Australia cont'd (Brisbane, Byron Bay, Sydney) & Tokyo, Japan Our trip down the East coast of Australia continued with a 17 hour overnight bus ride from Airlie Beach to Brisbane. Our real highlight there was the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - the world's first and largest koala sanctuary, where we got to cuddle and stroke the koalas, and hand-feed lots of kangaroos. We also spent a day walking around the city to see the sights - in some ways it reminded us of a...

Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Adelaide, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Cairns, Airlie Beach & Whitsundays We flew into Sydney and had just enough time to see the Opera House and Harbour by night, before picking up our hire car and setting off on the coast road to Adelaide. We only had four days for this part of the journey, and it turned out that we had seriously underestimated the distances and had to drive as much as 10 hours on some days, which di...

New Zealand: South Island (Abel Tasman, Marlborough wine region, Kaikoura, Greymouth, Franz Josef Glacier, Wanaka, Milford Sound, The Catlins, Oamaru, Mount Cook, Christchurch) Our journey around the South Island has been one spectacular event or vista after another. Some of the real highlights involved getting up close and personal with the wildlife. Sascha went swimming with about four hundred dusky dolphins at Kaikoura, they were so close that you could look ...

New Zealand: North Island (Auckland, Cape Reinga, Coromandel Peninsula, Rotorua, East Cape, Napier, Tongariro National Park, Whanganui, Wellington) After seven weeks of travelling by bus, it was a real luxury to pick up our hire car and hit the road. First we headed to the Far North, stopping off several times along the way to sample local cheese, honey and a farmers' market, before reaching Ahipara at the foot of Ninety Mile Beach (which our apartment overlooke...

Mexico: San Cristobal de las Casas, Oaxaca, Puebla, Mexico City After all the Mayan ruins and jungle exploits of the last few weeks, the last week of our Central America trip has been very different and more like a series of city breaks. We were shocked by how cold it was when we arrived in San Cristobal - to be expected as it´s at an altitude of a mile, and the cafes served delicious hot chocolate which helped. San Cristobal is a mountain town where the Zapat...