bogansdownunder

As our time passes in NZ we decided to take a week long road trip to see the rest of the South Island. We crammed 2300kms into a week of travel. The first day we shot over to Wanaka, only 1 hr from Queenstown, to have a light lunch and to take a look around. Wanaka is similar to the mountain town feel as Queenstown just without all the tourists. It's also located on a beautiful lake- with lots of ducks. After a not so yummy lunch (no, not the ducks much to Josh's dismay) we proceeded north along the west coast. The drive through the country and along the coast was breathtaking. The center of the south island is a mountainous region with lakes and waterfalls all over- and not many people. A few hours ... read more

Josh planned a great scenic loop of the lower South Island in a sporty little rental car. I spent about a week "researching" our options, and he pulled it together in about 30 minutes. Our first stop was Gibbston Valley Winery. We took a short tour through the vineyards and the guide gave a brief explanation of the grapes and harvesting process. The second half of the tour was in their cave- literally, a cave dug into the the side of the mountain. They use this to store hundreds of barrels of wine- the cave remains a constant temperature and saves them in heating/cooling costs. The tour included 3 sample glasses. Josh took it easy since he was driving, but I did my best to get our money's worth. We carried on with our journey, filled ... read more

There is so much to see and do in the area, but most of it comes with a price tag. After a few paychecks have rolled in we were able to go out and explore. One of the highlights of the region is Milford Sound. Technically speaking, the area is a fiordland carved out as glaciers retreated thousands of years ago. The result is lush vegetation amongst massive sheer cliffs. We booked a day trip thorugh Mitre Peak cruises and got every penny's worth. The bus driver dueled as a tour guide and pointed out lots of interesting things along the 4-hr drive from Queenstown. We made a few stops along the way for short little walks and perfect picture opps. The road was very windy and narrow and was mostly traveled by tour buses, so ... read more

Well, I guess you could say this is the end of the road for us. After roughly 8000km on the road, we’ve reached Cairns (that includes a couple "short cuts" and routes off the beaten path). I guess there's really not much to say about Cairns itself; obviously everyone comes here for the Great Barrier Reef, but we had a few days before our diving trip to play around the city and a few days after to tie up lose ends. We attended a really informative presentation by Reef Teach. A marine biologist described the different types of coral and fish that we’d see, and pointed out basic characteristics that could help us classify them. She also filled us with interesting facts (turns out peeing on a jellyfish sting doesn’t really help after all- just a ... read more

Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays- a group of islands in the lower Great Barrier Reef Region. Advertisements of white sand and crystal blue water are selling points on their own which brings heaps and heaps of tourists to the area. There are a lot of sailing options to cruise around the reefs. Josh did some research into the most recommended boats and some hard-core bargaining with the travel agent to get us a good price on a 3 day/3 night sailing course with the option of snorkeling and scuba diving once we got out there. We booked this trip while we were in Byron Bay, so this was about the only definite plans we had for the trip. We were making good time in between towns and were even able to bump our ... read more