Walking the end of the Line

Our mission to travel as much of Australia as possible (while simultaneously living there) has been a major success. We covered as much of the vast country as we could before departing to our next leg of the journey (which is beginning to bring us closer to home). NEW ZEALAND. We have less than three weeks in this majestic country with only a campervan, rain boots and a few good maps.

Currently - we are over half way through this journey. We have finished our tour around the South Island and have just arrived in the North Island (after crossing an extremely overpriced ferry). We delayed a couple days before venturing across after news that one of the volcanoes in the North had started to burp hot ash and rocks into the air. SCARY. It seems to be settling but we are now avoiding that area of the island. It’s unfortunate because Mike had wanted to do a volcano walk! Ha ha. The South Island was absolutely spectacular. I won’t even try and put into words the pure beauty that stretches out in every direction. The first few days were extremely rainy and we quickly tired of the deep fog which limited our sights to just the roadway. But after that the weather and views have been spectacular. One of the highlights of our entire worldly trip was partaking in a glacier heli-hike on the Franz Josef Glacier on the west coast; a truly remarkable experience. We were airlifted to a safe spot on the glacier and then hiked with our guide through massive ice pinnacles - which at some points towered over our heads. Milford Sound was quite a treat with scenery that takes your breath away. And then there was beautiful Queenstown; a remarkable city with mountains in the backdrop. From here Mike went on the shotover Canyon Swing has an early birthday gift. Talk about adrenaline rush. We cannot possibly list all the amazing places New Zealand has provided for us!

Before we left Australia we spent 6 days in Bali, Indonesia. That was a real treat and luxury. Although an extremely affordable country we broke the bank by indulging in a few luxuries – like a Balinese massage! What a unfruitful country with such rich culture and religious influence! We were there with two of good girlfriends, Elaine and Rachel. It was to be our goodbye week with them as we were parting ways: They are staying on in Australia as we head home. After Bali, Mike and I flew into Darwin and headed out on a “7 day Red Rocket adventure” which toured us through Kakadu National Park, down to Alice Springs and out to Uluru Rock. What a blast. Early mornings, extreme weather, swags, beautiful sights and awesome people sum up this tour!

That is the update for now! This may be the last blog... as we will be heading from New Zealand to Fiji and then Hawaii before going home, thus concluding our amazing adventure! Cheers and great thanks to all the amazing people who have been an amazing part to this journey! It truly has, in every sense of the saying been "A Trip of a Lifetime"

Home away from home

HERE IT IS – A BLOG POST!! It has been ages since we have posted but it doesn’t feel like we are traveling anymore... manly has become more of a second home. We live on the third floor of an apartment building between the beach and the wharf where the ferries come in. So whether we turn left or right when leaving our building we get to see the beautiful, beautiful ocean! Right now we live with the owner of the flat, Linda who rents out the 2 bedrooms of her home – one to us and one to our friend Elaine. There is a schnauzer dog, Max and a bird, called Birdie (who would have thought?). Definitely prime living quarters.  It is a daily occurrence to go for a walk or run along the beach and grab a tea at one of the cafes.

Since January Mike has been working for a quadriplegic man. The hours are short but the pay is awesome with some cool perks. Sam is still waitstaff at a restaurant right on the beach in Dee Why and has recently started taking on a Supervisor position. Both jobs pay enough to cover the bills and some wonderful nights out! 

The nightlife in Manly is pretty awesome because there are the key bars with a laid back feel and whenever we feel like heading home its only a 5 minute walk before we are in bed!! And there is a convenient late night bakery on the way with the best chocolate croissants one could ask for (he he he. ) Cheers to guilty pleasure!

And yessssssss we have tried surfing. We each have our own board. Mike is the only one to succeed. He has gotten quite good and is quite ambitious. He tries to surf everyday for a few hours. You all need to see the smile on that boy’s face when he has a good day on the surf. Sam is s***, aka struggling. Playing in the waves is a blast but the whole standing up is quite challenging. Also the idea of sharks being in the water has her resorting to staying in the extremely shallow waters. There is a shark alarm that goes off when the lifeguards manage to spot one and everyone clears the water. But obviously they don’t spot them all because Mike was in the water the other day and he saw a shark IN THE WAVE that he was catching. Thank God he rode the wave in and didn’t go back in. Heebiiiieee Jeeebiess.

We are still coming to terms with the fact we only have a month left in our manly home before our last waves of travel before we are HOMEEEEEE!!! We are super excited to finally be reunited with family and friends, yet there is an ache at the thought of leaving as well.

We have an AMAZING travel plan for our way home. We are super super excited for all that is planned. Starting July we will be hitting: Bali, North and Central Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and then HOME!!

LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU ALL!

A Long Way From Home, Mate!

HEY GUYS

We know, we know - it has been way to long since our last blog post. Life has been pretty sweet the last few months. But access to internet has been extremely lacking.

I think we left off with ending our trip in Perth. SO after bumming it on Will's floor in the centre of Sydney we rented an apartment in Manly for three weeks during the Christmas holidays. An entire house to ourselves with a gorgeous dog named Bobby! From here we both searched for and landed a job in the area. Christmas was nice but definitely not the same without snow. It is cool to say that we were swimming on Christmas though!

In January we moved out to a sweeeeeetttt house in Dee Why, where Sam works at a beach front restaurant. Our house was a 5 minute walk to work, groceries and the amazing beach and surf. We have taken up surfing, Mike being the only successful one out of the two of us. But it is a challenging blast. The waves are extremely powerful but so invigorating. Nothing like having your sinuses pressure blasted with salt water haha. We lived with four other boys, 2 from Sweden and 2 from Czech Republic and they were awesome to hang out with. We have meet some pretty sweet people here in Dee Why.

Living in Dee Why is like a dream. On a lunch break you can go swim in the ocean and catch some rays. The weather is usually sunny and hot, however some of January had an unusual amount of rainfall. We didn't want to move out of our house but with Sam's parents coming down for a 3 week holiday in February it didn't make sense to keep paying rent while we were off on a roadie. So bye bye beach house

Sam's parents came down February 9th and stayed for three weeks. We rented an amazing campervan and drove up from Sydney as far as Airlie Beach and the WhitSundays, before flying to Melbourne for a few days of city living. The trip was DYNAMITE. The weather was pristine with sun almost everyday. Beautiful beaches during the day (including body boarding across the waves and playing volleyball in the shallows), playing cards and hanging out at night. Fraser Island was a fun day adventure as was sailing and snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef. Oh and Fishing. (we ate the fish we caught thanks to the cooking skills of Mike and Dad and the camp BBQ).The Great Barrier Reef is stunning and it was pretty amazing to be swimming with the fishes, including NEMO fishes! We hit up a few National Parks along the way, some of them including dense subtropical rainforests with the most majestic and enchanted trees we have ever seen. The roads to get there are more intense and adrenaline pumping than many roller coaster rides. The downside was being sucked by the leeches who managed to weasel their way into our shoes and through our pants.

On our adventure we saw Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallabees. Amazing birds. Dad and I had a parrot throwing fruit at us and all of us got to see a baby joey climb out of his mothers pouch. Adorable! No crocodiles though. The markets in Melbourne were massive, similar to Paddy's Market in Sydney.

Sitting here now it is impossible to remember all the amazing things we did but the memories are fond and this trip is proving to be the time of our lives. Just arriving back from our trip and sending Sam's parents off has left us slightly down. It was really nice to have a taste of home. We are currently homeless and on the hunt for a new place. We both still have our previous jobs but are unsure of the hours we will now be receiving. So cross your fingers and pray that everything from now on will be just as amazing as it has been the past few months!!!

Lots of love and missing everyone terribly.