Gisborne, first city in the world to see the sun and the chardonnay capital of New Zealand, was best described as an acquired taste. It wiil probably rank in our minds as the Invercargill of this trip - closed on Sundays. Gisborne is also the place where Captain Cook first landed in New Zealand, exactly 237 years to the day before our arrival. The Cook connection obviously created additional interest from our perspective and the foreshore at Kaiti is scattered with various points of interest - lookouts over Poverty Bay towards the first land sighted at Young Nick's Head, monuments to [View Full Entry]

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Whakatane was meant to be a brief visit, but we were around long enough to become experts at the correct local pronounciation......Fffffffakatane. The big draw of Whakatane is White Island, an active marine volcano 60kms off the coast and arguably New Zealand's best kept secret. However despite the blue skies, the wind was coming from the wrong direction preventing any landings and at one point it looked like it would remain a well kept secret from us. After 3 days the southerly winds calmed sufficiently to allow us the opportunity to get out to the island. The experience involves being is [View Full Entry]

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We nearly didn't make the bus to Tauranga, as there was a truck crash which blocked the road in the Coromandel and alternative routes are not thick on the ground - a quick trip over the mountain on a gravel road, a phone call to delay our connection and the day was saved! Would the same have happened with National Express? Tauranga was big and bustling, after life on the Coromandel. We found ourselves in the heart of the action in a backpackers on The Strand - a great view from the third floor balcony of the harbour and the proceedings [View Full Entry]

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If Auckland appears to have hit the 21st century running, you don't need to travel too far to discover that the 1980's are still alive and kicking elsewhere.....indeed this might be generous as the music in the Goldfields Shopping Centre in Thames was distinctly 1974. Thames as you would guess from the above is a former gold mining centre that has found modern day solace in being the regional town for the Coromandel Peninisula and having the longest straightest shopping street in NZ. The drive to Coromandel Town was a very scenic wind up the coast - a delightful little town [View Full Entry]

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If you click on the map, it should show the route we've travelled up to this point. We think Crowded House got it wrong when they sang about the weather - Four seasons in one day...more like Four Seasons in one hour. Whilst the weather is suspect to say the least, we have aclimatised better to Auckland second time around. We are a bit more prepared after the sunshine of Queensland for the fact that anything could happen imminently and usually does!! We are installed in the very agreeable Verandahs Backpackers in Ponsonby - a Victorian wooden villa with views to [View Full Entry]

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We've previously done the snorkelling and introductory diving, but you never really get a perspective of just how expansive the Reef is and how vivid the colours actually are on a good day. The scenic flight option for 45 minutes was without doubt $109 well spent. As it says on the Australian Tourist Board ads, with sights like this "Where the b***** h** are you"? We are off to NZ on Tuesday, where the temperature is current half that in TFNQ. [View Full Entry]

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We are now living in Cairns or at least that is the way it feels after our enforced stay due to dental necessities. A man on McLeod Street has now dealt with these issues (or so we hope) over a 4 appointment stretch, but sadly not at mates' rates. As it seems with most of TFNQ (translated as Tropical Far North Queensland for those not familiar), Cairns is riding high on the construction and property boom. The marina and the lagoon have been completed since our last visit and the latter seems to have developed an appeal beyond that in Airlie [View Full Entry]

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Darwin seemed as familiar as Perth had been and largely unchanged from 2002. The weather is still hot and humid and the party continues on Mitchell Street. It was the Darwin Festival - we'd missed the big horse race and the Port Adelaide AFL game transferred up north, but there was plenty of music events on the go. The title of this page was borrowed from a band we went to see - changed slightly to avoid possible censorship. A confused 4 piece Australian rock band featuring Billy Idol on drums, a reincarnation of the B52s former frontman and none other [View Full Entry]

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The next leg of the trip north was in a more serious 4WD truck and once over the Fitzroy River and on to the Gibb River Road, you could see it was going to be needed. A new trip and a new group of people in the main - the majority eventually being referred to as Team France. The sealed road ends at the unfortunately named, Derby and then it was on to Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge. It was for many the first sighting of crocs - a good photo opportunity with the freshies, not to be repeated with the [View Full Entry]

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It was off on the long and winding road towards Broome - well long (> 3000 kms to be exact), but not exactly winding unless you count a bend every couple of hundred kms. The rain was relentless on the first day, so it was just as well that we'd seen everything along the first stretch of the journey - the Pinnacles aren't quite the same through the clouds. The blue sky was back the next day, although there was some doubt as to whether the road into Kalbarri National Park would be open - it was and the morning was [View Full Entry]

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