QUEENSLAND

We were positively surprised by the friendly welcoming of people and their kindness to help when we arrived in Cairns. We had 2 days to have a look around, hire a car and get everything sorted for our round trip. We visited close by Kuranda and its Barron Falls and were excited to pick up our car. Yes we were looking for the best deal in town and went the for a backpacker option but didn’t quite expect a 23 year old run down car. Never judge a book by its cover it did its job and ran very economically.

Our first target was Daintree NP and Cape Tribulation. There are many short boardwalks in the area and a fresh and cooling swimming hole and we even saw a cassowary. We booked a trip with Rum Runners to dive and snorkel on Great Barrier Reef. The visibility was not as good as we expected, the whole day trip seemed rather short and on top Petra got sunburned.

Getting in the area of Atherton tabletop was refreshing after the high humidity of the Daintree NP. We saw many waterfalls, spotted a platypus, two Lumholtz tree kangaroos, tortoises, snakes and spiders.

Our last destination was Mission Beach, to hopefully see a cassowary again. Early morning is normally good to spot them. Your best chance to see one is just driving along the road. We did that for nearly 2 hours but no luck. Instead, we couldn’t believe it at first, we saw a manta ray swimming around the pier for about 30 minutes.

One other thing we would like to mention is the laughing kookaburra. He did wake us up every morning at about 6am with his amazing laughter. It’s a funny noise to listen to.

For more photos please click here.

TRAVEL ROUTE OF NEW ZEALAND

NORTH ISLAND TRAVEL ROUTE

SOUTH ISLAND TRAVEL ROUTE

DUNEDIN AND SURROUNDINGS

We spent the last days of our holiday in Dunedin, enjoying a last German BBQ and finishing off Phils home made spirits and my parents sloe schnaps. The city of Dunedin itself impressed us with its scottish architecture but rather disappointing Phil found the cadburys factory. He only got 3 tiny little bars of chocolate instead off all the kids getting a big bag.

We spend a whole day on Otago Peninsula visiting the gardens of Larnach Castle, watching sea lions at Allans beach, yellow eyed penguins at Sandfly Bay and blue penguins at Pilot beach. You had to assums they where blue penguins as they decided to come on land when it was already dark.

Heading back to Christchurch we visited the Moeraki Boulders but didn't stay long as the cold rain made it very unpleasant.

Please click here for more photos.

THE CATLINS

Driving through the Catlins is a bit hop on hop off. there are many little sights on the way and its not unusual to bump into people you have seen at a sight before. Unusual is to meet 2 guys in there campervan again after joining the bungee jump in Queenstown and sleeping in the same hostel in Milford Sound. We must have seen them about 6 times on the way and you wont believe it, we even met them again in Dunedin high street.

TE ANAU TO RIVERTON

We made a few stops on the way to Riverton and one of the most memorable one was the Clifden Limstone Caves. As we only had 2 torches Phil and my dad decided to go in on their own. We briefly had a look on the map which stated a 40min walk over 300m to another exit. After waiting at the exit for nearly an hour we started to wonder. We walked back to the entrance of the cave and had a second look at the map. We then realized there was no way to get to the other exit as there was a 7 meter drop after a lake and it was for experienced climbers with rope only. Me and my mum got rather nervous if those 2 would be sensible enough to turn back. As we heard them after 1.30hrs crawling out of the hole we were much happier again. Check out more photos here.

MILFORD SOUND

Milford Sound has not got an awful lot of accommodation, to be precise, there is only one for "Non Milford Sound Trampers". We therefore ended up sleeping in a 4 dorm bedroom, 1 bunk for us and 1 for my parents. Milford Sound is beautiful but to keep it preserved not much has been established. You really can only admire it by boat and we joint an early 2hr cruise. The sandflies in the harbour made the decision easy for us at the end of the tour and we left quickly.

AROUND THE SOUTHERN LAKES

We spend a day exploring Rob Roy Track near Wanaka before heading towards Queenstown over the Cardrona Range. Queenstown has so much to offer and we decided to stay there for 5 nights. We checked out Arrowtown, tramped parts of the Routeburn track and Phil and my dad decided to jump down 134m on a bungee. We also hiked an ascent of 1400m to climb Mt Lemond with some stunning views over the town and far behind.