The Intel Sabbatical Trip – Feb 9, 2004 – Mar 17, 2004
[ Travels With Les Main Page ]
After 7 years at Intel, an employee is granted 8 weeks of sabbatical leave. It’s quite a nice benefit and I’ve been looking forward to it for some time. I became eligible on Feb 2nd and my sabbatical began on Feb 9th. Guess I was looking forward to it a lot!
I wanted to do a fairly dramatic trip. Something to remember. I always had it in my mind to go to Australia and New Zealand, ever since a very brief trip there in the early nineties when I was with Sequent. I was in Sydney for all of two and a half days and Wellington, NZ for less than 24 hours. But it was enough to get hooked.
I conned my friend and long-time traveling companion Les, who does not have a sabbatical, into spending 5 weeks with me exploring Australia and New Zealand. Somehow, he managed to get the time off.
The plan was this: fly to Perth in western Australia. Rent a camper van. Head up and/or down the western coast and back, then east along the southern seacoast. Continue on through Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, and on up the eastern seaboard to Cairns in the northeast to visit the Great Barrier Reef.
It’s 6000 miles or more and we had four weeks to cover it. The trick was to get to Cairns while still having enough time to actually get out of the camper.
In Cairns we dropped off the camper van, and flew to New Zealand for a week, where the plan was roughly similar. Travel from Auckland to the tip of the north island, then down to the tip of the south island. Then back to Sydney for the long ride home, arriving just in time for my birthday and spring break.
.Here’s a map of where we went in Australia. (There is a bigger map here.)
And where we went in New Zealand. (There is a bigger map here.)
Pictures and trip logs
- Photo Gallery Quick Tour
- Photo Gallery Full Tour (all photos, grouped by day, but no trip log)
- Full Trip Log (Photos and text description from each day – links below)
- Final Prep
- Day 1 and 2 – Portland to Perth, Western Australia
- Day 3 – Arrival in Perth
- Day 4 – Perth and north to Cervantes
- Day 5 – Pinnacles, Cervantes to Kalbarri
- Day 6 – Kalbarri National Park, south to Eneabba
- Day 7 – Eneabba to Myalup via Perth
- Day 8 – Myalup south to near Pemberton
- Day 9 – Near Pemberton to Albany
- Day 10 – Albany to Esperance
- Day 11 – Esperance to near Balladonia
- Day 12 – Near Balladonia to Nullarbor, South Australia
- Day 13 – Nullabor to Kimba
- Day 14 – Kimba to Adelaide
- Day 15 – Adelaide to Stokes Bay, Kangaroo Island
- Day 16 – Kangaroo Island
- Day 17 – Kangaroo Island to Nelson, Victoria
- Day 18 – Nelson to Melbourne
- Day 19 – Melbourne to Goulbourn, New South Wales
- Day 20 – Goulbourn to Pilthirn via Sydney
- Day 21 – Pilthirn to Blue Mountains National Park
- Day 22 – Blue Mountains(near Colo Heights) to Tenterfield
- Day 23 – Tenterfield to Nambour, Queensland via Brisbane
- Day 24 – Nambour to Waverly Creek Wayside
- Day 25 – Waverly Creek Wayside to Cairns
- Day 26 – Around Cairns
- Day 27 – Great Barrier Reef, Cairns
- Day 28 – Daintree Rain Forest, Cairns
- Day 29 – Cairns to Auckland, New Zealand
- Day 30 – Auckland to Kaitaia, North Island
- Day 31 – Kaitaia to Papakura
- Day 32 – Papakura to Wellington
- Day 33 – Wellington to Christchurch, South Island
- Day 34 – Christchurch to Harihari
- Day 35 – Harihari to Winton
- Day 36 – Winton to Sydney, Australia via Christchurch
- Day 37 – Sydney to Portland via Hong Kong and Los Angeles