Well a strange thing happened to me today, I was buying bread from a man from Brussels, I'm not joking he was was at least six foot four and full of muscles, I couldn't think of anything to say so I muttered, "Do you speak-a my language?" And he just smiled, and gave me a vegemite sandwich, then he said.... "I come from a land down under, Where beer does flow and men chunder, Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover." Anyway, enough from Men At Work, we landed in Sydney on Tuesday [View Full Entry]

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After almost two weeks of beach life we decided to take a trip to see something of note. The hostel was running a small tour to a local village so we could see how 'real' Fijians live. The village was situated about 25kms inland from the coral coast. Nine of us piled into a truck facing each other and we set of for the bumpy journey. The truck had two uncomfortable wooden benches to sit on and a linoleum roof, at least there was plenty of air flowing through. The road was good for about 5 mins, then we started to [View Full Entry]

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We've been here a week and done very little, we go to sleep about 9pm as the sun wakes us up at 6am, we've been lying on the beach every day and swimming in the sea, it's been great to relax and catch up with some reading. The food has been good and the weather even better, it rains every day but only for about 10 minutes or so but boy does it come down however 10 minutes later you would have no idea that it had been wet. We took a bus to the Capital, Suva, one day and that [View Full Entry]

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We actually arrived yesterday (Friday) but didn't want to add to the already huge post. This is where the diarised journals stop and the interesting only stuff appears, we'll keep it updated as much as we can and will include photo's as and when we can. We arrived at Nadi (Nan-dee) International Airport around 1pm, it was a 3 hour flight from Auckland and we gained an hour too, we're now 12 hours ahead of GMT. The heat instantly struck us, it had just stopped raining and the humidity was as hot as I've ever felt, it was only 25 degrees [View Full Entry]

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A great nights sleep was followed by a trip to the airport via the car rental place, we had to drop Frank off. He was one month and 6,225 KM's older, he'd lost one hub-cap, cracked another one, had a chip the size of a 5p in his windscreen and was filthy, not to mention the broken arm rest that Fiona constantly wrestled with, luckily the dirt covered the numerous scratches to the bodywork. All these things were by no means caused be wreckless driving, I've never had so much as a scratch on any of my own cars, but because [View Full Entry]

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A very early start for the long drive North, estimates vary between an unlikely 8 hours and a conservative 12 for the drive from Wellington to Auckland, I always like to shoot down the middle so we plan for 10 hours. In order to get to our hostel at Auckland Airport for 8pm, and the latest check-in time, we must get the 05:30 ferry from Picton, this means arriving at the terminal for 04:30 which in turn involves getting up before 4am. Now I've been caught banging on the door of the Penny Black at four in the morning looking for [View Full Entry]

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Another lovely day in New Zealand, Picton is a small sea-side town, it's main purpose is that it's the ferry port to Wellington I guess but it's no Rosyth, it's full of nice boats and small yachts, picturesque vila's on the front and a street of nice cafe's and local shops. After more than 4 weeks of on the road travel we're knackered and looking forward to a rest in Fiji, we've decided to spend 18 nights there now and the plan is to do as little as possible, sind a nice wee beach lie in the sun, catch up on [View Full Entry]

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Well today we had to leave the beauty of Kaikoura. We both loved the place, it had spectacular scenery and our hostel was so cosy. Anyway we are now on the path back up the coast to Picton. Picton is where we will get the ferry across to Wellington and then drive all day (10 hours) up to Auckland so we can catch our flight to Fiji on Friday. When I say we will drive I really mean Andrew because as much as I have offered he has still not accepted, wonder why?!! We are spending two days in a lovely [View Full Entry]

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Woke up early this morning for another day at sea, it couldn't be as successful as yesterday, could it? The weather forecast wasn't good but we were lucky, we were out at 8:15 and although it had been raining earlier it was clear and quite bright, partial cloud cover at times but good spotting conditions. We were looking for Lagenorhnchus obscurus, or the Dusky Dolphin, Dusky Dolphins are found in coastal temperate waters of New Zealand, about 20 mins from the coast of Kaikoura. This species is normally found in small pods of 6 to 15 animals, but larger groups of [View Full Entry]

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We left the lovely hostel in Christchurch for a 3 hour drive north to Kaikoura, the drive itself was pleasant, it was a Sunday morning and apart from the odd freight truck the roads were quiet. We got to the hostel around noon and settled it, it's a real small affair, about 7 rooms I've found, really nice though, amazing views over the sea and a lovely garden with a hammock that I've already claimed as my own, loads of fruit growing too so we'll save some pennies by pinching that...... We went out for a wander through the small town [View Full Entry]

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