Around the World in 34 Days

Viva Las Vegas!! It is great here and I'm loving the sunshine..(JJ here by the way in case you didn't guess!!) We've been in Vegas and have been enjoying everything to excess. We've have been round a lot of the casinos and I particularly enjoyed the Bellagio and watching quite a few fountain shows. Vegas is not what I expected although I'm not really sure what I expected but compared to New Zeland where there is hardly anyone around, everything in Vegas is so big and busy. Sorry folks but Cathy has just informed me that there will be no more photos as apparently it's not big on internet cafes!
Me and Lou are off on a Grand Crayon helicopter ride tomorrow at Sunset which I am really looking forward to - so is Lou, even though she's been there done that and got the t-shirt!!
I'm enjoying playing roulette and watching other people bet thousands of dollars at a time while I bet 15 dollars and lose!!
See you all soon thanks for reading and commenting- love you all

Lovin your work Matt - wish I had your luck at the mo - hey ho, number 1 all the way for the Vegas posse!

August 19th - it's a long one. We began in Wellington about 40 hours ago and still have an hours gambling in Vegas to do! I've left Louise and Jordana on the roulette wheel (where else) while I find net access - what else for me! To be honest, it has been a pretty horrible day so far - approx 12 hours waiting in airports, 12 hours on a plane with pretty crappy food and duff films, plus loads of turbulence over the Pacific. Once we got to Vegas, had a slight scare that my suitcase was lost, but it turned out we had checked in so early, it had got an earlier flight! If only we could have...
After a looooong queue to check into the Luxor, we showered and hit the buffet to stuff ourselves silly, then the casino to end our travels with a splurge. After the peace and quiet of New Zealand, noisy brash America is a bit of a culture shock, but then Vegas is a culture shock at the best of times. Jordana is happy it is hot here, although the forecast is for VERY hot tomorrow here (101 deg F - the Yanks don't do centigrade!) We predict a good nights sleep tonight as we have all only had a few hours since Wellington.
Thanks as always for your comment, and I realy will make Lou and Jordana post very soon!

It's our last full day in New Zealand, and once again I've made it to a PC before Louise and Jordana. Firstly, thanks to our commenters. Karen V and Rosalind are battling it out for the top commenter spot I think! Ann, glad you got the key back. Sorry for running off with it!

I'm in an internet place in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. We came over on the Interislander Ferry from Picton yesterday. 3 hours or so on the boat, followed by a hair raising drive round central Wellington at rush hour, trying to find our hotel. After weeks of empty roads and easy driving, Jordana did very well to navigate the mean streets of Wellington!
Went out for a pizza/pasta at a place called Hell, which Lou was keen to go to just for the name! However, the bar - Syn - was very friendly and we stayed for a few drinks. There was a pub quiz going on which I enjoyed a lot, but got a bit stumped on the NZ round. No idea of the All Blacks shirt sponsor or the distance around Lake Taupo!
Today I was keen to see the National Museum Te Papa, while Jordana and Louise were going to the Botanic Gardens I think. We're meeting up back at the hotel soon to go out for dinner. So tomorrow, it's up bright and early to take back our rental car that Jordana has nicknamed Nancy Nissan (it's a Nissan Wingroad). It's done us good service for the past 15 days. Then it's pretty much 24 hours non stop travelling before we reach Las Vegas. Due to crossing the international date line along the way, we leave Wellington at 1215 on 19th August, and arrive in Las Vegas at 1615 on the 19th. A simple 4 hour flight?? We wish...!
Added a couple of new photos to the album - both labelled Kaikoura. One of a seal lazing in the car park, and one of the three of us. This time next week we'll be home. While we're having a great time, we're all looking forward to coming home too. See you soon...

The Photo Album

Not long left in NZ now. We are in Kaikoura at the moment, having left Ann in Christchurch yesterday to drive up the coast after a lovely time playing with little Erin. We all went to Willowbrook wildlife park the day before yesterday and got to see real life kiwis! Hand feeding the deer and sheep was fun too. The we headed into Christchurch itself for some shopping. Delicious home cooked meals from Ann were really appreciated. So now it's Kaikoura again. We are staying in the same motel as Louise and I stayed in last time - the very nice Anchor Inn (although not too impressed with the laundry - the dryers don't dry too well!)
Yesterday we headed up to the seal colony and saw three seals - a lively baby, one sleeping under a tree and another making his way to shore. Then we went out for Louise and Jordana to try out the local delicacy - crayfish.
This morning we were all set for a Whale Watch trip, but unfortunately the NZ weather has got us again - all boats cancelled as the sea is too rough. I've already taken my sea sick tablets so am anticipating faling asleep any mini..zzzzzzzzzz
Awake again. Anyway, tomorrow, we head up to Picton to catch the 1pm Interislander Ferry to Wellington, so can't get on a Whale Watch trip. Then Sunday midday-ish we fly out to the USA. We've had a great time here in New Zealand, despite a few weather problems.
I'm uploading photos for you to look at. Us at a soggy Lake Matheson, a couple of the Jade carving, the road near Arthur's Pass, some photos of Ann and Erin, Penguins and the Antarctic Centre.
Take a look at the updated photo album

Update time again. Cathy here, as we sit in Ann V's house having had yet another delicious home cooked meal. You really do get fed up of eating out eventually. After our last update from Franz Joseph we made up to Hokitika, an odd little town. In the gold rush days it was one of the biggest towns on the West coast, and it did have a slightly ghost town feel - that it was once a much more bustling place. I found a strange little cinema showing a film I had wanted to see for a while (this year's foreign Language Oscar winner, The Lives of Others, complete with German subtitles.) Unsurprisingly, Lou and Jordana didn't fancy it, so I went on my own, in fact it was just me and the projectionist bloke. Meanwhile, Louise and Jordana hit the chippy for fish and chips.
The following day was a real highlight for us all! We went to Bonz and Stonz, a place where you can design and carve your own jade. I had a design in mind (Xena's chakram, circa season 5 and 6 for the Xena fans!) while Louise went for a couple of animal designs - an adorable kiwi and a cute dolphin. Jordana's was a spiral design pendant. Basically we spent the whole day working with power tools, grinding, cutting, shaping and polishing our jade. I managed to grind down my fingernails while I was at it too! It was tremendously good fun, and to have a piece of jewellery that you made yourself to take away with you was just so cool. Louise's animals looked brilliant, Jordana's pendant extremely professional, my chakram was a little wonky however.. ah well, it was fabulous fun. Anyone getting the chance to do something like this, should definitely take the opportunity. Our instructor Steve was very laid back and cool, and quite frankly we were amazed it only cost us $85 (less than 40 quid for a whole day's entertainment including tea and biscuits!)
The next day we headed out for Christchurch, crossing the southern Alps at Arthur's Pass where we were amused by a cheeky Kea (NZ alpine parrot) pecking away at people's windscreen wipers. The weather cleared up as soon as we left the west coast, and the road was very dramatic and beautiful. I'll upload some more pictures soon. Ann and Gary's internet connection isn't quite up to photo uploads I think, so no new pictures today.
Anyway, we arrived in Christchurch yesterday, and it has been great seeing Ann and Gary, and we are all completely besotted with the adorable Erin! I am not sure who is the more entertained; us by Erin, or Erin by the strange English people.
Today we went to the Antarctic Centre where we saw real live penguins much to Jordana's delight. We had a ride on the Hagglund - the all terrain vehicles they use in the Antarctic. Tomorrow we are hoping to see Kiwis (the birds) and maybe even another Maori cultural show for me! Ann says to say hello to all the Good Shepherd people by the way.

Lou here...... Haven't been able to update you all for a couple of days, but then again, not much to blog about! We headed to Wanaka after Queenstown - very quiet in comparison - no room at the inn tho. Luckily we didn't have to stay in a stable Golly and there wasn't a nice chap called Joe to put us up for the night. Apparently there was a big snowboarding competition on this week. However, we did manage to stay in quite a nice little place - The Bayview - which had a real log fire... Pyromanics are us! They were lucky there was anything left in the place. It was nice to warm ourselves in front of a real fire - it took me a whole 10 seconds between getting thru the door, realising it was colder inside than out, before the fire was blazing. Several trees later we went to bed all toasty. There was a hard frost and the next morning it was freezing again. I put the free paper to good use making 'donkeys' (you would have been proud of me golly). However, Cath was not so pleased... her choice: read the paper or get a fire going.... she read very quickly and I started with the TV section! Once we were packed, we took a quick trip down to town to have a mooch round.

We had a nice breakfast/lunch and had a look in the info shop to book a place in Haast to stay that night. Everywhere once again seemed booked up, but we managed to find somewhere relatively cheap. Once we were booked up it was off to find the council offices to pay our parking fine... $40 for parking pointing in the opposite direction to the flow of traffic in Queenstown.. IT WAS A PARKING SPACE! JJ had managed to park the car rather spectacularly and we were very pleased with ourselves til we saw the ticket! Wont be doing that again in a hurry.

On our way out we went to Puzzleworld - very entertaining taking ridiculous photos some of which you should be able to see below. When I nipped off to the loo I got over excited and insisted the others came and had a look - the roman toilets amused me. Ellie and Jemima would love it here! Played with lots of puzzzles and after a couple of frustrating hours managed to drag ourselves away and continue on our journey to Haast. Well, what can I say - a very winding road thru the mountains to Haast - rather quiet to say the least. It was quite eerie wandering round the place with not another person in sight. We popped down to the beach and took a few pics. Had a nice meal at the hotel down the road tho.. we were the only people in there for a while but it was excellent - porterhouse steak with scallop sauce - delicious. Again there were some of the puzzles from puzzleworld on the table and we sat around after dinner trying to solve them. I managed to complete mine (I don't know how and couldn't do it again I'm sure!) Cath became quite frustrated with the one she was doing and I was not allowed to have a go under any circumstances... we left the puzzle and returned to our room... it was likely that Cath was going to get the saw out to make that last piece fit!

It absolutely lashed it down all night and the rain on the tin roof kept us awake.

Off to Fox Glacier tho early next morning after breakfast down the road in the only place open and serving food for many mnay miles!

JJ here - I successfully drove us to Fox Glacier making sure that I didn't park this time!! The drive was quite nice apart from the rain.... however when we got to Fox Glacier we realised that it wasn't much bigger than Haast... how delighted we all were at this.. We then decided to drive up to see the Glacier, which we did and then walked up to the beginning of it (terminal face apparently is the correct term for it!) You'll be surprised to hear that it was STILL raining, but the Glacier was spectacular. See the photos attached. We then decided that we were all hungry and a little wet so walked back to get some food, yes I did drive back and yes I made sure I had parked on the right side of the road. Once we'd done this we had done about all there was to do in the town, apart from look in a gift shop so we went to check in to the Motel. We got all excited when we booked ourselves on a helicopter tour round the Glaciers and Mount Cook but we were told that it was weather dependent so it might not go ahead.

We woke up this morning to find the weather was gloriously clear, how hopeful we all were, til the rain set in and the clouds! You guessed it, the helicopter ride was cancelled (by the way I hear it's still warm back there!) so we went to have breakfast out by Lake Matheson to drown our sorrows, we did take a walk to see the lake but it was raining still so the mirror effect didn't work! Lou then expertly drove us to Franz Josef - another Glacier town - we shall be leaving soon for Hokitika as it's still raining and there's not much here to do. Apparentley in Hokitika we can design and sculpt our own piece of Jade but we will keep you updated on any more exciting events. Please please check out the photos - Cathy has spent a long time putting them on. Bye bye from Glacier country xx
See the updated Photo Album

Back in Queenstown for a few hours on the way to Wanaka and thought it was time to update you on what we've been up to. Te Anau is a VERY quiet place after Queenstown, however we all loved our apartment at Radfords Lakeview Motel - spacious and comfortable (and cheap!) highly recommended. We arrived in Te Anau on Saturday after picking up the hire car and unfortunately it was another low cloud, poor visibility day. We were booked in on the Glow Worms Caves trip, which began with a boat trip across Lake Te Anau but the cloud meant we couldn't see much at all!. It was pretty cool going into the cave and seeing the little lights of the worms, although we got much more detail about the life cycle of the glow worm than I ever wanted!
Sunday was our trip to Milford Sound. We went with EcoTours, and the driver was the very entertaining Max. To liven the trip up, we had a puncture on the way! The boat trip on the Fjiord itself (not really a sound at all - misnamed) was spectacular despite the clouds hanging around. Loads of waterfalls and a few seals, plus plenty of rain!
On Monday (yesterday) we did the Doubtful Sound trip. Doubtful Sound is much less travelled than Milford. It is more remote, and much bigger, so not quite as dramatic as Milford, but just as beautiful. We began with a tour of Lake Manapouri Power hydro electric power station - quite interesting, then made our way to the remote Deep Cove and boarded our boat. We were much luckier with the weather - a few clouds, but lots of sunshine. The natural beauty of the place was enhanced by some wildlife spotting. Two small blue penguins (although didn't really get close enough to see them) a few seals lazing in the sun, a fleeting glance of an unidentified whale, but best of all, a group of dolphins! This was definitely the highlight. There were several adults and youngsters swimming together. When we speeded off a few did that leaping thing in the boats wake which was amazing. Unfortunately I didn't get any great shots of that - dolphins were too fast!
Anyway, we enjoyed our time in Te Anau a lot. Very quiet, but had terrific meals at The Ranch (another highly recommended there), super accomodation and beautiful trips. Do have a look at the photo album again. Unfortunately the pictures aren't in order - think Photobox orders them by number. I've added one of the dolphin, two from the Milford trip, one of the hotel in Te Anau and one of us at the Glow Worm caves.
The Photo Album

Well after the events of the past week we thought we would amuse ourselves by going para gliding today!!! The question was though should we go from the gondolas or from the top of the highest mountain near by.... You guessed it we chose the top of the highest mountain nearby.. Flash backs of our skiing adventures came to mind as we had to go to the same ski resort, Coronet Peak, and even get on a chair lift to get the top of the mountain ( I was scared at that point!!!) Once we got off the chair lift we then had to hike up to the peak of the mountain - at which point we were ready to ask for our money back!

Once we got there though the views were amazing - although we still weren't appreciating it - luckily we have the photos to be able to look at them afterwards!
Lou was first to go and as the instructor put it she was 'a little nervous' to say the least!! She ran off the cliff beautifully and was soon air borne. This put me off slightly as I started to panic as to which bit of the cliff I was to run off from - not that it mattered really!
The take off was similar to that of the hang gliding experience but didn't seem as scary once you were up in the air and able to sit down and take the views in. The flight lasted for 20 mins and this time Lou wanted to take control of her parachute (or rather the instructor gave her the controls before she realised what was going on!) she loved it though and didn't crash! You could hear her screaming for miles though - the locals got a little worried at one point!
I did some roller coaster turns with my instructor, Mike, who was from England funnily enough as was Lou's - this made us both feel a bit safer I think - not sure why!!
We've got some lovely photos and videos to show you all and have posted some onto the album so if you go onto one of the links below then all the photos should be there.
This is our last day in Queenstown and we are all very sad to be leaving.
Tomorrow is an early start for us all as we pick up the hire car at 9am to head off to Te Anau and we are booked on a 2pm Glow worm cave tour so no time to spare. We are then booked on a coach and cruise trip to Millford Sound on Sunday. We may stay another day in Te Anau to see Doubtful Sound on Monday but we will see how we go on Sunday, either way we will then head up West to see the Glaciers at some point on Monday or Tuesday.
Update finished..... Love to you our devoted followers.
JJ
xxxxxxx

A slight problem with Blogger (all the instructions are in Chinese so a bit tricky) so you get two updates today. Yesterday's skiing report and todays Tandem Hang Glide. We had a slight delay so didn't do til 3pm (more shopping in the mean time. Thank good ness for VISA!) Headed up the Remarkables to our launch site with the very nice men from SKYTREK. Amazing views, despite rather overcast weather. We were put into more super flattering outfits - jumpsuits, harnesses, helmets etc. Jordana was the first to take off, followed by Louise then Cathy. We have photos (which should be posted below all being well) and all really enjoyed it - extremely exhilarating. Jordana and Cathy both took a turn at the controls - with varying degrees of success, but no crashes!

JJ here.... Well I've done my first scary event of the trip - if you don't count the skiing! It was fantastic as the other two have said, although when we got to the side of the mountain and they were putting together the hang gliders I wasn't so sure I'd made the right decision. Running off a cliff is a little scary even when you are strapped to a man but I held on for dear life and it was amazing, I would definately recommend it, take a look at the pics, the view is amazing. The landing is also a little scary though when you see the ground hurtling towards you and know you have to hit it too stop - luckily the man knew what he was doing and landed us safely - not before he dipped us down and made us do turns just to make me scream a bit louder in his ear!! It really was a great day - Mum don't look at the pictures though!!

Lou here.. I decided this time to let my chap take me for a gentle spin - after the daredevil descent the last time I went hang gliding, I thought I'd enjoy a more relaxed flight. Hurtling towards the ground in a very tight 360 to get out of the way of a plane the last time was fun but scary! I was able to watch JJ flying out in front of me - very professional once she fought the controls out of the chap ! Talk about keen - I don't think he expected her to be so forceful - she appeared so meek and mild on the ground. It was fantastic - a little more scary than the last time. Then again, I had just done a sky dive before then so it didn't seem frightening at all in comparison. The only thing I had to compare it with recently was a gondola ride - not quite as extreme. It was good though as we took off from a different side of the mountain this time which meant it was a change for me too. All in all another fantastic flight... Back to Cath..

After a rather muddy landing, we headed back home, to prepare for our next activity - a trip on the steam ship TSS Earnslaw and dinner at Walter Peak Hgh Farm.

It was just getting dark as we headed across Lake Wakatipu, but the food when we got there was delicious (they even had scrummy brussel sprouts!) Very nice 5 course meal, followed by a farm show - sheep dogs and sheep shearing. Bit of torrential rain accompanied us home, but another great day.

Have a look at the new additions to the Photo Album

Early start - 8.00am at the bus stop for our trip over to Coronet Peak. Met an Irish girl who was going to be in the beginners group with Jordana to keep her company. I didn't feel so mean leaving her to go off for the day skiing up and down like a loony. Once we got there, it was a quick trip to the loo before being kitted out with all our gear. Very attractive! JJ looked like a pro with her goggles on top of her Good Shepherd wooly hat. Lou.

JJ here.. The beginners then had to meet together to be split into groups to go off to the idiot hills where we would apparently learn how to ski - I was a little nervous at this point I have to add!! Once we got on the snow with the ski on it was great (maybe that had something to do with the fact that I only had one ski on and could stop myself with my left foot!!) I thought I was a pro - then they told me to put the other ski on - didn't like that as much! We learnt how to side step up the mountain (or little slope as Lou put it!) Then came the serious skiing which is more difficult than it looks on telly. I learnt how to ski down and stop but kept veering to one side of the mountain. We also had to use a drag lift which is very difficult to get the hang of as I fell over twice trying to get hold of it.. Never mind 3rd time lucky. The best bit of the day was then to come......Lunch!!!!

Lou back... We hooked up after our lessons eventually Jordana had eaten so I had some lunch then went out to watch her on the slopes and took some fab videos and photos in action. JJ tried to take a pic of me skiing down but I went past her a bit too quickly and she ended up taking a lovely shot of the snow... and another of her right ski!! Finally we took in the view and hopped on the bus home. A great day all in all and another first for JJ.

Cathy here now - my day was less high octane. A trip to the Kiwi bird park, nice Maori concert (can YOU do the hokey cokey in Maori??) then a double decker bus tour in the afternoon. I had the bus to myself, but enjoyed a quick trip to the Winery/cheesery and some shopping in Arrowtown. We went out for dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant last night, and are all geared up for another activity - tandem hang gliding (in about...25 mins.)
Have hopefully fixed the photo album so you can all view it. Do comment and let me know if you can't see it.
Try again for NZ Pics.