Our final stop was in Hawaii where we hired a car and spent 8 days travelling around Oahu.
Our drive from Morro Bay to Santa Monica took us through Cambria, San Luis Obispo, Los Olivos, and Santa Barbara.
We rented a car in San Francisco and headed off down the Californian coast and along the Big Sur highway.
Flew from New York to San Francisco to take in the New Years Eve fireworks display along the Embarcadero near Fishermans Wharf.
We crossed under the English Channel on the Eurostar Train and arrived in Paris, where we stayed in the Latin Quarter.
The Scandinavian part of our trip was now over and we headed to England, where we spent most of the time in London, but also ventured off to see Bath and Stonehenge. The temperatures were a bit warmer but unfortunately the snow was replaced with rain.
We left Bergen and headed to Flåm. We did a cruise on the Aulandsfjordsome, took a plunge in the freezing waters outside our floating sauna, stayed in the Fretheim Hotel in Flåm, then took the Flåm Railway and headed to Oslo.
We returned the rental car to Leknes and then flew down to Bergen where we walked around the Bryggen; the old historic harbour area.
We flew from Tromso down to the Lofoten Islands where we stayed for a few days and hired a car to explore the islands.
After a 10 hour bus trip from Rovaniemi we crossed into Norway and arrived in Tromso. At 69 degrees north, it’s the furthest North we have ever been. Sunrise was at 11:45am, followed by sunset at 12:15pm.
We caught the early morning bus from Levi down to Rovaniemi where we visited Santa Claus Village and wandered around the city.
The amazing Lapland and the Aurora Borealis. We stayed at the Northern Lights Village in Sirkka and got to experience all the winter outdoor activities, and to see the northern lights.
We took a ferry ride from Helsinki across the Baltic Sea to Estonia, where we spent the day wandering around the old town of Tallinn.
Stockholm was beautiful waking up to snow falling on the city. And the ABBA Museum was great to experience.
The first stop on our Scandinavian trip was to Reykjavik in Iceland, and from there we travelled around the southern part of the island past Vik and as far East as Suðursveit.
Flying home from Thailand we had a few days stopover in Maylasia which gave us time to explore Kuala Lumpur.
In 2009 we took Kyra and Mykala on their first overseas holiday to Phuket in Thailand. We stayed at the Sheraton Grande Laguna in Bang Tao, and it was the most amazing family holiday.
Because of Covid lockdowns, we couldn't travel outside of Tasmania. So, for Sharon's 50th it was onto a little plane (with a dodgy wheel) and a trip to King Island. The closest thing we could get to an overseas holiday.
Tucumcari, New Mexico / USA – April 18 2019: The Blue Swallow and other views of historic route 66 in New Mexico
The first stop on our 3 month trip around North America was to New York, where we experienced the Halloween Parade and the New York City Marathon.
Follow our journey on Polarsteps as we travel through Canada, cruise the Caribbean, drive across the US in an RV, then wind down In beautiful Belize.
We started our holiday in Phuket and stayed at Thavorn which had a beautiful meandering lagoon pool, and the place of the great turtle incident of 2018 : )
Our first stop on the cruise was to Vanuatu, where we spent the day on Hideaway Island, before visiting the local markets in Port Villa.
Our cruise through the South Pacific to Hawaii commenced in Sydney, where we boarded the Holland America ship, MS Koningsdam.
The cruise disembarked back in Singapore where we visited the International Motor Show, the Singapore Zoo, and Santosa Island.
This was our second stop over in KL so we visited the Petronas Twin Towers and looked through some of the older parts of the city.
After leaving Phuket, the ship docked on the Island of Langkawi in Malaysia where we spent the day on the beautiful beaches.
After a quick stop over in Kuala Lumpur, we cruised through the Straits of Malacca to Phuket, where we took the little Tender boats ashore and headed to the old Phuket Town.
The final stop on our 8 month trip around the world was Phuket, where we relaxed and reflected on the most amazing adventure that we could have ever imagined.
We caught a ferry across to Phi Phi Island and stayed in the most beautiful little beach front bungalow where we adopted a couple of kittens.
We travelled down south to Surat Thani and Khao Sok National Park, where we stayed in a jungle treehouse, and floating raft houses on a lake.
We took another overnight train from Chiang Mai back down to Bangkok where we experienced the floating markets, and the River Kwai at Kanchanaburi.