If the truth be known, we only really came here as it was in between New Zealand and SE Asia. Both of us never had much desire to come here, not that we had anything against it. It just seemed it wasn’t going to be any different to most places and also full of Irish, again, nothing against the Irish, after all I am one of them. That’s another thing, being Irish. It helps. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘everybody loves the Irish’. Well only a fool would believe that and I don’t for a second think that everybody likes us, but we are most certainly more liked than a lot of countries around the world. I suppose we never tried to take control of a country by force. We always slipped in the back door, ... read more

Camels - Tick. Another animal of the list! We got up early Sunday morning and had breakfast again sitting in the sunshine. The weather here at the moment is just perfect and who ever thinks this is cold needs there head checked. After breakfast we went down to Lighthouse beach in search of camels. We didn’t exactly have to search much. After all they kind of stand out. It was $50(€30) each to take a half hour ride with the camels. First we were fitted up with helmets and then we got on to our camels. I was told mine had a toothache and was a bit grumpy so that put me at ease straight away. When they groan/growl it sounds more like a lion than what you might think a camel sounds like. They also ... read more

I didn’t want to use the heading ‘Home and Away’ as that would be too easy so I went for ‘Home while Away’. Original, hey?! Sydney has been exactly that though. What was meant to be six days turned into twelve and we couldn’t have felt more at home for those twelve days, other than being in Galway. Old friends, travelling friends, Irish bars, Tayto, socialising and relations. Add to that the type of weather that we associate with a perfect Irish summers day and you have a recipe for home. Where do I start? The beginning I suppose! Katy arrived from New Zealand and we all caught up on old times (the previous 4 months!), ate some food and saw some sights. I had wanted to walk across the Sydney harbour bridge at night so ... read more

Its amazing how quick seven weeks can pass and what you can do in that time. We can leave New Zealand happy that we’ve came, seen and conquered the country. Well, maybe not conquered, but it sounded good! The country certainly lived up to the high standards we had set it, form listening to other travellers banging on about it been the best country they have ever visited. I don’t think it failed in any way to impress us. Maybe by the time I’m finished writing the blog I will find something negative to say. First up is the kindness of the people and their welcome for us. Everywhere we went people were interested in where we had been and where we were going. Everyone had advice for us and I still remember the first lady ... read more

46 days, 7685kms, 2 Islands, 1000 U-Turns, 2 barrels of gas, NZ$900 diesel, 70 litres of milk, 2 pepper mills, 20 lamb chops, 5lb’s of pork sausages, 30 bags of rubbish, 8 bottles of red wine, 2 ferries, 3 days snowed in, 10 packs of Tim Tams, 3 boxes of weetabix, 1 box of cornflakes, 2 boxes of fruit and fibre, 1 bag of porridge, 2 bbq’s, 20 toilet empties, 2000 litres of water, 3kg of cheddar, 23 loafs of bread, 2 mp3 players(not advisable), 1 Coldplay album, 15 dvds, 46 bed makings, 46 bed un-makings, 1 Sheppard’s pie, 4 Irish stews, 16 rolls of toilet paper, 50 games of sh*thead(competitive card game with loser called sh*thead), 1 or 2 disagreements, 1000’s of laughs and a lifetime of memories. Ted. Ted wasn’t any old camper van. ... read more