We arrived in Cairns early on Sunday morning to heavy rain - welcome to the tropics! But it didn't matter to Vic; she was excited as she was about to see her friend Jo who has been in Aus for the last 6 months. Jo came to pick us up shortly after we arrived at the bus stop and we went to the hostel with her where she had been living and working (with her boyfriend Tyson), which was really nice and our cheapest accomodation in Aus so far this trip. We all chatted for a good while, swapped stories and had a good catch up by the pool until we could check in to our room, where we had a power nap before the four of us went out to have a look at the ... read more

We arrived in tiny Rainbow beach (the gateway to Fraser Island) from Noosa, checked into our hostel (which was really nice) and got ready to go through our briefing for our 3 day 2 night self drive trip to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and you get around in huge 4x4 trucks in groups of 8 people (which everyone takes turns in driving), following a guide in the lead truck, checking out different spots on the island, then camping and cooking at night. We had our briefing which went through all the health and safety aspects of driving on sand, what to do and what not to do then we were put into our groups. With us was a really nicve couple from Essex (Laura & Gavin), 2 really ... read more

After an amazing few days in Byron Bay it was time to move on up the coast, so we decided to go to a large town on the Gold Coast called Surfers Paradise about an hour away, predominantly so we could check out one of its famous water parks. We had booked on a bus at 6.30pm and it was on time and empty which was a good sign, so we jumped on and sadly said goodbye to Byron, one of our favourite places so far. After a few minutes we realised the driver was not the full ticket but as we were the only ones on a 66 seater bus we thought he may just be bored and wanted to talk to us, so we made small talk for a while until he announced he ... read more

Firstly this blog is a little late and we are behind with our blogs in Aus as the internet is so bad! But they will be going up over the next few days hopefully...this is from our time in Sydney from the 4th-6th Nov... We had a short flight from Melbourne and arrived in Sydney on a grey rainy morning, but the sights of the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the distance soon lifted our spirits. We were staying in the Harbour Rocks area which overlooks the opera house and the bridge and is surrounding by lots of markets, shops, bars and cafes on little cobbled streets- much nicer than central Sydney which is a bit like Soho, with neon lights and cheap bars. Our hostel was brand new so everything was immaculate ... read more

On Friday morning we were up early in anticipation of our whale watching trip in Kaikora. Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad with rain and wind, and when we called to confirm that the trip was going ahead we were told it wasn’t due to the weather conditions. We had the option of rebooking for the following morning but as we had to get to Christchurch to get the camper back we wouldn’t have had the time so we made a decision to leave it. Much as we were looking forward to the trip and the possibility of seeing whales in the wild, we were really tired after a mad few days and didn’t mind too much about giving it a miss, plus we had already seen dolphins in the bay of islands as well as ... read more