Leaving on a jet plane

This is the blog of Malc & Liz and is all about our trip to the UK, Europe and America.
We have given up our jobs for this experience so mean to give it our very best shot.
It's been a long time coming.....our trip I mean, but suddenly it's upon us and we leave New Zealand tomorrow, destined for London Heathrow and there's still so much to do in readiness of our departure so this first post will be very brief.
The aim of the blog is threefold. Firstly it's an opportunity for us to share our trip with friends and family. Secondly it's somewhere to post our photos, of which I suspect that there will be many. And thirdly it's somewhere for us to share our travel tips....what we've done right and where we went wrong, so that others can learn the ups and downs of a budget trip around Europe.
We've pre-booked flights through the Flight Centre in Hastings NZ, covering our air travel between NZ and the UK and then onward to Minneapolis USA, with assistance from Daniel Nightingale. We still have to arrange for flights from the USA back home to NZ but we'll look at that when we're in London. We also pre-booked 3 weeks of car hire with Avis through Flight Centre who got us a good deal. (NZ$750 for 21 days hire - unlimited mileage.) We took out extra cover for excess insurance for the car hire through our travel insurer D U Insure - for NZ$55. Our total travel insurance bill was NZ$930.08 which covers the two of us and our luggage, medical insurance, personal liability, cancelations, emergency evacuation cover etc for a 6 month period.
Our accommodation in the UK has all been arranged and will be a combination of staying with friends and family, some airbnb bookings and one night in a luxury hotel - to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement.
The UK leg of our trip will take in the city of Sheffield and village of Grenoside, where Malc spent the first 26 years of his life, followed by a road trip taking in Oxford, various places in Cornwall - including a visit to the Eden Project and a matinee performance of Midsummer Nights Dream at the Minack theatre - on a cliff top , a stop off in Axminster to dine at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Canteen for Sunday lunch, a night in Bournemouth, a few days exploring the Folkestone area (where the TV series the Darling Buds of May was filmed), Leicester - a visit with Malc's cousin Phil and finally Ipswich/Harwich.
After the 3 weeks whistle stop tour of the UK we're booked on the ferry from Harwich to Rotterdam, Netherlands and again have booked via airbnb for a week in historic Delfshaven. We'll use this as a base for daytrips to out laying areas.
After Rotterdam nothing has been booked so we'll be winging it. The world is our oyster - or at least western Europe is our oyster and we're going to have fun cracking it.
On our wish list are the countries of Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, France and Spain (possibly Portugal if time permits) before returning to the UK for our flight to the USA. - and the wedding of our eldest son Will to the lovely Annie.
So in all it's 6 or maybe 7 months of travel. Lots of people to meet, places to see, food and drink to sample, experiences to be had and enjoyed.
We hope that we will be able to inform and entertain you along the way.