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Chris and Charly Down Under

a travel blog by chrischarly

Bye bye tuk tuks
Bye bye negotiating
Bye bye, 'Hello Mister'
Bye bye long bus rides
Bye bye heavy backpacks
Bye bye savings...
And G'DAY 'down under'!

After plenty of time spent in South East Asia, we have just left Australia after having an amazing time driving around for almost 3 months in a camper and are now in New Zealand doing the same :)


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12 Apostles

Warrnambool, Australia


The arch
Woke up to a grey morning, we waited a little hoping it would clear before the rest of the Great Ocean, but it didn’t unfortunately.

12 apostles
But we still tried to make the most of our day and saw as much as we could in between the rain, including the 12 apostles which are rocks of the shore.

12 apostles
We then went in search of a campsite stopping at one rubbish one, followed by another rubbishish one due to the severe winds which meant we had to keep the roof down all night as we were scared it would blow away.

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 3, 2011 from Warrnambool, Australia
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Preparing to move

Geelong, Australia


Putting up our new home
Left our last free campsite this morning and drove back to Geelong and checked into a paid site on the edge of the city to start packing up the van and set up our tent which will be our home now for the next 2 weeks. Will really miss the van when it goes tomorrow but at least we have one more night to sleep in it tonight until we pass it over to Scott and Jordan first thing tomorrow morning.

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 4, 2011 from Geelong, Australia
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Moving house

Geelong, Australia

I waved goodbye to our first home we brought together at 9:30am as Chris drove it down into town to meet Scott and Jordan. He was gone for over 3 hours but most of this time

Our new home
I was kept busy chatting to Maureen, our neighbour who has been in the caravan park for over 30 years. She kept feeding me coffee and gossip so the time flew by. Chris returned with a tear in his eye, but all had gone well and Marcy was now in the hands of the Canadian Chuckle Brothers – we wish her well and hope that they look after her like we did. After chatting more to Maureen, asking her questions about the area etc. she decided to take us up to the town and show us around. We found the library where we could get free internet and the post office to send off all car paperwork. This killed a few hours then we checked out the local eateries and our local pub. We had a few beers to celebrate/commiserate and then some yummy dinner before staggering to the campsite and turning in for our first night in the tent.

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 5, 2011 from Geelong, Australia
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Cheap flights :)

Geelong, Australia

We woke to the sun shining through blue skies. We went back into town and visited the charity shop where Maureen works, she had found some nice thongs (flip flops) for me, Havaianas once again as the last ones broke yesterday for only $1. Plus I found some bargain tops all for $1.

The camp kitchen
We then grabbed some lunch and headed to the library to try and solve our issue of getting from Auckland to Queenstown. Because we had left it too late, and it being Christmas time, the flights were NZ$300 (£150), so not a great option. The relocation cars/vans were not offering anything good to us. The bus/bus/bus/ferry/bus/bus option looked painful to say the least. Then we checked flights to Christchurch and were pleased to find one for NZ$109, we jumped on it and booked straight away. It was about 6 hours after we arrive in Auckland. So perfect, now we just need to worry about getting from Christchurch to Queenstown, should be an easy bus if no car relocations come up.
Pleased with ourselves we headed back via some shops and then chilled out in the sun for the afternoon before Chris cooked up some yummy wraps with bbq’d halloumi, asparagus, tomato, Spring onion and salad. After chatting a while to a kiwi traveller, we retired into our cosy tent.

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 6, 2011 from Geelong, Australia
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Swim

Geelong, Australia


Chris cooling off
Had another chilled day, nice and sunny so perfect for a swim in the pool before heading to town for a few beers and a lovely pizza and a bottle of wine.

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 7, 2011 from Geelong, Australia
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BBQ

Geelong, Australia


Lovebirds
Had a swim, went shopping, bought some bargain food, returned home and had a lovely bbq lamb dinner.

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 8, 2011 from Geelong, Australia
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Happy Hour...

Geelong, Australia


Chris and I in our tent
Happy hour started at the local pub at 4:30pm so promptly 2 minutes before we turned up. We took full advantage of the cheap beers and free bar snacks, but unfortunately we ended up staying for all the unhappy hours until closing. Met loads of friends, drank and talked a load of rubbish all night. Staggered home and fell over a few times, all good though, we survived!

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 9, 2011 from Geelong, Australia
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My head hurts... in fact, everything hurts...

Geelong, Australia


Chris cooking
Spent the day recovering… Ouch, everything aches, got bruises everywhere, Chris has a bad knee whilst I have a bad ankle, so we both hobbled along for the day feeling VERY sorry for ourselves. Unfortunately we did have to leave the campsite as we ran out of essential supplies, such as Comfort food and cigarettes.

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 10, 2011 from Geelong, Australia
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All the way into the city

Geelong, Australia


Ducks
Went into the city of Geelong, had a walk around for a bit. Weather= crap. Nothing particularly exciting occurred.

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 11, 2011 from Geelong, Australia
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...

Geelong, Australia

Same old...
Same old...

permalink written by  chrischarly on December 12, 2011 from Geelong, Australia
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