Toe and Natalie

Hey everyone! Writing this a bit late as have not had much time since leaving Auckland and getting to America! We're currently in hilly San Francisco! We caught the bus from Rotorua to Auckland and it was only around 4 hours. Funnily enough we bumped into a girl we met in Taupo who was getting our bus to Auckland before flying home the next day, small world sometimes! Upon arrival in Auckland, we checked into the same hostel we were in when we arrived in New Zealand. When we got back to Auckland one of the first thing we noticed when getting off the bus was the weather! Even though still quite cold, no where near as cold as Taupo and Rotorua was. We definitely have got used to hotter temperatures! Only having 2 days before ... read more

...pretty much as far around the world as we'll get. Off to L.A. on Monday! :) P.S. Forgot to end the last post properly, kind of fitting as we were kind of rained off in our last day in Rotorua. In Auckland now and going up sky tower tomorrow, back soon. Love, Toe and Natalie. xxx... read more

Hey again! We caught the bus from Hastings to Taupo after Kevin dropped us off, it was a fairly comfy 2 and a 3/4 hour journey to Taupo. First off - it was Freezing!! Turns out it was about 8 degrees! We had booked in for 2 nights at the Tiki Lodge where we had a great view of the snow covered mountains in the distance! We have started our self catering and went out to a supermarket to buy some food! Ended up getting tuna, pasta, bread, juice, butter and vegemite YUM! We explored Taupo for the day and headed back a little earlier as the weather got quite bad and was too cold!! We made our dinner of tuna pasta and hung out in the lounge area in the evening. We went down to ... read more

TOE- 'I've had to type this whole thing again a second time as apparently during the first go my PC wasn't correctly connected to the net and I sat there merrily typing away! So I apologize if this is lacking in loads of details :D’ Our flight from Shanghai to Sydney was pretty simple in the end, an overnight 9 and a half hour journey of which we both slept for 4 or 5. If only it hadn't been following on from our 40 hour train journey and long wait in the Airport then we would've both been bursting with energy, probably! When we landed around 9am in the morning it was really simple to get a direct shuttle lift to our hostel and check in. After our first proper showers in three days (we washed ... read more

The bus from Kunming was pretty short at around 6-7 hours, problem with Dali is that whilst everyone wants to head to Old Town, you always arrive in a place called Xiaguan which isn't even the same town but is also known as Dali (annoying more so than confusing). This means that you have to commandeer a taxi, minibus or public bus to get to the real place. Stuff like this has happened a couple of times in China, even though a tourist destination is incredibly popular there isn't always a direct route there even when flying. A conclusion we've come to is that at any chance to put money into the Chinese economy is one that will be taken, over providing a truly helpful system. However when we walked out of Xiaguan bus station it ... read more

Our first stop in China was Nanning in Guangxi province, a common stop off for those travelling between Vietnam and China. We caught the night train from a station outside Hanoi after arranging a brief taxi ride through our hotel. We decided on going for a soft sleeper option as we wanted a comfortable first sleeper train journey, it ended up being very simple and pain free despite a few obvious concerns beforehand - Are we going to the right destination, is there more then one train etc? We shared our carriage with a friendly chinese guy who didn't speak a word of english but gestured politely. We had gotten comfortable in our bed seats quickly but before long we had to leave them to clear Vietnamese Immigration, swiftly followed by the Chinese. Once we were ... read more