Countries I (stu) have been to:

(although these weren’t all related to our round the work tour but I didn’t know where else to put the map)

visited 40 states (17.7%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Like this? try: Visual Poetry

Day 361 – 365: SanFrancisco and home

We were staying is a budget place called Broadway Manor. (Curtesy of a discount voucher book, we could stay very reasonably in motels in California), which was about 20min walk from Union Square and adjacent to loads of good cafes and bars.

The first thing we had to do in San Francisco was to buy Gem and engagement ring, so for the whole of Wednesday we went round all the jewelry shops. There are a lot of very swanky shops in downtown San Fran but we managed not to get too distracted by the shiny things in Tiffany’s. By 5 o’clock, after a consultation pint in an Irish bar, we had decided on the one we wanted and went back to get it. Of course it was a totally different design that what we had set out expecting to buy but we both thought it was perfect (I guess we are a bit more traditional than we would like to admit!). Unfortunately it needed setting and resizing, so we wouldn’t be able to pick it up until Friday evening

Anyway, while we were waiting, we still managed to have a good time in San Francisco. The beautiful winter sun had gone into hiding and we were beginning to feel the cold – god know how we were going to cope back home (not well, we have since discovered, Brrrr!).

We didn’t do all the toursity things there is to do, but had a fairly good crack at it considering it was the final destination of our trip. We took a tram ride, wandered around Fisherman’s Wharf, took the Alcatraz tour and ate loads of really good mexican food (and just loads of food in general).

After our Alcatraz tour on Friday we went to the Jewelery shop to pick up Gem’s engagement ring, which was very exciting indeed, so we had to go out for a few drinks and a nice meal to celebrate.

On Saturday, we had planned to go into Chinatown and have Dim Sum for brunch. It turned out, by shere coincidence to be Chinese New Year so they had all sorts of crazy stalls and celebrations going on and there was a parade in the evening. The parade was great; of course, there was dragons, dancers and fire crackers, which all good Chinese parades should have but everyone else seemed to get it on it – all the politicians had their own drive past; Senator, Congressman, Mayor, Attorney General, School’s Board, Firemen even the Binmen were there. We gave up after an hour and a half but they were still coming strong!

So Sunday was the very last day of our trip. Although we were quite exciting about seeing everybody back home, we really didn’t want it to end. A couple of months ago I thought I would be just about ready but the closer we got to the end, the more I wanted to just carry on (or stay in the Cook Islands). Anyway, we had a fab trip and no regrets so we came home to bore everybody with our photos and endless stories…

And to tell them our exciting news!

Day 357 – 360: Californian road trip

Ok, so we hadn’t quite finished our trip. We had another little holiday to delay the inevitable. We had no other choice but to fly into Los Angeles from Rarotonga but as it cost us no extra on our ticket to fly home from San Fransisco, we thought it would be rude not go and have a look.

We reckoned the best way to get up there was to drive. Hiring a car was relatively inexpensive and it was a very pleasant route. We landed in LAX about lunch time and it was about 2pm by the time we had picked up our car (which is a whole other story itself!). It was quite daunting coming from driving in New Zealand to find yourself on the 7-lane freeway in LA. There must have been as many people on that freeway as there are in the whole of NZ. But never mind, the driving was fairly straightforward (even if the signposting was terrible). We stopped in Malibu for an excellent pizza and then just drove the two hours up to Santa Barbara. A bit tired and jetlagged, we just had a quiet night eating cheese and bread and drinking wine (you couldn’t get bubbly in Cook, so we thought we deserved a decent celebratory bottle).

The next morning we had a wonder around Santa Barbara, which is a very pleasant town – very clean and swanky, with an aweful lot of sunglasses shops. Then we drove a couple of hours north and stopped at a place called Morro Bay for the night.

The next morning we were up bright and early(-ish) to drive the Big Sur. This is a very spectacular, rugged and remote bit of coast line. Very much like driving in New Zealand really and and the daytime weather as about as warm as their Summer (it did get clilly on a night though). There was lots of remote beaches to stop at and have a picnic (or to talk to odd but friendly canadians) as well as a colony of Elephant Seals – and god were they big… and smelly; we didn’t hang around too long.

At the north end of the Big Sur, we spent a couple of hours wandering around Monterray. Another, pleasant pacific town, with lots of charm and a vibrant pier, with lots of places selling clam chowder. It was a good place for us to check out because we are both big fans of Steinbeck’s novels so we went down to Cannery Row where one of his books is set. I dare say it is a little different from the 30s.

A bit ahead of schedule, we moved on and spent the evening in Santa Cruz, had dinner at the most authentic american diner we could find and then moved on to San Fransisco the next morning.

Day 343 – 356: Raro and Coconuts

The only way to guarantee that we would actually leave New Zealand was to book our homeward flight via the Cook Islands. We might have been nearing the end of our trip but we still had the excitement of a holiday in the beautiful pacific islands. Our flight from Auckland didn’t arrive until 2.30 am but still there was a guy at the airport with a eukelele welcoming our arrival with island music.

We got taken to our accommodation by Lilly the “Transport Lady” who, after depositing us, managed to get the van stuck with the back wheels off the ground. After our futile efforts to move it she called her daughter who was clever and would know what to do. However it was not the daughter’s brains that were needed and when she arrived it was clear that shifting minibusses with her sizeable shoulders (she was huge in a pacific island sort of way) was not the same problem it posed us.

I think it goes without saying that the Cook Islands were amazing. We could not ask for a more beautiful location to finish our trip with. We spent half our time on Rarotonga, the main island, mostly relaxing on the beach or by the pool (we had a lovely pool/bbq area by our room which was great for a budget place). We hired a moped for a day to explore and buy supplies (fresh fish and papaya were about the only reasonably priced things on the island so we happily lived off that for a week). There was no real need to go further afield because we were staying on Muri Lagoon, which is the best beach on the island. About the only other activity we managed was to go to church on Sunday. Neither of us have been inside a church since the last  wedding but everyone had told us to at least make on island service and it is a great occasion. Everyone dresses up, the ladies in the front with their hats on and the men at the back with their flower print shirts and the singing is fantastic.

Our last night on Rarontonga, we went to an “Island Night” at the big hotel on Muri Beach. There was an excellent Hangi style buffet with every different sort of seafood and then put on some dancing. It was all a lot of fun until they dragged people up to join in… how embarrasing – but Gem did win a free cocktail out of it.

We split up our stay in the Cook Islands with a week in Aitutaki, a smaller, quieter island a short flight away so on Tuesday we got the bus into town and then got on a plane that was smaller than the bus!! The flight into Aitutaki is possibly the most spectacular approach there can be. Flying over the lagoon you see all the little islands as well as the most dazzling blue of the shallow sea.

We chose our accommodation because it was the cheapest we could get, but it was gorgeous. Much more than we needed – we had a large self-contained bungalow, with our own decking. And we pretty much had the resort, with its own secluded beach, to ourselves. This truly was paradise and we were very lucky to be there.

We did have a couple of days of rain while we were in Aitutaki (this was the rainy season), and as there really is nothing to do there these were totally wasted – just reading books on the deck getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. But after what seemed like forever it cleared up and we could get back to the beach and, more importantly, could go on our lagoon tour. The lagoon tour is the highlight of Aitutaki. The lagoon is significantly bigger than  on the main island so you don’t get a real appreciation for its beauty until you are on a boat visiting all the small uninhabitted islands and snorkelling areas. A couple of islands are where they film “survivor” and “shipwrecked” so if you are into your sunday morning tv you will know what they look like, but they are all picture postcard beautiful. On one-foot island, there is actually a post office. Not quite sure why, but they will stamp your passport for you if you bring it along, which is quite cool.

The rest of the week on the island we spent of several different beaches – all equally deserted but it is nice to have a change of scenery sometimes. The one we spent the most time on was near to us and in that part of the lagoon there was a sand bank that stretched out for about a kilometre with the water barely getting deeper than your shins. This was great when it was too hot to sit on the beach because you could read without having to get up every five minutes to cool off.

Alas, all good things must come to an end and short of becoming a coconut exporter, we had to leave the Cook Islands. But we could go on with a renewed sense of excitement because it was on one of the beaches (sitting on a spit in the lagoon) that Gemma agreed to marry me and so we had an important bit of shopping to do in the States before we got home…

(Rarotonga Airport international departures lounge)

Day 338 – 342: The Final Days in NZ

After Tongariro, we spent the morning in Taupo sorting a few things out for the next leg of our epic journey (cars, accommodation etc) and then drove up to Cambridge to see Ian, Tracy and the kids again (Gemma’s Cousin). We spent another lovely evening with them – again exhausting playing with the kids – and left the next afternoon to go to Raglan for our last few days. Annoyingly, on our drive up from Taupo, we got a major chip in our windscreen, which needed fixing so we spent a couple of hours waiting for that to be done – they just fill it with some magic glue and you can hardly see it anymore!

Now, Raglan is the main destination in NZ for surfing but we had had enough of doing stuff so spent the last few days just getting ourselves ready for the next bit. We went to the beach on Thursday but yesterday, we didn’t even leave the campsite – how lazy is that? To be fair, we did have to sort our van out and pack our bags properly. Thankfully everything still fits in… just.

This morning, we drove into Auckland to drop off our van and then kill a few hours in town, only to discover that they have moved the office – seems we have had the van for so long they forgot to tell us! Anyway, we have found out where the new depot is but it is not in town so we will have to get to the airport earlier than needed.

Tonight we fly to the Raratonga, the Cook Islands, then in a few days we go off to one of the more beautiful, quieter islands (Aitutaki – where they filmed survivor apparently), which should be very nice indeed but by virtue of the international date line we will arrive 19hrs before we leave, which is very odd.

Day 337: Tongariro Crossing

Although we had planned to have a restful last few weeks in New Zealand with no majoy activities, the one thing that we really wanted to do was the Tongariro Crossing – a one-day hike across a volcanic range. When we were first in the North Island there was snow on the mountain so we put it off till now.

Now, being high season, it was really busy and you don’t get the sense of isolation that you do on other walks in NZ but it was still amazing. After the first major hill the crowd thinned out anyway and there was much more space. This is billed as the best one day hike in NZ and they are not wrong – there is such a change of scenery along the walk that it really didn’t feel like the 5hrs it took us. The first half is a 100m ascent, over lava flows until you get to the thermal areas on the top of the mountain – complete with coloured lakes and steaming rocks -  and then the descent takes you through hot spring areas and native bush. Absolutely spectacular.

It rained a bit on our descent but hey, this is NZ, we got all the good view at the top. We had to wait for our transport at the end though and there were laods of people there, all worried that they would not fit onto the first pick-up and have to wait an hour so there was a mad scramble when the bus arrived. As it happened, they sent more than enough and we got back to our car and drove up to Taupo and found a campsite with hotpools to soak our weary legs in…

Day 331 – 336: East Coats Beaches and Sunshine

It is a bit of a shame that as soon as the girls left us the weather changed and has been unbroken sunshine since, but NZ is just one big island and its weather doesn’t do what it always ought.

Anyway, we have made the most of it and have visited quite a few beaches. After the prolonged new years excess, we arrived in Ohope Campsite just past Whakatane (sounds much more amusing when you know the proper pronunciation). The campsite was absolutely packed and very hei-di-hi but we got there late and it was the only one around so we just went with it. But then it was busy because it was in a beautiful location, beside an excllent swimming beach. We spent a couple of nights there recovering before we went further round the East Cape.

Further around the East Cape it was much quieter; the roads were not at all busy, we could enjoy the splendid scenery at our own pace and again feel areal sense of remoteness. When we arrived at a little campsite in Te Araroa it was lovely and relaxed and quiet, nestled amongst the trees and just a short walk from a deserted beach. However some stupid German couple decided that they didn’t like open spaces and pitched their tent right up close to our van…. why?

After a quick swim, the next morning, we carried on around the cape and arrived in Gisborne around lunchtime. Now it had become baking hot and we didn’t fancy sitting on the beach so we went for a wander around town (The campsite was right by the beach and right in town which was really good). Gisborne town centre doesn’t have all that much to offer but it got us in some aircon for an hour. We had planned to go to the cidery but that was closed so we had to do without. we spent the late afternoon on the beach and while we were having our bbq some industrious kids of the campsite kindly offered to refresh us with their water pistols – and had the temerity to charge a fee!

On Friday, we made our way back to Napier. We hadn’t had a chance to have a good look around at Christmas and we also went to a couple more wineries – our stocks were running low.

After a quick overnight stay, we popped over to the other coast to meet up with one of our Uni friends Graham and his lovely family in Himitagi Beach. It was the only day of rain that we have had since new year but we had a very pleasant, if rather boozy, afternoon catching up. A late brunch the next morning and we were off back up north again…