Returning to Blighty unemployed, I figured I’d have plenty of time to catch up with this blog. Reality was that I was worse at updating it since returning then when I was actually on the road. Distractions, catching up, work and general faffing are equally to blame for this. We returned in time for Christmas, enabling me to catch up with friends and family. It was fantastic seeing people after so long, and even more fun seeing their reaction when they figured out who this hairy mess was. Thanks to Facebook party invites I even managed to surprise a selection…
Although a lot of you have given up reading this blog due to inactivity (thus won’t read this sentence, and hence I am waffling before I’ve even started), for those that have not, here is (a full 5 months after I was there) the final installment from my Round the World Trip. A week away from the end of the trip I wasn’t expecting much from the briefest of stops in the United States but in reality it was a great end to the trip. Before leaving the Cook Islands we managed to watch Michael Moore’s Sicko and Al Gore’s…
As many of you know, the trip is over. In fact we’ve been back for two months! I figured that once home I’d have loads of time to reflect on the trip and get this blog up to date. Reality was far from that. I started writing this post before the trip was over but everything has been pretty hectic since I returned that I’ve not finished until now. Still, being a sucker for completeness I fully intend to get this and our brief time in the US posted. So, back to the Cook Islands, central pacific paradise, a far…
Returning to the main land from Taveuni on a twelve hour overnight crossing we had half a day to stock up on supplies before moving on to Caqalai (pronounced Thangalai, obviously). This small paradisaical island, described as the near perfect backpackers resort in the guide book (I can’t bring myself to write those two words), is east of the main island of Vitu Levu and is part of the Lomaiviti island group. On a par with Koh Wai in Thailand and if it wasn’t for the weather we had I might even had said that Caqalai was better. The island’s…
After being greeted by a live band in Nadi Airport and passing immigration (the passport is looking pretty good now) we were met by Nathalie, an old Uni house mate and as of recently girlfriend of a very good friend of mine back in London (I think I can claim some credit for that ïŠ ). Nathalie, once recovered from the shock of how much hair I’d amassed over the last 11 months or so, lead us to our nearby hostel, serving as our local guide. She had just started her own round the world trip, going the opposite direction…
Having heard that there were some good deals to be had on rental van relocations I spent a bit of time phoning around the different rental companies to see what was on offer. As time went by these offers just got better and better. Basically the companies are desperate to get their vans back to Auckland as most of their customers pick up the vans there and dump them at Christchurch. The problem of rental companies having all their vehicles in the wrong place really played into our hands and after several calls it seemed that Maui/Britz and Apollo had…
Crossing the Southern Alpes via Authers Pass the change in weather was dramatic. From near continuous rain, crossing the pass, the clouds cleared and we were bathed in sunlight. We’d learned how the west coast receives some of the highest rainfall in the world and how this was caused be the weather coming in from the Tasman sea and hitting the mountains, but to see how it diminished so soon after crossing the pass was quite bizarre. Skipping some of the good treks around the pass due to the rain we instead tackled Helicopter Hill, starting in picturesque woodland gradually…
We met this friendly Belgian couple on the Milford Sound cruise only to discover that they too were travelling around New Zealand via camper van and actually had planned pretty much the same route as us. We said our goodbyes expecting to bump into each other somewhere on route. More by chance than by planning we actually spent time with them on everyday of the following nine. Most evenings we spent in the same camp / rest areas and ended up playing some unique Belgian card games (anyone heard of Boonanza?) over food and drinks while getting to know each…