Articles from this Category
19 October 2021
A journey born out of spite, as the world learns to live with Covid-19 I didn’t get to see Mum before she passed away a month ago and also missed her funeral. I do still want to get back to my hometown Kuching but airfares are ridiculously high. I would have paid the high price […]
27 September 2021
Ridiculously high airfares I had been wanting to go see Mum in Malaysian Borneo for a while now. But the need to do hotel quarantine there and also upon return to New Zealand was a deterrent. Apart from that, it seemed best to delay the trip until her helper finishes up in December and I’d […]
11 July 2021
Covid-19 travel restriction changes While in Queensland, we were puzzled that the restrictions surrounding our return to New Zealand were the same as that from New South Wales which was suffering badly from Covid-19. In contrast Queensland was having no or just one case a day. I had been expecting the New Zealand government to […]
10 July 2021
Above: Taking off from Brisbane, we fly over North Stradbroke Island which I ironically visited at the beginning of this trip. Checking in at Cairns Airport We both woke around 0300 after about 5h30 of sleep. We were halfway getting ready when our alarm sounded at 0320. We couldn’t get into the locked hostel kitchen […]
9 July 2021
Chilling We started the day with a long waterfront walk towards the south then the north. After that, we kept close to base as Kim was on the verge of sealing a deal for the purchase of a boat with his friend. After a light lunch of Vietnamese sandwiches, we took a swim in the […]
8 July 2021
Back to Cairns We departed Port Douglas at 0800 driving towards Cairns. After filling up near our destination, Kim dropped me and our luggage off near our accommodation at 0900 while he returned the wreck which we had rented. In Cairns, we’re booked for three nights at Global Backpackers in a private ensuite room. With […]
7 July 2021
Above: Big crystal geode At Atherton’s Crystal Caves for AUD8380. Spending money on things like this does not facilitate my lifestyle of world travel. Mine is one of non-attachment to objects like these! At Port Douglas, we’re near the northern limit of our rental car permitted travel zone. With nothing better to do, we thought […]
6 July 2021
Above: Freeform pool at our Port Douglas accommodation, by night. Mossman Gorge After breakfast we headed out in our car, first to Four Mile Beach around the corner from our accommodation. The sandy beach was lovely but again, the water was stirred up with sand. Text continues after this gallery. We continued to […]
5 July 2021
Above: Freeform pool set amongst concrete blocks and old trees at our Port Douglas accommodation. Involuntary Extension We begin the involuntary extension of our Queensland stay today (or arguably yesterday), with return to New Zealand impossible until further notice due to Covid-19 restrictions. The additional stay is somewhat welcome as we can have a relaxing […]
4 July 2021
Above: 2393 km of driving in ten days. Finishing the road trip Today we drive up to Cairns where we finish our road trip. Our original perfect plan had been to fly out midday but that flight was cancelled possibly due to poor loads. The second version of the plan had us flying out last […]