Our final leg

So the final leg of our adventure commenced with a week of pure relaxation(obviously we need this with all the hard traveling we've endured!) in Tahiti. We choose the lovely island of Moo'rea, Mark had been here previously and had tempted me by saying it was here that he experienced the greatest sunset of all time- I was just being greedy and wanted to experience the beauty of this Island too. I promised I'd speak french, or attempt to, as a compromise.

Moo'rea was fabulous, the sun shone, the ocean was warm and the biggest decision we had to make was what to have to eat or drink. We did get off the sun loungers a few times during our week, we had fun(and crossed words) whilst kayaking- he blamed the current, I blamed his steering as we spent most of the time drifting hopelessly in circles. We also got to dive again, this time with the local sharks. There were 3 types, all "timid" but still looking as fierce as any SHARK! Whilst waiting for the other divers to join me in the water I spotted a fin circling me, slightly disconcerting but I was reassured(yeah right) by the guide that the black tip on the fin meant it was "friendly"! I preferred the turtles and smaller fish!

We also got to horse-ride again, Mark's horse did behave better this time, perhaps it was his constant rambling in "french" that the horse liked(note he did German at school and admitted it wasn't his strongest subject). Perhaps the horse liked his friendly rider, Mark's response to any question in french being "Bonjour". Seeing the internal part of the island was amazing, we got to eat freshly picked pineapple and passion fruit.

After pure relaxation in Tahiti it was time to pick up the pace again- Bonjour to Las Vegas! Oh my, 3 days was certainly enough. We stayed on the strip itself but completely underestimated distances as the hotels are so huge and we left completely exhausted but thankfully not too skint. We did have a wee gamble, don't worry folks we could be found by the 25 cent(12 1/2 pence) slot machines and even this made us nervous! I mastered Black Jack and the highlight was doubling my money- I made sure I cashed in at this point, all 3 pound fifty's worth! On the last night we did step up the gambling pace a bit and found ourselves playing the Black Jack tables, minimum bets of 5 dollars(big bucks in our eyes), we lasted perhaps 1 hour but made sure we accepted all the free cocktails on offer. I think it was Mark being mistaken for Rod Stewart that kept them flowing!

Gambling aside we made the most of the other activities on offer. We saw a fantastic show, "LOVE" by the Beetles and took a trip to the Grand Canyon by helicopter, landing to enjoy a glass of champagne in the canyon itself.

After Vegas we flew to LA and then collected our car and began the drive up the coast of California. Our destinations have included Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, Big Sur, Monteray and Santa Cruz. The drive has been amazing, we've had glorious weather and the coastal scenery has been fantastic. Highlights being our hike through the redwood forest in big sur and eating our way through the many seafood dishes on offer up the coast, oh and the wine of course! The most challenging things here have been keeping the credit card under control(we have now had to buy a carry on case each- I just can't stop him buying more shoes!) oh, and the driving. There's no roundabouts here and our car is pretty big(like everything in the US). Poor Mark has done all the driving, insisting there's no point us both having to get used to driving the US way- I was thankful around the wineries but perhaps not when we were heading down the wrong side of the freeway! Who says men are better drivers!

Needless to say we were pleased to give the tank back and hit the streets of San Fransisco on foot, with the occasional bus and ferry ride. We're staying in a really lively part of the city and have enjoyed more shopping, more food and more wine! We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, visited Alcatraz and on our final day visited the Napa Valley just so we wouldn't forget the taste of the fantastic California wine, no chance!

So we'll be flying home tomorrow and you'll all be pleased to know there'll be no more blog for you to endure! See you all back in England, au revoir from me and bonjour from Mark!

Farewell New Zealand....

It's a sad time for us as we leave New Zealand. This really is a great place to visit and I'm sure we'll be back.
After leaving the South Island by ferry we arrived in the capital, Wellington. We only stayed a couple of days but enjoyed Wellington. It had plenty of busy restaurants and had a good buzz about the place.
We had to leave Wellington at six in the morning to head to Napier. I had somehow persuaded Tree that it would be good to watch a one day international between England and New Zealand. I lied to her that cricket was usually very exciting and although it would last eight hours it would be real edge of the seat stuff. I gambled that Tree's previous sporting experience had been watching Bolton and that if she thought that was exciting then a dull cricket game would surely be like a step up. The fact that England had been humiliated in the previous two games didn't get mentioned. As it was, we witnessed a fantastic game of high scoring cricket that went down to the last ball and ended in a draw. I'm now persuading her that test cricket is just as exciting so that we can spend the entire summer watching more cricket.
Napier was a nice art-deco city and was right in the middle of the Hawkes Bay wine region. We felt it was only polite to sample some of the local wineries. After a day on a wine tour to add to the ones in South Africa and Australia our knowledge is getting better. For example, I now know that a Pinot Noir is a fruity red and not a former dictator of Chile as I had previously thought.
Next we visited Lake Taupo with one thing in mind - a big, scary sky dive. The morning of the dive it was cloudy and looking like we would have to resort to more wine tasting. But then, miraculously, the clouds parted, the sky turned blue and we made frequent trips to the toilet. Within a few hours we climbed aboard a very small plane and set out on a 20 minute climb to 15,000 feet. This is so high that we had to wear oxygen masks! Then our instructors strapped themselves to our back and dangled us over the edge of the plane. I went first closely followed by Tree. We had over one minute of free fall and instantly reached a speed of 120 miles an hour. It is such a great feeling but you don't actually feel like you are falling so fast. You can move your arms about and smile at the camera - which we did. It only lasted a few minutes but was definitely one of the highlights.
On Lake Taupo there is a 'hole in one' challenge. It's a pontoon floating about 120 yards away on a Lake. If you manage to get a hole in one you receive a cheque for three grand. I decided to have a go and impress Tree with my golfing prowess. I hadn't swung a club in six months and wasn't too hopeful. My first ball went straight in the hole and the guy started writing the cheque out and Tree was jumping up and down. At least that's how I pictured it on my practice swing. In reality I didn't land a single ball anywhere near the green which I put down to the strong wind and not my embarrassing hook shot.
Our next stop was Rotorua. This place smells real bad. It's almost as if the entire town have been constantly eating curries. Apparently its the sulphur but I'm sure I could detect a lingering Chicken Balti odour. The area is quite impressive and is the most unique place we've been too. It's a volcanic region and has lots of fissures were steam escapes to the surface and creates bubbling mud pools, hot water lakes, spa pools and strange colours everywhere.
We visited Waimangu which contains the Inferno Crater Lake. The deep blue colour of the lake with steam coming off it was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't do it justice.
We still had time to fit a couple more activities in. First was the white water rafting. This involves six of us rafting down the Kaituna river over some pretty big rapids. Near the end we went over a seven meter waterfall which is the largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. We did get a bit wet.
Being politically correct, the next day we went black water rafting. This was an amazing underground experience in the Waitomo region. It involved us crawling through a sometimes tight underground cave system. We then got in black rubber rings and floated through the caves. This was mostly in the pitch black apart from the thousands of bright green glow-worms that we could see when we turned our lights off (and a hungry looking eel).
For the last few days of NZ we headed to the top of the Island. First was the Coramandel Peninsula. This is a really beautiful part of the North Island. It's got great beaches and is really green. One of the things we had looked forward to was hot water beach. People had told us that because this was a thermal region you could dig a hole in the beach and lie in your own hot water pool, which would be wonderful for your skin due to all the minerals. We arrived at low tide (8pm) and it didn't quite live up to expectations. There was about 50 people shivering in a large pool that was very very cold. They were all probably English too. Apparently it was the wrong type of tide and it is usually very warm...
We then headed off to the Bay of Islands which is said to be beautiful. We had arranged to spend a day and night on a boat to visit some of the islands. Unfortunately it rained constantly for about 24 hours and we got soaked. We didn't see very much and were even more unlucky with our cabin share. At first we were happy that the lovely old lady wasn't a rowdy backpacker so that we could get a decent nights sleep. However, she had a terrible combination of a bad cough and an even worse snoring problem. We got about 30 minutes sleep and got even wetter the next day.
Our last couple of nights were much better, including a home cooked meal in a remote farmhouse and staying in the buzzing Parnell in Auckland.
We've had a great time in New Zealand but now it's time to drag ourselves off to Tahiti!
For those of you who thought we were having a wild time night after night, I should point out that Tree is currently beating me 7 to 6 at Scrabble!