A Final sunset over Plymouth?

After a weekend of drinking and eating too much, we decided to get out for a walk along the coast path. The weather had cleared and we there was a clear evening for the first time in about two months! We managed to get a few nice pictures to remind us about the nice bits of Plymouth!

Family Meal

On Saturday 28th July we had a family get together at the Lockyers Quay for a meal. It was a great evening and once again, lots of wine and beer was consumed (so much for keeping fit!)

The weather was absolutely appalling once again, but we were fine once we had all gathered inside the pub. Below are a selection of pictures from the evening.

The Boys!

Mum, Sarah and Hayley

Sarah, James, Hannah and Josh!

Group shot with Norman

Ralph, Cherry, James and Hayley and the Boys!

All the Boys!

Work Night Out

On Friday 27th July I had my farewell work party. There was a great turn out and many pints of guinness were consumed! It was great to say goodbye properly to the people I have worked with over the past five years. Many have become good mates, who I will be keeping in touch with after i have left for NZ. Unfortunately there are no pictures from the evening as i feared i would misplace the camera after too many beers! Farewell A Section.

A weekend in the Brecon Beacons

On Friday we travelled to Trecastle in the Brecon Beacons. We had booked two nights at the Castle Coaching House, where we have stayed twice before. It is a lovely place to stay as it only takes about three hours to drive to the location. It is an ideal location to just get away from all the daily hassles and pressures, which we have got plenty of at the moment!

John and Val run the establishment and they always provide a warm and friendly welcome. The weather in Plymouth was fine when we left, but as we got into Somerset it took a turn for the worse! Torrential rain continued for the remainder of the journey. The M5 had been closed only a junction further on from where we turned off, so we were lucky. The news later reported people having to sleep in their cars due to being stuck in the floods.

We had a lovely meal on Friday night and also too much to drink! The fillet steak is without a doubt the best i have had anywhere. After our meal we sat in the bar and got chatting to two Kiwi's, Rob and Donna. They were from Dunedin on the south island. They gave us some useful information and Hayley had the pleasure of having poetry recited to her by Rob, who fancies himself as the new Charles Dickens! Judging by the look on Hayley's face, I don't think he will be winning any prizes soon!

We planned to spend the day walking in the mountains on Saturday, but the weather was pretty grim. The hill fog was right down and it was raining just for a change!

The forecast suggested that the fog would lift during the afternoon to over 600m, so we planned a route that would take us only slightly higher than that altitude. The forecast was wrong and three hours later we had pulled the plug on the walk. We were soaking wet and the weather was getting worse! We did reach the top of the first mountain at 631m. We could see about fifty yards at the summit!

Saturday evening was spent at our accomodation with another lovely meal but less drink! The weather forecast for Sunday did not seem too bad, so we had planned to go for the high tops of Pen Y Fan etc. Unfortunately, when we woke up and looked out of the window, the weather was even worse than on Saturday. We went downstairs for a hearty breakfast and decided not to even try walking, but instead we would visit Cardiff.

We packed our bags and said goodbye to John and Val. We headed down towards Cardiff, but the closer we got, the worse the weather became! Plan C was to head to Cribbs Causeway shopping centre in Bristol. We headed along the M4 in terrible conditions and decided to carry on to Exeter instead. We spent the afternoon in the town centre and the weather was fine.

It was a nice weekend, but a shame about the weather. I suppose we should be getting used to the rain now as it has rained virtually every day for two months!

A visit to Grandad and Nan Lamble

On Thursday 19th July i drove up to see Grandad and nan Lamble before i jet off to NZ. I was on my own as Hayley was working and Charlie was at school. We spent a nice day together looking through old family photographs, which brought back many childhood memories.

I was also given a beautiful watch, which i will treasure. Bob and Ted, the two dogs, will probably not be sad to see me go. They had great fun trying to bite my ankles and hump my legs!

Last Day At Work

Tuesday 17th July 2007 was my last day at work. Almost five years to the day since I joined the force, i was handing my warrant card back over. It felt a bit strange, but i was secure in the knowledge that i am moving on to better things.

It was also Hayley's last birthday in the UK. We celebrated with a meal upstairs with Sid and Jane, along with lots of wine!

A Meal at Howard and Claire's

After all the effort of the day's walk, we went to Howard and Claire's house for a meal and to plan for the Rescue team Barbeque.

The Dartmoor 600 Challenge!

At 0930 Hours on Thursday 12th July 2007 the challenge of reaching all the 600 metre summits of Dartmoor in a day had started. A few weeks back I had decided to do a final walk on Dartmoor with my best mate, Howard. It was planned to be a nice steady walk in lovely summer conditions, a fitting finale to almost fifteen years of walking and climbing in most of the mountain ranges across Europe together.


The plan had been to start at Meldon Reservoir and knock off all five of the 600 metre summits as well as visiting the most remote location in England and Wales (Fur Tor). The walk is about 18 miles and we had planned to complete it in about six hours.
The omens were not good the day before we started, as the weather forecast was appalling, with heavy rain, high winds and dense hill fog! Ideal conditions for this sort of walk! The drive to the start point should take about 45 minutes, but after being stuck in a queue of traffic behind a tractor for miles, we eventually started walking at 0930hrs.

The weather forecast was not wrong, as we could see about 100metres in the fog. It was very windy and the rain was teeming down. The first target was Yes Tor and High Willhays. A long slog up steep slopes led us fairly easily to the highest point on the moor. The going under foot was wet, but fairly good up to this point, but things then started to go downhill!

The weather really started to close in and it was almost like winter conditions, except it was not cold. The going underfoot became much tougher and our progress was slowed by long tussocky grass, bogs and rivers in near spate conditions.

Our next target was Fur Tor, but we did not reach it until 1235 hours after an absolute slog through nightmare conditions. A short stop here for lunch and it was then decision time. We checked the map and we were still not quite at the halfway point. The next target was Cut Hill, but the terrain was probably going to be worse than we had just crossed. We had a cut off time of 1530 hours and there was no way we were going to make it around in time.

We quickly revised a new route and headed for home. We got back to the car at 1530 hours after a bit of an epic. At about 1500 hours the fog lifted and we at least got a few views of some of the route. It had been horrible conditions, but still a good walk. We had been to the two highest points and the remotest point. The end of an Era!

A Visit to Val, John and Grandma Taylor

Yesterday we visited Aunty Val, Uncle John and Grandma Taylor down in Morval near Looe. It was the last chance James will have to see them before he jets off to New Zealand.

Val laid on a lovely roast Lamb lunch (in preparation for all the lamb we will be eating in NZ!) and a few glasses of wine were sunk!

We went for a wander around Looe in the late afternoon to burn off some of the excess! Jovales is in a beautiful location and it is one of the places we will miss visiting, as it is so cosy and peaceful. We took a few pictures to remember the day. Speak soon!

December 2006 - June 2007

I want to try and fit these six months into as short an entry as i can because so much happened, i could write on here for weeks about it all!

The provisional offer of a job in the New Zealand police arrived by E-Mail on 28th November 2006. I sat down with Hayley and Charlie and we decided to accept and start the immigration process. This took a lot of time and money. To try and get away from the stresses of the application process, Hayley and I booked a week's holiday in the mountains of southern Ireland over Christmas. Unfortunately, things did not work out quite as planned and i injured my knee on one of the mountain descents. We spent Christmas day in Casualty getting my knee X-Rayed and strapped up. I was on crutched for the rest of the week!

Once back in England I had to get an MRI scan of my knee and there were initial fears that i had damaged my cruciate ligament. Thankfully, the scans came back with good results. I had only damaged my medial ligaments and after an intensive period of physio all would be well.

During March we had to all have our medicals completed. They were very thorough medicals and we needed chest X-Rays and blood tests.

I completed my medical first and got the all clear. Hayley and Charlie completed them a week later. Charlie's was fine, but Hayley had a problem with the blood test results. She was slightly anaemic and was put onto a course of Iron tablets and told to get re-tested a month later.

On 27th March 2007 I went to New Zealand House in London and submitted our final application. A few days later we moved out of our house and moved into a granny flat at our friends house. Things were starting to move quickly and then on 17th April 2007 our application was accepted in principle.

The residency visas arrived on 2nd May 2007. All the hard work had been completed and we now had the visas we needed to live and work in New Zealand!

At the time of writing i have ten shifts left at work before I have to hand my badge in. I will update on here regularly so you can watch our adventure unfold.