The Nelson region is the bread basket of New Zealand and along with world famous wineries, the area is filled with fields of vegetables, fruits and hops with local breweries almost as abundant as wineries. The other thing the Nelson region is famous for is mountain biking. These two activities can be combined in The …
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Welcome to the South Island
We left Wellington via the early morning ferry. The three hour trip can be choppy as the Tasman Sea is funnelled between the two islands, but we had been advised to make sure we were on the top deck for the last hour of the journey when the sea and wind calms in the shelter …
The South of the North Island
It was that time of the week again when we don our green and white vests for a mad dash around a local park; this time it was Palmerston North it what would be our final parkrun of our round the world tour (parkrun hasn’t quite reached Sri Lanka yet!). On a flat riverside course …
Great walks and rides of the North Island
One aspect of New Zealand’s culture that has impressed us is the importance placed on sport and exercise. This of course includes the countywide support for the All Blacks and Black Caps but extends to a nationwide enjoyment of the outdoors. This has led to a vast network of walking and cycling trails across the …
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A land of Volcanoes: Rotorua and Lake Taupo
On our third day in New Zealand, we picked up our camper van which would be our home for the next three weeks. We’d splashed out a little bit and gone for a slightly bigger one than we had in Tasmania – one with a toilet and shower and that we could stand up in! …
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Welcome to NZ: Auckland and Waiheke Island
With only limited time for our trip we had had to be selective about which countries we chose to visit. However, in choosing where to go there was one place that was always at the top of both of our lists; New Zealand! We touched down in the largest city, Auckland in late afternoon and …
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Sydney and the Blue Mountains
During our Kumano Kodo hike in Japan we had met a brother and sister from Sydney who had been less than enthusiastic about their city. As a result we entered Sydney planning for a more relaxed pace to this section of the trip to refresh ourselves between campervans. We arrived in Sydney in the early …
Tasmania part 2: The return to Hobart via Mount Field National Park
We chose to take a different route back to Hobart, which was able to satisfy both our loves of cake and of mountains. Back in Melbourne our Airbnb host had raved about the vanilla slices from a small town called Ross, whilst Mount Field National Park (to the West of Hobart) sounded like a great …
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Tasmania Part 1: Hobart and the East Coast Drive
Tasmania (or Tassie as the Aussies call it) was an area of Australia that we were both extremely keen to explore. For some reason it seems to be missed off the standard British tourist itinerary, yet every Aussie we had met along our trip so far had raved about it. We had five days of …
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G’day Melbourne!
After a slightly delayed flight due to the Typhoon (we got off easy compared to Claire’s brother!), we arrived in Melbourne, Australia. Recognising that we would have needed all our sabbatical just in Australia if we had wanted to cover the whole country, we had focused our 2 week itinerary on the south-eastern tip: Melbourne, …
Claire and Gareth go travelling! 