Finally mum & dad have arrived! Seem to have been looking forward to seeing them for weeks now. We decide to grab lunch at the airport to catch up before heading to Mount Eden - an extinct volcano cone that is now covered in the greenest grass you've ever seen. Again great views are provided from the top. We check into our motel with mum & dad (a treat for a couple of days!) and head out for a wander around Auckland Domain where we see a band playing in t...

Our first excursion in New Zealand was to the Coromandel Peninsular. First stop, Thames. We checked into our first motorhome park and managed to plug in our new home and settle in for our first night. Amazingly slept well and set off for a walk up, up and up a hill behind the campsite past several old gold mines. The views at the top were worth the haul and the climb over rocks down the other side was pretty exciting. Another good nights sleep and we...

A Postcard from Perth Those of you who have seen the photo of me (Stu) at Singapore airport will have seen the state we were in as we left SE Asia for the land of Kangaroos and cuddly Koalas (and of course home to the defeated Aussie cricket team, hoorah!) The 5½ flight goes by in a flash with the usual dilemma of whether to stay awake and watch the movies or to catch up on some much needed sleep. At least our itinerary for Australia doesn't include ...

Melbourne 2nd - 6th March 2006 Arrive in Melbourne to a roasting hot day and in our usual style decide to go into town (on the tram) and walk about in the hot sun. We see a lot of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games (which we will miss by about a week) along the Yarra river and then have a stroll around the botanical gardens. Australia certainly does botanical gardens very well and seems to have one in every town. We spend a lot of time on Fri...

Victor Harbour & The Great Ocean Road 23rd February - 2rd March Stu decides to go for his 3rd haircut of the trip, it's great as he can actually communicate to the Italian emigrant (well sort of and short back and sides can't be that difficult to understand can it? At least I didn't have to resort to hand signals as per Laos and Vietnam). Then we are off on our great adventure towards and along the Great Ocean Road, picking up our Toyota Corolla (pre...