Xin Chao! Arriving in Hanoi was quite an experience, it is a city with 9 million people and 5 million motorbikes. Your ears are constantly filled with the sounds of noisy engines and non-stop honking. The road rules are few and far between, as the bikes seems to go where ever and when ever they want. If you need to cross the street you learn to walk at a steady pace, and make sure the poeple on the bikes are looking at you to dodge out of your way. The cars and busses are a different story however, you have to [View Full Entry]

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Since our last update we have seen an entire spectrum of city life. We left off in Perth, Western Australia, with our beloved camper-van! We had a great couple of days in the Margret River area, where we went on a wine tour, ate some bush tukka (native plants and animals, including grubs and Kangaroo!), enjoyed more great sand and surf, and toured a cave 43ft below the ground. We ended up back in Mandurah at the Milo's on our way up to Perth, and were treated to a great home-cooked meal, can't thank them enough for their generous hospitality! Then [View Full Entry]

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After 2 years away we are back in Australia! Last time we were here we did most of the East Coast so this time we wanted to travel along the West Coast. We flew from New Zealand to Sydney and spent a couple days there. Even though we had seen them before the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge still inspire! We went out to the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney, where we went on a few walks/hikes including one that was our hardest to date. We also returned to Bondi Beach for an afternoon of relaxing. From Sydney we [View Full Entry]

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After a whirlwind tour of New Zealand we are now in Australia and ready to slow down the pace a little. We had a great time on the South Island of New Zealand and did some more great hikes and walks. Our first one was in Abel Tasman National Park on the North-West side of the island. We took a boat ride up the coast then walked back to where the bus was going to pick us up. We misjudged our timing a little bit and ended up power walking and running the last few kilometers to make the bus! Thankfully [View Full Entry]

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Another entry so soon! We have had an action packed week here so plenty to update, we never imagined a country so small would have so much to do (as long as you have the money for it). We left Auckalnd (again) and went south to Waitomo, home of the glow worms (featured in the Planet Earth DVD series), where we took a black water rafting trip through the caves. We finished the day in Rotorua, where we saw lots of geothermal activity like geysers and bubbling mud pools, pretty neat but the whole town smelled like rotten eggs! The [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year! We arrived in Auckland safely and have had a few days to settle into travel mode. Spent New Year's here and watched some good fireworks over the Sky Tower. After getting over our jet lag we headed up north to the Bay of Islands where we had a jet boat tour out to the famous "hole in the rock," we got a few mouthfulls of saltwater along the way but saw some great scenery. The next day we headed up to the northern most part of NZ called Cape Reinga, where you can supposedly see the meeting of [View Full Entry]

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