Hi all! I'm back from my very short trip to New Zealand, having had a wonderful time & doing all that I had most hoped for- seeing my Dad's 83 year old sister & visiting their old homestead, about which I had heard so many stories, were my priorities. I also met a lot of my first cousins & their families, saw a lot of the North Island as I bused from one cousin to another. I found graves of great-grandparents & saw that of my 3G grandmother, the first to be buried in the Eskdale Cemetery near Napier, was shown beautiful portraits of my grandmother's parents & of course recorded these with my digital camera. In both Napier & Wellington, I was able to meet up with distant cousins who were also into genealogy & they were all very kind in taking me to see the graves & showing me things it would have taken days to find on my own. I had several things I couldn't fit in, like meeting up with internet acquaintances, including Ron Curtis from this list and spending more than overnight in Gisborne where I was born- not to even mention South Island! Glad I decorated my tree before I left- now easing back to reality! Pam Pam Fairweather Thomson Sechelt, BC, Canada [email protected]