http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/sfleming/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from sfleming en-us Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:19:49 +0000 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:19:49 +0000 250709 Saturday Day 345After checking out we drove the 160 kilometres to Los Angeles. We are staying in Long Beach which is about 20 miles south of downtown LA. We eventually found our hotel the Maya Hotel which turned out to be about 2 miles from Long Beach itself. This didnrsquot look good at all. Luckily the reception lady told us that therersquos a free bus that runs around the area. W http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/blog-423744.html 240709 Friday Day 344We drove to the boarder only took about 30 minutes from San Diego where you can park your car and then cross the boarder by foot. They recommend you donrsquot take a rental car over the boarder as US insurance doesnrsquot work over there so you could be in a spot of bother if someone whacks into you Going through by foot was a breeze. No one stops or asks you anything http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Baja-California/Tijuana/blog-423742.html 230709 Thursday Day 343Bit of a drive today to San Diego some 220 miles in total with nearly all of it on a motorway. Thank god the car has cruise control. So handy Also the amount of weaving by drivers on the motorway is nuts. Therersquos no rules at all by the looks of it There was an awful amount of traffic going through Los Angeles but once we got past that it was full speed again to Sa http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Diego/blog-423741.html 220709 Wednesday Day 342On arriving here we went to the tourist office to check out our accommodation options again. Your one behind the counter was really pushing this place that was miles away from the beach where we wanted to stay. We ended up staying in Days Inn motel which was only about 2 blocks from the beach. It also turned out cheaper than your one at the tourist office said. It was mi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Santa-Barbara/blog-423740.html 210709 Tuesday Day 341We headed from Monterey to San Luis Obispo on the 1 highway which goes down the coast of California. Therersquos some amazing views on the way although at times we were covered in fog which seemed to take ages to burn off. Therersquos a couple of small areas to stop on the way down most of the places having only 1 shop 1 restaurant and petrol pumps. We found oil comin http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Luis-Obispo/blog-423739.html 200709 Monday Day 340After checking out of the hostel we headed only around the corner to Avis to pick up our rental car which turned out to be a Ford Focus automatic. We were going to head north a bit but since wersquore handing it back on Saturday we decided to head south instead. Getting out of San Francisco was pretty easy again thanks to my trusty phone sat nav First stop on the way do http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Monterey/blog-423738.html 170709 Friday Day 337After arriving in San Francisco airport we got our bags and headed for the train that goes into the city. The ticket machine is one of the most complicated Irsquove seen. Basically you put in your money first and then start subtracting values until you get to how much your fare is. Luckily there was a member of staff on hand to help everyoneWe got the train to the Civic C http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-420209.html 140709 Tuesday Day 334Our motel the Super 8 motel has a free shuttle bus to the airport. Today we fly to Las Vegas where wersquore staying at Caesars Palace for the next 3 days. The flight from LA to Vegas is only 1 hour. The heat in Vegas was cruel. Itrsquos only like 10am and itrsquos already 97 degrees American talk thatrsquos something like in the high 30rsquos. We got another s http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Nevada/Las-Vegas/blog-420208.html 010709 Wednesday Day 321 AlohaOur flight wasnrsquot the best one at all. We were hoping wersquod get tv screens in the back of the headrests in front of us but we didnrsquot. Instead there was one tv on the roof of the plane and another projected screen at the front of our section. We basically had to strain our necks to see the tv in the roof and we were too far from the projected screen. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Hawaii/Oahu/Waikiki/blog-417604.html 300609 010709 Monday Wednesday Day 318 320These few days were spent just arsing around the city wasting time until we catch our flight to Hawaii Wednesday night. We got our summer clothes from Viv thanks again and sorted out our bags and post more stuff home. We also met up with Micheal and Viv for lunch on Tuesday. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-416362.html 260609 Friday Day 315Today was another 8 hour bus journey. Left Queenstown at 8am and arrived into Christchurch some time after 4pm. Again the journey wasnrsquot too bad. Plenty of stops on the way and loads of information from the drivers on the way. We stopped somewhere to view Mount Cook in the distance behind some lake. The way the driver was talking before we got to the stop made it sound http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-413638.html 230609 Tuesday Day 312Crazy early start this morning. Our bus is at 7.15am and we would be in Milford sound around 1.15pm. The bus was full as soon as we picked up the last people. Also the bus driver made everyone sit in the bus starting from the front seats. Luckily we got the front seats. The only bad thing is that therersquos no leg room. No sooner had we left when we had a casualty This http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Milford-Sound/blog-413637.html 220609 Monday Day 3118am start for the bus journey again. Today wersquore heading for Queenstown. Nothing really to report from the bus journey. As long as they are theyrsquore not that bad. Therersquos a stop at least every 2 hours for either 15 minutes or 30 minutes for lunch. We arrived into the middle of the town around 5pm and our first impressions of the city were very good indeed. I http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Queenstown/blog-413636.html 200609 Saturday Day 309Another early start this morning. Got the bus at 7.15am. Arrived into Franz Josef around 5pm. After checking in we checked out the town. Itrsquos a tiny place. Itrsquos basically got the main road and a parallel road to the main road. Therersquos loads of accommodation here and restaurants. The only thing to do here really is do a hike up the glacier which we are do http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Franz-Josef/blog-413635.html 190609 Friday Day 308After checking out at 10am from our hostel in Picton we just wandered around the town again just waiting for our 12.15pm bus to Nelson. We arrived into Nelson around half 2 and checked into another YHA hostel. This one is really nice and itrsquos warm too well kind of anyway. The town itself is again small and can be viewed pretty quickly. The rest of today is going to b http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Nelson-Region/Nelson/blog-413633.html 150609 Monday Day 304 Ship Cove to Endeavour Inlet 15 kilometresAfter getting up early we headed down towards the harbour area in Picton where we booked our boat trip and accommodation with Beachcombers. This is a great service as they will transport your bags to your accommodation each day. Our first section to walk today is 15 kilometres from Ship Cove to Endeavour Inlet where we would be sta http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Queen-Charlotte-Sound/blog-410055.html 140609 Sunday Day 303Check out was early from the hotel so we had a lot of time to kill at the ferry terminal. Our ferry from Wellington to Picton was at 2pm. We arrived into Picton around 5.20pm and checked into our hotel YHA Picton. Nice place. Small with only a couple of rooms. Picton itself is tiny. Itrsquos got a huge harbour area though. After getting some supplies we headed back to the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Picton/blog-410053.html 110609 Thursday Day 3005 hour bus journey today from Napier to Wellington. It passed reasonably ok. Couple of small ones on board but generally they kept mostly quiet We arrived into Wellington bus and train station around 1pm and got a taxi to our hotel The Mercure on The Terrace. We went for a hotel this time because we got a 3 nights for 2 deal on hotels.com and it worked out around the sam http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Wellington/blog-410051.html 090609 Tuesday Day 298Our hostel The Criterion Hotel is right in the middle of the city. Itrsquos a huge place. It used to be a hotel back in the 30rsquos or something like that anyway The walk from the bus station only took about 10 minutes so thatrsquos not bad because our bus our of here in two days time is at 8am to Wellington. The city centre here is small too although the actual c http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Napier/blog-407110.html 080609 Monday Day 297 FreefallingJust after checking in to our hostel Tiki Lodge we enquired about doing a skydive. Taupo is apparently the cheapest place in the world they say to do a jump. We had already picked out the company and to our luck 3 people in our hostel were getting collected so we were able to hop in with them. So no time to think or get nervoushellip..or so we thought.There http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Taupo/blog-407107.html