Due to our relatively short 8 day stay in a country the size of Australia we decided to just split our time between Sydney and the tropical town of Cairns at the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. It was still a full three hour flight just up the east coast. We stayed in our best hostel yet with a refreshing large pool and grass courtyard, leather lounge couches, and multiple large flat screens when the heat and humidity get to be too much in the afternoon. We ...

We had a smooth afternoon flight over the Tasman Sea to another country, and another continent, landing in Sydney, Australia. The city has more people than all of New Zealand, and with a much hotter climate and vibrant culture we definitely felt the change even though there are a lot of similarities between the two countries. We were only in the downtown area for a few hours when we caught a train to the first Super 15 rugby match of the season in Australia. We h...

Well we couldn't stay in one place forever so it was back to the road with Tina. We drove up to the town of Napier, which was virtually destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 so most of the town was rebuilt with the popular Art Deco style of the times. We had just arrived one day late for the yearly Art Deco festival where people dress up in old fashions and dozens of classic cars make their way to town to cruise around. It was still a sight to see the old buildings ...

One thing that we wanted to do with our time in New Zealand was stay with a local family and work on a farm or garden. Leah especially was missing her beautiful garden back home, and having easy access to fresh vegetables. Leah contacted a family through a website that pairs people like us with a family, and it turned out to be almost a perfect match for us. We stayed with a couple who's family had lived in the small wine vineyard town of Martinborough for over ...

After all our train rides in New Zealand, as well as the buses and planes everywhere else we were ready to get our own wheels to explore the rest of the country. We picked up our stylishly understated 1.3 liter white Nissan station wagon that converts into a "micro campervan". We decided on the fitting name of Tina, and began our adventures on the wrong side of the road down under. We first explored the war zone that is downtown Christchurch still experiencing af...