The town of Picton isn’t the bustling harbour you would imagine it to be when considering its home to the main ferry terminus on the South Island. Nestled in the shadows of tree covered mountains this tiny harbour town doesn’t seem to realise the amount of traffic it generates, as walking along the tranquil quayside with the sun slowly disappearing turning the static clouds to flecks of bright red there is barely a sound to be heard. If the north islands pace of life is slow then the South stopped the clocks 50 years ago. After a day driving around the Marlborough Sounds, our fondness for the area grew with every bend in the road, as the sounds opened up in front of us revealing bright turquoise waters as far as the eye could see. The ... read more

After driving nearly 3000 kilometers and not once hitting a single traffic jam, the lack of vehicles on the roads was one of the characteristics this country bares in complete contrast to home, where getting across town during rush hour will leave you regularly impeded by stressed parents in 4x4s trying desperately to get the kids to school on time. We navigated the mid-morning traffic in the centre of Auckland without once beeping the horn or encountering any commuters brimming with road rage and made our way east towards thames and the Coromandel coast. The Coromandel juts out into the South Pacific and is densely forested and mountainous, criss-crossed with hiking trails, and as we head up the west coast, seems to be fond of single lane roads that cling to the hillside threatening to sweep ... read more

Honk, Honk “ Jesus Christ can you believe the way some people drive around here?!” We were thinking the same thing as our bus driver sped through the packed streets of Sydney on the way to the airport. His task it seemed was not driving us safely to our destination but was ‘driving without due care and attention’ as the police report would surely state. We were thankful to him though as our bus had failed to arrive in Newcastle and he arranged for us to board his bus that would drop us off at Sydney’s domestic terminal, on his way to refuel. After removing the headrests off the seat in front from our mouths, we met our last set of relatives to visit, Emmy and Roy, climbed into their leather clad Subaru and at a ... read more

Our return to Cairns was filled with less scuffling than our previous encounter, this time our decision to seek out the local caravan park echoing a point Lucy had raised at the Parkview Guesthouse only a week earlier, ‘I’d rather sleep on the floor than in this s*#t hole!’ After pitching our tent we were shortly followed by Clare, Matt and James who were brandishing spanking new Didgeridoos that to the displeasure of the rest of the campsite were used to make an array of continuous noises synonymous with the outback. Dave’s valiant attempts that only managed to create noises synonymous with farting were applauded, but sadly he was left in the shadows by two-hour veteran didgeridoo players James and Matt. Although Dave prides himself in gaining a Degree at University, his technology based course had ... read more

Rainbow beach, one of the many 'gateways to Fraser' was our stop-over to meet the 8 other people we would be spending the next 3 days with packed neatly into a Toyota 4x4, as we drove around the largest sand island in the world. Our trip was planned as a self-drive exploration meaning no boring guides, plenty of freedom the do just about whatever the hell you want, and best of all we all get the chance to drive hell for leather along huge sandy beaches. Fraser Island stretches for over 123 kilometers along the east coast, and is the only place on the planet that has a rain forest growing out of pure sand. It occupies around 184 000 hectares of land, so with all that sand around its going to get in places you ... read more