Apologies for the delay, but we were having so much fun last week that we let our blog entry fall by the wayside, so this week is a double whammy!
After we said goodbye to Rachel's family in Tauranga we carried on our campervan adventure in New Zealand. Next stop after nearly a whole day in the van, was Whangerei for a brief night before making our way to Paihia, a breezy little town where we had great fish and chips and and a few drinks in an open bar over looking the ocean...
Next stop was a couple of hours east to Whangaruru where we found a secluded and totally empty campsite right next to the sea, perfect! And this little spot became even more perfect, when that night down on the beach over a bottle of wine and some ferrero rocher Rachel popped a certain little question...!!!!
We had the beach to ourselves, apart from a sheep...
As we were coming to the end of our time in the van, we had one last stop at Martins Bay near a cute little town called Matakana, after a recommendation from one of the campsite owners. We had a fair few great coffees and homemade cakes there...
Then it was time to say goodbye to the van and to New Zealand and head off to Sydney.
While in Sydney we did all of the typically touristy things, the opera house, the bridge and a visit over the water to Manly but it was also a great chance for us to catch up with some fellow travellers. Dan, who we had met while in Panama and Ciara a uni friend of Rachel's who had been on her own little adventure.
After a few short days in the capital we were back on a plane, this time to Melbourne. This was a part of the trip that we were both really excited about as Rachel's friend Natalie had moved here a year ago so it was great to be reunited after so long. It was so so nice to spend four days staying with Natalie and Ryan in their apartment and finally have some home comforts!
On our first full day Natalie had to work, so we did....nothing. We literally managed to go for coffee and pick up some bits at a supermarket for dinner but other than that we made full use of the fact that we were staying in a 'home' and just spent the day recharging our batteries (and watching midsummer murders!)
The next day though Natalie had the day off work so she took us down to Brighton beach where we went for a long walk on the beach in the sunshine before stopping off for lunch and prosecco!!
Brighton beach huts
We finished off the day with a night out in Melbourne and catching up with another Rachel... A girl Rachel had met on Karen's hen do... Another girl who managed to escape The UKs weather... Many a cocktail and bubbles were drunk that night!
On our last full day in Melbourne we walked into the city through the Botanical Gardens, and what a cool city it is! We had fun exploring the street art lanes....
All in all NZ and Oz were a great change of pace for us, time to take things a bit slower, catch up with friends and family and prepare ourselves for the next, and final leg of our trip.....on Monday we flew into Bangkok an instant change of pace! The city is buzzing with flavour, colour noise and heat!! So far we've seen a few sights and eaten amazing and incredibly cheap noodles... We fly to Cambodia on Thursday, but you'll hear all about that next week!
The weeks highlights:
Best view: The Bay of Islands was beautiful, definitely somewhere we'd liked to have spent more time. We came across Bland Bay whilst driving our van ... So beautiful!
The opera house was amazing by night from our slightly tipsy ferry back from Manly too...
Best food: Where do we start....on our first night in Melbourne Natalie and Ryan took us to a great Moroccan restaurant, amazing tender meat, crunchy colourful salads and of course a glass or two of wine!
After our walk on Brighton beach we had some great platters, made even better by the sunshine and prosecco!
Lesson Learned: ALWAYS check your visa/entry requirements when travelling to new countries! Who knew that as a British citizen you needed a visa to get into Australia, even if its just for a holiday, we didnt!!! Luckily we bought one at the airport. We almost landed ourselves in hot water too getting into Thailand, but luckily we checked this one out a few days before we flew, so disaster averted!!
Number of hours on a plane: 17
Number of hours on a bus: 4 (very much favoured walking in Sydney and Melbourne
Number of drinks had with friends and family: too many to count!! It was great!
Number of shiny new rings: 2 - Rachel bought two as she didn't want to miss out on a ring! :-)
Love Monday Funday:
We spent the most recent Monday on a plane to Bangkok and so not all so fun, however the previous Monday we spent celebrating our engagement. We decided to make our way over to Manly, where we went for a walk along the beach, ate some great Thai food and drank probably too much prosecco at Manlys cool wine bar!
Have a great week everyone,
Love Lisa and Rach xx
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