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Gap Year RTW
Hey guys, this an area where ill post my pictures and 'blogs' as dais and myself travel round the world. I have tried to attach a map with our route, but for those unsure where we are heading our initerary is as follows;Adam and Dais
1st September - Fly to Buenos Aires (Argentina) before travelling overland through Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Chile.
1sh December - Fly from Santiago (Chile) to Auckland (NZ), where we will spend around six weeks in both north and south islands
17th Jan - Fly Christchurch to Melbourne (Oz). We plan to spend around 4 months in Oz, visiting both east and west coasts, and working for 2 months or so.
May/June - Perth to Hong Kong, then Hong Kong to Bangkok. We will then spend around three months travelling through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, before flying back to the UK.
We look forward to sharing our stories with those interested, and would always appreciate any advice and updates from the UK throughout the year.
cheers,
ad
Route Map
Travel Blog Posts
May 7th 2009
After driving down from Cairns we finally made it to Brisbane to do something we really didn’t want to do....work! Daisy had a job lined up to do some physio work, whilst I managed to find a job as a removal man! I could go on about our wonderful jobs and how much we loved them, but instead ill fill you in on what we did outside of work. Brisbane is a really nice city, although smaller and less glamorous than Melbourne or Sydney, the weather is way better as it’s in Queensland. The city is built around a river, so has a great feel to it, with the CBD over looking the water, with parks and gardens along the river banks. After finding a house to live in we spent our time exploring the city ... read more
Bruce Almighty - the roadtrip!
Published: April 16th 2009Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Whitsundays
April 16th 2009
So we finished up in Cairns after a successful week - Daisy had her job and start date in Brisbane confirmed; we had our car sorted out; the floods on the roads had cleared, and we were ready to drive over 1700kms in around two weeks, following the mammoth Bruce Highway that spans the top of the country to the bottom. The weather was really improving and the further south we headed the less it would rain, especially when we got south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Driving through Queensland is very memorable, as most of the time the Bruce Highway resembles nothing more than a UK country/A-road, which winds and through miles and miles of sugarcane fields and forests, and for miles the colour green is all that you can see. First major stop was ... read more
April 14th 2009
So we headed out of Melbourne's sweltering heat and into far north Queensland's torrential rain, cyclones and floods - it was quite literally out of the frying pan and into the fire, and it really hit home not only how diverse the weather is in Australia, but also how devastating with the effects are as in both Victoria and Queensland it was fatal and tragic. We flew into Cairns as Daisy had work lined up in Brisbane, and we firstly set about buying a car (an estate car so we could sleep it in, but in Australia its a "Station wagon") so we could drive down the coast. Cairns was very wet, but also very hot and humid, and it was difficult sleeping in such humidity, but as we were in the tropics we couldn’t really ... read more
April 6th 2009
After our road trip on the Great Ocean Road we headed to Melbourne. Melbourne is a great city, and is described in a lot of our books as the 'most livable city' in Australia and it’s not hard to see why. It has such a diverse range of places from the hustle and bustle of the CBD, to the river banks, parks, boutique shopping areas, bohemian areas such as Brunswick Street and the seaside district of St Kilda, all accessible by the cities cool tram system. For us the first thing on our itinerary was something we had been looking forward to for a long time.....a music festival called the Big Day Out. We headed out early morning to the racegrounds to catch the likes of the Arctic Monkeys, The Prodigy, Pendulum and TV on the ... read more
March 10th 2009
And so to Australia! From the start this was one destination we both agreed we were definately going to visit, and we were finally here, touching down in Melbourne. Due to bad planning on our behalf, we hadnt realised it was the tennis open in melbourne the same week, and as a result the hostel prices were sky high and most places booked out, so we hired a campervan (our hippie camper!) and headed down the Great Ocean Road. The name pretty much says it all, as it is a road that hugs the victorian coast, winding in and out of bush land whilst constantly following beautiful beaches and blue skies! We first hit Torquay, a famous surf beach at the start of the road lined with billabong and quicksilver shops, plus hundreds of surfers and ... read more
From Scotland to Whales and beyond; the last days of NZ
Published: March 9th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Kaikoura
March 9th 2009
After Leaving Dunedin and heading north towards Christchurch we decided that as we had the time we would drive via Mt Cook and the southern alps (again), as although we could see both from the west coast and the glaciers, this time it would give us the opportunity to get much close and take a great scenic drive. The weather was good so we headed inland and stayed close to Mt Cook village, where the scenery is stunning, and took the short drive up to the village (which doubles as base camp for most people climbing the mountain, and also homes the Sir Edmund Hillary centre). As we drive the alps became bigger and bigger and the view was breathtaking, that was until we arrived in the centre of the village and the clouds came over ... read more
Scotland in the South Pacific.....apparently
Published: March 5th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Dunedin
March 5th 2009
Despite the natural beauty of the Fiordland Naional Park, the constant rain had driven our camping experience down, and we were eager to find some sun (or no sun for that matter, as long as the ground wasn't like a swamp and we weren't kept up all night with the drumming of rain!) so we headed to the city of Dunedin, which is known as NZ's "Scottish city" as it is twinned with Edinburgh. As I have never been to Scotland I cant say the similarities stood out - I guess it is more of a historical tie, however there was a statue of Robert Burns and several tacky Scottish tourist shops (tartan kilt and ginger wig anyone???), so there is obviously an attraction for some! However Dunedin is mainly known as one of NZ's biggest ... read more
Rain, rain, rain and then some more rain.
Published: March 5th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Fiordland National Park » Te Anau
March 4th 2009
We headed down to Te Anau from Queenstown and had around a week to burn before we started the Kepler Track, one of New Zealand's seven 'Great Walks' which we had booked onto. After a day looking round Te Anau, which is unsurprisingly beautiful being on the fringes of the Fiordland National Park, we decided to take a trip up to the famous Miford Sound and into the park, as we had heard bad forecasts for later in the week, so began our trip as soon as we could. The drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is stunning (and according to our guide book one of, if not THE most beautiful drive in the world), and we decided to do the trip slowly to really soak it all in. We camped on our first night ... read more
March 4th 2009
As you can tell from the title, we arrived in Queenstown quite some time ago now, Christmas Eve to be precise. Queenstown is a stunning place in the South of NZ, and due to its natural beauty and the number of activities on offer is a tourist mecca all year round, be it for skiing in winter of sightseeing in summer. One thing it was not however, is 'Christmassy' - Christmas felt more like a day off for most Queenstown folk than it did a big celebration of meaningful event. However we couldnt complain as we were camping on the lake overlooking the Remarkable mountain range, whilst having a Christmas BBQ (to make a change for once!). Queenstown is a lovely town, buildt overlooking a large lake in the surrounds of numerous mountains, but the reason ... read more
From Beaches to Glaciers!
Published: February 10th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast
February 10th 2009
After arriving into Picton via Marlborough Sounds we headed across to the West coast of the south island to begin our trip down south. The first stop was the Abel Tasman National Park, which we knew would be different from most NZ national parks, as this one was mainly beaches and coast line (and not mountains!), and at first we thoughts it would be good, but nothing special.....how wrong we were. It turned out to be one of the most stunning and memorable days we had. We started our day from the southern section of the park, and took a water taxi up to the north end, and witnessed Split Apple rock on route, and a small seal colony, plus fantastic views of the green hills rolling striaght into sandy beaches and turqoise water. We spent ... read more
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