Teija and TJ

We've reached the end of our journey in Auckland, NZ! We arrived in Auckland at 8:25pm local time (6:25pm Aus time, so we still had tons of energy) and caught a shuttle bus from the airport to our hostel. The airport is quite a way out of Auckland city (about 20km) so it was a bit pricey, unfortunately. Our accomodations were lovely however, and for the second time this trip we found ourselves upgraded from a dorm room to a private room! We went out and bought some groceries and made a very late dinner. The next day we dedicated to sightseeing in Auckland. We went to Viaduct Harbour and walked along the marina where numerous yachts, sailboats and racing boats are moored. The area is very pretty and there are lots of shops and restaurants ... read more

Hellooooo everyone! So this is an update from our time at Mission Beach, and by the title I'm sure you can guess it was an exciting couple of days. We bussed up from Magnetic Island and arrived in Mission Beach about 4 hours later. As a side note, we ate the most delicious pies at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere! Mission Beach is a very small town that is currently putting itself on the map as a tourist destination by offering cheap whitewater rafting and skydiving. It also boasts excellent hostels with high reviews. We chose Scottys and weren't disappointed. On our first night we ate at a proper restaurant, which was a nice treat. There were candles on the table, nice views from the patio, and thankfully $10 pizza specials. Then we ... read more

Hello from the famous Whitsundays! We are currently in the little town of Airlie Beach, gateway to the group of islands known as the Whitsundays. We are very much in the tropical north now, complete with unpredictable weather, humidity and tropical heat. It's beautiful here! The city relies on a tourist-based economy and the main street is lined with hostels, pubs, restaurants and touristy shops. There is a man-made "Lagoon" with beaches and grassy areas for the public to swim, since the waters around here are frequented by "stingers" (jellyfish) at this time of year. Also, Airlie's waterfront is mostly a giant marina which houses hundreds of privately owned and tourist boats for sailing among the islands. We arrived after the endless overnighter bus ordeal around 8am. It was warm and sunny, but the reception at ... read more

Hey gang! we have just returned from 3 days and two nights on the fabulous Fraser Island where we saw: Dolphins! Stingrays! Dingos! Goannas! Insects including but not limited to spiders, beetles, ants and mosquitos! So yeah it was a pretty great trip! After our last blog entry we took the bus north once more to Hervey Bay (pronounced HARVEY bay just to confuse tourists). We were pleasantly surprised to find that Hervey Bay is more than just a jumping off point to Fraser Island, it is actually quite beautiful. Huge pristine beach, nearly deserted! We stayed in a tiny hostel called Friendly Hostel which was very friendly... more like a little B&B than a hostel. We got a private room with a big double bed, which is a real treat after dorm rooms. So when ... read more

Hey guys, how ya goin? We're in Surfers Paradise at the moment and here's what we've been up to! After our last blog we still had some time in Byron Bay! We did another "workshop" with the crazy bushman Cockatoo Paul, and he showed us all sorts of important Australian survival techniques and crafts! We learned how to make dunny paper (ie toilet paper) out of a certain type of tree bark (hence the name of our blog) and we made bracelets and anklets out of palm fronds. They turned out quite well! We DID end up going to the questionable Cheeky Monkey's mentioned in our last entry... it was all that we expected and more! It was like the stereotypical spring break in Cancun complete with funny contests with contests stripping down for a $50 ... read more