America!! LA and Florida!!

Hi all!! we are currently at the airport waiting for our flight home... We have had a truly amazing trip!! LA was a little scary after the peaceful bliss or raratonga, but we had fun! we did a great trip all around hollywood, we saw the star homes, went up into the hollywood hills, down the hollywood walk of fame, saw sunset boulevard, Rodeo drive, venice beach and santa monica. The beaches were lovely and there are alot of hippy freaks down there!!!

We then flew to Florida, we have lovely family friends there, so we have just had a blissful end to our trip!! We spent 8nights there. It was very hot and humid, but we spent plenty of time chilling out by the pool and taking their gorgeous lab ollie out for walks!! We flew back to LA yesterday for our flight home today! We spent the night in a gorgeous hotel on venice beach which was fab, a great way to spend our last night!! We went out for a yummy meal by the beach.

We arrive home tomorrow morning, so although we are sad our trip is over we cant wit to see you all so will be in-touch when we get home!!!!

You will probably all ask us what our fave place has been, we cant figure it out as they have all been fab so we will try and decide on out flight home!!!!

So long then and over and out!! Cu all i the UK!!!!

Simon and sophie!!!XXXXX

Cook Islands - Rarotonga

Hi Again,

Got in early morning and was meeted at the airport by the owner of the hostel we are staying at.
Gorgeous island very small just 32 km's in circumference!! The buses run clockwise and anti clockwise round the island! The hostel is family run by lovely people and a good bunch of people staying there.
The beaches very clear and good for snorkelling. I'm doing an across island hike (Simon). Got an island theme night to go to. Love the relaxing!

New Zealand!!

Hi all!! We are having an amazing time in NZ, its gorgeous!

We had a fair bit of wind, rain and storms in the north island, but we didnt let it spoil things! The bay of islands were lovely and our day trip up to Cape Reinga, the most northly point was great, we went sandborading down very steep sandunes!!

The magic bus is a great way to travel around NZ, we have met some great people!

We visited Rotarua, Taupo, Waitimo and Wellington in the north island. We loved wellington, great there! Rotarua is full of 'geothermal activity' where there is lots of bubbling mud and smelly water, it stunk of rotten eggs, yukky!

We went on a fantastic mauri cultural night in rotarua, was amazing and they performed the HAKA, very scary!

In the south island we have visited Nelson, Greymouth, Franz josef where we did an amazing glacier hike, Queenstown (where we are now) then we head to dunedun, lake Tekapo and christchurch.

The scenery is breath-taking, huge gorges, mountains, valleys, forests, lakes, coastline, all amazing!

We went up into the mountains today just outside of queenstown, which was stunning. Yesterday we went to Milford sound which is gorgeous national park fjiordland, we saw dolphins and seals on the boatcruise.

We went 'luging' up the mountain in queenstown, you go down a really steep track in a kind of go-cart, very fun!

Simon did a sky dive iver the Fox Glacier which was amazing!! He loved it!

Off to Dunedun tomorrow on the magic bus woo!

Seen lots of scenery from Lord Of The Rings, it really is spectacular.

Off to the Cook islands on Friday.

Hope everyone is ok and the British Summer isnt too rubbish!
XXXX

New Zealand!!

Hello!! We arrived in NZ yesterday, in Aukland at the mo and it seems to be a really great city! We are at a great central backpackers and having fun exploring the city! We have a 'magic' bus pass, which will pretty much take us all over the north and south island, plus right up north to the bay of islands, which we are beginning on saturday. we leave NZ on 15 aug, so the schedule is pretty tight, but its as far as our money would take us.....!

Airlie beach was fab, our 3days sailing ion the whitsundays was an....adventure!!! The first two days involved alot of wind and raind and huge waves coming over the boat, very scary but kinda funny! Luckily the third day was gorgeous and we had some great opportunites to snorkell, laze on the beach and up on deck and the sun came our for our visit to whitehaven beach, it was so beautiful! We had a great group of people on board and had all had a good laugh.

We managed to get up to Cape Tribulation for 3days 2nights, which was also amazing. Its right in the heart of the Daintree Rainforest, and we stayed in a beach house, right by the gorgeous sandy Cape Trib beach, where the rainforest meets the sandy beach. Only trouble was i saw a very very big and long black snake on the path infront of me, when i was on my own at night!! i freaked out a bit needless to say and simon was no-where to be seen!! We went jungle surfing, which was great fun, and a great way to see the amazing rainforest.

Hope all you guys are ok!

Queensland!!

Hi all!! Had a great time in Byron Bay, we then headed up to Brisbane, which was lovely.We had 3 nights there, really nice city, despite it raining all day long when we arrived!

We then went up to Noosa, really loved it there, beautiful beaches with lovely rainforest right by the sandy beaches. We went to Australia Zoo for the day (Steve Irwins zoo) was fab!! We saw
Terri Irwin do the croc wrestling show, great! and we saw Bindi Irwin perform her songs with the 'crocmen!' a little strange, but the crowd and all the little kids loved it.

We are now in Rainbow beach, just arrived back from a 2 day trip to Fraser Island, had sooo much fun! Had a great aussie tour guide, his fave word was 'fairdinkum!' Had a really nice group, and the island was amazing. We did a little plane ride over the island and we saw humpback whales splashing about in the ocean!! Swam in lake mckenzie, beautiful, sooo clear although was a little cold!!

We head up to airlie beach tomorrow, (18 hours in the Greyhound!) then go on our whitsundays sailing tour from there. We have booked a few days up in Cape Tribulation, staying in a beach house up there and going 'Jungle surfing' (flying through the canopys in a harness thing apparantly...!)

We head out to NZ on the 23rd from Cairns, a week sooner than planned, money running out so just speeding things up a little ;(

Soph and Si XXX!

Byron Bay!!

hi guys!! we are in byron bay- its a great little beach town, very chilled out with a great hippy feel! beautiful beach. We are enjoying being lazy on the beach and not doing alot. The 12 hour greyhound bus journey up here did us in a bit!!


We had an amazing time in sydney, was great. We spent the weekend in the blue mountains which was gorgeous and simon had his birthday up there. Manly was great, as was bondi too. and all the sights, sydney bridge, sydney opera house, the harbour were all great to see.

We are heading up to brisbane tomorrow, then up to rainbow beach where we are doing a fraiser island trip, then up to the whitsundays for a 3 day sailing trip there, cant wait!

Weather gorgeous!!

hope everyone is ok in the uk! enjoy wimbledon!

ciao X

Sydney!!

Hi all! arrived in sydney last night after 3 weeks with the van.Dropped it off at sydent depot last night. Had an amazing road trip, we drove 3600k's in all! The great ocean road was amazing, sooo beautiful, never seen anything like it. we stopped in melbourne for 6 days, really lovely city.Went on neighbours tour, sooo cheesy but amazing! Went to Ramsey St and then to the neighbour night party, met some actors, including DR.K!! He perfomed with his band and they were actually amazing!!!

We managed to get over to Tasmania for 4 days, could've done with longer but that was all we could manage. Soooo beautiful over there, Hobart was lovely, and we went down to Port Arthur, and all up the east coast, which was lovely.Went on a night time penguin tour! so cute, tiny little penguins, that all come waddling back onto land after a day at sea fishing. They dont have any knees, thats why they waddle!!! Luckily the crossing over to tassy and back wasnt too bumpy!

The trip along from Melbourne to sydney was fab too, stopped at some lovely caost along the way. We went on a whale watching tour at Jervis bay, saw 2 humpback whales, mother and calf, was amazing, so beautiful. we went so far out to sea to find them and it was really choppy, lots of people being sick!! The 'grand pacific drive' from wollongong to sydeny was beautiful too, at one point you are driving on a bridge curving round the cliff edge right over the water, amazing!

Got some time now to chill out and explore sydney.

Be in touch soon.
soph and si !!!!

South OZ!!

Hi!! We are in Adelaide at the moment- great city, really beautiful, totally under-rated!

We loved 'The rock Tour' did loads of hiking, watched sunrise and sunset over uluru, amazing! and camped out in 'swags' in the bush- great experience, apart from being woken up by howling dingos!scary! Simon also ate Kangaroo tail- looked horrible!

Our trip down from Alice to Adelaide was great. In a mini bus with a great group of people.Pretty much 2 days of straight driving, but we stopped at 'Coober Pedy' over night. Home of opal mining, has a landscape a little like mars....strange place, everyone knows everyone.....and everyone lives underground in dug out homes as the temperature reaches 50+ in the summer! we slept in an underground dorm! went on a mine tour and to an opal museum. Great experence!

Picking up our Camper van today, cant wait! not really planned too much, just that we drop it off in sydney in 3 weeks. We are going along the great ocean road, and are stopping at Melbourne along the way. Also want to get over to Tasmania while we have the van too- cheap to get over there at the moment as its winter, will be freezing over there but also meant to be gorgeous in the winter, and might be lucky enough to see migrating whales too!

Could've done with another day or two in adelaide, it really is lovely and our hostel is great, really friendly guy runs it, he took us up into the mountains yesterday, you get a great view of the whole of Adelaide from up there. We went to a wildlife life sanctuary too, cuddled a Koala, so cute!

Be in touch soon, over and out!XXX

OZ!!

hi all!! just arrived in alice springs, got the overnight Ghan train down from darwin, great experience to get the Ghan!

Had an amazing week in the camper van, we drove south to albany, stopping off at places along the way, rockingham, mandura, bunbury, bussleton, pemberton.... went to cape leewin, most south westerly point of oz, great! we loved the freedom of the van, good fun cooking on the gas stove out the back of the van! Got quite cold the further south we headed, and a bit more rain than we were used to but was nice and cosy in the van!

Flew up to Dawin on Sat, very hot and tropical up there! went on a great litchfield and kakadu national park tour, great fun! lots of hiking and swimming in waterfalls, and we saw a great aboriginal rock art sight. Camped under the stars, amazing! Our group were lovely, only 9 of us and we all really got on! Darwin great, went to 'mindle beach market' everyone watches the beautiful sunset on the beach then spend ages wandering around the market, great food stalls! Nightlife in darwin good, alot more backpackers there than we expected.

We go on a 3 day 2 night rock tour to uluru tomo, cant wait for that! It 'only' 22 in alice springs, everyone saying its chilly! We think its just right! Got 2 days to explore alice when we return from uluru, big aboriginal popultion here which we are both interested to learn more about their culture as there is such alot of racism and bad stereo-typing towards them. Our tour guide told us that even in the 1940-50 white people would go to church on a sunday morning, then go to the pub afterwards, get very drunk and go out and shoot aboriginals, so shocking, awful, and they'd only get a slap on the wrist too.

Get down to adelaide in a week or so, and pick up another van there for 3 weeks, cant wait for that!

Be in touch soon.
Soph and Si X

Perth, Fremantle!!

hi all! having a great time in Perth(despite how pricey everything is!) We have just had a few days in fremantle, great here, found a really lovely hostel. We went to fremantle prison yesterday, really good, went to the gallows, eerie!! Went over to Rottnest island today (half hour from Perth) home to 'Quokka's' a knida mix between rat and kangaroo, strange but cute! Hired bikes and road all round the island. Soph can barely walk now, but was fun!!

We pick up a camper van tomorrow for 8 days, heading south to bunbury, where you can swim with dolphins, and to the margaret river, also up to the pinnacles desert if we have time. we fly to darwin on the 17th, going on a group 3 day, two night camping adventure to kakudu National Park (EEK!) Then we get the 'Ghan train' south to Alice Springs, where we have a few nights and are also doing another 3 day, two night camping trip to uluru, ayers rock. Then we are booked on a group 'express' 4 wheel drive down to adelaide, stopping overnight at 'coober pedy', where we camp underground for the night?! We then pick up a camper van in adelaide plan to drive along the 'great ocean road' to sydney, via melbourne and possibly tasmania, along the way!! We have got greyhound bus tickets to take us the rest of our way up Cairns, stopping wherever we want along the way, wooo!

Be in touch soon!XX

Hi bramble!

hi all- hope things are ok. Jackie, can you email me, i dont have your email address, then i can send you some pics via email.
diana, si wonders who is your player of the season, si reckons his is nicky forster. Tell matt cheers for the texts re scores, i dont have enough credit to reply to him.
sophie XXX

Perth, Western Australia!!

We arrived in Perth yesterday!! Had a great day and night in Kuala Lumpar, went up the twin towers viewing bridge, very high!! Great view of the city. Then got the bus to Singapore, had 3 nights there, was really good, full of shopping malls in the centre, Orchid road. We stayed in the 'Red Light District' Geylang- interesting!! Were proper tourists and did the 'city sightseeing bus' but it was great, best way to see the city as it was even more humid in Singapore. Went over to sentosa island and saw a really lovely evening light show there.

Staying in a nice hostel in 'cotteslow'- a beach town in Perth, BEAUTIFUL beaches, sea really rough though, lots of surfers here. Will prob move to a hostel nearer Perth centre in a day or so as its quite a long bus ride in. things not cheap here, dollar is pretty much double the pound, and Perth seems to be pretty pricey. Si likes tooheys beer and plenty of wine here for me in OZ!!!

Just off to explore Perth now, as not really seen much yet.

soonies...!

Malaysia - Penang!

Hello again!

Getting from Thailand over the border was quite an event. Our train was at 00-45 but didn't arrive till 06-30!! No explanation why till we got on the train and one of the other passengers said there had been a breakdown. It broke down again as we got out of Thailand and as a result we had to get a coach from there to Butterworth, Malaysia.

Anyway got the ferry to Penang ok and found a cheap but comfy hostel. Friendly people here.

Seen the main sights here Georgetown, The peak looking over the island. All very nice.
We leave tonight after two days here. We get the overnight coach down to Kuala Lumpar where we will update you again.

S & S :)

Koh Phangan!!!

Hi all! we have been in koh phangan now for two days, got a bungalow on the beach again.Not quite as nice as silver beach but still very beautiful, just a little more basic. Its currently thai new year, which means there is 3 days of water throwing festivities!! crazy! we went for a walk into the town yesterday and got totally soaked, people chucked bukets full of water over us, rubbed powder in our faces and squirted us with super soaker pistols!! great way to cool down in the heat!! we have yet to venture out from the beach today but are bracing ourselves for another soaking when we do! great fun!

think we are going on a jungle trek tomorrow! that will be a shock to us a we've literally sat around on the beach for the last week! and are planning to head over to koh tao for a day or two,(the smallest of the 3 islands) and do some snorkelling there.Also going to try and go to an elephant enclosure, where you can ride the elephants, thats meant to be lovely.

we leave here on the 22nd and get an overnight train down to malaysia, where we have about a week, fly out of singapore to perth on the 30th.

Anyway, better go, our hammock on the beach, under the palms is calling us....!XX

ko samui!!! thailand.

we are having a really lovely time in ko samui,its beautiful here, and so lovely to be right by the sea. its still boiling hot, but we have a lovely breeze from the sea. we've got a beach front bungalow, literally right on the beach, its great. the resort we are staying at has a lovely open air restaurant, where the thai food is delicious and cheap- not been doing much as its sooo hot, but its lovely being very lazy, sitting on the beach reading, having a swim in the clear blue water, a spot of lunch on the beach... (hope you are all jealous!) had an early morning swim this morning before it got too hot-lovely. we are not far from Lamai beach and town centre, although difficult to walk there, as there is only one main road, and no real pavement, so we are constantly dodging the traffic! we are here until satuday, then get the boat accross to ko pnang nan (dont think thats how its spelt) we've got a beach bungalow there for 10 nights. we are there for the full moon party so that should be fun. ko tao (the next neighbouring island) is meant to be great for snorkelling, so will head over there at some point too.
hope you are all ok!!!!X

bye bye bangkok!!!!!

last day in bangkok, we cant wait to reach the beaches and be by the sea!!! went out in khaosan road last night, si drank lots of cheap beer and i had some yummy cocktails!! great makets down there, and great stalls with amazing pad thai noodle dishes on, soph had to have seconds cos she liked it so much, oh well atleast its cheap!hope you all ok! X

bramble

just to say i am so sorry to hear about mary cooper, thats really sad, but i guess she had wanted to go really. bet everyone is really sad. send my love to everyone, especially marjorie. missing you all loads, hope everything else is ok. be in touch soon.love soph XXX

bangkok!!

Hi everybody, this is our second day in Thailand.
Too hot in Bangkok. 95 degrees plus humidity. It seems that most people locals included don't do much till the afternoon when it's slightly cooler. Noisy, messy and smelly here but very cheap. Lots of students drinking vodka and red bull out of buckets!
We are booked on an overnight bus tomorrow heading south to Koi Samui. Looking forward to that. We have a beach bungalow booked. There is a ten day national thai holiday starting friday so everything is booking up quick.
thai taxi drivers are freaks, we literally got dumped on the road side in the blazing heat yesterday, as the taxi friver decided he didnt know where he was going!!!! they dont like putting the meter on either, trying to rip off us english tourists!!
stayed first night in a really basic but cheap hostel khao san road (main road for all backpackers) next day we found a nice hotel, not far from there, still mega chep, but with proper air con, we needed it in the heat!!! flight from hong kong was fine, via singapore which was a bit annoying, but singapore airlines were great, lovely food and drinks onboard and the cabin crew are all dressed in beautiful oriental dresses.
enjoying the cheap thai food, will be in touch when we reach the islands if we can get acces to the internet. just heading out now to china town and khao san road for the evening. vodka red bull here we come!
be in touch soon, si and soph X

still having fun in honkers...!

HONG KONG

hi!!! we have arrived safely in hong kong! flight went suprisingly quickly (sophie fell asleep after a couple of glasses of wine!)

Guesthouse not great, but its clean and got the basics, in a great location, causeway bay. guesthouse didnt even have our internet reservation (they dont have a computer or advertise themselves on the net...?) so dont know what happened there.

Honkers is bonkers!!! so many people, its crazy! we got the boat over to kowloon today, which is really bustling, we just watched a great laser light show of all the skyscrapers over on hong kong island, that was lovely.

Its really muggy in the day, and quite cloudy, but nice while we are doing lots of walking.

Food is great, although simon had steak for dinner just now, he said it definatly wasn't beef or pork or lamb......?

over and out!XXXX