No broken Legs!!

Mighty Banff was incredible the 360 degree view of the mountains from the town was a real treat not to mention the beautiful lakes, ample snow and authentic wooden cabins. What more could a girl want?!

Cool Runnings

After very nearly being caught out by the sneaky daylight savings time debacle, with only a notice on a piece of paper in the hotel lift that saved us, we managed to get to the airport in time for our 8am flight over to Calgary.

Again coming in to land at the airport we were treated to a magical snow covered landscape. On arrival the movie-style welcome commenced as Jayne and David met us off the plane with hugs harder than a grizzly bear...hopefully won't every be able to confirm that fact...

Calgary felt much quieter than Vancouver, seemed to be hundreds of cars around but no people anywhere? 

Sleepless in Seattle

And so to our 4th country of the trip, The United States of America. 

Too be honest I thought getting in would be much more difficult...We just drove right up to the border, flashed passports at the border guy who asked "do you have any food onboard?", to which I replied "only this 1lb chocolate bunny we got from Walmart for $2"(forgetting the advice in the guidebook to NOT MAKE ANY JOKES TO BORDER CONTROL OFFICERS).

Olympic Skiing

Whistle whilst you work...or ski?

So Vancouver is about 80k's south of the world famous ski slopes of Whistler, and we were not going to come this close without some time on the mountains.

The town itself is unbelievable. It's like something from Disneyland or a movie set that has been all lit up, is spotlessly clean and beautifully manicured. Snow lines the streets and landscape but all the roads and pathways are cleared to make it easy to get around.

 

Give me a C.A.N.A.D.A!

The view out the window as we descended on our approach into Vancouver was the best I’ve seen since we started travelling. Miles and miles of snowcapped rocky mountains draped in fluffy white clouds. Stepping out of the plane into the terminal it was like stepping out of a sunbed and into a giant walk in fridge…

 (Take off in the sun, land in the snow)

After collecting bags, and explaining our life histories to the immigration officer who had the deadly stare of a great white, we stepped foot out of the airport. Although there was no fresh snow on the ground that moment felt a little like the scene in the video below which I’m sure you’ll recognise…

Green Fingers

We've been back with mum and dad in NZ for a week before heading into Vancouver. 

Despite our hopes of a peaceful laid back week the duties of the new Starr Family Farm have resulted in long hot days covered in mud...

The Heart of Victoria

And so we're here in Melbourne. Been here for 4 days actually and have finally gotten round to catching 5 minutes to write something and get some pictures up.

They have  big thing for art and all that here. We've seen some cool museums on movie and film, and there are a number of alleyways smothered in brightly coloured graffiti.

The city of wooden people...

Spent a day in the city of Geelong just before heading into Melbourne. Not a lot to shout about other than all these weird freaky wooden figures that have been placed along the waterfront. 

Apparently one of the piers was torn down several years ago and a local artist saved all the wooden columns holding up the pier and turned them into figurines of iconic people and groups from the city. some pretty funky ones in there.

I don't know why she thought Simon Starr was of significance to Geelong but he was here anyway in his swimmers...

Its another montage...

Round the twist - Great Ocean Road

The great ocean road runs along the south western coast of Victoria all the way into Melbourne and is absolutely stunning. We stopped off at Port Fairy for...

They were pretty lush...

Behind Bars Over The Border

Leaving south australia we headed into the Grampians national park for a few days surrounded by green after miles and miles of burnt yellow grass...

We planned to climb a few peaks called Mt. Sturgeon and Mt. Abrupt both about 800 meters high. As we approached the park you could see them sticking up into the horizon.

Sturgeon was about 7km return and took us just over an hour - amazing views from the top.

The home of the brave…

The slower pace that we’ve been moving at over the last week has allowed us to turn our attention a little to our next phase of the adventure – THE U.S OF A.

Slower Down South

It’s easier to understand the appeal of south Australia. After the adrenaline and action of Queensland and its cyclones, water activities, theme parks and the speed of Sydney with all its skyscrapers, down here they are seem much more content to take things at a slightly more leisurely pace.

Massive focus on food, drink and good produce – particularly wine with two of the world’s finest wine areas based here in the Barossa and McLaren Vale regions.

After leaving “New Cornwall” and cooking dinner one night at the campsite with a local bloke who’s great grandparents emigrated here from St. Neot! (small world!), We spent a day exploring the Barossa valley.

"Australia's Little Cornwall"

Cornish through and through well nearly... with an added bit of Plymouth and Surrey!

$400 burritos…

This is our 100th post for the blog! Thanks to all friends and family who have taken an interest in our big adventure. Its great to have you with us! :-)

As the weather cleared and the cyclone passed on down to New South Wales we took the chance to drive the 80k’s north back up to Brisbane. Here we would spend the next few days in and around the city before catching our flight to Adelaide.

Cyclones and Coasters

In the past 2 weeks we’ve driven down from Cairns along the coastline through every single town that’s now swimming in floods. Luckily we made it down to the gold coast just in time to spend a few days at the theme parks before they were closed. Of course it wasn’t the best weather for rollercoasters but it didn’t stop us. It was however the PERFECT weather for water slides so the wet n wild water park was totally awesome.

The Floods are here but we are safe

Just a quick one to say yes we are caught up in the bad rain and flooding down here at the Gold Coast. We have abandoned our tent and are heading to a hotel for the rest of the storm. We'll be safe :-)

Subscribing

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Crikey! What a Zoo!

Steve Irwin, lets applaud the man. Australia Zoo is just north of the town of Beerwah on the aptly named “Steve Irwin Highway”.  The sun has well and truly gone now and we are into persistent rain and cyclone season, but this wasn’t going to hold us back.

1 in a 1000 Turtle

For the last time before we head past the southern end of the great barrier reef we took advantage of one more opportunity to get into the water and explore.

The beautiful lady Musgrave island is part of a small collection of islands that stick out the top of the ocean about 40 kilometers off the mainland. The coral surrounding the island has created a lagoon in the middle of the ocean no more than 10 meters deep where the rougher currents break around the edge and water inside is calm and protected.

YEE-HAH Cowboy!

Rockhampton likens itself to a town from the Wild West era. All the building here look like something from a John Wayne film and there are cattle ranches everywhere as you drive into the city.

We headed down to the botanical gardens and zoo to get our very first look at that good old ozzie icon the Koala! Cool to look at but that’s all you can do…look at them. They don’t do much, in fact they don’t do anything at all. Just sit there hugging that tree like it was the last one on earth. 

The GB Reef: A Birds Eye View

The Whitsunday Islands are a group of 74 tropical islands off the east coast bridging the barrier reef from the pretty town of Airlie. Our original plan was to jump on another dive boat, but then we spotted something much more interesting…a flight around the reef in a plane the size of a mini cooper.

Coconut

A chance to stretch our tropical skills presented itself at Mission Beach south of Cairns. All along the beach lie palm trees dropping dozens of coconuts onto the sand. 

THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

And so, into the deep blue sea for the one we’ve been waiting for, one of the things to do with your short time on this planet – The Great Barrier Reef. 

Mossman

Rainforest country is eery. Miles and miles of wilderness then little spots of beauty here and there. We visited one such spot called Mossman Gorge for a swim in and around the river that runs through the forest.

Coffee and crocs

The plantation we visited just one hour from Cairns in the town of Mareeba was the first to establish itself in Australia back in the early 70's.

1 minute, 1 BBQ

Sunshine Shark

Front pages of the newspapers the other day covered with this story. We're heading down that way in a few weeks so will keep our eyes open and arms and legs out of the water!!

Dolphins...

Didnt have enough time on the itnernet to upload this video for my dolphin post, so here it is now!

From Bushfire to Wetlands

Two and half hours in the air landed us in Cairns, home of course to the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef. As we approached the view of the water from the sky was incredible.

We picked up our new wheels for the next journey along the Queensland coast, a nice silver Toyota Corolla to deliver us into Brisbane, Surfers Paradise and a bunch of roller coasters.

36,000 feet with a bang...

I think I’ve finally discovered the REAL reason that bottled water isn’t allowed on planes. You see over here it transpires that you can take a half empty 2 liter bottle of water through security and onto a domestic flight say from Sydney to Cairns in this case.

Flipper & Co.

The town of Newcastle is predominately associated with shipping of mined materials, mostly coal, out from Australia. That’s it…nothing else to see here. What the half a million people that live here do I have absolutely no idea.

So we headed further up the coast, attracted by a place referred to as “The Dolphin Capital of Australia”, Port Nelson. Who doesn’t like dolphins? 

Our Humble Abode...

Head north away from the fires...

We’d been “Freedom Camping” (otherwise referred to as slumming it) for the past 4 nights as every camping park we tried to book into was fully booked. So in search of showers and a stove to cook a meal we headed north of Sydney in the direction of Newcastle (fingers crossed its not a homage town to Alan shearer, jimmy nail and ant and dec) to the town of Belmont on the beautiful Lake Macquarie where we finally found a nice campsite for a few nights. The lake is stunning and caught some lovely shots of the boats resting in the sunset after we arrived.

The Blue Mountains

We’d been repeatedly told that one of the “must do’s” in around the Sydney area of New South Wales is to visit the area of the Blue Mountains about an hour west of the city.

We headed up there on the back roads from Canberra via a small town called Oberon. Probably the closest we are going to get to driving in the outback on our trip as we’re mostly sticking to the coastline. Along the way we stopped of at one of the services areas on the main road. As you can see from the picture below they leave a lot to be desired…

Bridging the gap to Capital Country

New Years Day marked the start of what we're hoping will be an awesome 2013, and we could think of no better way to commemorate it than by climbing the Sydney Harbour bridge just a few hours after it had been set alight. 

Realities of the road

A refreshing dose of reality follows, for all those who think we are currently "living the dream", which is not meant to be, nor should be perceived as unappreciative - we know we're lucky.

Home life has routine, it has a level of comfort that you can control. To live life on the road however you must embrace unpredictability, risk, sometimes danger, massive exhaustion and all too frequently for my liking times of massive hunger. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow. What a show.