Blog

Most days on the road are good, really good. A few are the rare kind that you remember for years;  days that were so amazing it almost hurts to remember them – like skydiving in New Zealand. Then, inevitably, there are the days that aren’t so good. Just as in normal life, sometimes we’re exhausted, sick, pissed off or just feeling inexplicably flat. Unfortunately, I was feeling a mixture of all those things the day we set off on our Great Ocean Road Trip.

09 May, 2013 /

“Now, I don’t want you all to freak out or anything, but there’s something I have to tell you all; Neighbours. Isn’t. Real.” Nooo! How cruel, of all the things to tell a bunch of Brits going on an Official Neighbours Tour. It had to be said though; we’d all find out sooner or later.

06 May, 2013 /
We departed New Zealand from Christchurch in the early hours of the morning; as we sped through the dark, silent streets we both felt strange. The city with its broken buildings, cordoned-off areas and sparsely populated streets had echoed so strongly with the memory of that final, devastating earthquake - it was impossible to stop imagining all that had happened there. We flew off from our wonderful first month of travel in New Zealand reminded of the terrible danger that lies beneath the beauty of this incredible country.
03 May, 2013 /
We certainly started our big fat travel adventure with a lot of energy. We packed so much into our first month of travel; driving from Paihia in the North Island all the way down to Queenstown in the South Island.We travelled by car, trains, boats, helicopters and planes. We saw glaciers, rainforests, mountains and volcanoes. We hiked, we jumped, we luged, we parachuted and we swam.
29 April, 2013 /
We kicked off our travel adventure with a month-long trip around New Zealand. Here’s a breakdown of our New Zealand travel costs,  from food and accommodation to activities and transport. 
26 April, 2013 /
Milford Sound has been dubbed the eighth Wonder of the World and is one of the most visited attractions in New Zealand, so we couldn’t miss out on taking a boat trip to this talked-about fjord. By the time we arrived in Queenstown we were exhausted from our whirlwind month of travel in New Zealand; in the space of a week we’d been skydiving, glacier hiking and spent hours behind the wheel, so a chilled-out boat trip on Milford Sound and some amazing scenery was just what we needed.
23 April, 2013 /

New Zealand was the first stop on our trip and it proved the perfect country to start our new life of travel. Here’s the lowdown on the best places we visited, our overall impressions of the country and some tips for backpacking around New Zealand.

18 April, 2013 /

It’s been a month since we set off on our travels, so how are we coping? Has it been everything we thought it would be? Are we at each other’s throats yet? Here’s how we’re adapting to our new life of travel.

We arrived in New Zealand physically and mentally exhausted. Those last few weeks before leaving were so emotional and stressful; it was a relief to finally be away from the strangeness of those final days. We launched straight into an overnight boat cruise and moved quickly from one place to the next, packing our time with activities. In hindsight this could have caused a complete meltdown, but it actually worked out well for us; seeing as much as possible and taking on new challenges stopped us from dwelling on the massive upheaval we’d just gone through.
09 April, 2013 /
‘Here we go’, says my Tandem skydiver, manoeuvring me towards the edge of bottomless blue. I feel the rush of air as the plane door opens; hear the thunder of the engine, the roar of the wind and somewhere in the distance a voice in my ear telling me to tilt my head back.I don’t remember seeing anything in those last few seconds, but the photos show my eyes are wide open, staring at the bright ceiling above as if in silent prayer. My only memory of dangling 13,000 feet in the air is the electric terror, of feeling every fibre of my body scream in unison:‘No’And then we fell.
05 April, 2013 /