Mike and Mad's endless summer!
In and around World
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We're off around the world. Leaving in August for one year to travel and work our way around the planet!
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler Mike & Madeline
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1
Getting ready to go!
So, the planning begins! We're reading and surfing the internet trying to get ready...why is it no matter how much time you have it's always a rush... Continue reading »
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2
Ready for the off!
Well we're almost ready for the off! The house is finally rented, which is very weird to see someone else living in our home, having given it up fo... Continue reading »
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3
Rio baby!!!!
And they're off...said our goodbyes and off we went. Caught the National Express bus up to Heathrow without a glitch, where we then waited for seve... Continue reading »
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4
Into the Amazon...
Well, we finally left the lovely (though sometimes slightly intimidating) Rio after a lovely final day on the beach and headed off to the airport.... Continue reading »
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5
Muito bonito...brrrrrrr!
Finally arrived in Bonito after spending a very noisy night in Campo Grande and it was bloody freezing!!!!!! Yes from the sweating in the shade of... Continue reading »
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6
The Devil's Throat (Garganta do diablo)
Safely arrived in Iguassu after a night on the bus, very comfortable for a bus, special leg rests and the seat goes back horizontally, which made s... Continue reading »
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7
Coquimbo...mmm
We safely arrived at Santiago airport, having had an excellent flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil. We had clear skies as we passed over the magnificen... Continue reading »
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8
La Serena - there is life!!!!!
We happily set ourselves up again in our new hostel, with our own bathroom!!! Mad got herself a heater, she was very pleased and we headed into t... Continue reading »
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9
Pucon land of the Volcano
Caught the night bus to Pucon, reclining seats so that you are almost horizontal, leg rest, pillow, blanket and a snack, eat your heart out Natio... Continue reading »
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Volcano Villarica
0545hrs the alarm sounded, it was cold in the room. We looked out of our window, it was getting light. In the distance we could see the volcano,... Continue reading »
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11
San Alfonso - into the Andes
We caught the night bus from Pucon to Santiago, treated ourselves a bit to the ‘Cama’ bus with basically arm chairs that recline back to near hor... Continue reading »
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12
Finding our feet & planning a wedding in 3 days!
Well this has taken a while to get around to but I thought I'd better write a blog about our life here in New Zealand so far!
It's all been a... Continue reading »
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13
Back to work - boo!
Well it was time to trek around Auckland on the hunt for work! My search being badly hampered by the New Zealand Qualifications Recognition Authori... Continue reading »
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14
The job hunt!
Yes and off Mad went back into the world of temping. Then it was my turn to throw myself out there and try to find a job. Having never temped befor... Continue reading »
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15
The Wedding!
We travelled up to Paihia on the 8th and met up with our families (My parents, Mad's parents, Mad's sister Vanya and her fiance Manoj). We had kept... Continue reading »
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16
The van arrives!
What a cracking stroke of luck, we got in contact with Andy, one of our friends/neighbours from the UK. Who had also been travelling NZ and was... Continue reading »
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17
Waipu Cove
We set off in our new camper van which we thought would only be right to rename and ‘BONGA’ was his name (after the Hawiian longboarder Bonga Per... Continue reading »
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18
Pimp my ride!
After spending our first weekend away in Bonga, we decided that in order to travel successfully for 2 ½ months we would have to upgrade Bonga in... Continue reading »
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19
Christmas up North...
Well, finally we finished getting Bonga ready for our Christmas holiday…2 weeks off and we were so excited as we’d been working since the wedding... Continue reading »
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20
Auckland Trips!
Raglan
We set off to check out the famous break for the weekend with Karen & Aidan and Danny & Ellie on campervan mission! Drove do... Continue reading »
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21
North Island Road Trip!
We had finished work, we had packed up, we had prepped the van, we had said our goodbyes to Kris and Andrea, we were on the road at last! Heading... Continue reading »
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22
Getting friendly with the Dolphins in Kaikoura!
The Ferry…or Le ferry?! So up we got and headed down to the InterIslander ferry port for our 7.30am check in. It was reminiscent of waiting at Pl... Continue reading »
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23
Hanmer Springs & Lake Taylor AKA the middle of nowhere!!
We headed away from the coast towards the mountains to the West to a place called Hanmer Springs. We arrived and located the springs, donned our... Continue reading »
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24
Jack Johnson & Christchurch
As we got towards Christchurch we decided to stop off at a tiny place called Amberley. There were a few surf breaks down the coast so we decided... Continue reading »
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25
Mount Cook
We set off from Christchurch and headed straight for the Mount Cook area to the West. We passed lots of farms and farmland along the way, along w... Continue reading »
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26
Oamaru to Moeraki
We arrived back on the East coast looking for somewhere to free camp, which was proving difficult, we stopped at All Day bay at rest stop, which... Continue reading »
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27
Shag Point - yeah baby!
We pulled into a rest area off of the main highway and found that it was very well set up for free camping! We tucked ourselves out of the way in... Continue reading »
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28
Dunedin
We travelled along the scenic coastal route to Dunedin, a long windy road which had a bizarre habit of meeting the train track, usually up a hill... Continue reading »
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29
The Catlins
We arrived at Nugget Point after again pushing Bonga to the limits of his power along yet another bumpy and steep gravel road! We saw various typ... Continue reading »
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30
The road to Milford Sound
We set off from Invercargill and started our journey back up to the North, with our destination being Te Anau on the road to Milford Sound. We st... Continue reading »
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31
Milford Sound
The road was long, hilly and winding (Bonga’s favourite). The scenery was amazing, with huge mountains all around us on both sides of the valley.... Continue reading »
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32
Key Summit Walk
The next morning we got up at sunrise and headed a short distance up the road to the Divide, which gave access to Key Summit and the Routeburn tr... Continue reading »
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33
Mount Luxmore
1472 metres climb, 12 hours walking including 1 hour in the dark, 35 kilometres distance, 2 litres of water and the toughest walk we’ve ever done... Continue reading »
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34
The Milford Track
After a couple of days nursing ourselves back to health and getting back on talking terms with our bodies, we set ourselves up in a nice powe... Continue reading »
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35
Glenorchy & Queenstown
We drove along my favourite type of long straight roads with farmland either side, plus the added bonus of a howling gale that was coming fro... Continue reading »
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36
Wandering around the Fox Glacier
We travelled through the Wanaka area and stopped for the night at Lake Hawea opposite Lake Wanaka. We had a chilled out evening reading and c... Continue reading »
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37
Hokitika
We stopped off at a tiny place called Okarito, the setting of a book that Mad had been reading called the Bone People, by Kerewin Holmes Who appare... Continue reading »
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38
Exploring the Abel Tasman National Park...
We decided that we would give the Nelson lakes a miss as we had seen a lot of like lakes recently and set our sights on the North of the South Isla... Continue reading »
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39
Birthday girl in Blenheim
We headed back across to the East coast passing Marlborough Sound, very similar scenery to that of Abel Tasman, with walks that sounded the same. S... Continue reading »
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40
A day out in Mordor...
We entered the Tongariro area and stopped at an information centre at Okahane, where the woman, stated that the Tongariro crossing was pretty much... Continue reading »
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41
Mud mud glorious mud!!!
We set of from Whakapapa and drove through Taupo, famous for its big lake, we had seen lots of these so we continued on to Rotorua, where we decide... Continue reading »
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42
Back in the city...
We arrived back in Auckland and had business on our minds as we needed to start the painful process of de-kitting to leave the country. We collecte... Continue reading »
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43
Back at Crisdon...ahhh bliss!
Since we had sold our wheels we rented a cheap car and headed back up to the Bay of Islands, as it had been just over six months since we got marri... Continue reading »
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44
Sydney!!!
Sydney baby! After a bit of a delay on the old flight and a new plane being flown across to get us, we finally landed in Australia! We passed smoo... Continue reading »
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45
Darwin
We arrived in the afternoon in Darwin into 30 degree heat! What a change from Sydney, it was like a different planet. The ground had suddenly cha... Continue reading »
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46
Kakadu...crocs and things!
We woke early and hit the road, heading East towards the KakaduNational Park a road trip of about 280 or so km. We drove along long straight road... Continue reading »
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47
Broome and our road trip
We set off early doors to make a good start on our full day of driving, we had to wait for sunrise as the road is dangerous before that, with the v... Continue reading »
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48
Gorgeous gorges in Karijini!
We had a lazy get up of about six thirty and finished off the remainder of the journey. We were really looking forward to it as Vanya (Mad’s sister... Continue reading »
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49
Meeting the fishies at Coral Bay!
We drove all day through more featureless scrubland, this place is so big we just can’t get our heads round it. On one of the roads we didn’t see a... Continue reading »
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50
The deep blue sea
Wow, wow, wow, wow! We have just got back from the boat, the sun is hot and there is no wind, so I’m taking a quick time out before I melt! Did I s... Continue reading »
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51
Where the Dolphins come to play!
We turned off of the Western Coastal Highway and headed up the peninsular to visit some old relatives, namely the Stromatolites, living rock that p... Continue reading »
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52
Last stop Perth!
With no sign of the weather letting up on us we set off South towards Perth. We felt a little bit in limbo as the end of this part of the trip was... Continue reading »
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53
Hello Cape town!
We enjoyed a comical collection from the backpackers in Perth, like good little troopers we were up and ready to go for seven. The shuttle bus wa... Continue reading »
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54
Whales!
The next day we left Cape town and drove to the Cape of good hope, the weather still heckling us but we still went on to have a great day, we dro... Continue reading »
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55
Wine country
Rain, wine, rain and more wine! We arrived in Franschhoek, wine country and got cosy in our little cottage in the Chamonix estate vineyard. Nice... Continue reading »
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56
The Deep blue sea
We arrived at Gansbaai and settled into our new digs at Dyer Island View a little guest house run by the fantastic duo Annetjie and Hennie who ma... Continue reading »
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57
Into the mountains
We once again said our goodbyes to people who have touched our hearts, will be remembered fondly and visited again. We reluctantly drove off with... Continue reading »
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58
Everything Ostrich!
We got an early start and drove East from Montagu into some of the more uninhabited areas of the region. We could see across vast valleys and pla... Continue reading »
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59
Sea views
We arrived at our cliff top boudoir overlooking the sea and were very happy with the place. We even had a novelty experience of the fridge being... Continue reading »
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60
Billabong pro tour
We arrived after a painful drive filled with nausea, to our accommodation, only Supertubes guest house with the Billabong pro tour in full swing!... Continue reading »
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61
An Elephant never forgets
We arrived at Addo Elephant park, still feeling rough but on the mend. We found our little Rondavel, a circular building with a wicker conical ro... Continue reading »
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62
Safari baby!
We hopped off the plane at Hoedspruit and set off in our little hire car, we spent the night in a lovely little place then set off to Balule game... Continue reading »
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63
Lion country
We headed into the Kruger National Park through the Orpen gate and the big safari began! Within the first hour we found a waterhole surrounded w... Continue reading »
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Our last stop!
Feeling already fulfilled after having some cool encounters we found our last stop on our travels, a camp called Kulungi right on the Olifants ri... Continue reading »
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We're back...
And we’re back!!! We arrived safe and sound back in Exeter, met by our families and given a very warm welcome. Our trip was at an end but we did... Continue reading »
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