http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Huntington/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Huntington en-us Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:24:04 BST Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:24:04 BST ...And the bags did arrive. Touchdown in a gloriously drizzly Manchester. Typical. What a welcome home...Totally bittersweet. Good to see everyone. Nice to be home. Home comforts and all that jazz.But where is the adventure The unknown Kinda grim and Im writing this 3 weeks after our return and it still feels the same.The last night was strange. No jokes. The last time we would be sleeping in a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-Manchester/blog-297748.html The final leg of the journey was relatively short and we certainly knew we had arrived in San Francisco when we had to cross the Bay Bridge and then the infamous Golden Gate Bridge all accompanied by the song of 'San Francisco' by Scott McKenzie. The journey was all relatively straight forward. All until we got into downtown which is a maze of oneway streets and I turned down one. The wrong way http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-297746.html Early morning on the road and I was behind the wheel. US route 395 was the road that was to take us the majority of the way to our next destination which was Carson City in Nevada. This may sound like a strange place to visit and I guess it kinda is. But for the fact that James also has family there that had invited us to stay we probably wouldn't have gone. It infact turned out to be some of th http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Lake-Tahoe/blog-297745.html Hello there Aplogies to any dedicated followers who have been left wondering where I am and what I've been up to. Since writing my last blog I have touched down in 'sunny England' and so I am now actually home. The reason for the delay being I have had no motivation to do anything as everything at home seems so uninteresting. However I have defeated the lazy urges and decided to conclude my trav http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Diego/blog-293427.html Farewell to Fiji and our last country of our GYC adventures Our last stop however is the best country in the world or so they think... and also the land where not only the people are HUGE but everything is. Of course its the US of A and where better to start our westcoast journey than in 'The City of Angels' Los Angeles...Before we could plant our feet on American soil we had to endure http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/blog-291813.html Bula Fiji the land of the emerald island and turquoise waters. Where life is not governed by time only by sunshine...The dreams of white sanded beaches was soon to come true. All we had to do first was endure the small flight from the cold New Zealand to Fiji and we would soon be losing the hoodies and trousers and donning the bare chests and flowery shorts. Time for some relaxation...Our islan http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Fiji/blog-291013.html Travel onwards and Auckland is on the horizon. First though is a brief stop in the foul odoured Rotorua where we would have stayed if we had slightly more time. We were pretty gutted to be missing the Mauri tribal evening and also our final chance to do some white water rafting which we have now missed Thats life though and unfortunately we cant do everything so we caught a little Mauri talk from http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/blog-285289.html Our travel to Wellington involved a bumpy flight through the wind in the early hours. We were all pretty sleepy even if we did sleep in a bed at the airport and so upon arrival in the capital we found a hostel and immediately crashed out before going to explore and attend the one thing we were looking forward to in Wellington the All Blacks game versus Ireland... Slightly rejuvinated we wand http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Wellington/blog-285277.html The highlight of this blog is undoubtedly Queenstown possibly one of the best places on earth. Before I delve into that I will inform you that we spent a rather uneventful night in Wanaka the town which didnt really have much to it save for a nice lake and a decent curry house. We had a chilled night with the Kiwi crew playing cards and shooting pool getting a good sleep ahead of our onward http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Queenstown/blog-281541.html Departing from Westport the journey along the coast follows the Tasman sea and its many coves and bays. The road then turns inland and weaves through more mountains and then back out to the sea to Cape Foulwind where New Zealands's largest seal colony call their home. A pretty relaxed life from the seals lounging away on the rocks all day and basking in the sunshine. They seemed to be pretty used http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Franz-Josef/blog-280628.html We left Kaikoura in the early hours on a cold bus and were soon at a bakery where we stocked up for our breakfast the local traditional pie being my food of choice. The journey then continued onwards to Picton where the folks going to the north island left us to catch the ferry. Our stretch of the journey was then continued by our new driver Pam. She was to be our driver through the entire west http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Nelson-Region/blog-280626.html Our time in Australia has passed and the next destination is of course New Zealand. Our travel plans had been slightly ammended to accomodate the Champions League final and so we arrived in Christchurch 1 day early. However we were 1 member short. That person being Nick Lees who has foolishly left his passport behind in Byron Bay and therefore had to commute from Sydney all the way back up there http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Kaikoura/blog-280608.html Our time in Australia is still passing rapidly and we now have only one last destination and perhaps the place I have been looking forward to seeing most Sydney. Undoubtedly Australia's most recognisable city was on our horizon. We were nearly there... The last stretch of our Oz Experience adventures involved a stop at Mojo's Surf Camp inbetween Byron Bay and Sydney. This was a 1 night stop wit http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-277772.html Onwards down the Australian coast and time is still whizzing by. It is amazing that we only have 1 week left before we depart for New Zealand. Six weeks have gone so fast Leaving Surfers we crossed the state boarder leaving Queensland and entering New South Wales... Some more useless facts Bryon Bay is the most easterly point of Australia and it is home to the southern hemispheres brightest li http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Byron-Bay/blog-276446.html Leaving Brisbane after a slightly confusing pickup location we soon were on the road heading towards Surfers Paradise. I didnt really know what to expect from this place as we have heard so many different reports about it. Many seem to say that it is just a concrete jungle full of tourists and drunk Europeans.En route to Surfers Paradise we stopped off at Ozzie Zorbing where we were engulfed by http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Surfer--s-Paradise/blog-275604.html Just a quick ride through the Glasshouse mountains and we were in Brisbane the capital city of Queensland. This is the fastest growing city in Australia with a metropolitan population of around 4million expected to double in the next 10 years It was good just to be driving through a more built up area rather than the sparse barn houses that seem to inhabit many of the small townships that we p http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Brisbane/blog-274752.html Leaving Rainbow beach with a slight dent in our pocket incurred through the Fraser Island experience the next port of call was the beautiful Noosa about 90 minutes south. This place is famed for its beautiful beaches throughout Queensland and one of the places I have been waiting to see as we have an awesome postcard from this place in our kitchen at home...For this stretch our group of 7 has n http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Noosa/blog-274067.html We left the cattle station and arrived in Rainbow beach in the early evening where we would spent a few nights before embarking on our Fraser island trip. Little did we know that the Fraser island trip would be one of our best experiences yet and also one of the most costly... Arriving in Rainbow beach we checked in and then literally straight back out to get some food before the celebrations o http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Fraser-Island/blog-273363.html After basking in the sunshine whilst sailing the glorious Whitsundays and partying it up in Airlie beach the time came to leave with an early morning bus following a very very late night watching the United v Barcelona game in our awesome apartment. Groggy eyed we stumbled to the pickup point and embarked on the journey down the coast. Destination Kroombit one of Queenslands huge famous catt http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Kroombit/blog-273360.html Next port of call on our journey down the east coast of Australia was Airlie Beach which is mainly visited as it is the departure point for the infamous Whitsunday islands. We got the early afternoon bus from Townsville having battled through extreme tiredness to watch the dissapointing 00 draw between United and Barcelona. Arriving in Airlie Beach having passed through the miles upon miles of s http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Whitsundays/blog-269804.html