I'm sitting here in my room in LA, after finishing packing my bags for the last time. It's hard to believe that in just a few hours I'll be on my way home. There are days when it feels like I've hardly been away any time at all, but I know that after 5 1/2 months on the road, it's time to come home. Before I start getting all reflective, here's a quick rundown on the few days I've had here in LA. I've been staying in Chinatown, and so, have been making good use of the LA Metro rail to get around to see the sights. I've wandered up and down Hollywood Blvd viewing many of the stars, although I didn't know who most of them were dedicated to; I've viewed the famous Hollywood sign; ... read more

My first experience in the USA was the border crossing at Blaine, WA. After giving digital images of all my fingerprints and having my photo taken (it felt like all that was missing was the board with the numbers on it!) and being quizzed, they let me in, and then charged me $6 for the pleasure. When they were scanning my luggage, they thought I had some gingerbread men in my bag; I couldn’t work out what it was they were talking about, and they didn’t press it. Later on I remembered I had bought an Inukshuk in Canada, which maybe could look like a gingerbread man on their scanners. Back on the bus, and we continued our journey south to Seattle, arriving later on that evening. Seattle seems like a nice city; I only had ... read more

So, as I mentioned in my last posting, I arrived here in Vancouver before I left NZ. Although the flight was only 12 hours, it was a long 12 hours stuck in the middle seat. After clearing customs and immigration, I headed for the taxi rank as my accommodation is outwith the zone for the shuttle buses. As the driver was putting my luggage into the boot (or I should say, the ‘trunk’), I got into the front seat of the car, only, forgetting that everything’s on the wrong side over here. It took me a few seconds to realise that it wasn’t some strange kind of dual control car with a steering wheel on the passenger’s side; rather sheepishly I got out, but not before several people spotted me, pointing and giggling. I’ll chalk that ... read more

Here are some photos from Australia which I should have posted long before now!... read more

My van (I don’t have a name for this one other than ‘the box’ - look at the pictures, you’ll see why I’ve not had any flash of inspiration about names!) wasn’t ready for me this morning when I went to pick it up, so the company gave me a shot of this huge 4WD Nissan Patrol which is their bush camping vehicle, with a tent and all sorts of things stored on the roof rack. I was just to use this as a run-around for a few hours until hopefully my own van would be ready for me to take to the road with. I think I must be very used to driving the automatics now; this one was a manual and it took me a few attempts to get it into gear and get ... read more

The Indian Pacific: Adelaide to Perth This leg of the trip saw the train leaving Adelaide around 6pm on Sunday night and pulling into East Perth station at 9am on Tuesday morning. Yes, 2 nights on the train - it was a long journey! There were no CWA ladies on the train to keep us amused this time! I was sitting next to Martin from Holland who has just finished his mechanical engineering degree and had been to Adelaide to visit some friends he’d made whilst he had studied there for a few months as part of an exchange programme with his university. After we arrived in Perth, he was picking up a car and driving up to Broome. I also met a girl who was in the process of moving to Bunbury, a town south ... read more

Suzy Swift and I hit the road this morning, leaving Adelaide and heading for a small coastal town called Robe. Quite an uneventful drive, just getting used to the car and the roads as this was my first time driving in Australia. It’s pretty easy going - some long straight stretches of road and the occasional windy bit. I made a couple of stops along the way, one at a small town called Kingston SE where they have a big lobster and crayfish industry. People who have been to Australia before will have seen many of these big icons before, and probably everyone’s heard of the Big Banana, but this was my first - ‘The Big Lobster’ - a giant (18.2 metres high) fibreglass lobster about the same size of the building it stood in front ... read more

After my journey on the train, I arrived in Adelaide. I spent my time visiting the museum of South Australia where they have quite a good section on different south pacific nations, as well as quite a lot on Aboriginal culture. I also spent some time at the South Australia Art Gallery - I’m not much of an art buff - if it doesn’t catch my eye straight away then I tend to just keep walking past, so it didn’t take very long for me to get through it! Adelaide is quite a small city, and is nice and easy to get around with its great public transport system. Part of that public transport system is the network of trams running around the city. When Adelaide was founded, it was built around four main 1 mile ... read more