The beginning of our Road Trip in the 5 berth, hi top, Toyota beast we like to call 'Marchel Dantelle'. We (Martyn and I and a couple called Dan and Chantelle who we met in Bondi) leave the collection point at midday to start our trip.After deciding that who needs a map when you have a sat nav we hit the road with a vague notion of going North and seeing where we end up. Following the Coastal Highway we stop at Palm Beach where Home and Away is filmed before he...

We arrived at our hostel in Hunter Valley.The road was called Wine Country Drive - very apt! We jumped in the pool - what a luxury! We were so hot and the water was just what we wanted after a hot drive. We booked a wine tour for the next day and then we began Day One of the cookery school.The teacher was Rachel and the student was Chantelle.Risotto (or Rosalita) was on the menu! Chantelle was an excellent understudy and made a beautiful dish which went down well...

New Zealand had been great to us but we were both ready to move on; on Saturday 11th December we were up early to catch a flight to Melbourne, Australia. Having picked up a few bits in duty free we boarded the plane and got ourselves comfy for a 4 hour flight. The flight was made a hell of lot easier by taking advantage of the free alcohol on board; we consumed a couple of bottles of sparkling wine between us and found ourselves in a merry state (see Melbourne ...