Jo on an adventure

You couldn't really call it backpacking, not as I've known it - but the last week of my travels, spent in one of my favourite cities, was a fantastic way to end the adventure. After flying from Halifax with my parents I left them at JFK, where they were staying at a nearby hotel before flying home the next day, and headed into Manhattan. My hostel was well located on West 60th street, near Central Park, Carnegie Hall etc. My first morning in the big apple was spent....at the laundromat. Not very exciting but necessary. From then on though, things got much more fun. During my week in New York I managed to get in quite a bit of culture, as follows: Blithe Spirit (Broadway play with Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett) Altar Boyz (off-Broadway musical, ... read more

I left a fairly chilly and wet San Francisco and arrived in a warm and wet Albuquerque - unseasonal weather was following me, at least in the short term. But it was soooo nice to be met at the airport by Jessie, a friend from home, her gorgeous baby girl Livia who I hadn't met yet (she turned 4 months while we were on the trip), and her mum Lynda. Lynda was kind enough to put me up at her place in Santa Fe for a few nights before we embarked on our adventure, and what a treat it was to be in someone's home rather than a hostel, just even for a few days. In Santa Fe it took a little while to get used to the architecture - I'd never really seen anything like ... read more

After a week of relaxation and calm in Fiji, a week in LA totally shook up the senses. This was a place I'd been to before, but I was 11 and all I really remember of it is Disneyland and Universal Studios. So I was looking forward to getting to know the place. Which is really not very easy to do, especially in a week. I hadn't quite registered the vastness of the place until I started trying to get around it. A bus from where I was staying, in Santa Monica, to LA's Downtown - which basically involves travelling down just one road, Wilshire Boulevard - took an hour and 20 minutes, in pretty reasonable traffic. I suppose its the equivalent of going from one side of London to the other actually, its just that ... read more

I'm back in Wellington now - after Queenstown, I stopped in Christchurch, Kaikoura, Blenheim and Picton before heading back over the Strait to the north island. The days have been relatively uneventful, apart from highlights listed below, filled mainly with forward planning for next stages of the trip and taking exploratory walks around the various towns. Weather wise things have taken a turn - it is proper Autumn in New Zealand now, so the temperature has cooled and the cloud has thickened a bit. As I write this, New Zealand is pretty much covered in thick rain cloud! Hopefully it won't last... Christchurch - not my favourite NZ spot. The centre has some pretty enough spots (very English), but I didn't find much else to recommend it - and of course, there are no mountains within ... read more

On the bus for the Abel Tasman National Park, the weather deteriorated somewhat, and by the time we reached our home for the next few nights, the very outdoorsy and pretty basic Old MacDonald's Farm in Marahau, things were pretty grey and drizzly. Thankfully by the morning, things were a bit brighter. Myself and Lucie, a Liverpudlian from the Stray bus, took a water taxi up the coast, passing the amazingly golden sands of the bays that make Abel Tasman special, and then hopped off at Bark Bay to walk the track back down to our farm. I have to admit to having become a bit blase about beaches, lucky as I have been to see so many in the last 5 months. But the combination of lush forest and golden sand was very striking. That ... read more