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My girlfriend (Manuela) and I (Antoine) have been for 5 years together and found out that we had a huge common interest in being a globetrotter!!! We just love travelling and have been doing many small trips in Europe (Greece, Italy, Holland, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic & Austria) and a big trip to West USA (San Francisco, Los Angeles & Las Vegas)!!! We enjoyed all of our trips but had 1 main problem... only having 2 weeks to travel...MA go East
This time it is different!!! We managed to have 4 months to organize our BIG TRIP! We would definitely visit every country existing on this planet but had to make a choice and opted for Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand... probably due that it is the farest you can go from Europe. Those are the kind of countries that you should not visit for a 2 week holiday because it would make you so frustrated of seeing just 1/10 of what it has to offer.
Finally, I decided to open this blog to share my lifetime experience to all my close-ones and other globetrotters willing to follow us in our great trip!
It will all start in a few days on the 29/07/2010 on a Emirates flight direction Kuala Lumpur!!!
Travel Blog Posts
Fjordland & Milford Sounds (15 nov - 17 nov 2010)
Published: December 6th 2010Oceania » New Zealand » South Island
December 6th 2010
The Fjordland is a national park all in the south of the west coast. This is probably one of the most spectacular places in the world to us. We arrived early in the afternoon to the last town called Te Anau were we were going to overnight on a campsite. The weather was really beautiful. We decided to speed up and drive 2 more hours to reach Milford Sounds and join on the last cruise of the day instead of doing it the next day such as planned. It was a bit stressfull in time management. We could not stop on the road for pictures and were struggling to pass a tourist bus in the mountains but we arrived safely just 5min before the cruise departure and got the best reward ever. The weather was still ... read more
South Island's West Coast (08 - 14 Nov 2010)
Published: November 30th 2010Oceania » New Zealand » South Island
November 30th 2010
They were broadcasting a quite ridiculous film about Catherine Zeta Jones being a chef of a restaurant and having a relationship with his new sous chef within the cabin of our ferry boat to the South Island… Instead of becoming stupid, we decided to go outside in case there was already something nice to see due that we were expecting to arrive very soon… and yes, our eyes popped literally out of our head. We were crossing the Marlborough Sounds and the nature looked incredible! Very different to what we encountered on the North Island which was more beaches, tropical forests, geothermal spots,… It gave much more a mountainous feeling… something more similar to Norway or Canada or Switzerland. Once the ferry stopped and dropped us in little fishing town of Picton, we decided to head ... read more
Crossing North Island's Central Plateau till Wellington ( 31 Oct - 08 Nov 2010)
Published: November 16th 2010Oceania » New Zealand » North Island
November 9th 2010
What is really cool about New Zealand is that views are changing radically almost every hour... you always ask yourself, what is the next thing that is going to bluff me out of myself? Rotorua, Taupo and the Tongariro National Park are the three highlights of our cross over. Rotorua is well known for it's geothermal position, geysers, etc. The town smells like rotten egg and I cannot believe people here have to endure this every day. However, the good thing about it is that the they offer a great spa... maybe too great. We obviously had to try it and felt after 30 min in the hot water like 2 louzy fat mussels. You know mussels don't move a lot... same for us! We almost fainted in front of our amazing view in our pool ... read more
The Coromandel Peninsula (28 - 30 Oct 2010)
Published: November 16th 2010Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel Peninsula
November 8th 2010
My dad is going every year on a rough boy biking trip with his fellow bikers looking for the perfect road. He has done countries such as Scotland, Spain, Marocco, etc... but never the Coromandel Peninsula in NZ! Well, I think this is paradise for road trip lovers... Curly empty roads along white sandy beaches, up mountains with breathaking 360 views, through old cozy Gold mining towns of the early 1900, the Cathedral Cove... simply excellent! Finally, to finish your day in total beauty... the Hot Water Beach. A strange and funny experience. You dig your hole in the sand during low tide and hot water comes up… start enjoying, you got your own little jacuzzi for free! Next stop will be Central Plateau with some more very hot water due that this is the geothermal ... read more
Auckland & the Northland (23 - 28 Oct 2010)
Published: November 1st 2010Oceania » New Zealand » North Island
November 1st 2010
Arrived in New Zealand, we grabbed a quick Mc Donald's for lunch at the airport and off we went to our hostel in Parnell which is in the suburbs of the city of Auckland. Our first impression was really good. The hostel's rate was really cheap and the room was much nicer then most of what we have encountered in Australia. Cozy, large room with a decorative touch, bed was already made for us and we received as much free internet as we want! We did most of Auckland on a 1 day walking tour. It was really a lot walking and I can tell you that our shoes were smelling like outdated camembert by the end of our day. Perhaps 2 days would have been better but hey… we are on a very tight schedule ... read more
October 25th 2010
Sydney, our final destination after a Road Trip of 3500 km. We stayed in a hostel in King's Cross which is a 20 min walk to the city centre. I did not mind to walk for a change! We were lucky with the weather, lots of sun and a good temperature of 25 and up. We spent most of our days outside discovering all small bits of this beautiful, dynamic, modern city. From the Botanic Gardens to Chinatown, from the Darling Harbour to the Opera House… we have done everything. We even spent 1 day relaxing on the famous Bondi Beach. I tried to go in the sea but changed my mind very quickly after having touched the water with my foot… it was Antartica cold and I could just not understand how some people could ... read more
October 20th 2010
It rained and got 10 degrees colder from the day we crossed the border into the New South Wales region. First stop was the most western point of Australia called Byron Bay with it's beautiful lighthouse. We liked this place even if the whether wasn't great. It looked a bit like a hippie town and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and just relax. Talking about hippies, we went for a quick stop in Nimbin the day we left Byron Bay. This is truly a hippie town. All commercial stores are about Jesus smoking dope and being free from crazy society. Many "happy" people on street wanted to give us cookies… obviously we had to refuse such a nice gesture and asked them to give it to the japanese following us from behind. Definitely a must do! ... read more
Road trip through Queensland (27 Sept - 07 Oct 2010)
Published: October 7th 2010Oceania » Australia » Queensland
October 7th 2010
Bruce Highway… is the name of the road we have been driving for more then 1500 km! It started all in the north in Cairns and went all the way down to the very south in Surfers Paradise. The road is exceptionally beautiful through untouched nature and very easy to drive. You are sometimes all alone on the highway and you can drive for more than 500km before you reach the next place with living persons where we usually just stayed 1 night for some resting. The villages we went through such as Innisfail, Townsville, Caldwell, Bowen, Airlie Beach, Mc Kay, Rockhampton, Agnes Waters, Town of 1770, Hervey Bay or Surfers Paradise aren't really spectacular. Usually, they have 1 main street with some shops, a pub, a supermarket, a petrol station and some liquor stores… It ... read more
October 7th 2010
Brisbane is the biggest city of Queensland with 1.3 Million inhabitants out of the 4 Million Queenslanders… more then 1/4 of the total population! First notice was that I had the feeling of being in an American city. Skyscrapers, shopping malls, river, parks, football stadium… even commercials look the same! It is always "The best in Australia". Also, it is really clean… I would have felt like a terrorist if I would have dropped a paper on the floor. The city of Brisbane also offers cool attractions such as a big wheel or artificial beaches to raise the level of happiness of its population. I heard on the radio that it is something really important and that they will open a minister position for this. Brisbane is also home of the famous XXXX beer… my favorite ... read more
Magnetic Island (27 - 29 Sept 2010)
Published: October 4th 2010Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Magnetic Island
October 4th 2010
It took us 452km with our little rental car to reach Townsville, the capital city of the North of Queensland. Townsville isn't really touristic but the thing to visit here is the island on the opposite of Townsville, Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island received its name from Captain Cook due that his compass was acting very strange when his boat was passing the island. It never happened again… he probably had too many beers… The island is really relaxed and has several amazing deserted beaches that are only accessible through very small footpaths. We did Balding Bay but the best is apparently Florence Bay. The walk is a bit hard with the sun and all but with a deserved surprise at the end! Many people you encounter feel a bit frustrated of not seeing enough wild animals. ... read more
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