2nd of August: The Longest Day of our Lives... Quite Literally 43 hours! We said Isa Lei (Fijian Farewell) to Fiji at 10:00pm on the 2nd August and arrived at 1:30pm into LA airport the same day, effectively travelling 9 hours back in time as a result of passing through the international date line which falls through Fiji. Regardless of the time difference the flight was only 10 hours and that passed quickly as a consequence of the childhood excitement I had because we were on the top deck of a jumbo jet! The descent into LAX airport was interesting what [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bula! (Hello in Fijian). After 1 month in New Zealand Nik and I were ready the warmth of Fiji, situated 3 hours North East of NZ in the Pacific Ocean. Although having arrived at Christchurch Airport to find our transfer flight to Auckland and flight operator no longer existed, our dream of sunshine and sand seemed far from a reality! Our immediate shock and panic was calmed by a proactive instinct and determination to catch our second flight from Auckland to Nadi. Essentially we were not notified of our flight change and had no idea that our flight in fact departed [View Full Entry]

---

---

We were ready to leave Wanaka having survived the earthquake reaching 7.2 on the Richter scale. Although Nik had to be evacuated from the hostel and the walls and strobe lighting rocked slowly and eerily for ages in the bar that I was in. So, Queenstown awaits and we still had to survive the Nevis Bungy, the 4th largest in the world with a 134m freefall! Along the journey from Wanaka we visited "Puzzle World" were we got lost in a maze and enjoyed numerous illusions and games. We also watched a few people jump from the Kawarau Bridge, the first [View Full Entry]

---

---

We left Wellington on Tuesday morning heading to the South Island using the interislander ferries. The views entering the south island were glorious because you travel through the placid waters of Marlborough Sound which has steep green clad forest situated along either side of the boat and cul-de-sac bays making for a sinuous coastline. Our nice views however were somewhat shadowed by an intense Sudoku game between our mates! We disembarked the ferry at the harbor town called Picton where we then connected with our first Kiwi Experience South Island bus en-route to Nelson. The lush hill sides [View Full Entry]

---

---

We left Rotorua heading westwards to Waitomo, a tiny village with an enormous network of underground caves. We stopped for a sheep show along the way which was actually very entertaining regardless of its very unenthusiastic name. I was selected to go up on stage to milk a cow!.! - Only in NZ could they make that into a show! The scenery along the bus journey has started to become more amazing the further South we go. Rolling fields dotted with sheep and cattle surround the bus like a wavy sea. Whilst in Waitomo I tried out some black water rafting. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Into New Zealand and back to Winter!..! Here's what we did; Before joining our Kiwi experience tour bus we spent two days in Auckland. On the first day we wondered up and down the Queens high street in search of Warm clothes for the coming month! Temperatures in Auckland alone where half of what we had experienced in the last few months, so it was quite a climate change to be in NZ. We also took a stroll around the harbour area which had nice views of volcanoes and fisheries. On our second day we visited Auckland Museum. It contained a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Following on from our "Whale" of a time in Hervey bay we continued our journey north on our final overnight bus trip. In the morning we arrived at Airlie Beach, the main harbour town to cruise the Whitsunday Islands, (Named by Captain Cook as he passed on the religious holiday - Although it was actually Whit-"Monday" because of the time difference!) Airlie was a very nice town and Nik and I found ourselves laze along the small beach and man-made lagoon area on our first day there. The following few days we sailed around the Whitsunday Islands on the live aboard [View Full Entry]

---

---

Streuth its been 2 weeks in Oz already! Here's what we did on our second week; Firstly we spent two days in Brisbane. On our first day we had a look around the central city then headed across the river for a walk through the beautiful gardens of the South bank. Brisbane is situated inland from the coast and so in true Aussie form they built a beach in the centre of the South bank. Known as "Streets Beach" there was a lagoon for swimming and a beach for catching some rays. We also took a riverside walk with a nice [View Full Entry]

---

---

G'day Mate Time is moving fast and were in Oustraylya already! Unfortunately we'll have to say goodbye to an overly detailed report of our every movements for a more brief overview!. The price of the "blardy" internet is a bit more over here! We've had "heaps" of rain but still managed to enjoy our time here so far. Sydney was pretty nice and we managed to share a hostel room with our friends who we travelled with for a month in SE Asia. We had 3 days there in which the first was spent walking around the centre and visiting a [View Full Entry]

---

---

As our flight from Kuching was delayed and Singapore's Changi airport was enormous it took us a while to finally get into Singapore. At 10pm with temperatures still soaring at 30 degrees we took a highly convenient, noticeably clean and thankfully air conditioned train from the airport to the City, stopping at the "Bugis" train stop to find digs in the culturally interesting Kampong Glam area of Singapore. We had planned to stay at one hostel but when we arrived at its mapped location, it literally was a building sight! Therefore we had to lug our bags to another recommended to [View Full Entry]

---

---