Toe and Natalie

Hey again! We took off from Los Angeles via the Greyhound bus that we took from Hollywood. Originally we booked our tickets from LA not realising that it was departing from downtown in the eve... When we realised what we had done it didn't matter anyway as when we bought our 30 day discovery pass which means unlimited buses anywhere in the US and Canada, we booked our ticket to go from Hollywood. Good thing it was only a minute round the corner from our hotel. We boarded our bus at 10.20pm, it stopped at 1.30am at a burger king for a break in which Toe bought a double cheeseburger. Back on the bus, the guy who was sitting next to me was still in burger king and the bus started taking off without him! Luckily ... read more

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

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