Roadtrip Howie

Our last couple of days in New Zealand were spent hanging around in the City of Auckland - a port city spread out over hundreds of square miles of volcanoes - walking around, eating, shopping, and just generally wasting time. The journey was essentially coming to an end, and we were making the final preparations for the long flight home. Fortunately, we planned to break it up with an eight day stopover in French Polynesia (Tahiti), a place that I had always wanted to go. It's basically a series of small islands, the most popular being the main island of Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora. We visited all three. This is the quintessential paradise beach atmosphere, with turquoise waters, reefs, white sand, palm trees, blistering hot sun, blue skies, and very very quiet. It was the ... read more

Leaving Fjordland, making our way to the west coast, we crossed over the southern alps, and started to head north again. The first spectacle is glacier country, with the Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier. Glaciers, next to rainforest, next to ocean. Amazing. Further up the coast, along a rollercoaster winding road like none I've ever experienced before, along the open ocean and through dense rainforest, there are the punakaiki rocks, another geological phenomenon. This is one of the most awesome coastal ocean drives imagineable.... read more

New Zealand is like paradise on earth! Imagine every conceivable geographical and topographical phenomenon crammed into two tiny islands that look like the size of my baby toenail clippings on a world map. Unbelievable! This place has mountains, canyons, waterfalls, glaciers, fjords, rainforests, gorges, rivers, 33 million sheep (down from 80 million), geothermal hot springs, farmland, cities, wildlife, lakes, oceans, and beaches. A mecca for climbers, skiers, posers, shoppers, wannabes, hangers on, hang gliders, bungee jumpers, swimmers, rappelers, sailors, hikers, trampers, campers, fishermen, hunters, boaters, kayakers, naturalists, and gawkers. I gotta tell ya though....the people need a serious attitude adjustment. Australia is bigger and economically richer than you are. GET OVER IT! They'll never have what you have geographically, and you don't have a plethora of poisonous... read more

Sydney is a pretty cool city. Besides the well known landmarks of the Sydney Opera House and The Harbour Bridge, the city also has some great neighbourhoods and a lot of character. We're staying at a house in Surrey Hills, next to Darlinghurst, walking distance from the city centre, great restaurants, coffee shops, shopping, parks, and all the freaks, weirdos, and disturbing cross section of humanity that you can imagine. Notwithstanding the junkies, winos, addicts, psychos, dirtbags, scumballs, people with varying opinions concerning sexual preferences, fashion choices, hairstyles, body art, body odour, religious beliefs, and pet ownership, it's a really great place to be based in. Hey, but that's just me. And what do I know? Check out the photos.... read more

Australia's tropical rainforest is apparently the oldest continuously growing rainforest on earth - 150,000,000 years old.....or some shit like that. I wasn't really paying that much attention. I was looking out for snakes, crocs, birds, spiders, bugs, man-eating plants, horny kangaroos, and various other deadly creatures that I could take pictures of or make slippers out of. It's very hot, humid, drippy, muggy, sticky and wet - much like Toronto in August. Nevertheless, it's a fascinating place, located in the northeast region of the continent, right off the coast, north from about Cairns up to Daintree/Cape Tribulation (where the forest meets the reef). Just beautiful. BEAUTIFUL I tell ya! Going to start heading south now, down the entire east coast from Cape Tribulation to Sydney. Picking up the motorhome in a few hours, as a matter ... read more