To The Sea

Bonjour, cava? We arrived safely in Toronto late last Saturday evening, after a particularly horrible domestic flight from San Francisco (who would have thought USA to Canada was domestic?), and after being collected by our friendly host, settled in for the night in our lovely new hostel, ready for an exploration of Toronto, and then Niagara Falls in a day's time. Canada is our last country before we head home, and although the neighbours next door looked slightly like they were running a drug's den and were nasty bits of work (it turned out they were and they are), we were excited about being here for a fresh adventure. Unfortunately overnight James was struck down with a nasty flu-like virus which manifested itself in aches, pains, a headache and a raging fever, leaving him bed ... read more

Well we're on the Cook Islands, safe and sound in our accommodation (Rau's Gueshouse), which is amazing - we basically have a beach house all to ourselves and we look straight out to the white beach and the crystal clear waters. Getting here was a strange experience... we ended up going back in time, as we set off on the 30th May and arrived on the 29th May! Joanna wanted to bring a newspaper from Auckland so everyone could see into the future! Instead we just brought a big cool bag full of food staples, as most things on the islands are shipped in from New Zealand. When we went round the main supermarket we weren't prepared for the prices on offer - five pounds for a litre of fresh milk! Wine was actually cheaper ... read more

After Milford we stopped breifly in Queenstown, which didn't really appeal to us that much, so we moved swiftly on to the small town of Wanaka. Sitting next to Lake Wanaka, this town is a sleepy little place with lots of charecter and in one of the most picture perfect locations you could hope for! When we arrived mid-afternoon, the beach was humming with locals pushing their boats into the river and tourists wading into the waters. We camped just out of the town centre at a little spot by the river in preparation for our trip up to Haast and onwards to the Fox Glacier. After spending the following morning admiring Wanaka (and talking about how we could definitely live there), we booked our glacier trip and headed off up to the Haast Pass ... read more

Yes, we're in New Zealand... and it's amazing! We landed in Christchurch, the largest city on the South Island and stayed in the first hotel of our travels (thank you Joanna's parents!), complete with swimming pool and spa! We spent our first afternoon exploring the city and its beautiful gardens - they say Christchurch is New Zealand's most English city and coming straight from Australia it felt like a complete contrast! Although the city was great and our hotel was fantastic, the real excitment came when the campervan was delivered to Joanna's parents - this is our home for the next few weeks and it wasn't long before we had stocked it up and hit the road! Our first stop was the tiny French town of Akaroa, which was really cute and we got our ... read more

We think that we may have finally found our favourite piece of Australia..and only two hours from Sydney, who would have thought? After an initial stopover in Sydney, on the recommendation of some friends we met in Western Australia over Christmas (thanks Jason and Hayley!!), we set off for a few days in the Blue Mountains. We were told that the views and walking trails up there would surpass anything we had seen so far in Oz, even on the Ocean Road, therefore when we arrived on Sunday afternoon at our gorgeous little hostel up in the mountains we were on top of the world... We woke up the next day to the thickest mist we had ever seen, and that's saying something coming from Northern England, but we set off on a hike through Katoomba ... read more