Day 4 – Millau Our free parking stops at 9am this morning so we have another extremely early start (well by our standards anyway). We are away by half 9, which is actually just as well as it says it takes 8 hours to get to Millau! There was me thinking it would be a casual 3-4 hour drive. The drive is pretty non eventful, just really tiring and by the time we drive into Millau at 7.30pm we are knackered. Millau is a pretty little town in the heart of the mountains but it is quiet as it is outwith the tourist season, so we talk a stroll to find a restaurant that is open. We stumble upon a place and have some duck followed by a crepe with chocolate (you just have to while ... read more

Managed to drag ourselves out of bed at an unsightly hour again (by unsightly i mean 8am, a normal time of day for most people, but not a DJ and nightclub manager). We pack up and head off towards the ferry port, which we manage to find it surprisingly easily, and when we get to the check in gate there are no queues and it is really quiet. Turns out the reason it is so quiet as we have tried to check into the cruise ship port instead of our Dunkirque ferry port. We ask the guard nicely if we can go on a cruise seeing as we are here now, but he just laughs at us before directing us back round to the right entrance. Customs at the border are more straightforward than i thought ... read more

Day 10 Back to Christchurch today! We’ve already done most of the cheap options available in Christchurch, so it would have been good if we could have skipped it but never mind. We arrive in the afternoon and after getting some supplies in, we head over to the local museum. Not usually our cup of tea, but our bus driver told us it is meant to be really good, and it’s FREE. The museum is actually really good and there are lots of things to see. Greg is delighted when he comes across a speedway section edicated to the Kiwi speedway rider Ivan Mauger. They have a gold plated speedway bike and everything. We manage to while away an hour or so and then back to the hostel again. Greg makes us some delicious dinner- he’s ... read more

Time to leave Airlie Beach and head for the Outback. We leave the hostel at 10am and make our way to Mount Surprise (roughly a ten hour drive) As we leave Airlie, we meet Stefan from our cruise and say goodbye to him as we head up north. En route, I make a phone call to a working backpacker hostel in Innisfail, and shock horror, they advise us they have work for us starting this Monday. Good news as we could do with the exrtra cash but we’ll see what happens. As we make our way inland, our first stop is Charters Towers. A small rural town 100km inland, resembling a town from a western movie. After a slow but delicious lunch, we head on to Mount Surprise. We are not sure what to expect in ... read more

Day 16 Get up early doors to catch our boat, The Avatar for our 3 day 2 night Whitsunday Island Tour. The Whitsundays are a group of 74 Islands located on the Great Barrier Reef, off the east coast of Northern Queensland. We manage to get a reasonable sleep even although there was some idiot playing his guitar until 2am. We arrive at the marina on a beautiful winters day, with the mercury reaching approximately 26 degrees, and are ready for our adventure. After a spot of lunch, we head to our first snorkeling spot. We are told this is merely an introductory snorkel to get us ready for the real thing tomorrow. We see plenty of coral and fish, and are promised tomorrows spot will be even better. I am a bit scared of going ... read more