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Rainy Rain Forest

We picked up the tour bus at the train station and we were taken to another train station to get the tourist train up to Kurunda village. The train climbed the mountain and got some nice views of Cairns. In Kurunda Lucy got her picture taken with a Koa...

Most Recent Entry: Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Reef Magic

We made an early start today to get down to the boat terminal in plenty time to get our tickets and have some breakfast. It was a good job that we did as Grayline had cancelled our trip and couldn't get in touch with us. Luckily we were there early eno...

Most Recent Entry: Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Cairns

Our flight to Ciarns was not till the afternoon but we went to the airport in the morning so that we could catch up with emails etc. It was a dinky jet that took us to Cairns and the landing was a bit rough. The hostel who aledgedly offered free pick f...

Most Recent Entry: Monday, October 16, 2006

Brown Rock

Up at 5:30am and out of the door at 6am with the bus already waiting for us outside. We picked up a few more people and headed out on the Stuart highway out towards Uluru national park. We turned onto Lasseters highway for the final push out to the roc...

Most Recent Entry: Sunday, October 15, 2006

Back in Shorts

One of many crack of dawn starts as the shuttle picked us up from the hotel and took us to Brisbane airport. We took our seats over the engine (great!) and sped out over the Australian outback to Alice Springs. The terrain was a pallette of reds, yello...

Most Recent Entry: Saturday, October 14, 2006

Brisbane

The last of our quiet days in Brisbane before we head out to Alice Springs and Uluru. We popped into town so lucy could get her palm and tarrot cards read. Later in the afternoon we went swimming in a lovely open air olympic sized swimming pool. The we...

Most Recent Entry: Friday, October 13, 2006

Brisbane

As there isn't a great deal to do in and round Brisbane that we haven't already done before we are taking the opportunity for some well earned rest just at the Hotel....

Most Recent Entry: Thursday, October 12, 2006

Brisbane

Not much to report today. We are pretty much biding our time till Saturday when we head for Alice Springs and Uluru. We took a walk into town where I got my hair cut again. We then walked along the river front, had a look round the shops and then came ...

Most Recent Entry: Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Brisbane

Managed to get a bit of sleep on the bus though it was quite uncomfortable. We stopped for breakfast at about 6:30 and had coffee and toast. The bus then wound its way up the gold coast and we arrived in Brisbane bus depot around 11ish. Lucy and I coul...

Most Recent Entry: Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Port Macquarie

We walked into town today from the hostel and had some breakfast. The town was busy as they are on school holidays today. We went round the shops and then walked back along the riverside. We had a bit of rest at the hostel then picked up our bags and m...

Most Recent Entry: Monday, October 09, 2006

Port Macquarie

We got up at 5am this morning and headed for the bus stop at about 5:45. We were surprised to find the bars still open and people still walking about looking the worse for ware. Luckily the bus took us right to bus station so we didn't have to carry ou...

Most Recent Entry: Sunday, October 08, 2006

Blue Mountains tour

First early start for while this morning. We had booked a tour to the blue mountains. Unfortunately the trains were not running so we had to get a bus down to the city centre. We then found that the monorail was not running either so we had to walk to ...

Most Recent Entry: Saturday, October 07, 2006

Pins and Needles

Another appointment at the acupuncturist to get more work on my knees. By the time that was over there was little time for anything else except a trip the cinema to see the new film 'Little miss sunshine'....

Most Recent Entry: Friday, October 06, 2006

Bridge Climbing

We had a beautiful day for bridge climb today. Luckily my knees were good today so I decided to go ahead with the climb. We arrived at the climb office at 11:45am and checked in. We were taken through to a room to fill in a disclaimer form and have a b...

Most Recent Entry: Thursday, October 05, 2006

The Lions Share

Today we took the ferry from wharf 2 across to Taronga Zoo on the other side of the harbour. It was a hot day and the Zoo had wide selection of animals. We saw a 'Fishing cat' which was beautiful and not much bigger than a domestic cat. Normally at a z...

Most Recent Entry: Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Sydney

Bit of quiet day today. Had another acupuncture session in the morning and in the afternoon we took a look round the shops and went to see a movie....

Most Recent Entry: Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Sharks, Snakes, Lizards and Wallabies

After yesterdays antics my left knee has ballooned to the size of a melon and I am having mis-givings about Thursdays bridge walk. I am hoping the acupuncture session on Tuesday might help matters. We caught the train and monorail down to Darling harbo...

Most Recent Entry: Monday, October 02, 2006

Cruising

With the bridgewalk in mind for later in the week I wanted to have a look at the ladders that access the arch of the bridge so I could decide if I would be able to climb them (knees and all that). We got the train down to circular Quauy and headed for ...

Most Recent Entry: Sunday, October 01, 2006

Opera House

Although we have a toaster and a fridge in our room we have no plates or cutlery. Because of this we ventured down to the kitchen for some tea and toast. The kitchen was packed and we decided we would by some plastic plates and cutlery so we could have...

Most Recent Entry: Saturday, September 30, 2006

Sydney Day1

Because our flight was in the afternoon we had a bit of time to kill at the hostel after we had booked out so Lucy watched telly and I read a book. The shuttle arrived to take us to the airport and we checked in at Quantas for our flight to Sydney. The...

Most Recent Entry: Friday, September 29, 2006

Wellington

Slept in late today, probably due to having a proper bed for the first time in 3 weeks. Had some breakfast at the hostel and got the No10 bus to the Zoo. Similar to Edinburgh zoo in that it is all on a hill there was quite a range of animals. The Kiwi'...

Most Recent Entry: Thursday, September 28, 2006

Wellington

It was like the end of the school holidays today as we finally gave back the campervan and loaded the rucksacks onto our backs again for the rest of the trip. We got the bus into Wellington city centre and dumped the bags in the hostel room. Now that w...

Most Recent Entry: Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Wedding Anniversary

Awoke to the sound of the passing trains then the alarm. Lucy fed the ducks with the last of our bread and we were on our way to check in for the ferry back across to the north island. Being well early for everything we were the first campervan in the ...

Most Recent Entry: Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Blenheim

We had decided to have a back and neck massage (for me) and a facial (for Lucy) the day before but it was fully booked so we booked a time for 11am today. This meant that we could have a bit of a lay in and we didn't leave the campsite until 10am and h...

Most Recent Entry: Monday, September 25, 2006

Hanmer Springs

Lucy and I both woke to a thunder storm this morning. As we left Greymouth it was still raining. Not too far to go today and we were in Hanmer Springs by 11:30ish. Before going to the campsite we parked up and went the the spring pool which had several...

Most Recent Entry: Sunday, September 24, 2006

Greymouth

A fairly straight forward road from Franz Josef to Greymouth with just a few hills to climb. We arrived in the town quite early around 11am. We had a walk around the town centre and bought a few groceries for later. Greymouth is the largest town on the...

Most Recent Entry: Saturday, September 23, 2006

We'll be coming round the mountain when we come

It rained all night last night and it was tip tapping on the roof of the campervan. We were wide awake a 5am as a result so we decided to get up and get ready to go early. Lucy took the first stint of driving and the 2 miles down the road the satnav to...

Most Recent Entry: Friday, September 22, 2006

We've Gone on the Gondola

As we were here for two nights we had the luxury of a lay in. We headed out about 9:30 and walked to the base of the Gondola ride up to Bobs Peak which is a hill that overlooks Queenstown and the lake. Lucy overcame her misgivings and we made it to the...

Most Recent Entry: Thursday, September 21, 2006

Queenstown

As planned we headed out early to fill up the van before going to Milford Sound. Lucy was speaking to the atendant and he told her that the road to Milford Sound was blocked by an avalanche and no-one could get there. So we headed back to the campsite ...

Most Recent Entry: Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Te Anau

We spent a little more time in Dunedin this morning as we forgot to take the camera in the day before. We then left for Te Anau with Lucy doing the first half of the driving and me doing the second half. enroute we took some pictures of views and deer....

Most Recent Entry: Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Dunedin dinny look like Edinburgh

After a lay in and some leisurely breakfast we caught the bus into the town centre passing such streets as Dalgety St, Kircaldy St, Princes St and George St. Dunedin also has areas such as Musselburgh and Waverly. We saw the statue of Robbie Burns in t...

Most Recent Entry: Monday, September 18, 2006

Christchurch to Dunedin

We knew this was going to be a long trip but I didn't count on it taking 6 hours to get from Christchurch to Dunedin. The roads were inland so they were not particulally interesting and it was extremly windy making driving hard work. Having said that t...

Most Recent Entry: Sunday, September 17, 2006

Campervan Mark III

Gloriously sunny this morning looking out the window of the campervan at the sunlight on the snowy mountains. We set off from Kaikoura at the usual time following the coastline still for about 30km which was very windey. We then crossed the mountains i...

Most Recent Entry: Saturday, September 16, 2006

Kaikoura

Up at 6am so that we could get to the ferry terminal by 7:20am. There was a mix up about the tickets as our credit card had been charged twice so we rang them up yesterday and they said they would refund the second one. So we check in at the booth toda...

Most Recent Entry: Friday, September 15, 2006

Heater Hunting

We left Wanganui at 8:15am after the normal moring routine of showers and breakfast and headed for Wellington. We are coming back here at the end of the tour to drop the van off before we fly to Sydney but we decided to come here because it is close to...

Most Recent Entry: Thursday, September 14, 2006

Wanganui

We both selpt in a bit this morning and we didn't get up till about 7am. After showers and breakfast we were away at 8:45 which put us a bit behind as we had over 200km to the next campsite. Lake Taupo was massive and we didn't get away from it until w...

Most Recent Entry: Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Craters and Waterfalls

Got away from Waitomo in good time and the satnav took us through some stunning backroads much like the highlands of scotland. We arrived in Taupo at about 11:30 and went straight to a spa/swimming pool which had natural hot spring water in it. We rela...

Most Recent Entry: Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Waitomo Caves

Awake at 6:30 this morning so that we could be on our way by 8am. The motorways are a nightmare as they don't have slip roads like in the UK but they have exit lanes and if you find yourself in the wrong lane it can set you back 20 minutes (obviously w...

Most Recent Entry: Monday, September 11, 2006

Auckland

Due to the grill fire incident we had a whole day in Auckland without having to travel which was nice. We had breakfast and got the number 224 into Victoria street. We had a quick look round the shops so Lucy could get a pair of trousers $100 (£35...

Most Recent Entry: Sunday, September 10, 2006

Campervan Mark II

The next morning we decided to skip the next stop up north and head back to auckland to see if we could get another campervan. We eventually found and phone and they agreed to give us a replacement. We arrived at the depot at about 2:30 and transferred...

Most Recent Entry: Saturday, September 09, 2006

Road Trip

We arrived at Auckland at 05:10 after what seemed to be a relatively short flight (12 hours). There were over 100 spare seats on the plane so lucy and I had an 3 seats each and could spread out. At Auckland airport we found out which desk to go to and ...

Most Recent Entry: Friday, September 08, 2006

Time Travel

Thursday never happened as far as Lucy and I are concerned. We took off on Wenesday and landded on Friday....

Most Recent Entry: Thursday, September 07, 2006

Airport

Its 2:40pm and Lucy and I have been here 1pm and we are not leavng till 9:40pm on the flight to New Zealand. I am writing now because I don't know if we will have internet access on our travels there. We have just had a chinese lunch and are settling i...

Most Recent Entry: Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Universal

Having a clue now of how to get to Universal Studios in less than an hour we set out at 10am and got on the train just down the road. At one of our connections we came across a lad from Ipswich who was carrying a huge rucksack just like ours. He had be...

Most Recent Entry: Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Hurray for Hollywood

The plan for today was to go to Universal Studios. It didn't open till 10am so we had a lay in and left the hotel at around 10:30 to get the bus down town and then get the Subway to Universal. We got on a bus at about 11am and thought it would be ther...

Most Recent Entry: Monday, September 04, 2006

Leaving Las Vegas

We had to be at the Greyhound bus depot at 8am to check our bags for 9am departure. There were a lot of people waiting for the bus. The bus we got on was an old bus and it felt like it. The air conditioning didn't work properly and the engine kept ove...

Most Recent Entry: Sunday, September 03, 2006

Mama Mia

We headed down the strip the the Excalleber (spelling suspect) to endure our sales pitch before getting our tickets to Mama Mia. We were bused out to a sales centre about 3 miles down the strip and we were all given name tags which Lucy and I did not t...

Most Recent Entry: Saturday, September 02, 2006

I'll be Hoover Damned!

We had organised the Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam tour over the phone and we were told what time to be outside the hostel. The shuttle driver picked us up and 4:55am as expected and took us to a small airport that does the air tours of the Grand Canyon. The...

Most Recent Entry: Friday, September 01, 2006

Doc, my ear hurts and now my wallet stings!

Obviously we had a lie in after yesterdays capers and we were late getting ourselves together. Lucys ear was still giving her gip so she called the insurance and they gave us a surgery to go to. It was a long walk in the blistering heat but we eventual...

Most Recent Entry: Thursday, August 31, 2006

15 Hour Greyhound

How dow we cope with these early starts. 5:15am start to catch the Greyhound for 7:45 start to Las Vegas change at Los Angeles. With only a few short stops we arrived at Los Angeles at 4pm and had an hour wait for the bus to Las Vegas. The Las Vegas bu...

Most Recent Entry: Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Over to soon!

We had booked a tour of Alcatraz for 9:15am so we were up early again this morning. We were able to get the cable car almost to the cable car so we paid the 5 dollars each and got on. We arrived just in time to get our tickets for the tour and before t...

Most Recent Entry: Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Bridge Over Foggy Waters

Today we had booked ourselves on a combination bus tour. We got up and had bagles at the hostel watched by a seagull through the window. We then waited outside for the bus to pick us up which it did at about 8:15am and went round all the hotels picking...

Most Recent Entry: Monday, August 28, 2006

'If your going to San Francisco be sure to change your Canadian dollars into U.S dollars'

The hotel phone rang at 3am but I was already awake. I never sleep when I know I have to get early. The courtesy bus picked us up at 4:15am and we were at the airport at 4:30. We joined the Quantas queue and we were given a flight on Alaska Airlines to...

Most Recent Entry: Sunday, August 27, 2006

One night of luxury

We checked out of the hostel at around 8:45 and made our way back to the bus station getting a tea and coffee on the way. The bus left for the ferry at 10am and we were back in Vancouver around 1:30. From the bus station we found the bus for the airpor...

Most Recent Entry: Saturday, August 26, 2006

Still Nothin Doin!

Not much to tell today again. We had some breakfast and made our way out to the bus stop. We got on a bus to the Rutherford mall hoping to see a film. The mall was tiny and the cinema wasn't open. We got the bus back and stopped off at another mall whi...

Most Recent Entry: Friday, August 25, 2006

Nothin Doin

Mmm. Not much to tell today. Got up at 9:30, put some cream on my sunburned face from yesterday and we headed out to find somewhere for breakfast. We walked and walked but there was nowhere to be found. Eventually found the 'Tim Hortons' diner (again) ...

Most Recent Entry: Thursday, August 24, 2006

Thats Better!

We got up at 6am and were 'free' by 6:30am. We got our deposit for the key back and were banging down the door of the other hostel by 6:45am. We dropped off our bags because we could not check in till the afternoon and headed for the bus station for a ...

Most Recent Entry: Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Er what are we doing here?

We checked out of the Patricia in Vancouver and made our way down to the train and bus terminal we arrived at days before. Whilst waiting for our bus we were talking to an older couple about where we were going and what to do. The gentleman had emigrat...

Most Recent Entry: Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Where are we going next again???

A few chores to do today before continuing with the tourist thing. We went into town to send back another load of stuff to the UK so that we can actually carry our rucksacks between places. It didn't cost as much as we thought it would. Next we went ba...

Most Recent Entry: Monday, August 21, 2006

Don't rock the bridge

Today we braved the milk at breakfast again then headed out to the Capilano suspension bridge which was again across the river on north Vancouver a little way down from the mountain. It was originally built over 100 years ago and is really geared to th...

Most Recent Entry: Sunday, August 20, 2006

Grouse Mountain Trek

The train journey must have taken it out of us because we did not want to get up this morning. As breakfast was complimentary here we went down at 8:30 or so. After a wash we decided to head out to Grouse Mountain. We bought a days transportation ticke...

Most Recent Entry: Saturday, August 19, 2006

Welcome to China(town!)

After deciding not to splash out $276 each on a small bunk bed for 1 night we settled down for another night in our seats. Quite satisfied with the views of the Rockies. I slept through until around 6am and was surprised to still be going the mount