After leaving New Zealand I had one final stop before coming home to England… the USA! My Mum, Dad and I visited friends and family in different parts of southern California, but mainly in Orange County (not far from L.A.) where we used to live 15 years ago. The highlight of the week long stay was obviously spending quality time and catching up with our close family and friends out there, who unfortunately live so far away. A pleasant addition was the relatively warm and very sunny Californian winter weather, as an introduction back into the northern hemisphere, delaying our inevitab [View Full Entry]

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I’d like to echo Kirstie’s sentiments at the end of the last blog regarding all the great people we’ve met and all those who’ve been helpful along the way. It was unfortunate that Kirstie had to fly home when she did, and I missed my amazing girlfriend and awesome travelling partner very much. However, I was lucky enough to have another two weeks away with my parents, before my return to England. The first of which was spent going back to the beautiful South Island… We picked up our campervan from Christchurch airport, and it turned out that my parents had [View Full Entry]

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Since publishing the last blog we have tried to squeeze in the final few things that we wanted to see and do before we have to give this wonderful way of life up and head back to reality. On the 16th we decided to rent a car for the day so that we could drive to a region of the Bay of Plenty called the Coromandel, known for it's stunning coastal formations complete with golden beaches and crystal clear turquoise waters. We set off early to pick up our car and make the most of the days rental. Fortunately, the weather [View Full Entry]

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So... since our last entry we’ve done some pretty cool stuff around the North Island, all the while, still based in Whakatane with Cashy and Gary. On the 3rd we went to the Waimangu geo-thermal area near Rotorua which only came into existence after a big volcanic eruption in 1888. We spent about three hours walking around seeing various strange micro-landscapes including: boiling sulphuric lakes, smoking hills, bubbling geysers and multi-coloured terraces of surfaced sulphur and other minerals. Only downside was the smell of the place, like a thousand rotten eggs. We’ve kind of [View Full Entry]

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Kia Ora! (Maori for Hello) We landed at Rotorua airport on the 20th of Dec and since then we have been staying with Kirstie’s very kind friends, Cashy and Gary, at their lovely home in a place called Whakatane. Whakatane is a small coastal town situated in the eastern part of the Bay of Plenty on the North Island. It has a really nice climate as is shown by the fact that it’s one of the sunniest areas in New Zealand, and since we’ve been here the weather has been very nice indeed. As we’ve been settled here, we’ve both taken [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at Christchurch airport in the afternoon of the 10th where we were met by Brendan who delivered our campervan, which compared to the van in Australia, felt like a palace on wheels. We actually had room to stand up and sit down inside, plus two gas hobs. Luxury indeed! We stocked up on supplies at the supermarket, thankfully food in New Zealand isn’t as extortionate as it is in Oz, and then stayed in a campsite just outside the city. The next day we hit the road early heading for Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park. Along the 5 hour journey [View Full Entry]

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DISCLAIMER: In no way are we experts with regard to all this, there is much that we still don't quite understand and much more still to learn. Therefore if we write something that is incorrect or doesn't make sense and someone out there can correct us or make something clearer, by all means get in touch. What we write is based solely on what we read and what we were told by various informed people, particularly from the Kakadu and Uluru regions. Dreamtime The central concept of Aboriginal culture, philosophy and belief is that of "the Dreaming" or "Dreamtime" (translation). It [View Full Entry]

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After spending only one night in Adelaide we were back in the pig van and on our way. We managed to extend the rental on the van by another week, which meant that we were no longer in a rush to make it to Melbourne by the 26th. We left Adelaide late in the day so ended up staying at a camp site at Coorong National Park where we froze all night long before getting up early to try and cover as much ground as possible before dark. Our first stop was the town of Mt Gambier which is situated on [View Full Entry]

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So... after getting our van serviced at the Alice Springs depot, and finding out it is no way near the worst and most offensive design, we headed out to the MacDonnell Ranges either side of Alice. The highlight here was seeing a couple of small and very rare black-footed Rock Wallabies at Simpson's Gap. Our next stop was King's Canyon about 450km from Alice. The night we arrived we managed to see a great sunset over the bush and were then joined by some ferrel camels roaming around. Next morning we did the rim walk around King's Canyon which provided some [View Full Entry]

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G'day! So... we arrived at Brisbane airport feeling tired and then made our way to our backpackers hostel. In that short space of time we realised very quickly just how insanely expensive it is in Australia! Even when we went to the supermarket to buy the food to cook in our cramped hostel kitchen, basic food items are more expensive than in the UK! We spent a couple more days in Brisbane which we passed by walking around the well-designed capital of Queensland, that includes the lovely parks and open spaces of the South Bank Parklands (great place for a picnic). [View Full Entry]

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