Queenstown is known as the Adventure Capital of the World. After staying here for a few days, I can see how that honor has been well earned. Want to get your adrenaline pumping? The options are pretty much limitless for the number of ways you can do it! There’s bungy jumping, sky diving, hang gliding, … More Queenstown – Adventure Capital of the World!
After taking the interisland ferry from Wellington to the south island of New Zealand, our first stop was Picton. We made it in on the ferry around 8pm in the evening and got a campsite at a local holiday park. We got into Picton on December 14th. In case you haven’t picked up on it … More Picton, NZ (a.k.a The place Jack got to see the highly anticipated Rogue One!)
As we headed further down the north island of New Zealand, we stopped in a town called Rotorua – also known to some as Rotovegas. Apparently, it’s a town you either love or hate with no one really being lukewarm to the place. It’s major industry is tourism and it’s known for it’s geothermal activity, featuring … More The Day We Created an Adrenaline Junkie
After our time in Russell, we started our trek south. Our only deadline was that we needed to be in Nelson, on the south island, on Dec 16th to pick up our nephew who was flying in to visit for 3 weeks, woohoo! Heading south, we stopped in Waitomo to see the Waitomo caves that are … More Glow Worms in Waitomo
So there’s the culture shock of going from a normal, everyday life where you have a job, friends and a normal daily routine to spending 24/7 with your family during an adventurous, out of the ordinary, extended stint of travel. That’s pretty extreme, right? Well now top that off by adding the element of a … More A Camping We Will Go
Our plan for Queensland was to land in Cairns and take the next 12 days to meander down the coast to Brisbane, stopping off a few places as we go. Cairns to Brisbane is roughly 1,700 kilometers (around 1,000 miles for those of you, like me, who are metrically challenged). Right now we’re on day 9 … More The Plan for Queensland
After getting into Castaways Resort after it was dark the night before, we awoke to this view the next morning. Our room was right by the pool and there was a beautiful beach that looked out onto neighboring Dunk Island. The beach was full of sand bubbler crabs that leave the tiny little balls of … More Mission Beach (starring some of my new favorite people on the planet)
We didn’t really have a plan for Queensland other than ‘fly into Cairns and head down to Brisbane’. We had given ourselves 12 days to do it, but hadn’t mapped out all the places we wanted to stop. We were just flying by the seat of our pants as we went. As a result, at … More South Bound and Down (finally!)
Kuranda is a scenic little town in the mountains, known as the Village in the Rainforest, just northwest of Cairns. A lot of artisans were attracted to the area for its natural beauty with waterfalls, mountains and rainforests and decided to settle there. We read that the town had a vibrant arts and crafts culture … More Kuranda (I think it’s Aboriginal for “maybe we shouldn’t have come here”…)
I’ll start this blog with a public service announcement. You likely are much smarter than I and already know this, but Cairns is pronounced as “Cans”. So either (1) you now know that I clearly pronounced it incorrectly in front of many an Australian or (2) you can just save yourself some embarrassment if you … More I Think I Cairns…
The Detour Diary 