So to the final leg of our journey, New York City, what a place!! I remember being there a few years back and loving it but I forgot just how much I loved it until we arrived back and made our way to our hostel. It was icy cold when we arrived, something like 1C and full of frost but it felt almost like a relief to breath it in after nearly smothering at various stages in the back of Scootie! We managed to squeeze a lot into our 6 days here, first up was the essential Broadway Show! We [View Full Entry]

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The 6th stop of our 7 deal round the world flights was Los Angeles. The first taste of the cold weather which we needed to now become accustomed to. We had already seen and done most of California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona on a previous trip here in 2004, so this trip was mainly a stopover to visit Edels uncle Robin and his wife Gina and their 2 boys, Jamie and Casey. Needless to say Edel managed to get lots of shopping in over the 3 days, and it was really nice to get a bit of luxury and comfort [View Full Entry]

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Strange things happened to us on Wednesday 16th January. We woke up in Sydney for our last day in Australia and headed down to say goodbye to Bondi beach, we packed up and headed to the airport for our flight to Honolulu which left at 20.00 for our 10 hour flight. We arrived 10 hours later and strolled into Honolulu airport at 0830... on Wednesday 16th January! Another 16th January was then spent on a another famous beach, Waikiki Beach, 5064 miles away from Sydney but at the same time on the same day.... So now that we'd achieved another [View Full Entry]

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It was a toss up whether we would go to Ayers Rock/Alice Springs or Tasmania on the final leg of our Australian travels but eventually we opted for Van Diemans Land based on the purely positive feedback we had received from other travellers who had visited there. We flew into Launceston which is Tasmania's 2nd largest city despite having a population of just 66,000 people. It reminded us a lot of Wellington in NZ and indeed as we travelled throughout Tasmania much of the landscape, mountains and lakes also had a distinct New Zealand feel to it. The people here are [View Full Entry]

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So after a few nights relaxing in Airlie Beach time to hit the long road back down to Hervey Bay. This was a big test for Scootie as we had never done this far in 1 day in her before, she shocked us with her consistency then disappointed us when she failed to start the following morning. Starter motor and another $200 we didnt have, anyway we sorted it short term and left her in the garage while we headed to Fraser Island! This place turned out to be my highlight of my trip. Basically it is the biggest sand [View Full Entry]

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So back from New Zealand and straight back on the road again. Picked up 2 new passengers in my cousin Melissa (Mullagh Mel or Mel the motivator) and Enda. We missed the Great Ocean Rd last time we were in Melbourne cos the weather was so shite so now is the time to do it! We headed down the coast road towards Sydney stopping at various campsites along the way in places like Kiama, Taratha and Lakes Entrance. Melissa really got into the camping by the end of the trip but things were a little shakey at the start given [View Full Entry]

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We decided to head to New Zealand on a little holiday for a few weeks to visit our mates Tony and Dan and also to be there for the craic for what was sure to be a classic Rugby World Cup Final between Ireland and New Zealand.... Oh hang on Ireland were shite, ah well least we'll still be celebrating in Christchurch as the All-blacks win their first RWC since.... Ah bollocks on the French anyway.... we'll just have a laugh with Tony and Dan anyway.... Whats that- Dan has quit New Zealand again for Sydney?? Hmmmm... trip not as [View Full Entry]

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So off to backpack again after over 4 months of being settled, it just didnt suit us! We flew straight to Melbourne and met up with Edels sister Niamh and Gaven again for more crazy adventures! Arranged an apartment in St.Kilda for a few weeks and were quickly joined then by Edels parents Packie and Marge who decided the lure of Australia was too hard to turn down this year especially with both of their girlies over here! Did lots and saw lots including a short trip to Sydney where we did all the touristy stuff, me and Edel also [View Full Entry]

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Well we had to settle down and earn some money somewhere eventually and we definitely chose the right place to do it in Western Australia's booming capital Perth. There are so many jobs available here its crazy, a lot of the local workforce are away on fly in/fly out contracts with the mines and that leaves many positions to be filled. Even with all this opportunity we still got very lucky in that we were working in good jobs within 9 days of setting foot in Australia!! Edel got back into insurance again (she just loves it so much!) and [View Full Entry]

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Last leg of Chapter 1 of our travels. We figured we earned a few days on the most beautiful beaches in the world after a tough 3 months travelling around South East Asia. Well deserved I think ye all will agree... So we arrived in Surat Thani airport early and only 3hrs boat from our final destination of Ko Pha Ngan but par for the course in Thailand it took us 7hrs to get there. Bus stopping on the side of the road trying to get us to eat, having to wait 2hrs for a boat as a result of [View Full Entry]

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