Going Out The Door

Following Dunedin, we had two full travel days. Although we talked about making an overnight stop in Christchurch, we opted to get a little northwest of the city—we would have only been there one brief evening, and this way we were able to get a bit of jumpstart on the next day’s drive. Scenery near..

It was tough to say good bye to Te Anau. There was more we would have liked to do while there, but it was time to head to Dunedin. Dunedin is on the east coast of NZ's South Island, and we decided to take the scenic route along the southern edge of the island, through..

Our next stop, Te Anau, is a place we would call home in a heartbeat (and there is a charming restaurant for sale…hmmmm). A beautiful drive—although most of them are—started Wednesday morning. Leaving the Fjordlands temporarily, we went through rolling hills covered in sheep. And lambs. And more sheep. There are about six times more..

We flew to New Zealand on Sunday, Nov. 3, landing in Queenstown on a bit of a roller coaster ride due to high winds in the mountains. Travel pretty much shot the day, since we lost a couple hours due to the time zone shift, so we got settled and headed to the town center...

Wow! That's the first thing that came out of Tom's mouth when we got to our hotel room in Melbourne. Robin scores again - confirming that finding great accommodations is her super power. (One of them anyway!) We were on the 27th floor of the Jazz Corner Hotel (named for Bird's Basement, a below-ground jazz..

After arriving in Apollo Bay, we had a quiet evening having dinner at the local brew pub, where we ran into fellow travelers, some of them from Cleveland! A small world, indeed. Went back to our apartment and spent the rest of the evening on the deck marveling at the clear skies, looking at stars..

Back in "Adding a little spice to Fiji," we mentioned that we ran into some folks doing a promo video for Air New Zealand. And here it is...brief cameos for Rob and me. GrabaRandom! We actually had to sign a release - but don't blink or you might miss us! Note for next trip to..

When we were boarding the flight out of Airlie Beach, we were wondering to ourselves: Exactly why are we leaving this really cool, beautiful Aussie paradise? Could Australia get any better? Well, Airlie is certainly awesome, but turns out so is the Great Ocean Road. We flew into Melbourne, picked up a rental car and..

Airlie Beach, a small coastal town surrounded on the inland side by sugarcane plantations and cattle ranches, is a destination for two big reasons - the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday Islands. So, not surprisingly, we spent nearly all our daylight hours in Airlie Beach on the water, under the water, or at the..

To tell you about our time in Brisbane (aside from the koalas), we have to start with a really big “thank you” to our friends Robin, Doug, Gavin and Lindsay Hibbard, who are extraordinary hosts. Not only did they pick us up at the airport and share their home with us, Robin was a delightful..