Windy Wellie

We arrived in Wellington around lunchtime. Being a decent sized city, finding cheap parking wasn't too easy. However after a brief stop in the isite, we managed to find a pretty central hostel that had space in their car park for us to camp, which turned out pretty cheap as they only charged us for one of our two nights there. After parking up, we headed into the city for some food, settling for a good burger. Afterwards we had a little walk around and went to Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. This was very interesting, although I'm not going to lie, I can't really remember too much from our visit. We did see the remains of the largest colossal squid ever caught, which was pretty gross. Eyes the size of footballs. After our feast on knowledge, we headed back to the hostel where we watched a bit of TV, met some crazy older guy who claimed his son was a star quarterback in the NFL but had forgotten about him, and ate dinner, before retiring back to the camper for sleep.

The next day we decided to go and look at some buildings of interest, such as the parliament building, and the nearby library as it offered free wifi. Afterwards, we did a self guided walking tour which we had a leaflet for. It was pretty cool, and took us up the city streets, to particular sculptures, and other important artwork, as well as along the waterfront to other buildings and interesting locations.

After chilling out at the hostel for a bit, we headed back on to the streets with the cable car our destination. The cable car went from one of the low down city streets and scaled one of the cities many hills to the top of the botanical gardens. The journey was quite cool, with good views out over Wellington and the water, with plenty of wind also, seeing as Wellington is apparently the windiest capital city in the world (not really sure if that's true, could be one of the less useful things remembered from our museum visit the previous day). Anyway, we wandered back down to the city through the gardens, which was nice, with it being split into different sections, Australian, European etc. Feeling like we had spent most of the day walking, we went back to the hostel for dinner.

It was pub quiz night in the bar below the hostel, so we thought we would go and put some of our recently obtained, although very limited, knowledge to the test, as well as other useless facts we've picked up along the way. Most of the questions were ridiculous...who even knew Mo from the Simpsons had a pet cat, let alone what it's name was? Anyway, we somehow managed to finish 6th, which wasn't too bad considering there was only two of us. 

After all the excitement we headed back to the camper, as we had to be up early. We had a ferry to the South Island to catch.

Napier & Hastings

We arrived in Napier around mid afternoon, after a couple of stops, including one on a black sand beach, which was pretty cool. The isite informed us of a hostel run by a nice English couple, so we made our way there. Once we had settled in, we had a little walk around the area, bought some supplies and cooked dinner before chilling in front of the tv before bed. 

The next day we decided to walk into the town. This was actually quite a long way, which we hadn't realised at first, although it was all along the sea front, so was worth it. Even the weather wasn't too bad (no rain). As we got nearer the town centre we noticed there were a lot of classic cars on the road. There were even more in the town and lots of people dressed up in vintage attire to go with the time their car was from. It was all pretty cool. It turned out you could make a gold coin donation to go for a ride in one of these cars, so we duly obliged. We got a 70 year old Pontiac. The couple in the front were very nice and they took us for a drive through the town. After this we stopped at a burger place for lunch before heading back to the hostel via a viewpoint on the way. We got back to the hostel, tired from the walk, so watched some more tv, ate and relaxed.

The following day was spent moving on. We were making our way towards Wellington but as it was still quite a distance away we knew we had to stop somewhere in between. We headed for Hastings, which isn't that far from Napier. Although we did stop at a winery on the way. The weather was horrible though and there wasn't anyone around, so we didn't stay too long. The same could be said for Hastings. It was cold, wet and nothing was going on, so we found a Pak n save, got some lunch and headed up a nearby mountain/viewpoint. We couldn't see anything from the top because of the cloud and rain so we headed back down and had a hot chocolate in a nice cafe looking out over the town. Afterwards we carried on towards Wellington.

As it was getting late we decided to stop at a campsite in a little town called Pahiatua. The campsite was dead, we thought it was abandoned at first, but turned out the owners were away and we were expected to sign in on a register and leave our money in a box, which we did being the honest, generous people that we are. The site was still pretty creepy, with lots of empty looking caravans dotted around. So after cooking, and playing cards, we retired to bed to allow morning to arrive quicker. Needless to say the campsite was less creepy in daylight. So after sorting ourselves out, we hit the road again heading for the capital.

Urrm...you want a pizza?...with no cheese?...I'm not sure that's allowed

We had booked into our campsite for a couple of nights, so that gave us a day to check out what Gisbourne had to offer. There seemed to be a few cool things to do, however not so much when the weather wasn't good, and the weather we were experiencing was pretty horrible. However we still wanted to venture out and check out the area, so decided to go for a walk along the river and back around into the town.

After looking at a few statues and taking a few pictures, we wanted to stop for lunch. We fancied pizza as dominos has a $5 pizza offer, which isn't too bad. However this proved a little more difficult than we had anticipated, for Emily more than myself anyway. The girl behind the counter couldn't comprehend Emily creating her own pizza but without cheese, and had to ask if it was allowed. She then returned and insisted on reading the entire list of options for toppings, and when we asked how much it would be, she still had no idea. I don't know if we were asking too much, or this girl was just dim. We left to avoid the hassle, finding a Pizza Hut with the same deal, and who were also happy to make a cheese-less pizza, instead. 

The rest of our time in Gisbourne was spent at the library making use of the free wifi, so contacting people and attempting to upload photos.

The next day we left for a short drive to Napier, another coastal town. 

Creepy house

We set off to the coast hoping the weather would stay sunny. We had a nice lunch of chip sandwiches by the sea in a town called Whakatane. The weather was pretty sunny so we were hopeful. As we continued round the little peninsular it got windier and we could definitely feel it in the camper. However the views were 100% worth it.

By the time it got dark, we found ourselves in a small village called Te Araroa. We knew there was a campsite somewhere but it look a while to find it. It looked like a really creepy old house so we were reluctant to stay. The alternative wasn't too appealing. However they did have a really cute dog. We cooked dinner in the almost dark and had an early night as we wanted to go to the East Cape Lighthouse,  the most Easterly in the world, the next morning.

The road to the lighthouse was uncovered so we spent 45 minutes driving at 30kph. We passed a few remote houses, lots of animals and a few places where the road was crumbling down to the sea. The walk up to the lighthouse was tough as the steps were wet. The view was incredible though. 

We carried on our trip to our next destination,  Gisbourne. We wanted to stop off at Tokomaru and Tolaga bay but the weather was so horrible we couldn't even see them! We arrived in Gisbourne and found a camp site where we could stay. The weather was still horrible so we had a cosy dinner hoping the weather would improve.

Rotorua

We arrived in Rotorua late afternoon, and were instantly hit with the smell of sulphur from the thermal pools. Apparently it is pretty much constant so living there can't be too much fun. We decided to stay at a hostel which let camper vans camp in the car park and, despite having all the hostel facilities available to us, we cooked dinner out the back of Carlos in the car park. After a pasta dinner, and knocking up some falafel which we had bought, we went for a walk into town, mainly to go to the isite to make use of their free wifi. We also had a wander around the centre, in what is quite a pleasant town. After walking back to the hostel, and watching a bit of tv, we headed to bed. 

The next morning was quite an early start, for me anyway, as I got up for the World Cup final. After a fairly dull 120 minutes I was back at the van ready for breakfast. The weather was fairly good so we decided to head to the nearby park where there are loads of thermal pools. It's quite an odd place, with various pools filled with bubbling water everywhere and surrounded by steam, almost eerie. It was a cool place to have a walk around though. 

The weather had got even better in the afternoon, so we drove down to nearby lake rotorua for a picnic, and after eating lunch, we went for a walk around part of the shore. The lake itself was pretty big and looked quite spectacular in the sunshine. After a pleasant afternoon we went back to the hostel, ate (cooked in the kitchen this time), watched some my kitchen rules Australia, and then went to bed. 

The next morning we headed for the coastal road towards the east cape lighthouse, hoping that the good weather would continue. 

Hobbits!

Te Aroha didn't have much excitement for us as it was pouring with rain. The thermal pools didn't seem such a great idea so we headed to a nearby campsite and settled in for the day. We watched tv and cooked dinner ready for the next day, hoping for better weather. After a night of rain,  the morning was bright and dry! We decided to head to nearby Matamata which we had never heard of, but is famous for being the setting of Hobbiton in the Lord of the Ring & Hobbit films. I've never watched them, but Jay was excited and there was a free drink at the Green Dragon pub.

We bought our tickets and headed to the countryside. Peter Jackson found the land in a helicopter and paid the local family to use it for the films. After the locals got wind of what was going on they all wanted to see the hobbit holes so the family convinced PJ to let them keep them. Hobbiton is entirely intact and how it was in the films and was amazing to see regardless of seeing the films or not. The attention to detail was incredible.  We even met a star! The local cat who lives in the pub is apparently in the third hobbit film and loves live in a cosy pub with lots of attention! It was a great day out. Next we were heading to Rotarua,  the geothermal capital of New Zealand!

Thames, no river but might as well be!

We arrived in Thames hopeful of a nice campsite in the countryside bonding with nature just like we imagined.  Twenty minutes up a gravel track we reached the campsite and were ready to settle down for the evening. Despite the weather being on and off all day, we were still cheerful and hopeful. This didn't last long when we realised it the campsite was closed due to flooding. We headed back on the windy and wet gravel back to the centre. The only other place to stay was basically a glorified car park with a room for showers, cooker and seats. This night might well be our most memorable. We parked up and went for a wander round the town which reminded me of a stereotypical American town.

When we got back we had just sat in Carlos when a man came and knocked on our window and told us to come in.  In England people keep themselves to themselves so being invited in by a stranger was not what we expected. There were 3 older couples, one being a Somerset couple. They kept pouring wine and were getting more and more merry.  An American couple joined us too. The night went on pretty late with travel and camping stories. Writing it now,  it doesn't sound amazing,  but drunken older people can be hilarious!

The following day we were all ready to head around the Coromandel peninsular. All packed up and ready to go, we were told the roads were flooded and to head South instead. We consulted the map and headed to Te Aroha!

Bay of Islands

After picking up our camper, we hit the road leaving Auckland for the north, and more specifically, the Bay of Islands. On the way out of the city we noticed a Pak n Save, a New Zealand supermarket. We duly stopped for our first food shop of the trip. Pak n Save was ace, not too expensive and plenty of bargains, although it became clear that fruit and veg is expensive in New Zealand. After stocking up on pasta, sauce, rice, bread, biscuits (even some vegan cookies) and other bits and pieces, we were back on the road, however not for long as we had to stop at a service station to pay for the only toll road in the country. It did also give us an opportunity to have lunch. So after lunch, we hit the road once again to head up north. During the day the weather wasn't particularly great and it didn't get any better the further north we went, but that didn't put us off and we carried on anyway. The roads weren't too busy once we had got away from Auckland and there was some pretty cool scenery despite the weather. The roads were however quite different to England as they were a lot more bendy, having to wind around mountains and scale fairly steep hills, which I found weren't much fun in an automatic van. Around four hours after picking the van up, we were well into the northern region with still no improvements in the weather. If anything it was worse, with very heavy downpours and lots of flooding in the fields alongside the road, and in some areas, where the fields were obviously quite saturated, water was getting worryingly close to the road itself. However we carried on and stopped at a petrol station to refill. I was surprised to find someone already waiting for me before I had even reached the pump, ready to refuel for me. It seemed a bit old school but I didn't complain, plus they were able to warn us about the flooding further north and to expect possible road closures. Still we carried on, not getting the hint. It wasn't until we got to around 25km from Paihia, one of the towns in the Bay of Islands, that we came across a 4x4 parked over both sides of the road. The driver got out and informed us that the road north was closed due to flooding, and the only other possible route left to take wasn't far off being closed either. This news wasn't what we wanted after a good three and a half hour drive. However we didn't think waiting around for the weather to improve was the best thing to do, so decided to head back down south so not to waste too much time. It was about 5pm by this point, so after around an hours drive back in the direction we had just come from, we stopped in a town called Whagarei, where we found a nice little holiday park to spend the night. 

After arriving, parking up and plugging in, we cooked our first meal in Carlos, pasta obviously, despite there being an on sight kitchen and the fact it was still raining. 

The next morning we had breakfast in the van, and made use of the shower facilities before making our way back down south. A few hours went by before we reached Auckland, however this time passing through it. The weather at this point was quite nice and the city skyline with the sky tower looked quite pleasant, which was typical as the four days we had spent there before were all either, wet, windy, stormy or a combination of all three. Anyway, we carried on, hopeful the clear skies would continue. Our destination at this point was a town called Thames, with our plan to stay there before driving around the Coromandel Peninsula, weather dependant obviously....

Auckland

We arrived in Auckland around lunchtime and spend a good few hours getting through customs.  They don't like you bringing anything in and we had to declare our wooden swords from Fiji and our dry noodles. Quite a faff really.  We took a shuttle into the city centre and found our hostel.  After settling in we went on a walk round the centre and found somewhere to have a burger.  Aucklands a nice city but is a more business city than anything else. We had a quiet chilled night at the hostel as they have free meals in the evening. 

On our second day we went on a free walking tour of the city organised by our hostel.  We saw the harbour, sky tower, parks, art galleries and some shops. It was interesting to learn more about the city, although I can't now remember anything they said! We had lunch at a veggie restaurant called Revive which was really nice. After wandering around the city some more we headed back to the hostel. There was a pub quiz that night and we were pretty excited, after 3 weeks of nothing in Fiji, that's what happens!  So we had dinner and sat down waiting for everyone else. After about half an hour sitting in an empty bar it was clear it wasn't happening so we went to play some cards.

The weather in Auckland was horrendous.  Windy and rainy. The two things we wanted to do; Mount Eden and the sky tower, we needed good weather.  So we were stuck with not an awful lot to do. So we went to the cinema and watched 22 Jump street which was really good.  Followed by a burrito and it was a great day.

Our last day in Auckland was spent mostly looking around the shops. It became clear that we didn't quite have the right clothes for New Zealand so we bought a few jumpers in preparation.

The next day around 10 we headed to the Escape office to pick up our new van. They spent ages going through insurance and maintenance but all we wanted to do was look at what van we got. They all have different patterns and pictures on the side. We got a good one.  It was one based on South America.  We called him Carlos and headed North. 

Last few days in Fiji

This is probably going to be a very short post, as our last few days in Fiji were spent back where we had started, Bamboo hostel just outside Nadi. 

Our days were spent swimming, doing some washing and walking along the beach and to the nearby shop for some slightly cheaper bottles of water. The weather wasn't even that great so we couldn't even sunbathe. We also had a few good meals at the hostel restaurant and enquired about getting Fijian tattoos, although we thought £200 was a little steep considering our financial situation. 

The day we left was an early start as we needed to be at the airport for 6:45. We arrived, checked in and browsed the shops in departures, spending our last Fijian dollars, waiting for our flight. Eventually we boarded the plane and set off towards our penultimate country, but one we were probably most looking forward to, New Zealand. 

Pacific Harbour

Our next stop was in pacific harbour, about an hour West of Suva on the south coast. The resort was really nice and, after much confusion, we ended up staying in an 8 bed dorm. We got a free breakfast which was amazing, but we still spent alot of time on the beach, in the pool and eating.

One morning we spent on kayaks going up and down along the beach which was fun. There was also a small town 5 minutes walk from the resort where we had a few great dinners.

There was a cat who kept visiting out room. We decided to call him Oliver.  We fed him most days and gave him milk to drink. He often spent the evening sat on our laps while we played cards.  On the last evening,  as a goodbye present maybe, he decided to poop all over Jays lap. It was quite funny really!

After enjoying the sun as much as possible it was time to head back to Nadi. So we took a public bus for 3 hours to enjoy a few last days of sun before heading to colder climates in New Zealand!

Taveuni

Our journey to Taveuni started with a three hour minibus to the capital Suva. Once we had got there we bought our tickets for our ferry trip on the boat and had a few hours to see the city. It wasn't a particularly great city to be. There were lots of people trying to sell us souvenirs and trying to lure us into their shops. After stopping at a food court for some lunch and picking up some snacks, we returned to the dock to board the boat. The ferry was pretty basic but did have a cinema room, which is where we set up camp. After watching a few questionable choices for films on a boat and trying to eat some snacks in the restaurant, which wasn't easy as we were both feeling a little ill from the rough journey, we found a spot on the floor in the tv room to try and get some sleep. This also wasn't easy as we weren't really prepared for a nights sleep on the floor of a ferry. It was very cold and extremely uncomfortable. After 20 hours on the ferry, a quite forgettable experience, we arrived on Taveuni and were picked up and taken to the resort via a supermarket to pick up some provisions. Once we arrived, we took our things to our dorm and spent the evening chatting to people we had met on our journey over. 

On our first day there we decided to pay to tag along on the organised day trip, which was to a natural water slide. We left the hostel around 10 and made our way to the slide via a stop off at the international dateline, which was very cool to see, and possibly means we were at the furthest point we could be from England. After stopping at the drivers house we walked through the forest for about 10 minutes to the stream. There was a bit of a rock pool at the top of the stream which we were all able to swim in before trying the slide. The slide looked quite scary at first but once we got started it was very cool, especially the last section. The locals that were there were even surfing down on their feet, something we didn't try. After a couple of times down the slide, we headed back to the drivers house for lunch. Not before Luca, our guide from the hostel, decided to climb a coconut tree to retrieve a coconut for each of us to have with lunch. After lunch we went back to the hostel and chilled out with everyone, and enjoying a bit of kava time. 

The next was mostly spent chilling out by the pool at the hostel and wandering to the local shop to get food as we were cooking for ourselves. The evening was spent chatting and playing cards with everyone.

On the Saturday we went on another day trip, this time to one of the other islands, Qamea. We left fairly early and had a 45 minute drive to get to the boat. After playing touch rugby with some local children, we headed out on two little boats. The journey was quite wet and rough but we arrived on the island in one piece, waited for the other boat and went back out to sea for a bit of snorkelling on a nearby reef. This was quite an experience as it was quite far our, so very deep, and the sea was a little rough which made snorkelling a little difficult. We then went back to Qamea to visit a local village. Once we got there we had to go and see the village chief to see if we were accepted into the village. Thankfully we were. Afterwards we had lunch at one of the residents houses and then went and watched a rugby 7's game which the guys from our hostel were playing in. We had more kava before leaving to go back to Taveuni. The boat journey back was a lot rougher and much wetter, especially as it started raining just before we got back. After getting back and sorting ourselves out, the evening was again spent chilling out. 

We spent the next few days relaxing, sunbathing by the pool and swimming, before heading back to the main island, not before another painfully long ferry trip, however we were much better prepared for the return journey. 

Fiji part one :-)

We landed in Nadi early in the morning at about 5.30 on Wednesday. We were picked up by the hostel and taken to where we would be staying; Bamboo hostel. It was a peaceful hostel by the beach and we waited around for a few hours in the sun until we could check in.

Our room was a bit like a hospital with rows of single beds on each side. It needed a bit of a clean. The showers had clumps of hair and the beds needed a clean underneath. We chilled out for our first day, making good use of the hostels cafe. There wasnt alot to do around where we were so we spend many days sunbathing, walking along the beach and eating.

On our second day we went on the "town tour" which consisted of being left in a gift shop for almost an hour and walking through a market to get the bus back. Not so great but apparently that was all there was to see. We soon learnt fiji was for the people with more money than us. There were lots of divers and people doing water sports.

We booked a few nights on an island called Taveuni which was the third biggest island on the East side of the main island.

We spent the days leading up to this island trip just chilling out and also doing some laundry. The weather was lovely so it wasn't hard to spend hours at a time reading in the sun.

On monday morning we left for Taveuni...

LA

As we had both stayed in Hollywood during separate visits in the past, we thought it would be good to stay in an area we hadn't been to, and so settled for Hermosa Beach. And because it was also very cheap compared to some other hostels closer to downtown LA.
After returning Seamus the Chevrolet to thrifty we caught numerous buses to get back to Hermosa. During the journey we thought we had missed our stop, so got off at the next one and walked back up to where we thought we were staying, only to realise we had actually got off too early and were in Manhattan Beach. So after a 45 minute walk along the beach we eventually got back to our hostel. That evening we went for a walk into town and came across a nice little vegan restaurant where we had dinner before returning to the hostel.

The next day wasn't very extravagant. We went for a walk along Hermosa Pier and also the beach. The houses on the sea front are ridiculously nice. Some would put sandbanks to shame. As our hostel was in the centre of Hermosa, which was just off the pier, there were plenty of rowdy bars and restaurants, so we decided to go for nice drink in the sun before returning to the hostel to cook dinner and chill out.

As our hostel provided cheap bike hire we decided to spend our last full day in America cycling up the coast to Santa Monica. This was to be a 30 mile round trip, so quite a mission for us. After getting used to our bikes we set off. The cycle path runs along the sea front and is relatively flat so was very pleasant for the first half of the journey. It wasn't until we had to navigate round a harbour when it got a little interesting as we had to use a combination of cycle paths and the roads. It wasn't long until we got to Venice Beach on the other side of the harbour. It was very busy here, with lots going on along the front and cyclists, pedestrians and skaters everywhere. Some people being quite rude, although we happily carried on our way another 15 minutes to Santa Monica. We left our bikes just off the pier and walked to the main street as we were starving. After a good burger, we did a little shopping before going back to the pier to have a look around at the theme park and stuff. We then started our long journey back, both already tired from the way there. We stopped in Venice Beach and went for a walk to find the flagship Toms shop before returning to our bikes and cycling back. We were both pretty dead after the journey so the evening was spent doing very little.

Our last day involved a lot of sitting around watching TV as we had checked out and were waiting for a suitable time to go to the airport. The afternoon was also spent in the company of an annoying 40 something guy who worked in the hostel, who not only interrupted the film we were watching by putting ice hockey on, but couldn't get it into his head that we weren't that interested in hockey in the uk and he wouldn't shut up about it, and was constantly chanting for the NY Rangers. Thankfully they lost.
So after getting to the airport and, after a bit of a mix up which meant we needed to buy our plane tickets from Auckland to Melbourne otherwise we wouldn't have been allowed to fly, we boarded our flight leaving America, and what has been the best part of our trip so far, heading for Fiji.

Part Six - Pacific Highway

After our few days in San Francisco the last part of our journey was the road to LA, the pacific highway, with numerous stops along the way.

The first destination after leaving the city was Monterey. We arrived around 6ish and headed to the local trader joes for some food. After getting a little lost and finally getting back to the motel, we spent the evening eating and watching tv before bed. The next day we got up, had breakfast and made our way to the Monterey Aquarium, which is apparently one of the best in the world and it didn't disappoint. There were lots of different things there to see, sharks, jellyfish, manta rays, sea otters etc. we also managed to watch the penguin feed which was cool. After the aquarium we headed back to the town, via trader joes, for dinner and to chill out for the evening. The next day we travelled further down the coast. After leaving Monterey and driving on the highway for a bit, we eventually got to the coastal road. To say the views were scenic would be an understatement. There were impressive views around every corner, with numerous viewpoints along the way, allowing us to stop and take it all in. The road followed the coast twisting along the cliff side. There was one last viewpoint before we stopped for the day. This was a beach which, for a certain amount of time each year, gets completely overrun by elephant seals. This was very cool to see them in the wild, although all they seem to do was sunbathe and wrestle each other. Not long after, we reached our stop for the night in Morro Bay. This was a nice little town on the coast. After wandering around looking for a restaurant to eat, we eventually found one which could cater for both of needs, and also over looked the water where more seals could be seen and heard. 

The next day we left Morro Bay and continued along route 1 towards Santa Barbara. We took a detour around lunchtime for some food on the sea front in Pismo Beach. After a walk along the pier, we were back on the road, although still making sure we stopped along the way to admire the views. We arrived in Santa Barbara around 2ish and after checking in to our motel, we headed out for a walk along the beach. The weather was nice and the beach was very tropical with palm trees lining the road along the front. We walked along the beach, onto the pier and through the town before getting some food and heading back to the motel. 

Our last day with our car was spent making our way back to LA. We had to try and return the car as close to empty as possible so decided to drive to our hostel to drop off our bags first. After taking the wrong exit off the freeway, driving for an hour through heavy traffic on the wrong road, we eventually found our way to Hermosa Beach. We checked in, dropped our bags off and made our way back towards Thrifty at LAX, to bring an end to our road trip, which has been one of the best experiences of our trip so far. However we weren't quite done in America. We still had a few days to spend in Los Angeles. 

Part five...San Francisco!

I did write this a week ago, but my phone decided to delete it for some reason...

We arrived at our hotel mid afternoon and chilled out for a while. Our hotel was in emeryville,  across the river from San Francisco.  We had a quiet night in and got some noodles from a shop called Trader Joes which was so good! 

Our first day in the city we decided to head to the centre. We had to take a shuttle bus to the BART station (bay area rapid transit) which then took us to the centre across the river. We started off at pier 39 which is massively touristy with fun shops like a left hand shop and a sock shop which had wonder woman socks with capes on! We checked out all the shops and then spent ages watching the sea lions that cover one side of the pier. They are so noisy and smelly but very entertaining to watch as they push each other off. We headed to Lombard street which was up a massive hill and full of tourists blocking the road taking group photos. They needed two traffic control men to keep the cross roads going properly. We wandered back to the station and by the time we got dinner and headed back to the hotel for some more noodles and salad for some tv and sleep.

Our second day was going to be golden gate bridge day. We had been told which bus to get so we confidently headed to the city centre. We couldn't find the bus stop for a good hour and when the bus did come they only took exact change. So we headed up the road to a shop to get some change. Thinking there would be lots more bus stops up the road we carried on walking up the hill. An hour or so later we realised this wasn't the case at all and had to find another bus to take us. We finally got there and trekked across. It was so windy and, again, full of tourists taking group photos and just generally being in the way of everyone else. We got a bus back to the centre and did a bit of window shopping before going back to the hotel.

Our last day in san Francisco was going to be Alcatraz which we were excited for.  We got the boat over and did our audio tour of the jailhouse which is very creepy but so interesting.  

We couldn't stay for too long as we were heading down the coast that afternoon :-)

Part Four - Lake Tahoe

After our night stop in Jamestown, which included a milk-less cereal breakfast, we left for our next stop, Lake Tahoe. The drive was again very scenic, and included a lunch stop overlooking a pretty impressive view. Once we got to South Tahoe we followed the road around the lake as we were staying in the northwest. The road was very twisty with some steep hills. There were very good views of the lake though. After arriving at our motel and chilling out for a bit we headed out for dinner at a Thai restaurant and then back to bed. 

The next day was to be spent at the lake. After arriving at the car park, half an hour back towards the south, only to be told it was cash only, we had to drive until we found a nearby ATM. Eventually we arrived back at the car park for Emerald Bay. This was an extremely nice area which we were recommended. It was a bit of a walk down to the water but it was worth it. We sat watching the water and chilling in the sun. Afterwards we went back to the car and headed to a park a bit further around the lake as it was included in our parking price. This spot was arguably nicer. It had a nice beach, was quiet and a good view of the lake. After, we headed back to the car and made our way up the long road which led to the main road. It was here where we came across another car stopped. After initially thinking they had broken down we passed slowly and noticed they were taking photos. It was only Emily's scream which made me stop to see what was going on. By the side of the road, picking at some bark was a brown bear. It was quite small so probably a baby, but we were seeing a bear in the wild which we never thought we would. It was all quite surreal. After taking some photos we then headed back to the motel, before heading out for a Mexican. 

We both enjoyed our stop in Lake Tahoe, it's extremely calm, quiet and picturesque, but it was time to move on to our next destination, San Francisco. 

Part three...yosemite!

We were staying in a town called Bishop hoping to check in early to our motel as it was on the way to Yosemite National Park. We were out of luck and so headed further up the freeway to Mono Lake, just outside of Yosemite. We had our picnic lunch overlooking the lake which was very impressive. After hearing from a ranger the National Park village was another two hour drive we decided to just check out the nearest part of the park (you pay for a 7 day pass). The lakes there were amazingly blue and the mountains looked stunning too. After many photo stops we turned back to drive back to the town. We decided on an easy dinner at Dennys.

We had another night booked at the motel so instead of a three hour drive to the National Park village,  we decided to have lunch at Mammoth Lakes which was closer. Those lakes were just as picturesque.  We had a chilled out day before heading to yosemite the following day.

The drive to Yosemite was lovely with good views and nice scenery. The park has a shuttle bus to drive everyone around as the park is so massive. We started off by wandering to the waterfall. We then headed East to see some more waterfalls and hike a nature trail. We got a little lost and ended up on an island in the middle of the river. The mirror lake was another trail we decided to walk and that was nice too.  To finish off the day,  we watched sunset from a secluded bit of the park. We then headed to our next motel in a town called Jamestown, ready for our next adventure! 

West Coast Part Two - Vegas

We checked out of our motel around 11 and set off on our 6 hour journey to Vegas. The road was long and fairly boring for most of the journey. It wasn't until we got to within an hour of Vegas where it got a little more exciting, especially as we passed the Hoover dam, although didn't quite get to see it. 

We arrived at our hotel around 4ish and relaxed a little after the long journey. We then headed out for our first experience of the strip. It was all pretty overwhelming with the bright lights and street performers. After a very good dinner at the Cheesecake Factory we went back to the strip through a variety of casinos, like Caesars Palace. We headed towards the Bellagio where we watched a couple of the infamous fountain shows which were very impressive. We then went back to the hotel using the monorail as it was quite far and we couldn't be bothered to walk. 

The next day we got up in time for a buffet breakfast at our hotel and headed back out onto the strip. It was still very busy in the daytime with just as many tourists, street performers and gamblers probably wandering around after the night before. We had a look at the indoor Venice at the Vennetian and also went to planet rock and New York New York. The biggest was the MGM Grand where we also went looking for the lions, although we later found out that they had been taken away in 2012. We did however agree to watch a pilot for a new tv show and do a survey in exchange for some vouchers, although the majority of these were for meat related restaurants so were pretty useless. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel for a bit of a relax and to get ready to go out for a few drinks. We weren't really sure where to go as there's a ridiculous choice, but we stated at a cool bar called margaritaville where they do loads of cocktails. After we decided to try our luck in a casino. E didn't fancy one of the serious games so we stuck to the poker machines. We came away quite big winners in the end ($3.25) so we can say that we beat Vegas. Afterwards we went back to margaritaville for more drinks and to watch a live band who were playing. They were very good. Once that had finished we returned to the hotel. 

We spent the majority of the next day in the hotel, chilling out in and around the rooftop swimming pool, it was pretty hot as we were in the dessert. We did venture out again in the evening for food. Another tasty dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We also stopped at the Bellagio again and saw another few fountain shows, one of which was quite patriotic so even more impressive. We then headed back to the hotel to sort things for leaving the next day. 

On our way out if Vegas we decided to stop at the famous sign as it wasn't too far away. This turned into a massive effort after originally missing the car park, as we weren't expecting it to be in between the two lanes of traffic. So after a little around the block detour, a stop in Walmart and finally reaching the sign for some photos, we left Vegas three hours later than planned. The drive was fairly dull again, at least until we got to Death Valley. It was still early so we thought we drive through that evening as apparently it's ridiculously hot in the day. Considering its a dessert, the views were pretty stunning, and the road was much more interesting to drive, winding up, around and down on the side of mountains. I took it carefully, obviously. One we reached the other side, we stopped in a little town called Lone Pine where we found a little hotel, had some food, and slept before carrying on our journey towards Yosemite. 

West coast part 1...

We landed in LA at 3ish and headed to the car rental place. Like most rental companies they tried to sell us a bigger car as the "roads aren't like they are in England". However we were firm and stuck with our little chevrolet which is alternately called Sharon and seamus, depending who gets the last say!

We were given the keys and we were out on the road trying to get out of LA. It took three hours. This included going wrong once and a stop in Walmart. Once we were out on the open road we were finally enjoying the drive. A few hours and we were at our first stop,  Barstow. This would be our overnight stop as the town near the Grand Canyon was another six hours away and we were both sleep with being another three hours behind. A quick dinner in Dennys and bed.

The next day we made our way to Flagstaff, a town near the Grand Canyon. By the time we checked in and chilled out for a bit we were ready for dinner. We went to a restaurant called The Cracker Barrel which was very good. We were pretty excited about the next day.

We left early as it was a good hours drive to the Grand Canyon. We spent the day wandering around the rim. You couldn't stare at it for long enough. It's very hard to imagine how massive it is even when you're there. The canyon goes a mile down. We had a bagel sandwich lunch and a squirrel, Sid, decided to join us and try and share our lunch. He didn't succeed.

We stayed till sunset which was amazing and the canyon looked so beautiful. We had dinner in a Mexican on the way back to the motel. By the time we got back it was late so we went to bed ready for the drive tomorrow to Vegas!

Back to NYC

We arrived back in New York around 4ish and made our way to our next hostel, which was in Brooklyn this time. The hostel was ok as we had our own room, however it was a bit of a shoe box and had no ceiling so you could hear everything from all the other rooms. The metro also ran right by the hostel so we had the sound of trains every few minutes. And although the kitchen was very clean and modern, there was not one fork to be found, which was also a bit of a negative.

Our first day back in the big apple was spent walking around our new surroundings of Williamsburg, Brooklyn as we had been told its quite a hip neighbourhood. It was very different from manhattan, not as busy and hectic. It was nice though. We ate at a little Italian and then went back to the hostel. Later we had a salad and relaxed. 

The next day we caught the train to Manhattan. We got food from a nice vegan fast food place and ate it in union square. The weather wasn't too good so afterwards we spent the day walking around shops like Barnes & Noble, which was massive, and the Lego shop (again), as well as some clothes shops. That evening we ate at the hostel again and watched some tv before bed. 

On our last full day in New York we decided to go to the Brooklyn bridge, so we started walking in the general direction of the crossing. It soon became clear that it was a lot further than we had anticipated, but luckily we came across a ferry port which conveniently stopped at Brooklyn bridge park. Therefore we waited for the next boat, shortening our walking time and giving us an opportunity to head out onto the Hudson for some pictures. Once at our stop, we disembarked the ferry and had a walk around the park. The weather was much better and it was pretty hot. We then headed towards the bridge. Crossing the bridge was an experience, it was stupidly busy and the walkway was split between pedestrians and cyclists, so it was a bit of a mission bumbling across the entire span whilst avoiding tourists swinging their cameras as well as angry bikers. It was worth it though. Afterwards we had one last stop at Smac, the amazing macaroni n cheese restaurant, and walked back up Fifth Avenue past the Empire State towards Central Park. We had a look in some more shops before returning to our hostel. Later that evening we ventured back to Manhattan to the chip shop for one last New York meal, or portion of chips with amazing sauces, before going back and packing ready for our flight the next morning. 

We eventually arrived at JFK airport with around 90 minutes to spare, spent a ridiculous amount on some food for the flight (food was expensive, not because we bought loads) and boarded the plane. The flight was good, despite taking off 45 minutes late due to maintenance, there were plenty of movies and we flew over seven national parks, although the fun police were clearly on board as everyone had their shutters down. However after 6 hours we landed in Los Angeles excited about our road trip. 

DC part two

On our third day in Washington we walked down to the mall, which isn't actually a shopping centre sadly. We walked around a bit but it was so hot we decided to head back to the hostel. We had dinner out that night at a Mexican where they made the guacamole in front of us and they had quite odd but tasty food such as chips with chocolate and chilli sauce.

Our last day we spent wandering round the museums such as air and space museum and the portrait gallery, both of which are free. It was an extremely hot day again so we tried to stay inside as much as possible. At the air and space museum they had the shuttle and suit that Felix used (the guy who jumped out of a shuttle in space and landed on earth). The portrait gallery had famous paintings of celebrities,  politicians and sports icons which was very good. My favourite bit was a massive outline of the US full of tv in all sizes. It was split into the different states and the tvs in each state played clips relevant to the state such as Kansas showed clips from the wizard of Oz, california showed the beaches and texas showed cowboys. We has pasta for dinner and had an early night as we had to catch the bus back to new york in the morning. Washington was alot better than I thought it would be, especially the museums and the city itself. It's also quieter and cleaner than new york which was quite nice.

Washington D.C.

Our bus arrived in the capital around 4:15 and after finding our way out of the station, we decided to walk to our hostel. It was a lot hotter than we were expecting there, which made the walk a little more difficult. We eventually made it though, checked in and went for a walk to find some food. It was a lot calmer than New York and our first impressions were good. We found a good english restaurant/pub where I was able to have fish and chips and emily had a veggie burger. We then strolled back to the hostel to sleep. 

Our first full day began with pancakes, as our hostel were kind enough to supply us with breakfast, and after getting sorted we made our way towards the White House. It looks a lot bigger on tv and you aren't allowed very close to it, which is understandable. But we took a few pictures and walked around some of the other nearby important looking buildings when it started to rain. We therefore went to the visitors centre and watched a short video about the house, which was quite interesting as we didn't really know much about it. Afterwards the rain had eased off so we walked towards the centre of town to look for food, which is something we seem to spend a lot of time doing. We stopped at a Mexican and had a burrito (again) which was very good. We decided to spend the afternoon in the spy museum as the weather still wasn't that great, so after getting our tickets and entering the lift we were told to pick a new identity which we would be using throughout our visit. We weren't really sure what to expect but they seemed to be making it fun and interactive. The museum itself was cool with lots of real life spy equipment and gadgets, as well as stories from World War II and FBI agents. There was plenty of stuff to keep us busy with the odd test involving questions about our 'new identity'. There was also a James Bond exhibit focusing on the different villains from all the films and had props such as the famous Aston Martin and jaws' teeth. It was very cool. We spent the rest of the day chilling at the hostel, and probably eating. 

The next day was a lot better weather wise. It was probably a little too hot. But after more pancakes we ventured out into the sunshine. Our destination was the city Mall which is where the Washington monument is, as well as the reflecting pool and Lincoln memorial. It was a lot more touristy in these places, as can be expected, although Washington itself was still pretty calm and fairly peaceful. After seeing the monument we walked towards the Lincoln memorial. On the way, at the other end of the reflecting pool, is the World War II memorial which consisted of a pretty impressive fountain and statues. The Lincoln memorial wasn't as big as I was expecting, still good to see though. On our way back up the Mall we came across the Vietnam war memorial, which were two large walls, displaying all the names of the Americans who died during the conflict. After finding more food, we decided to head inside, to get out of the heat this time, so we went to the Natural History Museum. All of the smithsonian museums in Washington are free, which is a bonus. The museum was very interesting with sections on animals and evolution etc. sadly the dinosaur section was closed which we were a little disappointed about. After returning to our hostel we found out it was BBQ night, and even more important, it was free. We had planned to go out for food, as it was our one year anniversary :-) But we thought we'd check out the BBQ and go the next day. So after eating, chatting with a Canadian and Australians, and after everyone had disappeared to watch game of thrones (a hostel tradition apparently, something we haven't watched or particularly understand) we went to bed. 

New York days 3 & 4

Our third day in New York began with a gentle stroll through the top end of Central Park. It is so peaceful in some places it's hard to believe you're in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. We walked around the massive reservoir, through woods and past various sports fields. We soon diverted back onto the streets to find something to eat. We found a little deli which did pretty good sandwiches and bagels. After food we walked back across the park and decided to pay a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is on the edge of Central Park along fifth avenue. The museum itself was massive, and free, although they like you to make a donation which we did. I'm not much of an art lover as I don't really get it, but there's some pretty impressive, interesting and weird stuff in there. We saw paintings by Monet amongst others, as well as Greek statues and a nice little roof garden. 

After the museum we hopped onto the metro downtown to find more food. We settled for a place which does amazing Mexican food, had a burrito each and made our way back to the hostel. 

That evening we had tickets for a comedy show at the Broadway Comedy Club. We had arrived at the club in good time and waited to be seated. We were told by our ticket seller that we would have a choice of where to sit, which appealed to us as no one really wants to sit at the front at a comedy gig. However this was not the case. When we were shown into the room, we were pointed to two seats at the front and told they seat everyone front to back. We reluctantly took our seats. As there was an 'at least 2 alcoholic drinks per person' rule, we were told drinks were reasonably priced. This was also not true. The ticket seller had done well so far. Despite all this the comedy was mostly good. We saw 7 acts in total with a host who's been on MTV. Some of them really funny, some not so much. Overall it was a pretty good show. Afterwards we walked back to the metro through Times Square. It is ridiculously bright at night and still pretty busy. 

On our fourth day in the city we left the hostel around lunchtime. We went back downtown again and found some food. We spent the rest of the day just bumbling around. We went to Macy's, the huge department store, looked at Maddison square garden, although not a particularly pretty building, and had another walk along fifth avenue, stopping in the Lego shop for the third time that week. We went back to the hostel to relax after more walking and popped in to town later that evening for some 'mac n cheese' which was very good. We saw the Empire State Building lit up in various colours and then headed back to the hostel. 

The next morning we were up at 7:30 as we had a bus to catch. We made our way to Times Square once again, this time with all our bags, which is not easy on the metro at that time, and had an all you can eat breakfast. We then walked about 10 blocks to where we would be catching our bus to the capital, Washington, D.C. 

New york!

We arrived at JFK airport at around 7pm but by the time we went through security which is very thorough (they take all your fingerprints and a photo) it was around 8 ish. We got on the air train to manhattan and took the metro up to our hostel. After a while looking we found it and managed to check in and get a pizza for dinner.
The following day we decided to walk through manhattan as we had plenty of time. We started at the top to central park and walked down 5th avenue towards midtown where the empire state building and the public library is and all the shops. We stopped for breakfast/lunch at a little diner and a had a rest. We walked until we reached battery park where we could see the statue of liberty. The walk was about 8 miles.
After another sit down and some photos we checked out the new world trade centre which is so tall! We took the metro to times square where we were hustled by a man selling comedy tickets and for a good price, we bought some. He also recommend us some good places to eat, one of them being the meatball shop which we ate at that night, it was very good and somewhere we would never of found by ourselves. After a tiring day we went back to our hostel for a good sleep!

New york day 2

IOur second day was very busy with an early morning visit to the ground zero memorial site. I didnt know alot about it, but jay wanted to visit. The tickets were free but they asked for a donation and so the queues were pretty long. They had airport style security too. The memorial was very impressive with two big water features with everyone's names around the edge. They put a white rose on people's names when it's their birthday which was nice to see.
After a yummy burrito for lunch we headed to the empire state building which was the tallest building in manhattan before they build the new world trade centre. We had tickets to the 80th floor and the observation deck. The 80th floor was massively crowded but the views were amazing, you can really appreciate how big manhattan is. The observation deck was quieter and the views were even better.
We walked back up to our hostel through central park which is so pretty. You wouldn't even know you were in new york it was so peaceful.
We spent the evening catching up with some friends we met in Peru.  We went to the oldest bar in new york called mcsorleys which was very cool. After we went and had chips at an amazing little place where they have very interesting sauces. Our favourite was vietnamese pineapple. Very strange but so good!  Another great day in new york.

The Golden Circle

The afternoon tour of the Golden Circle was pretty much the only tour that seemed worthwhile that we could afford. It started with a 12:00 pick up at our hostel and, after picking up the rest of the people on our tour, we were on our way out of Reykjavik. 

Our first stop was a national park, and also unesco world heritage site (I think), which I can't remember the name of or could even attempt to spell. It was where the two tectonic plates of North America and Europe meet, or come apart as the landscape consisted of massive cracks in the surface. It was also the place where law and order was established in Iceland.  The landscape is completely different to any other place we've been. It was quite green, yet very rugged also with mountains and volcanos in the background. After a brief walk around and description we were back on the bus moving further into the countryside. 

Our second stop was the Golden Falls. These were a sort of two tier waterfalls and were quite impressive, and very cold. We had a walk down to the platform next to the falls as well as up to a walkway over looking it and then we were on our way again. 

Our next stop was one of the biggest geysers in Iceland. It erupts once every 4-8 minutes so we were guaranteed at least a couple of viewings. And we weren't disappointed. The hardest thing was waiting and anticipating the eruption to allow for a good photo. We tried, and between us I think we succeeded.

On our way back to the city we had a couple more stops. One at a smaller waterfalls, and the next and a fairly large crater which had been formed due to a lava pocket under the earths surface apparently. And so after a 6 hour round trip we were back in Reykjavik. 

Our last full day in Reykjavik the weather wasn't especially good. After breakfast at a local bakery and a little walk around the town, we decided to visit a local swimming pool with hot springs, which was rather relaxing. Our last evening was spent looking for somewhere to eat which had something suitable for vegetarians and was suitably priced. This proved quite difficult, although we succeeded in the end. 

Our last morning was spent packing, ready for our afternoon flight. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time, eventually made it through check in and bag drop, and boarded our flight. The destination was one we had been looking forward to for a while...New York City.