Tag Archives: Road trip

Seven Day Road Trip up the East Coast of Australia: Sydney to Airlie Beach

One of the best ways to explore the East Coast of Australia is by car (or camper van if that’s your style). You could basically spend as much time as you wanted driving the east coast of Australia, as there are a ton of great stops along the way. Plus, you never know what you might see!

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I would recommend allowing two weeks if you want to make more stops, spend more time at each stop, or to camp and explore some of the natural attractions in the region.

We only had a week to make it up to Airlie Beach for our Whitsundays adventure (more on that later…stay tuned!), so we researched the most intriguing stops and made the most of our time exploring the region.

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Are the Penguins Worth It?

What penguins am I referring to?

The awesome little blue ones (the smallest species of penguins in the world) that you can find in a few different locations on the South Island of New Zealand (and Southern Australia). So, is it worth it to take a road trip detour?

Why yes, yes it is.

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If you have a soft spot in your heart for penguins (or obsession, like me), then you might find a detour to visit one of the spots where you can witness hundreds of them waddling ashore as the sun sets behind them well worth the trip.

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If you don’t have a soft spot in your heart for little penguins, then you may not be human? (just kidding!) But really, how can you not think these little ones are adorable?

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These little guys reside on the Otago Peninsula – just about a 30 minute drive from Dunedin, which also happens to have the most photographed building in all of New Zealand:

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In order to see the penguins and satisfy my obsession, we went to the Royal Albatross Centre in the evening after a pretty delicious dinner at Velvet Burger in Dunedin. If you are interested, there are more than just the penguins to see. They also have the only mainland breeding colony of the Royal Albatross (a large sea bird) and interesting historical and educational exhibits. Plus, the beauty of the peninsula is not so tough on the eyes.

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My favorite part about the center is how close you can get to the penguins. They literally waddle right by you to get to their nests. Some of them even waddle around under the platform, and if you lie down you can get inches away from them (resist the temptation to touch them though). It took all of my willpower not to take one home…

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Not to mention, while the little ones are making their way to their nests, the sun is setting and creating an incredibly beautiful backdrop.

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We debated for quite awhile if we should take the time to drive to Dunedin, but in the end, I thought it was well worth the detour. We had an amazing time and seeing the penguins turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip for us.

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Dunedin itself looks is modeled off of Scottish towns and is also home to NZ’s Speight’s brewery.

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Not to mention, we stayed in a cozy hostel in Dunedin called Hogwartz, complete with room 9 3/4, reading loft, and awesome outdoor space.

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Clearly, Dunedin and the penguins brought my childlike enthusiasm to an entirely different level…

10 Tips to Improve your Trip to the Milford Sound

Interested in visiting the Milford Sound while in New Zealand? Here are some facts and tips for making your visit to the Milford sound the best it can be.

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Pancake Rocks!

Our last day in the Motueka region was spent visiting a local winery (check out my post on wine in NZ for more on that), and a local delicious brewery called the Hop Federation.

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I highly recommend a stop here! Also, Nelson is the craft brewing capital of New Zealand, so there are plenty of good beer tasting options around too.

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Road Warriors

The following morning we woke up to the sound of rain outside. Originally, we had plans to kayak, but instead we opted for a warm Cappuccino. We walked down the street to El Cafe, a little South American inspired cafe, to have breakfast and take advantage of the free and fast wifi. We were pleasantly surprised by the delicious coffee and breakfast.

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Fueled up, we set out on our long day of driving to the Coromandel Peninsula via the opposite side of the island, as we wanted to check out the west coast and take a different route from how we traveled to the Bay of Islands.

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Keep Left!

For our first morning in NZ, we decided to cook breakfast at the hostel to save a little money. I’d say we put together a pretty tasty spread!

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After breakfast, we hopped on a bus across town to pick up our rental car. We got a pretty good rate with Jucy, so we booked through them. They ended up upgrading the car for free to a newer model car (and it uses diesel, equaling fantastic gas savings!), but they didn’t have any GPS units left. Since we don’t have much of a data plan, we found out we could get a GPS at the I-site by the harbor before heading out of town, which ended up saving us a bit of money as well. Good thing it was relatively close by and didn’t involve too many turns because it is incredibly anti-intuitive to drive on the left side of the road. Basically, we think we are always doing something wrong. In the city, it felt a bit like Toad’s Turnpike level in MarioKart. However, with my navigation skills and T’s driving skills, our first attempt at driving on the left side of the road was a success, and so was our mission to get a GPS. Prepared, we set out on our road trip to the Northland, trying to stay on the correct side of the road.

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