Mr Mrs Bastard

Hello lovely people at home and around the world! So far we've had 12 fantastic days here in Northland. We've stayed in a lot of wild and very beautiful places. Therefore there are only a few blogs, as internet access (or electricity) is not available where there is solitute and pure natural beauty. We've slowly driven up the east coast of northland and have seen some absolutely stunning beaches and walked in very tropical dense green bushland. The colours here are so intense (even short sighted me can see that!) it is amazing. As are the stars at night! When we arrived there was a full moon and it was so bright that we couldn't see many stars but now it is absolutely amazing. The milkyway in all its glory! The longer we look up the ... read more

Hang on I thought we had just passed immigration procedures for the United States of America.... We arrived in California to meet up with Jeff and Kristy, who we hadn't seen since their wedding in 2002. Unfortunately they weren't in due to a family bereavement. They were very generous and let us stay in their house in Santa Monica. We wandered around the many blocks of Santa Monica and found Venice. Several small canals where people have built their dreamhomes, some in italian renaissance style. We then drove through the desert, passing forests of Joshua trees to arrive in Las Vegas, which can only be described as "completely crackers" (quote J. Knox). It is a bit like disneyland for adults. Along the "Strip" ie las Vegas Boulvard there are huge hotel complexes (with several thousand ... read more

CK: Arriving in Fiji was a bit of an indian experience. (Not only due to many of the taxidrivers being indo-fifjian.) We were not quite ready for Fiji, missing being in New Zealnd already. But things worked out fine. We stayed one night in Nadi (for people who are looking for traveldetails, there will be a paragraph at the bottom) and then took a cab to the Yasawa Flyer from Denarau (as the bus left from the side of the road, not from the hotel drive where we waited, oh well). Tickets were easily booked at the marina and off we were to the Yasawa islands. first stop was Waya. We thought we had booked there for 4 nights. As it turned out the telephone number in our guide book belonged to a hotel on ... read more

TK: We have now finally got our camper van; although to call it a camper van is stretching the definition slightly as it is really no more than a car with a really big boot - big enough to sleep in. It does have the advantage that it is painted in a different style and therefore it is easy to find in the parking lot. It has been fun to travel around and stop where we want - no deadlines, no traintimetables to read up, no booking into hotels, just the open road. CK: The van is absolutely gorgeous from the outside and it makes me smile on a regular basis but when we first picked it up I was a little disappointed with the interior. Me the daughter of a seasoned campervan user. What was ... read more