Matt and Dianna Hoskins

New Zealand Right, a couple of things to note before we get started on this stage of our journey We have decided to split the New Zealand blog into two sections, one for each island. The reason for this (as you will soon come to see) is that we took SOOOOO many pictures and have written so much and they tend to go on and on so we thought you may need a break in between islands to go make a cuppa. You will see that one of the first pictures on each blog is a map of the Island in question (North and South) which we pulled off the internet and very badly drew over it so as to try and show you the route that we took around the Island. Please try and keep ... read more

It's Fiji time!! During our three and a half weeks in Fiji this was a saying which we came to use on a daily basis. Life in Fiji runs on Fiji time! Things happen when they happen, no rush, no worries! Our flight from Los Angeles to Nadi, Fiji took around 10½ hours and due to the international time zones we lost a day flying. We left Los Angeles on Thursday 10 September and arrived in Fiji on Saturday 12 September so we had no 11 September this year! Our plan for Fiji was to spend a few nights on the mainland and then head off to the Yasawa Islands which is a chain of islands running up the west side of Fiji, traveling from island to island via the Yasawa Flyer. The Yasawa Flyer is ... read more

We left San Francisco on Saturday 15 August and travelled to San Diego via the Greyhound bus. The journey took 11 hours in total and it was an overnight ride so we slept for most of it and arrived in San Diego at 10.00am the following day. We had booked into a hostel called Lucky D's Hostel which was only a short walk from the Greyhound station and we chose it as it was cheaper than USA Hostels (a well known chain of hostels and where we stayed in San Francisco). It also had free waffles and cereal for breakfast every morning, free dinners 3 times a week and a nice kitchen so you could make yourself anything any time of the day. As soon as we arrived at the hostel we knew we had made ... read more

As soon as we arrived in San Francisco on the Greyhound bus we knew we were going to like it in this city... The bus ride from Las Vegas to San Francisco took 15 ½ hours in total and we were extremely tired from the long journey but very excited to be in San Francisco. Las Vegas was fun but after just over 3 ½ weeks it was certainly time to move on from there! If we had stayed there much longer, Matt may have bankrupted us! San Francisco has a very relaxed vibe about it. San Francisco is just San Francisco; no gimmicks. It doesn't need to sell itself - it is what it is. It has a really nice atmosphere. Las Vegas is great but there its all about being big, bold and outrageous, ... read more

Well, after an emotional farewell, we found ourselves on the plane headed for Los Angeles on Monday 15 June 2009. We were met with amazing surprises at the airport - not only Dianna's nephew George dressed as Batman and her Brother in Law dressed as Superman but also Matt's best friend Dean had managed to get an upgrade for us through his Dad. We flew 'World Traveller' which was brilliant! Big seats, foot rests, TV's on the back of the seats, amazing food and complimentary drinks throughout the flight. We definitely did not feel like we were backpacking on a budget!! A BIG thank you to Dean and his Dad for the upgrade and thank you to Mum, John, Claire, Sharon, Mark, Karla and George for coming to the airport to see us off. We landed ... read more