3 Decades of Travel
CALENDARS
INTRO
We show both the before and after plans. Understandable they differ slightly for all manner of reasons, but mostly because the reality is whatever you plan you must ensure that you replan en route, there will always be something.
BEFORE THE TRIP
Pre trip, calendar of our adventures, i.e anticipation of where we are going and when, it was our combined plan for the travels
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017
Flying to Singapore via Dubai leaving January 31st early in the morning. 2 days stay with Doug and family, maybe the 1* michelin street hawker food, then onto Perth, WA to have a good look around. Maybe a Swan river trip. Then its pick up the motorhomes at Great Eastern Highway and go off exploring. So much to see in WA - Wave Rocks, The Pinnacles, Dolphins at Monkey Mia.... can't wait! At the end of Feb we catch the Indian Pacific Railway, Gold Star Service.
MARCH 2017
Having got off the train in Adelaide we will stay in acabin on the beach before flying up to Alice Springs and bathe in the famous Todd River. C&A are off to Uluru (Ayres Rock). We fly back after 3 days and pick up the motorhomes to explore amongst others the Great Ocean Road (GOR), koala's at Kennet River, wine in the Barossa Valley, the 12 apostles, whales at Warrnmbool, Sale, Mallacoota, Tathra, Eden and so much more.
APRIL 2017
In the first week of April we will still be in Sydney, K&A in their apartment with pool in Beacon Hills and C&A off with Laura and Steve having fun. K&A visit John & Diana in Tasmania. We will then stay at the Kiwi Motel in Mangere, Auckland (did the NZ census here in 2013) overnight before jetting off for a relaxing week in the Raina Beach house on Rarotonga. On return its pick up the motorhomes in mangere and off to explore North island.
MAY 2017
Mid may-ish we will leave north island and take the motorhomes across on the interisland ferry from wellington to picton, and see the fab queen charlotte sound. Captain Cook knew it well. Then its off to explore south island. Milford and no doubt(ful) sound plus dunedin and a whole lot more. At the end of the month we fly out of Christchurch together to Sydney where we say our good byes
JUNE 2017
After Sydney C&A are flying off to Hong Kong for a few days before making their ways back to the UK. K&A will visit family for a few weeks in Singapore and then jet back home from Changi airport.
SUMMARY Jan thru June 2017
There is a complete proposed schedule of our trip included in the slideshow
BEFORE THE TRIP
Post trip, calendar of our adventures, i.e where we went and when #loved every moment of it, such lovely shared memories
JAN-JUNE 2017
Note the only difference is that at the end Chris & Allyson flew to Hong Kong for a few days and we went to Singapore for a couple of weeks before returning to the UK. What is shown in this gallery is the complete booked flight schedule. Luckily no dates or times changed during our 6 months away, unlike in 2013 when our flight from Perth to Changi was bought forward by 3 hours meaning we almost missed it, the company alledgedly had no way to contact us to warn us "as if - internet was working!"
ACTUAL CALENDAR FOR THE BIG TRIP 2017
Comparing what was planned against what we actually did, surprisingly there wasnt really that much difference in the schedule, maybe a few days here and there as we hadnt gone to that level of detail. It is worth reading Annie's diary in unison with these calendar views, if you would like to please click HERE
OLD WEBSITE IMAGES
History of what the old site pre 2020 looked like is preserved for prosperity, maybe 😉
We preserved some of the page images before removing old site pages in Aug 2021, they are recaptured here
Luckily this didn't happen 😉
CAMP SITES
SLIDESHOW TIME!
This is a pictorial history of all the campsites we stayed at our our Big Trip 2017 in both Australia and New Zealand in our hired Britz / Maui camper vans
DISTANCES
SLIDESHOW TIME!
To recap we travelled in our hired motorhomes in both Australia and New Zealand on our 2017 Big Trip 9337 Miles or 15026 Kilometres, WOW!
Distances travelled by Keef & Annie. NOTE Here are the distances we drove ourselves whilst on THE BIG TRIP, HOLIDAY 2017 which by implication as Chris & Allyson didn't go to Tasmania and did far more walking than us and drove the west coast of North island, New Zealand whilst we did the east coast means their total distance is likely to be some what less , but in reality probably not by that much.
WILDLIFE
SLIDESHOW TIME!
Wildlife spotted in Australia
Western Australia
Blue tongued skinks, Major Mitchell Cockatiel (white & pink feathers), emus, turtle, pelicans, eagles, goats, galahs, small frog, flock of white & yellow cockatoos, small lizard, green parakeets with yellow ring round neck – could be yellow ring lorikeets, alpacas of a farm, kangaroos, dead snake on road, budgies, quokkas, magpies, small black lizard 6-8” long, stick insects, dolphins, Australian sealions, 4 Ospreys, pelican colony, Little Blue Penguins, New Zealand fur seals.
Northern Territory
Lots of Aussie mammals, birds & reptiles in Desert Park, a wildlife park outside Alice Springs. Cockroaches in pavement in Alice at night.
South Australia
Corella parrots (white with lemon feathers under wings), large moorhens, stingray.
Victoria
Dead snake (brown) in middle of road. Koala crossing road, budgies, black rock wallaby, echidna, 4 koalas, wallaby, baby black snake, bandicoot, red & green parakeets, 2 Sulphur crested cockatoos, seal by a jetty, grey kangaroo at Hanging Rock, thin lizard, large group of grey kangaroos & 1 albino one, black swans, large 3ft stingray with orange spots on top & orange underneath, koalas, bellbirds, small lizard.
New South Wales
Kangaroos, rainbow lorikeets, stingrays, white cockatoos, small geckos, dead wombats by highway, wattle bird, heron, ibis birds, possum.
Tasmania
Dead Tasmanian Devils by roadsides, plovers & sandpipers, kookaburra, wallabies.
Wildlife in Cook Islands (Rarotonga)
Plovers, sandpipers, small crabs, sea cucumbers, fish, geckos, black/brown birds.
Wildlife spotted in New Zealand
Green Praying Mantis, weka (bird), 3 kingfishers, eagle, dead possum, bush turkeys, black swans, large black eels, fantail birds, pet emus & small wallaby at campsite in Murchison, whales, rock wren, Kea alpine parrots, 2 dolphins, NZ fur seals, small albatross, white heron, grey herons, Little Blue & Yellow Eyed penguins, seals.
