The drive to Mount Cook is impressive in itself before you even get to the mountains. You pass through beautiful lake districts like Lake Tekapo & can see the snowcapped mountains looming in the distance for most of the journey. We were fortunate enough to have fine weather when we were going so the water in the lakes looked a pretty turquoise colour....as a result of the rock that's in them. They are surreal looking. Huge lakes. We stayed in the hostel in Mount Cook but it was late by the time we arrived & Grace had a sore foot so [View Full Entry]

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Arthur's Pass was a bit of a disaster for us.....& we did just as the name suggested....we passed through fairly quickly. It just wasn't meant to be. After driving for most of the day to get there in our Nissan, we were lucky to get to the hostel hidden away in the mountains, miles away from civilisation. We'd been getting a strong smell of freshly baked bread for quite a while, which was getting progressively worse the more hills we had to climb in the car. I'm no Delia Smith now....I eat bread & love it but certainly don't have a [View Full Entry]

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Nelson was a by-the-way-stop as in we might as well go there since we're up this far. It's a nice city up the north of the island that's near to the beach & a national park called Abel Tasman. We used it as a rest-stop. I know we're on holiday for a year & often I do forget how lucky I am that I haven't to work for a year but you do get tired when travelling too...& fed-up at times. So we stayed in a hostel called the Traveller's Rest I think for 2 nights & just hung around. About [View Full Entry]

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It's a treat driving in this country cause having driven the west coast of Australia, distances don't seem far unless you've to do about a 1000km in one day- which never happens here. The only thing slowing us down are the windy roads. We arrived in Picton to stay in a lovely hostel called "Tombstone". It's so nice to stay in places where the owners are still enthusiastic about their business because it makes your stay so much better. This hostel is themed on the graveyard notion because it's across the road from one so it has a door shaped like [View Full Entry]

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Where do I start?! Nearly 2 weeks here in New Zealand now & I can't say a bad thing about it. It's funny cause when you arrive somewhere you always feel like you've loads of time to explore but when you actually try to break down your time, well.....it's hard to fit in everything!! When we arrived in to Christchurch we spent our first day wandering about the city. It was an unwelcome rainy start but that didn't deter us in finding our way to the supermarket & to our pleasant surprize, everything seems cheap again....well cheaper than home which is [View Full Entry]

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It was only in the last month that we booked the flights for Tasmania on the recommendation that we couldn't come this far & not go to Tasmania. Thankfully we had the time. We arrived early on the Sunday morning & left on the Thursday so we didn't have time to be lounging about. We rented ourselves a small car to get us around....."Mellow Yellow" was the car. It was so cool having our own wheels again. You have so much freedom & because we were in a hurry to try see as much as possible in the time we had, [View Full Entry]

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Arrived here a little frazzled after what seemed like a night in an ice-box.....the bus. Air-con has its pros & cons.....at night when you're trying to sleep it is advisable to ensure that you layer your clothing otherwise you are gauranteed a sleepless night. ln my case the shivering stopped at irregular intervals only when the bus stopped for a break & the bus returned to a normal temperature. I know I shouldn't complain seen as you're in the depths of winter at home. Originally we'd planned to stay in St. Kilda but couldn't get a room there so we stayed [View Full Entry]

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It's over a week ago since we arrived here & it seems to have flown by.......& it's amazing how my initial impression of this place has well exceeded my expectations. I'll paint the picture for you. You see we arrived here from the mountains to the very impressive Sydney skyline & harbour & then to an idyllic beach town with a bustling atmosphere......so we were very excited......but it was with depression that we checked into the party-house of a hostel that we now call "home". We even tried ringing elsewhere last minute to avoid the inevitable. On first sight of the [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in the Blue Mountains to a heavy mist & 2 meter visibility wasn't the worst of it...it was the rain & the cold that was the killer...so no more begrudgers at home!!!.....Follow this with a quirky hostel with an out-dated heating system & we were very quickly looking at alternative options if things didn't brighten up. Apparently summer has been slow to arrive here in the Blue Mts & there has been about 3 weeks of rain which isn't the best for business & sun-worshipping backpackers......not so much that we bake ourselves under the sun all day but our tolerance [View Full Entry]

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We were going to give here a miss but we'd a few days to play with so on we came to Newcastle.....mainly an industrial city with a harbour & beach.......but you'd never think that it was Christmas here. Normally at this time of year at home the shops would be hopping & open every hour of the day but that doesn't seem to happen here....everything shuts up shop at normal hours & there are no throngs of people rushing around as if the shops are about to close down forever.....it's strange. But I can gladly report that there are Christmas decorations [View Full Entry]

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