In three weeks we have discovered that Kangaroos really are road kill, the weathermen here are just as bad as back home, the "dangerous" animals are rarely seen, possums don't actually sleep upside down and the toilets do actually flush the wrong way.

In Sydney we spent a day at the zoo and got to see all those dangerous animals, but from a safe distance and behind glass. The zoo is set up so you actually get to walk around and pet the kangaroos though and little lizards scurry across the path infront of you.

Glen's fiance, Julia set up a cruise of the harbour for us. We spent two gorgeous hours cruising around and looking at all the incredible houses. I still can't believe how much money some people have.

We spent a day at Bondi Beach, where it's acceptable for women to go topless. Trev had a great time. He even took a few photos - you have to zoom in to see them though.

we spent a coulple of days scouring the city for a car. We found this car market in a parking garage in town. It was such a wierd set up. But really well run. There were a bunch of backpackers and their cars lined up and they were all trying to sell their car to us. We ended up purchasing and 1988 Toyota Hiace (a van) with a bed in the back and everything. It came with all the camping gear we could need and even snorkeling equipment and a boogy board.

We took off right the day we got the car. We drove to Wollongong for the night and then went on our way to Canberra, the National Capitol. We spent a day in Canberra and checked out the museaums and the parliament buildings and stuff. They have a beautiful walk that goes around this little lake and takes in most of the sights.

We were then off to Adelaide - 1200 kms West. It took two days driving to get here. We stopped for the night at a free camp place on the side of the road. Sketchy!!! The toilets were just holes in the ground and covered in spiders. I refused to use them. We headed straight to the nearest toilets in the morning.

We made it to Adelaide late afternoon on Friday. We went to Trev's cousin Dan's place and got cleaned up and met him and his friends for a night on the town. Sat he took us out on a sailboat. There was about 9 of us on the boat, and the weather was perfect. We got some sun, swam in the middle of the ocean and I got to climb the mast (I actually wore a harness and was hoisted).

We took it easy on Sun and most of the week. We spent a day walking around Morialta park. There were supposed to be 3 waterfalls, but they were all dry. It was a nice walk though.

Another day, we went to Cleland Wildlife Park and saw some more Native animals. Lots of kangaroos. I even pet one. It was an albino with a baby in it's puch - so cool! trev tried to pet a big Red Kangaroo, but he didn't like him.

I also got to hold a Koala bear. They let you hold the koalas and they hug you like a baby. It was soooo cool. It dug it's claws into my back though.

We spent a day in Victor Harbour. We did an evening tour that takes you arounda small island and you get to see the penquins coming in off the ocean to their burrows. We saw about 60 penguins, 5 possums, one seal and one water rat. A really neat experience. The penquins just waddle around as if we aren't even there.

Sat we got to go sailing again. But this time, it was in a race. Trev got to help pull up and down the head sail and the spinacker. I was just in the way, but we didn't do too badly. I think we got fourth or something.

The last couple of days we just went to a couple of different beaches. We now need to look for some jobs. We hope to stay in Adelaide for a little bit longer. We'll see how long it is until Dan kicks us out. We plan to do some grape picking for a couple of days, but it's apparently really hard work and doesn't pay well - but hey, it's part of the backpacking experience. I think we will look into more promising jobs while we do that.

Anyway, if you haven't already checked it out - we have some pictures up on a website. Just click on the "more pictures" link and it will take you right there. The site isn't done yet though.

Hope all of you are doing well. Cheers from Downunder!!

We haven't really done anything too exiting since my last post. We spent a night in Hamitlon, another in Raglan - at the same hostel as before. Then we spent 3 nights in New Plymouth. That's were Mount Taranaki is. Trev wanted to do a 2 day hike around the mountain, but the weather wasn't so good. We just did a one day hike half way up the mountain. The wind was so strong - I swear it almost blew me over a couple of times.

We saw the film "Big Fish" while in New Plymouth. I thought it was great, Trev didn't like it so much. Anyway, on our way out of the theatre, we bumped into Jake House, who was just walking down the street. It was so random and wierd. We got to talking and ended up giving him a ride back to Auckland, since we were headed that way.

Friday night, March 5, we saw a Super 12 Rugby game in Auckland. It was a good game. It was a close score all the way through. Trev and I decided to place a bet and cheer for opposite teams. He was cheering for the Waikato Chiefs, and I was cheering for the Auckland Blues. The Chiefs ended up scoring during refs time, making the final score 27-20.

We were off back down the Island again in the morning. We took a long drive down to Napier so we could slowly make our way back up the east coast over the next week. In Napier, we discovered holiday parks. They are trailor parks, but you can get a cabin or a trailer for much cheaper than a bed in a hostel. The only thing, is they don't have equipped kitchens, but we were able to borrow dishes and such from the park.

Anyway, we didn't do much in Napier. Napier is the art deco capital, and there was a lot of really neat architecture. We decided to check out a cricket match where a Napier team played a South African team. We stayed for about an hour and got bored - it's even slower than on tv. Napier is also known for its wine, so we did some wine tasting. It felt wierd driving up to these people's places and asking for free wine, but they were more than happy to serve us. We only went to two places, but we tried about 12-13 different wines in total. We were feeling really good after that.

After Napier, we stayed in Gisborne for 2 nights. Our first night we found this great lookout point and watched the sunset. It was so beautiful. Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the sun everyday, so we planned to get up early the next morning to watch the sunrise, but we slept through our alarms. We just spent the day walking through town and relaxing on the beach. Our tans are coming along quite nicely.

We actually got up early enough to catch the sunrise the next morning. It was very peaceful. We drove to this remote beach, and laid in our blankets on the sand watching the sun come out of the ocean. There was no one esle around, it was very romantic.

We left Gisborne in the early afternoon, after picking up Trev's shorts. I don't know if I mentioned before that Trev sat is some tar. Well, we took the shorts to the drycleaners, and they got it all out. The shorsts are like new. We were so impressed.

So, anyway, we drove around the east coast to Opotiki where we stayed for 3 nights. We stayed at another holiday park, but this time in an actual trailer. It was lots of fun. The holiday park even had a pool, which we took advantage of. We spent most of our time relaxing around the pool working on our tans.

We still hadn't gone horseback riding. It was one thing that I reallly wanted to do. So, on Sat., our last day in NZ we went horeback riding. We took a 2 hour tour through farm fields and forests and through a river. The river was the best part, at one point we went through this little lagoon - it was beautiful.

We then drove as close to the airport as we could, without having to stay in Auckland. We stayed at a really dodgy holiday park, good thing for only one night. We had planned to go for dinner for our last night, but we were too late. All the restaurants close at 9, so we had to settle for some pizza and garlic bread. It was actually really good pizza.

In the morning we got up, got packed, returned the rental car and were off to the airport. Our flight was only 3.5 hrs. The movie was "Somethings Gotta Give" with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, I really liked it. We did some more wine tasting on the plane, we were both feeling really good by the time it landed. The rest of the night is a little foggy.

We got in touch with Trev's brothers friend who directed us to where he would pick us up. We only got slightly lost making our way through the train station. Glen picked us up and took us to the harbour to see the city and the opera house at sunset. Then we went out for $5 steak dinner - that was a bargain. And then to bed. Australia is only 2 hours behind NZ, but it makes a big difference.

We didn't do much our first day in OZ. We walked around Glen's place getting oriented. We found a nice little beach and realized we were in one of the richest areas. The houses were gorgeous. Glen took us for a drive later too, to see other enormous houses. It's just incredible the amount of money around here.

We still don't know our plans for OZ yet. By our original time table, we have 4 months to travel and work. We don't know where we want to work, or how to best get around - by bus or by car. And there are all these strang rules for banking and working, which we need to get sorted out as well.

Well, wish us luck in this new chapter of our adventure. We will keep you posted. Please keep us updated on what is going on with you as well. It's nice to have that bit of contact with home.

Sorry it's been so long since we've updated. We haven't even been that busy.

Since my last post, Trev survived 3 incredible bungy jumps. He jumped 43m from the Bridge, the very first bungy spot in the world. Then he jumped 134m off the "Nevis", one of the highest jumps in the world. He said it was the scariest thing he has ever done. Then he jumed the "Ledge", 47m. It was his last jump and he was feeling more comfortable so he ran and jumped and tried to do a couple of flips, tried being the operative word here.

While Trev was off bungy jumping, I got to do a Canyon swing. I had to jump off a ledge and freefall, but not heaad first, into a canyon and then I swung out across the canyon. It was amazing. The drop to the bottom was 109m! After that I went parasailing. I was pulled behind a boat and swept up by a huge yellow balloon with a red smiley face on it. One of the most amazing experiences ever. I felt like I was flying. A bird even flew under me.

After Queens Town we stayed in Te Anau. It was a tiny town, but a nice hostel. We took a day trip to Doubtful Sound with a couple of American guys that we met. It was gorgeous. It had been raining, so the waterfulls were everywhere.

On our way to Invercargill, we stopped at a farm to see some sheep shearing. So fun, got to see some real New Zealand.

We took an extra tour over to Stewart Island. The third Island making up New Zealand. It's tiny, and not shown on many maps. We wanted to see some kiwi birds, but found out when we got there that it would be a 2-3 day walk to the other side of the Island to see them. We decided against it. We took a tour to another tiny island instead and saw some other native birds.

Stewart Island was so small there were only 20km of roads on the whole island!

When we got back to Invercargill, we went for a walk and found a beautiful park. There was a rose garden and huge trees and a playground and there was a petting zoo too, but we didn't make it that far.

We spent Waitangi Day, there National Holiday, driving to the small town of Dunedin. We stayed there for 3 nights. We did a tour of the Cadbury factory and got lots of chocolate, mmmmm. Then we did a tour of the Speights brewery - Trev's choice. The most popular beer in New Zealand. It was actually a really good tour, and we (Trev) got lots of samples at the end. Trev also got some thong sandals, they are range and blue and look really funny on him - just imagine!

We had only planned to stay in Dunedin 2 nights, but the bus was too full and couldn't take us. The hostel felt bad and gave us our own room with a tv and fridge and en suite bathroom - ahh the luxury.

On our way out of Dunedin the next day, our driver took us to Balwin Street. It is the steepest street in the world - cars aren't aloud to drive on it. We tried to run up, but I only made it half way, Trev made it a bit farther.

We stopped at the Moeraki Boulders on our way to Christchurch. They are a phenomenon (sp) no one knows for sure how they were formed or how they got there.

Our tour with the tour bus ended in Christchurch. So we took a shuttle to the next town of Kaikoura. I had wanted to go swimming with dolphins there, but they were fully booked. We went swiming with seals instead, but the seals wouldn't come in a play with us. We did get to do some snorkeling though, and we saw some cool fish.

We went to Akaroa to do the swimming with dolhins instead. It was soooo cool. The water was feezing, but the dolphins were swimming all around us. The guides had given us some rocks to clap together, which attracted the dolphins so they were coming so close. They swam right under me and another one swam right between Trev and I, we weren't even a meter apart! It was the best.

We were in Christchurch for Valentine's day. It was a beautiful morning. We went for a walk in the botanical gardens. There were tons of trees and paths going along the river and another rose garden and a bonzai tree area. We ate lunch at one of the cafes in the gardens. There was a mini remote control sailboat race going on in one of the lakes. Trev thought it was soo cool. He has decided that he will take that up as a hobby when we get back to Canada.

It started raining, so we walked to the mall. We picked up a few things, including some V-day chocolates.

For dinner Trev took me to a sports bar - how typical. But really it was a pretty cool place. It was four stories (plus a roof-top patio) with a two story tv screen that could be seen from any of the four floors. Plus there were other large tv screens spread around the place. The food was pretty good, Trev tried the lamb. We had a few drinks, Trev was a 3 Litre bottle of beer!!! He got to keep the bottle, but we ended up leaving it somewhere, it was too big to travel with.

We flew from Christchurch up to Auk on the 15th. We were supposed to fly to Sydney after that, but we had decided that we weren't done in NZ yet. We took a shuttle to the Coromandel region instead where we stayed for a week in a hostel right on the ocean. It was a nice little hostel. It was divided into little areas each with its own bathroom, kitchen and tv area. There were ten beds in our area, but 6 of us were there for the whole week.

The other 4 people were super nice. Chris and Gill are from Manchester and are engaged. They sold everything they owned and are traveling until they find somewhere to settle down. The other two, Dan and Victoria are just friends travelling together for a bit. It was really fun getting to know them. We played cards with them most nights. Chris and Gill took us with them one day on a nice drive and the next day we went to Coromandel town where we got to ride this little train. The track was built by the guy who owned the property. He is a potter, and there was some good clay on his land, but he needed a way of transporting it, so he built himself a track. It is now a tourist attraction, but it is still used for clay as well.

Our first few days in the Coromandel we took a walk to what they call Shakespeare cliff and to Lonely bay. It was a beautiful secluded beach that could only be reached by walking throught the bush for a bit or by water.

The next day we rented some bikes and took a 2 hour ride to Hahei beach, then an hour walk to Cathedral Cove. It was another beautiful beach, but lots more people. On our way back to our bikes, we stopped at Gemstone bay to do some snorkeling. The water was ice cold, and we didn't have wet suits this time. We swam around and it was like the fish were following us, it was so neat. On our way out of the water, we saw 2 Sting Rays!! The first one was huge, but it didn't move. The other one was much smaller, but it was swimming around and had it's stinger pointing up. We got right out of the water after that.

While in the Coromandel, we decided that we still hadn't had enough of NZ. So, we went back up to Auk and rented a car for 3 weeks. We drove to the Northern part of the North Island. We stayed a place called Kahoe farms for 4 nights. On my birthday, the 24th, we slept in and then went for a leisurley drive. We stopped and 3 different beaches and went body boarding at Cooper's beach. For dinner we has a gourmet pizza from the hostel and some cake and ice cream which we had purchased. Trev even put a candle in the cake for me. And everyone at the hostel sand Happy Birthday to me, it was fun.

The next day we took a walk around the hostel farm. The guy who owns the hostel, Stefano, named the places around the farm after the Lord of the Rings. We walked for most of the day and and stayed at the rock pools for a couple of hours. The rocks pools were large pools of water formed into rocks over a bunch of years that were good for swimming.

The next day we went drove up to Cape Reinga. Almost the most Northern tip of NZ. We went sandborading at Te Paki stream. That was so fun. We rented a boogey board and rode it down these massive sand dunes like a tobogan. How cool is that! Toboganning in shorts and a t-shirt! Trev wasn't very good at it though. He kept wiping out and he was just full of sand - so funny!

On our way back to the hostel, Trev wanted to stop at Houhora pub for a beer, since it was the most northern pub in NZ. We were just finishing up, when this local came over to talk to us. He bought us a few drinks and invited us backt o his place for the night. We stayed there and then he took us to 90-Mile beach in the morning. It's actually only 64miles or something, but it's a drivable beach. The guy, Ron, is a fisherman and showed Trev how to do some surfcasting. He caught a shark! right off the beach! It was like 30 pounds! Good thing it was crap weather and we didn't go swimming. Ron killed the shark and we got to pick it up and take pictures.

We headed back to the hostel to get our stuff and then took off to the other side of the island. We had planned to do all sorts of stuff on the west coast, but the weather was crappy. It has been raining for the past 3 days. We are back in Auckland and are making our way more south, hoping the weather will clear up.

Hope you are all doing well. Sorry about the huge post. We will try to update more often to avoid this. Please keep in touch by email.