Australia Road Trip, Vantastic NSW | Australia backpacker advice and road trip planning | The Indie Travel Podcast | Travel magazine, travel info and free travel guides

Home / Interviews /On Location /Podcasts / 134 – Australia Road Trip, Vantastic NSW

« Travel photo: Golden Pavilion, Kyoto, Japan

134 – Australia Road Trip, Vantastic NSW

This week we speak with Kirsty and Carly Stark who have recently completed a six-week roadtrip in New South Wales, Australia as part of the WorldNomads Vantastic programme.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

To listen to our interview, please play or subscribe for free in iTunes.

Kirsty and Carly are sisters from South Australia, so they felt it was a great chance to see the sights and experience another part of Australia as they travelled from Brisbane down the coast to Sydney.

They won the gig by putting together the following video as part of their application. I love the stop-motion; great stuff! There are still two chances to be part of Vantastic, so check out the application process.

The NSW road trip

If a picture says a thousand words…

Kirsty and Carly drove Geoff the Van almost 3,000 kilometers between Brisbane and Sydney. Some of their personal highlights included surf camp and sky diving:

Cliff diving at Yamba:

In the end, their number one road trip tip was to try to see less in more time. Even with six weeks the coastal highway through NSW was still too long! There were too many things to do and not enough time.

You can read more about their adventures (and see more videos and photos) on their travel journal.

NSW Road trip documentary

Their final road trip documentary is going to be competing with the six other teams’ videos to win a huge prize package including flights and AU$10,000 of spending money.

You can apply for your own WorldNomad’s Vantastic Journey and get six weeks of Australia road trip adventures yourself. For more information on road trips, see our road trip planning resource page.

Sponsor: Travellers’ Auto Barn

Having worked with vehicle rentals and sales for travellers for over 16 years, Travellers’ Auto Barn know a thing or two about Australian conditions. Here are their top 10 tips for travelling safely.

1. Don’t drive at night in areas where there’s more dead kangaroos than live kangaroos.
2. Campervans have a high centre of gravity and Falcon Wagons are rear wheel drive with lots of grunt. Be extremely careful if you are not familiar with these vehicles. It’s easy to roll a van and easy to lose control of a Falcon if you’re inexperienced.
3. Give dirt roads / unsealed roads more respect, even 40km/h can be too fast if you’re not careful.
4. Don’t hitchhike–not all people who hitchhike meet axe murderers, but some do.
5. Check the inside edge of your front tyres regularly: poor wheel alignment causes tyres to scrub out quickly and a front tyre blow out is very scary.
6. Always wear your seatbelt.
7. If driving on left for the first time, leave the music off for a while and ask the person in the left seat to act as lookout.
8. Don’t leave valuables visible inside your car when parking at popular tourist destinations.
9. Do everything humanly possible to avoid overheating your car. If your temp gauge moves away from normal stop and call roadside assistance. Do not drive on.
10. Beware of retirees, offering cups of tea at outback roadside rest stops–.it could be hours before you manage to get away again without being rude.

Most successful travel bloggers

We were most surprised and honoured to be mentioned among the most successful travel bloggers of 2009, as chosen by online backpacker website, Off Track Planet. We’re amongst good company, with some excellent small- and medium-sized sites mentioned.

by Craig and Linda

Craig and Linda Martin have been living on the road since February 2006. Both born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand they are currently travelling Europe and looking forward to visiting more of Asia, Africa, the Americas, Antarctica, Europe and the Pacific. Craig and Linda host the Indie Travel Podcast - you can get in touch with them here.

Connect

Stumble 134 – Australia Road Trip, Vantastic NSW

Stumble this

Stumbleupon helps you review and find new sites.

Tweet this

Click icon to post this article on Twitter.

Add 134 – Australia Road Trip, Vantastic NSW to facebook

Post on Facebook

Post this into your facebook account.

A penny for your thoughts? Please comment.

2 Responses to “134 – Australia Road Trip, Vantastic NSW”

Mike Says:

Check out my blog on my Australia trip at: http://eastaustraliatrip.blogspot.com/
January 6th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Lilly Says:

Some pretty cool tips. Common sense for most of us Aussies who’ve grown up with Kangaroos, dirt roads & driving on the left hand side. But for those adventurers visting Oz it’s a good heads up.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:58 am