DaleandBella

Kaikoura is a good stop for tourists. It's all about the sea - and what lives beneath it. We booked a whale watching tour the morning after we arrived, and managed to get last minute places. The tour lasted 3 hours and, although very expensive, was well worth it as we got to see three sperm whales. The sperm whale is massive and can survive under water for around 2.5 hours before it has to come up for air. Once up on the surface it usually stays up for around 5 - 10 minutes spurting water from it's blow hole before taking an almighty plunge underwater back to where it came from deep below. The depth of the water in the area we were taken out to was around 3kms deep - staggering. And unerving to ... read more

We arrived at Dunedin early afternoon and had just about enough time to look around the town before everything closed. Dunedin is a relatively old Scottish settler town with lots of classic victorian architecture scattered around the 'Hexagon' (city centre). Now it's a bustling tourist destination being at the start of the Otago Peninsula known for it's wildlife sightings of seals, yellow-eyed penquins and albatross. our campsite was located between the two, the plan being to visit Otago the next day. As it happened we had our first rainstorm since we arrived the following day, which pretty much put a stop to our Otago Peninsula tour so we decided to jump in our van and begin the long drive up the East Coast to Banks Peninsula close to where we had flown into (Christchurch). It took ... read more

After our shakey drive down from the Cadrona ski slopes, we didn't want to drive too far that evening to our next destination. The plan had been to drive on to Queenstown, but after an hour of driving we decided to pull into a town called Franktown to find somewhere (free) to park the van. We did manage to find a nice little spot next to a massive lake which was tucked away from the town, and there were public toilets not far. It did actually have a sign saying no camping but a local told us that it only really applied to the summer when the towns are teaming with tourists....so we risked it. And the light was fading anyway.... Over the other side of the lake we could see lights as if there was ... read more

On the drive to Mount Cook we had beautiful weather and fantastic scenery. Just 1 hour before the Mount Cook National Park is Lake Tekapo - a beautiful still lake reflecting the mountainous scenery around it. We just went snap happy - everywhere we looked was a view worth capturing. At the lake we met a group of lads making their way down to Queenstown from Christchurch (a mamouth 10 hour journey). We were glad we would be having a night in Mount Cook to break the journey. There is a pretty little church perched on the rock face overlooking Lake Tekapo, and a statue a bit further down of a Collie dog....it was almost impossible to set off further than half a kilometer down the road before we stopped for more photos. Eventually we pulled ... read more

We had an early flight to Hervey Bay and once landed we picked up our hire car to make the 3 hour drive up to Agnes Water. Hervey Bay would be our base for the following two days, but to start with we had booked a tour of Lady Musgrave Island further up the coast to see the Great Barrier Reef first hand. The drive to Agnes Water was scenic and the nice thing about Agnes Water and the accompanying town of 1770 is that neither are too touristy or crowded. They are pretty much stopping off places for the Lady Musgrave Island tours, and so the beaches in both towns are unspoilt and uncrowded. We had booked a night at the Southern Cross 1770 Backpackers Hostel which was in an absolutely lovely setting. It was ... read more

We had two months to spend in Sydney and the fist place we stayed was the infamous 'Kings Cross'! We didn't realise the reputation of this place until we arrived at the hostel on day one, a dubious area with a 'lively' night scene and gigantic neon Coca Cola sign as a welcome. Our first night was spent in a tiny twin room with single bunks, small and expensive but with the most fantastic views across to the harbour bridge and opera house which more than made up for it. In total we spent 10 days in Kings Cross, from the second night onwards we found a cheap guesthouse across the road which was nothing special but cheap and cheerful and again a fantastic view over Sydney skyline. our first few days were spent job hunting, ... read more

So our journey to the Gold Coast began. We hired a car for two days and made the scenic drive up to Surfers Paradise. On the morning of the first day we spent a couple of hours in the Hunters Valley tasting wine, cheese, bread and olive oil (oh and champagne!). We loved this trip - all the freebies we could manage - a budget travellers dream!. It would have been nice to spend longer there and perhaps stayed overnight but we had a 10 hour drive to the Gold Coast to complete and only two days to do it in. We saw kangaroos playing in the field!! Such a highlight of the morning. Our first kanga-sighting since we arrived in oz. Coffs harbour was our overnight stop. We arrived late so didn't see much of ... read more