Ms Simpson

Hello, We set off from Lone Pine after breakfast for our 5 hour drive to Mariposa where we were stopping for 2 nights to visit Yosemite. The sat nav actually took us through Yosemite National Park so we got a bit of an idea of just how beautiful it was. I couldn't believe how amazing the scenery was and how big it was. We got a 7 day pass for $20 as it was the cheapest you could get. We finally arrived in Mariposa late afternoon and checked into our hotel where we were given a disabled room! We drove down the road in search of lunch and ended up in a diner. We are both so sick of greasy food now and the huge portions. I order off the appetizer section and it is still ... read more

Hello, We had an uneventful flight into Los Angeles although I was kept amused by a woman in front of us who was travelling alone with 3 small kids including twin girls of about 2. One didn't stop crying and wouldn't let her mum put her down and the other realised she knew how to undo her seatbelt so kept undoing it and wandering off and the mum couldn't reach her so the flight crew and other random people ended up having to look after her! Once we'd been grilled by customs we headed out of the airport and got a bus to Union Station and then the Metro to Hollywood Boulevard baby!! It was great and buzzing with people and the hostel I'd booked was in prime location. We dumped our stuff and went straight ... read more

Hello, We had a nice long bus journey into Bolivia. We left San Pedro de Atacama at 8.30pm on an 11 hour overnight journey to Arica. I managed to get the only seat on the bus that was broken and didn´t recline which was not good and to top it all off I was right at the back next to the disgusting smelly toilet which made me feel sick pretty much the whole night. Not the best of journeys!!! We arrived in Arica at 7am where Deaks and I hopped straight onto another bus heading to La Paz - the capital city of Bolivia and the highest capital city in the world. This journey was to be another 10 hours long. It was a bit of a shambles, the driver assigned some people to particular seats ... read more

Hello, We said goodbye to Jane and Doran and flew into Wellington on my birthday. It was only a 40 minute flight and was over before it even began! That evening we went out on the town to celebrate me getting old. I was very pleased to be asked for ID in the first bar (the other girls didn't!) so that cheered me up! I got a free cocktail too so it was all good! We met up with Rachael who worked in HR at DLA until she came home to NZ last Christmas. She joined us with her cousin Brendan and a few of her friends. We went on a bar crawl and ended up totally smashed and from the look of some of the pictures hunted down a poor policeman which I don't even ... read more

Hello, Last blog entry for Australia - booo!!!!!!!! We flew from Sydney to Alice Springs - a 3 hour flight which saw us well and truly away from civilisation! It was a cool view looking out of the plane window before we landed. We arrived at our hostel - Annie's Place and checked in and spent the rest of that day chilling out and doing washing etc and catching up on sleep (have forgotten what that is!). Day 1 of our Mulgas Ayers Rock trip started at 4.45am - eeeeeeeeeek! 24 of us loaded onto our bus in the pitch black and passed out. Two hours later, once we could actually see, we stopped at a petrol station and finally met each other! We travelled for another 2 hours on 1 straight road and our tour ... read more