I've never kept any kind of journal or diary before and I wouldn't have done so if it hadn't been for receiving one for Christmas when the thought of writing down a record of our travels become more appealing. We planned to do so much that if I didn't keep a journal there's a chance I'll forget the details and on thats not something I want to happen. So I kept a journal which I wrote every night about what we had done during that day. I'm not going to win any literary prizes and reading it back it's more like a series of postcards in places but I thought I'd publish it to the web as a record for myself and for anyone who wants to know what we did on our travels.
The idea for the honeymoon was to go to Sydney for New Year then go to New Zealand for three weeks, touring the country by campervan and then finishing off with five nights in a luxury resort in Fiji. We stopped at Singapore for a night on the way to Sydney where we also got to explore a little and Australia was great fun and a great hotel too. New Zealand was the main reason for going to the other side of the world though and driving around in the campervan was an amazing experience and I'd do it again in an instant. There are a few complications with the kinds of roads you find in New Zealand, the one lane bridges, the law about only parallel parking on your own side of the road but this is more than made up for by the scenery and the open roads. The population is around 4 million people in a country larger than the UK. 3 million of the residents live in the north island and almost all in the cities so the south island is even more sparcely populated.
We stayed at a variety of places, from laybys beside main roads to campsites with full facilities by beautiful lakes. We chose to stay at proper campsites only when we needed to recharge our phones, laptop, cameras etc or needed to do laundry. The campsites don't cost very much, even when you add in the extras like electric hook-up, laundry and showers they're only around $20 per night which is about £8. But when you have your own accomodation in the vehicle with you and the ability to stop at almost any roadside restarea then we prefer to do that.
Fiji was abject luxury at the Lomani Island Resort, a beautiful place and lovely people who made us feel very welcome and very special, they couldn't do enough for us. I don't think we were quite ready for the intensity of the sun, although that might just have been me but we had a perfect five days of relaxation to end the honeymoon with.
We met lots of people on the way, the bum in Sydney who was too drunk to focus on the fireworks but able to have quite a lengthy conversation with us. The english couple in Napier who were on their way to the south island to get work at the vinyards, the owner of Talbot Silver, the Chadwicks celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, lots of german travellers, Prue and Ben Crumb who kindly put us up for a night in Christchurch and Grant and Rosie a great Australian couple who we met in Fiji.
All in all a fabulous five weeks of travelling with my best friend, and wife, Sarah.
