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Sam and Laura
Good day everyoneSamandLaura
It is fair to say that the passing of time merits a fresh introduction
We left old Blighty on 1 September 2009 and proceeded to make our way through Russia, China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, before eventually reaching New Zealand on 7 December 2009.
We have been working in Wellington ever since - today as this introduction is being written the date is the 23 April 2010. However, the time for moving on has again come; we will be flying into Melbourne on 2 June armed with working visas.
We’ve got 4 weeks of travelling around New Zealand before this relocation, and thus we hope to entertain and enthral you with tales of our adventures in the land of the Long White Cloud.
After Melbourne well the plan is to frolic through Central America and North America/Canada. But if we get good enough jobs, who knows, perhaps we’ll be visiting Lionel Messi’s birthplace and marvelling at other, slightly less worthy South American hotspots
Only time will tell
Much love
Sam and Laura
Travel Blog Posts
Last New Zealand Blog and Arrival in Oz
Published: June 24th 2010Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne » CBD
June 24th 2010
Hello I hope you are all well. We have only just realised that we have not finished off the travel blog for NZ since arriving in Aus. I am now writing this at our friend’s house while Sam is at work. We are still homeless in the long term but are moving into a central flat share for a month this weekend. Sam is loving his new job and is allowed to keep his beard. I have temp work starting next week that I think will be extra clothes shopping cash as we can’t wait to look like non travelling humans again! (Impossible I hear you all say) But back to the point at hand. Our last week in New Zealand was always going to be risky. We headed north from Auckland which is traditionally summer ... read more
Rain in the North Island
Published: May 31st 2010Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel » Coromandel Town
May 31st 2010
Hi it is Laura again. I hope all is good with you all. Now where did Sam leave off… We felt ready to leave the South Island and that all our expectations and hopes had been met. Christchurch definitely highlighted this: its best use the airport and our exit. Unfortunately our day of departure was long and when our shuttle bus driver for the airport turned up 30 mins early at 6 am we were not best pleased. Mam I can hear you laughing now imagining trying to move me at such time in the morning. Once at the airport we faced two flights and a bus to get us to our end destination that day, Lake Taupo at 17:30. Both flights were short and pleasant as we flew Air New Zealand. We did however have ... read more
May 25th 2010
Well well well, who’d have thought it? I got on the bus to Tekapo in the early morning, with the knowledge that we had beaten the Aussies and won the T20 Cricket World Cup in the process. Even Laura was happy, or at least she was happy that I was happy. What with this and holding the Ashes, the level of ridicule I receive from work colleagues upon arrival in Melbourne should be slightly more manageable. The drive to Tekapo from Queenstown was not as majestic as we had hoped, for no reason other than the weather. We had decided to add a couple of hours onto our journey (which was already an all-day affair) by travelling via Mt Cook, the highest peak in NZ. The mountain is somewhat unique in that you can pretty much ... read more
Queenstown, Milford Sound, Te Anau and Arrowtown
Published: May 20th 2010Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown
May 20th 2010
Hello boys and girls. The boy half of the Lister-Gillett combo is here again to update you with our latest adventures. Where did I leave you last? Hmmm... ah ha, we were about to go to Queenstown... It was a fairly short drive (just a few hours) from Wanaka to Queenstown, and we arrived around 5pm. Queenstown’s reputation as the tourist and extreme sport capital of New Zealand meant that we didn’t have the highest of expectations for the place. To be perfectly honest, we expected it to be a bit tacky and somewhat past its best. Fortunately we were much mistaken. Queenstown still possesses a definite charm, and sitting as it does between clear lakes, steep dramatic rocky mountains and volatile skies, it is most certainly picturesque. The hostel itself was fantastic - more of ... read more
May 16th 2010
Franz Josef and Wanaka Blog Howdie folks, Sam here again. I hope you all enjoyed Laura’s blog. Punakaiki was indeed very beautiful. The sea was ferocious and the state of the rocks jutting out into it reflected this ferocity. There is something quite wondrous and gripping about a rugged coastline - you can’t quite take your eyes off it. Anyway, enough about that place - we have moved on! As Laura mentioned, we arrived in Franz Josef in appalling weather, meaning that we could see nothing of the surrounding hills and mountains. This put our heli-hike (a helicopter ride followed by a landing on the glacier, and then a 2 hour trek on the ice before being taken off the glacier by helicopter) in serious doubt. The weather forecast for the following day (Saturday) was more ... read more
May 7th 2010
Hi Laura here due to popular demand (from my family). So we left Picton after some very fishy fish and chips including battered mussels which were very good. We caught the bus for a mere two hours through vineyards and valleys to Nelson in the Able Tasman region. The Nelson region holds the crown for the most sunshine hours per year in New Zealand and the sun did not let us down. It was beautiful driving along the coast into the small city that we had hoped was placed perfectly on the sea front. Much to our upset Nelson as a city is surrounded by the fishing industry and two of the biggest fish factories in the world. Many times since we have been away we have believed that being carless did not have to stop ... read more
May 3rd 2010
The Wellington chapter has come to an end. On May 2nd we headed across the Cook Straight by ferry to Picton. The ferry journey was surprisingly calm - Laura still managed to get queasy but it really could have been a lot worse. Wellington disappeared out of view very quickly and with that, all our connections to the city were cut. The latter half of the ferry journey (about an hour and a half) was spent going through the Marlborough Sounds. These fiord-like surroundings made for a stunning first meeting with the South Island, and certainly served to whet our appetite for the rest of the island. The whole area felt somewhat familiar - millions of years ago this would have been connected to where Wellington sits now on the North Island, but the Sounds certainly ... read more
Last walk to work and new beginnings
Published: May 1st 2010Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington
May 1st 2010
Hello! Tomorrow our trip around New Zealand begins, but this is just a quick update and a chance to upload our last photos taken in Wellington. Yesterday was our last day of work in New Zealand. We each made our separate ways to work via our usual routes. Laura treks up a steep hill to the University, and I struggle along the water front against the howling winds. We had drinks after work and said our goodbyes to many. It was the culmination of a busy week. We've sold a bed, been to live comedy, laughed at Gordon Brown, and I seem to have secured a great job in Melbourne. Consequently, Laura is planning her life as a kept woman, and I'm thinking about the Boxing Day test match in the Ashes. Now it's time for ... read more
April 12th 2010
Well well well… It’s been a while since we’ve all been entertained by Laura and Sam’s travelling tales. Nevertheless, fortune favours the patient, and thus I will now provide you with some mutterings. By ‘I’, I refer of course to Sam. The headline news is that we have decided to pitch our metaphorical tent somewhere other than New Zealand. Our new stomping ground will be the acclaimed city of Melbourne, and we shall head there armed with 1 year working visas. Wellington has brought us mixed fortunes and after much consideration the plan is a simple one. We shall finish working at the end of April, travel around New Zealand for all of May, and then get to Melbourne for the start of June. Ferries and flights are booked, a flask has been purchased and the ... read more
December 31st 2009
Just to let you know that we have uploaded photographs for Sydney and New Zealand on the previous two blogs, and attached to this blog are photos taken recently in Wellington.... read more
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