First of all apologies to everyone who has been waiting patiently for the next installment of this blog. I've found myself too preoccupied (read: lazy) to spend the time coming up with the quality that you happy readers are used to. But after being persuaded by people - this is a shout out to you Katy - that i need to pull my finger out I've eventually got round to this. hope you enjoy! I crossed the boarder between Thailand and Laos in the early morning but the sun was still hot & reflected brightly off the Mekong River which represents [View Full Entry]

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It is not just the destination by the journey itself that matters. I've heard this phrase a few times but don't know who actually said it. In this blog, the destinations are beautiful and magnificent but the journey we took to get there is just as much a part of the story. We've been traveling in buses or cars and planes most of this trip so this is a taste of something different. Fraser Island is a large island about 300km north of Brisbane on Australia's east coast. It It is officially the largest sand island in the world being made [View Full Entry]

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We didn't have enough time to do Sydney justice, but what we did see we liked. Just a short bus journey from the centre you are on one of the city's glamorous and scenic beaches, or 2 hours away on the train are the stunning but misleadingly named, Blue Mountains. Sydney is a huge cosmopolitan city. Its foundations were built on a policy of liberal immigration and, although these days the rules are somewhat stricter, you can get a real sense of the cultural diversity by just walking down the main shopping street. People of all races and creeds getting on [View Full Entry]

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So far on our travels whenever we've talked to people about New Zealand & asked them their favourite place they have, without exception, said Queenstown, and so I was obviously excited to go there. So much so that we'd allowed ourselves nearly a week there. Queenstown sits by the side of Lake Wakatipu and is surrounded by giant snow-capped peaks and pine forested hillside that are reflected in its crystal waters. It has every essence of an Alpine town only it is surrounded endless valleys with rich vineyards and it has a cool backpacker vibe. The vast majority of the people [View Full Entry]

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New Zealand is the self proclaimed adrenaline sports capital of the world & it's not hard to see why. Everywhere you go there is something adventurous to do, whether it be throwing yourself off a bridge/plane/tall building or taking a mountain hike. I'd love to do them all but money restrictions apply to me so i had to be more selective. that being said I've still managed to do quite a lot, & plan to do a bungy in Queenstown (but don't tell my mum ok!). First up, after the diving of the previous blog, was seeing the caves at Waitomo. [View Full Entry]

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When we arrived in New Zealand we were picked up by the Duffy family, family friends of Jake's who'd moved to New Zealand 12 years ago. They really looked after us & we are totally grateful to them for giving us a house for a few days. We spent our 1st day in Auckland buying some warmer clothes for the cold weather out here. The second day we spent deciding what the best method of travelling the country & decided that a camper would be best. We got a deal for $26 a day (10 pounds) which works out sooo cheap [View Full Entry]

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The whole reason we went to the south coast of the country was to do this world famous shark dive of the coast of the island of Beqa (pronounced Ben-ga). We arrived the day before on the bus, which was pretty good value for money at fj$3 (1 pound) to get us to the other side of the country. Since it was a Sunday we had to wait for the bus for about an hour. We stood by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere & witnessed how Fiji gets its reputation for being one of the friendliest [View Full Entry]

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If you want to see the real Fiji, i.e. the one from the post cards, you have to get away from the mainland and head to the surrounding islands. We took the trip to Mana Island, part of the Mamanuca chain to the west of the country, about an hour by boat from Nadi. The island is a small thin outcrop of sand & palm trees with two hills at either end. The sands are pure white and when the sun is shining and the tide is in it every bit resembles the picture of tropical paradise. We stayed in a [View Full Entry]

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San Francisco is a city more reminiscent of New York than anywhere in California. The buildings are all tall and cramped in, but this gives it a more city like appearance than somewhere like LA that is just block after block of squat ugly buildings. This does however make it a nightmare to park! we spent our first couple of hours in San Fran trying to park somewhere. The hostel we got into was more like a hotel & me & jake were given a double room with one small double bed... that's San Francisco for you! on the first day [View Full Entry]

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lake Tahoe was beautiful. we spent our time there sunbathing and doing a bit of snorkeling in what looks like Caribbean esq water... it's not it's bloody freezing! We drove from here to the wine region around the Napa Valley. you could well be mistaken for being in the south of France, with the endless rolling hills and Vineyards. We stopped at a small vineyard about 20 mins outside the valley itself called Beaver Creek (with a name like that how couldn't we?) & went inside for a tasting session. The owners were a couple of Czech guys called Josef and [View Full Entry]

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