Today is our last day on the North Island! Tomorrow we catch a bus at 7.00 (early!), then a ferry at 8.25, and another bus at 12.30 and should reach Nelson sometime in the afternoon - lots of travelling! Our next stop after Rotorua was Lake Taupo, which is the biggest lake in NZ and has a bigger surface area than Singapore - fact! We arrived quite late in the afternoon, so went for a walk to the lake shore and took pretty pictures as the sunset over the mountain...

We have been in New Zealand for nearly a week now, so I thought I would attempt a blog update! We arrived into Auckland at around midnight after a day spent on planes and hanging around in airports (definitely the worst thing about travelling). Exhausted, we collapsed into bed only to wake up early the next morning to head over to Waiheke Island to visit Gaelle's cousin Clement, who gave us a tour of the island and a wine tasting session at the vineyard he works ...

After a couple of laid back days in 1770, we embarked on a 14 hour epic Greyhound journey up to Townsville. A short ferry ride later, and we were on a very sunny Magnetic Island (so called because Captain Cook's compass went crazy when he sailed by). Apparently the island is home to a lot of wild koalas, so our eyes were peeled at all times (unfortunately we didn't spot one the whole time we were there) as we wound our way to the hostel on the other side of the i...

It's been so long since I updated this blog that I'm beginning to forget everything that we've been up to as we zoom up the East Coast... So, we are in Town of 1770/Agnes Water at the moment (a tiny village with two names - rather odd...) - the most northerly surf beach, staying at a hostel called Cool Bananas. On the way here, we stopped in Brisbane, where we hand fed kangaroos and stroked koalas in the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and looked out over the city at ...

I have been in Australia for a whole week now, so I thought it might be time for a bit of a blog update... Eager to get away from the Bangkok riots (which were too close to our hotel for comfort), we arrived at the airport a whole 7 hours before our flight. Factor in 8.5 hours on a plane with a shrieking child, and you may get an idea of how weary we were when we arrived in Sydney at 4 in the morning. By 7, we were out exploring the city - we headed straight tow...