We have had a great Christmas in and around Tauranga on The Bay of Plenty, on the North shores of New Zealand. We rented a house overlooking Welcome Bay and moved in on the 20th of December. We were joined by Lucy's Mum, Auntie, Uncle and eventually her Dad for Christmas day. Eating New Zealand Lamb outside on the deck, in the sunshine, taking the boat out onto the bay and laying in the hot-tub isn't our usual routine for Christmas Day but it was a fabulous cha...

Our journey from Oz to NZ was easy and we had soon checked into our hotel in Auckland and went off for an explore. We found the sky tower and the harbour along with several bars and a restaurant. Sadly we later found out that Lucy's Nan had passed away at home. Since then we have driven in another trusty campervan to the far north of New Zealand and back down to Auckland. For those who think New Zealand is just like Australia, you couldn't be more wrong. The sca...

We made it back from Alice Springs to Melbourne. We got very lost in the dark in Melbourne but eventually, avoiding trams, managed to find our hotel. The following day we drove down to Phillip Island, then onto Lakes Entrance and finally up the coast back into New South Wales to Bateman's Bay and now we're back in Sydney! We have given the hire car back and started to re-pack our backpacks in anticipation of our flight to New Zealand on Saturday morning. Austr...

Today we drove North of Alice Springs, over the Tropic of Capricorn again, up to the Devil's Marbles. It's an amazing sight because after 400km of seeing next to nothing there are suddenly lots of boulders all over the place, some stacked on others, and naturally occuring. We played I spy with my little eye during the four hour journey to the Marbles but after "road", "sky", "tree" & "bush" we ran out of options!...

Australia is too big! So far this week we have driven 2200km and spent two and a half hours on a plane, just to see a monolith and a canyon! From Alice Springs it's easy to get to Ayres Rock, drive south for 200km, turn right, drive for 200km and stop! Kings Canyon is one more right hander! We are having a good time in our campervan although the 40'C temperature makes sleeping a little tricky. We have been up two morings in a row at Sunrise (05:30) to see the s...