You think by now we might be getting bored of endless sunshine and beautiful scenery, not a chance. We tore ourselves away from one beach in search of another as we drown down from Takaka to Picton from where we'd be getting the ferry to North Island in a couple of days. Queen Charlotte Drive is one of NZ's famous scenic routes, another one thats great to be a passenger for. That night we found ourselves a cosy Indian restaurant for dinner (even in the smallest o...

Were the Germans back to their old ways? Was it an airstrike? or maybe there was an escaped prisoner on the loose? These were the questions running through our head at 3am when we were awaken by the most piercing siren either of us had ever heard. Turns out it was nothing that exciting, in fact it was the alarm at the fire station ringing out to wake up the firemen and tell them to go fight a fire. Obviously beepers haven't made it to this part of the world. This...

New Zealand was going to be a total change of pace for us as we wanted to see as much of the country as possible in a month. To do this, we needed a car! We picked up Maggie Mae from the rental place at the airport and set about learning her automatic controls. This was a blessing for the two of us who have a combined qualified driving experience of one month! We'd arrived in Christchurch and it took us a few days to get sorted with a map and decide where we wan...

We had 8 days in Melbourne and they were 8 great days. It was a total contrast to dull Queensland; civilisation, culture and not a single wet t-shirt contest to be seen! Real people live in Melbourne! I couldn't possibly list everything we did but there was a whole lot more to report than our last few stops. We managed to visit the Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum, Scienceworks and Planetarium aswell as loads of other sightseeing. Lots of museu...

Cairns is an odd place, a purpose built tourist city that has very little to offer inside the city itself, instead its a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and the rainforest - all well and good but it was a bit wet for day trips! We did manage a couple of dry days but that was after we'd paid to bring our flight to Melbourne forward so we couldnt afford trips :-p typical! Anyway, an extra 5 days down south in the big city with the sunshine would be worth it! We ...