernsey & we were the first car to get off.

We got up early to explore the famous garden of Monet. The temperature has dropped today and it was very cold. We had to dig out the thermals again. The garden was stunning, full of colourful bulbs and blossom trees, we think it was the perfect time of the year to see it. Crowds of people though, being only a short distance from Paris. It turned out the garden was smaller than we had anticipated and it really only took an hour to get through, so now we are leisurely heading back to the coast, through beautiful countryside, covered in fields of bright yellow flowers.

We left Brugge the next morning, and travelled south along the coast. It is a hugely populated coastline with numerous cities with multi storey hotels and appartments right next to the beaches. We drove in, out and around towns large and small which took a long time to cover a small distance. We found a couple of great spots to relax in the van, one in particlular where we spent a couple of hours at the end of the day, with an amazing view out over the ocean. We saw a crowd gathering at "Cap Gris-Nez" so followed them expecting something remarkable and found it was just a few lookouts over the ocean - rather dull for kiwis! We waited around till 8pm for the "dinner hour" and found a lovely restaurant in a quaint sea side village. We had thought we were doing quite well with French - until we looked at their menu. The phrase book helped a little and we managed to avoid the shell fish we saw our neighbours eating, and Anna's desert came out on fire (literally) and she had to wait for it to go out before eating it. Today we have spent in a similar fashion, driving along the coast, stopping in at some war monuments which are scattered along this area, especially around Dunkirk. The Germans left a lot of concrete behind! Today we found out what happens when you are in a supermarket when it closes for lunch. Especially when you don't understand (and so ignore) any closing announcements, oops! Tomorrow we are going to Monet's Garden.