We had a lovely time with the girls (Claire and Michelle).

Chilled on the beach in Miami. It was the first time that they had both stayed in a hostel and I have to say, after the initial shock of having to share a room with total strangers, making their own beds, and the beds actually being bunk beds, they soon settled in and became travellers (almost!)

Hired a nice big 4x4 Trailblazer and drove up to Orlando. Here we stayed in a motel 6, but in order to save money, all four of us stayed in one room so it was decidely cosy! We spent the week in Orlando getting lost on the highways, visiting Disney World which thanks to Michelle we all got in free. This turned out to be a very good thing as the rides at MGM and the Magic Kingdom are rubbish, no thrills and spills here. Just nice calm rides for all the children - BORING!! We did see a lovely firework display at the Magic Kingdom though, which was nice!

As the weather wasn't too great the beach wasn't really an option. We did try one afternoon but when the sun went in after only 30 mins and then Claire decided to sunbathe with all her clothers on so we headed home.

When a friend of Michelle's came over to spend the day with us we decided to head to the tatooist. 3 out of 5 girls got tatoos....

We also saw a lot of movies: Deja Vu - very good. Stranger than Fiction - good but not as funny as the trailers promise. The Holiday - lots of bad over acting from everyone.

And then the girls went home, I went to spend a few days in New York where I had lunch with the lovely Tim McCann in Pastis (lovely restaurant) and spent far too much money in the shops, and Laura went to Washington.

So that's it. All over for me. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and I thank you for taking the time to read it. I've had an amazing year and can't believe it's all over already!

Laura is still out and about, currently in Toronto I think. She will hopefully keep us all updated via email.

Thank you and Good Bye and See some of you soon!

Janine

I've uploaded some new photos too on:

http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/J9travels/

Miami - Orlando - New York remains copyright of the author J9travels, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We went to the floating islands which were nice but now they seem a little touristy. It's obvious that no one really lives on the islands anymore, they just come in in the morning with all the wares to sell to us and then go back to the mainland after all the tourists have gone home. Interesting to see how they make these islands though.

We also went to the temple of Fertility which is a stoned walled garden with lots of large stone penises erected (snigger) within it. We sat on a few as it's meant to be good luck and because it was very funny. Laura and I are now both expecting twins. I wanted a bit of luck but wasn't expecting a miracle!!!

Laura says:
A little girl of about 8 approached us as soon as we entered the gates & became our guide, whether or not we wanted one she wasn't going anywhere. She spoke very little English & just kept saying "pene" & I kept repeating it after her, it then dawned on me we had just been saying "penis" over & over again to each other, what an interesting conversation that was.

And I think that's it for Puno.

Can you tell I'm getting bored writing this blog now?

In fact is anyone still reading it...?

Laura says:
I'm reading it but only cause I have to!

Next stop Cusco

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We found a good jungle trip for 6 days/5 nights which meant that we had to squeeze Machu Picchu in over the weekend and ended up not really seeing much of Cusco or the Sacred Valley...

Machu Picchu
Awesome place! Most people will have heard about and seen pictures of it so I won't go on too much about it.

We were there early before most of the tourists arrive and the weather was good all morning so we had about 5 hours strolling around the ruins. We had a guide for the first 2 hours and were then left just to wander. It's a really amazing place, it really took my breathe away. It felt quite mystical to me, so high up in the mountains away from everything. Loved it.

Manu Jungle
An awesome trip despite me cathing the lurgy from Laura and having to spend a day in bed and not being able to venture too far away from the toilets!

The Manu Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site in the southwestern region of the Amazon Basin, encompasses approximately 5 million acres ranging from high alpine grasslands and cloud forest on the eastern slopes of the Andes to lowland rainforest.

Peru's national park is home to 200 species of mammals, including 13 different species of monkeys, the endangered giant otter, the caiman and the jaguar. It also boasts the largest concentration of birdlife in the world with an estimated 925 species.

This is one of the most biologically diverse regions of the world, not to mention being home to several ethnic groups such as the Matchiguengas, Yine and others, which often have very little contact with westerners.

Day 1 - Long bus ride into the jungle along the only road into the jungle which felt like the bumpiest road in the world.

Arrived at our first stop for lunch and then went white water rafting (Grade 3) along the Alto Madre de Dios river - awesome!

Night at Erika Lodge where we meet the rest of our group and where the electricity gets turned off at 9pm so we all have an early night!

Day 2
5am start. Breakfast and then 5 of us go off into the jungle to swing through the canopy on the cacble zip lines. Another great experience. The guide flicks a giant ant off of Laura's shoulder - if they bight you you go all numb and someone says it feels like you are having a heart attack... They are really big too!

Back in the boat for a long trip up the river to our next camp ground near Boca Manu. Lots of birds and monkeys to see and a few white caimans (alligators)

We have another walk in the jungle at Boca Manu and see lots of spiders and other large insects.

Day 3
4.30am start. Another long boat journey up the Madre de Dios river and we enter the Reserve Zone where we have to sign in.

Our camp for the next 2 nights is nice but the water from the shower is the same colour as the river, brown. You don't spend a long time showering in the jungle cos you don't really get clean but you do get eaten by mozzies!

We take another walk through the jungle and then take the wooden catamaran out onto the lake where we see black caimans and lots more birds and monkeys but no giant otters.

I get sick and spend a lot of time in the toilet.

Day 4
I am in bed or in the toilet all day feeling really dreadful. The nice guide gives me some jungle tea and some tablets for my symptoms which do nothing! Find a grasshopper the size of my arm in the room as I decide to get up and take a shower. Climb back under the safety of my mozzie net and wait for Laura. Grasshopper manages to disappear in this time. We eventually find it under the other side of Laura's bed and ask our guide Jose to get ride of it. It is HUGE. Wrong.

Day 5
I'm still sick but manage to make the short walk to the river to see if we can spot the Giant Otters and we do!!! There's a family of about 5 and they are fishing and eating and playing and fighting and we get up really close. They aren't giant but they're pretty big!

In the afternoon we are back on the boat heading back to Boca Manu. We stop off at the village where the lads play football with the locals. The locals hardly break a sweat, the lads are dripping at the end of it but at least they win!

Day 6
Fly back to Cusco in small 12 seater plane. A little scarey I have to say!

And that was the jungle. Another great experience. Couldn't live in the jungle though, too many abnormally large insects!

And being sick whilst in the jungle is not a good experience!

Laura says:
When it's summarised like that it sounds like we were in & out of the jungle in no time at all!
It really was an amazing experience, regardless of the 40 odd mozi bites I ended up with despite applying 85% deet, the showering in brown water, the nightly killing spree of some rather large cockroaches in our cabin just before bedtime (I let J9 deal with that bit) & the sound of distant howler monkeys & animals creeping around behind the cabin in the pitch black.
Luckily I have managed to perfect the ability to sleep absolutely anywhere as I think the jungle is the only place I know which is noisier at night than during the day.
The only bad nights sleep I had was when I woke from a nightmare that I had a huge spiders web around my bed. Unfortunately I awoke to find it wasn't a dream but reality (well to me the mosi net appeared very web like). It was so real I woke J9 up & told her we had to leave! It was only when she asked why that I realised how ridiculous I sounded. The jungle really plays with your mind!!!

We flew back to Lima and then back to Miami. The weather is still good here in Miama and Claire and Michelle have arrived so we have just been chilling on the beach and I have started to eat again after 7 days so all is good.

Next stop Orlando

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After a realatively painless 8 hour night bus journey (apart from Enrique Inglesias blaring from the speaker above my head, soon put a stop to that!), we arrived in Arequipa and headed for our hostel.

We had breakfast and then decided to head straight out and explore the city.

We went to the Santa Catalina Monastry which is in the middle of the city and yet so quiet inside. We spent a good hour or so in there, walking around the little cobbled streets and seeing where the nuns use to live and eat and, erm, pray. A very nice place but no nuns around the day we went.

We also went to the museum where Juanita is.

Juanita (also known as "The Ice Maiden") was discovered on the top of Mount Ampato near Arequipa, Peru, on September 8, 1995 by Johan Reinhard. She was 12 to 14 years old when she was sacrificed and is believed to have died about 500 years ago.

Although she was frozen in the frigid temperatures on Mount Ampato, her body was discovered because a nearby volcano had caused Ampato's snowcap to melt. The undisturbed site of her burial included many items left as offerings to the gods. Two other children's bodies were discovered near her.

As of August 2006, scientists have become worried that increasing humidity within her display case will cause her body to decompose within five years. The problem with the humidity control was noticed by a tourist (who was actually a scientist at the Smithsonian Institute) who reported the problem. Further testing will help scientists determine whether the problem can be corrected.

Really interesting although it´s hard to get a good look at her as she´s in the double glass case which is kept at below freezing so that she doesn´t thaw!

We had an awful late lunch on the plaza des armas, well mine was awful. I´d ordered spaghetti pesto and what came out was not something that resembled spaghetti pesto!! An interesting bright green sauce with my pasta swimming in the middle of it! We were also serenaded by peruvian pan pipe muscians - I swear these blokes follow me around. Every time I sit down a pan pipe group appears out of nowhere. Straight out of a Fast Show sketch!

We then had a quick look in the main cathedral and then retired for the evening.

We were picked up early the next day for our trip to the Colca Canyon. It was long drive up into the mountains where we reached the highest point of 4800m. A lot of people suffer from altitude sickness and despite drinking coca tea and sucking on coca sweets which are meant to relieve symtoms, both Laura and I felt a little weird and had headaches. It´s also a bit harder to breathe, especially when walking around. Very strange!

By the way, a little info on coca tea:

Coca tea, also called mate de coca, is a tisane (tea) made using the leaves of the coca plant. It is made either by submerging the coca leaf or dipping a tea bag in hot water. The tea originates from the Andes mountain range, particularly Peru.

The leaves of the coca plant contain several alkaloids including cocaine; in fact, they comprise the sources for cocaine's chemical production, though the amount of cocaine in the leaves is small, around 0.001%, in order to make a kilo of cocaine more than 100 kilograms of coca leaves are needed.

Owing to the presence of the stimulant alkaloids, the coca tea provides a source of energy simillar to coffee. The tea is often sold commercially in filtering bags, each of which usually contains approximately one gram of the leaf. As coffee can be decaffeinated, the coca tea can also be decocainized; however, after undergoing such a process it will still contain a minute quantity of the drug (5 milligrams per tea-bag). When the cocaine is removed, the amount of cocaine is small enough for the product to legally sell in the USA according to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. In the 1980's the tea was used to wean cocaine addicts off of the drug

Laura says:
And in the 2006´s J9 appears to be weaning herself onto it, she orders a cup everywhere we go?

It´s nice!

Anyway, we stopped at various points along the way to Chivay, the main town in Colca where we would be spending the night. We saw lots of wild vinucas and alpacas which are both part of the Lama family. Vinucas are very rare and quite endangered so their fur costs a lot of money. Alpacas are 10 to the dozen so everything you might want to buy in the area is made of Alpaca wool. You can even have Alpaca steak for dinner (I didn´t care for it, it had a strange taste, a bit like liver even though it´s a steak).

Chivay was a cute little town nestled in the valley. We had lunch, had a kip (to ease the altitude sickness!), spent a couple of hours at the hot springs and then we spent the evening watching some traditional dancing and music - obviously peruvian pan pipes featured heavily!

We were up at 5am the next day to get to the Canyon and see the Condors. At first we thought we might be a little out of luck as we only saw one circling way below us in the canyon. However, after walking up the the main viewing section, 3 massive condors appeared and put on a great show for us. They came right above us, circling around for ages. A great sight.

After that it was back to Chivay for lunch and then the long journey back to Arequipa

In the evening we met up with Maeve, who had been on our tour, for a drink and a bite to eat and arranged to meet up the next day so that she could help us buy our bus tickets as she spoke excellent spanish!

The next day we met Maeve, bought our tickets, and then went for a wander into the suburbs of Arequipa. It´s a really pretty little town. Most of the buildings are made out of sillar, a pearly white volcanic rock, which gives the town a really beautiful appearance.

We walked around and then headed for lunch at a posh restaurant that the Lonely Planet recommended. Here we ate guinea pig. Yes, guinea pig!!. Well, we made Maeve order it, Laura had chicken and I had steak but we all shared although I have to admit, I didn´t eat all my guinea pig. It´s their local dish and is usually only eaten on special occassions!! Obviously we had lots of fun taking pictures of it. We ordered the half portion but it came out with it´s head and legs and skin on it. Not the most attractive plate of food I have to admit. It looked like a fried rat! But, it wasn´t too bad, it tasted a little bit of bland chicken! At least we tried it! Afterwards, Maeve, being a student medic, turned it over and started pointing out the liver and the lungs and the brain - nice!

The afternoon was spent shopping for Alpaca goods.

Next stop Puno.

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Our next stop was Huacachina, a little oasis in the middle of the sand dune desert just outside of Ica.

Our rep, Jose, took us to Ica on the local bus - luckily it was only an hours ride as the local buses have seen better days. We jumped out at Ica which was noisy and hot and jumped into a cab and headed straight for Huacachina.

Amazing place - it´s literally a small lake surrounded by palm trees, a few restaurants and hostels and MASSIVE sand dunes.

Our hostel was a lovely little place with a pool out the back and a 200 metre sand dune starting in the garden! We chilled by the pool for an hour and then it was time for our dune buggy experince.

And what an experience it was!!! 8 of us climbed into the dune buggy and strapped ourselves in tight and off we went. It was awesome! Basically they drive you all over the sand dunes at high speed. These buggys can go anywhere and everywhere, up vertical sand dunes and then down them. Our driver was obviously the nuttiest driver in Peru. We were at the front with the driver so, as he paused at the top of a vertical dune, we got the full experience and fear of it!!!

At one point he took out his mobile as if expecting a call and continued to drive with one hand and pretended to nearly crash into the other buggies, that was a bit scary!

We stopped off at the top of one dune (100 meters high) and out came the sandboards. Now, I wasn´t great at skiing as I don´t really like going fast down a steep mountain when I´m not in control, so you can imagine how I fared at my first try at sandboarding!!

Luckily, despite Laura being a whizz at surfing, she was as shit as me at sandboarding and went down the first slope backwards, all the way!

Laura says:
Not only did I go backwards, I spun round half way down & sat on my behind with my legs facing the wrong way round. Jose had to come & rescue me (with that ´Women! look in his eye).....
Why am I admitting all this?

The second slope was even longer and steeper (600 meters) and inside I was crying! But, not to be a chicken I did it, I just went more horizontally down it which seemed to work and I didn´t fall down. Laura also got the knack of it and by the 3rd slope we looked like professional sandboarder dudes!!

We also had a go at body boarding down a really really steep slope (1000 meters) which was cool.

Then it was back in the buggy for more sand racing - the driver and Jose didn´t wear seat belts and I have no idea how they managed to stay in their seats as the rest of us were thrown all over the place, seat belt chaffing could have been a problem if it had gone on too long!

The most fun we´ve had in Peru so far!!!

Laura says:
I dunno that it was the most fun? I think the most fun was having to go the long way round to the lagoon from our hostel to avoid being harassed some overly friendly Peruvian called Carlos who kept trying to kiss us & dance with us in his mini market/pizzeria, now that was fun!
I can still hear his pleading voice "Laurah, Hanine why no dance?"

Back at the hostel, we celebrated our sand boarding skills with a few beers and decided to extend our stay so we could have a day by the pool!

Nazca
3 hours down the highway we arrived in Nazca, home of the famous Nazca lines.

We were picked up by our rep who took us to our hostel and told us that another guy would pick us up in 10 mins to take us on our city tour!! Luckily this meant up to the cemetary at Cahuachi as there didn´t seem to be a lot in Nazca to look at!!

So, we jumped into another random mans car and headed out. The site is pretty impressive, there our 12 tombs that you can look into and see the mummies, some of them still have their hair which is really really long and all in plaits and dreds. a lots of the tombs were robbed of their ceramics and the mummies destroyed in the process but you still get a pretty good idea of how they buried people, all bound up in the foetal position, with offereings of ceramics and food for the gods.

Then we had a quick trip to a ceramic shop where they showed us how they made all their pots and I bought one. I am going to have so much tat from my travels it´s untrue. I just can´t resist though!!´ And then taken back to the hostel by another bloke... They call it tag repping!

Laura says: After the ceramic factory we were ushered through another gate where Juan, an ex-miner, showed us the art of gold processing, in the form of a lot of make shift toys & rather impressive noises which he had perfected so well you really felt like you were in amongst the machinery (not). The display lasted a good 4 minutes & when he soon realised we weren´t interested in buying any gold earings he donned sun glasses, a hat, whipped out a guitar & belted out his rendition of Frank Sinatras "I did it my way", for tips. Multi talented is Jaun.

The next day we went to fly over the Nazca lines in the tiny 6 seater planes. On all the photos I´ve seen, the lines look really impressive, but to tell the truth, I thought they´d be bigger and clearer! My photos just look like I´ve taken 20 pics of the sandy ground.

The Nazca Lines are an enigma. No one know who had built them or indeed why. Since their discovery, the Nazca Lines have inspired fantastic explanations from ancient gods, a landing strip for returning aliens, a celestial calendar, used for rituals probably related to astronomy, to confirm the ayllus or clans who made up the population and to determine through ritual their economic functions held up by reciprocity and redistribution or, a map of underground water supplies.

There are also huge geoglyphs in Egypt, Malta, United States (Mississippi and California), Chile, Bolivia and in other countries. But the Nazca geoglyphs, because of their numbers, characteristics, dimensions and cultural continuity as they were made and remade through out the whole prehispanic period, form the most impressive as well as enigmatic archeological group.

The Nazca Lines are located in the Pampa region of Peru, the desolate plain of the Peruvian coast which comprises the Pampas of San Jose (Jumana), Socos, El Ingenio and others in the province of Nasca, which is 400 Km. South of Lima, covers an area of approximately 450 km2, of sandy desert as well as the slopes of the contours of the Andes. They cover nearly 400 square miles of desert. Etched in the surface of the desert pampa sand about 300 hundred figures made of straight lines, geometric shapes most clearly visible from the air. They were supposedly built by an ancient civilization called the Nazca.

Laura says:
Or there´s the one about the UFOs.

We were up in the air for about 30 mins and the pilot would tilt the plane this way and that so that everyone could get a good view. Luckily I hadn´t had breakfast otherwise I´m sure I would have seen it again! I also got to sit at the front as co-pilot which meant I had an awesome view.

The rest of the day was spent hanging about as we weren´t due on the night bus until 10pm.

Next stop Arequipa

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The first morning, Francis (hostel owner) gave each of us a map and told us all the exciting things to see in Lima, where we could get buses and how much it would cost in a taxi. He also crossed out the places where we couldn´t go unless we wanted to be robbed (of all of our belongings!) and this included most of Lima!! We were confined to a few blocks around the main square and the area where the hostel was situated but luckily that´s where all the sites to see are.

Laura says - Francis is lovely, every hostel needs one of him in it, I don´t think he sleeps! He´s always booking buses or taxis for someone or sitting them down with a map telling them where to go & how to get there. He is a big rounded jolly man who laughs heartily every time he informs you "Go in this part & they will steal everything from you, even your shoes, ha ha ha ha ha ha" bless 'ím.

Laura also says - What every hostel DOESN´T need is the guy from Nevada who is extremely well read on conspiracy theories who talks at you for about an hour every night about 10 feet mummies with 2 rows of teeth that the FBI are covering up & also informs us that apparently there were no passengers on the 9/11 flights.... fascinating!

We took a taxi with an Ozzie couple (Jodie and Warren) and set off to see the Inquisition Museum and the Monastry. It took us a while to find the museum but after many wrong turns, asking and not understanding directions and stepping into the forbidden zone for a brief moment, we chanced upon it.

It being a public holiday, there was a massive queue outside so we joined it but were soon picked out and led in to join the english tour. Not sure how they knew we weren´t natives, perhaps because we towered over all the peruvians (except Laura of course!). They are seriously short!! As is Laura, ha ha ha!!

Laura says - to put it another way, J9 looks like a freak!

Anyway, the museum was only small but quite interesting and you got to go down and see the cells where they kept those who didn´t believe or want to follow the catholic faith which is why most people were arrested.

Lauras dig - Please see above very informative explanation of the Spanish Inquisition! ha ha ha
(yes I´m still bitter about description of my driving an automatic car & the added insult regarding my height).

After that we went for a bite to eat. None of us speak any real spanish so we ordered what we thought we understood and it wasn´t too bad. We each had two courses and it was 5 soles each, about $1.50 = 80p!!! I like it it here!

We then skipped off to the monastary and saw the catacombs where over 70,000 people were buried. Lots of bones everywhere. Lovely building though!

We then decided to try the bus and after grabbing dessert at a road side stall a kind man told us which bus to get and it dropped us pretty near to the hostel.

Day 2 was spent in more museums learning about peruvian history in spanish which is a little difficult when you don´t speak it... We managed at the first museum but decided to get an english guide at the second museum and learned a lot more!! It´s all quite interesting really, the mummies and the treppaned and deformed skulls were my favourite exhibits. There´s also an awful lot of ceramics, and I mean a lot!

Day 3 we went to a nearby archeological site where they had uncovered a temple in the middle of the city. Apparently Peru is covered with lots of sites like these - at the moment they have found over 100,000 and yet only 3,000 are protected by the govt. It seems they just have too much history to uncover and they can´t afford to do it all!

We then decided to go and see another which was out of town. After much walking we jumped in a cab and then a collectivo - collectivos are little private mini vans that race around town competing with each other to get the most passengers. A bloke shouts out where the van is going and you jump on. Obviously we didn´t have a clue what they were saying so we just jumped into random vans and hoped for the best and luckily, each time we weren´t too far wrong!!! It´s fun but you have to get in quick as they drive off really quickly and you can still have one foot out the door as you are hurtling down the street!

The second site we saw was massive and there wasn´t much info in english so we had a quick wander round and headed back. They are really impressive sites but there´s still quite a lot to uncover so you never really see a full temple, just one side whilst the rest is still under the sand. We are looking forward to seeing Matchu Picchu which is all uncovered!

And that was Lima. A bit mental really. We didn´t have anything stolen but you are warned constantly to watch your belongings which makes you feel a little on edge! The people we did meet were very nice though and although I´m sure we paid a little more on the buses than the peruvians, we are only talking a few pence so you can´t really argue. And we don´t speak spanish so we couldn´t argue if we wanted to...

Laura says - much as you have to keep your wits about you & the unerving fact that some of the restaurants have an armed guard on the door, the people here are really friendly (just before they steal your camera - only jesting). There is a huge amount of poverty here hence the petty crime. Many of the shanty towns have no electricity, water supply or sanitation. The locals which we´ve actually chatted to (I say chatted but it´s a lot of nodding, pointing & mumbling "Bueno") are very welcoming & seem to find it very entertaining that we don´t speak Spanish. They have always got a smile for us though (probably because they´ve just overcharged us! ha ha).

Laura, just can´stop herself today, says - As predicted there is very little English spoken here, we came armed with our phrase book which has been invaluable. I´m actualy quite impressed with how we´ve got by so far. Only yesterday J9 managed to book us an extra nights stay at the hostel we´re in which seemed succeful, not sure why they handed her toilet paper though?????

Pisco
We took a nice posh bus down to Pisco, we even got lunch! On arrival in Pisco we were instantly mobbed by people wanting us to stay in their hotel. We chose one, jumped in a cab and were pleased to find that it was nice and clean and they had cable TV!

As this is how it works in Asia I didn´t really think twice about it but Laura said she felt a little unsafe getting into a taxi with 3 random peruvians and she has a point! So, when the lovely Jose from the local tourist agency asked us if wanted to book the next week of our trip so that we didn´t have to worry about buses or hotels we agreed.

We also booked a trip to the Ballestas Islands, which are described as the poor mans Galapagos and also the Paracas Natural Reserve. It wasn´t the most interesting of trips. You take a speed boat out and circle the islands looking at all the birds, penguins and sealions and get a good whiff of the guano (bird shit). It really stinks!

Laura again - Equally as stinky is the fish factory you have to drive past on the way to the port. We´re still pondering on the theoretical question "would you sooner work collecting the Guano from the Islands or in the fish factory?".

Then you come back and go off to the reserve where you look at some pink flamingoes through the guides binoculars (there were only 5 of them) and then you walk and see a cliff formation called the Cathedral and then you pay for an expensive lunch and then you come back. Not bad but not great. If you don´t get to do this on your visit to Peru then don´t worry, you´ve not missed an awful lot!

Pisco is also not the most exciting town. There´s a main square called the Plaza d´Armas (it seems every town has a plaza d´armas!) and that´s about it. We were told, again, not to wander more than 3 blocks from the main square but that wasn´t going to happen anyway!!

Laura, having her final word, Says - Pisco is also the name of the traditional Peruvian alcholic drink which, of course, we had to try. Pisco Sour is a bit like tequilla but mixed with lime & egg white it´s really nice & is now officially my new favourie drink.
On braving the tradtional food subject: we have also tried Ceviche - raw fish marinated in lemon & chilli served with unpopped popcorn (bit odd but ok) & boiled yucca. It has a really nice flavour but they gave us such a lot & there´s only so much I can swallow before the thought of it being raw fish really starts to get to me.
I was up for trying ´Cuy´ too which is guinea pig. I had imagined it would be served in some form of stew but I´ve since found out it is presented still in the shape of a guniea pig, either on a plate or with a skewer up it´s bum..... mmmm? maybe not then.

So, that´s our first week in Peru.

Next stop, Huacachina, Nazca and Arequipa

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We arrived late afternoon at the Stratosphere, our home for the next 5 nights. The place is big. Downstairs is all flashing lights of the slots, every corner is taken up by some sort of gambling opportunity, it's madness!

We ate early dinner and then went down the strip for a walk. It's longer than it looks and it took us about an hour to get down to the Ballagio where we planned to go for birthday (mine) drinks. Unfortunately all the bars in there were closed for private functions so we went across the road for a margherita and to crowd watch. We got a bit more than we bargained for when this massive SUV hit a van, slid across the road straight into a palm tree which crashed down on top of the car. Luckily nobody was hurt, only the tree.

The rest of the week we did what everyone does in Vegas, ate, drank and gambled (I lost all of $5 and Laura won $20!).

Laura Says:
Petty values in Vegas terms, we know, but you can't win much when you've nothing to gamble with in the beginging.

We drank in Coyote Ugly and the Big Apple in New York New york. We had a posh birthday meal in Tao in the Venetian (the same night Britney Spears came in but we'd left by then!).

Laura Says:
Coyote Ugly night was great. We managed to make friends with a guy from Ohio who bought us drinks for the rest of the night (shame we didn't meet him earlier, we'd already spent about $30). We left the New York New York hotel about 5.00am & managed to get lost in our own hotel lobby trying to find the elevators - no, not cause we were drunk, because it's sooooo big!
Managing to stay up till 5am drinking also gave J9 the perfect opportunity to contact all those loved ones that she thought had forgotten her birthday on the Monday "to discuss"!

We saw all the free hotel displays including the Fountains at the Bellagio (impressive), the earthquake at the Mirage (rubbish) and the pirates show at Treausre Island (pretty good).

We had a blackjack lesson at the Hilton but we were still to scared to actually play with real money.

We ate all you could eat buffets at the Monte Carlo and Stardust and stole as much as we could for breakfast the next day!!

We also did a horse ride in the desert which was a bit rubbish. I think my horse was about 80 as it kept tripping up the whole way.

We rode the roller coaster at the New York New York and the Xtream at the top of the Stratosphere - you are already 800ft up and you sit at the bottom of the tower and get shot up into the air at 70mph and then drop back down again. 3 times. It was good!

Laura Says:
To give you idea of the speed of the roller coaster at NY NY - when I got off my hair was straight!!

So that was Vegas.

We went back to LA and dropped the car off which was a bit disappointing!! Then we caught the greyhound back to San Fran and chilled there for a few days. We had a night out where a very dull swiss guy bought us our drinks all night, which is the least he could have done seen as he was so dull.

Laura Says:
My god was he dull. I don't think you realise the sacrifices we make for free drinks!

Then we caught our flight here to Miami. This place is full of beautiful people so Laura and I fit right in. It was about 85 degrees yesterday but today it's raining so I am spending a lot of time here in this internet cafe!!

Laura Says:
Not only are the people round here beautiful they are dead skinny too. People keep staring at my hips like I'm some sort of freak

So, that's it for the USA for now.

Next stop, Lima, Peru.

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We were picked up by Rob, our guide, at 7am and set off for the Canyon, about an hours drive from Flagstaff. On the way we picked up Letrice, an older lady who was also accompanying us.

We arrived at the Canyon and took some photos as we drove to park the car. It was a lovely sunny day. It had said it would rain but the blue skies gave us confidence.

Rob kitted us all out with all our gear, including rather heavy backpacks and walking sticks. I laughed and said I wouldn't need the sticks but Rob told me that they really help lessen the pressure on your ankles and knees when walking down and aid pull ourself up on the walk back out of the canyon. Really glad I took them!!

The walk down was nice and slow paced as Letrice was a little slower than the rest of us. We stopped numerous times to take picutes - it's a really impressive place, the scenery and colours are amazing and it is sooooo big.

We stopped to have lunch and whilst tucking into our chicken wraps a rather large spider came to join us. Rob informed us it was a tarantula. Then it's mate turned up too and I decided that lunch time was over and moved on!

They were big spiders.

We got to our camp about 3pm and set up our tents. Then Laura and Rob went further down the canyon to collect some water whilst Letrice and I waited at the top for them - it looked too steep for me and it would have taken Letrice about 3 days to climb down and back out!!

It had started to cloud over a little and we did have a few spots of rain which gave the canyon a totally different appearance and resulted in a number of rainbows.

That night, Rob cooked Teriyaki tuna with courgettes and mash potatoes on a small gas fire and we finished off with chocolate pudding. No beans and sausages for us!!

No showers either and only a pit for a toilet which smelled like nothing I've ever smelt before and was surrounded by flies. It was the bush for us then, good job we only needed to pee!

As there's not that much to do in the Canyon after dark we were all in bed by about 9pm. At around 11pm it started to rain and didn't stop.

We were up around 7am for breakfast (choc chip pancakes!) and then we cleared everything up and set off walking about 11am. The rain was still coming down hard and we were all a little achey from the day before so the going was a little slower!

Laura and I made quite good time but unfortunately Letrice was more than a little slow and Rob had to wait for her. We managed to get to a spot where we'd stopped the previous day on the way down. We decided to stay here and wait for Rob so that we could get the car keys off him. We figured it would be warmer here than higher up in the carpark. We waited for just over an hour, getting colder and colder as time passed. When Rob rounded the corner we were absoltutely frozen and soaking wet. We grabbed the car keys and off we went.

The last bit was the worst for me. It was really steep and there were quite a few points where if you stumbled you'd be an obsolute goner. I don't know why I didn't notice this on the way down but it just seemed much higher and steeper climbing back up!

We got to the car, changed into some dry clothes and then sat with the heating on waiting for Rob and Letrice. They emerged about 2 hours later!!!

It was a really good trip. Even the rain didn't spoil it that much!

For the next 2 days we could hardly walk!!

Next stop, Las Vegas!

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So, we were off. We took the Pacific Highway up through Malibu, missed the turn to Santa Barbara and nearly ended up in Pasadena. This has nothing to do with my awesome navigation skills I hasten to add, it's just that we didn't have a proper map and the road signs in the states don't mention the nearby cities you want to get to, they only mention roads. So, on a main highway, you'll come across hundreds of signs saying 'Red Rock Boulevard' or 'Ashton Road' without the slightest mention of which town they are in...

Anyway, 8 days later we arrived in Santa Barbara. OK, 4 hours later (only 2 hours longer than it should have taken us!)

We stopped off at the Tourist Office and got a map of the area, found the hostel and then I drove Laura to the doctors again for her poorly ear (deafness). I love driving!

That night we partied with the locals at a bar down the main street and got followed home by a guy from our hostel who was slightly strange to say the least.

Laura Says:
It may seem that the only people we meet on this trip are ALL strange. I would just like to assure you that they're not but it doesn't make such interesting reading to write about the normal, nice people.
That said I wonder if we get a mention in anyone else's blog????

We spent another day in Santa Barbara walking around, Laura saw the sights and I went shopping. Bought 3 CDs for our new car as the radio here is awful. Best of Eurythmics, Keane and Monty Python soundtrack - awesome!!! They were cheap!

Laura Says:
The idea of having a Monthy Python CD in the car doesn't bare thinking about. Can you imagine J9's continuous hysterical laughter whilst driving round America?! Luckily it was The Full Monty CD, so I only had to listen to her rendition of Tom Jones instead.
Normaly I would've just edited the above paragraph for her but seeing as I had to endure complete humiliation at the start of the blog, re: my driving, I thought it best to point out her mistake :-)

The next day we headed for Palm Springs, another 5 hour drive. It gets a little bit hectic when you drive on the city ring roads because the 2 lane highway suddenly changes into a 6 lane highway and nobody her indicates so you have no idea what anyone else is doing until they cut you up.

Palm Springs

As there are no hostels in Palm Springs (far too posh) we opted for Motel 6 which ended up being cheaper than our hostel in Santa Monica. What luxury to have our own room, with TV and a clean private bathroom. And there was a pool outside too, it felt 5 star to us!

Laura says:
You will notice the facilities do not include a kitchen... ho hum, take outs for 3 nights then.

We hung out in PS for 3 days. We went to the Joshua Tree National Park and did a little hike and saw all the smog coming in from LA obscuring the view. We then spent a good couple of hours at the hotpools with all the old people.

The next day we rode the rotating cable car up to the top of Chino Canyon (8,516 ft) and had walk around there and then drove to another park and had a walk around there. Lots of desert here.

And that was Palm Springs.

We drove to Phoenix and spent a night there so didn't see any of it and so won't comment on it. Doesn't look too exciting though.

Then we took the scenic route up to Flagstaff through Prescott, Jerome and Sedona which was stunning.

And then we were in Flagstaff, ready for our Grand Canyon trip.

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So, after a week in the heart of Hollywood, some much needed R&R was called for and we headed for Venice Beach, only to be disappointed again!!

Another place that looks totally different when you see it in the magazines. It's a bit like Blackpool but weirder. And that's all I've got to say about Venice Beach, even the policemen we got chatting to that live there think it's a shit hole. I'll let Laura fill you in.

Laura says:
mmmm, harsh words J9.
I have to admit the real appeal for me, to visit Venice Beach, was the mention of it being home to the infamous 'Muscle Beach' - a kind of outdoor gym where buff men work out - what more reason could a female singleton have to go to a place, I ask ya?
OK so admitedly no one had actually described Muscle Beach like this to me but that was the picture I had in my little dreamy head.
Try aging over tanned leathery looking men in speedos sweating collectively on a Sunday morning...... I know it's not a pretty description but think yourself lucky, you didn't have to see it!

Santa Monica

Only a couple of miles up the road and things vastly improve. The beach is nicer and the loons have dispersed somewhat.

Our first stop was the omellette parlour for a massive breakie and then we had a wander around the area. Lots of nice shops and bars and restaurants that we won't be going in. I like it!

Despite it having a lovely beach, and it being deserted and the sun shining, we haven't actually done any sunbathing. We've been far too active and cultured for that!

We've hired bikes and spent 5 hours riding up and down the beach road. We were promised that it went on for 18 miles but it seems that the nice bike hire man was a little confused because it seemed to stop after about 1.8 miles. We tried in vain to ride around and find a new route but the 4 lane highway was a bit off putting and we didn't have our helmets on so we turned back and headed in the other direction! This time we tried to cycle to Malibu but again, the cycle path runs out just before you get there and turns into a SUV clogged super interstate. Oh well, we still managed to spend about 5 hours cycling around and getting sore buttocks.

The bikes were handed back and we went to play on the original Muscle Beach (the one down the road in Venice is the new sight), swinging on the bars and rings, or in Laura's case, watching me acting about 8 years old whilst she struggled to reach the rings. The little legs don't help.

The next day was Getty museum day. Just up the road but obviously it took us 2 buses and about 3 hours to get there. Again the bus driver was lovely and pointed us in almost the right direction when we got off the bus and it only took us 30 mins to find our way to get the tram to take us to the top of the mountain where the museum is. Nothing is easy here without a car...

Nice museum though.

And that's about it for Santa Monica. Our hostel was nice apart from some shitbag who kept stealing our food, not the brocolli or the grenn beans, but the nice big slice of choccie cake and the cookies. The things that you are really looking forward to eat... I did call them a rude word but this is a family blog so I'll leave our reaction to your imgainations!

I also got into a fight with a girl in our dorm, well almost. She kept putting her suitcase and her 2 other bags by my bed and not her own. I moved them and when she came in and moved them back I politely pointed out that it was blocking the way to my bed and the girl above me and was generally causing a mess and that she had ample space by and under her bed.

She in turn pointed out that she wanted her bed area clear....!!

Interersting.

I got a little cross at this and said that this wasn't possible and to please move her stuff. She ignored me and turned her back. So I grabbed her bags and put them by her bed.

She didn't like this and she told me not to touch her stuff. I said I wouldn't have to if it were not in my way and again pointed out that in a hostel room where there are 8 people, you sometimes have to forego the space that you are used to at home and SHARE. I was quite stern but didn't raise my voise too much.

Her response was to storm out!!!! For the rest of our stay we played a fun game of moving her bags back and forth.

Laura says:
I was very impressed with the way J9 handled the witch, she was very adult & calm about the whole thing....
To add a more interesting twist to the tale, I had actually swapped beds with J9, on arrival, giving her the bottom bunk & I was on the other side of the room on the top bunk. Therefore, when a note was placed on her bed for her to come to reception to discuss the situation it read: 'Laura Pagden, please come to reception as soon as possible', so anything J9 did was under my name anyway!
I din't mind though, the guy on reception had a smirk on his face the whole time, I think he found it pretty amusing.

Luckily we checked out the next day and hired our car, hooray!!

Next stop Santa Barbara

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The first thing I wanted to see was the walk of fame, where all the stars have their names in stars right along the pavement. Unfortunately it was a little disappointing - the walk of fame section of Hollywood Blvd is full of tacky shops selling tat that no self respecting tourist would buy like maps of the stars homes (yep, got one of those) and plastic Oscar statues (knew there was something I forgot!). There's also an awful lot of kinky lingery shops, selling outfits that only hookers would wear really, or maybe if you were going to a kinky sex party...

Anyway, we took a pic of Tom Jones star for my mum and walked along pointing at random stars asking each other, "Who's he?" and "Who's she?" Not heard of half of them.

Laura says: We were told that neither Al Pacino or Robert Deniro have their names on the Walk Of Fame? Apparently there is a commitee which organise the placement of the names but they require a contribution/payment - How bad is that?! Our cheque's in the post!

We also had a quick look outside the Grauman Theatre where some of the more famouse celebs and have had their hands and feet imprinted in the cement there. Johnny Depp has really big feet....

The next day we spent at Univeral Studios going on all the rides and taking a little look around the studios where they film lots of TV and films. It sorts of spoils it a bit as all the houses are all just fronts and they film loads of different films using the same props and just decorating them a little differently. Interesting though. We did get to drive along Wisteria Lane from Desperate Houswives. Didn't see anyone famous.

The best rides are The Mummy and the haunted house, where there are some actual people dressed up and they chase you around. I had to hold Laura's hand the whole way round and we screamed a lot!

We were also introduced to chilli chees fries, very nice!

Laura says: J9 gets very excitable at these theme parks, it's like spending a day with a toddler. She waved so hard at Spong Bob & Shrek I thought her elbow was elasticated. She even chatted to 'Donkey', from Shrek, & kissed him full on the mouth errrrrggghh.
If we make it to Disney I'm thinking one of those straps you tie to a childs wrists to keep them attached to you.

The next day we spent the WHOLE day on various buses. We couldn't find a decent map for love nor money so we guessed where we thought things would be! Everybody says you need a car to get around America and so far we've been fine and decided that if there are buses around LA then that was the way to go. Unfortunately, LA is huge, so spread out it takes hours to get anywhere, as we soon discovered. It took 2 buses and about 2 hours to get to Rodeo Drive and even when we got off the bus when we were told to, Rodeo Drive was about another 15 min walk away. Although everyone wants to be helpful, no one really knows how to get anywhere when you're walking or taking public transport.

But Rodeo Drive was nice, full of very expensive shops that we couldn't afford to go in, never mind buy anything!!

We then spent another 3 hours getting back to Hollywood via Santa Monica. It was a long day.

Laura says: the whole reason for going to Rodeo Drive was so J9 could live the 'Pretty Woman' experience, I seriously think she beleived she was Julia Roberts for the day. Luckily it was too hot for her wig & thigh high boots that day, so I didn't have to get her out of any awkward street corner situations.

We got back just in time for the hike up to Runyan Canyon to get a good view of LA and the smog and got back for the all you can eat barbie for $3! I did worry that I might see my half cooked burger again sometime during the night but luckily we were fine!

Laura Says: Every hostel, so far, has had a map of the area available but not here, hence it taking so long to get anywhere. I think it's all a huge ploy to get you on their tours: The Runyan Canyon Trek was $6.00 & the Bel Air Tour $7.00 which isn't much money but having to pay to follow someone round the streets seems a little harsh - It's just like doing it yourself (if you had a map) but with Germans.

Hollywood is full of wannabe actors, more so than San Fran, including our Australian guide on the hike. He starts shooting a film in January next year, so we instantly made him our best friend just in case he becomes famous.

The night ended with a few glasses of wine as we watched various new stand up comics try out there material on us. Some where funny, others were not.

The next few days we did the typical Hoolywood things:

We went to a showing of Jay Leno which was pretty good. Ashton Kutcher was on and and someone I've never heard of that is part of the american Office cast.

Laura Says: Again, she was like a child! before the show Jay comes out & chats about what's going to happen through out the filming, as it's live & there are no retakes. Then some people from the audience put their hands up to be chosen to have their picture taken with him, I couldn't believe that the hand that shot up next to me & the "me, me, me" chant was coming from J9?? I had to get her out of Hollywood asap!

That night we went out on the famous Sunset Stip. We got talked into going into The Roxy (apparently the place where a lot of famous bands first perform in LA!) by an old guy who we presumed was promoting the singer currently doing her set. And he promised to buy us drinks! It all went a bit weird from there - we found out he was some sort of mortgage man and he was there with his mate who was also in the money business, and the guy who was producing the singer currently performing.

We got chatting and they asked us what we did back in the UK. As always, we both made it very clear that we had given up our jobs and currently have the status of being unemployed. This did not deter this old chap. He started going on about how we could help to promote this singer in the UK through our jobs!!! Obviously this guy had heard the words "work in TV" only and thought bingo, these girls will make our singer famous in Europe!! After insisting on taking our phone numbers so that we could meet up the next day (we both made a mental note to switch them off) the guys left and me and Laura were left wondering whether we'd just stepped in and out of the twilight zone.

I know he was old, but his selective hearing and his own imagination was truely stretched.

But he did buy us a beer so we fogive him for being strange.

Laura says: However odd the experience may have been, I have to admit liking the sound of this guys translation of my job title, on introduction to his collegue, from Accounts Manager at Eurosport to "This is Laura, she finances film"... How cool

We also did a walk of the stars homes. There are so many of these offered around town and they cost about $50 but we did it with the hostel and it was $7 plus $3 for a bus pass!! You don't really get to see much as all the houses have massive gates and lots of security. We did see Aaron Spellings house as the security guards opened to gates for us so we could have a proper nosey!! It was very nice. We also got to chat to the security guard at the Playboy Mansion but he wouldn't let us in, spoilsport. The whole area of Bel Air and Beverly Hills is so plush, such a difference from Hollywood with all it's homeless peole. You can't really believe that all these magastars live in these $10 million plus houses and yet there are more homeless people in the state of California than there are in any other US state.

Firday night we went to watch our new friend Ashton Kutcher in his film, The Gaurdian and then we went out on the hostel bar crawl. Bit disappointing that all bars in LA close at 2am. We saw a fight in a pizza parlour which rounded the night off nicely!

Next stop, Venice Beach and Santa Monica.

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Laura mentioned that we were given a 1 litre bottle of wine by some kind soul whilst in San Francisco. It was in fact a gallon bottle of wine which is 4 litres and that's why it was such an effort to run half a mile with all our bags and a bloody big vat of wine (which I was carrying).

And the contents disappeared in 3 days = Laura has a serious drink problem (mum, I was drinking lemonade, honest)

Laura Says: Apologies for the error, I can only assume I was drunk at the time of writing!

Anyway, we took the Greyhound down to San Diego and were pleased to find our hostel right in the middle of the Gaslamp Quarter where all the bars and restaurants are situated. We were liking San Diego already!

We dumped our stuff and headed out for a bit to eat, a beer and a margarita.

It was really warm and sunny here and we spent the next few days walking around the town, doing a bit of shopping, eating and drinking and going to the doctors - Laura had an ear infection that had made her deaf in one ear. I told her it was just old age, deafness is quite common in really old people like her.

Laura Says: Going to the doctors was an experience in itself:-
The surgery was located only 10 minutes walk from the hostel & it's vibrant hustle & bustle but within 5 mins you could feel the vibe change... I really was heading DOWNTOWN.
The clean interior of the surgery didn't do the run down broken window exterior any justice - LUCKILY! & the staff were great ...considering the clientele! :-

• There was a couple who clearly thought they were on the Jerry Springer Show, arguing about why they'd actually come to the surgery in the first place?
• Maria, bless her, was most upset they wouldn't sign her relevent form to send off to the social & was demanding to see the nurse she had already insulted once this morning - She soon changed her mind once security were called.
• A lady in the corner, who would've got away with no one noticing how drunk she was had she not been called by the doctor & had to use the heads of the people sat down to get from one side of the room to the other??

All in all, it was a very entertaining 3 hours & something to write about in this blog.
PS: I am not old, at least I don't look it, so I keep being told ;-)

We went to a baseball game, the SD Padres versus the Arizona Diamond Backs. Luckily, after playing a bit of softball back home we managed to follow the game as the rules are pretty similar. We were suprised though how many bad balls the bowler makes. You'd think at this level they would get it right pretty much all of the time but it just doesn't happen, and these were two of the top teams playing. So Ben, you're not the only one who is a crap bowler!!!

It's not the most riveting of games, the only excitement comes when they score a home run and there was only three of them. The game lasted 3 hours and then they have to play again the following two nights - the longest game of sport ever?!

Luckily, like the rest of the crowd, we ate our way through the game. The amount of food that is on offer at these places is amazing and it's all really bad for you!

Laura says: I ordered a 'small' popcorn & thought I'd been misunderstood when they handed my something resembling the size of a 'small' adult?

Also, right at the end, this bloke called Trevor came on and everyone got really excited, shouting Trevor Time. It seems he is a really good bowler as he bowled 3 men out straight away and then the game was over and everyone was happy (apart from the Arizona fans obviously). What we couldn't understand was why they didn't bring him on at the beginning and just win a bit quicker...

Laura Says: I even bought one of those tacky foam fingers that everyone has at the game with 'Go Padres' printed on it. However, I was too shy to wear it & took it back to the hostel before the game.. & a good job too, I would never of been able to hold that, my popcorn, the hot dawg & my cola all at the same time!

J9 says - If she had've brought it, we would have definitely got on the big screen TV when they do the crowd shots, missed opportunity there....

Laura Further Says: It's definately not football!! (Well obviosuly - it's baseball) Everytime the ball is hit out of bounds fireworks go off & if all is too quite in the stadium a message pops up on the screens saying make some noise & everyone does. Each player has a theme tune which is played every time they're up to bat & the really odd bit = there are no offensive songs sung about the referee?

Anyway, after a few days in the city, we headed to the beach for a bit of R&R. We stayed at the Banana Bungalows which is a hostel right on the beach. Not the nicest of places but a great location. We spent 3 days chilling on the beach and then partying on the deck with the other guests. The first night a group had just come back from Tijuana in Mexico (you can just pop over the border for a day of drinking and strip clubs if the mood takes you). A few guys had obviously had a good day on the tequila and insisted on wearing their newly acquired wrestling masks all night and challenging everyone to a wrestle. One of them was pretty big so no one took him up on the offer except me but he chickened out, obviously my muscular right bicep put him off!

It was a good three days but then it was time to leave. We stopped back in the city for a night and met up with the lovely Josh who we had met in Hawaii and then again in San Fran. I will put his pic on for the girls as I think he has to be one of the most attractive men ever! And such a nice bloke too! He was so attractive that I just stared at him the whole time so he obviously thinks I'm some kind of loon. Luckily Laura was there to make the conversation!

Laura says: she's not joking, I've never seen her so quiet!

And that was San Diego - a really nice city and some really nice people, with a few less nutters than San Fran. We liked it!

Laura Says:
Don't forget Sea World! - yes we did the touristy theme park thing too... it's not all about cultural tours this travelling malarkey, you know. I had been to Sea World about 20 years ago & like Wagon Wheels it seemed so much bigger then. It still hasn't lost it's charm though, Schamu the killer whale is still as light on his flippers as he always was - he must be about 50 years old by now?
The only major differnece for me this time was the fact I think I was more petrified going on the rollercoaster than I was before. To help me adjust J9 made me go on it 4 times!!
Rather stupidly we did this at the end of the day & there is an awful lot of water involved & we couldn't dry off as quickly with the sun setting.
We kept being asked by passers by if they should head away from the ride but we said it'd be fine normally it's just that we were at the front & did it 4 times.
After 6 or 7 people asking us this J9 turned & said to me 'Do we really look that wet?" & burst into hysterics as she noticed my white vest top had a rather transparent apperance to it - not one for the children! & would explain why blokes were urging their wives/girlfriends to go on!

Next stop, Los Angeles

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We arrived around 9pm (after a 5 hour flight with American Airlines who made us buy our own lunch, tight wads). We'd booked a hostel in the Mission District which the Lonely Planet assured us was one of the cool, hip areas, with lots of groovy bars and clubs.

We were put in seperate rooms at the hostel as they didn't have 2 beds in the same room. The guy at reception said one of us would be unlucky and have to share a room with 11 actors. I didn't see the problem with this but the reception man seemed to think differently. Obviously I was the unlucky one and as I walked into the room I was greeted by a number of people who all wore black and white and had a load of white make-up on too. Interesting. It was soon explained that they were all actors in a silent black and white play and had been rehearsing that evening. They all had rather loud voices and talked a lot but I was saved by Laura who said there was a spare bed in her 4 bed dorm.

We went out for a burrito that evening, as that was all there was to get at midnight, and then retired for the evening.

(Laura Says:
I wouldn't say that we felt completely intimidated when we arrived the 1st night, although I can confirm that we are both able to jog the half mile from the subway to the hostel with 3 rucksacks & a wheelie suitcase.

Things have been made a little easier by the free litre bottle of wine we were given by some English guy who was leaving our hostel.

& can further confirm we are still able to jog with 3 rucksacks, a wheelie suitcase & a litre botlle of wine )

We spent the day wandering around, booking rental cars and hikes into the the Grand canyon. We explored the Mission a little but didn't really feel safe wandering around in the evening, it's not the nicest of areas and the lonely planet does warn that the area between 16th St and 24th St BART stations (exactly where our hostel was located) was a dodgy area and care should be taken. Wished we'd read that first!

So we moved to another hostel pretty sharpish, which was closer to Union Square and the main shopping area (hoorah!). We're still not in the best area (just next to the Tenderloin which also happens to be under the 'Dangers and Annoyances' section in the LP!) but it's easier to get around on foot from here.

There are a lot of homeless people here and a lot of weird people too. You get a lot of people talking to themselves or shouting randomly at people or just doing handstands on beer bottles on the corner of the streets.

(Laura says:
The don't talk to strangers moto comes in very handy here!
We were chatting to a guy in the hostel the other night who told us that the local goverment really look after homeless people in the city of SanFra,n hence it attracts such high volumes of destitute people.
The amount of them I've seen drinking from brown paper bags, I can only imagine they're offering away free booze, I ignorantly replied, whilst pouring myself another drink from our free litre bottle of wine)

The last few days we've been the typical tourists!

Saturday we took a tram up the Fisherman's Wharf. We bagged an external seat so that we could take it in turns to stand and lean out as they climed the hills, which are very steep.

We had a wander round this area and booked our tickets for Alcatraz the next day. There's lots of tat shops around here, selling everything any tourist may want and lots of cafes selling clam chowder in a big bread bun. Not tried it yet.

We then took a walk through China town. Why does every big city have a China Town? They definitely get around the Chinese! We sampled some free tea and then went to visit the Cable Car Museum as it's free and surprisingly very interesting. You can see all the big cables that are pulling the cable cars around the city and there's a bit of history about the city, especially on the big earthquake which happened in 1906 and destroyed most of the town. We then rolled back down the hills to the hostel.

That evening we watched Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds outside in Union Square for free. (You'll be noticing that free stuff features quite frequently in our days!)

We visited Alcatraz which was pretty cool. The cells in there are really small. We took an audio tour around the prison and heard from some of the guards and ex cons that spent time there. A lot of the island and buildings are under repair as they are crumbling but the prison itself is still in pretty good nick.

We saw the crookedest street and took the obligatory photos.

We then hiked right across town to see some Shakespeare in the park as we are highly cultered individuals darling. We saw the Golden Gate bridge, well some of it, as a lot of it was covered by the constant fog that seems to hang over San Fran. We watched the last act of the Tempest without having any clue of what's it's actually about (I didn't do that one at school!) and then ran off before they came around with the donation bucket and walked back along Union Street which is a really nice area. Hang out around here if you come to San Fran!!

Yosemite Park
We booked ourselves on a tour day trip to Yosemite National Park which:

"Not just a great Valley...

but a shrine to human foresight, the strength of granite, the power of glaciers, the persistence of life, and the tranquility of the High Sierra.

Yosemite National Park, one of the first wilderness parks in the United States, is best known for its waterfalls, but within its nearly 1,200 square miles, you can find deep valleys, grand meadows, ancient giant sequoias, a vast wilderness area, and much more".

They picked us up in San Fran and took us back to the hostel just outside the park (this journey took 3.6hrs, this country is massive). We spent the afternoon swimming in a little river and laying on the beach and then did some mountain biking down a high windy road. My bicycle skills were not as dire as last time I am pleased to report!

(Laura says:
The 'high windy road' was pretty steep, stoney with loads of switch backs, so I can confirm that J9's 'bicycle skills' are exceptional - as far as squeezing your left hand on the back break like your life depends on it go!)

The next day we were up early for our trip into the park. First stop was a walk up to the see some trees. Now, I really enjoyed my time in New Zealand but they were pretty obsessed with their Kauri trees and it seems that America are equally obsessed with their Giant Sequoias. Yep, they're pretty big trees but both Laura and I feel that we've seen our fill of trees and prayed that the whole day wouldn't revolve around tree spotting! We did walk through the one that they carved a big hole in to attract the tourists (and yes, someone did ask if it was natural or a man made hole...)

We then had a walk up to the top of a big granite rock called The Sentinel, where you get a really stunning view of the valley and all the high peaks etc. We had lunch there and asked our guide various questions whose replies always included the word probably.

"Is that a bush fire over there Douglas?"

"Yes, that's probably a bush fire" Then Douglas stands up to get a better view of the fire, "Yes, yes, that certainly looks like it's probably a bush fire"

Excellent! Good to know that our guides are so knowledgeble and so certain in their knowledge. From then on we tried to read all the information plaques so that we were sure we were getting the correct information!

The last hike we did was to the top of the Nevada Falls. It's 594 feet high and so there were a lot of steps to climb but the view from the top was pretty good.

(Laura says:
Would just like to point out that these 'steps' up to the falls are not your average 'steps' they are pretty deep & when you're only a 28" leg they are GIANT! However, being as athletic as we are now J9 came in 1st & I came in 3rd which wasn't bad going - 2nd was some 8ft South African guy with a 4ft inside leg)

It was a good day but perhaps a little too long spent in the car driving from place to place. We didn't see any mountain lions or bears although one bear did, allegedly run right in front of our van but only the driver saw it. We did see lots of squirrels though...

More photos have been added....

http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/J9travels/

Next stop, San Diego

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Oahu (pronounced o wa who)
We stayed at the Polynesian Beach Club hostel which is about 100 metres from Waikiki beach. Not the nicest of hostels on first impressions but the people really make it.

Our first day we went up to Diamond Head which was a WW2 look out post and it's built on the side of a huge volcanoe crater. This is where they had the radar system that spotted the Japanese planes that bombed Pearl Harbour (they thought they were American planes so didn't raise the alarm...) It was a really hot day (as it has been every day!) so we were sweating buckets by the time we got to the top. Nice. An interesting trip though and you get a great view of Waikiki and Honolulu.

Laura says:-
J9s version of the views from Diamond Head should actualy focus more on our tour guide, Josh, from Tenerife - she wont disclose that sort of informaion but I can!

Laura says:-
Day one actually happened twice as we crossed the date line. We have decided that this has made no impact to our ages, meaning everyone should continue to estimate our ages at about 24-25 & not 24-25 + 1 day.
Having the same day twice does make you tired but also has many, many advantages... for instance:
2 breakfasts, one being a rather large American one complete with pancackes & hash browns (& optional RICE?? - what's that all about).
2 Dinners, one of which was instantly decided upon when walking down Waikiki beach & seeing the massive que outside Cheesburger in Paradise.
No it's not all about fast food here, or is it?

I think Waikiki is really nice. There's loads to do here and the nightlife is pretty good. It's really touristy but still cool. Very American though, with loads of fast food restaurants everywhere and everything is BIG.

We spent an afternoon at Hawaii's biggest shopping centre. We were there about 8 hours and only covered one floor, it was MASSIVE. You can get anything and everything here. Except a cheap US sim card....

Laura says:-
Not a good place for those with no sense of direction.. yeah like me! luckily J9 seemed to know which side of the complex we needed to be on to catch our bus back..... I say 'seemed', turned out she didn't.

I think you'll find I did, in the end... When it comes to directions do not believe a word Laura says - after spending long painful minutes looking at maps she still manages to take us the wrong way. This has happened many times. Poor J9 has to grin and bear it as Laura can get quite cross when I point out the right way in mere seconds...!!!

The first few days we spent some time on the beach, but seriously, it was just too hot to sunbathe, the sand was too hot to lie on! We also had a night out that the hostel organised, we went to a bar where the vodka was only a dollar, awesome!! Paid for it the next day though!.

The next day we went to the North Shore to relax a little bit but partied even harder there with some crazy Dutch and some crazier Canadians, hanging out on the beach until 5am most nights.

We went snorkelling and saw some turtles. The water was a bit murky so we were a bit worried the pictures wouldn't come out but then 2 of the turtles decided to come out onto the beach for a kip so we got loads of cool photos!!!

Back to Waikiki for a couple of nights - Sunday night we watched the Inside Man on the beach on a massive screen for free and then Monday we flew to Maui (almost missed the flight too!)

Maui
We decided to spend a week in Maui. We met an irish guy and girl in Fiji who recommended staying at the Banana Bungalows on Maui as they did daily tours around the island so it would save on renting a car.

We booked it all and then heard a rumour that they Bungalows had had a case of bed bugs. Now, you all know how I react to bed bugs after receiving +500 bites from the little critters whilst sailing around the Whitsundays, so you can imagine I wasn't looking forward to staying there. But, with not a lot of other options we went anyway. I asked the woman on reception and she confirmed they had had them and put us in a room that had been cleaned and treated. Unfortunately, as I got into bed that night I spotted a bug and obviously didn't sleep a wink that night.

Luckily it must have been the last remaining bug alive as we were bite free the next morning.

Our first trip was the road to Hana. A long day spent driving along the twisty turny coast road, stopping off at a black beach, a red beach, some caves that we could swim in and seeing one of Oprah Winfrey's many houses. We also did a 2 hour trek up through a bamboo forest to a really bigh waterfall. It was so nice to get under the waterfall as the heat was pretty extreme and most of us had had to run most of the hike as our guide was walking so fast. It was a good day though and we were all pretty shattered when we got back.

We also decided to spend a few days in Lahaina on the other side of the island. There's a new bus service that's just started in Maui so it was only a dollar.

Lahaina is really nice. More touristy than Wailuku (which is where we were staying) and very pretty. We found the one hostel only to be told that they were full so we found a hotel and spent $116 on a night there. It was nice though, sooooo good to have your own bathroom and nice white clean sheets and no bunk beds, pure luxury!!!

We had a walk around the town, saw some of the sights and then had a lovely fish dinner on the front. We were really treating ourselves!!

The next morning the manageress phoned early to say that if we wanted to stay another night she would only charge us $80! Well, I was well up for this. I mean, 8 months staying in shitty places, sharing rooms with 6 or more strangers, etc. etc., I deserved a second night of luxury.

Sensible Laura pointed out that it was too expensive to stay here and that we might risk losing our money on our reservation at the Banana Bungalow, as we had heard this happen to another girl.

However, I was not going to be deterred so we made a plan where I would ring them up and lie. Obviously I had no problem doing this and explained that Laura was a little unwell and didn't want to risk the bus journey (a polite way of saying she had the s**ts and couldn' stray far from the loo!). They beleived us (awesome acting skills that I have!) and we stayed another night. We spent the day seeing more sights and then went to Bubba Gumps restaurant for fish and chips!

Laura says:-
sensible Laura lasted all of 30 seconds then Mai Tai & sunset Laura kicked in & allowed J9 to lie through her teeth... she really is quite good at it you know.

We got up the next morning bright and early ready to take the bus back to Wailuku so that we could put our name down on the Volcanoe tour for the following day. Unfortunately the Good Lord had been watching and felt that my lies had to be punished and so started a massive bush fire between Laihana and Wailuku and the police closed the road....

This being Labor Day weekend, all the hotels in Lahaina were now full and so we spent an interesting 8 hours waiting to see if the bus would ever leave. This is after getting on the wrong bus and ending up at a shopping centre somewhere random, that was Laura's fault.

So, we sat around with probably some of the weirdest people that I've ever encountered. No offense to the people of Hawaii as I know you get odd people everywhere, but that night we definitely met some people whose family trees wouldn't be that extensive, if you know what I mean, small gene pools...

Laura says:-
Not only did we have to spend the day sitting around with these nutters they were waiting for the same bus & when I say bus I mean MINI bus... there was no escaping these guys, it was possibly the longest day of my life (& that includes the one I had twice!)

The bus finally went at 8pm and it took us 2.5 hours to make it across the island. The bush fire was pretty big and was still raging when we drove past.

We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere but a kindly woman gave us a lift back to the hostel and warned us not walk around late at night as this was where the druggies liked to hang out. Nice.

The next day we were up early to try and get in on the volcanoe crater walk. It was all full (no thanks to an annoying older lady we were sharing a room with who was taking a place despite having no intention of actually doing the walk). Luckily, a random Swiss guy rented a car and 8 of us piled in that. We dropped everybody off at the top and then me and Swiss man took the car back to the car park where we would finish the hike and hitched back up - my first (and probably last) attempt at hitch hiking!

It was a good day and a really long walk - 6 hours in total. We hiked right across the crater and then right up the steep cliff out of it which for me was a bit hairy. Not too keen on high mountain ledges. But we did it and then we all jumped back into the car and drove to the top to watch the sunset. Cool.

Laura says:-
It was a SOLID 6 hour walk - we stopped for lunch for literally 10 mins. Had it been left up to the French couple in our group it would've been an hour & 1/2 + coffee + cigarette!

The next day we flew back to Waikiki and spent a few more days chilling there.

We went to Pearl Harbour which was interesting, and saw the Arizona ship which is still under the water with all the people on it that went down with it.

Laura did a surf lesson and going by the pictures looked pretty much like a natural, I'll see if she'll let me put one on.

Laura says:-
Oh go on then, will have to wait a little longer though as I need to airbrush my stomach 1st, in keeping with the rest of Hawaii you understand!
Despite the fast food joints, Hawaii, Waikiki especially, has a real athletic feel to it - I even went jogging in the mornings!!! I know!! - what's going on there!!! I was in real good company too - everyone is at it (except J9 who doesn't need to jog, she has that Hawaiian bikini body already, my european hips need a little help :-)

Next stop, San Francisco

Laura & J9 footnote:-
You know you've hit America when being asked the following questions:
"Ah England - 'Top of the mornin' to ya'" ???
"London?" - "where abouts in the states is that?"
"England" - "Is that near the United Kingdom"
"Do you ever get to see King Charles?"

Will add more as we get them - I'm sure there'll be more ;-)

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As this is 2 weeks worth of blog I'll try my best to summarise!

We arrived in around 5pm and it was a warm balmy evening so the jackets and the boots and the socks came straight off. We'd booked all our accommodation so we were greeted at the airport and taken to our hotel in Nadi. We sorted all our stuff out so that we just took one bag with our bikinis in and things and left all our warm stuff in storage - this would prove to be a mistake!

Early next morning we were picked up and taken to the boat so that we could start our 10 day tour of the Yasawa Islands. There's a boat that make the trip around the islands every day called the Yasawa Flyer so you can hop on and off and visit different islands when you want.

Our first stop was the Wanataki cruise ship. Now, don't get ideas that this is some luxury liner that cruises around the islands - this is used by back packers so it's a little more basic than that! The upstairs is where the bar, kitchen and sunbathing/dining area is and downstairs is the 24 bed dorm! We grabbed a bed and headed out into the sunshine.

The day was spent sunbathing and getting to know the others. Laura went off snorkelling to see the mantarays so she can tell you about that:

(Lauras note) They're really really big (I'm summarising too!)

The evening we spent playing a strange Fijian game where you had to flick chess like pieces around a big wooden board and playing drinking games with a nice bunch of Israelies (If you look on Greg's site, there is a picture of the same game).

Whilst we waited for the Yasawa Flyer to pick us up and take us to our next island, we took it in turns to jump off the top deck of the boat. It's only about a 15 foot jump but when you're stood up there is feels like a 100 foot drop! All the guys did it no problem but it took the girls a little longer. Once I'd jumped and assured everyone it was fine all the girls had a try (obviously after standing at the top deliberating for a good 25mins before they took the plunge!)

The only one not to jump was Laura. After throwing herself out of a plane at 12,000 feet she thought a 15 feet jump in the sea was a little too much!!!! After much goading from me and fellow passengers (how she was the biggest chicken that we had ever known, she would always be remembered as the girl who didn't jump etc etc.) she quietly walked up to the top when no one was watching and did it, hooray!! Obviously some people didn't see it and she will no doubt remain in their minds a disgraced non-jumper, but I saw it so will vouch for her!

(Lauras note) For the record I was in the water the whole time the other jumpers were throwing themselves in the sea.... I didn't see anyone else volunteering for 'shark look out'!

Coral View, Tavewa Island
This was a first island stop and proved to be a nice one. We spent 3 days here and met some really nice people. The dorm was fine but the bathroom facilities were not really what we expected. The showers were of the slow drip variety and it was sea water so you never really felt clean, we just felt constantly sticky! And there was no light so it was all guess work how clean you were.

The first few days we spent on the beach around the other side of the island, snorkeling and sunbathing and coming back at the alloted times to be fed. Food on the island wasn't bad but it wasn't really what we expected. Apart from breakfast, all the food was plated up and served so there wasn't much options and not much chance of seconds either which for some of the guys we met was a bit of a problem!

The morning of our departure was a bit wet and windy to say the least. I got a little wet in the night as the window by my bed didn't have any glass in it so all the rain blew in and soaked my pillow and my head!

All of us that were moving islands sat around in the dining area watching the rain. At this point no one voiced any concerns about the roughness of the sea and our passage to the Yasawa Flyer. To explain - when you go on the Flyer to a new island, the ferry stops between a couple of resorts and all these little wooden boats come out and drop pasengers off and collect new passengers. You point your luggage out and it gets thrown into the appropriate boat and off you go.

When it finally came to getting into our little boat the wind was howling and the sea was raging. Seriously, it was!! We all climbed in and and set off. I was cunning enough to pack my Mac in a Sac(!) so I almost stayed dry. Everyone else was instantly soaked.

It was a little rough to say the least and you couldn't really see because you had to keep your eyes closed against the rain and the sea water which was really salty and stung. We'd got around to the other side of the island and could see the Flyer in the distance when the guys at the back pointed out the the boat was quickly filling with water. Panic took over some of the guests and they demanded to be taken to the beach for fear of the boat sinking. The guys sailing the boat didn't seem too worried (no one ever worries in Fiji it seems) but they eventually did as we asked and we all got out onto the beach.

Luckily, from out of nowhere, another boat came over to help out and offered to take us to the Flyer in a non sink boat. Most of us jumped in as we needed to get to the Flyer where our luggage was and get to another island. However, a few of them were too traumatised (one lady had lost her glasses, they'd been blown off by the wind and rain) to get back in the boat and said they would walk back around to Coral View and stay there again, despite having no luggage. Not sure what happened to them...

We managed to get on the Flyer, grab our luggage and then get straight back into another boat to go to another resort. All in all it wasn't our best sailing experience!

(Lauras note) On the up side of this story, apart from the fact we survived, we became pretty famous throughout the islands, everyone had heard about 'The boat that sank on storm day' & were in awe to actually meet two people who were on it. Obviously the story had become somewhat exaggerated so we were able to put people straight & tell them how we had single handedly overthrown the crew, sailed the passengers to safety & only wresttled 4 sharks not 5 in the process - tsk, see how these things are so easily blown out of proportion.

Sunshine Resort, Nanuya Laylai
It was awful here, we only stayed one night. The dorm was awful and felt damp, the food was really bad and always cold and the showers were non existant.

We did meet 2 nice girls from Louisiana who told us to head down their way when we got to the States and watch the famous Prison Rodeo which sounds awesome!

Coconut Bay, Naviti
We had heard good things about Coconut Bay and it was OK. The weather was still a bit rubbish so most of the time was spent reading or playing cards.

Each evening, the guys at the resort would put on a little show of Fijian dance which was nice to watch, mainly because all the guys were well ripped!!!!

One evening we went to have Kava with them all. This is the local Fijian drink which is made out of some sort of tree root which is ground up and added to water and results in a drink which looks and tastes a lot like muddy water. It is a non alcoholic drink but has a slight numbing affect on the mouth and if you drink enough of it can have some slight hallucinatory affect on the brain, apparently!

(Lauras note) To have a slightly numbing effect on J9s mouth is reward enough for drinking this stuff.

After 3 nights here, the sun came out and so we decided to upgrade for our last 2 nights and went to Bounty Island.

Bounty Island
They had hot showers here that weren't sea water and each meal was an all you can eat buffet so we packed in as much as we could. I think we both gained half a stone!! We also met up with a nice scottish couple we had met at Coral View and spent the evenings beating them at pool.

We also took a walk around the island (which took 20mins) to see what is left of the Celebrity Love Island lodgings. Not a lot apart from the Love Shack and the jetty where they did all their commentary from so we took the obligatory pictures and then laid on the beach some more.

And we had a go at rafting which I thought was a bit dull to be honest!

(Lauras note) It was Kayaking actually & considering I was the only one doing any rowing I can't see what her problem is?

After 2 days of eating as much as we could, our time on the islands came to an end and it was back to the mainland.

Sorry, it's getting a bit long, I'll really try and summarise the next bit!

Fiji Experience

Awesome trip! We had a really good group of people and the guide was excellent. We spent 4 days travelling around the main island doing different activities and seeing different towns. Highlights include sandboarding, visiting villages in the different territories, having a kava ceremony with the chief and then hanging out with him and his people, tubing down a dirty river in the pissing down rain and cold and generally having a great time.

This was the best bit of our stay in Fiji and I wished we could have spent a bit longer in some of the places that we passed through. I would totally recommend this trip.

(Lauras note) ditto on this, the village tour was one of the best moments, all the children wanted to hold our hands & show us around their village - it was like Angelina Jollie on a Hello shoot but clearly we're prettier.

We learnt loads about the ways & traditions of the Fijian people. Amazingly the chiefs of the 14 provences are still a major influence over their tribes & it's people & highly repected figures, so it was a real honour to spend some time with one of them..... & drink his Kava... errrrgh that stuff really is awful!

We found out later we could've stayed over at the chiefs hut & helped at the local schools but we had run out of time - maybe I'll have another opportunity to leave J9 in some remote village somewhere?

And then it was all over.

Next stop hawaii

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Rotorua is commonly known amongst non-locals as "Rottenrua" due to the rotting egg-like odour of the Hydrogen Sulphide gas produce by the prolific geothermal activity. The odour is most noticeable on cooler and rainy days,especially when there is low cloud, although most locals are immune to it and are usually unaware of its presence.

The especially pungent smell in the central-east 'Te Ngae' area is due to the dense sulphur deposits located next to the southern boundary of the Government Gardens, in the area known as 'Sulphur Point'.

How anyone can be immune to such a smell I have no idea. The place stinks and we stayed 3 whole days!!!

A lot of time was spent at the Polynesian Spa, soaking in hot mineral pools and generally being lazy. And we went to the cinema and.....

Well, it was a nice relaxing 3 days!

We then went off up to Mount Manganui for a quick 1 night stop. A nice little seaside town with a mountain at the end of the main street. Well, they call it a mountain but we thought Mound Manganui was more appropriate. Probably the smallest "mountain" we have ever seen.

We stayed in a nice little hostel and met some lovely people.

Next day we went off to Whitianga. We stopped off at Hot Water Beach along the way where we dug a hole in the sand and all this hot water bubbles up and fills the pool and then you just get in and relax. Your own mini beach spa pool.

From Whitianga we were meant to go to Thames and stay there for 2 nights but our lovely bus driver Lisa said it was very dull so we came back to Auckland.

So here we are. We had a night out on Sunday with some of the tour bus drivers and some other travellers and rocked in about 6am. A quiet night!

Next stop Fiji - don't be exciting anything more for a while. We will mostly be spending the next 2 weeks lying on a beach catching some rays.

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So, we were up early to catch the bus to Taupo. We had a nice group of people on our bus, some that we'd met before, others that had just joined.

On the way down to Taupo we stopped of at the Lody Knox geyser which is a, er, geyser and they put soap down it and then you wait a bit and then all the water shoots up about 20 feet into the air. Not the most exciting spectacle but worth a look.

We also stopped off at Tuapo Rock and Ropes centre and a few people did a little bungy swing, but not Laura and I, we had other things on our minds.

Next stop was the SKY DIVE centre. Yes, that's right my friends, black water rafting and abseiling just wasn't enough for us so we signed up to do the 12,000 feet sky dive (is this exciting enough for you Griff?!).

There were 12 of us on our bus that had decided to do it and 2 of those had done it before!

We were picked up by Dave, a brummie, and driven over to the centre. On the way we stopped to watch a goup of jumpers in the distance. They seemed to be very high up. This made me a little nervous.

And then we were there signing in and getting weighed. There was then a good hour of waiting around for our turn because the weather was soo good they were having a really busy day, everybody in Taupo wanted to jump out of a plane it seemed. Laura and I were put in a group with Leanne, a lovely English girl on our bus whose friend Hannah had decided not to do it (sensible girl), a Japanese girl who I don't think realised what she'd signed up for!! And 2 American guys who were jumping from 15,000 feet.

We got all dressed up in the lovely jump suits and harnesses and gloves and hats and goggles - we looked hot. And then waited for our jump masters. Mine was called Benny and I had Liam as my camera man (yes, I wanted moving picture proof that I had done this!). And then we were off.

I was 3rd into the plane which was good as it meant that I wasn't going to be first to jump. Laura was last on. Unlucky!

We were all crammed into the tiniest of planes and we set off up straight away doing quite a steep climb. After about 10 minutes Leanne said to me that this looked like a good height to jump but we were kindly informed that we were only at 5000 feet! Another 7000 still to go. I was slightly nervous but not as much as I thought I would be. It was so nice and clear you could see for miles so it was nice to enjoy the view!

And then it happened all sooooo quickly. All of a sudden, the plane door went up and Laura wasn't there anymore. Oh my god!

We climbed forward and there I was, hanging out of a plane at 12,000 feet with my jump master telling me to turn round and smile for the camera!! Which I did.

And then we jumped! It was such a weird feeling that it's really hard to describe. I'd taken a deep breath as someone had told me to keep my mouth shut otherwise you get winded. But after the first few seconds I felt fine and was screaming like a banshee!!!

I didn't even really get the stomach lurch that you usually get when you drop out of a plane or on a bungy jump. Almost as soon as we were out of the plan it felt like we were just floating.

The camera guy was there and at first I wondered what he was doing coming up so close and grabbing me and then I realised I was being filmed so did my best to smile whilst falling at 200kph!! It seemed to last forever and at the same time it was over in seconds. Well, quite literally as we were only allowed to free fall for 45 seconds!!

When he pulled the parachute we flew up sharply and then we were just floating again and the goggles came off and I could admire the view. Awesome! He kept pulling the parachute cords so that we cirlced round and round one way then the other and then we landed.

All over so quickly but what a buzz! The best thrill ever and I would totally recommend it. I'll definitely do it again if the opportunity comes up. If you come to Taupo you have to do it!!!! Not one of us was disappointed. We were all on a total high!!

Celebrations were in order that evening and all 12 of us went out in our Sky Dive tee-shirts!!!

So glad I did it but still can't believe I have!!!

I've downloaded some photos onto my site:

http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/J9travels/

Laura's story:- mmmmm yes, as soon as I realised I was the last to get on the plane I asked possibly the most rhetorical question ever posed: "Am I 1st then?" - "Yep". This meant that I was sat on the floor by possibly the thinist piece of clear plastic I ever seen been called a door, complete with slight crack!
I was so lucky as I had the nicest Tandum Master (is it me or does that sound rude) ever, called Brad who just kept chatting to me all the way up & told me loads of Essex jokes? (didn't realise they'd made it this far).
The door went up & I had to swing my legs round out of the plane & my camera man stepped beside me. Brad informed me that we had to wait until the light went green... WAIT! WAIT! oh yeah right ok, I can WAIT here, legs dangling 12000 feet above the ground!!
I don't know what Brad said to me after that but I remember informimg him that the light had gone green & as he thanked me for this advice I was tilted forwarded out of the plane. I don't remember screaming but apparently, I found out later, J9 had done this for me anyway. The free fall was possibly the longest 5 seconds I have ever encountered but god what a buzz, there's no time for wondering if you're feeling scared or not, it's just amazing. I seem to remember screaming AWESOME! at the cameraman (all extreme sports peeps say stuff like that you see).
The chute went up & you go from horizontal to verticle instantly & the next part of the trip follows. I was asked how I felt & I couldn't quite put a sentence together but I made noises assuring I had enjoyed it & so I was introduced to some mad spinning moves on the descent. Plus somehow he managed to release the tension in the chute so you just feel like you're dropping which makes your stomach lurch & then the tension takes hold again. I said I wasn't sure if I liked that so much so Brad happily did it another two times so I could decide for sure mmmm. So that was that, needless to say I proposed to Brad immediately after I got my feet on the floor.

Not sure we can top that really but we'll see. Next stop Rotorua.

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These are the main tourist attraction and why Waitomo was our first stop on our little tour of the north island.

It's only a small place and if you're not down the caves then there isn't much for you to do.

Whilst on the bus we were flicking through the list of activities trying to decide what we wanted to do, or more importantly, what we dared to do.

I fancied the caving as I really wanted to see the glow worms but wasn't sure whether I wanted to take the easy option of a boat ride through it and therefore not get wet. However, seen as it was chucking it down, Laura wisely pointed out that we were going to get wet whatever we decided to do. So, blackwater tubing through the Glow Worm caves it was. I'm pretty glad I didn't know what this entailed before I went down.

We arrived in Waitomo and there were 8 of us who had decided to do the tubing. We were taken by a quite large young man called Kerry down to a shed to change into our wetsuits. We all stripped off into our bikinis (except the lads, who wore trunks)and then spent a good half hour trying to squeeze into already wet wetsuits. Once in there was little room for movement, I found that I couldn't really bend my legs and was slightly worried that the blood wasn't getting to my feet.

We were then given hard hats and all piled into the minibus and driven to the top of a hill in a field. We were joined by Winny, who was even bigger than Kerry (and when I say big, I don't mean tall!). Someone made a comment that if the caves were small we might get stuck but Kerry pointed out that if he and Winny could get through, we'd have no problems..!

We each picked up a black rubber ring and then climed down into the depths of the cave.

As soon as we were told to turn the lights off on our helmets the place was lit up with tiny flourescent lights. Thousands of glow worms. I was enjoying this!!

We walked a bit further into the caves and then the really deep water started. It was brown and really bloody cold too. We were all told to sit in out rings and then you had to grab the feet of the person behind you and rest them on your ring (fnar fnar!!). This meant that as we sailed down the depths of the cave we would all keep together!! Well, that was what was meant to happen. Unforntunately for Laura, the Japanese girl in front of her was having a hard time understanding the feet holding principle and kept grabbing onto my shoulders and letting Laura float away (they still have't found her, ha ha ha!!!!).

So we floated along in the the really cold dirty water with our lights off marvelling at all the glow warms. It really was a spectacular sight, there's millions of them.

We then came to our first waterfall. Only about 8 feet high but we had to fall backwards over it onto our rings, keeping our mouths shut so as not to get a mouthful of dirty water. This was a little difficult for me as I found it all so funny and was therefore unable to keep my mouth shut. I swallowed a lot of dirty water which will no doubt result in me getting some dirty water desease!

We did some more floating and then it was the 20 foot water slide down another waterfall. Awesome!!! It's very strange to be sitting on a black rubber tube 100 feet underground getting ready to slide down a plastic slide. Unfortunately, Kerry had taken a bit of a shine to Laura and I and decided that before we wooshed down the slide, he'd pull our heads back so that all the dirty water gushing down the waterfall went right into our wetsuits and all over our faces. Another healthy lungfull of cave water for each of us. Nice.

At the bottom of the slide we were given a hot drink of orange and continued our way through the cave to the exit. This was the hardest bit, walking through a cave, hot orange in one hand, a blig black rubber tube in the other and only a small torch on our heads. Not many of us got to drink that hot orange as most of it spilled out.

It was a great experience though. Some people were literally shaking with the cold by the time we finished but we had hot showers and soup back at the shed. Awesome!!!

And if that's not enough, the next day we'd booked to go abseiling!!!

To give J9's typing fingers a rest I will tell you about the abseiling + there's no reason for having 2 blogs on the go, when no one can be arsed to read one as it is.....so
Abseiling you say? yes abseiling. That's the one where you lower yourself down cliffs & things on ropes yeah? oh yes... & that's exactly what we did.

We had to go back to the same office as we'd been yesterday for the caving & we were horrified to be met by Kerry again with a glint in his eye, informing us we would spend the afternoon with him again. J9 promptly & politely replied "I'm not going anywhere with you" which made him laugh but the group preparing for caving looked a little shaken by this. We're pro's now & flipantly waved the young cavers off & met our real abseiling guide for the day Ross - who had one leg & eye patch..... only jestting, but could you imagine!

We were taken by mini bus up to the top of the hills - we were calm at this stage.
We were fitted into harness's & the same god awful wellies we had to wear yesterday (this meant more wettness) - we were calm at this stage too.
We donned hard hats & were taken over to a rope to secure our cows tails to (that's professional term for the clips you secure from your harness) - still calm.
We came to a metal contruction & platform which as we got closer realised it was positioned above a rather large chasm - calm isn't exactly a word I'd use at this stage but it wasn't anything compared to the fear we felt as we were told to swing round & sit on the metal bar across the abyss & then let our legs dangle!
Being a true friend I allowed J9 to do this bit 1st, normally such cowardness would of enraged her but she was too scared to notice I'd even volunteered her.
So there we were dangling 60 meters above not a lot & gradually began to descend. Now I'm not showing off but that initial dread soon passes & about 10 meters down we were already jesting about stopping off for cups of tea - my how we laughed. Our guide was ace too & kept telling us how well we were doing, so we tried to race him down the final stretch. It really was amazing!
Unfortunately, what goes down must go up & luckily, after all the joking about "well, you only paid for an abseil" we had to climb back to the top again... mmmmm.... we wondered... how?????
By ladder!!!! yep, lots of em as well. This was almost as worrying as the initial descent because now we were climbing away from the ground - why would anyone want to do that?
Well we did it & to reassure ourselves that we really were brave & the 1st time wasn't a fluke we did it all over again....
Loved it!!

Next stop Rotorua

Waitomo remains copyright of the author J9travels, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Laura ariived on Wednesday sans luggage. That had gone to Singapore. Luckily, NZ is quite efficient compared to the UK and after talking to one person at the airport the luggage was found and dropped off at the hostel that evening with minimum fuss.

We spent a few days in Auckland waiting for Laura to get over her jet lag. She said she was fine but would promptly fall asleep at 7pm and then be waking me up at 4am.

We then decided to get a bus up to the Bay of Islands.

On the way up we stopped off at various points. One time to look at a big Kauri tree. These are really big old trees that the Kiwi's are very proud of despite there not being many left because the Europeans chopped most of them down. Now they are protected so when they find a really big old one they make it into a tourist attraction.

We also stoppped off in Opononi to watch a short film about Opo the gay dolphin. He swam into the harbour in 1955 and was instantly a huge star because of his friendly nature. They said he was gay because they were trynig to be politically correct!?! Anyway, he was a big star until he died 2 years later. No one knows why he died but some say that he might have got in the way of the local fishermen who used to fish with dynamite... What they did find out when his body was washed up was that Opo was in fact a girl... He/she is buried in the village and there's a little statue of him/her.

We based ourselves in Paihai which is a nice little coastal resort just on the Bay of Islands.

We took a day trip up to Cape Reinga which is the northern most point of NZ that you can reach by vehicle. A nice little spot with a lighthouse and where the Pacific meets the Tasman sea. We had a nice guide called Murray who assummed we were all a bit hard of hearing (well, Laura is getting on a bit) as he liked to say everything twice. He kept us all entralled with various stories throughout the day. He was particularly found of stories involving cars sinking on 90 mile beach. We heard a few of them...

It was a long day on the bus but the sights were good. We were told all about the Kauri tree again (I even bought a bit for $16, it's 40,000 years old!).

We also went boogie boarding on the sand dunes which was really cool, photos to follow.

And we took a stroll along 90 mile beach which is actaully only 64 miles long but the NZ tourism quite rightly agreed that no one would visit it if they called it 64 mile beach so they lie and say it's 90 miles long to pull in the tourists. It works, we went!!

The next day we hired bikes and went for a ride. We followed the only road out of town which soon turned into the longest gravel road ever so the day turned into more of a bike push than a bike ride. We took a picnic though and ate that at the top of a big hill with glorious views of the bay and 100mph winds. It's really hard to put crisps in your sarnies when it's that windy!

We also took a boat trip out into the Bay of Islands which is pretty much what it says it is, a big bay with loads of islands. We saw the hole in the rock, again another fine example of creative naming, it's a big rock with a hole. The trip was OK but improved as soon as we sailed into a big pod of crazy dolphins. There were loads of them and they were all coming right up to the boat and diving out of the sea, it was pretty spectacular. Unforntunatley we weren't allowed to swim with them as there were babies in the pod but they were nice to see.

Our final day we took a walk up to the Treaty House where the Maoris signed the agreement to give NZ to the British. We managed to get in for free by taking the coastal walk up to the grounds and sneaking around. Laura is already getting into the traveller ways of getting stuff for free or as cheaply as possible. Didn't take her long, the pikey!

Then it was the bus back to Auckland.

Next stop, Waitomo

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A nice ride across the Cook Strait and we arrived in Welly!

I've been here just short of a week and enjoyed it. It's a nice ciplace, has a city feel to it and there are loads of lovely bars and restaurants. The most upmarket place I've been to yet in NZ and I feel very scruffy wandering around in my traveller clothes but I haven't been shopping. Well, OK, I have, but I only bought a new bag and that was because mine broke so I had to!

The weather hasn't been too great (it's cold and rainy at the moment) so I have been doing a lot of indoor activities, which include spending many hours in coffee shops, eating cake and watching the world go by and reading my book!

They have a really good museum called Te Papa which is their national museum and tells you all about the history of NZ and what we Europeans destroyed when we got here (75% of their forestry) and explains the story of the Maoris. A good place, well worth a visit.

And that's about it. Yes, I am being a bit dull but I'm saving pennies for when Laura arrives!! I did have a night out the other night. Nice glass of wine which turned into several once I got chatting to some nice local men who insisted on buying me drinks. What's a girl to do?! Felt a little bit rough the next day!

But now I must continue up north. Next stop is Taupo where I will assess the idea of doing a sky dive and whether I can convince Laura to do it too. I'll let you know.

Getting the Kiwi Experience bus too. I said I wouldn't but it's $30 cheaper than the others... Wonder if I'll be oldest passenger!

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So, I had to stay in a place called Swampy's. The name didn't fill me with hope and I wasn't disappointed... A bit of a s**t hole to say the least. Now I know that when the Lonely Planet says it has "atmosphere" or "character" it means it's old and dirty and is in the middle of nowhere.

I only stayed 2 nights there as it just wasn't for me. The people staying there were all really lovely though, but how they spend 10 hours outside in the cold working for peanuts I don't know. I feel very lucky that I saved enough so I don't have to work whilst I travel! Well, not yet anyway!

I did do the obligatory wine tour whilst there. An afternoon spent with George, my guide, going from vineyard to vineyard, sampling their wares!! It's nice spending an afternoon drinking wine and chatting, reminded me of work!!!

Next stop was Nelson and I really liked it there. The sunniest place in NZ apparently and a really lovely little town. Lots of nice cafes and restaurants.

I spent a week here doing not a lot to be truthful. I hung out with a couple who have moved there from the UK with their 2 year old daughter who was very cute. Steayed at the lovely YHA which was dead quiet so had the run of the place really.

I did a walk in the Abel Tasman National Park. A nice 5 hour trek along the coast. It would be nice to come back in the summer as the beaches look amazing. I also visited the WOW gallery, a place where the display the Wonder World Of Wearable Art costumes. Good, but not worth the $18 entry fee and I'm not just being tight here...

After I could chill no longer I booked my journey to Wellington.

Goodbye South Island of NZ

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Can't tell you much about Dunedin other than the 5 "sports" bars we stopped at were not showing the England match. False advertising or what?!

We did eventually find one and it had a big fire and big comfy sofas and lots of booze, sorted.

And that's all we did in Dunedin.

The following day we decided to head back to Christchurch instead of stopping another day somewhere random. This turned out to be a very wise decision.

It was nice and warm in Christchurch when we arrived and we even opted to turn the heater off for the night as it was too warm to keep it on. The next morning was a different story. We woke up to snow and the whole of Christchurch in turmoil.

Now there wasn't a lot of snow in the city but the way everyone reacted you'd have thought there was about 6 metres on the ground. When we were wondering around in the afternoon there were loads of shops and cafes that had just not opened because the owners didn't want to get there feet wet!!!

Down in the south where we had just come from was a little different. They'd received their worse snow fall in about 80 years and loads of roads were blocked (including ones we had driven on the day before) and the power had come down in a lot of areas. We definitely made the right decision to get back when we did.

And then Emma left me. Went off to Shanghai to meet some bloke. Hope he can manage to keep her away from the All You Can Eat buffets!!

Since then I have been partying, I mean, crying, but trying to make the best of it it!

I'm now in Kaikoura and it's really cold here.

Last night was spent in the pub with Jen, a Canadian girl who I am sharing a dorm with.

Today I managed to make it on a whale tour and we saw about 7 Sperm Whales. You only get to see the tops of them which only accounts for about 20%, the rest stays underwater until they decide to dive and then the tail flips up. It was a really good trip and we were lucky to see so many and even get out there at all as the sea has been so rough that they've had to cancel loads of tours. They cancelled the tour after ours.

Interesting (?!) fact about Sperm Whales - They got their name from early whalers who caught one and killed it and then chopped a bit of it's head off. Out oozed 2.5 tonnes of thick white sticky substance that they presumed to be semen. oh dear... And so they named it the Sperm Whale. Anyway, of course it wasn't, it was just oil that they have in their heads to help them dive and resurface and stuff.

Not much else happening in Kaikoura so I'll be moving on on Tuesday.

Next stop Blenheim

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It was cold but nice and sunny on arrival so we booked our Milford Sound trip with confidence, pleased that we didn't have to pay extra to take the coach as we were going to drive ourselves along the scenic route.

A nice campervan site was found along with spa and we settled down for the night.

Next morning we woke to lots of rain and fog, nice. We were chatting to a guy in the kitchen who informed us that the weather prediction wasn't great, snow was expected and all vehicles going to Milford had to carry snow chains... He smugly told us that he had booked the coach as he didn't want to worry about driving in possibly treacherous condictions.

What to do?

We found out that you could rent snow chains from the garage so we had 2 options: 1. rent the chains and risk taking the van along the twisty mountain road. 2. Book the coach and sit back and relax and let their driver worry about everything.

Obviously we choose option 1 as it worked out $50 cheaper and we thought it might be fun to drive in snow chains!!! The nice lady at the petrol station should us how to fit them and we were off. It's a 2.5 hour drive but as we were running a bit late I had to put my foot down a little (obviously never going over the speed limit) and we did it 1.5 hours! It's a nice drive and luckily the snow as no where to be seen.

Unfortunately, the fog was still around when we got to Milford and so the boat trip wasn't all that it could have been. The waterfalls were good due to the amount of rain we had had but the overall view was somewhat diminished.

A good trip none the less and the underwater viewing room was good.

A slow drive back and a spa to warm us up!

Next stop Dunedin

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We didn't do much in Wanaka, just admired the lakes and the surrounding scenery, very beautiful. And went out for dinner and drank red wine

I wanted to do something extreme but didn't fancy the jet boating and I'm not ready to do a sky dive just yet so I thought I'd save it for Queenstown, the self titled extreme adventure capital.

A lot of Kiwi's don't seem that impressed with Queenstown. Whenever we told people we were heading there they said get in and get out as fast as you can. That it just robs you of your money!!

Well, it's a lovely town and yes, it is a little pricey!!

We arrived around 3pm and went into town for a look around. I had decided that I might do a bungy jump. I've been thinking about it for a while now and although the thought alone scares me to death, I think I'd be disappointed with myself if I didn't try it. Not sure why but I just feel that it's something I need to do.

So we went to bungy central and asked about the options. Just out of town is the world's first commercial bungy site. We had passed this on the way in and had stopped to have a look. It didn't look too high (about 41m) but it was over a river and I didn't fancy having my head dunked into a river in the middle of winter.

They have a few others, one is the Nevis High Wire which is a 134m drop (440 feet) which I felt was a little too high for a first timer! Then there is the Ledge Urban Bungy, which is described as:

"the only urban Bungy in Queenstown, it was clearly our duty to make it as crazy as possible. The Ledge Urban Bungy is like no other, in that it comes equipped with a 'runway' to launch you out 400 metres over Queenstown."

Yep, that's the one for me!!!

Emma had decided that she wasn't going to do a jump but would be a willing spectator and eagerly egged me on into booking a jump then and there. Thanks Em!

$140 and a half hour later and I was perched high above Queenstown watching the clock tick slowly towards 5.30pm, my jump time.

The rest is all a bit of a blur. I'm not sure how I actually managed it seeing as heights aren't my thing but I did it. I ran off the edge of the ledge and flung myself into the air and waited for the rope to do it's job and save my life. And I bought the photos and DVD to prove I did it. It's a bit weird watching it now and I do make the most awful death wail as I fall. And I didn't really fling myself either, more of a run and a fall off the edge... Oh well, I'll try and be cooler next time if I know it's being filmed!!

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It was an awesome experience. Truely frightening but something that I would consider doing again, I think!!!

We had a glass of wine to celebrate (so rock and roll!!)

Next stop Te Anua and Milford Sound

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Franz Joseph is a nice little town, a bit like a Swiss Alpine ski resort town, where the sun shines and the air is crisp and you are surrounded by snow topped mountains.

We found a nice little campervan park right in town and ventured out for a few beers trying hard to avoid the Kiwi Experience crowd (no offence!) but not managing to because there were hundreds of them!!

The next day we were up early to go on our glacier walk. We got all kitted out in big boots and spikes and we were off.

The Franz Joseph is the fastest moving glacier in the world. At the moment it is advancing and moves between 1 to 5 metres a day. Apparently that's quite fast.

Everyday, loads of guides go up to the glacier and spend hours digging steps into it so us tourists can climg up it. We did the half day tour which was just enough for me. It's a really huge mound of ice falling down the mountain and there are some reall deep crevesses in it which were a little scarey (for me!). It's quite hard climbing up and down it and the spikey things on your shoes were really heavy so despite it being really cold we were all quite hot by the time we finished.

It was a good day and really quite tiring but a good experience that we are glad we did.

That night we stayed at Foz Glacier but decided not to climb that, one glacier was enough!

Next stop Wanaka and Queenstown

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