The calm before the storm

A couple of days in Brisbane has allowed us to wind down from all of the preparations for this journey. We're resting quite a lot, knowing that things will get very busy once we reach Thailand.

Mr Krisakorn Sukavejvorakit, on behalf of Tuenjai Deetes, has put together a comprehensive 3 week itinerary for us. We arrive in Bangkok on the evening of 11 February. The next day (Karen's birthday!) we will spend in Bangkok before travelling to the Chumphon Cabana eco resort. Some very positive initiatives have been implemented at Chumphon Cabana, including on site water treatment, organic recycling and perhaps most importantly a community development focus. We only have two nights there before heading back to Bangkok and then up to Chiang Rai in the far north of Thailand. We have six days in Chiang Rai and will be visiting the Hill Area Development Foundation (HADF, founded by Tuenjai Deetes) and other initiatives. After Chiang Rai we have two days in Chiang Mai before heading back to Bangkok. Our last week will be spent in the central area of Thailand including our last 3 days at the old city of Ayutaya.

Communication is going to be more of a challenge from now on, with reliance on a dial up global roaming connection through our laptop. However, we will be doing our best to send something for the blog each day.

A little note on how you might help us. We have been very fortunate to have support and assistance in Thailand. This is not guaranteed in all places that we are visiting. If you think you can help in any way please send us a message.

Times on the blog are in NZ time which at present is Current Time Zone offset: GMT/UTC + 13:00 due to our +1:00 hour day light saving. (Michael)

A great story

This is so neat!

While sitting on the plane from NPE to AKL this morning I sat behind a family and felt positive vibes from them (even at 7 am) and wondered what they had been/would be up to (returning home to Auckland from a few days in the Bay visiting friends? - Or taking their kids to the big city for the first days at uni ?). It was too early to ask and I forgot about it becoming busy with my day ahead. So what a surprise to get my question answered and see all of you in the paper that night and read about your exciting expedition; a family on a mission indeed! (we hardly ever read the HB Today but we found one on the drive way this evening so it must have been delivered for a reason !)

I ended up on your web site
(http://www.earthlimited.org/about.html) and I read your thoughts, vision and your attitude to life with great interest.

Positive thinking is indeed the key to better people and hopefully a better world. And indeed each person can make a difference. The "I'm Okay - Your'e Okay" attitude is oh so important and also to convey this positive attitude to life to the people around you including ones children.

Gavin received this email, on Thursday evening, on arrival in Brisbane. (Michael)

Queensland water

We're in Brisbane now with my sister Jill and brother-in-law Nick. Nick has already been talking about the severe water crisis here, which some experts are apparently linking to climate change. The reservoirs that supply Brisbane are down to about 20% of their capacity and dropping. According to Nick water is the No. 1 political issue in SE Queensland now.

At the household level Jill & Nick have installed a water tank to gather rainwater from their garage roof for the garden and have significantly cut water consumption. Apparently there has been about a 40% reduction in water use by households but the reservoirs are still falling.

Brisbane

We have had an enjoyable time in Brisbane city, we traveled in on the new bus only road system, which has encouraged more people to use buses, it was great to see such good initiatives from a major city. The girls cooled off at the inner city 'beach'/pools. The inner city with lots of people, views and food smells - getting us used to what we will be going to in a couple of days - flying to Thailand on the 11th.

birthday boy

"Happy Birthday from Jill and Nick."