We arrived in Newcastle on another rainy morning but all was good as Vanny passed her inspection, which we were very relieved about. We went for a celebratory swim at the Newcastle Ocean Baths (just me and Matt not Vanny), but don't let the sunny photo deceive you, there was a cool breeze so it was a quick dip. After, we wandered along to Nobbys lighthouse watching the rain clouds ascend on us again. We drove down the coast to stop at Norah Head for the night, but as we arrived in the rain the driverside window, which had always been a bit dodgy, decided to detach from its winding mechanism. We managed to get the glass mostly into position for the night but this was our new next day priority. We woke to a clearer morning by the sea treating us to wonderful rainbow which was a welcome splash of colour! Then we were off to buy some pliers to fix our winding window. It took a while but the window is fixed, we've just got to be a bit gentle with it. We had a campsite booked in P...
We made it out of Croydon the next day! It was close however. The reported level of the river the next morning was 'Water 200mm below bridge and rising. Expected to be over soon'. With the river being about an hours drive away we set off with crossed fingers! When we reached the bridge the water was definitely over, thankfully not enough to stop us, but soon would have been. Back on the road we stopped for a bit of bird spotting at Cumberland Chimney, our only spots being a Australian Bustard and a Nankeen Night Heron, then later on we walked up Kalkani Crater Lookout. The latter is in the Undara Volcanic National Park, which is home to some cool lava tube formations but as it's the low season we couldn't visit these. It's good for us to keep moving anyway! After spending the night for free at a random little spot behind a petrol station in Mount Garnet, we made it into the Atherton Tablelands. There was a relieving drop in temperature and we'd managed to just...
From the 1st of June its officially winter here in New Zealand. The temperature has definitely dropped, it's been below minus most nights so the hot water bottle has been getting some good use. We even had ice inside the van when we woke up in Queenstown, I've yet to be cold at night though so the layers are working. We arrived in Queenstown later than planned as we didn't set an alarm and ended up sleeping for 12 hours straight, the Stewart Island antics must have taken it out of us! When we did arrive we headed straight for a Fergburger. They're good burgers that have won plenty of awards, are they worth the hype? Probably not, but when you're hungry a decent burger is always going to hit the spot! We then mooched about the town which is basically full of very expensive shops and places you can book things like bungy jumps. The next day we knew we wanted to head up into the snowy mountains so followed Tiki trail upwards, then Ben Lomond track after that. It wasn...
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