Its been a while since my last email but here is a summary of what weve been up to the last few months on the other side of the world.....
We spent xmas and new year in Cairns and treated ourselves to a serviced apartment whilst there (didnt fancy spending xmas day in a campervan!)
Xmas day we had a BBQ on the esplanade sea front then spent most of the day lying in the sun and swimming in the huge lagoon that has recently been built.
Jan 2nd we packed everything back in the campervan together with about 80 litres of water and headed for the long stretch of road in the outback towards alice springs etc. About 4 days & 2000kms later you reach the three ways roadhouse where we did a left and headed south towards the red cebtre of australia.
Alice springs, ayers rock & kings canyon were all very interesting but extremely hot! most days were about 40deg in the shade but in direct sunlight it increases by another 10-15 deg which is the hottest i have ever been in my life!
A couple of weeks laterwe reached adelaide on the south coast which was a lovely city but to the other extreme and freexing cold at night (we had to invest in hot water bottles!)
From there we hit the great ocean road, the grampians, melbourne, many national parks where koalas were in the gum trees above and kangaroos and possums come out at night then finally back to sydney where we stayed with friends for a couple of weeks.
A grand total of just over 17,000kms around australia we done but we only spent 4 days in the kings cross car market and sold the van for just under what we bought it for...what a bonus!
March 8th we left Oz and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand and met up with Ben. He had arrived a bit before us and had already bought a cheap VW golf so we decided to share the costs and all travel NZ together.
First place we arrived at was Rotorua which has a lot of volcanic activity so driving round town, all over the place you see steam rising from the many geothermal pools and bubbling mud pools which was pretty amazing to see.
We then headed to Lake Taupo and the togariro national park where Carianne and I climbed Mount Ruapehu to see the crater lake and glaciers at the top. It was a 10km hike to an altitude of 2600m above sea level and was the most strenuous thing we have ever done in out lives!
WE then drove to Wellington to catch a ferry to the south island which on arrival was very different to the north....a lot more scenic and a lot wetter but not so populated.
So far we have headed down the west coast , went for a half day hike across the Fox glacier and have reached Queenstown which is a small but very picturesque ski town in the middle of a load of mountains.
We'll be heading to milford sound next which were told is even more scenic before working our way up the east coast back up to the north island.
At the minute we are scheduled to fly from Auckland on 15th April to Fiji where were gonna spend a couple of weeks relaxin and getting some serious beach time in before flying to los angeles on 29 april to see some of california/nevada/arizona and to spend the last of the holiday money in Vegas (and hopefully win it all back!!)
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