Strangely, although our home is in Lancashire, England and this trip is to New Zealand, Australia and Asia, it actually began in Turkey where we have an apartment in Kalkan in the region of Antalya. In October 2013 we had arranged some extensive “home improvement” work at the apartment and we were anxious to see that everything was going as it should be. So we decided to change our original plan of flying from Manchester to New Zealand and flew via Istanbul instead. Thus our itinerary became: Fly to Antalya, Turkey and travel from there to Kalkan before returning to Antalya for an internal flight to Istanbul. We love Istanbul and so decided to spend a couple of nights there before flying Emirates to Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand.

Our itinerary gave us 3 months in New Zealand split equally between South and North Island. and then 3 months in Australia. We would then move on to Asia travelling around Indonesia , Malaysia and Thailand followed by a return to Turkey for a period before returning to the UK via Croatia.

Whilst much of our accommodation is booked early to get the best deals , we always book on a free cancellation/book now pay later basis to allow us to change our plans with minimal cost. Indeed our original plan was to visit Laos and Cambodia as part of this trip but we have postponed this to spend more time in Thailand.

We decided to write this blog as a simple diary for our own benefit and for the benefit of our Kids so that they could see where we have been and what we got up to but you are all welcome to have a read. We apologise in advance for any Es & Os !

Places visited run like this – but not necessarily in this order as by now we have visited Spain several times:

New Zealand

• Christchurch
• Kaikoura
• Picton
• Marlborough & Kenepuru Sounds
• Nelson
• Kaiteriteri
• Collingwood, Golden Bay and Farewell Spit
• Takaka
• Westport
• Hokitika
• Franz Josef Glacier
• Wanaka
• Queenstown
• Te Anau
• Milford Sound
• The Catlins
• Dunedin
• Omerama (en route to Mt Cooke)
• Mt Cook
• Akaroa
• Paihia and Waitangi , Bay of Islands
• Coromandel
• Mt Maunganui, Whatakane and Gisborne
• Napier
• Wellington
• Wanganui
• Taupo
• New Plymouth
• Raglan
• Auckland

Australia

• Melbourne
• Sydney
• Coolangatta
• Brisbane
• Noosa
• Fraser Island
• Airlie Beach
• Townsville
• Magnetic Island
• Mission Beach
• Cairns
• Palm Cove
• Cape Tribulation
• Darwin, Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks

Indonesia

• Flores
• Lombok
• Gili Air
• Medan
• Sumatra
• Java
• Bali

Malaysia

• Kuala Lumpur
• Sarawak, Borneo
• Sabbah, Borneo
• Penang
• Langkawi

Thailand

• Bangkok
• Chiang Mai
• Mae Hong Son Loop
• The Golden Triangle
• Phuket
• Ko Samui
• Kanchanaburi
• Hua Hin

Turkey

Kalkan

Bodrum

Kekova

Cappadocia

MONTENEGRO

Kotor

Croatia

Zagreb

Dubrovnik

Cavtat

Hvar

Split

Trogir

Zadar

Opitija

Rovinj

Porec – to follow

Pula – to follow

 

SPAIN

 

Costa Del Sol

Valencia

Tarragona

Girona

FRANCE

 

Collioure

Perpignan

Carcassonne

Narbonne

Beziers

Pezenas

Sete

Montpellier

Nimes

Uzes

Avignon

Arles

Aix-en-Provence

Antibes

PORTUGAL

 

Cascais

Sintra

Lisbon

Coimbra

Porto