Round the world in a Year!

Hi All

We’ve been steadily making our way up from Adalaide to Darwin over the past week and a half. We took the train up to Alice Springs overnight, meeting a couple of people along the way and finally checking into our Backpackers Hostel at lunchtime, 20 hours after getting on the train. Annies Place, the hostel we stayed at did it’s own 3 day tour to Uluru (Ayres Rock), Kings Canyon & The Olga’s, which involved alot of Hiking, and Camping rough in “Swags” which are Aussie bush beds, basically like a large canvas sleeping bag with a thin matress in the bottom, which you get inside after you’ve got in your sleeping bag, and you sleep looking up at the stars!

On our return and after a good nights sleep, we decided we would travel to Darwin, a couple of people who we met on the Train, Amy and Dean we trying also get to Darwin, and like us they didn’t (or couldn’t afford) to wait a week for the next free train. We all went on the Uluru tour as well.

We all decided to rent a car for the week along with camping equipment, we also found a girl called Siohban who wanted to go, so the five of us set off for Darwin.

Passing through some excellent countryside, we stayed 5 nights on the road after passing through the Katherine and Kakadu National parks, and stopping an evening in the campside at Daly Waters, the oldest pub in the Northern Teritory.

We arrived in Darwin last night, and now have to look forward to the dubious pleasure of finding some work to do…

We’ve been in Oz a week now, we landed in Melbourne and we taken via a hostel shuttle to our hostel for the night. We were staying in the fashionable St Kilda area by the beach and close to the famous Luna Park. We decided to stay for 5 nights in Melbourne and had a few days in the city and a good wander round some of the gardens and parks in the the city.

A short (10 hour) train trip and we were in the city of Adelaide, which is even greener than Melbourne, though much smaller in scale.

Australia is a little warmer than New Zealand, though not much, as it is still their winter here!

We have each purchased a 6 month rail pass, which gives us unlimited use of the major routes from Adelaide to Sydney, Melboune to Adelaide, Adelaide to Perth and Adelaide to Darwin (via Alice Springs), and our next adventure will take us out into the outback for a look at the fabulous Ayres Rock!!! so keep an eye out for that one. Wonder if theres a David Jones store there? (that’s oz’s equivalent to our john lewis store).  Rats! knew i,d make a bad backpacker!

Its nearly time for us to start looking for work, Nik wants to try his hand at pulling pints i on the other hand would make a pretty good sales assistant preferably behind a Chanel counter! I,ve been told commission is generous and younger looking skin is essential!

Here i come!!!

Bye for now Chez and Nik

As promised, here are the Bungy piccies!!!!

Bungy!!!

it’s been a week since our last post and that was pretty big stuff, now on with some more!

We took a nice leisurly drive down from Lake Taupo, through some more stunning country and down the centre of the country to Wellington in the south, the capital of NZ. We had a wander through the city and happened to arrive during the victory celebrations for Wellington resident  Michael Campbell, just back from winning the US Open golf!

We booked on the 1.30am ferry accross to the South Island, arriving 3hours later, had a sleep and woke up to a stunning mountain view! well this island is where all the big ones are!

We spent 3-4 days touring round the north of the South Island, stopping down in Christchurch and then carried on down to Dunedin, where we celebrated Chez’s birthday with a Thai meal. From Dunedin, we started the cross-mountain trek to Queenstown, the birth place of the Bungy jumping craze. We were told in Christchurch that AJ Hackett bungy were the best as AJ himself pioneered the sport and Kawaru Bridge was where it all began… we had to give it a go, and we managed to get booked in at the bridge where it all began. We decided to do a Tandem jump (thats both of us tied together at the ankles folks, not on a bike!) Amazing rush! Its a great thrill, much more of a initial rush than Skydiving, though you don’t have time to appreciate it much before the bungy snaps you back up again!

When we get access to the pictures, I’ll post them on the blog! Whatever next?

Laterz

Nik and Chez