Hi! For those of you who were wondering / care yes we are still alive but have just been a bit slack with putting new blogs together (do have a good excuse though as we’ve been busy emigrating to Vancouver - 6 weeks ago now). Rather than just come straight here though we managed to wangle a nice little holiday in the Philippines enroute and so this is a brief summary of that! After packing up, saying our goodbyes and leaving Australia we headed to Manila (capital of the Philippines) for a night before our onward journey to Donsol where hopefully [View Full Entry]

---

---

Gday possums! Picking up where the last blog finished we’ve had a hectic few months working hard mixed with some prolonged apartment hunting and a fair bit of eager anticipation waiting for our holidays and visitors to arrive. We finally moved into our new pad with a week to spare before our guests hit town - we’re now happily residing on the 45th floor of Aurora Towers (www.auroraapartments.com.au) in the heart of Brisbane with great views of the river, Storey Bridge and across the city and beyond to Moreton Island and the Glasshouse Mountains. Mum and Dad arrived safely (via [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well it’s been an action packed April in the land down-under which consisted of us jetting all over the continent in an attempt to do everything we hadn’t got round to yet before being forcefully removed in June when our visas expire! As it turns out though there was no real rush as my work decided (against their better judgement??) to offer me the opportunity of sponsorship thus allowing us to remain in Oz on a more permanent basis - too easy mate! The first stage of our travels saw us venture to the state of Victoria for the first [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well as promised we’re back in blogging mode and have put together a whistle-stop synopsis of events since January to bring you all up to date (in case you were wondering what we’ve been up to!) Having sworn never to do the journey in one go again we board our flight (direct flight!) at Heathrow and 24 hours later (after brief stops in Dubai and Brunei) we arrive back to a balmy evening in Brisbane! (knackered). Despite the journey it’s nice to be back and we head for our temporary accommodation in the heart of the city - the very [View Full Entry]

---

---

Yuletide (b)log! Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Elgin By Simon and Heather March 27th 2007 Simon and Heather Fraser Gday folks! Sorry about the randomness of a Christmas blog in March but we’re just getting ourselves organised [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 20 - Auckland - Tutukaka (210kms) Having charged through the North Island and reached Auckland ahead of schedule (with ulterior motives!) we continue north to the little hamlet of Tutukaka for access to the diving mecca that is the Poor Knights Islands. Put on the map by Jacques Cousteau (who named the islands in his top ten dive sites in the world) this cluster of islands has been a marine reserve for the last 20 odd years resulting in a pristine marine environment and a reputation for the best sub - tropical diving on the planet! We book ourselves in [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 14 - Marlborough (30km) Today we set off to explore the Marlborough wineries starting with visits to a few of our favourites - first stop is Montana (wine we had at our wedding) at about 11am and even at this time in the morning they offer us tasters - who are we to decline!! We sit down in their wine garden (which we have all to ourselves) with 3 very yummy Sauv Blancs and a Pinot Gris (Grigio to us). Our favourite is the Sauv Blanc from the Condors Forest vineyard - mmmmm - but unfortunately there’s not enough made [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 11 - Franz Josef We awake the next morning to a beautiful blue sky - perfect conditions for our glacier adventure - today we’re getting into our warmest gear (layers), strapping on some crampons (that’s where the spikes come into it!) and taking a scenic helicopter flight in the mountains before landing on the otherwise inaccessible upper reaches of Franz Josef glacier for our 2 hour glacier hike. Franz Josef is one of only 3 glaciers of it’s kind in the world (thermal glacier, at relatively low altitude and so close to coast) the other being Fox (right next door [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 8 - Te Anau - Queenstown (185km) We head north to Queenstown expecting a nice scenic drive along the shore of Lake Wakatipu but unfortunately the weather has other ideas and we are treated to mist, rain and a lake that looks like the North Sea! We grudgingly pass all the scenic lookouts without stopping but manage a lunch stop next to the Kingston Flyer, an old steam locomotive, on the banks of the lake. We make it to Queenstown and it is absolutely dinging it down (more rain in one day than they normally have in a month!) so [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 6 - Te Anau - Milford Sound - Manapouri (275km) Early start today as we try to beat the cloud cover which tends to roll in later in the day. We have a quick stop down at the shore of Lake Te Anau for a few snaps before heading on the eagerly anticipated journey to the heart of Fiordland and Milford Sound. The drive has to be one of the most picturesque on the planet with snow capped mountains, lakes, waterfalls and mountain streams aplenty (and thankfully an abundance of lookout/vantage points to enjoy them from). En route we stopped [View Full Entry]

---

---