Reflecting on 2011 and looking forward to 2012

Responses & Rants
Fireworks

It’s December 31st, 2011 and I’m back home in the states after nearly three years flashpacking around the world.  Last year at this time I was in Bangkok and the year prior to that was spent at a temple in Tokyo.  Tonight is a going to be a bit more low key – dinner with [...]

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Cairns, Pro Dive and The Great Barrier Reef

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Anemone fish staying close to home.

Cairns is the epicenter of options for diving the largest reef system in the world – The Great Barrier Reef.  A world heritage site and one of the seven natural wonders of the world (as named by CNN), this destination is high on the list of many travelers, and is certainly a spot not to [...]

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Exploring The Great Barrier Reef with Mike Ball Diving Expeditions

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Shea, our trip supervisor, handling the bin during the shark feed.

The Great Barrier Reef is massive, and Cairns is the launching point for the majority of ways to experience the reef.  I’d known since I started this flashpacking adventure two-and-a-half years ago that I would be headed here, and now the time had come. I spent my first full day in Cairns doing research on [...]

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Independent Travel from Cairns to Sydney on Greyhound

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A colorful bench on the streets of Cairns, Australia

Over the month of July, I spent 25 days as part of a hop-on hop-off tour of New Zealand with Stray.  It was an amazing experience shared with a group of amazing people.  I decided it would be interesting comparing that trip with a more independent-style bus trip with Greyhound from Cairns to Sydney along [...]

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Hop On Hop Off Backpacker Bus Travel – A Detailed Case Study

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The passengers from the Stray bus at an authentic Maori cultural experience.

What’s it like to travel on a hop-on hop-off bus? I recently finished a whirlwind, twenty-five day trip around all of New Zealand with a hop-on hop-off bus company called Stray.  While I normally trend towards much more independent travel methods, I felt this was the way to flashpack across New Zealand.  Had I been [...]

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Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Final Days & Kiakoura

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Heading up to Mt. Cook on the South Island of New Zealand.

The last few days on the bus were mostly filled with scenery instead of activities.  We woke up in Dunedin and had a long drive up to the base of Mt. Cook, New Zealand’s tallest mountain.  The stops along the drive included the Moeraki Boulders, large, marble-shaped boulders on the beach, the Victorian town of [...]

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Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 22 – Dunedin

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The lighthouse at Waipapa Point on the south island of New Zealand.

We were up bright and early this morning to catch the morning ferry back to the south island and meet up with the rest of the bus.  The ride back from Stewart Island wasn’t as bad as the previous day’s trip, but I’m not sure that passage is ever calm.  If you plan on getting [...]

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Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Days 20 and 21 – Stewart Island

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Some Stray passengers play in the snow.

If you’ve been following along form the beginning, you’ll already know that, while in the North Island, heavy rain prevented us from doing river rafting and created heavy snow that shut down the Tongariro Crossing as well.  After a week’s worth of amazing weather, I suppose it was only a matter of time until we [...]

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Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Queenstown Part 2

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Skydiving with NZone! in Queenstown, New Zealand.

These two posts on Queenstown cover five days, which, in keeping with the previous posts, would be days 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 of my trip.  If you were sticking with the standard Stray bus schedule, you’d normally only get two nights in Queenstown, but most people seem to take extra time here.

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Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Queenstown Part 1

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The center of town, Queenstown, New Zealand.

These two posts on Queenstown cover five days, which, in keeping with the previous posts, would be days 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 of my trip.  If you were sticking with the standard Stray bus schedule, you’d normally only get two nights in Queenstown, but most people seem to take extra time here.

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Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 14 – Slow Day

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The scenery of New Zealand's south island heading from Franz Josef to Makarora

After our visit to Franz Josef Glacier yesterday, we’ve got two days of transport before arriving in Queenstown.  Today we traveled to the hamlet of Makarora which didn’t have much for us except for dinner, a place to sleep and karaoke, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

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Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Days 12 and 13 – Franz Josef Glacier

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Our guide leads us down a portion of the Franz Josef Glacier.

Today we not only slept in but left at half-past noon due to one of our activities being canceled.  Normally we would have stopped in Hokitika to check out the greenstone factory and, possibly, carve our own greenstone.  It wasn’t quite clear if we would have just watched or been able to do it ourselves, [...]

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