Russell & the Bay of IslandsWe pootle up north, having asked Ken to take us to a Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite about three hours' up from Auckland. It's a pleasant drive, initially on the State Highway and then into rolling, lush green hills and wiggly roads (and past the impeccably named Hodgson Road), as we approach Otamure Bay for our first stop. The scenery is beautiful, but it hasn't blown us away yet... I suspect that we are becoming a littl...

Auckland – Friday 13th February Tired, and a little bit emotional after leaving behind Australia, our home for the last year, and after saying goodbye again to Dave’s parents at the airport, we arrive in Auckland at 5.30am, after a pretty good Air New Zealand flight. The inflight entertainment system had gone pop an hour or so in, and since from watching various airport reality tv shows we’re aware that this is akin to a major disaster for the air steward...

Perth - 21st December 2009Car Kilometres: 191,992Distance Travelled: 449kmTotal Distance Travelled: 23,741kmTotal Travel Time 114 Days.So, after the decision was made, we packed up and set off heading for Perth, the full loop. When I say packed up that was not really packing up in our normal fashion. This time we knew that we would be back into some kind of civilisation within a few hours so packing up consisted of the very un scientific, stuff everything into th...

Pemberton - Friday 19th December 2008Car Kilometres: 191,321Distance Travelled: 978 km (this includes all of our driving around Denmark and its surrounds)Total Distance Travelled: 23,070km Pootling along to Pemberton, we spend the drive reminiscing about the things we've done over the last few weeks, and over the five months that we've been camping (bar our jaunts to Perth and Japan in the middle). It feels like the end of yet another chapter, since we plan to g...

Denmark- Sunday 14th December 2008Car Kilometres: 190,343Distance Travelled: 758 kmTotal Distance Travelled: 22,092km After our various sightseeing stops this morning in Esperance and along the Great Ocean Drive (it's fancy but fairly deserving name for the gorgeous coastline that we drove along on the way), we complete a fairly lengthy drive to Denmark.We pull in at a small, grassy riverside site, owned by a couple who emigrated from London about 15 years ago f...