Australia Zoo - May 26 Only having eight days with our camper meant we had to pick our destinations carefully, and the Australia Zoo was a place we did not want to miss. We had heard great things abut the Australia Zoo from our friend Dion (whom we met in Easter Island) as well as other backpackers and locals in Cairns. We were not dissapointed! We arrived midday to find that the entrance fee to the zoo was not cheap, $54 dollars per person! Very expensive for...

Brisbane, May 25 I'm not sure what kind of information makes its way back up to Canada, but the change in weather and seasons in Australia has lead to severe rain storms and flooding along the southeastern coast. Some of the areas that were most damaged are right along our planned route south from Brisbane to Sydney, with the main Pacific Highway washed out completely. I spoke to an older local couple, who were also taking advantage of the free camground that w...

South of Townsville, May 24 After spending a week in Northern Queensland it was time to start the journey south to Brisbane. As we hit the motorway (it's not called a highway in Australia), we were excited to see the parts of Queensland that many tourists (and even Aussies) do not get to see. That is the wonderful thing about the road trip; it allows you to really see the landscapes and countryside. We learned the "code of the campervan driver" in New...

Cairns, May 23Our New Zealand campervan experience was fantastic, but before leaving NZ we had decided that it was far too expensive to rent another campervan in Australia because of the stronger currency, higher diesel prices, high-season pricing, and the higher costs to stay at campgrounds. The plan was to rent a cheap economy car for 10-12 days and drive down the eastern coast from Cairns to Sydney. Obviously the term 'was' would lead you to believe that the ...

Throughout our travels we've been very fortunate that nothing significant has gone wrong (knock on wood). So there was no reason to think that anything would go wrong leaving NZ to Australia.Foolishly, we had not done any research on entering Australia. We assumed it would be like entering NZ; just another modern Commonwealth nation that many Canadians travel to. Of course we needed to obtain a visa! This good news came to us while standing at the check-in counte...