Santa Barbara, Malibu, these are both places I'd heard of and knew were not far out of L.A. I still clutched onto the thought that Hollywood was a glamourous town -- even though I'd seen for myself and surmised it was a bit of a shithole. Driving up the coast to Santa Barbara through Malibu wherein lots of millionaire celebrities reside I assumed it would be a lil slice of heaven. Seeing as we'd only stopped in Malibu for dinner I thought it wise not to make any rash judgements and form an opinion during daylight hours. Santa Barbara was an [View Full Entry]

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Our last night at Coachella was for me, to be one of getting lots of sleep within an aura of serenity. Unfortunately the rest of the campsite disagreed with my schedule and at about 3am, a rather sizely cluster of people began stomping around the site with drums accenting the two words: "WAKE UP!" To me the idea of screaming those particular words seemed a little redundant seeing as they could have shouted "BIG SLUT!" or any words with two syllables really to accompany their simple drum bashing. I'd have woken up, regardless. After my initial thought: bastards; I remember drifting [View Full Entry]

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To summon up an image of California in one’s mind is to bring forth a montage of sun-dappled bike paths criss-crossed with bikers, runners and power-walkers with Bonsai dogs in their purses. Twinned with the possibility of bumping into a celebrity and finding meaning and purpose of life. A relentless collage of health and unattainable happiness. The day in which we landed was far from such. LAX was dreary and the sun was fighting through the thick slab of cloud to no avail. I am rushing ahead though. There’s still Fiji. Our flight from Auckland to LA when booked was [View Full Entry]

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Lake Taupo was to be the site of Emma's skydive. It's touted as the best place in New Zealand to jump out of a plane. We arrived that night into a dreary, lifeless evening and sat upfront in the van talking about home, our family and friends and generally indulging our homesickness. Our first full day in Taupo was low key to say the least. I've no doubt it's a place to visit when it's not raining. When it is, it's empty and longing. We booked (rather optimistically) Emma's skydive, went on the internet, then scarpered to the local cinema to [View Full Entry]

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We left Gillespie Beach early sunday morning (April 6th) and drove back down the gravel road from hell to the township of Fox Glacier. Emma needed to charge her camera battery so we holed up in cafe for a couple of hours and took the time to call Wicked and enquire about the van's little accident. We spoke to a chap called Richard who told us that seeing as it was only a reflector it would be covered in our insurance. Fantastic. This was a relief as it meant we didn't have to bugger about finding a mechanic to do it [View Full Entry]

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After a cold night sleeping with the window open we got up to a breezy morning at Kingston Holiday Park. We decided to do some washing seeing as I’d been wearing the same pants for about 5 days. Mmm, fragrant. After breakfast and washing our pots in some hot water finally, I got chatting to a young Israeli couple who were trekking around NZ too. We exchanged travel stories and then email details. We hit the road and head on up to Queenstown, New Zealand’s adrenaline capital. We arrived on a rainy morning and parked in Ballarat St car park which [View Full Entry]

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Hey folks, before you start reading this latest entry may I make a couple of suggestions. To enrich your blog-reading experience, I would have two extra windows open on your browser. One with a Google map of New Zealand so you can trace where we’ve been (failing that, a regular map will do) and another so you can view the photos on Facebook. If you don’t have Facebook it’s a bit of a bugger as that’s the only place online I’m uploading my photos to. Get on it! Also, this one might be quite long so get the kettle on. That [View Full Entry]

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The Work As the old adage goes, you can’t polish a turd (during some of our work days I would have preferred to do that), hence there being little glitz and glamour in picking apples. I know what you’re picturing. A sun-dappled orchard, blue sky, hazy laughter floating between the trees as we pranced majestically up and down the rows casually plucking apples from their stems as we supped cold lemonade. Yeah, I imagined a country bumpkin-style ambience, when in actuality it was a factory airlifted to a field with all of the associated incompetence and prejudice (not [View Full Entry]

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After spending our last couple of days in Cairns wandering aimlessly, drinking a lot of coffee and trying to avoid the heat we headed to the airport on Sunday 24th February six hours early for our flight. Well, there’s usually something to do at the airport. Cairns International Terminal has about two flights per day. Ours wasn’t until 22:50 therefore nothing was open. I’d hoped to grab a coffee, scope out duty free for some cheap Jack Daniels and mooch about. The terminal was practically deserted save for a Kiwi guy who chatted amiably to us until we were allowed to [View Full Entry]

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Australia: Backpacking, Discovery and Alcohol - Our Two Month Jaunt Australia will always remain to in my memory as the place where I truly understood what people meant when they referred to the following points: * Being a traveller and not a tourist; and * "Roughing it" So far going on holiday usually referred to a 2-week trip to a sunny clime a couple of hours away, full of Britons intent on ruining our reputation as a nation without competent dentistry and replacing it as a realm of boisterous yobs. Nothing wrong with that, of course. Learning how to be a [View Full Entry]

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