Melbourne, one of several cities claiming to be Australia's most liveable city. For us though, it should be renamed Neighbours City. The official neighbours tour (there didn't seem to be unofficial ones and they wouldn't be worth it anyway) took us to Ramsay Street, Lassiters, the car garage etc. First shock : Ramsey St is tiny; there's no way you could have a game of cricket there on the road. Some of the houses look just like on TV, but others don't and have ma...

Rarotonga, in the middle of the Pacific is called Paradise by the locals and with our accommodation right on the beachfront it certainly had a nearly-Paradise feel to it. Our welcome to the island by the transfer staff "Big bus at the end" (no 'Welcome to Rarotonga' or anything and certainly no smile) was pretty typical of shop service. The previous day had been Lindsay's birthday. The flight had taken us over the International date line and so when we ...

It seemed that every country we had travelled through had an allergy to baths, with showers being prominent in all the bathrooms. So it was with much anticipation that we headed to hot water beach, where natural underground hot water springs come to the surface in a small area of rocks. With the help of a locally hired spade, we started digging ; unfortunately, just digging below the surface exposed water so hot it could burn your feet and leave you dancing the m...

We are envious of the warm people in Britain. Tonight we have been given hot water bottles by the hostel - this does not suggest it will be a warm night! We began our road trip of New Zealand's North island in Wellington the capital city. It has life and culture and more than one supermarket - a big city by NZ standards! We joined a tour around parliament building (really good) and rode the tram (cheap and easy) which seems to be of use only to students at the hi...

We flew into Christchurch on the South Island, a town more English than England, and pretty much immediately headed away! We had a 'Juicy Crib' campervan on hire for 2 days (aka a people carrier with a double bed and outragous paint scheme) and headed for Mount Cook, camping at a lake at the base of Mt Cook. The lake looks like it is filled with turquoise paint due to the minerals dissolved in the water. We drove to Mount Cook with its snowy peaks, and then moved...