We left our home in Wellington and started living in our car. We crossed over the Cook Straight to the South Island, stayed in Picton and drove down to Christchurch, where we took the plane for Sydney. We stayed in a flash hotel in downtown Sydney near the Rocks. We enjoyed good food, saw whales, went to see Kings of Leon in concert and hung out at Bondi Beach.

2^nd November 2011 Back on the Road

Today after 7 months I start writing again, we are officially back on the road again!

So as all travels do today started early, we got up to finish packing and loading everything in our new home, our car. We cleaned up our home to ensure that we would get our entire bond back. At about 10am we gave back our keys and left our home in Wellington never to return.

We spent the day in the library, just waiting until our ferry in the evening to take us to the ‘other side as they say here’, The South Island. The Ferry was 2 hours late and a bit rough, the cook straight have never been known for smooth sailing. We travelled across with a Friend we met through Couch Surfing from Spain, Claxio. We stayed in the tombstone hostel in Picton, we had stayed there once before and enjoyed it. We slept like babies it was a long day.

3^rd November 2011 Picton to Christchruch

After a breakfast is the tombstone backpackers we start driving along the East Coast of the South Island, we past amazing beaches, saw seals swimming in the Ocean, enjoyed the sunshine and lack on wind. It feels great to be back on the road.

We arrived in Christchurch just after lunch time, spent some time on the internet and waited to meet up with Remy, Fred’s University friend. We had a beer with him and left some stuff at his house as we do not need it all on the road.

We them headed to the airport, we slept there for the night as tomorrow we are off to Sydney.

4^th November 2011 Sydney

Up at 5 am, walked into the airport. It is really cool staying in the carpark of the airport as you do not have to go far to be in the airport. After a minute walk we were in the departures hall. We checked in for out flight and went through customs. Fred had left his Swiss army knife in his pocket, and no, they did not take it off us, they were going to let us onto the plane with it!!!!! He ran back to the car and put it in because they would never left us come back into the country with it.

The flight was horrible, I though we would die, the plane fell a few meters in the sky and it shook a lot, but somehow we landed in Sydney.

My sister met us at the airport and tried to drive us to the hotel where we were staying, but her car had troubles so she had to go. We arrived a the hotel where we stayed, the Sofitel!!!! Right near Harbour Bridge and the Opera house, it was a surprise gift from Fred’s parents. We got up graded and had a wonderful room.

We had breakfast near the Opera house and took a short walk in the botanical Gardens. We them went back to the hotel and had a nap, we had been up since 5am. We enjoyed a late room service lunch and then went to Darling Harbour, we had an amazing dinner at I’m Angus.

5^th November Whale watching and The Kings of Leon

We wake up in our nice comfortable hotel bed and go down stairs and have a wonderful 5 stair breakfast.

We then walk down to the Opera house to board the boat that will take us out to see Whales today. We got tickets at half price so it was a great extra thing to be able to do in Sydney.

We sail out passing the Opera, harbour Bridge and Manly. After about 30min we started to see whales from a distance. Soon we were taken by surprise by a mother and her baby hump back whale that thought it would be fun to play near about boat for a while. It was stunning!

We arrived back at the Harbour, had lunch a Korean restaurant then went to pick up out tickets for the concert. Back to the hotel for a shower and some rest before we headed to Olympic Park to see Kings of Leon in concert!!!! We got there early and look around at the stage and the set up. The concert was amazing!!!! I love them!!

On the way home from the concert we got on the bus to go back to town, on the bus we see Briar and her boyfriend on the way back from the concert as well. The world is small, Briar is my friend that lives in Auckland and we had no idea that we were going to the same concert in Sydney, Australia, plus the chances of meeting someone in a crowd of over 40,000.

6^th November 2011 Bondi Beach

Today we just had to spend the day at the beach, as because it has been winter and we have been living in Wellington we have not been to the beach to swim for 8 months.

We have our wonderful 5 star breakfast, packed our bags, left them at the reception and headed off to the Bondi.

As it was Sunday Bondi was full of people, but it was still great to sit it the sun, sun bath, with sun screen on of course, and enjoy the cool Pacific water; We stayed at the beach to 3pm then had lunch in a seafood place near the beach. We when back to the hotel got our bags and went to the airport.

The flight back was smooth; we arrived in Christchurch closed to midnight, walked back to our car and went to sleep.