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Hello and welcome to “Whappened”. A collection of my experiences and memories shared with friends and for me to look back on in years to come.
After all, inside every older person is a younger one wondering “What the hell happened…?”
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DANUBE RIVER CRUISE 2025 – 3 BUDAPEST
This was the second revisit of the trip for us, but as with the Vienna stop it encouraged us to see some different things. We had remembered seeing the dramatic Parliament building from the ship...
DANUBE RIVER CRUISE JULY 2025 – 2 BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA
For our second stop on the Danube we left Austria and sailed to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, sited on the Amber Road, an ancient trade route linking Northern and Southern Europe. Viking describe this...
DANUBE RIVER CRUISE JULY 2025 – 1 VIENNA
This was our second visit to Vienna with Viking as this cruise started there and so overlapped with the end of our first river cruise in 2022. However, Vienna is a big city, overflowing with...
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DANUBE RIVER CRUISE 2025 – 3 BUDAPEST
This was the second revisit of the trip for us, but as with the Vienna stop it encouraged us to see some different things. We had remembered seeing the dramatic Parliament building from the ship...
DANUBE RIVER CRUISE JULY 2025 – 2 BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA
For our second stop on the Danube we left Austria and sailed to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, sited on the Amber Road, an ancient trade route linking Northern and Southern Europe. Viking describe this...
DANUBE RIVER CRUISE JULY 2025 – 1 VIENNA
This was our second visit to Vienna with Viking as this cruise started there and so overlapped with the end of our first river cruise in 2022. However, Vienna is a big city, overflowing with...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 21: AUCKLAND FINALE
We travelled back down the eastern side of the island to Auckland, back past some nice views near Orewa and then of the city as we approached the highway to the airport, which, of course,...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 20: BAY OF ISLANDS
Russell was a pretty little place with some more colonial style buildings which it seems I failed to photograph! There is a very posh hotel which the guides like to tell you was once the...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 19: WHITIANGA TO RUSSELL
Spoiler alert – this post is a biggie!! You have been warned! Ok so the title is not quite right either, as first we have the drive to Whitianga…. From Rotorua we drove to the...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 18: ROTORUA
From Napier we drove to Rotorua, via a couple of stop offs. The first one was Taipunga Falls, and then Lake Taupo, a big lake in the centre of the island. This allowed us to...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 17: NAPIER
After the van issue was nominally sorted, we were without transport for the day. Our tour guides Robbie and Gail stepped in, having already fielded over 30 calls regarding our problem, and drove us into...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 16A: WELLINGTON TO NAPIER
This journey was quite special for many reasons, the main one being our ongoing issues with the van we were given in Queenstown. The first part of the drive, from Wellington to Greytown, is on...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 16: WELLINGTON
So next up was Wellington, the capital of New Zealand / Aotearoa, though not the largest city. We grabbed a taxi into town and our first stop was the Te Papa Tongarewa museum. This is...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 15: PICTON
From Kaiteriteri we drove to our last destination on the South Island – the port of Picton. I included a photo with a big truck coming the other way just to show what we met...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 14: BULLER RIVER & KAITERITERI
From Westport we headed inland to crossover to the northern coast of the South Island. We drove along the Buller River in the Victoria National Park, and stopped off to see the famous swing bridge...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 13: SHANTY TOWN & PAPAROA
Next up was a shorter drive up the west coast from Franz Josef to Westport. We stopped off first at Shanty Town – one of those outdoor museums where buildings and their old contents have...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 12: FRANZ JOSEF
Once more on the move, we left Arrowtown to head for Franz Josef. This was the longest drive of our trip and allowed us to realise that the replacement van was terrible – it had...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 11: ARROWTOWN & QUEENSTOWN
The day after the Milford Sound excursion we were off again, this time to a site at Arrowtown, near Queenstown. Again, some wonderful scenery on the way and a very interesting yard! Queenstown is a...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 10: TE ANAU & MILFORD SOUND
Still playing catch up here. I had hoped to finish the Down under posts before the trip we are now on. However, this cruise has quite a few sea days so I am still trying!...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 9: INVERCARGILL & BLUFF
From Dunedin we headed south down the coastal route again, our destination being another Scottish named town – Invercargill. The views were varied and we visited a small but pretty waterfall at Purakaunui. There was...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 8: DUNEDIN
We arrived in Dunedin campsite which was located just behind a lovely empty beach. We were then treated to a night of wild weather and rocking vans! As I found out on the tour the...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 7: MOUNT COOK AND MOERAKI
After Christchurch we were taken to pick up our vans which will be our homes for the next month. I should mention here that we were in a group of 11 British couples, plus 1...
TRIP DOWN UNDER 6: CHRISTCHURCH, NZ
On 27th February we flew from Melbourne to Christchurch, New Zealand. Its only about a 3 hour flight but there was a further 2 hour time difference to add to that so it took most...