The third biggest tourist attraction in America. Only Disneyworld and Disneyland (Ugh) are more popular than Alcatraz. It's a quick ferry trip from Fishermans' Wharf to the most secure federal penitentary in the US. I though it would be further offshore because a good swimmer could make it relatively easily. It's quite rundown and it's strange to have a national park ranger dressed like a mountie, show you around. Looks a bit silly. They should at least look like prison guards. It's a very small island so I though it'd be a quick trip but it took me longer to see [View Full Entry]

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A big change from the rest of America. San Francisco is fantastic. It's unlike any city I've ever seen and can't really be compared to anywhere. It has it's own feel. The accents are stereotypical californian like shaggy in Scooby Doo. 'Califooornia maan' The bay is beautiful. The streets are striking. The hills are exhausting. Patrick's Hill in Cork is a little bump compared to some of these. The cable cars are most certainly necessary. San Fran doesn't have any of the big pick up trucks or the number of fast food joints. It's much more relaxed and the people are [View Full Entry]

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Got up at 5am this morning to drive to the Grand Canyon. It's almost further from Vegas than LA. First stop on the trip was the Hoover Dam. An impressive site with Lake Mead on one side and a hell of a drop on the other. They're afraid terrorists will blow it up so no commercial traffic is allowed across anymore. Then it was straight roads that stretched for 30 miles without even a small bend. The cowboy hats were becoming more and more common the further into Arizona we got. Arizona is not the really hot desert like place I [View Full Entry]

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Won millions of dollars on the Las Vegas strip and lost it all again. Incredible city. Much different to what I expected. Travelled four hours through the scorching Mojave Desert to get here. Spectacular scenery. Vegas lies in a massive plain surrounded by barren mountains. Great weather almost every day of the year. The main strip is stunning. The casinos are huge. Bigger and more expensive than airport terminals. The amount of money poured into entertainment is amazing. Rollercoasters and gondola rides through the hotels. Fountains that 'dance' to music and turn into volcanos. About a milli [View Full Entry]

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Paid a flyin visit to Hollywood today. Travelled up from Venice through Santa Monica, Culver City and Downtown LA. The highways are immense. I've never seen so many cars. And you can't be without your car here. Virtually no public transport worth talking about. There's nothing much to Hollywood. Just the walk of fame and lots of tacky shops. The only interesting thing to look at really are the handprints and walk of fame (hence all the photos of them) The Kodak centre (Oscar Ceremony) was nice to walk around. We saw Ashlee Simpson signing albums. Most girls are carryin chihuahuas [View Full Entry]

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After a long flight with the fantastically boring Air New Zealand, I finally arrived in LA via Tahiti. My accomodation is in Venice Beach, the most popular beach in LA. It's right out of baywatch with lots of skaters and bodybuilders. It's also the cultural capital of LA. Plenty of galleries, hippies and cafes. The first thing I noticed about LA was that I couldn't see anything from the plane until we were about 100m from the ground. And no cloud cover. Just inpenitrable smog. Disgisting. I've never seen anything like it before. And the cause is immediately obvious. Ten lane [View Full Entry]

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Landed on one of the shortest international runways in the world. Seems too easy for a jet to miss this island. The planes wheels are almost touching the sand on the beach before it hits the runway. This has given rise to an activity known as jet blasting where people hold on to the fence at the end of the runway and are "blasted" off by the jet. Great fun. The most strangest thing about going to Rarotonga was crossing the International Date Line. This meant I spent Friday the 14th in two separate hostels in two different countries. Very weird [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in lovely sunny Fiji on Friday. Bula is the only Fijian word necessary. It means hello, good bye, no worries and everything else besides. Everyone says it. The airport is nice. They have singers to welcome you off the plane sining traditional polynesian songs. My shuttle bus to my hostel was great. Everything is on "Fiji time" here. No rush with anything. The bus just wandered all over the town and the driver was high fiving people on the side of the road. There were plenty of Fijians on the bus and they were all leaning out the window shouting [View Full Entry]

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Travelled through the Tongariro National Park today. It contains three Volcanos, one of which is used in Lord of the Rings as Mount Doom. Unfortunately it was completely covered in clouds so couldn't get any pics of it. We did visit Gollum's Pool though which was interesting. The National Park is one of the few places in the world where snow settles on active volcanos, so they have ski resorts here. Continued on to River Valley White Water Rafting. Some of the best rapids in the world and a very interesting Pitch and Putt course. The dorm room in the hostel [View Full Entry]

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Got pushed out of a perfectly good airplane today. Fortunately there was a tandem skydiving instructor attached to me. 4000 metres straight down. Absolutely brilliant. Arrived in Taupo at about 2.30 in the afternoon after visiting various waterfalls and thermal crators. Proceeded to sign our lives away at Freefall Skydiving centre (Literally sign lives away- Complete indemnity) Seventeen of us were crazy enough to to sign. We then got in groups of seven and went up in three runs on a specially designed skydiving plane. After watching the first two groups leap out and taking lots of photo [View Full Entry]

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