On March 10th, I arrived at Lake Tarawera -- about half an hour southeast of Rotorua -- where I would be housesitting for the week (arranged through Help Exchange). Liz and Mike were setting out to hike the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds of the South Island, and they needed someone to look after their two dogs and drive their 15 ( Read more... )

On February 14th, I left the farm to begin my self-exploration of the South Island by car. I had plans to meet an online friend, Mathew, in Timaru, about two hours south of Christchurch. I took the scenic inland route and it was indeed eyecatching, but I didn't stop for many pictures, so here's just one I'm rather fond of from when I stopped at ( Read more... )

Before I move on in updates, I wanted to post a picture of Danny because Desi got all the limelight in the last post. Plus, Maggie was making fun of me for thinking Danny was a ploddy old horse when he's actually quite nimble. But tell me, dear friends...

...Does this look like a speed demon horse to YOU ( Read more... )

On December 22nd, I flew without complications (gasp!) from Canberra to Melbourne. Oh wait -- there was a little incident in Canberra. They took my knife. My butter knife. And my fork. But they gave me back the spoon out of the camping set. I had to strongly resist the urge to make stabby motions with the spoon whilst glaring, because ( Read more... )

On Wednesday we still felt like lazing around, but we did take the dogs to the beach in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day and this was the first stretch of CALM ocean I had seen... the water was also clear with white sand, and it really made me want to go for a swim! But alas, I did not have my "swimming costume" with me, so I just waded and ( Read more... )

Hi guys! I am currently in Wollongong, 80km south of Sydney. I will update later about my birthday in Melbourne and my two days in Sydney, but for now I want to catch up on a couple of the things Al, Maggie, and I did in the days before that ( Read more... )

On Tuesday we went to Cardinia Reservoir, a nearby green space (not that anything is brown here -- well, yet) to walk the dogs. It has lovely walking trails and we set out on about an hour-long jaunt up across switchbacks, through the lush forest, and over boardwalks, all surrounded by birdsong.


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Hello all! Welcome to my travel blog for the next six or so months. I think the title Sarah Down Undah is quite clever, don't you? I was going to call it "Sarah Down Underwood", or "Sarah Down Under... Where?", but thought both were a bit too dorky, even for me! For those who are not members of Livejournal, feel free to leave comments on these ( Read more... )