Emer Higgins

Hi all, Back "home" in Brisbane after 3 fab days on The Clipper sailing the Whitsundays and 3 not so fab days driving Louis the 2,000ks home. Unfortunately the weather during our sail wasn't terrific, monsoon is the word the springs to mind, but we had lots of fun anyway. The spirit of travelling to the far side of the world and tasting so many different cultures was quashed by the fact that over three-quarters of our boat was Irish...there were more accents from Cork, Dublin and Kilkenny than there were foreign but at least that meant the boat was good for a bit of craic. The trip was birilliant, the food was fantastic (always an important factor where Im concerned), the crew were great, the island, White Haven Beach, that we visited was amazing and ... read more

Hi all, Well since my last entry we’ve come up in the world, no longer live in a tent in a trailer park and have in fact signed binding contract and accepted the keys to our brand spanking new, absolutely fabulous apartment in Brisbane . Unlike in a tent we can stand up straight, unlike at a hostel we have our own bathrooms….note the ‘s’….and most importantly we have this thing called a television and we even have a DVD player courtesy of Aldi (where the cashiers now know our names). Weather’s picked up…still hoping my tan will improve before I head home. Am I mad considering giving all this up and heading back to dreary Ireland , boring Brittas and the monotony of The Lakes I hear Mo ask well yup probably but that’s the ... read more

Hi there everyone! Hope you're all enjoying the festive season! Since my last entry I've arrived in Sydney, left Sydney, started two jobs, quit two jobs, lived on Helen's floor for a week, stayed in various dodgy hostels, invested in Louis our belived little van that's older than I am and headed up the east coast of Australia for a very unorthodox Christmas spent camping just outside Byron Bay. Homeless in Sydney? We arrived in Sydney almosy three weeks ago now where Fran's sister Helen was good enough to put us up (and put up with us) for a week. Her apartment is fab and it was pure luxury compared to what we were used to. Her washing machine, dryer, television and couch were in constant use for the week that we spent on her living ... read more

After much debate and plenty of budgeting and estimates we arrived back in Auckland by plane the day before yesterday and are now preparing for the holiday bit of our travels....our 2 weeks in Fijian sunshine! We spent our second last night on the South island in Omaru spotting penguines! There were rakes of them all coming ashore and waddling up beside us and they were only tiny and sooo cute. That night I went out to the car for my purse and spotted two crossing the car park...they scurried in under the car once they saw me, it was so sweet! They are literally everywhere at night, its sooo cool. Christchurch (although we didn't get to spend much time there) was nice...bigger than excpected - a lot bigger than Wellington although nothing over here compares ... read more

We hiked Franz Josef glacier yesterday. It was amazing. The heavy rainfall from the day before meant that the track to the actual glacier was washed away so we had a longer than usual and far tougher than usual hike through teh rain forest to content with before we even arrived at the foothill of the galcial mountain. Equiped with funky ice grip shoes and plenty of layers we set about tackling the glacier and wow was it col! From the bottom of the valley it doesn't look THAT impressive but once you get up a bit of the way and see the huge iciles and massive crascks between them and just how far back and high up they go...its just breathtaking! Surrounded by ice, blue in parts, pure enough to drink (which we did!), we ... read more