I'll be invading Australia and New Zealand in a year if all goes according to plan. The wife and I are taking a cruise that starts in Auckland and ends in Sydney.

Sounds interesting - how long each part?

Heck! I thought you were talking about the Chinese.

I was about to bunker down and prepare for a siege.

It's our second time there but we missed the South Island the first time. We start in AKL, and hit Tauranga, Gisborne, Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch, cruise Dusky, Doubtful and Milford Sounds and then do Melbourne, Burnie and Eden. We end up in Sydney. We'll be in AKL a few days early and will have an overnight in SYD.

I'll be heading to NZ as soon as they let me ride a plane w/o a mask - which may be never!!

Honest question from an ignorant Yank. In the US we think we see a correlation between education (some would call it an immersion program for socialism) and a labour/social democrat political view. So, here in the US, between people who vote for free stuff and the educated (maybe indoctrinated)...it appears we, conservatives by any other name, have lost the battle. 34% have college degrees here...29% and rising rapidly in NZ and OZ...are you losing the battle too?
Edit...oops, should have been under disappointed in NZ thread.

Ain’t that the truth brother!

Mates been dropping some nice velvet stags on the run off block. Said there’s heaps running around. Got into so meat animals up the rangitata as well.

Wyoming elk is on hold for another year.

Don't forget your free health care...

Health care isn’t free in new zealand

Thank goodness, I thought this was about the Chinese.

Nah...kiwis and Indians beat them to it.

Have you ever heard of the Titanic?

Well, UP Hiker, I hope you enjoy your trip, and come back again. We have a big lump of an island here, and there's no lack of things to explore. Think in terms of an island roughly the size of the continental USA but with only 25 million people.

We'll be mostly in Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania. I'd like to see Ayres Rock, but it's so far in the middle of nowhere.

Really enjoyed Ayers Rock and Alice Springs. About a 3 hour flight from Melbourne.
Sydney and Melbourne are just cities.

"just cities"...well okay, but I wouldn't rate them that high.

Our cruise got cancelled. I know everyone is terribly disappointed. I guess they don't figure that you'll be open to visitors in January.

At the moment they have let in a heap of indians and that strain is doing the rounds here, they are trying to keep a lid on it but the damned indians won't seem to cooperate.

I used to like Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide before population growth made them congested.

Don't take any firearms.

In the 70's and early 80's they weren't too bad...not so much now.

Yes, from mid nineties onward, forget about it, our cities have become congested hellholes.

In the early 80's I hitchhiked from Sydney to the northern tip of the Cape York peninsula (or at least where the road ended then), and back. It was fabulous. Years later I got to spend a couple months in NZ, but not with my finger stuck out. I'd love to make another trip with my wife before adventure travel times out for us. I'm thinking south and western Aus.

Yep, got out of Brisbane 15 years ago !

Too bad in the early 90's Brisbane and Mt Isa were the only places I really liked. Although I never mad it to Pearth

Ivermectin for covid and fight the chinese like hell's fury.

Me too

You only need to show them your vac passport which we'll never need and are illegal now in many states but which the feds will soon require regardless of what they say.

Had a trip all planned for 2020 in NZ. Deposit paid, tickets paid, hotel accommodations paid. COVID changed all. Have been speaking to outfitter and with hope will come to fruition in July 2022. If not, Spain for Ibex. NZ is closed due to fear of covid. Fear of who knows what. Will keep posting. MTG

Luckily you didn't try and head south from Sydney, Ivan Milat was out and about giving hitch hikers a rough time around about then.

And he was a bad bastard.

Nope, Milat wasn't a factor until the late 80's.

That's the period from which they've been able to find bodies and link murders with Milat but theres a bunch of unsolved missing backpackers in the region starting in the early 70s. Milat was acquitted for a double rape of 2 hitchhikers in 1971.

After breakup with his wife during the mid 80s he seemed to go ballistic but had his technique down pat by that stage.

Come on now. You know that any kiwis that go to live in Oz raise the IQ of both countries. Invariably and sadly though they eventually come back to God's own country and the intelligence quotient is reversed. Please encourage them to stay with you lot. You can have Ardern as well along with her commie pals.

And why do Kiwis come to Australia? Because your dollar is less even despite the US now managing your banks for you. And you are also losing a war to possums. Thats right our American friends,
a few of our least offensive creatures, all of 5lbs pound of fur, escapes to NZ and its brought the Kiwi environment to its knees.:D

Yes our dollar is slightly less than the Oz buck. As regards the brush tailed possum, they've been a problem for close on a 100 years now. Originally introduced for the fur trade they got of control rapidly and at one
stage their population was estimated between 70-120 million. It wasn't realized until the 80's when infrared cameras were introduced that the mongels were eating native birds eggs by the ton every night apart from doing their usual damage to forests.

However, the only people really concerned about possums are the Dept. of Conservation and of of course all the greenie, socilaist, beared, horn rimmed, sandel wearing losers. When I was a youngster, good pocket could be made shooting them at night (because they're nocturnal) and skinning and drying the pelts. Now the possum fur is just plucked and and sold by weight. It's a pity that the PM Ardern and her socialist mob don't set the unemployed, who don't want to work, out trapping the little furry sods. But of course that might offend some of them and it's so much easier to get the fortnightly unemployment benefit, buy some meth and spend the time doing whatever meth heads do.

1986, I spent 9 months hitching NZ and Oz. Some of the best times of my life.

Me too