Delores Park, San Francisco
A beautiful old tram.
My hippie tour guide for the Flower Power Hippie Trail.
The Famous Haight Ashbury St sign.Thursday, 5 July 2007
San Francisco
Delores Park, San Francisco A beautiful old tram. My hippie tour guide for the Flower Power Hippie Trail. The Famous Haight Ashbury St sign.
The rest of the photos from NZ (South Island)
The spooky Moeraki Rocks.
Where our travels in the South Island begun and finished. The old public toilets, The Welsh Pub, Wellington.
Apparently the 'steepest street in the world. They've never seen Constitution Hill in Swansea obviously.
Milford Sound.
One of the geatest burgers Jared's ever had. Queenstown
Monday, 2 July 2007
Cook Islands to San Francisco...
Just left the beautiful Cook Islands and eventually made it to San Francisco. It was a beast of a journey and we ended up being 21 hours late from when we were supposed to arrive here, fighting unhelpful ground staff at LAX, getting angry in queues to nowhere, receiving very poor communication from Air NZ about accomodation and reconnections, forgeting to print out our domestic US flight details and then hitching across town in amad rush to find the only internet cafe open on a Sunday to print them out after checking in for our flight to LA, being bullied by a stern security officer at LAX, catching a couple of hours sleep over 2 nights in 2 hotels and then having my flip flops removed and swabbed for "explosives" by security officers at LAX. (my feet must of smelled bad.)
But we're now here and it all seems worth it. Our hostel seems cool and central, we've already bought some must haves, booked a tour to Alcatraz and booked a 'Summer of Love' historical hippie tour around Haight Ashbury. We're also here for Independence Day celebrations so we'll probably go down the harbour and catch some free music and fireworks.
Our time in the Cook Islands was great. It flew by and we enjoyed plenty of lazy days in the sun. I think our suntans have returned. (you'll have to let us know when we return, which is very soon)
Highlights were:
Meeting lots of cool and friendly people
Videoing Rachel Brown dancing like a local on stage with a man at an 'Island Night'
Diving in 30 metre visibility and warm sea water with a 60 year old Welsh man
Increasing my libido trying Oysters for the first time
Hearing the locals singing in Church
Hearing some awesome percussion bands
Feasting on fish burgers with Rachel and Lauren
The impressive snorkelling sites (we loads of amazing fish, a shark and an octopus)
Drinking quite a few G&T's
Finding an awesome guesthouse
Hitching a lift from a Policewoman
Learning how to play 'Chinese Poker'
Passing my 3 minutes round the block Cook Islands Driving Test
Buying my wife a black pearl
We could have done without:
Getting lost with 2 of the fittest and disciplined people we've ever met on a 5 1/2 hour hill trek across the centre of the island
Attempting to sunbathe in a cold Southerly wind
Attempting to swim and snorkle in strong off shore currents
Moving us and our luggage to another hostel (the awesome 'Are-Mango Guesthouse') on a moped.
Those G&T's
Sharing our lovely guesthouse with 12 noisy teenagers from a Christian School in Oz.
The flight delay on our trip to LA
But overall it was all worth it.
Sheesh. Home soon. Feels very weird. Already made some plans. My head feels like its in 2 worlds: travel mode and settling home mode. Looking forward to returning home though for sure. We're going to be starting again i guess, finding new jobs and a new home. (If the security guards let me and my flip flops out of the US)
But we're now here and it all seems worth it. Our hostel seems cool and central, we've already bought some must haves, booked a tour to Alcatraz and booked a 'Summer of Love' historical hippie tour around Haight Ashbury. We're also here for Independence Day celebrations so we'll probably go down the harbour and catch some free music and fireworks.
Our time in the Cook Islands was great. It flew by and we enjoyed plenty of lazy days in the sun. I think our suntans have returned. (you'll have to let us know when we return, which is very soon)
Highlights were:
Meeting lots of cool and friendly people
Videoing Rachel Brown dancing like a local on stage with a man at an 'Island Night'
Diving in 30 metre visibility and warm sea water with a 60 year old Welsh man
Increasing my libido trying Oysters for the first time
Hearing the locals singing in Church
Hearing some awesome percussion bands
Feasting on fish burgers with Rachel and Lauren
The impressive snorkelling sites (we loads of amazing fish, a shark and an octopus)
Drinking quite a few G&T's
Finding an awesome guesthouse
Hitching a lift from a Policewoman
Learning how to play 'Chinese Poker'
Passing my 3 minutes round the block Cook Islands Driving Test
Buying my wife a black pearl
We could have done without:
Getting lost with 2 of the fittest and disciplined people we've ever met on a 5 1/2 hour hill trek across the centre of the island
Attempting to sunbathe in a cold Southerly wind
Attempting to swim and snorkle in strong off shore currents
Moving us and our luggage to another hostel (the awesome 'Are-Mango Guesthouse') on a moped.
Those G&T's
Sharing our lovely guesthouse with 12 noisy teenagers from a Christian School in Oz.
The flight delay on our trip to LA
But overall it was all worth it.
Sheesh. Home soon. Feels very weird. Already made some plans. My head feels like its in 2 worlds: travel mode and settling home mode. Looking forward to returning home though for sure. We're going to be starting again i guess, finding new jobs and a new home. (If the security guards let me and my flip flops out of the US)
Friday, 15 June 2007
Finishing off Kiwi Land
We fly to The Cook Islands today to top up our tans (where have they gone?) so we better update our blog regarding New Zealand...
Fat Freddy's Drop in Auckland was well worth the effort. Spent 2 days driving there and back but it was great to see them in their home country. We then rushed back down to the South to pick our trail back up and explore the South Island before visiting a Welsh pub in Wellington run by a nice guy from Cwmbwla in Swansea! One of of our first days in the south was spent riding around Renwick in the sun on hired bikes sampling fine local wines with a typsy friendly Irish couple. It was such a good day. One of our best in NZ and we stocked up on some local goodness of course. We fancy oursleves as wannabe wino conerseurs now.
After that we toured around in the car checking out as much of the beautiful NZ landscape as we could. Every 30 miles the scenery seemed to change and some of it was breathtaking. Alongside the friendly people of NZ, we can see why this country is so appealing. (the population is only 4 million but 2 million tourists visit every year) We then bumped into Rachel Brown and Lauren and spent a day walking over the Franz Joseph glacier which was cool. Then in cold Queenstown we went on a day tour to spectacular Milford Sound stopping off on the way for a snow fight. Throwing snow at girls is great. The boat we toured on rode under a waterfall and i was on the front so i got drenched when i was already freezing. The captain had said we'd only feel a 'little spray.' My pants were damp for the 5 hour journey home but it was all worth it.
We then said goodbye to the girls and freezing cold Queenstown (we paid to stay in heated shed for two nights) and went in search of penguins and seals up the East coast of the South Island. We found some. Check the photos hopefully uploaded soonish. It was great seeing animals in the wild and the penguins were a real treat. We then tucked into some tasty fish in Kaikoura and some huge green mussels in Havelock.
We have done our fair share of driving here in NZ but its the best way to travel around as there is so much to see. We are currently unsure about our plans for California and are going to use our time in the Cook Islands to plan the US. We are probably going to avoid LA as we don't fancy it and we don't fancy getting murdered as our mum's would kill us.
We are thinking lots about our return at the moment as we enter the last part our travels. It's dominating a lot of our thoughts thinking about catching up with family, friends and getting jobs and moving into a new house. It has been a real privilege to travel like this and we are very grateful for the opportunity.
jared and rachel
p.s. We go back in time tonight as we fly over the dateline to the Cook Islands. We feel like Doctor Who and Marty McFly! It's going to be along day. Rachel is definately Doctor Who.
Fat Freddy's Drop in Auckland was well worth the effort. Spent 2 days driving there and back but it was great to see them in their home country. We then rushed back down to the South to pick our trail back up and explore the South Island before visiting a Welsh pub in Wellington run by a nice guy from Cwmbwla in Swansea! One of of our first days in the south was spent riding around Renwick in the sun on hired bikes sampling fine local wines with a typsy friendly Irish couple. It was such a good day. One of our best in NZ and we stocked up on some local goodness of course. We fancy oursleves as wannabe wino conerseurs now.
After that we toured around in the car checking out as much of the beautiful NZ landscape as we could. Every 30 miles the scenery seemed to change and some of it was breathtaking. Alongside the friendly people of NZ, we can see why this country is so appealing. (the population is only 4 million but 2 million tourists visit every year) We then bumped into Rachel Brown and Lauren and spent a day walking over the Franz Joseph glacier which was cool. Then in cold Queenstown we went on a day tour to spectacular Milford Sound stopping off on the way for a snow fight. Throwing snow at girls is great. The boat we toured on rode under a waterfall and i was on the front so i got drenched when i was already freezing. The captain had said we'd only feel a 'little spray.' My pants were damp for the 5 hour journey home but it was all worth it.
We then said goodbye to the girls and freezing cold Queenstown (we paid to stay in heated shed for two nights) and went in search of penguins and seals up the East coast of the South Island. We found some. Check the photos hopefully uploaded soonish. It was great seeing animals in the wild and the penguins were a real treat. We then tucked into some tasty fish in Kaikoura and some huge green mussels in Havelock.
We have done our fair share of driving here in NZ but its the best way to travel around as there is so much to see. We are currently unsure about our plans for California and are going to use our time in the Cook Islands to plan the US. We are probably going to avoid LA as we don't fancy it and we don't fancy getting murdered as our mum's would kill us.
We are thinking lots about our return at the moment as we enter the last part our travels. It's dominating a lot of our thoughts thinking about catching up with family, friends and getting jobs and moving into a new house. It has been a real privilege to travel like this and we are very grateful for the opportunity.
jared and rachel
p.s. We go back in time tonight as we fly over the dateline to the Cook Islands. We feel like Doctor Who and Marty McFly! It's going to be along day. Rachel is definately Doctor Who.
Thursday, 31 May 2007
photos...
Mount Doom and Modor
The Kauri Tree (this one is 2000 years old)
New Zealand
What a picture
Auckland
Magnetic Island (Australia)
Bill the legend
Glassford Creek Farmstay. (Yes that is what you think on our gloves)
Poppy the Roo
Some farm gal
Doing my bit for Exist
Post your own comment please...
Fraser Island, Oz
Monday, 28 May 2007
just a quickie...
...running out of web time.
highlights of NZ so far have been:
drinking loads of NZ wine and visiting friendly wineries
swimming and singing with dolphins
cooking and eating juicy NZ lamb
visiting an active thermal volcano park
chilling out in a thermal spa
hunting for massive Kauri trees in the Kauri forest
driving through NZ's breathtaking scenery
p.s. our camera lead is on it's way. left it in Brisbane. Photos soon, we promise.
highlights of NZ so far have been:
drinking loads of NZ wine and visiting friendly wineries
swimming and singing with dolphins
cooking and eating juicy NZ lamb
visiting an active thermal volcano park
chilling out in a thermal spa
hunting for massive Kauri trees in the Kauri forest
driving through NZ's breathtaking scenery
p.s. our camera lead is on it's way. left it in Brisbane. Photos soon, we promise.
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