We are now in the northern most town of Australia, Darwin, after having travelled around some of the nearby National Parks, for a few days. Darwin has a much more tropical climate than the centre of the country, so whilst the temperature has reduced by 7-8 degrees, it is a lot more humid and uncomfortable. There are only two seasons here; the Wet and the Dry. Currently it is coming towards the end of the Wet. Whilst on our travels around the local area ...

Alice Springs is one of the few large towns in the whole of the Northern Territoy and the only one in the centre of Australia. The state istself is 7 times the size of the UK and only has 200,000 inhabitants. That is a lot of space per capita! Most of the land is arrid and dry with very little rainfall. We are here in the height of summer yet this is also the wet season. We have yet to seen a drop of rain or a river or creek bed with any water in it. We hat...

We arrived back from the Pacific Ocean yesterday after 5 days of great diving and wonderful company, aboard our boat the Taka. The boat was brand new and purpose built for diving expeditions, which makes life to much easier and the whole crew, from the chef to dive leader, were qualified dive masters or instructors - very reassuring! The advantage of a 'liveaboard' boat is that you don't waste time returning to land each day so you can get more dives in each day ...

We arrived in Brisbane early this morning from Auckland. The three hour flight saw us take a 10 degree increase in temperature and during the day we have gradually wilted under the intensity of the sunshine. Brisbane is a rapidly developing city, with some beautiful old colonial architecture backed by the obligatory big city skyscrapers. Locally, it's called Bris-Vegas due to the casinos and 'Pokies' (Poker machines) which are abundant in town. The main...

After our adventures in Christchurch we headed to Hamilton, a town in the North Island, about an hour and a halfs drive from Auckland, to meet up with another old friend of Chris's. Ben and Sian were originally travelling like ourselves, but after 3 months on the road decided that they would settle in NZ, as old Blighty just didn't hold any attraction any longer. It was great being with people who knew the local area and we explored part of the east coast o...