Around the World with Chris & Zaida

Erm........well this FINAL entry is 9 months late in the posting as we ' hit the ground running' on our return the London and just never got round to editing it having written the bare bones way back in March 2006. So for the sake of ‘good order' .....here it is....

VEGAS!

We packed up our masses of snowboard gear, jumped in a HUGE hired 4x4 and barreled down the mountain into the desert to Carson City and onto Reno. Absolutely nothing to report on these two places - Carson City - capital of the state of Nevada and has nothing going for it as far as we can tell. Reno, much the same only notable thing is its fame for pylon racing - now that’s not electricity pylons racing round and round a giant circuit..... Its old war birds (spitfires and the like) racing at low altitude around a circuit made up of pylons. Quite spectacular methinks. None of this was happening as we passed through and all very dull.

One thing we did notice is the huge amount of slot machines there are in Nevada. They are everywhere!! Including the airports. Bling ching ching. "wheel of fortune"....rah rah rah.

Flight was a non event, had tons of luggage and as a result had to pay excess -boo! Arrived at Vegas on time, caught the bus transfer form the airport which was seriously busy! Then off the meet Alison!

Arrived at the Flamingo which is situated smack bang in the centre of the strip amongst all the hustle and bustle. Met Alison who was very pleased to see us (and vice versa)! Sat down to plan our Vegas extravaganza!!

First night had a great Italian meal then sleep. Nice to finally have some choice in the restraunt department after eating at the same three or four places for 3 weeks in Tahoe! Next day off we went doing some exploring, shopping in the huge malls which form part of the hotels. The best and most comprehensive being at Caesars place, the Venetian and also the fashion mall which is opposite the brand new Wynn hotel (most expensive hotel ever constructed at 2Bn dollars!! What!?). That evening we went see 'Cirque du Solei' for the second time on our trip, this time to see the 'Mystere' show at the Treasure island hotel - this was Awesome, truly spectacular and to be fair wiped the floor with Circ du Solei we saw in Hong Kong. We think this is because of the extra production available to a static show in a big theatre as opposed to a touring show held in a big top. If you get a chance to see this show anywhere do it, it's amazing!

Leaving the show we had some drinks then food and a little go on those bling chinging slots.

Next day more shopping and a walk down to the Stratosphere for lunch although unfortunately no tables were available. That evening (Mothers Sunday) we had another fantastic meal, this time in the Paris Eiffel tower restraunt which sits opposite the Belagio hotel and gives great views of the famous water fountains that errupt every 15 minutes. Brilliant backdrop to a very tasty meal. Again, we can heartily recommend doing this one if you ever visit. Later on that evening we played Roulette for about two hours - time really flies in the casinos, we would have stayed longer if it wasn't for some American hick going on and on and on about loosing his money and arguing with the croupier about it. He became soooooo boring in the end we had to leave the table. Not before Alison had tripled her money! We lost a grand total of 4 dollars - when you chuck in the free drinks the casino ply you with at the tables we were quids in!! OK so were not exactly high rollers but who cares - $4 for a night out fantastic value!

Next morning was a bleary eyed early start for us as we were booked on a very early morning helicopter flight out to the Grand Canyon for a champagne breakfast. Woooooo! Now this is fun! Taking off from McCarran airfield and then flying out over the dessert first to buzz past the Hoover dam then onto the canyon itself, zipping trough a section of it before landing at its base. Very exhilarating and the 45 minute flight each way was a great experience. Zaida wasn’t nervous at all, so relaxed that she even fell asleep in the helicopter on our way back to Vegas. The last section of the flight was directly down the strip and although it wasn't dark it was still spectacular.

Later that day it was a last chance for some shopping!!!!!! Chris ducked out and went for a lay down and accidentally ended up sitting in the bar for 3 hours - oops! Thing is if you play the machines at the bar (yup there are fruit machines and poker machines set into the bar top) they give you FREE beer (rejoice -it exists!!) OK it's not free really because you pump dollar bills into those machines at a fair old rate but for a while it seemed that way.

Our last evening meal in Vegas and in fact of the whole trip was spent in the Stratosphere restaurant which has fittingly spectacular views. The restaurant revolves to give you the 360 degree vista, much the same as the revolving restaurant those with good memories will remember we visited in Delhi. This one was different in that you could actually see out of the windows and the food was excellent! Vegas at night is truly awesome and it was a perfect way to spend the last night of our honeymoon!

So that’s it then, job done. Just over 6 months we have experienced the 'culture' of India, high altitude challenges of Nepal, crazy backpacker trails of Thailand, stepped back in time though Laos, the temples and culture of Cambodia, the colour of Vietnam, the train in China, shopping and nightlife of Hong Kong and Singapore, festive Aussie fun in Australia, loads of sheep in NZ, lying on beaches in the Cooks and Fiji, Loads of snow and burgers in the US of course, mixed in with a little Gambling......

Thanks for taking the time and making the effort to read this blog and share our experiences. We had a ball, and if you had a fraction of the fun reading this blog as we did writing it then I guess its happy days!!

The next stop is the last stop - LONDON - where this waffle terminates. All change please........and mind that gap.

C & Z.

Sorry to anyone who finds snow or snowboarding incredibly boring, just to warn you - we go on, and on, and on about the snow in this one, hope you find it amusing all the same! Prizes to those who correctly send in the number of times the word 'snow' is mentioned in this post

After the beautiful snowy drive up to Lake Tahoe we checked into our motel directly opposite the gondola - Quality! We arrived 3 days earlier than we originally planned so that means a full 3 weeks on the slopes, yup! That's 3 weeks folks - the longest snowboarding holiday we have ever had!

The Heavenly village sits on the California/Nevada border and although a huge ski area, the town is quite sleepy. One thing you notice is the four massive casino hotels sitting just across the stateline in Nevada. Here you can gamble 24 hours a day as well as eat and drink all night.

Our first day on the mountain was quite chilled; we didn't want to go too crazy as we hadn't been boarding for a year. Even so, Zaida was linking turns just like last year on the very first run, which was a relief. She took a guided lesson in the afternoon to get her back into the swing of things and actually ended up being top of the class ;o) This gave Chris a chance to explore the mountain a bit and suss out the best places to board for the next couple of days. Due to the low cloud cover when we arrived we still hadn't got a good idea of the area or views, as visibility was pretty poor.

The main gondola lift takes you to an elevation of 10,000 feet and on a clear day you have fantastic views of the lake on the Californian side and the desert on the Nevada side. It wasn't until the 2nd day that the skies cleared and we saw the amazing vista in front of the backdrop of snowy mountains. It really is a sight to be seen and must be the best resort we have been to for views.

In addition to the fantastic landscape there are plenty of options for all levels of skiers/borders here. Loads of wide cruisey blues, plenty of steep blacks and no end of perfectly spaced trees to ride between. That coupled with the phenomenal amount of snowfall here means plenty of good riding. In fact we reckon that 3 out of 4 days spent here have been powder days! Unbelievable Amazing!! Fantastic!!! .....Ahhhh where was I?? Ah yes....

We arrived on a weekend in Tahoe and nothing prepared us for how busy it would get with people coming from the surrounding areas to take advantage of the recent snow dump (oh the joys of living near a mountain, lucky people). The resort had over 17,000 people visit that day, and believe us that is a lot of people trying to get down a slope. Although the 'Après Ski' is a bit average, we have been managing - just! One definite problem is finding somewhere to eat at the weekends - this place gets mobbed and there just aren't enough tables to go around. Our first Saturday we couldn't get a table anywhere and went hungry - only made that mistake once!!

After the rather traumatic Saturday snow rush we had a chilled day as we had to move hotels (bit of a pain as we now have loads of bags). Our new hotel was 'The Block'- the world’s first snowboarder hotel! We had both been really looking forward to staying here, it sounds great on paper and they have a very slick website, unfortunately the reality is that the block is a rather tired old motel albeit with flat panel TVs and playstations in the rooms. Being greeted with a "Sup duude" instead of "Morning sir" by the staff is all very well but after staying there three days and having the heating fail 4 times and waking up to no hot water on two consecutive mornings we decided to cut our losses and move, this time to a much nicer (and cheaper!) motel about 10 minutes walk from the gondola, just far enough to warm those legs up in the morning!

After a couple of days on the mountain and deciding that Zaida had improved on her board we went shopping for Zaida's very own snowboard, we ended up with a wicked girlie Nidecker board with a misprint (which made it a bargain). The rest of that afternoon Chris was busy setting up Zaida's board in the hotel room when there was a knock on our door. Chris got the biggest surprise when he opened the door to the one and only Darren Read ('Pikey Read' in some circles 'Dogger Read' in others and historically known as 'The NOID') was stood there with his buddy Andrew. Zaida and Darren had been planning this surprise for months, and considering her lack of ability to keep secrets she did pretty well. Chris was so surprised he was literally lost for words and quite freaked out for a couple of minutes!! Not only were Darren and Andrew in town but we also found out that Will Duke (a friend from London) was DJ-ing in Tahoe for the whole of March, and in our second week Jody and Claude were here so we now had a little posse - home from home, 'Après Ski' issues solved, ta-daaaaa!

Poor Darren bore the brunt of everyone’s humor for gate crashing someone else’s honeymoon, Darren - we'll get you back someday....No seriously it was great having you here!

After our first weekend getting our snowboarding legs back, Zaida booked herself into a 3-day ladies only snowboard school. She was the only woman signed up so had 1-on-1 tuition the entire 3 days which was a right result. The instructor really pushed her and she has now proudly ridden through the trees and even been down diamond black runs! With Zaida in school for 3 days it was a perfect opportunity for Chris to 'rip it up' with the boys!! Seriously, Chris has never seen snow like it. Unbelievable blah blah.... sorry I said that already. Anyways - big fun was had by all!

After a few days in Tahoe listening to all the locals raving about the conditions it was apparent they were unseasonably excellent, one newspaper headline stating some of the best seen in 5 years. A really huge storm hit during our 2nd week and Chris and Darren were out riding in it, wicked fun! It was snowing so hard that by the time you had made one fresh track run and ridden back up on the chairlift the tracks you left had been filled back in and it was fresh tracks all over again. I know it sounds like exaggeration but it's not. Seriously. The following morning there was 3 to 5 feet of fresh powder depending on location! We have never seen so much snow, which meant powder conditions even on the main slopes. When Zaida fell over you couldn't even see her it was so deep!

Darren and Andrew were due to leave literally the day after the big dump of snow and after a few phone calls to airlines and hotels Darren canceled his flight to Vail in favour of staying in Tahoe with us for a few more days. A wise and quite 'un-pikey-like' decision Pikey Read!

After purchasing some new 'rad' snowboarding gear to go with Zaida's gnarly board, new extreme tree riding by Zaida was achieved -it's amazing what a bit of shopping does for girls! By then end of the holiday the goal to keep up with Chris has almost been achieved, provided he doesn't step on the gas too much.

So there you go... slide, slide, slippidy, slide forgot about our worries and our 9-to-5's. Snow, snow, blah, blah sorry if ya found this one boring but we had awesome fun ripping it up dude.

Next stop Vegas!!

After the final delayed flight with Air New Zealand (yay!) we landed at Los Angeles, having traversed the Pacific and crossing the International Date Line for the third time meaning we arrived before we left - very confusing. Our adventure began by realising that we hadn't perhaps prepared ourselves that well for America and had no guide book to help us (you really feel naked without one after a while). So after a little tour of the airport to try and find a helpful tourist info point (no such luck), we jumped on the bus to collect our hire car and then find a bookstore.

After the standard jet lagged cock up of forgetting your prepaid voucher at the car rental office, we drove off not really knowing where we were going - not a great idea in LA! After a couple of hours we got our bearings and decided to head for Hollywood where we booked ourselves into a cheapo motel on the slightly dodgy end of Sunset Boulevard (next to a strip club). We were so exhausted that we didn't do much on our first night, managing only to take a quick drive up and down the strip to take in the sights and sounds of Hollywood.

Next day after a leisurely start we spent the afternoon sitting in a LA cafe people watching and listening to people having LA conversations - hilarious! This friend is in rehab, that friend is having cosmetic surgery...blah blah. People here are so caught up in the whole celebrity ambience they all start behaving as though they are famous. Very funny to listen in and it was easy to spend the entire day gawking at the botox and hair dye strutting up and down Sunset Boulevard!

The next day we took a stroll up to the Hollywood Hills and also went for a spot of shopping, finally ending up in the famous El Capitan cinema. Well we thought you can't go to Hollywood without seeing a film can you? Our choice was 8 below which was pretty good, and made Zaida cry (such a girl). While we were there the Oscars were being set up and there were seating stands being erected along Hollywood Boulevard. No red carpets yet but it looked like a huge operation. They take this stuff so seriously don’t they?!?! We were planning on going clubbing that night but after a chat with a shop assistant decided that we wouldn't be glam enough, especially after she recommended that Zaida should 'really' dress up and then try and sneak Chris in. No trainers or 't' shirts here, strictly Gucci and Prada.

After a couple of nights soaking in the glitz and glam of Hollywood we drove around the famous 'home to the stars' - Beverly Hills and Bell Air. In our guide book it recommended a star spotting drive to various actors homes, we kinda thought it would be odd sitting outside peoples homes so didn't do that but took a nice drive through the area before hitting the shops on Rodeo Drive. We took a wander through the shops of Beverly Hills, only window-shopping as the designer stores and travelers budget don't exactly go hand-in-hand. We tried to get an 'al fresco' seat at a cool cafe for some more people watching but it seemed that everyone else had the same idea, or perhaps they wanted to be seen instead. We ended up in what appeared to be the most popular Italian restaurant in town, still no celebrities spotted but lots of wannabes. After leaving the restaurant we finally saw our first star, if you can call him that - remember the head teacher in Ferris Bulers Day off? Well it was him whatever his name is. He definitely wanted to be seen as he was cruising around in a vintage open top Jaguar. Does this mean he is officially a 'has been'?

After growing tired of being surrounded by millions of dollars and feeling like such tourists we headed for Santa Monica to keep it real and mingle amongst some normal people. Santa Monica is a really nice town on a huge beach where they filmed Baywatch. They have a huge park along the sea front, which is great for promenading at sunset and a pier, which is very much like the pier in Brighton. It even has the same magnetism to pikeys, vagrants and cheeky street performers - all good fun. They also had a restaurant called 'Bubba Gump Shrimp' which Zaida thought existed before the movie Forrest Gump(bless).

After our walk along the pier we noticed a huge stack of shipping crates in the car park with people queuing outside. We went over to check it out and realised that it was a photographic art exhibition called 'Ashes and Snow' by Gregory Colbert. There have been posters all around LA advertising it and we finally clicked it was linked to this. We went in to check out what all the fuss was about and it was pretty cool, we are sure the exhibition will come to London at some point so you must check it when it does. Anyway that was our bit of culture for the day ;o)

We stayed in Santa Monica that evening; the place has a really nice vibe about it with shops open until late and some cool restaurants and bars. Some of the pedestrian streets reminded us of Covent Garden as they had loads of performers (including a Physic cat, hilarious) and lots of people milling around - definitely a cool place to hang out!

We managed to see what we considered to be the main attractions in Los Angeles but couldn't do it all, well you can't in just a couple of days, its HUGE. It's a funny sort of place where celebrity is everything and if you don't care much about that sort of thing I guess you just won't get it; it was wicked fun all the same. With that in mind we decided to drive up the coast and head for San Francisco.

We initially intended to take one week driving up the West Coast to San Francisco and then onto Tahoe, but by this time Chris was getting seriously itchy feet knowing that our snowboarding equipment had already arrived in lake Tahoe and that there was loads of snow. In the end the snow proved too much of a distraction and it was decided to cut short our tour of the coast and rush to the Mountains. Thing is there isn't that much to see in winter on the drive, the coastline is beautiful but not worth spending days shivering by the shoreline. Shivering on the top of a mountain is of course perfectly reasonable

Our first stop on the drive was Malibu Beach, which is still awesome in winter although very deserted. We did see some lifeguards hanging out in their yellow 4x4's and had to make a quick U-turn to go back and get a photo. Just like Baywatch, except less scantily clad women and muscle men bouncing around. Zaida did the Baywatch slow motion jog (fully clothed) to try and recreate the scene.

After our brief stop at the beach we headed to Santa Barbara. Driving along the highway it wasn't particularly obvious when we actually reached Santa Barbara so we ended up driving around until we reached the town which was really nice. We stopped for coffee and cake in the awesome bakery and chilled in the afternoon winter sunshine before deciding to make the most of the day and get some miles under the wheels driving 250 miles up to Pebble beach and the Monterey Peninsular which is a couple of hours drive south of San Francisco.

After spending a brief night in a random motel we took the scenic drive through their Monterey National Park, we jumped out of the car for quick walks along windy beaches and great look out points on the coast. In the national park there has a fantastic member only golf course where the US open has been played 4 times, people that live and play golf here are obviously wedged!

We left Monterey rather windswept and headed for San Francisco that afternoon, breaking into song 'with do you know the way to San Jose, lalalala' every now and then. We have been really looking forward to getting to San Francisco as we have heard such fantastic things about it, and like most people who come here we also fell in love with the place and think it might by our favourite American city (as well as New York of course). It has a very relaxed feel about the place, the people are friendly and sociable which is cool for a big city.

We found ourselves a nice, good value motel in the posh Nob Hill area that was a great central location for exploring Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown and the Downtown areas. On our first day exploring the city we rode the cable cars and trams around the steep hills of San Fran, unlike other American towns we completely understand why people don't walk as the hills are killers and almost vertical in some places. The streets look like the ones you get in car chase movies (see 'Bullitt' staring Steve McQueen for the best example) where you see cars literally taking off over steep intersections.

We took full advantage of the seafood on offer in the Fisherman’s Warf area and had the popular Dungeness crab at Joes Crab Shack (lush). The clam chowder in the bread bowls is a real delicacy in SF, we didn't manage to try this dish but it looks wicked! We did however sample some good local beers and San Francisco’s take on an Irish coffee, which certainly warmed us up! Fisherman’s Wharf has a fishing village atmosphere which still has some of its original charm with old boats permanently docked in the harbour and warehouse style buildings. As well as the boats there are hundreds of very smelly and noisy seal lions perched on pontoons. It really was a sight to be seen and loads of fun watching them lounging around, playing, grunting and barking at one another. After ten minutes the smell became too much (they really stink!) so we took a tour around Alcatraz which was really interesting. We loved hearing the stories of what went on in the prison, kind of like being on the set of the movie whilst visualising all the action. If you are ever in SF go take a look.

On our last day in the city we wanted to make sure we took in as much of San Francisco as possible so we decided to take a 49-mile scenic drive which takes you to various famous locations around the city. The best being awesome views of the golden gate bridge, golden gate park and what has to be the widest and longest beach we have seen. It was great fun, but you really had to be on the ball as the signs would often disappear resulting in loads of wrong turns. We didn't end up actually completing the 49 mile drive as we got so lost and it was getting dark, so we kind of made the rest up as we went along and ended picking the trail up again when we reached Chinatown where we decided enough of the tourist stuff and went for a slap up Chinese meal in a restaurant with fantastic views of the city.

Before leaving SF we drove over the Bay Bridge into Berkley to meet up with Chris's cousin Julian and his wife Jessica for a wicked breakfast. It was really nice to see them both and we wish we could have stayed longer but the drive to Lake Tahoe beckoned and the weather was closing in. On our way to the mountains all the weather reports were advising to only attempt the drive over the pass with snow chains or a 4x4, as we had none of these it meant a detour to Sacramento so we could swap our little toy car for a more capable vehicle. To Zaida's joy we got a brand spanking new V8 Jeep, which she drove smiling all the way up the mountains through the snow storm.

We were absolutely over the moon that we were arriving in Tahoe when there are perfect conditions on the mountain. Three weeks on the mountain with tonnes of snow - what more could we ask for!!!

Ah ha! Top prizes to all those who noticed the notes we had written to jog our memory when writing the Cooks and Fiji entry were - due to a little finger trouble, published for all to see! Bugger. Ah well, below is the finished article, as finished as it will ever be anyways.

Right, this one should be nice and short as we didn't do a whole bunch on Raratonga in the Cook Islands and achieved even less in Fiji. A proper holiday. After arriving at Raratonga international airport which is unsurprisingly tiny, we collected our baggage then went out to meet our pickup. Whilst waiting in the queue for immigration we were entertained by a little local guy playing calypso and singing which was cute - methinks he was a little worse for the local moonshine! Most of the other passengers were met by their accommodation reps who gave them tropical island flower necklaces which was a nice touch. Our driver however was a grumpy large local woman, who didn't come bearing flowers, wasn't into the island welcome thing and blatantly wished she was somewhere else! Never mind, this is backpacker hospitality. After a short drive we arrived at our accommodation which is just about on the beach and beside the beautiful lagoon about 3 feet deep that stretches all the way out to the reef about 1/2 a mile away. This lagoon encircles the entire island and as a result there is plenty of great snorkeling.

After spending the first day worrying if the rain would ever let up we were finally blessed with some decent weather (i.e. not rain!). To celebrate we booked ourselves on the Raro Safari tour which is a pretty good way to explore the island, it's not that big with only one road all the way around and you could drive the full circuit in less than an hour. Bundled in the back of a land rover we were driven to various highlights, the first major attraction being the sewage treatment plant (what?!) then onto a vantage point giving a birds eye view of the prison..... Hmmm, the guide seemed keen to show us these, finally we moved onto the more traditional sightseeing fodder of historical cultural sites and look out points with great views of the island. All the way round the driver kept stopping and telling us to reach up to pick the various fruit growing on the trees beside the road - scrumping is what we used to call it! It was amazing the variety of different fruit and veg we saw - and pinched! Finally we arrived at the tour depot (more like a lean to/hut) and were cooked a fantastic BBQ - the whole thing was a great day out and the guides were great even if there choice of highlights was a little leftfield!

The next two days we were virtually confined to barracks because of the rain. This gave us a chance to catch up on our reading, also to try to think of something to occupy us for the rest of our stay should the weather not change.... In the end we decided to do our PADI open water diving certificate, not because we wanted to do it that much but more because a) it was cheap, and b) it would give us something to do for 2 or three days and it really doesn’t make any difference if it's raining when you are 10 meters below the surface! Luckily on the first day of the course the weather improved significantly so there we were stuck in a classroom when the sun was shining! Nuts. After two days of hard graft in and out of the water both of us had pretty much had enough of it! This wasn't helped by the rolling seas that meant as soon as you got on the boat after a dive you got to feeling pretty seasick! That coupled with the 'I'm a dive master don’t you know' attitude of the dive centre staff was giving us the hump so we decided to take a day off - this is supposed to be fun isn't it? To cut a long and quite possibly boring story short - we are now qualified PADI open water divers but so sick of diving we probably won't actually use the qualification for a while! The whole thing did however solve the problem of what the hell to do for 8 days on a rainy tropical island!

During our stay Valentines Day came around and to treat ourselves we booked into reputedly the best restaurant on the island! Apparently just a short walk down the road, the restaurant forms part of a new resort. So off we set in good time just before dusk wearing our best 'going out to dinner' travelers gear. Now; on a cloudy night on a remote island that only has a casual attitude towards streetlighting it gets very dark, so dark in fact you can't see the road you are trying to walk along. Not deterred by the sudden and almost total absence of light coupled with the steady rain that, joy of joys, had now started to fall we walked on....and on....and on looking for a damn sign to the restaurant. Funny ha ha, apparently this new resort had neglected to advertise itself to passing traffic, and as a result we overshot by a mile. Realizing our mistake after walking around in the dark for 45 minutes and asking for directions we finally arrived soaked and muddy. On the plus side the meal was tasty, and the company good of course!

What with all the excitement of our crash diving course and impromptu glam night hiking, we opted to stay put for the last two days and relax by the beach. No great hardship and good practice for Fiji.

After another rotten flight on officially the worst airline of the trip 'Air New Zealand' - crap food, late again...ra ra ra, we arrived in Fiji, this time at 4am with no means of transportation to our accommodation until 8am. The cunning nightshift of tour sales people at the airport have caught onto this traveler’s dilemma and as a result we were sold a 3 night island stay on one of the Fijian island resorts that litter the area. Thing is, at 5am tired and hungry, the thought of an all inclusive no hassle stay with transfers included seems like a great idea! And it was. We even managed to get an upgrade - dorm price for a double room - bargain! No hassle, we were taken more or less straight there on a nice boat which cruises around several other islands first, so we had a little tour of the area too. We even passed the islands that were used for Castaway starring Tom Hanks and wait for it.... 'Celebrity Love Island' with a bunch of people we all wish we hadn't heard of.

On arrival we were greeted by the standard guitar playing locals and then at reception we were upgraded again - Reeesult! This time from our double room to a self contained beach bure, kind of like a little thatched cottage right on the beach. Very very nice – double bargain!

We really didn't do anything for 4 days, ate drank and layed on the beach. Perfect. What else is there to tell? Not much. There were mosquitos - big ones! Oh the weather was nice too.

So, that’s it for the beach then, between now and April its the American west coast winter with a little snowboarding and gambling thrown in for good measure!

Our journey into the heart of Middle Earth continued initially with a rather bumpy crossing on the Interislander ferry. We tried to take our minds off the heaving seas by watching The Cronicles of Narnia which kind of worked apart from the cinema having the distinct aroma of past breakfasts lost (if you get my meaning!). Still, it did give us the chance to spot some of the filming locations we were about to visit.

On the first day spent on the south island we hired some Kayaks at Kaiteriteri which is a popular beach resort in the Abel Tasman National Park. It was a very relaxing way to spend a couple of hours. Paddling slowly along the coast and tentatively nosing about the rocky coastline was great fun. Zaida was in the front of the Kayak whilst Chris sat in the back doing most of the paddling! The scenery was beautiful and although we didn't see any seals (boo) it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The weather was fantastic too! One thing we hadn't anticipated was the huge number of families staying in the area enjoying the end of the summer school break. Our campsite was overrun by children and we were literally surrounded by families with 3 or 4 kids apiece (don't these people have TV's at home?). It was far from relaxing. We lost count of the number of times footballs bounced off the camper. Pesky so and so's....

After sunning ourselves for a couple of days at Abel Tasman we hit the road and headed for the Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers, stopping off at some awesome lakes along the way with stunning views of the mountains. The drive was breath-taking; every time you go round a corner you get a completely new perspective. We stopped at Franz Joseph first and walked right up to the terminal face of the glacier - which is tech speak for the crumbly end of it. There were plenty of warning signs not to go past the barriers - good job too as while we were admiring the icy facade a huge clump probably weighing several tons came tumbling down, amazing to think it had taken over a thousand years to make its way to the bottom. We then spent the night at Fox Glacier village which had awesome views of the mountains from our campsite and no pesky kids...which was nice.

Surrounding the glaciers are Fiord lands which are basically deep and very steep sided valleys carved out by glaciers over hundreds of thousands of years. Since the end of the last ice age the glaciers have retreated and left some rather large and spectacular lakes. We took a stroll around Lake Matheson which is now several kilometers from the Fox glacier that carved it, it was a perfecly clear day and the weather was beautiful - well worth the effort. This is one of the iconic kiwi photo opertunities and is apparently the most photographed spot in New Zealand. How on earth you can know that is anyones guess but there you go. Unfortunately we didn't manage to get 'the' photo of the mountains reflecting in the still water. You have to get up pretty early to get that one, and after 5 months at leasure early rising just doesn't happen. Never mind.

Some of the journeys through the mountains are pretty long but never boring with the fantastic scenery and the bluest rivers we have ever seen. This intense blue colour is because of all the minerals and rock sediment suspended in the glacial melt water refered to as glacial milk. Because of refraction the water then looks amazingly blue - so there you go. Whatever the science they are crazy features of the landscape. The rivers are flowing pretty fast too and it's scary to think that the glaciers are melting so quickly, even so they will be around for a few hundred years (go see em while you can). Continuing our journey south we traversed the trecherous Haast Pass, not so scary in the summer but we imagine it would be pretty hairy in the winter months. There were various waterfalls along the way and we even had time for a brief stop at the Fantail waterfall for a paddle.

Still heading south we passed through lake Wanaka town and on past the huge Lake Wakatipu to Queenstown sitting on it's edge. For those of you who don't know about Queenstown it is the self proclaimed adrenaline junkie capital of the world (Wicked!). Nestled in a glacial valley next to lake Wakatipu this year round playground had pretty much every conceivable extreme sport available including some we had never hear of! In the winter months there is wintersports in the mountains and in the summer the beautiful lake provides plenty of options for mucking about in boats, wakeboarding and waterskiing. Year round you can go bungy jumping, canyon swinging, skydiving, hang gliding, paragliding, jet boating, Downhill Mountain biking, etc etc. This place could bankrupt you in a couple of weeks so we decided to only stay 2 days....which of course turned into 4!!!

Take a look at the photos below for a taste of what we go up to. First up it was jet boating on the famous Shotover Jet (wicked!), then a quad biking safari up into the mountains to enjoy the view. After that it was Fly by Wire (absolutely barking! click 'here' for more info), followed by a bit of lugeing and then paragliding. Phew! After all that we had to leave as the buzz was getting addictive!

Our favorite drive on the whole trip has to be the road to Milford Sound. It's got it all. A crazy tunnel, steep hills, twisty roads and of course those incredible views. You would think that with the consistently stunning scenery it's easy to start taking it for granted but the views are so varied you somehow don't. After driving through the single lane rough cut tunnel that barely seemed large enough to accomodate our camper complete with water running from cracks in the ceiling to form little rivers running down each side, we arrived in the sounds. After a further half an hour of particularly alpine-esqe driving winding down through switchback after switchback, we reached Milford Sounds. We stayed in what was apparently the only campsite in the area perched on the banks of a rocky bottomed river - a great setting, very relaxing with the water gurgling past and pretty entertaining too as we were kept company by Kea birds. These are very large green parrots that are pretty inquisitive as well as bold! David Attenborough says they may be the cleverest birds on the planet and you can believe it when they look at you. After the Kea's grew bored of us it was off to the only pub in town which was predictably chilled before walking back which was very nice if a little scary. When it's dark its really really dark here, especially if you forget your torch. Ever the townies.

The next morning we were up early for our cruise around the Sound. The huge mountains rising out of the ocean are spectacular and even the dreary start to the day added a certain atmosphere. We didn't realise but Milford Sound is perhaps the wettest place in NZ recieving a massive 9 metes of rainfall a year and getting rain on 2 out of every 3 days! On the cruise we passed over the fault line that marks the boundry of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates - clearly visible as massive cracks in the mountains. Our boat driver also passed under the falls that cascade down the mountain and we finally spotted some seals although they weren't doing a great deal, just lazing about on the rocks - what a life!

After our time in the Sounds we got back on the road stopping briefly to look at a chasm along the way which is this fast flowing river running through big bolder rocks then dropping deep underground. The power of the water overtime has carved holes through the rock to create something like a modern art piece from the Tate.

All the rivers and lakes we have passed on our travels have looked very inviting but we had yet to stop anywhere for a swim. Eventually we managed to brave the icey cold waters and went for a dip in Lake Manapouri. We had the place to ourselves!

Our visit to the Catlins was a bit of a wildlife adventure with the hope of seeing all sorts of creatures in their natural habitat. We did manage to spot some large sea-lions on the beach at Cannibal Bay looking like they had just eaten one of their own. We then went to Nuggets point, which is the southern most point we will visit on our trip in the hope of seeing some Penguins; we didn't spot any but got yet another amazing view, this time out onto the famous nuggets of rock pointing into the South Pacific Ocean.

Dunedin was a bit of a non-event as it was a public holiday. Even most of the pubs were closed, I mean come on that's what public holidays were invented for surely!? Who knows what the Kiwi's do on these days. The main thing we wanted to do in Dunedin(well Zaida actually) was visit the Cadbury’s chocolate factory, we couldn't do this either (closed on public holidays - sorry) so we decided to move on. Rubbish.

On the road again then, heading inland this time to get a final look at the snow capped mountains of Mount Cook from the eastern side. On our way we passed Lake Pukaki which has to be the bluest lake we have ever seen, the rivers on the west coast were amazing but this was even better and the view across the lake at Mount Cook was perfect.

Lake Tekapo was the last place we visited before heading to Christchurch. We found a great campsite right on the lake with breathtaking views all around and in the morning we hired some mountain bikes and went for a bit of an explore. No extreme mountain biking though just some leasurely cycling.

So here we are, our last stop in New Zealand - Christchurch. Compared by some to Oxford and other traditional English/Scotish towns, with the historic tram (great way to sightsee if it's raining - and it has been - alot), old buildings, punting on the river and botanical gardens all giving it a distinctly British feel.

We only have a couple of days here most of which was spent in a great Belgium Beer cafe on the the river sinking hoegardens so not all time was wasted.

So thats it then, time to return our beloved home on wheels ;o) She - according to Zaida, it - according to Chris, has taken us on a 3,500 km journey around both islands in comfort and style(?). A tip for those who follow; you really don't need a big campervan - a basic one is just as good as all the campsites have really good facilities. If you are really brave tents are also an option. (yeah right!)

Our next stop on the grand tour is Raratonga in the Cook islands - really looking forward to that one as it means some serious beach time!