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 :-)

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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.