New Zealand - South Island 27th Nov - 22nd Dec We caught a flight from Aukland to Christchurch on the South Island where we picked up another hire car. We first visited Banks Peninsula to the east of Christchurch. The peninsula was formed by two volcanoes and the scenery was spectacular with steep sided hills dropping into blue sea inlets. We then headed south and up into the hills of the Southern Alps. On the way we passed bright blue glacial lakes as we headed to the village of Mount Cook near the peak of the same name which is the [View Full Entry]

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New Zealand North Island 12th Nov - 27th Nov So, as you can tell we're pretty far behind with our blog now. A lot of this is to do with the amount of camping we've been doing where the only internet is our built in flysheet. Now we are in Bangkok waiting for our visas for India to be processed, we have the chance to get up to date so we'll be taking you on a whirlwind tour of the highlights of our travels in New Zealand and Australia. A lot of this will be throught the medium of the photo [View Full Entry]

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Fiji - Mainland 30th Oct - 12th Nov After returning to the mainland from the Yasawas we stayed at the travellers beach resort near Nadi for three nights in a backpackers room that looked more like a hospital ward. Here we planned our remaining time in Fiji. we decided to travel around the bottom of the island to Suva, the capital, stopping at a few backpacker resorts on the way. Our first stop was a resort called Tubakula (beautiful). We purchased our tickets at the Nadi bus station and two hours later were abandoned on the side of the road. Here [View Full Entry]

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Fiji - The Yasawas We left Honolulu at 12:00 on the 21st October and after six and a half hours flying we arrived at Nadi airport in Fiji where it was 16:30 on the 22nd October. We had crossed the equator and the dateline and completely missed out on Tuesday night! We took a taxi to the hostel we had booked for the first two nights and after sampling a couple of the local beers, headed to bed for an early night. In the morning, we took the local bus into town. The bus had what they refer to as 'Fiji [View Full Entry]

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Hawaii? FIne thanks. The 6 hour flight from LA to Honolulu arrived just before midday. As we approached to land, we were surprised at how big Oahu was and how many high rise buildings there were. At the airport, we boarded the bus to Waikiki, where we had booked a hostel just one block from Waikiki beach. After checking in, we went for something to eat before getting our first taste of Hawaii's beach bathing. Waikiki beach is very busy with a line of high rise hotels all the way along it. It turns out that the beach is actually artificial [View Full Entry]

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California road trip part 4 After cleaning up the mess left by the racoons at our campsite, we headed towards San Fancisco. The route in from the north took us over the famous Golden Gate Bridge which provided great views over the city and the bay. After a short drive through the city centre, we headed over the Bay Bridge to the university town of Berkely where he hoped to find some cheap accomodation. Unfortunately there wasn't any and we had to settle for a fairly expensive motel but it was much nicer than camping. We spent the rest of the [View Full Entry]

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California road trip part 3: Yosemite Yosemite, another one of Americas national parks was our next destination. As we crossed the hills from Death Valley into Owens valley we could see the Huge Mountains of the Sierra Nevada where the park was. We headed North and camped for the night in the foothills near Lone Pine which was a beautiful site but which quickly reminded us that high means cold and we were only going to get higher. We carried on up the valley to Mono lake which is an inland salt water lake with it's own unique eco system which [View Full Entry]

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California road trip part 2 We left the campsite at Sunset Crater and headed off on the long drive through Arizona to Nevada. By mid afternoon, we reached the famous Hoover Dam which holds back the Colorado river and provides energy and water for most of Southern Nevada as well as creating a huge lake for fishing and boating. We crossed the dam and parked on the Arizona side. We walked along the top of the dam and admired the views over both sides as well as the new bridge that is under construction to divert the traffic away from the [View Full Entry]

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West coast road trip part 1 We picked our car up from LAX airport and headed off on the highway. On the way out of LA, we drove up to the Hollywood hills to get a closer view of the famous Hollywood sign. We couldn't go too close though, as we'd heard that the letters were protected by many security cameras, and anyone wanting a close up view would soon find themselves on the wrong side of the LAPD. Leaving LA behind, we drove east into the desert and towards the Joshua Tree National park. We'd bought a national park pass [View Full Entry]

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Southern California: 1st September 2008 Our first stop back in the States was San Diego, just a short tram ride from the Mexican border. We had booked a hostel in the centre of town for three nights which was right next to the Gas Light district where all the restaurants and bars are. Although San Diego is quite a large city, it never seemed too busy and it was easy to get around. While there we visited the attractions at Ocean Beach, a laidback surfer hangout with lots of bars and surf shops. We also spent a whole day at the [View Full Entry]

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