Day 87 - 500 miles and 9 hours later....

The end is so close now, we can almost touch it...

After 4 glorious days in the snow, we got up at 5.30, had our chocolate-chip pancakes with maple syrup and got back on the road for our trip back to LA. The trip was only 500 miles but as the speed limit is 70 for most of the way (and I didn't fancy getting nicked for speeding), it took us nearly 9 hours to get here.

We've come back to Santa Monica for a bit of shopping and walk on the pier before we head off to our hotel. Our first flight, to Newark, goes at 08:30 tomorrow morning and we catch the homeward bound flight at 6:50pm tomorrow night.

I'm not sure there's much more to say other than we've had such an amazing trip, it's going to be very, very strange to come back to 'normal' life. We've spent the last few weeks (well, mainly Emma) searching for a new place to live and we've got quite a few appts lined up for next Wed/Thu - not even much time to enjoy xmas before we have to crack on with it all.

If we can, will try and send one last update from the airport but if not, thanks for reading and keeping up with our antics.

See you soon.

E and J x

Day 85 - South Lake Tahoe - Blue sky and snow!

Hello again from Heavenly!

We've had a fab day today - beautiful blue sky and some nice snow. We got up super early and we numbers 6 and 7 in the queue for the gondola so had some peaceful runs at the top whilst all the lazy people were still having breakfast... The weather has been great although the cold is biting, especially with the wind chill at the top of the mountain and we had to finish up early yesterday as we'd lost sense in our fingers and toes and our noses were dropping off!

We have one more day here before we have to start our long journey back to LA, then NY, then London.. it's sad but also very exciting as well - really looking forward to being back home for Christmas now!

Ta ta for now

E and J

Day 83 - South Lake Tahoe - SNOW!

Ahhh...we've finally made it. Even after having to put snow chains on the car, we've got to Heavenly at Lake Tahoe and have already spent an afternoon shooting up and down the pistes....the 10" of snow that got dumped on the resort last night really helped and it's blanketed (much hoorays!)
Again we don't have much time on the net so I'll let the pics do the talking...needless to say we are having a great time and will be out on the slopes again tomorrow at 8.30am....

The view from the top of the hill is really amazing but some cloud got in the way on that last one...

The only disappointment is that the lifts close at around 3.30 so we have to go home then. Boo.

E and J.

Day 82 - Sacramento

A short one tonight - onlt 4 minutes left on the clock. We've arrived in the state capital, Sacramento, on our way to Lake Tahoe for the skiing!! News is that there are blizzard conditions there at the moment but hopefully that will pass and allow us to ski freely for 4 days. We've bought some snow chains as the road is getting iced up towards the mountain.

San Francisco was great - we spent hours running around buying ski equipment at North Face only to find another shop selling exactly the same stuff for about 30% less. So we went there and bought more. We're all kitted up and raring to hit the slopes. Should take us around 3 hours to get there. But more on San Francisco...we enjoyed a late dinner on Friday at a little bistro downtown...all very nice and good (but not necessarily cheap!).

Today we did the tourist thing, caught the cable car over the hill and down to Fisherman's Wharf, had a walk around a decommissioned WWII submarine (which was amazing, I don't know how people live in them) and ate hotdogs and giant pretzels.

Anyway, more info when we get to the snow, gotta go now.

Night

J and E x

Day 81 - SAN FRANCISCO

I enjoyed just writing those words...SF...we've already seen the Golden Gate Bridge and enjoyed a spectacular drive up the west coast of California after we arrived in LA on Tuesday (our second go at Tuesday 12th after the date line shenanigans)! It takes ages to get anywhere thanks to the ludicrously low speed limits (55 most of the way) but we were rewarded with some of the best scenery I've ever seen - even NZ starts to pale in comparison.

After staying the night in Santa Monica, we headed up the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara - call me stupid but I really didn't have any idea how much California has been moulded by the influence of Spain and Mexico - it only became part of the USA in 1848 and that's pretty much when everything went downhill. We visited one of the original Missions in SB - really good to learn about the history of California and not just lump it in with the rest of the country.

Bizarrely, we stumbled on a Danish village in the mountains, Solvang. All very christmassy and warming - Emma couldn't resist buying some Monterey Jack cheese. The prescience of this purchase became obvious when we found ourselves staying in Monterey the next night. I even bought 'The Grapes of Wrath' (but not the more appropriate 'Cannery Row') to celebrate our arrival (John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, about 20 miles outside Monterey). It's been more hostels for us (not cheap here tho') but that's fine - only problem is that they are completely dry places and not what you want to hear after a 4 hour drive.

We watched the sun go down yesterday, overlooking the Pacific and watching hundreds of elephant seals bask and snort on the beach - amazing creatures but very stinky. The sun goes down at around 4.45 here so getting up early is the key to doing anything worthwhile - sleep in and you miss it. We also tried to visit Hearst Castle but were caught out by the early sunset...

Anyway, we're off to explore SF, hopefully buy some ski gear and head off to Sacramento tomorrow before our early morning dash to Lake Tahoe on Sunday.



The fact we're coming to the end of the tour is starting to sink in and I'm not happy about it - we're going to make the most of the last few days we have (Em is looking forward to showing me how to ski properly).

J and E x

Day 76 - Christchurch

After our extended, illness induced blogging outtage we're back into the swing of things again. After our lightning, 1800km blitz around the South Island, we arrived in Christchurch last night after a 4 hour slog from Dunedin. Sadly, the drive up was nowhere near as interesting as the drive down the other side so we were both glad to get to a warm hostel at 7pm and make an enormous spagbol for tea.

After staying up late to call home and rearrange our US car rental, we planned our US treat - skiing in Lake Tahoe for 4 days from next Sunday! This gives us time to drive around the West Coast for a few days, see the sights etc before heading into the mountains for the powder. The conditions aren't fantastic but there's enough to keep even a novice skier (and experts like Em) interested. I think I'm correct in saying that we cannot bloody wait to get there!

Got up especially early today to
a) do the washing
b) get a coffee in Starbucks
c) go to Christchurch Cathedral for a service.

We weren't disappointed and enjoyed Choral Eucharist NZ-style (complete with Maori) while the better-than-average choir sang the Byrd 4 part mass. Still, it was a nice way to start our christmas festivities. Christchurch is a quaint (apologies for that word but it's the most apt) little place surrounded by the Canterbury plains and the Southern Alps - some of the pictures we have of the landscape are the most breathtaking I've ever seen. This place has everything, mountains, sea, lakes, volcanoes and more gondolas than you can shake a stick at. No wonder nearly every other person appears to be riding a bike or running up the nearest steep hill. I predict NZers will soon be taking over the world, if only because they can go for days without any sleep....

So we say goodbye to our trusty Daihatsu Charade tomorrow and catch a flight back to Auckland before we fly on to Fiji and the US on Tuesday. The camping gear we bought has sadly gone unused thanks to the unseasonally chilly weather but we hope to get a refund for most of it and donate the rest to a needy hostel-inhabitant.

Our time in NZ has been fantastic and was only marred by the illness at the start - that's now long forgotten and we'll take away only memories of beautiful landscapes and friendly people.
Next stop Fiji (for 5 hours) then back to reality in LA - Hollywood here we come.

:)

Dunedin - Day ??

We're really moving along now and after a wicked trip on the Shotover Jet in Queenstown we decided to head for Dunedin and see what al the fuss is about. Unfortunately we didn't get too far before we stumbled across the original AJ Hackett bungy bridge so had to spend 20 minutes waiting for some people to jump so we could watch them fall to their deaths..sadly, everything went as planned and they all survived. Still, was very cool to have seen it though didn't seem too much of a big deal (and no, neither of us had a go - we were in too much of a hurry, had to go before it got dark etc etc).

We hadn't gone a mile down the road before we stopped again to do some wine tasting at the Peregrine vineyard. Really nice stuff and we bought a bottle of the Pinot Noir -sadly, thanks to US flght regulations, we'll have to drink it before we come home - oh well.

After three hours driving through beautiful and v rural countryside we arrived in a very cold Dunedin (trivia - Dunedin is Gaelic for Edinburgh or so we've been told). There's even a Princes Street here. After a quick scout around (and a warming drink) - we headed back to the hostel for dinner and some blogging.

And time is up today, catch us back tomorow with more exciting tidbits.

TTFN
J & E x