How Many...?

It's hard to believe, but we've been back now longer than we were away, if you see what I mean! Perhaps putting off this planned final post has allowed us to extend our adventure a little, we've certainly been trying to keep the feeling of excitement and freedom with us for as long as possible. Struggling to get back into work mode has been a side effect that also lasted longer than expected!

This final post then...a bit of a summary...

Our Australia and New Zealand jaunt consisted of:

• 40 nights
• 3 countries
• 7 cities
• 29,151 miles
• Sheffield to London 150
• London to Hong Kong - 5991
• Hong Kong to Sydney - 4568
• Sydney to Katoomba and return - 108
• Sydney to Cairns - 1216
• Cairns to Great Barrier Reef and return - 120
• Cairns to Melbourne 1440
• Melbourne to Philip Island and return - 80
• Melbourne to Christchurch - 1550
• Around the South Island - 1200
• Christchurch to Wellington - 255
• North island - 600
• Auckland to Hong Kong - 5782
• Hong Kong to London - 5991
• London to Sheffield - 150

• 7 flights
• 3 train journeys
• 18 different methods of transport
• plane
• train
• car
• camper-van
• tram
• bus
• taxi
• coach
• ferry
• helicopter
• cable car
• luge
• chairlift
• funicular
• jet boat
• catamaran
• escalator
• sampan
• 7 hotels
• 1 guest house
• 4 motels
• 7 campsites
• 9 boat trips
• 20 types of animal in the wild
• penguins
• seals
• sea lions
• koalas
• Hector's dolphins
• spoonbills
• parrots
• parakeets
• black kites
• buzzards
• cormorants
• wallabies
• stoats
• alpacas
• deer
• terrapins
• bats
• kea
• various exotic fish!
• coral
• and we lost count of how many lakes and rivers!

as for the much dreaded deadly creatures...

• 0 snakes
• 0 crocodiles
• 0 sharks
• no deadly spiders (don't think so anyway)
• lots of jelly fish, not sure if they were deadly or not!

What a relief!

Thank you so much for taking an interest and following our adventure, maybe we'll have another some time soon, who knows?

Dave and Sue x

 

Hong Kong

This bit won't take long,

we had three days in crowded Hong Kong.

So many buildings all in one place,

millions of people all fight for space.

A real shock to the system,

no open spaces, you really missed them.

Loads of shops some very posh,

you had to queue to spend your dosh.

Elton was our tour guide,

he showed us Hong Kong with lots of pride.

Out for a ride on the harbour ferry,

not much here to make you merry.

So that's it from both of us,

off to the airport on the shuttle bus.

A fantastic holiday with so much to tell,

hope you liked the blog as well.

Auckland

A one night stay in Miranda

in a wooden hut with a verandah.

Their hot mineral pool we had a dip in,

left us with soft and lovely skin.

Our time in New Zealand was coming to an end,

so in Auckland our last days we'd spend.

Wherever you went and whatever the hour

your eyes got drawn to the Sky Tower.

We had a ferry trip to Devonport

that should get us away we thought,

even the boats, marina and market

couldn't stop the tower as a target!

Did we go up?

No we resisted that treat

just took endless photos from the street.

Hobbiton!

A night in a Best Western Motel

with fantastic food and nice people as well.

Over the road to the cable car

to the top of the hill to see wide and far.

We slid down the hill on a dry ski luge

got to the bottom without a bruise!

What proved to be an amazing day

was the next part of our holiday.

On to the Misty Mountains and the Brandywine

past Fanghorn Forest and Moria's Mine.

We walked in the footprints of

Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry

saw their village and the party tree,

experienced the wonder of Hobbiton

and had a beer in the Green Dragon.

Saw Bag End, Sam and Rosie's place

fantastic tour, really ace.

You know it's not real

but that's not what you feel,

for all you're worth

you're in Middle Earth.