Only 3 days to go....

Well, we've both spent the last two weekends catching up with friends (thanks everyone!) and we've got just one day left at work! Its going to be strange not having to work for three months but somehow I think we'll cope just fine! We then have Thursday and Friday to do those "last minute" jobs, pack our rucksacks, and to see the family before we head off.


Itinerary
We'll depart from Chesterfield, England, in the morning of Saturday 4th November 2006, taking a coach to Heathrow airport in London. From there we'll have to endure a 27hr flight to Aukland, including a 3 hour stop over in Los Angeles. This is one heck of first leg and we'll be glad when we finally touch down safely in New Zealand!

New Zealand - We'll be landing in Auckland where we'll be collecting our pre-booked Campervan which'll be our so-called "home" for the following 5 weeks. We'll spend around 2 weeks on the North Island before catching the ferry to the South Island working our way towards Christchurch. Apart from the obvious sight seeing (far too much to mention) there are a few adventure/adrenalin sports we'd like to do, including Canyoning and Black Water Rafting. We'll probably end up with brown pants at some point but hopefully our nerves won't catch us out while we attempt the Bungee Jump and Canyon Swing near Queenstown, and Sky Diving over Mt Cook. An ascent (by Phil) of one of the 3000m+ snow covered peaks has unfortunately been ruled out due to limited funds (and probably limited time!) but we'll be taking our rock shoes with us so will hopefully squeeze in some climbing/bouldering.

Australia - After landing in Melbourne we'll once again be hitting the road, or more precisely the Great Ocean Road, heading to Adelaide. From their a flight to Alice Springs will give us week exploring Uluru, The Olgas, and Kings Canyon. We then Fly to Hobart to spend the christmas week exploring Tasmania and the National Parks it has to offer. Our final leg in Australia will see us spending our final week, and New Year, in Sydney where we'll also be meeting up with one of our friends, Stoo, who will be part way through his six month journey.

Thailand - For our final three weeks we'll be landing in Bangkok and after a couple of days will head north to Chang Mai to begin our journey south. We have a 3 days at an elephant sanctuary followed by a jungle trek, and we're hoping to do some climbing and caving. We'll be working our way through central Thailand via temples and national parks until we reach Ko Phangan, and finally Phuket in the South.

---

---