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DASH dave and ash - DASH

David and I are officially "retired" and have decided to travel the world for a while.
We are starting out in Thailand on Aug 16th, will be meeting up with a few of his friends there and his cousin lives in the north of the country.

Then we are going to travel down into Malaysia and Singapore. Where another friend and his girlfriend will be meeting up with us for a few weeks.

Then we are scheduled to jump over to Bali, which is the only place in the entire world that I must see. Enjoy that island for 10 days and fly over to Australia.
We have 5 weeks to travel down the East coast of Australia and will hopefully get certified to scuba dive in Thailand and be able to see the Great Barrier Reef up close.
Then to New Zealand for just under 4 weeks.
Over to LA for a few days and then finally end up in NY on Dec 23rd.
Just in time for Christmas and to spend it with my family.
We have tickets to go back to Cork, Ireland on Jan 12th.

We have done a ton of research, bought brand new backpacks or rucksacks as Dave calls them, have plenty of bug spray and the camera is ready to go.

We miss out family and our friends a lot...but as my favorite band says... IN THE END MY FRIEND WE WILL ALL BE TOGETHER AGAIN.

Much love to all,
Ashley and Dave

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Joined on: August 2nd 2008
Last Login: September 9th 2009

Blog Entries: 21
Photos: 1013

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by DASH dave and ash, order by Date newest first.

By DASH dave and ash
May 10th 2009

Dave Emmigrates to the US of A North America » United States » Pennsylvania » Philadelphia

David got a GREENCARD!! David was lucky enough to get selected for the lottery system and after a while of gathering paperwork and getting specific photos taken and paying lots of money. . . . HE HAS A GREENCARD!!!!!!!!!! I did not know how the whole lottery process worked so I did some research. Every year the US allows a certain number of visas to be given out to different countries as a way to diversify America. Dave has been entering the lottery for a few years now since its free to enter and would be a good opportunity to come [View Full Entry]

By DASH dave and ash
December 20th 2008

Kia Ora New Zealand Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

1
we snuck down to see this termal pool

Our days are winding down quickly in New Zealand. We drove the long drive from Wellington to Rotorua. It is kind ofdifficult to pronounce the town names because a lot of them are Maori words and we never heard of the words before. Needless to say we butchered a lot of the town names. Rotorua is basically known for smelling like rotten eggs. Kidding, they have a lot of thermal pools and they smell like rotten eggs!!! It is amazing to see so many clouds of smoke rising from the ground and i still do not fully understand how and why [View Full Entry]

By DASH dave and ash
December 14th 2008

ExploringNZ Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Franz Josef

1
AnAmerica' sCupBoat

The first place on this blog was a place called puzzling world in Wanaka. When we first arrived we went into a huge maze and Dave and I raced to see who could get out fastest. you can guess who you think won! there was a room where a pool ball went up a slanted table, and faces followed you when you walked, and a lot of Escher pictures. Then we had a bit of a drive to a place called Fox Glacier. It was pouring rain so we kinda had a reading day in the campervan and relaxed. We also [View Full Entry]

By DASH dave and ash
December 7th 2008

Watching seals, saving a hedgehog, eating chocolate and bungy jumping! Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown

1
here are the fur seals

So continuing where I left off. Down the road from the amazing boulders was a place where you could watch fur seals. We weren't expecting to see too much but thought we would check it out. There were a lot of lazy seals all over the rocks! I guess they are pretty predictable and they sunbathe and sleep on the rocks daily. We got pretty close to them, and then decided to back it up a bit as its their territory. Some were hopping around like they, some were fighting and lots were sleeping or keeping an eye on us. After [View Full Entry]

By DASH dave and ash
December 7th 2008

Driving through the South Island Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Lake Tekapo

1
our big ass van

The campervan is huge but has everything we need. It has a shower, tiolet, bed, sink...we didnt get the linen with the van...so the first 2 nights we slept with towels covering us and a few layers and FROZE!!! We eventually found a shop that sold sleeping bags and now there is no problems! After picking up the car, filling it with fuel and food, we drove to Lake Tekapo which is a bit inland. The drive was beautiful and the roads were lined with colorful flowers and eventually we saw our first snow-capped mountains ahead of us!! We of course [View Full Entry]

By DASH dave and ash
November 28th 2008

Maori Country Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland

2
About to go to the observation deck on the Sky Tower in Auckland

The flight from australia to NZ was painless with no delays or complications as we seem to be prone to. Dave booked a hostel for our first night, as we landed around 930 pm and got into town after 11pm. There was one problem, we never wrote down the exact name of the hostel and wound up trying to book into a place we had no reservations for. Dave checked his email and saw we were at the completly wrong place, and had about a 10 minute walk over to the right place. By this time we were so tired because [View Full Entry]

By DASH dave and ash
November 28th 2008

Down Under in Sydney Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Opera House

1
finally arriving in Sydney after driving just over 4,000km down the coast.

Sydney, Sydney, Sydney. This city is very big and bustlinig with businessmen and women and also lots and lots of tourists like us. So we still had our fabulous campervan as we drove into the city. Imagine this big camper trying to dodge the people jaywalking, not having a clue where we are and me navagating. We had to drive the van into the city to fond somewhere to ship our didgeridoos home. After trying Fed-Ex who quoted us over 600 Australian dollars....which we said thanks but no thanks to, we found a place to send them for 99 AD each. [View Full Entry]

By DASH dave and ash
November 27th 2008

Pit stops along the East Coast Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane

1
a large person in bed...at the modern art museum

So we travelled back into Brisbane and stayed there for a night. We met up with Daves friend from college, Don, who recently moved here for a bit. We also visited the Gallery of Modern Art while we were here. This was when the rain started and we could have kissed our tans goodbye. Next on the itinerary was Surfers paradise. But it happened to be a wash out because the rain was relentless our 2 nights there. We had planned on learning how to surf here and also to visit a theme park and ride some big rollerclasters. Unfortunately the [View Full Entry]

By DASH dave and ash
November 27th 2008

CRIKEY, Steve Irwin Day at the Australia Zoo Oceania » Australia » Queensland

1
YEAH what luck we have coming here on Steve Irwin Day

Today was the day in our itinary that we decided to go to the Australia Zoo. We turned up there and there were signs saying Today is Steve Irwin Day 2008...YEAH This was a great surprise. It meant that there were a lot more interactive things to do today to celebrate Steve Irwin. This zoo is by far the best zoo we have ever been to. It is very hands on, and the animals seem to be really taken care of here. There was a show where Terri, Steve's wife, came out and did a whole demonstration of feeding a croc [View Full Entry]

By DASH dave and ash
November 24th 2008

With the backpackers in Airlie Beach Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Airlie Beach

1
a walk on the beach...I cannot remember the name of the town we are in here.

We are continuing our journey down the East Coast of Oz. The good thing about having our own campervan is A, we can sleep/eat in it for cheap and B, we have the freedom to pull over and look at the beautiful sights. During the drive we usually planned a pit stop near a beach and took a walk on the sand and had a sneak peak of the town. We arrived in Airlie Beach...a gas station attendant told us we HAD to go there. But it seems like Australians all think that whatever town they are living in is "Paradise." [View Full Entry]

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