Australia is a sport mad country.  They play host to the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast near Brisbane in April, but some of their biggest events are staged in Melbourne.  The Australian Open Tennis, The Melbourne Cup for Horse Racing, and the Boxing Day cricket Test, are just three world famous events hosted in…

I have may have mentioned before that  we are staying in Altona which is a beach resort in the south western suburbs of Melbourne, about 15km from the Central Business District.  Its key feature (and probably its only one) is that it is home to one of only two swimming beaches in Western Melbourne, the…

After the peace and calm that is New Zealand we are preparing for a major culture shock with our eminent arrival in Melbourne. Before that there is the little matter of a drive from Coromandel to Auckland Airport.  Our flight (and airline)  had been changed whilst we were in NZ and we were now due…

After Christchurch, we have just 5 days left of our New Zealand journey. We are back in North Island, taking some time to explore the Coromandel Peninsula, staying in Coromandel Town which lies about half way up the west coast. We had short internal flight to Auckland with Air New Zealand (tip – they are…

In the early hours of 4 Sep 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake centred around 40km west of Christchurch shook the city and caused some damage to older buildings in the centre, but no lives were lost. The epicentre was a rural area and deep gashes opened up in fields and pastures and the South Island…

Having arrived on South Island on 5 Feb 18 we are into our last 10 days or so in New Zealand.  Before we leave and head for Melbourne once again, we have a little matter of a three city tour to complete. From Te Anau we made our way to Invercargill, which is the southern and…