One thing that has struck us both so early on in our journey has been the innovative culinary skills of other backpackers. Each evening we prepare and eat our meal surrounded by a kitchen full of young adults approximately half our age, totally absorbed in their own meal preparations. The hostel that we currently reside has three hobs, three sinks, ample worktops and an oven. Each night approximately fifteen people beaver away creating their evening meal conc...

Today is the morning of our sixth day and we have already moved three times. We both agree this travelling lark is a very nomadic, basic experience, so much so that when we arrived here at Rainbow Lodge hostel, Taupo yesterday, to find that our room shared some resemblance to a cheap hotel we were hooked and immediately booked a third night! You might wonder why a cheap hotel appeals? I am sure that after knowing we spent our first two nights in Auckland in a ro...

Three days after we arrived in New Zealand we decided to do the most scary, yet thrilling thing I could think of, white water rafting. As soon as we booked it we felt nervous, but there was no time to get anxious, as twenty minutes later we were picked from our hostel and were on our way. I did try to feel more positive as we all chatted in the battered old mini bus, but this was short lived after a we were given a disclaimer to sign. This didn' t fill me wit...

When I think about it, there were always going to be things that would go wrong leading up to this incredibly exciting and carefree point in time, but what neither of us had anticipated was that it would be our perception of these things at the point of which they occurred that would actually dictate their severity. Those things started literally two hours before we left home for the airport when Ronnie broke a tooth eating popcorn, of all things! This lead to ...

Nothing can really prepare you for the mamouth task you'll be faced with just getting to you're destination. From the months spent planning your trip to ensuring that you say goodbye to all your family and then closing up your home. In our case this was no mean feet as we had between us; two houses, five children, three grandchildren, not to mention the pets; one cat, two snakes and three spiders, yes spiders! Having gone through the chore of renting one hous...