Having struggled to make NZ work, things are looking up today after a brief trip to Cathedral Cove on the North-East side of the Coromandel Peninsular. We arrived too late last night to take the 45min walk down to the bay so camped out in the carpark to hike down this morning. The bay was beautiful, and practically deserted apart from a wedding under the tree covered rocks and white sand. We were lucky to get enough time to see it all and walk through the huge archway through the rock between the bays before the ever-changing tempremental weather flipped from [View Full Entry]

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In the centre of Auckland lies Sky City, an ensemble of shops, boutiques, bohemium art, and of course 5* restaraunt, and cafes at the top of the Sky Tower. A wise use of some birthday money sent us up 200+ meters to view the horizons over Aucklands sprawling city. We struck a lucky time where the views of the harbour were spectacular and upon our descent, rain filled the skies and the view dramatically got worse! Adrenaline rushes are everywhere, including here where a multitude of people of all ages were base jumping off the top of the tower- rather strange, [View Full Entry]

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We have negotiated our way through the rugged Northland territory (rather like Yorkshire), lots of vast open farmland, strange plants and stretches of roads consisting of nothing more than the flattened rock left by caterpilla tracks 100 years ago, and making our way back to Auckland. Services and sunshine are sparse, during the weekends everything closes at noon and although it has rained every day, the sights are nice through the surprisingly hot sun. Northland hasn't struck us as the real heart of NZ yet, but a lot of the attractions here cost more than we can afford to do eg. [View Full Entry]

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So we have arrived in New Zealand, as far away as we will ever get from home. A real mixture of receptions here. We arrived to free coffee and tea at the airport and friendly and fast customs/baggage retrieval. Chatted to a lovely, although completely mad woman at the airport, before aiming to hire a camper van. Unfortunately, the high season has been extended as campers are still in high demand, so not only did we have to phone 20 companies to find one, but they are also more expensive than we thought. We do however now have one that works [View Full Entry]

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Bula! We are safe and sound and loving it in Fiji. Not sure we have ever been so hot in our lives, nor so mosquito-bite ridden! Last count over 100- each. Have spent the majority of our time on Nananu-I-Ra, a true tropical paradise, complete with white beaches, and beautiful diving right on our doorstep. We are now SSI qualified divers. We saw so much underwater, ranging from spectacular soft coral, to a white-tip reef shark. I was in marine geography heaven!!! We have met so many fantastic people- like 'the beach', only better. The resort is closing down today, to [View Full Entry]

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Aloha! Greetings from Waikiki. Four days of tropical island lifestyle with the unexpected twist of very cold abrupt rainshowers! Showing our true british bones, we outstayed nearly everyone on the North shore beaches who must have been allergic to rain as they all dashed immediately back into their trucks! Being budget conscious and again british, we walked almost everywhere and made the best of the $2 public bus fares instead of taking hostel shuttles or $100 taxis. Stayed on the North Shore for two nights, where Alex made the most of the surf (and walked miles barefoot to hire a board [View Full Entry]

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So-cal to nor-cal, and departing tomorrow for Pacific Island Paradise. Staying with family friends at an almost self-sufficient ranch on the northern coast. It is beautiful, with great food (best home grown lamb and veg ever!), and lots of fun company. We even got to have a shower and do some laundry. Did you know, dirty laundry can asexually reproduce in the compression sack, bursting out to fill an entire room! Have seen a lot between here and LA, and it's obvious there is never enough time to do PCH (Hwy 1) properly. I loved the wild Cornish-style nor-cal better, alex [View Full Entry]

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So today we hit the beaches of Malibu, birthplace of the Mal and Mini-Mal surfboards. Clean waves peeling out across the Bay (and that's only one of the beaches) enticed Alex, and we surfer-watched for quite a while, while eating lunch. I am sick of making sandwiches on a teeny plate in the car!! (Mum I have nothing but admiration for the millions you must have made!) I persueded Alex (not that it took much) to hire a board and surf Malibu Lagoon, but unfortunately the only hire shop (not a patch on Newquay!!!) was closed, as we presume the owner [View Full Entry]

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Leaving the Grand Canyon we thought we'd slip in to watch the famous IMAX movie by National Geographic, but true to form missed the last showing by 10 minutes! We drove on to Williams, apparently famous, on Route 66. After a nights rest and a disgusing number of donuts for breakfast, we hit the road. Hard. We covered well over 500 miles, and after what seemed like an eternity through the Mojave Desert we embarked upon the Cali Coast.Thank God. California has for me much felt like home for me by comparison to other states, and coming out of the desert [View Full Entry]

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'Yuck Grand Canyon' (as Allie once said) was my first thought as we arrived at the south rim. After driving hundreds of miles past boring landscapes and a disappointing Monument Valley (i.e. the 'mittens' were visible only through a zoom lens!), the Grand Canyon seemed less than great, and exceedingly commercialised. It didn't help that I took my mood out on Alex! However, we soon recovered, and saw that they don't call it the Grand Canyon for nothing. It is very wide, very deep, and try and find a flat surface anywhere but on the top! The haze in the sky [View Full Entry]

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