The Underwood's Down Under!: January 2008

We have just arrived back after our three week holiday. We had a week on the Gold Coast in Australia and then just under two weeks in a camper van touring the South island of New Zealand. It was amazing, and the two were very different!

The Gold Coast is renounced for its theme parks, surfing and beaches. It's here you'll find Surfer's Paradise, and the theme parks to rival those in the USA. It's takes four and a half hours by plane to get there. We stayed at the Sea World Resort and had day passes for Movie World, Sea World, Wet 'n' Wild and Dreamworld. We were well over theme parks by the end and ready for the change that New Zealand offered! However, Anna loved it and it was good to see a city that was thriving!

New Zealand is a three and a half hour flight from the Gold Coast (as you can see, Perth is well and truly the most isolated city in the world, there's no "quick" trip anywhere!). We picked up our camper van and planned to stay at a different camp site each night, travelling around the island. The first thing that struck us about New Zealand was how green and "British" it seemed compared to Perth. There were trees and flowers that we recognised, rain and the architecture was very similar.

Our plan for the trip was:
Day 1 - Christchurch - Dunedin (4.75 hours drive)
Day 2 - Dunedin - Te Anan (4 hours drive)
Day 3 - Te Anan – Milford Sounds (1.5 hours drive)
Day 4 - Te Anan - Queenstown (2.25 hours drive)
Day 5 - Queenstown - Wanaka (1.5 hours drive)
Day 6 - Wanaka – Franz Joseph (4 hours drive)
Day 7 - Franz Joseph - Greymouth
Day 8 - Greymouth - Kaikoura (4 hours drive)
Day 9 - Kaikoura - Christchurch (2.25 hours drive)

Of course, it didn't go to plan as the camper van broke down and we needed a new starter motor and battery (I won't bore you with the details but it meant an overnight stop in an area that we hadn't planned) and then I managed to hit the camper van and we needed to exchange it for another (oops ... thank goodness we took out extra insurance ... ). We therefore had to miss out the very top of the island.

We did fit in - horse riding, heli-biking (where an helicopter takes you to the top of the mountain and then you have a three hour biking descent down - just Nige on that one!), whale watching (saw a beautiful Sperm Whale and countless Dusky Dolphins), a boat trip on Milford Sound, penguin and seal watching, the luge and a gondola trip up a mountain!

Overall, it was a fantastic holiday and I'm already looking at the next trip ...

The Gold Coast, Australia

Arriving on the Gold Coast