Well only a week until we leave & the clothes are still all over the lounge room floor & the stress levels are building - as is the excitement.
Next Friday we fly to Melbourne staying there the night before flying to LA on Saturday with a 2 hour stopover in Auckland (so the kids can say they have been to NZ!). One week there & then off to Costa Rica...

Because Costa Rica is located between 8 and 12 degrees north of the Equator, the climate is tropical year round. However, the country has many microclimates depending on elevation, rainfall, topography, and by the geography of each particular region.
Costa Rica's seasons are defined by how much rain falls during a particular period and not to the four seasons in the Northern Hemisphere. The year can be split into two periods, the dry season known to the residents as summer, and the rainy season, known locally as winter. The "summer" or dry season goes from December to April, and "winter" or rainy season goes from May to November, which almost coincides with the Atlantic hurricane season, and during this time, it rains constantly in some regions.
The location receiving the most rain is the Caribbean slopes of the Central Cordillera mountains, with an annual rainfall of over 5,000 mm (196.9 in). Humidity is also higher on the Caribbean side than on the Pacific side. The mean annual temperature on the coastal lowlands is around 27 °C (81 °F), 20 °C (68 °F) in the main populated areas of the Central Cordilera, and below 10 °C (50 °F) on the summits of the highest mountains.^[25]
Costa Rica Weather Averages ^[26]

Months	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December
High Temperature (C)	27	27	28	28	27	27	27	27	26	26	26	26
Low Temperature (C)	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	17	18	18	18
Precipitation (mm)	6.3	10.2	13.8	79.9	267.6	280.1	181.5	276.9	355.1	330.6	135.5	33.5
Average Percent Sunshine	40	37	39	33	25	20	21	22	20	22	25	34