Akaroa to Mount Cook

Our first stop on our NZ adventure was a small French town called Akaroa. On the drive here we had amazing views, which got even better when we got to our campsite. From our van we could see over the lagoon and the town. We went for a walk into the town where there wasn't too much to do, but we still enjoyed the walk. That night I felt more tremors, Colin was oblivious as usual.
In the morning we left Akaroa and followed the coast for a bit before heading inland towards the mountains. We stopped for lunch at a rest area, but stayed in our van as the weather wasn't great. I wandered off a few minutes when I saw mushrooms that look like they belong in fairyland or Marioland and I've put a photo of it below.
We also drove through Geraldine as we'd been told it's a cute little town, but as it was Sunday not too much was open. It was still nice to wander round.
We stopped in Fairlie that night and again had time to wander round the town, but didn't get too far before the rain started. We got back to our camp building and went inside for shelter. Next thing we knew lightening struck and the power for all of the town went out. It felt like the lightening was right above our heads. After trying to wait it out we ended up running back to our van, as our new bigger camper has the facilities to cook inside. So we had cooked, washed up and got ready for bed before the power came back on late that evening.
The next morning someone told us they often get rain like this and powercuts, but usually the power's only out for an hour or so.
Back on the road we drove towards Lake Tekapo, which is a lake formed from the melting snow. The view over the lake was spectacular and it has a really pretty little church on the banks of the lake. The weather was perfect and we took loads of photos here.
We didn't think the scenery would get much better than this as we carried on through the mountains, then we arrived at lake Pukaki with a view of Mount Cook in the distance. This was even more amazing than the last lake and we took even more photos and stopped for lunch. It was lovely to sit in front of such a beautiful place and eat lunch.
After lunch we drove closer to Mt Cook, along the lake, and the closer we got the more we could see of the beautiful glaciers.
At this point we were so excited about NZ and all the scenery we'll see and the funny thing is that we haven't even done any of the "lonely planet's must see" sites.
Now let me say that I know some of these photos are postcard beautiful and that you guys might not believe that we've taken them ourselves, but these are ours, no lies!
After leaving Mt Cook we found a campsite in Omarama.

Christchurch

We left our Sydney hostel and headed to the airport with only a rough idea of what time our flight was. Luckily it turns out we were pretty close on the time and a 10 minute delay for boarding the plane meant that we had just about enough time to spend our last few Australian dollars on some fudge, which we later saw was out of date... no wonder it was the only cheap thing we could find, bloody Aussies!
We had a lot of turbulence on the flight, so couldn't get a cup of tea, but the views over New Zealand as we were landing, more than made up for this. We could see the snow covered peaks and the lush green landscapes of the Canterbury plains.
Upon landing we suffered more stringent checks than when we arrived in Australia. This involved us having to identify our own food, including sugar and rice, plus having our shoes checked for soil and foliage and showing our chopsticks again. We told them that all food items were purchased in Australia, but this only seemed to egg them on. We eventually made it through, but only after going through 3 checking stations with each inspector asking us the same questions and having our chopsticks tapped to see if bugs came out of it. One of the inspectors didn't seem to know what chopsticks were and asked if they're some kind of ornament.
We arrived in Christchurch and spent the first day organising ourselves with food and a campervan for NZ. By the first evening we knew our warm clothes would need to come out, as we could feel a chill in the air despite the lovely sunny day we'd had.
On the second day we wanted to go for a wander, but had been told and seen for ourselves that most of central Christchurch was still closed after the earthquake in February. We still went out, but a lot of the roads were blocked off and we ended up walking all the way round the edge of the CBD to finally get to the park and botanical gardens. That night at around 2 or 3am I felt an aftershock / tremor, which was pretty scary as it shook the whole room.
The devastation in town is still very obvious and it was upsetting to see the damage to people's houses. From what we'd read before, Christchurch seemed like a really nice place and we'd love to go back one day.
The next day we picked up our campervan and started our NZ adventure.

Sydney

Our last stop in Australia was Sydney. We arrived in the morning from Melbourne and after a little rest and some lunch, we went out. We were staying in the centre of the City, right by the main train station, so we first walked around Darling Harbour, heading towards the main sites, but it wasn't really a very nice day, and just as we caught a glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it began to chuck down. Just as the rain got really bad we headed in to shops and started heading back, running across the roads to try and keep dry, although it didn't help. We later heard that the rain was so bad around Sydney that a few places we stayed in only a week or two ago were really badly flooded and it would have affected our travels had we been there. Over the last few months Australia has really been hit hard with natural disasters, which we thankfully seem to have missed every time.

The next morning it didn't look much better with grey overclouded skies, but only 10 minutes after we started walking we were getting very warm from the sun, which appeared from nowhere. We started by going through a few of the parks towards the main harbour. From here we could see the Opera house, the Harbour Bridge, the city behind them and the harbour area. We spent a lot of time here, taking photos, having lunch and walking along the harbour front towards the Opera House and the bridge.

On our last day we had to go to Bondi Beach as it's got to be the most famous beach in the world, although we'd heard it's not the best beach, but is closest to the city. We spent the day swimming in the sea, which was quite cold, and sitting on the beach and grassy area around. It was packed with surfers, swimmers and sunbathers.

In the evening we went for dinner and then headed back to the harbour to see the city at night.

We've enjoyed our time in Australia, but have found it too expensive and at times not as amazing as we'd expected. We really liked Melbourne, Sydney, our few trips and the camping, but for a lot of the time we felt we were paying too much money for things that haven't been worth it. This is definitely partly due to the exchange rate, but even so things are still expensive. We're glad we came, but just haven't felt it's been as special as anywhere else we've been on this trip, and not better than South Africa.

Next we head to NZ and Christchurch is our first stop.

Batemans Bay to Melbourne

After a lovely weekend with Fran, we carried on along the coast towards Melbourne. The weather had been beautiful all weekend, but almost as soon as we got to Batemans Bay on Sunday evening, where we stopped for the night, it rained really hard. We had been cooking while it was raining hardest and once it got a bit lighter we went back to our car only to find that we'd left the moonroof open and the car got soaked. Luckily our bedding was out of the way and the matress was lifted, so it was just the backseat that got very wet.
The next night we only drove a little further to Eden, but the sun came out a bit and our car dried in no time.
From there we headed to Lakes Entrance, it's a pretty location situated amongst lakes and lagoons. That night we found a massive spider on our car. Colin and I watched him for a bit trying to figure out what to do to get him away, and finally decided to throw water on him. After about 2 minutes he was back on the car and out to get us. I suggested Colin go for a drive, hoping he (the spider, not Colin) would fall off and land far away from our site. Colin came back not being able to see the spider anymore and feeling like a hero only for me to see him right on Colin's door. So I threw water on him again and he seemed to disappear behind the fence or at least we couldn't see him anymore and were able to sort out our car for sleeping. But not without being paranoid and constantly feeling like we had spiders creeping over us. It's a shame we had Lex Luthor rather than Spiderman's nemesis... maybe it would have made a difference.
The next 2 days weren't very exciting, as they were only on the way to Melbourne, although we did have a good game of tennis at one of the campsites.
On Friday we got to Melbourne and went to meet Marigold, for those who don't know her, a friend from London. We spent the day chatting and catching up and in the evening a few family and friends came over for a BBQ. Later we went for drinks and I'll have you know we were quite a hit at this house-conversion bar. We had our photo taken a few times and we were approached by the photographer, not the other way round.
On Saturday we had to check into our hostel in Melbourne city centre and then return Lex Luthor. We spent 5 weeks in the campervan and had such a good time travelling and camping like this that we're looking at doing the same in New Zealand - we'll let you know when we're there.
With Lex Luthor gone, we walked to Williamstown, about 4km away where we met Marigold and Tina. They were very good tour guides and told us a few interesting facts about the town and Melbourne. In the evening we went for Chinese near our hostel and got more of a tour round the city as we headed to the casino. I know this might not be the first time some of you would have heard me say that I feel lucky, but this time I really was hopeful that I was going to win the jackpot. I did not win the jackpot and instead managed to spend $25 in all of 3 minutes. And I was so sure I was going to win the money to pay for mine and Colin's trip and more... oh well!
Sunday morning we got up early and walked around the city to get a view of it during the day time. We went into the Parliament House, which was a beautiful building and quite interesting and also through the Victoria street market. After lunch we got on the tram to St Kilda to meet Marigold for the last time. We had drinks at a lovely bar on the beachfront, which had a live band and a good atmosphere. For dinner we had such nice pizza that was so loaded with toppings and of course farewell drinks with Marigold and her family. Before heading back we walked along the pier to see some penguins. They were hiding, so we only got to see a few, but we could hear them behind the rocks.
Once again we had a fantastic weekend and it was great to see Marigold, who spoilt us and really showed us a good time. Thank you Marigold and the rest of the family, we had a great weekend and would love to come back some day.
The next morning we flew to Sydney for our last few days in Australia.

Dubbo to Ulladulla

Inland from Newcastle, the only place we'd heard of was called Dubbo, but we didn't realise how far it was to drive and were on the road for 4 - 5 hours. After the long drive we found a really nice campsite with a freezing cold swimming pool and we cooked our first Australian BBQ having been inspired watching some other travellers. The BBQs here are slightly different to what we were expecting, they are just hot metal plates that use gas. So there's not quite as much of a BBQ taste to the food, but it's much easier to use as food can't slip through the grill.
After Dubbo we headed towards the Blue Mountains and a town called Katoomba. We were within walking distance of some really beautiful viewpoints of the mountains and enjoyed the walks along here. We thought we'd have seen a lot more sights like this all over Australia, but this was the first since our time in the Cairns area. This night was our first cold night and day, but we pulled on our jumpers and slept in our car with the windows and awning closed and though I say it was cold, we were still wearing shorts.
The next day we headed back to the warmer coast and on to Wollongong. This is a student town and is the third biggest in this area, but we didn't find a tourist information or much else here and struggled to find an internet cafe, eventually ending up in a Chinese restaurant.
Our campsite was right on the beach however and whilst walking along the beach we saw several dolphins, which we tried to photograph, but just couldn't snap them as they were jumping.
From here we had a couple more nights on the coast before heading to Ulladulla to meet Fran (my former housemate from Ealing) for the weekend.
After a quick catch up, we headed to the beach and spent the afternoon swimming in a beautiful sea near Fran's house where the waves were fantastic. That evening we had a proper Australian BBQ with some of Fran's friends and it was so nice to see how Aussies live and also to have a more regular Saturday night, like we would in London.
The next morning we got up early and went snorkelling. It's still a novelty for us just being under the water and swimming near the fish and sea life. We saw 2 types of sharks and plenty of other pretty fish. We were starving after this so headed back to Fran's for a massive and delicious brunch. We had a really nice weekend and it was great seeing Fran again. Thanks Fran for a great weekend!
From here we carry on down the coast.

Byron Bay - Newcastle

We arrived in Byron Bay and decided to spend 2 nights here, as we'd heard it was a lovely beach town to relax in. We went to the beach first, but weren't up for a day in the sun after Wet 'n Wild the previous day. It was pretty though and the sea looked very inviting. Instead we spent our time relaxing at our caravan park which had a pool and tennis courts and a tv room. We also drove up to the lighthouse, but couldn't get up there as there wasn't any parking available on the lower level where you hike up from and the parking on the upper level was too expensive, so we left it.
From here we were told about another little beach town, Arrawarra, just further south that had a great caravan park right on a beautiful beach. So we went to Arrawarra and weren't disappointed. We had a nice walk along the beach and watched a massive group of people learning how to surf... they weren't very good and it was funny to see them fall sometimes (says me who hasn't tried it myself). Here we met a family with the 3 cutest little girls and by the time we'd sat down for dinner we had 3 new little friends that were possibly the most talkative little people I've ever met.

From there we went to Port Macquarie and found a campsite on the edge of town. Next to the campsite was a school grounds where we saw kangaroos sitting and eating. We didn't want to get too close and disturb them, so unfortunately our photos look like brown dots on grass, but we did see them.
The next morning we went to a koala bear hospital in town. Here we saw quite a few koalas and although they had caged areas where they could get food and water, the top was totally open and the koalas are free to come and go as they please. They really are sweet looking, particularly the small ones and also when they sleep, but they're very hard to spot. We got some perfect pictures of them, but unfortunately we didn't get to hold them, it was still really nice to see them though.
After a nice morning with the koalas, we headed to Newcastle. We quite liked the town, as it looks different to other towns in Oz, with beautiful old buildings and a nice feel to it. We didn't actually stay here, but went to Stockton just over the river but from here we could still see Newcastle. Here we were right on the beach again and we had a lovely evening for walking on the beach and took some nice photos.
The next place down the coast from here is Sydney, but we're planning on going there at the end of our trip to Australia, so from Newcastle we headed inland.

Brisbane to Surfers Paradise

From Noosa we were very close to Brisbane, so we went for a drive to the Glass House Mountains first and stopped off there for lunch. These are 13 mountains that used to be volcano plugs and as a result they are odd shaped, but beautiful and they surround you from the lookout point.
We then drove into Brisbane on the search for a caravan park, but had no luck finding one, so drove into the city to the information centre. We were gone for all of 20 minutes and had to pay 12 dollars for parking... we were not impressed. We finally found the only caravan park near the city centre and this was 4km outside and the owner told us that the council is trying to shut them down and won't let them put any signs up, which explains why it was almost impossible to find them.
On the Saturday we packed a picnic and walked into the city. It was really hot, but any time one of us complained about walking we reminded ourselves that we were saving 12 dollars an hour on parking and that walking is both good for us and a nice way to explore the city.
We didn't see much damage from the floods and the city was really lively and nice. After some window shopping and walking through the parks and along the riverfront, we headed back to our campsite for some much needed dinner and a nice bottle of Aussie wine for me and ice cold beers for Colin.
On Sunday we met up with an old school friend of mine that I haven't seen in 16 years. Natashia still looked the same as she did when she was 10 and she told me I did too. It was great to catch up and we had a really nice lunch and did lots of chatting.
After 1 more night in Brisbane we headed to the Gold coast and stopped off in Surfers Paradise.
We were expecting a little beach town and instead we found a mini city of skyscrapers and hotel chains, but without being as busy as a city. We walked around and then had some lunch on the beach before finding a spot for the night and then came back into the centre to book tickets for the Wet n Wild water park.
We got up early so that we could spend maximum time at the water park and also hoped to miss the crowds and queues for the rides. Our favourite, but also the most scary ride, was the Tornado where we sat in a big round rubber boat and then got slid down a tube that went almost straight down into a massive funnel where we then got slid from side to side while clutching on for dear life. Colin went down backwards so couldn't gauge the drop and I went face first so could see the hilarious expression on his face... seriously priceless! There were a few other rides where you also have a massive drop and it feels like your heart stops for those few seconds until you know you're "safe" again. We also did some racing rides where Colin and I were side by side and we raced to the bottom. As I recall, I won most of them, but Colin will probably tell you different. It was such a fun day and we only had to queue once.
We spent 1 more night in Surfers paradise and next we go to Byron Bay.