After what felt like a week on the road (but was actually only two days) we stopped off in Rotorua for a few days. After a 'pyjama day' spent in the room (don't you just love those days?), our Auckland friends Steve and Nancy drove down this weekend to stay with us - a weekend renamed 'Steve's weekend of Xtreme fun' as he wanted to do as many adrenaline-fuelled activities as possible! After a session of Mini golf (our aim is to play in as many NZ towns as possible), we went to Rotorua's Agrodome where Steve felt the force of [View Full Entry]

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Our Kiwi Experience began with a huge trek which left us exhausted and sweating... from the effort of carrying all our bags down Queen Street to meet the Kiwi bus! The driver took one look at us and renamed us 'The Bag Ladies' - what can I say? We were prepared for every eventuality (breakfast, lunch and dinner, that is). As we recovered in the bus, we drove to the Coromandel Peninsula and set off for Cathedral Cove on the longest walk I've ever had to get a beach. Windy paths, up and down dale, through forest, fighting off wild animals... [View Full Entry]

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3 Girls. 2 Boys. 1 Car. And a hell of a lot of bags. Road Trip! Kate, Laura, Rob, Harry and myself set off bright and early (well, 10am when we left the ACB hostel and squeezed our stuff into the boys' car) for our Road Trip to the very north of the North Island - the beautifully named Bay of Islands! Rob drove the 3 hour journey along the winding roads through hilly countryside, a journey made even better when us girls were allowed to sing at full blast to our 'girly' tunes in the car! All together now 'Lady [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone - after a long period away from the blog I am back in action! I had a fantastic Christmas and New Year with Mum and Dad visiting Sydney, Melbourne and hot hot Ayers Rock, and was sad to part ways as they left for home in January while I continued my adventures to New Zealand. Fresh from the airport, I met Kate and Laura - friends I met back in Malaysia in September. They had done all the hard work in finding an apartment for us to stay in the centre of Auckland, so all I had to do [View Full Entry]

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After breakfast on Saturday morning we walked to the Joffre lookout point to see the view from the top of where we walked yesterday. Straight into bus (no packing away needed) to drive to Knox Gorge - a fairly long way away but I put my mp3 player on for some good tunes! The gorge wasn't too difficult a walk but fairly long and winding over stepping stones across the river - we got to the end where a big fallen tree had landed in between the rocks. Carol noticed that with a bit of decoration (the 'Danger No Entry' tape) [View Full Entry]

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Photos are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13481&l=37127&id=510918332 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13483&l=aa4e5&id=510918332 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13484&l=c0bf9&id=510918332 Perth Zoo: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13485&l=932b2&id=510918332 Barrier Reef! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13594&l=9169c&id=510918332 Up not-so-bright and early for the start of the next part of the tour! Couldn't believe how many people were joining us - 21 in total felt like a lot after our little group of 13. Paddy was our next tour gu [View Full Entry]

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I was so tempted to sleep in the hammock outside the room on Sunday night like Carol - would have been a good idea because the room was SO HOT! Had actually broken into a sweat by the time I clambered up into the top bunk whilst trying not to wake Dirk up who was underneath (a ladder would have helped!). Didn't sleep so well and we were up chatting until late so I had a bit of a lie-in (i.e. not getting up at dawn!) and Carol, Chell and I walked down to Cable Beach mid morning. The beach was [View Full Entry]

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The next morning I sat up in the front of the truck with Ian and made sure we had some good tunes! We went to Windjana Gorge first thing which was just next to our camp. Couldn't believe that we were standing over what was once a big reef, thousands of years ago. We spotted a few fossils in the rocks and walked down to the riverbank where there was a handful of crocs (what's the name for a group of crocodiles? A snapper of crocs?!) and went round the corner to pose for pictures with a freshie just a metre [View Full Entry]

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After our unexpected bog experience it was lovely to have a bit of a lie-in. In complete contrast to the mud-splattered states we were in the day before, we relaxed round the pool in the morning while Ian went to rescue the bus which had been stood in the mud overnight. We all cheered when he finally came back avec bus! Set off again in the afternoon after thanking the Parry Creek people for their help, stopping at the Five River Lookout at Wyndham. It was quite interesting to see where the rivers join (with help from the map) but wasn't [View Full Entry]

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Tossed and turned in my sleeping bag in the early hours then woke up properly around 4.30am to realise why I was restless - we could hear what sounded like rain but was in fact a huge wind storm directly overhead - really strange. It felt and sounded like it was just about to pour it down with rain, like the storms in Malaysia - but no rain came! I unzipped our tent just as Elizabeth's tent cover whipped off her tent and flew into ours! Maaike came past looking for her clothes which she'd hung out her tent to dry [View Full Entry]

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