Sarah's Adventures

New Zealand - part 1

sarah-cannell — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:51:00 GMT

18 December - 20 December 2007

Aukland

Crossed thge time line so said goodbye to Dec 17. Spent loads of money in Victoria market on all the lovely jeweley - my pack is starting to bulge. Did all the tourist things by hiking up the dormanyt volcanoes, and went on a scarey walk along Aukland bridge . Love new Zealand it is so green and so laid back.

21 December 2007

Mercury Bay

Signed up to Kiwi Experience - which is a jump on /off bus which will be taking us around the wonderful land of New Zealand for the next month. First stop being Mount Eden in Aukland. The headed off to Catherdal Cove beach - which was absolutely stunning befor arriving at Mercury Bay.

22 December 2007

Rotaura

Man this place is smelly!!! - due to the natural hot springs which stink to high heaven (eau de rotten egg!) Spent the eveing at a mauri Hangi concert where we got to check out a Mauri village and try out the local food. But touristy but great fun. Got some great photos which I will try to post soon.

23 December 2007

Waitomo

Went for a hike in the Red Wook Forest which was really beautiful. The in the afternoon went balck water rafting. Was expecting it to be a leisurely float round an underground river - but soon discovered that it would involve more scarey things like going through small caves in the dark in freezing water and jumping off 10ft high waterfalls backwards in a rubber ring.

24 December 2007

Taupo

Spent Christmas eve jumping out of a plane in a tandem skydive 12,000ft high. Certainly helped to cure my fear of heights! - you can check out my photos.

Cook Islands - part 2

sarah-cannell — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:45:00 GMT

8 December - 16 December 2007

Cook Islands

Cook Island time - everything chilled out. Spent most of my time chilling on the beach and snorkling. the fish are amazing, althought the Picasso Trigger fish are a bit scarey - they try to bite your face. Spotted loads of butterfly fish, porcupine fish and loads of other colourful fish whose names I don't know. The end of the week was a bit wet and blustery ( well it is rainy season) so missed our trip to Atutaki :( and we narrowly missed a typhoon by 20 miles which was a bit scarey. Missing the island thougha dn all the lovely people we met there.

Gallery: Skydiving a

sarah-cannell — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:40:00 GMT

Cook Islands- Part 1

sarah-cannell — Sun, 9 Dec 2007 10:32:00 GMT

2nd december 2007

Venice

Spent the day chilling on venice beach people watching before heading off to the South Pacific.

3rd December 2007

Rarotonga

I have arrived in heaven!! Got there 5.45am to be greated by a local ukalee player playing a traditional welcome song. The island is total paradise and the people so friendly. Having got settled into our hosetl on the beach we took a bus into the main town and purchased some snorkling equipment in anticiaption of exploring the lagoons and coral reefs. the evening was spent at the RSA with a load of people form the hostel which was fun and gave us a chance to sample the local brew.

4 December 2007

Rarotonga

Today was a day of relaxation. Spent most of the day in a hammock on the beach, only getting up to collect a coconut which had fallen off the tree in front of me. one of the locals showed me how to open it- tastes so much better than those from the supermarket. i left the remains on the floor and was woken up by a mother hen and her chicks feasting on it. i forgot to mention the island is overrun by chickens and cocnut trees. (PS thanks dad for warning me about not sitting under a coconut tree - I witnessed a cocnut narrowly missing someones head- and beleive me they fall with a thud!).

Late in the afternoon Jules and me decided to try out our snorkling gear, but the area we went to didn't really have much to see.

In the evening we had a BBQ on the terrace and when it got dark we all ventured down to the beach with our torches to check out the crabs - it is amazing as the whole beach comes alive.

5th December

Rarotonga

Today we deceided to check out the Cultural Village to get more of an insight into the Polynesian culture. the village consisted of various huts in which we were given a demonastration on various aspects of Cook Island culture for example fishing, medicine, clothing, migration & coconut demos. This was followed by a traditional meal served on a plate woven out of banana leaves. we then got to shake out hips and learn the traditional Polynesian dancing before being shown how to do it properly by the islanders.

6th December 2007

Rarotonga

My favourite activity so far - horse riding along the beach. Having not ridden before I was given a quick lesson my roommate Lisa using my snorkle as reins -so that I was happy that I could at least stop! Anyway i took to it straight away and was even cantering along the beach. the rout took us to this amazing waterfall where we all had a swim before heading back along the beach and in the sea so the water came up to our knees. I am thinking of doing it again next week - and will hopefully try to do some more riding when I get back to England or Spain.

As if that wasn't tiring enough a few of us decided to go on a the Raemaru montain trek later on in the day. Determined not to be put off by my Yoesmite experience i am please to say that i made it to the top, although I gave the final 15m which is up a vertical rock face a miss.

7th December 2007

Rarotonga

As i was hoping to do more snorkling on the island we decided to move down to a hostel on Muri beach. the room is amazing as it has large patio doors which open straight onto the beach - the views are stunning. Tried out my snorkling gear round the coral reefs and saw some amazing fish. Got chased by a trigger fish which was a bit scarey as they have a nasty bite, but escaped in one piece!

I have been advised to try another snorkling site nearby where someone saw a puffa fish and turtle so I may try that later in the week.

In the evening Lisa's frined gabby kindly dorve us into town where we checked out some of the local hangouts.

USA part 2

sarah-cannell — Sun, 2 Dec 2007 16:00:00 GMT

25 November 2007

San Francisco

Started the morning at Golden Gate Bridge to take a few tourist photos then headed back to Fishermans Wharf with the intention of visiting Alchatraz Prison- only to discover that there were no tickets left. Instead we headed upto Castro (gay village) for a coffee. Following that we then headed up to Lombard St which is reputed to be the windiest Street in the world for mpore tourist photos. The evening was spent in China Town where we feated on ymmy steamed buns and noodles.

26 November 2007

Yosemite

Having had our fill of the City we next headed off to Yosemite for a bit of outdoor adventure and met a great bunch of people there. The afternoon activity was mountain biking down a mountain. Having not ridden a bike for twenty years and having seen the sheer drops I opted out.

The evening was spent in the lodge with yummy homecooked food and a beer followed by a trip to the amazing spa they had on the site.

27 November

Yosemite

Oh dear - didn't realise what we had let ourselves in for when we signed up for a full day of treking in Yosemite National Park. The first trek was to El Capitan mountain which nearly killed me! The second trek was to the half dome which just about finished me off. Being very unfit and suffering from altitude sickness meant I only made it half way - hopefully it will be easier when we get to NZ.Fortunatley the third trek was easier and very impressive through the Sequoia trees some of which were 2500yrs old although I am told they can get as old as 3000yrs!!! I was grateful for another evening in the spa!

28 November 2007

Las Vegas

What a journey from hell!! Sitting around at the Greyhound Station the bus turned up 1 hour late - apparantly some kid had overdosed on the bus earlier causing it to be late. The bus driver was a Hitler wannabe and we were told that we were not allowed to talk on the bus or we would be kicked off of the bus! To top things off I was sitting opposite the most scariest man I have ever met. I soon discovered that he had just been let out of prison that afternoon and had jumped straight onto our bus. Fortunately some guy who had also been inside sat next to him and I got to listen in to their stories of "homies getting knived in the yard"

29 November 2007

Las Vegas

Spent the day checking out the hotel casinos.

30 November 2007

Las Vegas / Grand Canyon

Early start with a wake up call at 5.00AM. Our tour to the Grand Canyon started well with a free upgrade to the west rim of the Canyon due to 19 people not making it. The scenery on route was stunning and we got to see the Hoover DAm and the Joshua Tree National Park, Unfortunately just before we arrived at the Canyon it started to rain. We were told by our driver that it only rains here 10 times a year and rarely for more than 15 mins. 2 hours and stuck at the top of the Canyon the rain showed no sign of clearing up and to make matters worse a really thick fog descended meaning that we had zero viability of the canyon. To make things worse I happened to overhear a worker at the Canyon mention to a fellow collegue that she was surprised that they were still allowing tourists up at the canyon as one wrong turn on the bus would plunge it down in to the canyon! We were grateful to arrive back in Vegas in one piece!!

Having had a realtively unlucky day, we decided to try our luck in the casino. Jule manged to win $33.75 on the slot machines without even putting any money in ???? We bored quickly of the slot machines and headed upstairs where we discovereda race horse game similar to those at Blasckpool, where you have to roll the balls into differetn coloured holes to move the horse. Jules won a seal and I won a tiger who I have named Dave as everyone round here has that name.

1 December 2007

Santa Monica

For our last leg of our US trip we decided to head back to the beach to chill out before we head off to the Cook Islands on the 2nd.

USA - Part 1

sarah-cannell — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:08:00 GMT

20 November 2007

Hollywood

Left cold, miserable Heathrow and arrived in Sunny Hollywood late afternoon. Found a fantastic hostel conveiniatley located behind the famous Chinese theatre. Spent the evening checking out the Boulevard and had dinner at Niceli's- famous for being the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. Unfortunatley we never got to eat all of our dinner ( a first for me!!) - cause serious jet lag started to kick in.

21 November 2007

Hollywood

Woke up at ridiculous o'clock and set off early to check out the tourist attractions. Checked out the Chinese theatre and took the obligitory photo's of the Hollywood sign on the hills. Wandered up towards Los Felix and discovered a fantastic restaurant in Thai town, before stumbling by chance into Frank Lloyd Wrights famous Holly Hock House.

22 November 2007

Santa Monica / Venice

Thanksgiving day - oops forgot about that one! HAd to call off our planned visit to Universal Studios and headed off to Santa Monica a day early. Spent some time on the beach and wandered down to Venice. Venice is full of crazy hippies - so felt right at home there. Caught sight of harry Perry the imfamous turbaned black guy who rollar skates down the strip with his electric guitar and amp strapped to his back.

23 November 2007

San Francisco

Caught a shuttle bus from our hostel which took us on an 8hr journey to San Francisco. John our crazy driver thought it would be funny to play the movie Speed on the bus, which happens to be based in LA. Fortunatley all the crazy bombers were at home enjoying the Thanksgiving holidays so we got to San Fran in one piece.

24 November 2007

San Francisco

Jules wasn't feeling too good this morning, so I ventured into town on my own. Ventured into China town which is vast - Jules tell me it is the largest Chinese community outside of China. Then trekked upto Fisherman's Wharf up what were seriously steep roads. I knew San Fran was hilly - but was never prepared for that! After my 9 mile round trip met up with jules in the afternoon and did it all again, but this time took the tram - my legs would never have made it a second time. Ouch my muscles hurt :(