9th August 2017
After staying a night in an airport hotel, we board our flight on the morning of the 9th August for a ten hour flight to Vancouver, Canada. This will be one of the longest flights we have ever been on, but it's nothing compared to one long-haul flight we have planned later in the year! Vancouver is eight hours behind us here in the UK so we'll be pretty tired by the early evening, though we'll definitely have a little explore within the vicinity of our hotel before catching up with some sleep.
10th August 2017
It will be an early start the very next morning though, as we are swiftly moving on from Vancouver to catch a seat on the COHO Tour which is a five day trip through The Rocky Mountains, stopping at various destinations such as Lake Louise, Kelowna and Jasper before finishing in the historic town of Banff. Hiking, camping, swimming, glacier walks and jet boat rides are just some of the things we'll be doing along the way. We are especially looking forward to Lake Louise as it looks stunning from the pictures and videos we have seen, as well as catching a glimpse of a wild bear or two if we are lucky. To find out more, you can visit the tour company website here: http://moosebus.travel/tours/pacific/big-west/caribou/coho/#ptravellerinfo
15th August 2017
After our tour through South-West Canada, we leave Banff and head to Calgary which is further East. We have a two night stay there, where we'll do plenty of exploring as well as enjoying a bit of the local cuisine and a bit of the nightlife too. We have a whole list of places to visit and things to do that we will pack into the three days we are there. There is a renowned luge run on the site of the old Olympic Park and I am especially looking forward to having a go. As well as this, we are looking forward to a meal in the rotating restaurant at the summit of Calgary Tower.
17th August 2017
We then fly out from Calgary airport and say goodbye to 'The True North' after a brief nine days in Canada and head to Los Angeles on a three hour flight, landing in LAX mid-morning. We've booked a four night stay in a hotel in Burbank, just a couple of miles away from all the prime locations such as Hollywood and Downtown LA. We'll keep busy with a day out at Santa Monica beach/pier, a visit to Universal Studios as well as a stroll through Beverly Hills and there looks to be some fantastic dining options too. A cliche hike towards the famous 'Hollywood' sign will also be on the agenda and you can't visit LA without walking up Hollywood Boulevard.
21st August 2017
Our time in LA will sadly have come to an end but the next stage of our adventure is probably the part we are looking forward to most. We check out of our hotel and head straight for the car rental where we pick up our convertible Ford Mustang ahead of an epic USA roadtrip accross several states, spanning hundreds of miles. We are on the road for six days in total and stops along the way include the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, Redwood Forest, Hoover Dam, Colorado River and Death Valley. We'll also be driving along the world-famous Route 66 before a stopover in Las Vegas at some point along the way. Las Vegas is a place on our bucketlist and we can't wait to spend some time there. There is so much to do and see and we can see this roadtrip being one of the major highlights of our whole travelling experience. We can't wait.
27th August 2017
We will then head back towards the coast to reluctantly return our Mustang in San Francisco before checking in to our hotel in the North for a three night stay. The city is full of attractions such as visiting notorious island prison Alcatraz, the world famous Golden Gate Bridge as well as several other lesser known goldmines to explore and discover. Other major points of interest including the novelty of Lombard Street, ordering lunch at Eatsa - a fully automated restaurant as well as Baker Beach and Pier 39. We are sure to be very busy during our four days spend in San Francisco before heading off on a flight accross the United States for touchdown in New York.
30th August 2017
We land in New York quite late in the evening due to the six hour flight and the time difference (three hours ahead of SF) We'll probably head straight for bed but then have three days to do as much as we can. New York is full of amazing food, countless attractions and so many places and things to do and see. A walk around Times Square, a climb up the Empire State Building and watching a show in Broadway are all on the agenda as well as what will likely be a very poignant and surreal visit to the Freedom Tower and site of the 9/11 attacks. Glorious food will be in plentiful supply as will the infectious nightlife and the 'Big Apple' is just another place we are very much looking forward to visiting.
3rd September 2017
We say goodbye to the USA and board our Emirates flight on the Airbus A380-800 - the largest commercial aircraft in the world for what will be an exhausting 33 hour flight accross the globe. Our destination is New Zealand though a flight spanning sixteen time zones and 15,000 miles is going to test our minds and our bodies. A few hours stopover in Dubai and another stop for fuel in Sydney are on the itinerary, lets just hope we manage to get some sleep! (and the in-flight food isn't too bad)
5th September 2017
Two days after taking off, we finally land in Christchurch, probably shattered and mentally drained but there's no time to rest as we are heading straight from the airport to pick up our campervan which will be our home for the next four weeks. Once we've finalised the paperwork and driven away, I can see us pulling over somewhere rather quickly and catching up on what sleep we have lost. Hopefully the jet lag won't be too bad and we'll get over it pretty quickly. Once we're refreshed an exciting and largely unknown adventure awaits. We have a few points of interest noted but it's mostly completely unplanned. Various campsites are dotted around the country and we plan to spend roughly three weeks in the South Island before catching the ferry to visit the North Island, which is the home of Auckland where our next flight departs from. It is a country of unfathomable beauty and we can't wait to explore what it has to offer. We love the proposition of just stopping anywhere and everywhere we take a fancy to and the camera is sure to come in for plenty of abuse over the four weeks we are there.
1st October 2017
We drop our campervan off in Auckland and then were thinking to fly on to Melbourne for a two night stay. We'll find plenty to keep us busy there before hiring a 4x4 to drive up The Great Ocean Road. The road winds along the South coast of Australia with plenty to do along the way. We might spend three or four days driving up and back, a total trip of around 300 miles, starting and finishing in Melbourne. We won't book any accomodation along the way so it will be a case of finding a nice place along the way, or even pitching a tent by the beach.
Our Options
We may want/need to do some work in Australia which could be doing anything, though riding racehorses is a viable option for us and there should be some opportunites out there for that. We're not sure how long we'll do that for but we won't be shy to getting our hands dirty. It may be a case of working a few weeks to fund our next few weeks and so on and so forth, though we want to be travelling around all the while. We'll have done Canada, USA, NZ and Australia by this point but we won't be finished there. Fiji is our main priority next, everything about it looks amazing. Bali is very high on the agenda too and a stop off in Singapore could well be on the cards. We haven't thought much past that - suppose it depends how we feel and how empty our bank accounts are! We have no set date to return, but around mid-December time could be a good period to get back to our families for Christmas. With that said, we are completely open minded and we'll just see where we are and what we want to do while we are away.
That's about our full itinerary right there. I didn't mention many activities etc but that will all be posted, along with various pics and videos from our travels on our daily updates that we will do while we are away. Thankyou for reading, we are counting down the days now!
After staying a night in an airport hotel, we board our flight on the morning of the 9th August for a ten hour flight to Vancouver, Canada. This will be one of the longest flights we have ever been on, but it's nothing compared to one long-haul flight we have planned later in the year! Vancouver is eight hours behind us here in the UK so we'll be pretty tired by the early evening, though we'll definitely have a little explore within the vicinity of our hotel before catching up with some sleep.
10th August 2017
It will be an early start the very next morning though, as we are swiftly moving on from Vancouver to catch a seat on the COHO Tour which is a five day trip through The Rocky Mountains, stopping at various destinations such as Lake Louise, Kelowna and Jasper before finishing in the historic town of Banff. Hiking, camping, swimming, glacier walks and jet boat rides are just some of the things we'll be doing along the way. We are especially looking forward to Lake Louise as it looks stunning from the pictures and videos we have seen, as well as catching a glimpse of a wild bear or two if we are lucky. To find out more, you can visit the tour company website here: http://moosebus.travel/tours/pacific/big-west/caribou/coho/#ptravellerinfo
15th August 2017
After our tour through South-West Canada, we leave Banff and head to Calgary which is further East. We have a two night stay there, where we'll do plenty of exploring as well as enjoying a bit of the local cuisine and a bit of the nightlife too. We have a whole list of places to visit and things to do that we will pack into the three days we are there. There is a renowned luge run on the site of the old Olympic Park and I am especially looking forward to having a go. As well as this, we are looking forward to a meal in the rotating restaurant at the summit of Calgary Tower.
17th August 2017
We then fly out from Calgary airport and say goodbye to 'The True North' after a brief nine days in Canada and head to Los Angeles on a three hour flight, landing in LAX mid-morning. We've booked a four night stay in a hotel in Burbank, just a couple of miles away from all the prime locations such as Hollywood and Downtown LA. We'll keep busy with a day out at Santa Monica beach/pier, a visit to Universal Studios as well as a stroll through Beverly Hills and there looks to be some fantastic dining options too. A cliche hike towards the famous 'Hollywood' sign will also be on the agenda and you can't visit LA without walking up Hollywood Boulevard.
21st August 2017
Our time in LA will sadly have come to an end but the next stage of our adventure is probably the part we are looking forward to most. We check out of our hotel and head straight for the car rental where we pick up our convertible Ford Mustang ahead of an epic USA roadtrip accross several states, spanning hundreds of miles. We are on the road for six days in total and stops along the way include the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, Redwood Forest, Hoover Dam, Colorado River and Death Valley. We'll also be driving along the world-famous Route 66 before a stopover in Las Vegas at some point along the way. Las Vegas is a place on our bucketlist and we can't wait to spend some time there. There is so much to do and see and we can see this roadtrip being one of the major highlights of our whole travelling experience. We can't wait.
27th August 2017
We will then head back towards the coast to reluctantly return our Mustang in San Francisco before checking in to our hotel in the North for a three night stay. The city is full of attractions such as visiting notorious island prison Alcatraz, the world famous Golden Gate Bridge as well as several other lesser known goldmines to explore and discover. Other major points of interest including the novelty of Lombard Street, ordering lunch at Eatsa - a fully automated restaurant as well as Baker Beach and Pier 39. We are sure to be very busy during our four days spend in San Francisco before heading off on a flight accross the United States for touchdown in New York.
30th August 2017
We land in New York quite late in the evening due to the six hour flight and the time difference (three hours ahead of SF) We'll probably head straight for bed but then have three days to do as much as we can. New York is full of amazing food, countless attractions and so many places and things to do and see. A walk around Times Square, a climb up the Empire State Building and watching a show in Broadway are all on the agenda as well as what will likely be a very poignant and surreal visit to the Freedom Tower and site of the 9/11 attacks. Glorious food will be in plentiful supply as will the infectious nightlife and the 'Big Apple' is just another place we are very much looking forward to visiting.
3rd September 2017
We say goodbye to the USA and board our Emirates flight on the Airbus A380-800 - the largest commercial aircraft in the world for what will be an exhausting 33 hour flight accross the globe. Our destination is New Zealand though a flight spanning sixteen time zones and 15,000 miles is going to test our minds and our bodies. A few hours stopover in Dubai and another stop for fuel in Sydney are on the itinerary, lets just hope we manage to get some sleep! (and the in-flight food isn't too bad)
5th September 2017
Two days after taking off, we finally land in Christchurch, probably shattered and mentally drained but there's no time to rest as we are heading straight from the airport to pick up our campervan which will be our home for the next four weeks. Once we've finalised the paperwork and driven away, I can see us pulling over somewhere rather quickly and catching up on what sleep we have lost. Hopefully the jet lag won't be too bad and we'll get over it pretty quickly. Once we're refreshed an exciting and largely unknown adventure awaits. We have a few points of interest noted but it's mostly completely unplanned. Various campsites are dotted around the country and we plan to spend roughly three weeks in the South Island before catching the ferry to visit the North Island, which is the home of Auckland where our next flight departs from. It is a country of unfathomable beauty and we can't wait to explore what it has to offer. We love the proposition of just stopping anywhere and everywhere we take a fancy to and the camera is sure to come in for plenty of abuse over the four weeks we are there.
1st October 2017
We drop our campervan off in Auckland and then were thinking to fly on to Melbourne for a two night stay. We'll find plenty to keep us busy there before hiring a 4x4 to drive up The Great Ocean Road. The road winds along the South coast of Australia with plenty to do along the way. We might spend three or four days driving up and back, a total trip of around 300 miles, starting and finishing in Melbourne. We won't book any accomodation along the way so it will be a case of finding a nice place along the way, or even pitching a tent by the beach.
Our Options
We may want/need to do some work in Australia which could be doing anything, though riding racehorses is a viable option for us and there should be some opportunites out there for that. We're not sure how long we'll do that for but we won't be shy to getting our hands dirty. It may be a case of working a few weeks to fund our next few weeks and so on and so forth, though we want to be travelling around all the while. We'll have done Canada, USA, NZ and Australia by this point but we won't be finished there. Fiji is our main priority next, everything about it looks amazing. Bali is very high on the agenda too and a stop off in Singapore could well be on the cards. We haven't thought much past that - suppose it depends how we feel and how empty our bank accounts are! We have no set date to return, but around mid-December time could be a good period to get back to our families for Christmas. With that said, we are completely open minded and we'll just see where we are and what we want to do while we are away.
That's about our full itinerary right there. I didn't mention many activities etc but that will all be posted, along with various pics and videos from our travels on our daily updates that we will do while we are away. Thankyou for reading, we are counting down the days now!
