There is life in the Coromandel! As I wandered into town to pick up some bread I discovered the high street was packed! Quite a contrast to last night! After a good breakfast of a bacon and sausage sandwich we head north up the peninsular towards hot water beach. Today is our first real viewing on NZ as we drove in the dark last night. All I can say is that our first impression in one of amazement. The views are spectacular and Kirsten summed it up well when she said, “It’s as if God went crazy with the seeds”. [View Full Entry]

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We wake to a frosty welcome by the receptionist in the hotel. We have over slept, it’s 10.15 and they want us out in 30mins! We are both a bit grumpy and tired and we drag ourselves out to get a taxi to go and pick up the Camper Van. An hour later we arrived at Backpacker Camper Vans just near the airport where we pick up a rather old and tatty campervan. It’s basically a converted Mercedes sprinter Van with lots of dints and scrapes but with a cooker, fridge, toilet and shower. After a heated argument over directions [View Full Entry]

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Wouldn’t you know it! We arrive in Sydney only to be told our connecting flight did not wait! It’s 7.00am and we have not slept in 36 hours and I’m just a bit pissed off! They’ve bumped us to the 12.00 flight for a couple of food vouchers! After a bit of delicate complaining I get us access to the Club lounge where we are able to get showered and have some breakfast. We eventually make it to Auckland at about 6.00pm and we have been on the go for 2 days! We check-in at our shabby Formula 1 hotel in [View Full Entry]

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Today is a travel day as we must get back to Perth to fly out for New Zealand tonight. We setoff at 10.00am and arrive back at Amanda’s at around 2.00pm. This time I made it without any speeding tickets! After packing a couple of boxes with wine and kit we don’t need in New Zealand we ship it to Kirstens folks in Melbourne. The major thing we need to do is reduce our luggage to 20kgs. We don’t want to be charged excess baggage again. So after some cunning re-distribution of heavy items to our hand luggage we manage to [View Full Entry]

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Our Route in the Margaret River Our Map of Perth & the Margaret River The weather has improved slightly today but is still overcast. The breakfast in Birdsong is not the best so we decide to head into Dunsborough to the bakery for breakfast and a coffee. Dunsborough is really only a weekend or holiday resort so its seems much quieter today even though it’s a bank holiday. After checking our email and bank accounts (money is running out fast must tighten up the purse strings) [View Full Entry]

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Our Map of Perth & the Margaret River It’s Easter Sunday so hot cross buns are on the menu for breakfast. The guest has only 2 rooms and the other couple are leaving today which means we have it all to ourselves. We are heading for Margaret River today at the heart of the wine area. After a brief wander around the local Market and a “Liquorice” ice cream from “Simmo’s” we hit the wine trail and visited Xanadu, Voyager, Cape Mentelle and Cape Grace. The most impressive winery w [View Full Entry]

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Our Map of Perth & the Margaret River We leave Perth at 7.30am to drive the 400km south to Pemberton. The main reason for travelling so far south is to visit the “Valley of Giants” which according to Bill Brysons travel book “Down Under” is one of the best attractions in Western Australia. We stopped for breakfast on highway 1 at the Jolly Frog Café at the mouth of the Peel Inlet near Mandurah and ate our burgers watching the boat leave for their days sport. I’ve got to say that we were [View Full Entry]

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Our route in Perth Our route in Perth Thankfully today is far cooler and more overcast than previous days in Perth. After waking late we discover that while showering the bath is filling up with water at Amanda’s (The bath and shower are separate!). We investigate further to find tht the drainage is blocked and sewage is flooding onto the patio! After attempting to unblock the pipe using a hose (nearly vomiting a couple of times) we called Amanda who was aware of the problem. Sh [View Full Entry]

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Our route in Perth After a good nights sleep (we seem to have avoided too much jet lag) we awake to a very hot Perth. The forecast is for 38 degree temperatures. Last night we had a lovely BBQ at Amanda’s in Padbury, just north of Perth. Nigel Amanda’s boyfriend had got some fillet steaks form a chap he knows at work, which were fab. Apparently he’s suppose to sharpen their tool blades but not very good at it, but they still get him around for the meat! Amanda use to live with Kirsten in London b [View Full Entry]

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Our Route in South AfricaWell it's actually the 3rd now as I'm writing this entry on the plane to Perth. All I can say is we had a wonderful time in Cape Town and the western cape. It’s such a great place and one we’ll definitely return too! Unfortunately we’ve not had the best trip so far from South Africa to Perth. After dropping the car off earlier today/yersterday morning we flew without any problems to Joburg with British Airways. We had been told many bad things about Joburg airport, in particular people stealing stuff from your lugg [View Full Entry]

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