Day One: Wanaka to Queenstown to Milford Sound From Wanaka, we took a substantially priced bus ($20/each) for a one-hour ride back to the airport in Queenstown, where we were to pick up a four-night car rental, which we had scheduled a couple weeks before for the bargain price of $25/day through Omega Rental Cars. Unfortunately, we committed a grave…
Day One: Arrowtown to Lindis Pass Hotel (1.5 hours driving) The Best Preserved Town in NZ: Arrowtown New Zealand is not exactly known for its picturesque villages that exude charm like other destinations around the world. However, there is one gold mining town, founded in the 1860s during the Otago Gold Rush, that has managed to captivate the heart of…
Doing the Hooker Valley Track gave us our first glimpse of the majestic Mt. Cook/Aoraki, but to truly soak in the beauty of New Zealand’s Southern Alps and the entire Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, you have to climb a mountain. Perched 1,800 meters (5,900 ft) up nearby Mt. Ollivier lies one of the most incredible alpine huts in the entire…
Upon landing a bit spontaneously in Northern Victoria and graciously being provided a loaner Ute by Farmer Joel's father, we were able to see a resplendent, and quite abundantly gifted part of the country. It was a part that felt incredibly familiar to us…a mix of Eastern Oregon and Northern California, exuding some of the same “Old West” and gold rush…
From South to North: Into the Tropics After five days of fervently fanning flies and letting the fragrance of farmland soak into our sniffers, we bid adieu to Farmer Joel at the train station in “The Wang.” It was time to commence our next Ozcapade…to the far north…where we would join forces with Avis relocating a rental car from Cairns to…
Two French Bulldogs who think they're humans We were excited to arrive to Brisbane after four nights of camping for a few reasons, with A/C, a real bed and fewer creepy crawlers at the top of the list. For three nights, we would get some crawlers of a different variety, or more accurately…waddlers. Ah yes, Otis and Daisy, whose Trusted…
The Voyage from Brissie to Kyogle Waking up in Brisbane, we cranked our engines at 3:30 to make our 5:00 southbound train into New South Wales, which cost an astronomical amount compared to other public transport we’d had in Oz. ($51 USD/2 tickets/2 hours.) We were quickly learning that prices can range drastically from region to region in this country. Upon…
Believe it or not, this was our first jaunt Down Under and we knew in this expensive country that we had to be strategic about stretching the budget. Part of that strategy took us a bit out of our comfort zone and definitely forced us to be way more flexible and last minute than we usually prefer. Did we get…
