Suzanne here... As we've established, we do like to selflessly support independent breweries. With this in mind we stopped off in Westport to visit West Coast Brewing. There we picked up a couple of litres each of Green Fern Organic Lager and a wheat beer. Having done our bit, we moved east. The plan had been to go to Hanmer Springs, but passing a free DOC campsite, Deer Valley, on the way we decided to pitch there for the night. We found a nice pitch by a small creek and got the tent up. After a bit of a stroll we were ready for tea, but it started raining a bit so we sat in the car to wait it out.... Two hours later, we were still sitting in the car, eating peanut-butter sandwiches. All plans ... read more

Suzanne here... Since leaving Christchurch, we've heard about the earthquake which left such devastation and took so many lives. We were stunned to see places we'd visted now reduced to rubble. We're so very sad for all the people caught up in it, and wishing them love. We picked up our little hire car - a Daihatsu Sirion - from Jucy then headed back to the Riccarton Mall. It seemed to take forever to buy the final stuff we needed for our trip in Christchurch - chairs, table, cooking stuff, food etc. We managed to squeeze it all into the car somehow, By the time we hit the road it was gone 3pm. Our plan had been to drive to Oamaru, but by about 5pm we were still some way away. We really didn't fancy putting ... read more

David here... We got up early in Newcastle and headed out to catch the 10:24 train back to Sydney, stopping off at a nearby Subway to again take advantage of the $7 foot subs - you just can't beat a good Tuna Mayo sandwich. We got the train fine and arrived in Sydney a few hours later. We jumped onto the next train that took us to Kings Cross and the Jackaroo hostel. After checking in and getting our bunk beds made up we headed out to the Art gallery. The museum and gallery was very good, with an excellent range of art from early European stuff to modern Australian artists. After that we walked around the Botanical gardens hoping to catch a glimpse of the resident bat, or more correctly flying fox colony. We needn't ... read more

Suzanne here... So, on to Tasmania. We landed in Hobart, and with only a couple of days to 'do' Tasmania's capital, we dumped our bags at the hostel as soon as we arrived and went straight out. Hobart is a lovely place, pretty and laid-back, and we enjoyed strolling around. Fortuitously, there was a free festival on - the Mona Foma festival. Not so fortuitously the first band we checked out were awful. I forget their name, but they played some random free-style jazz that they seemed to be making up as they went along. One of the band said that they 'only became songs when we perceived them as such'. Unfortunately we perceived them to be a load of rubbish, so we left. On our walk we spotted Magic Curries, an Indian restaurant displaying a ... read more

David here... We got up promptly and got a lift from the guesthouse owner in Melaka to the bus station and promptly bought tickets to Singapore. The bus left within 15 minutes of us boarding. The border crossing was very easy. We all got off the coach and went through the Malaysia exit process, jumped on the coach again and went over the causeway, got off at Singapore immigration, got processed and then back onto the same coach right through to Singapore central. The journey was roughly about 5 hours long and was a breeze. For the first time in a long while as well, we were dropped off right in the heart of the city, in Little India, which was great for us as our hostel was just round the corner. We were staying at ... read more