After leaving Canberra we drove south past Melbourne and out to the Great Ocean Road, supposedly one of the greatest drives in the world. Took a few days over it and whilst the weather wasnt the best, the wildlife more than made up for it. Having only seen Aussie wildlife in captivity (or in the case of roos as roadkill) we were surprised to come across Koalas with their young in trees at the side of the road, and the biggest shock, scores of roos grazing on a...

Left Sydney and drove straight to Canberra, the capital of Australia. As the Aussies couldnt decide where to have the capital - Sydney or Melbourne - they built a new place out of the dirt, as close to halfway between the two as the land would allow. What exists today is this relly odd place. No real slums, no industrial area, just a well planned, green city full of government workers. Like Filey, it all shuts at 6pm when everyone goes home. Plenty to do, an...

Arrived in Sydney expecting 42 degree heat as forecasted. Thankfully, it was only 35, reaching 40 the following day. Coming from NZ where we were used to nothing more than the low 20s, and much less in the mountains, we both struggled. We were to be in Sydney for just 2 days, with the sole intention of buying a car. We satyed what we thought would be the ideal place for buying - Kings Cross - supposedly a part of town full of hostels and a few cheap car plac...

Reports from a variety of sources along the way meant that we were expecting something pretty special from NZ's South Island. On crossing the Cook Strait and into Queen Charlotte Sound passing impossibly pretty bays and inlets as the ferry headed towards Picton, we began to feel that we would not be disappointed. That was almost 5 weeks ago, and if anything, our experiences of this part of the world have surpassed expectations. The South Island is more rugge...

We opted to rent a campervan (good thing too) and have made good use of it, having travelled just less than 1000 miles so far in the North Island. We have seen some beautiful landscapes - stunning coastlines, green rolling hills and rugged snow capped Mountains. The terrain is similar to the extremes of the Lake district and the far North of Scotland (so Simon tells me) but much better because there are a lot less people around here. The similarities to the...