The journey from Milford Sound to the Otago Peninsula, just outside the city of Dunedin, turned out to be quicker than expected, some 6 or 7 hours. The campervan was feeling reliable and with our top speed of 100kph and little traffic on the road (sometimes we felt like the only people driving in New Zealand) we made great time. The Otago Peninsula is renowned for its wildlife including albatross, penguin, seals and sea lions which we intended to see! Our earl...

After picking up our campervan and parking it up for three days whilst we explored Queenstown it was time to hit the road. Gemma did the first drive from Queenstown to Te Anau and it was quite remarkable because it was the first time that she had driven a vehicle bigger than her Corsa! We parked up at a Department of Conservation campsite about 110kms away from Milford Sound. DOC campsites are very basic with no running water (if you wanted water you had to go...

Queenstown's Frankton Airport must be one of the most picturesque airports in the world. Only smaller commercial planes can fly into it because it is nestled between beautiful mountains, lakes and rivers. When the plane was landing it felt as though the wings were only inches away from those very same mountains. Its apt that the flight into Queenstown is so exhilarating because Queenstown is, of course, the adrenalin sport capital of the world, with bungee jump...

The last stop on our whirlwind tour down the east coast of Australia was Sydney. It was to prove a bit of a culture shock for us after spending two weeks in the relaxed groove of east coast beach life and now found ourselves in a large, cosmopolitan, working city. In our shorts and flip flops we often felt incongruous in Sydney! We arrived early in the morning after the last of our 4 overnight Greyhound bus journeys and wasted no time in starting to explore the ...

We arrived in Byron Bay with our fingers crossed for some good weather. We had three days to spend here due in no small part to the fact that we hadn't hung around in the rain further north. We were also keen to spend at least a couple of days learning to surf in the fantastic breaks. Byron Bay itself is a lovely small town (one of Australia's best beach towns) set on a fabulous stretch of horseshoe shaped beach where the sand is soft and the waves are 'fully ...