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The story as written by Robin Weller, aged 6:

“I went to KCC. First we got under a tree because it was raining and we went on a hill and it is called Hamlin Hill. It is half farm, half park, half forest and we planted lots of trees and we walked in the forest and I had fun and I did lots and lots of holes for the trees and there was lots of old trees and the walk was long” .....

While living here in Pukekohe, Hamilton City is not far away and visiting the Waikato museum has been on the cards for several years but has never really been a top priority - but with only several weeks left in Pukekohe I took the chance to head down for a visit. 

Bye bye old website, and hello new Squarespace website

Sitting with our huge array of bags, 150 kg's worth at Istanbul Airport! and getting ready for a 2 day flight home with two little boys, we are crazy sometimes. 

Today is the final full day in Turkey, and I made a decision in that I wouldn’t make any decisions today!

So today Julianne and Grandma are in complete charge.

First up it is the Grand Bazaar, a key place Julianne wanted to visit before we left as she has fond memories from the last visit with Nadia. And instead of walking there as I would have done Grandma made the decision to take the tram, she really likes trams and trains.

Luke & I resting by Iznik Lake in the early morning.

This was the day which was supposed to have the easiest drive, about 3 hours. So I was really looking forward to spending the afternoon relaxing in Istanbul after dropping off the car and maybe heading out to the Grand Bazaar. Well that didn’t work - the gentle 3 hour drive became a very unpleasant 7 hour nightmare.

Robin and I inside the Aya Sofia in Iznik– at the end with the seats for the bishops.

After five really good & emotional full on days here in Canakkale beside the Gallipoli peninsula it is time to move on, and to get back in the car. Today was the latest start on the holiday and we were not away until 11am!

And as we left Chunuk Bair, Robin stopping on his own to take in the memorial to his Great Uncles - incredible moving stuff. He is touching their names.

Julianne and Luke directly after the 100 year anniversary ANZAC Service in Gallipoli.

Last time visited Troy I was on a tour group and it felt very rushed and I promised Julianne & Nadia that I would arrange for us to come back – and today I fulfilled that promise, unfortunately Nadia was not able to make the trip.

Not only was it more fun going through at my own speed, and I was there for about 3 and a half hours but there are lots of Bronze Age ruins – which are just amazing.

A theatre with a view, not for those with a fear of heights at the top of Pergamon looking into modern Bergama.

Today is a short drive, with only a single stop at Sardis and we arrived at around 11am. The Lonely Planet guide talked about the Lydian civilisation that founded Sardis – but there was only Greek, Roman and Byzantine ruins to look at which was disappointing – especially as the visit added several hours to the drive today.

I found the ruins of a Roman aqueduct which had storks nesting in. This I found really brilliant and very cool – Storks nesting in the centre of a town in the ruins of a Roman aqueduct – you couldn’t invent this stuff – brilliant to see.

I have seen lots of Roman ruins over the last couple of weeks, but today is the most famous of them all in Turkey, Ephesus and I can safely say I was under-whelmed. Grandma spent the day relaxing and recharging her batteries after the last busy couple of days by spending her day at the cottage. 

First up was Didyma, where the site is actually one building - the huge Temple of Apollo. The temple was started by the Greeks and was huge and through it was in use for hundreds of years was never actually completed. The temple is a huge Greek temple with this forest of huge pillars around it (and these are the largest pillars I have ever seen let alone the number of them it was just like a forest – would have been impressive 2500 years ago.

The Castle of St Peter was built by the knights of St John (the precursor to the modern St Johns Ambulance Service we have today). It has been a number of years since I have been in a medieval castle, Grandma never been in a castle and Robin being a 5 year old boy was really excited – so it was a fun time.

Today on the road trip we are going to stop at the Roman ruins of Afrodisias, which not surprisingly is named after the Greek goddess of love & beauty – Aphrodite. It was sort of on our way but still adds about an extra hour to our trip but was worth it as there was an amazing very complete huge stadium.

 There is a replica of the mine-layer ship which was involved in the battle that defeated the 16 Allied Battleships which lead to the Gallipoli army landings. Imagine 16 Battleships defeated by forts on the shore and mines – amazing defence by the Turks in 1915 and no wonder they are proud of the work done by the little mine-layers.

Today we headed out to visit Laodicea, a Roman ruin just 8kms down the road. This was an impressive large city with good Roman ruins. There was an impressive Roman road we got to walk down. I am enjoying walking down these Roman roads, when visiting Roman sites in the UK they are all granary’s and villa’s and don’t compare to the large elaborate Roman cites I am visiting here in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.

Months ago I was sitting in on a train heading home to Pukekohe reading the Lonely Planet guide and I saw a picture of people bathing in thermal water in what was the remains of an original Roman spa – and how cool is that. The idea of bathing in the same pool as Romans really caught my attention and is something I really wanted to do but to be honest was something I thought wouldn’t happen as the location was far off the beaten track. But today I got to do it and I was so happy, it’s great how life works out.