With a massive half an hour to kill before we could board our luxury liner across the Cook Straight to the north island of New Zealand, we decided to relax with yet another lunch consisting of Nutella sandwiches for myself, and devil sandwiches for the wife (cheese). We seated ourselves on the sun deck located on floor ten of the ferry. That's right, floor TEN! We ain't in Thailand anymore!!! The toilets were normal and there was an actual cafe, not just a guy selling make your own instant noodles! Unfortunately, the noodles turned out to be a better option as [View Full Entry]

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We had somehow managed to arrive back in Christchurch much sooner than we had expected and, although it was a lovely city, we had seen it all and done everything we wanted to in the few days we had spent there when we first arrived in New Zealand. Ian blamed me for not reading the magic bible and informing him that we only had two stops after Queenstown...nothing to do with the fact that he hadn't bothered to read the book himself...but none the less we had to spend a couple of days here before we needed to head to Kaikoura [View Full Entry]

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After leaving sunny Queenstown we soon found ourselves in rainy Dunedin, home of New Zealand's Cadburys World and the worlds steepest street....woooooooo I hear you say! We were equally as excited! As we chugged along on the bus, admiring yet more mountains and picturesque views, the bus driver began to list the many activities to do in Dunedin (well all of two). No sooner had the word 'chocolate' been mentioned, had I signed both Ian and I up for the Cadburys World tour! I reminisced about my trip to Birmingham's very own Cadburys World back in the day and remembered all [View Full Entry]

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So, after death defying helicopter rides, caving through true blue ice caves and possibly the best pizzas we've ever eaten in the Blue Ice bar, we moved on again, this time headed further down the west coast of the South Island to the picturesque Lake Wanaka. As with most of our journey's between towns we stopped off at a few photo stops and sights that you'd probably see on postcards! We stopped at the Fox Glacier. We're not sure whether it was this or the boiled mint that was discovered first, but I can assure you they are both equally impressive! [View Full Entry]

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We were up at the crack of dawn again and off on the bus again, this time to the Franz Josef glacier along the west coast of the South island. On the way we stopped off at the Ross Goldfields for a spot of gold panning. We didn’t do that as it cost precious New Zealand Dollars although the highlight was definitely the boring old lady telling us all about it, kind of. On describing the gold panning she said "There's an interesting story behind the goldfields actually..... it tells you all about it on the wall over there". Oh, thanks [View Full Entry]

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So, after losing about two and a half stone each through stress after thinking we were going to miss our flight, we safely arrived in Christchurch at Base Backpackers. Luckily it was better than the Base at magnetic island and there wasn't a portakabin or Israeli in sight. We didn't arrive until midnight so the following day we explored the city and the hostel was conveniently placed by Cathedral Square in the centre of the city. So, we thought it was only fair to venture into the cathedral itself and absorb some culture! Inside was, according to our guide book, "One [View Full Entry]

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It was an emotional moment when we boarded the Greyhound for our last bus trip (and hopefully our last overnight journey), but our sadness was overcome by excitement as this time we were heading for Sydney! The journey went quickly and having had plenty of practice sleeping in cramped, uncomfortable positions on buses we managed to catch some zzz's...well at least i did, Ian favored the on-board entertainment which came in the form of 'Cool Runnings' over sleep! We arrived in Sydney bright and early in the morning, three hours earlier than expected. We weren't quite sure how the driver man [View Full Entry]

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Our bus journey from Brisbane down to Byron Bay was a decent trip, apart from Mamma Mia, which had been chosen by the good folks at Greyhound Australia as slow torture for its paying passengers. So, with Lizzie singing along like a demented five year old watching the Tweenies, I put my iPod on as loud as possible and counted down the miles. We stopped at the Matilda roadhouse for lunch and with our pockets severely being burnt in Australia, we had chosen to avoid the meals on offer and ate our economy ham sandwiches on economy bread with economy ketchup [View Full Entry]

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After a four hour journey from Harvey Bay we found ourselves in Brisbane. The city was buzzing - it was full of people doing their Christmas shopping, there were brass bands playing (although we couldn't spot Harold Bishop and his tuba) and there were choirs singing Christmas carols. We were loving it and it was the first time it had felt like Christmas time! With only a few days to spend in Brisbane we had a pretty busy schedule of things to do and places to go! First stop, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We hopped on the local bus which took [View Full Entry]

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After experiencing the bus driver smashing into a traffic lights 16 seconds after departing from Townsville ("Sorry about that folks, we'll should have a safe trip to Airlie Beach as there aren't many more traffic lights for me to hit!") we arrived at Airlie Beach where we were due to catch our sailing trip to the Whitsunday Islands. Luckily he didn't hit any more traffic lights or Kangaroos on the way so we arrived safely as predicted. Another quality film on the bus in the form of Nancy Drew was on the menu. The greyhound movie selection is a bit tame [View Full Entry]

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