Five minutes after the train departed Niagara, we reached the border to the USA and were made to wait 2 hours while they conducted their checks and searches. Then, at 12.30pm on Tuesday 27 November, we set off for the 10 hour trip to New York City. After passing through Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, the train arrived at New York Penn Station at 10.30pm. I jumped in a taxi and went to Carl (my old flatmate when I lived in New York) and Alyssa’s apartment where they kindly allowed me to sleep on the sofa for the next week. On [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in Vancouver at 3pm on Saturday 10 November, I took the train a couple of stops before walking to my hostel in the downtown area. I spent the next few hours walking around the local area before returning to my room to read my book and have an early night. On Sunday, I took the train, the SeaBus and then a bus to Grouse Mountain on the North Shore of Vancouver but the weather turned bad and so I decided not to ride the cable car tram to the top of the mountain. I took the bus to Stanley Park [View Full Entry]

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We woke up at 5am on Tuesday and took a shuttle bus to the airport. After saying our goodbyes, Ian got his flight home to London and I flew to Phoenix. With an hour wait at Phoenix airport, I then got my flight to Portland. On arrival in Portland, I took the Light Rail for 45 minutes and then walked to my hostel. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the shops downtown before getting dinner and returning to my room. After watching a DVD, I had an early night. I was out by 8am on Wednesday walking around [View Full Entry]

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We stepped off the bus at 7.30pm on Saturday 27 October at Customs & Immigration for getting into Mexico. After collecting our bags from the bus, we literally just walked to the border gates and through the turnstile where we had arranged to meet Ian at the McDonalds across the street. Ian arrived from LA 15 minutes later and the three of us took a taxi to our hotel. After quick showers, we went to the first bar of the night where we had a few $1 Corona’s. Then we spent the next 6 hours in a bar that had an [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in LA at 9.30pm on Thursday 11 October and we took a taxi to our hotel in Venice Beach. Steve and I went out to Santa Monica and had dinner and drinks in an Irish bar. We then walked down the street to O'Brian's (another Irish bar) before going to Circle where we stayed until 2am closing. On Friday morning, we all walked along the beach from Venice to Santa Monica Pier and then went shopping on Santa Monica Boulevard where I bought 2 pairs of trainers. Ian went to the airport to pick up his brother Tom who [View Full Entry]

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We touched down at Honolulu Airport at 7am on Sunday 30 September after a 6 hour flight from Fiji that departed at 11pm on the same day - talk about travelling back in time. After getting through immigration and customs, I took $500 out of the ATM but the machine only gave me $120 so this delayed us by a couple of hours. We eventually left the airport at 11.15am and took a shuttle bus to our hotel in Waikiki. On entering our hotel room, we were jumping with joy at how luxurious it was after staying in huge dorm accommodation [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at Nadi airport at 4.30pm on Wednesday 19 September and Ian picked up his hire car and I got a transfer to my hotel. After finding my bed in the 32 bed dorm, I had dinner and then went on the internet before going to sleep at 10pm. I got up at 8am on Thursday and had breakfast in the hotel bar on the beach. Then I sat outside writing my blog and chatting to other guests until I had lunch at 12.30pm. After lunch, I lay in a hammock on the beach soaking up the sun and reading [View Full Entry]

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We left Queenstown on Monday 10 September and caught our 8.30am bus to Christchurch. We made a couple of short stops and a stop for lunch before we arrived in Christchurch at 5.30pm. We checked into the 'Penthouse' at Base Backpackers - the top floor of the building that included a large living space with 2 sofa's, 8 big bean bags, 2 big TV's with loads of channel's, a playstation, a sundeck, a huge kitchen and a bathroom. The Penthouse sleeps 15 but we were the only guests there for our 4 night stay. After settling in, we walked around the [View Full Entry]

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On Thursday 30 August we caught our 8am bus to Wanaka but the weather wasn’t great so we made few stops. We did stop to stare at a rapid for a few minutes and then look up at a mountain which gave a ‘trippy’ effect of the mountain moving. After stopping for lunch, we continued driving to Wanaka and arrived at 3pm. I spent the afternoon walking around the town and enjoying the views of the lake and the mountains. I returned to our hotel and had a couple of beers with Ian and Javier in the bar before spending the [View Full Entry]

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Our first stop was the Nelson Lakes National Park where we went for a walk alongside Lake Rotoiti, surrounded by snow capped mountains. After a BBQ sausage by the lake, we drove to Murchison for lunch. We continued through the very scenic Buller Gorge and arrived in Westport at 4pm where we watched an exciting last 15 minutes of the local rugby game. Then we walked around the small town and bought dinner and beers for the evening at the hostel. We sat in the cosy TV room and watched Austin Powers before having dinner and a couple of beers. We [View Full Entry]

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