The morning of our New Zealand road-trip dawned and we quickly vacated our makeshift garage-cum-bedroom in the first light to pick-up our van. We'd become quite accustomed to the camper-life during our previous three trips in Australia, so getting on the road again felt quite comforting - almost like going home. The turnaround at the Christchurch Apollo Camper depot went smooth enough. Granted, there was the usual queuing, paperwork filling and being fear-monger...

In the weeks leading up to our departure from Melbourne, something just didn't seem right. Despite the fact that we were close to embarking on the final - and possibly most interesting - chapter of our journey, we weren't filled with the same wonder, excitement and trepidation that we felt when leaving our 'native' Manchester in November 2011. In truth, neither Anne nor I really felt anything. Well, that is except for the gut-wrenching heartbreak for leaving a c...

The alarm clock chimed. It was Monday morning at 4am and Anne and I were to be once again leaving an apartment and heading into the unknown. Albeit not the great unknown as before, this time we were simply jumping on a 1 hour or so flight across the Tasman Sea to the island of Tasmania, Australia's 6th state. We had been residing and working for the prior seven months or so in the Central Business District of Melbourne and had most definitely settled into Melbou...

We parted ways with Joe & Jude in the morning and descended on Sydney. It only took around an hour or so before we were driving down the main backpacking area of Kings Cross looking for a place to park the van for the night. After dropping it off at a suitable multi-storey, we checked in to Brado's Place Hostel, dropped our bags off and set off in the direction of the harbour. The Manchester equivalent to Kings Cross would most definitely be Oldham Street...

Day 218 of our travels was to be a driving day as we had 400km (250 miles) to cover in order to keep to our schedule. Our first stop for the day was Yamba (home of Kev and Sonya from Part 2 of our tale) and we probably spent a little too long in the town, as after some epic Tuna Sandwiches for lunch (eaten in front of some epic coastal views), Joe and I decided to have a kick-about with Wilson on the beach. I somehow managed to hoof the ball into some mangroves o...