Where Are Lucas and Laura

Okay, so after a fairly long break from Travelblogging, I've come back onto here to write a secret update all about our Honeymoon. So if you're reading this, don't mention it to Laura as it's a big secret... So why Honeymoon Canada and not somewhere like the Seychelles? Well, the bargain price flights in August was a big reason, which was pretty much why we didn't have a clue what we were actually going to do for our three weeks until we arrived! And anyone who's read out other blogs probably knows that we're not really sit-around-for-two-weeks type holidayers so we had to keep it interesting, and this seemed like a good opportunity! (By the way, nothing in life is free, and cheap, indirect flights are no different - half the money we saved got blown ... read more

And so we've arrived at the 'holiday at the end of the holiday' (part 1)! We arrived in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) armed only with a slightly old Lonely Planet (cheers, John) and with basically no idea about to do for the next 10 days. Nadi isn't as bad as everyone says, although it does feel a bit like someone took 2 streets straight out of somewhere like Kuala Lumpur or Delhi and dumped them in the middle of a green paradise complete with all the dirty old buses, smog, people giving you the hard sell etc! Most people we spoke to, both here and on our trip so far, said that the best thing to do is to get off the main island (Vitu Levu) ASAP and head to one of the islands in the ... read more

We left Napier and headed back to Taupo with the hope of doing the Tongariro Crossing walk (that the bad weather had stopped us doing last time). We arrived mid morning to glorious sunshine and blue skies, but were disappointed to find it was cancelled the next day, once again due to bad weather. D'oh! Luckily we had a bit of time on our hands and held out and headed off after 2 nights! The 17km walk, which goes across Tongariro National Park, was pretty cool although the weather for the 1st half of the walk wasn't great - the visibilty was about 10ft, which meant that we never actually saw Mount Nguaruhoe which was Mount Doom in LOTR movies. But once we over the highest point of the walk (after the nasty but accurately ... read more

url='/Videos/2903.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2903.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Kaikoura Dolphins So Magic Stu took us from sunny Tekapo up the east coast to Christchurch. En route, Stu had a call telling him that one of the other backpacker buses (Kiwi Experience AKA the bogey bus) had plummeted 35m over the edge of a cliff between the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers with 45 people on board. It wasn't until the 6pm news that night we finally heard that incredibly the most serious injuries had been broken arms. So after a long stomach churning days there were massive sighs of relief all round. At first the weather in Christchurch was a little bit too much England (with the exception of the heatwave you seem to be having at the moment) but it didn't stop us heading to the beach hoping to get ... read more

We decided to jump off the Magic Bus in Wanaka for a couple of nights en route to Queenstown. Once again we were overwhelmed by it's natural beauty. Wanaka is a small town that during the winter months becomes a very popular ski/snowboarding resort. During our couple of days in Wanaka, it became really, really cold! We weren't particularly well prepared for this with just one jumper and pair of jeans each! BRRRR! The icy weather didn'us off too much though, and we climbed up Mount Iron to look out over Wanaka. Despite nearly being blown away at the top, it was another stunning view. Another must-do activity in Wanaka is 'Puzzling World', which boasts 'The Great Maze' and four different 'Illusion Rooms'. We spent a very amusing hour and a half chasing each other around ... read more