New Zealand is a country Cesca and I have longed to visit for many years. Tales speak of this island and its seemingly unique people. That they are more friendly than the most sociable of Australian’s, more “outdoors-loving” than even Scottish highlanders and more into extreme sports than anyone outside Cirque-de-soleil! Moreover, all of the “Kiwis” I have met have been the most persuasive of ambassadors as they have a deep and abiding love of their country, a great love of sporting life and and all of them stand a pint.
Then Lord of the Rings came out and that, as they say, was that.
Many people like to keep their friends and families updated when travelling by using the power of the internet. Email and Facebook are fine systems that allow travellers to pass on news of the wider world in simple bite size chunks, but these are not enough. Travellers are often away for longer periods of time and have much more to say in the forms of pictures as well as words and even film. The multimedia rich records of travel cannot easily be emailed without sending large files that clog up multiple inboxes. Neither can you attach a movie to a postcard!
Why wait until you are back to show you family your pictures and film? Why not let them experience the joy of travelling alongside you in a way that will endure?
You can! The secret is to have the right kit with you – so that you can blog your way around the world.
After much discussion and deliberation on the best/cheapest way to see the Great Ocean Road, we hired a car from Adelaide to Melbourne for the 3 day trip with our itinerary loosely based on a conventional tour.
Avis hired us a reasonably priced 5 door, brand new, automatic, Toyota Corolla which was lovely to drive. We (I) were particularly happy in was not white like most Aussie motor vehicles! The automatic gears were easier than we feared so, after a quick and embarrassing initial explanation, we were on the road.
Driving out of town we climbed up into the pretty wine region of the Adelaide Hills and the German settlement of Harndorf. At the cellar door we sampled a few good wines, of which Nepenthe Winery was a highlight for James having enjoyed their mixed grape blend named ‘Tryst’ many times before. In town lunch was classic German fare of sausages and sauerkraut. We pottered around the shops remarking how familiar the European culture and architecture seemed.
The Ghan train journeys from Darwin via Alice to Adelaide which is an impressive way to travel through the unending sands of central Australia. For us the journey began in great Aussie style with all the luggage being transported incrementally from check-in to the train in the boot of an employee’s car. The reason spread like wild fire down the customer queue, apparently “the luggage truck was stolen”! Standing around with the midday sun beating relentlessly down on us we massaged in sun-cream as the Aussies from Adelaide mocked the laid-back attitude here in Alice.
Our carriage awaits for the 19 hour journey from Alice Springs to Adelaide
A short fun film highlighting our trip to Australia, showing some of the fantastic things we saw in this wonderful country. A tribute to the nation before we move on to New Zealand…
You may laugh, but travelling is quite tiring! If you’re anything like us then after three weeks on the road day and night you’ll want to press pause for a while. However, you keep at it as after all “This is Australia” and you can’t just pop back again anytime soon. So our schedule has been full of early mornings and overnighters on the Greyhound and we felt entitled to take a break from the road and hole out for a few days. Whilst staying at the wonderful ‘Dreamtime’ hostel in Cairns we were recommended to go south to visit ‘The Sanctuary’ near Mission Beach.
I am working hard on the next one and have something a little special in mind from then on. I love creating them and hope to show some vastly improved technique over the coming months! I have some simply amazing footage of Kangaroo Island coming up and a special film about Uluru!
Anyway, with apologetic smiles for some of the camerawork, here is Blue Mountains / Hunter Valley!
Franco Dominic Princi: Ciao! there Francesca and James, How are you both? I do hope fine in all your travels; now in Asia I think! Anyway thank you so much...
TB: Hey! Thanks very much for this article, that’s exactly how I feel about it all; web 2.0 and so on. Glad there are people out there that feel the...
Friedel & Andrew: Hi you two - it was great to meet you the other day and sorry we didn’t get to say goodbye in the morning. Expect you were still...
