Hi! Long time no see! I’ve been back from my trip to Australia and New Zealand for 2 weeks now, and am well and truly over the jet lag – but not the post-holiday-blues!
It really was a trip of a lifetime! We loved every minute of it! Here are some highlights:
Our first stop was Adelaide in Australia to visit my cousin Richard and his lovely wife Jacqui. Here they are with Maurice on Brighton beach! They spoilt us rotten for 3 days, showing us the sights of Adelaide.
Glorious empty beaches, huh? It was a bit of a thrill to be paddling in the warm sea wearing shorts in February! And we had a lovely wine tasting in the McLaren Vale.
Next stop was Sydney, where we visited Maurice’s nephew Mark and his young family. Mark showed us the sights of central Sydney and the harbour, but sadly, the weather wasn’t good, cloudy and rainy! Most disappointing!
We spent a day touring the Blue Mountains. Awesome!
And we visited a little wildlife park to see koalas and kangeroos
All too soon, it was time to leave for the main bit of our holiday, touring New Zealand by motorbike.
Once we got to NZ, we joined our tour, organised by Paradise Motorcycles. There were 4 bikes already on the trip and we joined them on day 3 of their tour. Our old friends Stewart and Sue were already there. More people joined the tour along the way until we were 12 bikes in total. We spent a few days on the North Island – where we saw lots of beautiful scenery and rode twisty turny roads - but we were assured that the scenery would be even more stunning on the South Island. We visited Hobbiton and went to a Maori evening, where we ate food they had cooked in the earth, using thermal heat, and watched Maori traditional dances including the Hakka.
We had the calmest possible ferry crossing. It must be one of the most beautiful ferry crossings in the world!
There were lots of highlights on the South Island, not least Queen Charlotte's Drive right from the ferry! It was stunning! Every day's riding bought different scenery, from native rainforest to snow capped mountains and crystal clear blue lakes.
Highlights include;
Helicopter ride over Mount Cook and the glaciers
Trip to the glow worm caves
Boat trip on Milford Sound
Seeing the albatrosses and their chicks(the only mainland landing site in the world of these majestic birds)
Staying at Larnach Castle in Dunedin, with the most marvellous view from our toilet!
The road down into Queenstown, and having a glass of wine at the top of the gondola overlooking this wonderful view of Queenstown
and lots lots more!
We hadn't done a tour like this before (we organised our California trip all by ourselves), and this bought pluses and minuses! We weren't able to stop when we wanted to take photos, but the interplay and group dynamics was really great and bought a whole new dimension to our holiday.
We stayed in excellent accommodation and ate some wonderful food!
We loved being with our friends Stewart and Sue, sharing our holiday-of-a-lifetime with them! We'll be talking about it for years to come!
