The people we spoke to on the South Island were unanimous in their view that the North Island was there but it wasn’t really up to much. One lady told us that really the best plan was to get off the ferry in Wellington and go straight to the Bay of Islands - probably trying to ignore Auckland as you go through I suspect. Even then, so we were told, the Bay of Islands is really just full of Aucklanders trying to act like they have been fishing all of their lives. After considerable thought, analysis and discussion we have concluded [View Full Entry]

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Sitting here in the late afternoon sun at Picton (more lack of imagination from the early NZ white settlers, just as in Australia) it is hard to believe that we haven’t talked about some of the things we have seen and done during the last week. I will run through some of this in a moment. First, though, in the interest of fair dealing, we really should lay out some of those minor things that sometimes frustrate or that are a bit strange for us. Let us start with rest/picnic areas. Most possibly wouldn’t see this as an issue but we [View Full Entry]

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The trip down the East Coast doesn’t prepare you for the West. The East, or the bit from Christchurch to Invercargill is all about snow capped mountains, velvet green rolling hills, snug little seaside towns and lots of lakes, rivers and streams. A lot of people as well, or at least more than there is on the West. Heading west from Invercargill we gradually started to move through different country. Still plenty of sheep and still green initially but gradually these give way to mountains, trees, gorges and some of the most spectacular country we have seen. The trip into Milford [View Full Entry]

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We decided on New Zealand for a short-ish visit because we thought that it might be polite to check out the neighbours before we started our travels around the rest of the world in earnest. In our, or perhaps just my, mind New Zealand has always seemed to be pretty much like Australia except that they worship the All Blacks and can be laughed at for saying ‘fush and chups’. I find that I was pretty right but not really complete. We flew into Christchurch from Brisbane last Tuesday, Melbourne Cup Day. Weather fine, sun shining, gentle wind blowing. And that [View Full Entry]

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After dumping much of our load in the abodes of the kids we headed off for a better look at the area surrounding Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. We have been through these areas many times before but have not taken the time to have a decent look around. Mt Glorious sits 'behind' Brisbane overlooking the city. It is good that, so far, there is a reasonable stand of bush within easy striking distance of the city centre. There are some houses, picnic areas and a road but overall the area seems to provide a pretty good example of the way [View Full Entry]

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There was never really much doubt about the ute getting to Brisbane. There was just a smidgin about whether the canopy would remain fixed to it and whether it would successfully keep the rain away from the gear that needed to be transported. New canopies priced at a little over $3,000 so the one propped against a neighbour's mango tree that fitted, sort of, looked like a good bet. Turned out that it did the job. From Charters Towers we headed to the coast and worked our way down. Camped at Lake Paluma north west of Townsville for a few days. [View Full Entry]

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Leaving home was difficult. Doubly difficult because we are not actually moving to any particular place. All of our gear had to go somewhere and most of it was somewhere that we are not going to have access to for some considerable time. Over the last few weeks the bulk of the gear was moved into 2 shipping containers on the block next door. Some was identified for movement in the ute to Brisbane and some, very little, is to go with us on our travels. Unfortunately, our gear bred over the last few weeks and when we came to the [View Full Entry]

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This is the first of our entries on this site. We decided to set up a travel blog to talk about what we are doing, where we are, what we have seen, experienced and who we have met. But first, just a little bit of context. This journey has been a long time in the beginning. Pat has been keen to backpack around the world for the last 40 years. She has had the chance but she has also has had a husband for most of that time. There has always been something in the way. Jobs, campaigns, kids, careers, houses [View Full Entry]

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