Karen and Jamie

We landed in Fji on the morning of Tuesday 7th November. The heat hit us as we stepped off the plane - it was a lot warmer than New Zealand! We got the free shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel. Our hotel was really nice and we had booked to stay for 3 nights. Basically, we didn't want to tour the different islands in Fiji for the simple reason that we wanted to do as little as possible. So, we had had a certain island and resort recommended to us (by a guy we met in New Zealand) but it was fully booked for our first few nights in Fiji. Therefore, we were staying at the hotel in Nadi for 3 nights and then moved to the island. We did very little in Fji, ... read more

We landed in Christchurch the afternoon of Saturday 7th October. There is now 12 hours difference between us and home so we really do feel like we're the other side of the world! We had already booked a hostel so we caught the shuttle to it and were very impressed (we had been told that NZ hostels were great and ours was!) We headed out to explore the city. We spent the next few days in Christchurch and we really liked it. We looked around and went on the tram, to the botanic gardens, and the art centre. On the Sunday we found a lovely english pub and had our first roast dinner since we left home - delicious!!! On the Tuesday morning we picked up our campervan and were ready to explore New Zealand! We ... read more

So we landed in Perth in the late afternoon (Thursday 13th July). We went to our Northbridge hostel which was lovely and then walked into the city to explore. We instantly fell in love with Perth and thought (still do) that its a great place. On the Friday we started early - ready to hunt for work (some of you will be glad to know that we had to work for a bit - not all travelling!) Well, we didn't have to do much of a 'hunt' as we walked into a travel recruitment place that we had been recommended and got offered a job that, apparently was just perfect for us, straight away. It was working in a hotel in Dampier called the Dampier Mermaid Hotel & Motel. Well, we'd never heard of Dampier and ... read more

So....finally the moment we'd been waiting for...the arrival of the Hawgood parents!!! We had an amazing and fabulous 10 days with them but it all feels so long ago now! Before they arrived, it was all feeling completely surreal but exciting at the same time. We had arrived in Townsville on the Monday (12th June) and had spent a couple of days 'milling' around and exploring Townsville. On the Wednesday morning we moved from our Hostel, round the corner, to a hotel (going up in the world now the folks were coming!!!) Yvonne and Alan arrived at the hotel at lunchtime. It was so bizarre that they were actually here in Australia! A friend of the family - John - lives in Townsville, so he had picked them up from the airport. After an emotional "hello" ... read more

.....Well, we didn't actually sleep very well on the coach at all - 12 1/2 hours overnight from Newcastle to Byron Bay - so we arrived in Byron at 8.30am really VERY tired!!! (Wednesday 17th May). We had booked into the YHA so, despite it only being a 5-10 minute walk, they picked us up from the coach drop-off (better than walking with our rucksacks!) We were given a loft room which was quite cool so, even though we were still in a dorm, we had the loft space to ourselves. We spent the next couple of days exploring Byron Bay - walking along the lovely beach etc. It was a great place - one of favourites in Oz so far. It was really cool and chilled out. Even though we had the loft room we ... read more