My last months of travelling!

USA Numero 1

ashleighgoesglobal — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 09:55:00 GMT

Touch down USA! (over three weeks ago..)

Officially in to the swing of travelling in the USA. Jack and I flew in to Phoenix on March the 10th after 26 hours of travel!! Needless to say we were shattered. I actually presumed our jet lag would settle in a few days, but i think this is the worst we had it, it took us atleast a week to really settle into it. Phoenix was fun, we actually stayed in Scottsdale. We were couch surfing at a gentleman called Beau's house. He was very pleasant if not a little strange.. but we shouldn't judge. It was very kind of him to let us stay! We actually didn't get up to too much here, we spent the first five days really catching up on sleep.Jack has a friend in Pheonix so we caught up with him which was nice.

On from Phoenix we were due to travel to Vegas by bus. I had printed our tickets the night before. Which clearly printed a departure time of 12:15pm. We arrived at the bus station at 11:30am only to be told the bus time had been changed and had left an hour ago! (typical greyhound service apparently) The next available bus was at 11:15pm, it would take 12 hours and it would mean changing bus 5 times!! We decided to opt out of this, it woudl have been a nightmare journey. Jack and I thought it would be best if we just paid to rent a car and drove to vegas ourselves. We found a deal online and booked to hire an economy compact car, the guy at the desk was hilarious. I can only describe him as Jonah Hill's twin!! (hilarious for those of you who know who he is) Jack and he seemed to have some sort of 'male banter' flowing. We thought he was joking when he said ''I'll just go ahead and give you a mustang!'' We discovered this was no joke when we found it in our alloted space! I was terrified to drive the beast.. I don't think i went above 50mph. We got to Vegas pretty late but decided to drive down the strip in our Mustang.. (how pretentious of us!) and park it in Valet at The Mirage. Wow... Vegas is unlike anywhere I have ever been. But I have to say I absolutly loved it, we had three nights here and enjoyed them all. We did the typically tourist things.. got a photo by the vegas sign, the New York New York rollercoaster etc.

From Vegas we went to LA. Here we stayed with Dad's friend Ira, I hadn't seen him since I was 12! Ira and his wife are charming, they took us out for dinner that evening so we got to do some catching up then. We had 3 days in LA, we hired a car and visited Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills, Hollywood etc. Rodeo Drive is quite something, and the houses in Beverly Hills are like castles. How the other half live hey.. People seem to have this wonderful pre-concieved perception of LA being this ultra glam place. Don't get me wrong Beverly Hills is quite something, but the oh so famous Hollywood is a dive!!

From LA jack and I managed to get a free relocation vehicle to drive Highway 1 all the way up to San Francisco. You can imagine my fear when we realised we had booked an RV.. a 24ft long 14ft high one at that! Certainly a test of driving skills. I made sure it was Jack's turn to drive when we reached the windy road from Hurst Castle, through Big Sur and up to Carmel. The drive though, is absolutly stunning.The most beautiful coast road I have ever been on by far. I am so pleased that we got to do this. We stopped on the way, our first night was spent near Santa Barbara, our second in Big Sur and our final in Santa Cruz. We went to a few beaches etc on the way, and found some giant elephant seals! Those few days have been some of our favourite so far I think.

Next stop San Fran! What a fab city, we loved it here. We spent alot of time around Fishermans Wharf, we also hired a tandem bike and cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito. This was a great day, and we had amazing weather for it. Pictures to follow.. We were keen to get on a trip out to Alcatraz Island but when we went to book it, it was full up until the end of April. I didn't realise that It would be that popular. Better luck next time. We had three nights here too and stayed with a friend of mine called Sarah who I had met travelling in Australia. So we got to hang around with her a few evenings, she took us to a talk at a small library in MilBrae, Authors of famous travel books/blogs were speaking. How appropriate it was!

From Sanfran we made our way to Portland. We had two days here, we made our way to Powells book store, one of the largest in the world apparently, spent some time at the Portland Arts/crafts market and had the best $1.50 taco's we've ever had! Then it was Portland to Seattle by plane.. We have had a blast in Seattle, we have actually ended up here for 5 nights. The first four we stayed with a young girl called Melodi from couch surfing, she lives with her boyfriend and a few others. They were all good fun, so we got to do some things with them. In seattle we made our way down to Pike Place Market, Freemont, the Seattle public Library has some really cool architecture and the decor inside is really fun, pictures to follow of this also..Another friend of mine Zach, who I met when I first landed in Bangkok was back from a 6month post in Alaska (He is a Marine Biologist) we stayed with him our last night had a blast, he took us out with all his co-workers to a district caleld Ballard were we spent most of the evening playing 25c Skee-Ball!

Next stop Denver...

Ill follow up once we get over to Miami.

Sorry if there is any awful mistakes! I always try to type too fast.This website doesn't highlight mistakes and I can never pick them all up reading back through.

8 days left in New Zealand

ashleighgoesglobal — Wed, 4 Mar 2015 06:49:00 GMT

Second Update..

I have to say being on the road again is great but I’m certainly missing Queenstown. It’s hard not to miss somewhere that you called home for a year. Nevertheless we have seen some fantastic places the last couple of weeks. We did our skydive in Lake Taupo! For someone with a horrific fear off heights I’ll take a fair few pats on the back for that. It’s got to be one of the best things I've done, I’ll upload the pictures when I've posted this. We spent a few days around Lake Taupo to do the Tongariro Crossing, this is a 20km walk, supposedly one of the best one day hikes in NZ. Unfortunately we embarked on this journey totally unprepared and fooled by a promising weather forecast. Both dressed in shorts and t-shirts, only to discover and as we approached the second summit that it was horrific wind and rain and a bone chilling -4c!! I don't think i have ever been so cold. The muscles in my legs seized up and jack was practically carrying me up the last bit.The wind was terrible, people were slipping and falling over, taking cover behind rocks waiting for the wind to stop and some turned back! In hindsight perhaps we should have too! but never mind!certainly and experience. Just a shame that we could not see the supposed spectacular views lets alone the person in front of you! next we headed up to Rotorua said to be the ‘geothermal wonderland’ of the north. There are still active volcanoes and geysers here. We went to Wai-o-tapu thermal reserve, there are bubbling mud pools here and pools in every color imaginable including florescent green! Though the pictures just do not do it justice. From here we went into Hamilton, a large city towards Auckland, this was just a lay over, we rented a card here and headed west to a small town called Raglan, apparently the best left hand break for surfers in NZ so Jack was keen to visit here. Just a shame that the surf was rubbish when we were there the waves were only a ft or so high, however we did manage to drive out to Ruapuke Beach about an hour further down the coast by recommendation and jack managed to find some good surf for a few hours so that was good. We caught up with some old friends from Queenstown here that we haven’t seen for a good 6 months so it was fab to be able to catch up with them. From here we went to Waitomo.. Home of the legendary black water rafting! You get suited and booted here in wetsuits and huge rubber shoes and caving helmets and head into Aranui cave (64m below the ground) its pitch black to you climb/float your way through using the torch on your helmet. Obviously we had a guide for this. Its great fun, some bits you walk and others you float in a black inner tube they give you through the tunnel, glow worms light up the ceiling which was cool to see. We had a great day, an activity well worth doing. We only had one day here and then caught a bus to Mount Maunganui, pretty much a smaller version of Queenstown and right on a beach that goes for miles. We were able to see another friend we used to live with here which was nice, and spent 3 nights there so lots of time to see and do things. We spent some time on the beach, climbed mount maunganui to see the sunset and I’ve had a surfing lesson from jack! Which resulted in some grazed knees and a very sunburnt boyfriend. He is the worst Australian ever! We are now in a small town further north called Hahei in the coromandel peninsula. We took a visit to Cathderal Cove on our first day and made it out to Hot water beach Yesterday. You take a spade a dig a hole to sit in as the water under the sand is very hot! You can only go at certain time intervals during the day when the tide is out. But it sounds pretty cool. Next stop Paihia in the Bay of Islands… Ill post about our last days once were back in Auckland waiting out flight to Pheonix!

Looking forward to the next adventure and a new country !!

Abel Tasman National Park

ashleighgoesglobal — Fri, 6 Feb 2015 18:03:00 GMT

Second New Zealand update...

I have been on a trip up north to the top of the South Island to the Nelson and Marlborough region to do the Abel Tasman National Park. This is a coastline park with some fantastic walks through forest and some right along the coast line. The actual full track is 51km and you can do it accross 3-4 days sleeping in huts/campsites along the way if you wish. I did not walk the track unfortunatly as I don't think it would have been the best thing for my dodgy knee! However I had a fantastic time. I went with a friend from work. We left tuesday late afternoon and drove 6.5 hours to Hokitika as the drive all the day up to the park is around 12 hours from Queenstown so far too much to do in one evening. We arrived late at around 11pm and couldnt find the door to the hostel... The reception had closed at 9pm and the owner had kindly emailed me the door code and said that he would leave a note with our room info and a key at the top of the stairs on the notice board.. We spend 20 minutes trying to find the door.. The building is joined to a jade shop and a cafe and we for some reason could not locate the backpackers entrance.. Anyway we ended up finding a door round the back that was open and decided to give it a go.. praying we werent breaking and enteringinto the wrong place! We fumbled around in the dark and found ourselves in the laundry room.. but atleast we made it inside nevermind which way!

We were up early the next morning to travel up to the park. We arrived around 2pm had some lunch and decided to do one of the short walks to a place called coquille bay where we could swim. We walked through the designated track for around 2 hours to get there and then stayed there for a while and had a swim. By this time the tide had gone out so we walked all across the beach back to the beginning. This seemed to strange the next day to see the area we had walked on completley covered in deep water! Its absolutely stunning as you'll see in the photos ill post after this. Though I think pictures can never do a place justice. The following day we did an all day kayaking trip. Setting off around 9.30am by the time we had been briefed etc. The morning kayak was easy and we pulled our kayaks together and put up our sail.. cruising past a few bays. We kayaked ourselves the rest of the way to our first stop and had a break on another nice secluded bay called observation beach. We stayed here a little while before continuing on to our next stop further up the coastline. The water was smooth and it was an easy ride, though we were told that instead of kayaking the way back for the afternoon part of the trip, we may have to get a water taxi because they were expecting a storm to come and strong winds. However after lunch at the next stop the weather was still looking pretty good so we began our next trip by kayak and got to get close to lots of seals on the way! the baby ones were adorable. Around 2pm or so I guess the weather took a turn and the wind picked up, we ended up kayaking through some large waves trying to make sure we were head on so that we were not capsized. Mum and Dad you can imagine how terrified I was... I hate deep water and I'm not a fan of boats certainly not kayaks if the sea is not calm! we had to stop as everyone was tired from trying to fight against the wind to get further. I was really not keen on going the rest of the wayback as we had another 5km to kayak back to base but our guide said that we would be okay if we followed his path.. Of course we made it but it took along time and I did not enjoy being terrified to death for 90 mins!! Having said that the day was amazing for 90% we had amazing weather and some absolutely stunning things to see..

Next stop a trip round the North Island.. Ill keep posting as I go along to keep you all in check with what I am doing. Pics to follow :)

Lots of Love.

Photos: A little of New Zealand

ashleighgoesglobal — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:46:00 GMT

Queenstown - New Zealand

ashleighgoesglobal — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:42:00 GMT

Hello there wonderful people.

Please accept many applogies for my total lack of contact via the world of blogging for the last however many months. Jenna and I lost track of time and got sucked into the bubble they call Queenstown. We kept forgetting to update our blog and then it got to the point where it had been to long to try and re cap all of the things that we have missed. As some of you may know I am now traveling without Jenna, and for those of you who don't... Well now you do. No hard feelings, just one of those things. We wanted different things from our future travels and the time came when we thought it would be best to split and do what we both wanted to do.

So.. In a brief nutshell. I am still living in Queenstown, New Zealand. For those of you who didn't know where I am! I'm here.. A very beautiful place surrounded by some of the most magnificent scenery I have ever seen, at the bottom of the South Island. I arrived in New Zealand on March the 19th! We did a very quick North to South in a campervan. Much to quick if you ask me, but we had Jennas mum and partner over as well as the boys so we were travelling along side them as they were on a limited time frame. Whilst I would not have chosen to do this trip so quickly, it has allowed me to know all the places that I will definitly make time to go back and see and also the ones that I would not. So I have been living here since the very start of May. When we first arrived we moved into a huge 10 bedroom share house with 35 people.. Need I say much more on this matter. Lots of mess, lots of nights out.. but most importantly so wonderful friends. (and future boyfriends little did I know) Again for those of you who don't know, this is where I met Jack. The knew and fantatsic man in my life. He was living in the same house at the time and we had started to spend alot of time together. Jack moved out whilst I was still living there and I spent more time living at his then I did really in our shared house he and I are now living together. Jenna and I went to Fiji back in September for 10 days. We had a great time! It was fantastic to visit all the islands, and the fijian people are very friendly and accomodating. Before we went Jenna and I had decided to extend our stay in NZ. We had 6 months left on our visa and it seemed a shame to waste it! So we cancelled our ongoing flight from Fiji to LA and instead returned to Queenstown. Jenna left a little white ago now and it now up in the far north picking watermelons somewhere!! Not for me... We did a good month of kiwi picking in Napier.. I found it to be torture! Anyway.. I am now working part time at a clothing retails store called 'Max' I actually love it here, one of my closest friends here is my manager and the girls that I work with are absolutlely fantastic. Alongside this I also work for a babysitting agency. Between the two I seem to get alot of work... So it has been good to stay longer in order to save and have some money to travel the north properly. I bought a car around 5 months ago and have managed to travel all the way up the west coast and down the most southern point of the Island which has been great, we managed to visit Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. These are incredible, and did the Glacier walks. Something definitly worth doing. We drove out to Punakaiki to see the famous 'pancake rocks' formation and over to a place called Oamaru to visit a penguin colony. (Much to jacks utter amusement and my severe distaste!) Mum, Dad and Jared will appreciate this.. I am yet to travel the top of this Island and re-visit the North.

The Master Plan..

Is... To stay here until around the 10th of Feb. At which point Jack and I intend to leave and travel up to Nelson at the top of the South Island to do the Abel Tasman National Park. This is a beautiful coastal national park, the coastal walking track is 51km, so we will do this across 3-4 days staying in huts along the way and doing some kyacking which will be great. From here we will fly to Wellington stay here for a few days and then travel up to Napier to see Sarah Mcgill! we stayed with her for nearly a month when we got to New Zealand so it will be nice to see her again. We will then go and visit Lake Taupo. I would like to do a skydive here... (Sorry Dad) and see Huka falls etc. From there we will travel to Rotorua they have lots of beautiful volcanic valleys and 'thermal wonderlands' here. I have already been to these places before but on such a short one day visit, so I have some photos which I will also upload! From there we will head further up to Mount Maunganui, this is a smaller version of Queenstown, with an incredible beach, great for surfing which will suit Jack as this is something he loves to do. So will will spend a few days and nights here enjoying the beach and the town. After we will head to Waitomo to do some black water rafting! Not nearly as daring as it sounds im afraid. Nevertheless appartently one of the done things to do, so we'll give it a try! We will then head up to the coromandel peninsula (a stunning part of the island) and go to Cathedral Cove! You guys shoul google pictures of here its beautiful.From here we will travel up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands and spend some time here before heading back down to Auckland to catch our flight to Pheonix!!

Your all obviously dying to know... I will be returning to the mighty UK on May 22nd of this year! Sorry its taken so long to write. Ill be sure to keep this updated throughout my remaining travels in New Zealand and across America.

Much Love to you all.