We left the cool, snowy Bryce Canyon and were hit by the heat of Arches National Park. It was a long drive but it was broken up by a scenic drive through Capitol Reef National Park (a National Park created by a fold in the earths crust. The temperature in Arches was probably 25'C but compared to wintery weather in Bryce it felt quite tropical and we were loving it. Arches National Park is made up of yip you guessed it ............... many sandstone arches (around 2500) created by the natural process of weathering over millions of years. On our first day we viewed as many arches and rock formations as we could. We got to see the famous balancing rock and delicate rock (from a distance); two arches called the 'windows'; skyline arch; broken arch ... read more

From the Grand Canyon we had to make a detour to Flagstaff to drop off Duncan at the airport. Flagstaff's airport isn't the worlds largest airport and on the way in I only saw planes with propellers. After making sure we had the right airport on the right day we said our farewells to Duncan and wished him well on his marathon trip back to Durban whilst we headed off to Monument Valley. Monument Valley is situated on a Navajo Reservation and the closer you get the more you feel like you are in the middle of an old western movie. The landscape is both scenic and barren at the same time. A load of westerns have been filmed out in this part of the world and it is easy to see why. Seeing Monument Valley ... read more

Our overnight flight from Hawaii got us into Los Angeles at about 06:30. I had been able to get a little bit of sleep, Sandra hardly any and Duncan slept like a baby. It was just as well I got some sleep as we had a big day ahead of us. We were going to explore LA and then drive to Las Vegas where we would be staying for 2 nights. After picking up the rental car we headed over to Venice Beach to see the sea. With images of Baywatch running through our heads we arrived at a nearly deserted beach. We saw the famous lifeguard towers and Duncan dipped his toes into the pacific. The rest of the morning up until lunchtime was just a blur of sight-seeing. We went to Hollywood Boulevard to ... read more

We left Coromandel and the lovely peninsula and headed north. Our next stop would take us to Russell in the Bay of Islands. This was a reasonably long drive of about 6hrs which included going up through Auckland. We decided to take the coastal route with the expectation that it would be more scenic but we were a little disappointed. There were very few spots where you could see the sea and the road was very windy and nausea inducing. The weather on the drive up wasn’t the greatest and we went through some rain but as we arrived in Russell it brightened up and turned into a wonderful afternoon. Russell is a very nice little town. It is home to NZ oldest church and is almost entirely surrounded by water. The town is picturesque with ... read more

Our spirits are high as we enter our last week here in New Zealand. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here but are looking forward to moving on to another destination and meeting Duncan (Sandra’s brother) in Hawaii (some interesting points on this later). The next stop on our magical mystery tour of NZ was Rotorua. Aahh lovely Rotorua, a rose by any other name would not smell as sweet, but I am getting ahead of myself. The trip from Napier to Rotorua isn’t the longest so we took a leisurely drive and tried to take in the scenery. The first significant sight we came to was Lake Taupo. This is the largest lake in NZ and has what looks like a quaint little town called Taupo (very imaginative I know) at its southern end. The ... read more