Liam Ben and Chris

After 2 days in Christchurch, essentially spent acclimatising to the nearly antarctic New Zealand weather (but also having the bitter-sweet experience of watching the famous All Blacks perform the Haka, then go on to stuff our own national team), we headed northwards on the first leg of our Kiwi Experience bus tour. We spent a day in Kaikoura, where you can see whales all year round, and dolphins during the current season, but poor weather conditions meant the day-long boat trip was cancelled. We head back through Kaikoura on our way up to the North Island, however, so with kinder weather we will be able to do that then. Next stop was Nelson, another tiny town in the middle of nowhere. There was little going on, which isn't surprising seeing that along the entire West Coast ... read more

Our last stop in Australia was Cairns, up in Northern Queensland. We noticed this mainly due to the high mileage we had covered in the bus and the increasingly patriotic support for the second 'State of Origin' Rugby League game when it came on telly. Cairns is not a small town, but unfortunately for us the Lagoon was closed for the duration of our stay. With most of the town focussing on Sugar Cane production ect there was little else to do for more than a few days. One highlight though was a boat trip out into the heart of the Great Barrier Reef - the largest reef in the world! The sea was extremely choppy and the majority of passengers were to be found looking rather green and hanging off the back of the boat. ... read more

We stopped for 2 nights in Airlie Beach - a small town basically serving as a hub for tourists to set-off on their voyages to the Whitsundays from. It is still a pleasant little village, however, and has a really cool Lagoon - perfect for chilling off in after a couple of hours catching rays on the nearby beach. We boarded our vessel and home for the next 3 days - 'The Bomerang' - and headed out into the Pacific towards he world famous Whitsunday Islands. The Boomerang was an 83ft former racing yacht, and previous winner of the World Series. It has now been outdated but certainly provided us with a great feel of the conditions the crews of such boats live in, as well as the rush of sailing out into the Great Barrier ... read more

Brisbane. 3rd largest city in Australia. It's a nice enough place to be I guess but there isn't much to keep the seasoned traveller entertained. We toured the city on our first afternoon following the Lonely Planet's 4hr walking tour and saw the best bits of this laid back and rather quiet city. Our relaxing walk through the mangroves was interrupted suddenly when we came across a 7ft python slowly making his way along the boardwalk. The boards were only 3ft wide and we were forced to tip-toe past him, although it was at a pace that prevented him snatching one of us for dinner. The highlight of our stay (and probably the only other thing worth doing) was a visit to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Even this can get a little boring when you've ... read more

There is a great rivalry between the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. Sydney has the iconic landmarks while Melbourne has the art and culture scene. Melbourne has historically been the larger and more lively city, one highlight of which was hosting the Olympic Games back in 1956. Recent times have seen Sydney spring to the for as Australia's most dominant city, some proof being their opportunity to host one of the best Olympic Games ever in 2000. It is also at least partly true that the choice of Canberra as the country's capital - almost exactly halfway between these two cities - was to avoid an unresolvable argument over which should be Australia's official capital city. We arrived in Sydney early in the morning after a 12hr overnight bus from Melbourne. Our hostel (Pink House) was ... read more