richandcass

The end has arrived! After 10 weeks we're on our last day :( Looking forward to a British Christmas though - hearing Xmas songs by the beach still seems strange! Since the last time we wrote we've made our way from Brisbane to Sydney, stopping at Surfers Paradise and Byron Bay on the way. The Holiday Inn experience spoiled us in Brisbane and Surfers Paradise, but we were treated to the harsh reality of backpacking again in Byron Bay! The Australia Zoo in Brisbane was a great day out and a way to meet the native wildlife. It was Steve Irwin's zoo which was pretty awesome; saw some pretty huge crocs and more kangaroos. Surfers Paradise wasn't the greatest place on earth to be honest - very much like Benidorm! Our day there was tainted by ... read more

Helloo again! Blogging from Brisbane, after a very very busy couple of weeks! Since we left Airlie Beach we had our 12 hour overnight coach journey (which, thank god, wasn't nearly as bad as we'd thought!) and stayed at a place called 1770 (Agnes Water). Here (Hoki will be jealous :P) we rode motorbikes all afternoon! We got all kitted out with flaming leather jackets, helmets, rub-on tattoos, and after a quick blast of "Born to be Wild" we (about 35 of us) rode around the town for a few hours and watched a gorgeous sunset :) While Rich seemed to pick it up straight away, I must admit that at the start, I really thought I was going to die. Probably because I kept getting confused and pulling the throttle towards me, which speeds up ... read more

G'day from sunny Oz! Sorry for the long gap between blog posts - we've been busy busy everyday pretty much it seems! But Australia has lived up to expectations so far - we started in Cairns about 10 days ago and are now further down south in Airlie Beach for a few more days. Cairns was a great place to start as we were thrown straight into crocodiles and spiders in the rainforests (not literally). Unfortunately (or luckily in my opinion) we didn't see any crocs in the wild, but did see some in the animal sanctuary - Rich held one! We did a great day tour where we got to swim in waterfalls and lakes up near the rainforest - and the tour guide had a brilliant concept for the day: swim, eat, swim, eat, ... read more

Photos!... read more

Bula from Fiji! Apologies for the big gap between blog posts but we've been too busy in our hammocks to get online! Nah, hardly any internet on the islands so we decided to wait until the mainland to do the next update! So, we've just finished our 12 day island hopping tour of the Yasawa Islands, Fiji, which has been amazing! The islands are paradise basically! We've stayed on 6 different islands over the 12 days which has been perfect as we got to spend a couple of nights on each island and got to know some of the locals on each one :) We tried the traditional Fijian drink of Kava, which is made from a root....and pretty much tastes of root! (Or muddy water as most people describe it!). One night Rich was "chief" ... read more

Our last day in NZ today :( Sad to be leaving (even though it's chucking it down with rain!) but very excited for Fiji tomorrow! So, since the last blog entry we've been pretty busy again! Did the Waitomo glow worm caves last week which were amazing - Rich did tubing in the caves on a rubber ring through the tunnels, etc. whilst I opted for the much more hardcore option of a walk and a boat ride :P With the bad weather the next day we decided to have a more relaxed day and went to the cinema in Manakau (where they have a Westfields centre!), and then it was time to drive further up north to Whangarei to visit Rich's other Uncle and Aunt. They have a very swanky place (with a pool, cinema ... read more

Apologies for the longer delay this time - have had another busy week and not much time to get online! After we left Queenstown last Tuesday we drove (a bit further than we thought!) up to the Franz Josef Glacier on the West Coast of the South Island. We had a 'half day experience' booked on the glacier on Wednesday which was really good fun! Got kitted up with jackets, crampons etc. and the trip lasted about 5 hours in total - with about 2hrs walking on the ice itself. Got to see some awesome ice caves and crevices and the guy said some of them had only appeared about a week before as the glacier moves pretty much everyday! Went down a little cave slide made from the ice too....got very wet bums! Was a ... read more

Hellooo from Quenstown! We've been here for nearly 4 days now & are sad to have to leave today - amazing place! It's a ski village pretty much (probably why we love it so much!) and has a whole load of shops, bars, etc. plus all the adrenaline stuff too! As promised, we did our skydive yesterday - best thing ever! Went up to 12,000 ft attached to our 'jump-masters' (massive blokes so we felt pretty safe lol!), felt pretty high as the tiny plane kept climbing up until the red light went off, the door opened and people started dropping out! Sitting with your whole body dangling out the edge of the plane was pretty scary, and the first drop was awesome! I screamed (a lot I think!) but apparently because of the altitude my ... read more

(In an expensive internet cafe so have decided to do a quick summary!) Timaru Drove here from Akaroa - quite a small town, found a great free campervan park for overnight with views over the sea. It was a Bank Holiday though so felt a bit like a ghost town! Oamaru Famous for its penguins! So we saw a night time viewing of the Little Blue penguins coming ashore for the night - they're only about 30cm high, very cute! Took a walk in the hills (nearly died on one very steep bit!), and parked up in a holiday park for a nice warm shower! Dunedin Continued down the coast to Dunedin, via the Moeraki Boulders (big boulders on the beach, up to 4m wide, perfectly circular). After entering Dunedin we went drove along a very ... read more