We started with Christ The Redemer (Cristo Redentor) statue which we hadnt realised was absolutely massive, you had to drive up the mountain to get to it, but from images we had seen previously we thought it was going to be a lot lower, but it was awesome. The mountain itself is called Corcovado ( Hunchback) and then Christ stands tall on top, it was pretty amazing and we were all quite dumbfounded for a bit. There is also a small wee chapel on top that you can go in and say a wee prayer while up there which was pretty cool. Obviously though the top was jam packed with tourists and everyone was cramming for the pictures but it still didnt take away from the place.

We headed back down the mountain and through the city suburbs of Centro and Santa Theresa stopping at the cities cathedral and Candalaria for a bit, we were on a bit of a tight schedule as we wanted to make it up Sugar Loaf mountain for the sunset, but it was quite amusing when we got to this famous cathedral in Rio that holds 20000 people that the sign outside was advertsing their radio station!!

We made it to Sugar Loaf for about 5pm and managed to get the 2 cable cars up in time to watch the sunset over Rio and see Christ the Redemer glow over the city lights...very cool, it was a fab view over Rio and especially with the lights on the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches they looked super, even though most of the lads were more excited about seeing the Maracana football stadium from the top!

That night was our last as part of the tour and in true irish style we had dinner in a pizza place and headed to the Irish pub Shenanigans in Ipanema! Was good craic and we even managed to find another irish pub owned by a cork man who said he would show the All Ireland the following morning if he woke in time! We made it to the Irish pub the following morning along with about 20 others but the Cork man didnt make it up out of his bed so in the end we didnt get to see the match but it had been a good night regardless.

On the sunday night however we were headed to the Maracana stadium for what was a huge football match, the 2 teams Flamenco and Vasco De Gama - big rivals, were playing in the local derby and it had already been rescheduled once so the fans were all well up for it this evening! We got there and it was just crazy, it was unbelievable the largest stadium in the world and it was packed out and you would have just thought it was a massive rave up party because the build up to the match alone was incredible, the locals definitely know how to put on a good show and are passionate about their football! It was very hard not to join in and especially when the lads were coming round with cans of beer for 3 reais every 2 seconds!
Some of the props were fab, they had huge football jerseys of each team, fireworks, huge inflatable balloons, and any amount of flags although the Flamenco one with Mo from the simpsons was a particular favourite!
Great night and the score ended with a draw so everyone was happy!

The following morning we felt as if we had finished our trip, all the hype was over and we were on our own then for a few days to relax on copacabana and Ipanema beaches, and would you believe it we got a bit bored, we were just so excited about going home and seeing everyone that the sun and beaches and even shopping couldnt make the week go in any quicker - quite shocking really when you consider where we were! But we did love Copacabana beach, the salesmen were incredible and the people watching even better... a lot of speedos and g- strings!!

We did go out for a romantic dinner with lots of wine though to congratulate ourselves on making it around the world together and still be very much in love with each other at the end! ahh... and even after some cracking karaoke lionel richie tunes were sung badly we agreed that it had been a fantastic trip and wouldnt have changed any of it!

We also thought that for all the questions that will be asked when we get home or for others who read this we thought we would compile a quick list of bests in case anyone is following in our footsteps or plan to.............obviously all the relatives and friends we stayed with are excempt from these as it goes without saying how fab they were!

Best places we visited:

Cambodia
Canadian Rockies
South America - Machu Picchu, Iguazu Falls, Galapagos & Brazil in general.

Best Breakfast:

China in Chengdu surprisingly did a cracking muesli and fruit
Paraty in Brazil did a great continental number with ham, cheese, fresh bread, fruit and a nice cuppa tea!

Best Lunch:

Uruguayan Ranch/farm Barbeque
Lake Titicaca fresh salad and meat rolls on the boat

Best Dinner:

Thailand Red curry on the beach in Ko Tao
China in Chengdu did a super Tibetan Yak casserole stew thing

Best Hotel that we treated ourselves to:

Singapore The Scarlet hotel...extremely arabian nights!
Sensei Paradise resort in Ko Tao Thailand - very honeymooney!

Best Hostel:

Australia - Cairns Dreatime host Chris is well sound
Amazon Jungle logde - no electricity but candles were fab!

Best Campervan motor park:

Wanaka New Zealand - great showers!!

Best sunsets:

New Zealand 90 mile beach on the north island
Thailand Ko Phangnan
Brazil Paraty

Best achievements:

Trekking for 4 days to Machu Picchu!

Living in a toyota hiace campervan for 4 weeks with each other and making it from the very bottom tip of the south island to the very top tip of the north island without strangling each other!

The last blog entry and we are headed for Rio international airport now to check in and watch Ireland play France in the rugby and a few farewell beers! For all those in Belfast we will see you in the local kings head tomorrow night...cant wait!!

Deb and Ger

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The following day was more of the same only this time myself and ger took ourselves off on a day alone to a place called Trindade. We caught the local bus out to the village which was kinda stuck back in the hippie era, very cool and very chilled out! Although the bus driver we reckon was a definite relative of Pablo Montoya as you would have thought he was driving a F1 car instead of a 50 seater old bus!
It was mad though as once you got there to the beach you stopped and started to unpack etc only to realise that if you were willing to go a further 15 minutes hike up into the mountains and forest you would be able to get to the secret section and the natural lagoons! Not many people here as you can imagine but we felt as if we were in Lord of the flies trying to hike our way through to the secret beach!

After spending our last night in Paraty controversially at a Thai Brazil restaurant (which was well nice may i add) followed by drinks at the local Che Guevara bar, we all got on the 10am boat the following morning heading for the Ilha Grande (Big island).
We were staying at a place called Mata nativa for 3 nights and it was pure luxury, there were no cars on the island and there was just sand everywhere so shoes werent even a must!
We all thought it was fab and we even had our own BBQ and drinking area, which of course we made full use of, including rocking chairs and hammocks!

On Ilha Grande there is a very famous beach known as Lopez Mendes, where the sand is pure white and the water is crystal clear. You had to catch another boat around the island and then hike for a bit to get to it but when you did it was worth it. We had another group option to go on a boat trip but some of us just ended up going to this beach for the 2 days as it was so nice. You could however also hike for 2 hours instead of getting the boat around the island, but in sweltering heat and with hangovers i didnt bother.. Ger did ..Twice!!

We all decided to have a BBQ that night and because we were all so taken by the Lopez Mendes beach some of us decided to buy the T-shirt so to speak in support of it that night at the group get together! The 4 of us did however look as if we had all just been let out for the day and Ger and Matt looked as if they were working in a pizza joint with theirs on... even though they did make everyone a great feed that night!!

On our last night in Ilha Grande we just got in the beers again and sat in the rocking chairs and hammocks at the Mata Nativa and got rightly juiced!
We were all headed for the 830 boat back to paraty in the morning from where we were getting a bus to take us up to Rio for the last day of our tour group ( im sure our leader maria was glad for the rest!!) and for myself and Ger our final destination before heading home!!

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After a fab start to the day we all had lunch and were headed to see the Brazilian side of the falls, we hadnt realised before we got there, but there are 2 sides to the falls, brazilian and argentinian. You get completely different views from each but the Argentinian we reckoned was the best.
The Brazilian side lets you view the waterfalls from the top, as you take a path around the top of them and you end up working your way down then to the walkway that has been built and this takes you right out into the falls...you get wet at this stage but we didnt care as it was roasting weather. We also got to encounter the local wildlife..apart from the loads of hawkes all around the place, there was the brazilian version of the racoon! Cheeky wee rascals mind as they would torture you and climb on you if they thought you had any food!

We spent all afternoon on the brazilian side watching the water and counting all the rainbows, which were beautiful, before we headed back to our hotel del Rey for a night out..this started in a local bar packed out due to the fact that it was showing the premiership football! from here we went to a local night club which was like the south american version of phoenix nights bar...very unusual as you only pay for your drinks at the end of the night on the way out... they basically just give you a sheet of paper and mark off what you have each time, very dangerous though as you dont really know what you are spending..great nights craic, even funnier trying to watch the other lads in the group trying to touch for the locals!!

The following morning we were away early to travel back into Argentina and get more passport stamps so we could see the argentinian side of the falls. We had a full day planned and it started with a walk down to the argentinian views of the falls, it was amazing and Ger said that having been to Niagara that this was 100 times better! The volume of water was just incredible and again the wildlife especially the butterflies everywhere were gorgeous.

A boat trip was next on the agenda, in big rafts down through the sub tropical rain forests of Iguazu and we did manage to get in the water at one stage as well... it was nice and you could see the edge of the falls from the boat which was a bit unnerving!

After our trip we were taken in huge old army truck jeep things back through the forest to go for lunch...

After lunch we were booked to spend the rest of the afternoon actually in and under the waterfalls. You get booked on a speed boat trip that takes you up the river again and into all the rapids of the waterfalls so you are at the bottom of them and then the captain tells everyone to put away the cameras in the waterproof bags and under he goes... you get fully drenched and it was brilliant! We went under waterfalls called the 3 musketeers and the san Martin and then after he lets you off to go and sit and dry off on the small beach and acually go swimming as well in the iguazu water!

This was definitely a trip not to be missed and even on the walk back home over the falls you wouldnt tire of looking at the waterfalls! We even got a limited edition can of coke on the way home as well!!

That night some of us headed out for a cultural samba show and dinner which was fab as well the dances and colours oh yes and the drinks! and of course we got to join in at the end and even got photos with some of the stars... Ger got a better deal although my guys abs were incredible underneath his shirt but he wouldnt take it off! Great night though even though the hangover in the mornng didnt help with the next 24hr bus journey to Paraty on the coast of Brazil.

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That night we all headed out for dinner in a place called El Drugstore.... very cool name and we did wander what we were going to get but it was fab and you got to watch your food being cooked right in front of you, it was like a big kitchen at home really, but if you didnt fancy eating in the restaurant they had an old vintage car outside all decked with a table and flowers inside if those of a more romantic nature fancied it!

first impressions of colonia were great even though Ger found it amazing that some of the cars they drove were still on the road, but it was so far removed from traffic jams and busy cities that we thought it was super..

The following day we all headed out to a Uruguayan farm.. strange choice of activities seeing we are from Ireland but we thought we would give it a lash as horseriding, milking cows and having a uruguayan BBQ we all on the agenda so we couldnt refuse...
The farm or ranch as they call it, was called the 3 buttons and it was so cute.. i think because the sun was shining it did make it a lot more enjoyable that farm visiting back home... no offence! And yes you guessed it myself and Ger volunteered for cow milking, cheese making and watching a cow being insemanated!

But it was a cool day, the animals were more or less the same even though I had never seen a cow wearing a coat! But Ger did go horse riding for the first time and i think he pulled off the John wayne look very well! Paula dont worry i went as well seeing i missed this years traditional horseriding in Donegal followed by tea and scones with you, and yes the horses were asking for you...haha

The lunch that the family put on was great as they started with some wine and cheese made by themselves so we got rightly stuck in and then the bbq came out which was more of less a couple of the cows that we had just seen! But very tasty...

We even got a go on their zip wire that the family kids use to cross the river!!

We headed away then the following day to Montevideo the capital, and we were staying here for 2 nights. However when we arrived the weather wasnt the best so we all headed for the local uruguayan irish bar Shannons and spent most of our time in there and next door at the nightclub!

The following day as you can imagine was a bit of a non event at least for me anyhow, i did make it out of the hotel room for about a half hour but then had to go back and stayed there until 5pm that night when i Ger back and he came to mcdonalds with me!! Very bad hangover! So he was left to be tourist for the day on his own around the city but to be honest i dont think i missed much as apparently theres not much to write home about apart from the main square...

We were off again the following morning North to Salto for one night before leaving Uruguay and heading back across Argentina and into Brazil. Salto was a very quiet place as well and all we did was catch up on some washing and chill out and get ready for the Iguasu falls!

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It worked out a pretty good deal, i got to eat burgers for lunch and sit in the sun and Ger was happy out watching Ortega playing football!
We had booked to go on a city tour the following morning to include the evita balcony and the Boca stadium and neighbourhood (the other argentinian football team). So the 2 of us we walking around all day humming "Dont cry for me Argentina" after seeing the famous govenment balcony where she made her speech! pretty cool though..

After this we headed to the boca stadium - Maradonna´s original club, so we werent leaving without a jersey of course...but the Boca neighbourhood itself is famous more so for its colours and tango, the whole place, buildings , shops etc are all painted bright colours, its fab. The football stadium is actually known as the chocolate box because its so colourful!

We stayed here for a bit and then headed back to get ready for our tango show that night... we had gone for the dinner and drinks all in deal, and even dressed up a bit for the occasion! The food was amazing but i think we were the only ones taking full advantage of the free drinks... and we got very friendly with a few bottles of red wine! Brilliant show though so a good night was had by all!

On the Friday we met our new Gap group that we would be travelling to Rio with, there was 15 of us this time and they all seem very cool as everyone is the me age.. There is even a couple from Belfast on their honeymoon who are friends with my sister! Very small world...so it was great to get all the bizz from home from them over a few introductory beers! All of which we very cheap we actually bought beers from the local supermarket and it worked out about one euro for a litre of heineken!

We were heading away then from Buenos Aires to Uruguay and Colonia - a small village on the coast on the sunday morning so saturday was another chill out eat and drink day, we even managed to get some great pork and apple sauce, banana splits and glass bottles of coke from the Buenos Aires irish Bar "the clover" before we left!!

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We were up early again the following morning amd it was damn chilly in Chile! The journey up to the slopes was going to take about 2 hours and our driver then told us that this was made up of 42 curves in the mountains! It was pure icy and snow was everywhere and our guy hadnt even put on his snowchains yet... so i had the white knuckles showing already!

We made it to the top and it was fab Ger was learning to ski so we booked a guy called Nelson for 2hours straght off the bat to get Ger up and down the slopes..But his initial fears were soon gone and we had renamed him Eddie the Eagle!

It was a great day and the weather was fab as well, not even the saga of how to get off a ski lift gracefully could annoy us..as all around the scenery was amazing.

So after a full day on the piste we headed back down the 42 curves for a well earned bottle of Chilean red and thai dinner!

The following day we chilled out, it being sunday and all and also the fact that the dubs were playing the semi final against Kerry we didnt venture too far away from the internet or the mobiles! Sad day for the dubs though!
We did go back to our tourist duties though the next day and had a great day chilled out walking around the city, very surreal though as every time you looked around you got another great back drop of the Andes.

Evven though we had extremely rosy snowburnt cheeks and noses it had been a great few days and skiing in the Andes was definitely a highlight!

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Some of the outfits would have went down a treat at Halloween back in Chez McParland house...lol We left here though and got a boat then across the water to our bus again and got ready to cross the bolivian border... we had to disown our tour leader Thad here as well for corruption reasons otherwise the cops would have made a fortune in bribes out of our group! It was all a bit funny really as we had to get off the bus and walk across the border and then get back on the bus, all on in case we we trying to smuggle stuff into the country! Even though there were locals wheeling crates of beer over the border in full view... a lot of back handers and brown envelopes!!

But it was all cool and it wasnt long before we were in La Paz or rather trying to pose for photos at the viewpoint with the sun in our eyes!

We were staying in Hotel Rosario in La Paz and it was gorgeous, very old style quaint and quite romantic too, the place though was mad, constant noise and traffic and the locals, who were lovely,dressed in full traditional robes every day with the women wearing black bowler hats.. how they balanced them was pretty amazing. But it was the witches market that we went out to see..( that and football jerseys!)
The ladies were selling ointments and potions for any ailment and also had on offer llama foetuses, which apparently when buried under your house will bless it and bring good luck! We give them a miss and decided to risk it..

Seeing it was our last day though as a group we were all headed out that night for a right knees up before we all went our separate ways again..It is so cheap in Bolivia that its practically rude not to get drunk! We went to a local place called Mungos and the food was fab but the local beers and shots were even better, or at least they were that night, hangovers were pretty nasty come morning time! This however didnt stop the lads trying nearly every one on the menu including one called Taratula!

It was a great night and we had one day left before myself and Ger were flying to Chile so we headed off sightseeing to check out the San Pedro Prison... we had read a book called Marching Powder ( extremely good book) by Rusty Young based on life inside this prison and where up until recently you could take a tour as women and kids live in there with their bold other halves! It was pretty cool to go and see but a few undesirables hanging around so we didnt stay long! And even though we didnt get in we did get some shots of the clothes drying on the roof and walked around the outside as its quite small and right in the middle of a main square! very bizarre really..

We said our goodbyes that day and away then the following morning back to just the 2 of us and heading for some skiing in Chile!

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The boat took us all out and the first island we got to was called Tequile, it took 2 hours to get to so i thought i would check mobile signals on lake titicaca and sure enough .... technology is great so i called Paula jane in London! which Ger thought was unbelievable..lol

We stopped off at Tequile for a walk about and lunch and from here you can get the best views of the lake, it was stunning and the traditional dress was amazing as well, all the loacls were so colourful... little did we know that we would have the same outfits on later!

From here we went to Alamanta island to meet our families for the night, it was like the price is right come on down you´ve won 2 irish folk for the night... the mums were all waiting at the port in the hope that their family got picked... quite embarrassing really, but we ended up with a mum called Juana and she was lovely...i actually think she had gotten in contact with my mum judging by the choice of pictures on the bedroom wall that myself and Ger were to share that night!!

After getting settled in Juana was making dinner and we decided on a game of football with the locals before going to see the sunset, the lads lost 2-3 but not bad when you factor in the altitude and not being able to breathe! At least they all looked good which is the main thing!

That night after dinner Juana dressed us up to join the others for a traditional night ut and titicaca disco... it was hilarious not to mention boiling as the girls had to put on about 5 layers to get the look....but i still managed to get the dubs socks on as a wee surprise for Ger!! haha We danced and drank all night and it was great craic..

The following morning after fab pancakes for brekkie we said goodbye to our island mums and headed to the islands of Uros - the floating reed islands.. These were mad as you thought you would sink when you tried to walk on them but nope loads of families lived on these every day there were even schools, nurseries, doctors and clinics on top of them..very cool!

We even got to go out out on one of the reed boats and chill out, which Ger took full advantage of! lol

Even though a lot of these have been made for the tourists they were still fab and it had been a great few days away..

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We got onto our wee canoe boat thing and were sailing down the river for about 2 hours, it was fab the noises alone all around us were mad, however come night time they increased and you would swear the jungle was having an animal rave.. there were macau´s everywhere beautiful big birds...and when we reached our lodge it really was gorgeous and we no longer cared about our hangovers when we seen the hammocks and the wildlife all around us, we even had resident agouti´s ( like huge hamsters) that lived next door to our cabin! Not to mention the cute wee ducks that rocked about the place.

We got to relax for a bit and then went out for jungle walks at night to see the nocturnal dudes.. Ger became Dr Dolittle and wanted to hold and touch everything incuding this baby boa snake!

The only thing i held was the erotic root tree member... so called for its shape...i´ll let you work that one out yourselves!

The following morning we went out jungle trekking and in true rain forest style we got drenched! This didnt stop Ger though and away he went with Jonny piranha fishing this time....

It was great even though i found a huge spider in my pants when i dared to go to the jungle loo! That night we got taken out to look for caymens.... small alligators! And when they dont want to come to you jonny and henry our giudes didnt let that stop them, so they went into the water and got them for us! And yes Ger got to hold them!

It had been a fab few days but we flew back to Cusco to join the rest of the group to head to Puno and Lake Titicaca...

And just so you know there is plenty of money to be made in the jungle as we found that gold digging is a huge industry out there as well...!

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Although we still managed a few hours sightseeing in Cusco before we headed off...

We were scheduled for our prep meetings for our 4 day inca trail. We joined a group of about 15 other young people mostly from England and Ireland again so we were of to a great start as the banter and excitement was rife.. We went from Cusco to a place called Ollantaytambo to start our trail and stopped along the way at a community weaving community where yes ger kicked off a game of football in respect for the dubs as this was also the day of the dubs quarter final win, so ger was well dressed for the occasion!...and we also got our first glimpses of inca ruins, they were well cool.

We were to get picked up the following morning to start walking and had to pack a duffel bag of no more than 7kg, which one of the 16 porters would carry for us! It was a huge operation as there was us lot in the group of hikers and then our entourage bumped the numbers up to near 40...
The day before starting everyone was taking it easy and trying to chill out as much as possible before the 4 days of toughness started, so yes we had a celebratory pint in the square at Ollantaytambo before we went!

We got picked up at 8 the next morning and off we went. The sky was blue and it was roasting weather so we were off to a good start...

The scenery was amazing and the smaller daypacks that we all had ourselves for water and that was grand to carry, but we had been warned that day one was known as the "easy day", it was crazy though watching the porters running past us with 25kg each on their backs - tents, tables, our luggage, food everything, they had to get to camp and set up and cook lunch before we got there, they would put you to shame, but as soon as we started myself ger and 2 friends from england - trainee doctors ( very handy!) hung out at the back of the pack and adopted the tortoise strategy as opposed to the rest of the hares that thought it was a race... we knew burn out wouldnt take too long so we had a right laugh at the back! And besides the scenery was too good too miss...

We stopped for lunch half way up the first mountain and headed off again and actually got to camp for the night at the same time as the porters god love them... we were all too eager but that would change come day 2 though.. the campsite was well cool and the dinner and food was fab, 3 courses and our tents and mattresses and sleeping bags all set up for us, we had been expecting a lot harsher conditions...... Oh and we even had a incan shopping centre beside our first campsite...but not too welcoming though was the trantulla in our tent with us that night!

Day 2 - the "hardest day" started early as usual as this was the day i wasnt looking forward to... we had to climb dead womans pass mountain all 4215metres of her.. with altitude it was gonna be tough.
We all started with enthusiam but very quickly everyone was quiet and all you could hear was heavy breathing.. we stayed at the back of the pack as usual but not out of choice this time haha i was finding it particularly difficult with the altitude and my chest and breathing and god love Ger he stayed behind me every step of the way with water and encouraging words. we stopped for lunch after having walked up constantly for 4 hours, but we only got to rest for about an hour and then off we went again as not only did we have to get to the top but we had to then make our way down from the top on the other side to the camp for the night! Someone was obviously having a laugh but oh no on we went....
It took a further 3 hours to get to the top and when i got there i got so emotional and cried, it just felt like a great achievement and we hadnt even got to the main event yet!

Going down the 1000metres to camp then was a breeze as we were delighted with ourselves for having mad it to the top with our 2 lungs still intact, and we got an applause from all the porters for having made it as well...and as it turns out the tortoises won the day making it down to camp first as the burn outs arrived 45 minutes later!!

Day 3 the " unforgettable day" started with sore legs from previous day, everyone was as stiff as a board and we were all waddling like ducks to try to get going again. We were lined up to pass by 4 inca ruins today before arriving at campsite that night, where i might add there would be running hot showers and a pub!! Until now we had been getting woken up at 630 each morning by the porters with a cup of tea and a basin with water and soap to have a wee wash in, or as my mum would call it a "quick lick"...

We had such a good day and the views were amazing, not to mention going through an incan tunnel of love that me and Ger decided to go to long way home by ourselves to see more ruins one of which was known as forever young, before getting to the showers and the pub..oh yes and to show my support of the dubs i wore my socks...

The 4th and final day we were up at 4am in the morning as we had to walk a few hours to reach the sun gate and be on time for sunrise. Even though our legs ached everyone was in great form and excited to get to the finish point - Machu Picchu.
Myself and Ger headed off and when we walked though the sungate and got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu is was just breathtaking, it had been worth every minute! Even though we all looked exhausted we felt fab! Even the Alpacas were up early to welcome us...

Team Rueben - the slow tortoises at the back pulled through in the end and we were the first ones to arrive at site!

Myself and Ger stayed at Machu Picchu for a few hours then just walking around the ruins and taking it all in, we just had such a feeling of achievement that we didnt want to leave the place, i even got mobile signal from the top and was able to call my mum!

Our train was leaving at 230 so we left Machu Picchu at about 1130 and headed to the hot springs to meet the rest of the group and start the celebrations. The train back to Cusco would take about 4 hours but we didnt mind as the scenery along the way was great.

Even though others...namely our tour guide opted for sleep instead!

We got to Cusco at about 630 and had all arranged to meet up at 9 to had a good few pints, starting may i add in paddy o´flahertys irish pub in the main square! This was also the night that the earthquake hit Peru and we all felt the tremors, it was very worrying but we were all grand and it didnt stop us celebrating in the wee small hours for having completed our 4 day trek.. i even treated the peruvians to some famous ´dry the back´, ´floss the teeth´and ´do the shopping´dance moves on the bar!!

Unfortunately the following morning we were scheduled to fly to the amazon jungle so as you can imagine the hangovers were not goodat 7am having only got to bed!!

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The main square and general town is gorgeous and we could have chilled out here for a week, shopping was great as well and i did my best to buy as much as we could post home! Another early start the following morning though meant snacks and a movie in bed for me and ger - just what the doctor ordered though as we were up at 6 to go to the Colca Canyon the next morning.

We met our guide Hilda who told us all about the canyon and the altitude... all 4920metres of it! Apparently to stave off altitude sickness though cocoa leaves are given to you to suck and chew in your mouth as people can get very ill from the altitude, the leaves however were pure minging... so me and Ger just stuck to water! We were actually grand and when we reached the highest point - Patawasi, we all got to get out of the bus and make a wish and build some rocks that would be a gift to the canyon/mountain... oh yeah and i also had the novelty of using the highest loo in Peru!

Some of the others in the group didnt take too well though to the altitude and were very sick so a few stops were made along the way, but we didnt mind as the views and scenery were stunning and there were small little stalls and markets the whole way selling all their hand made crafts, the kids were gorgeous too, they all just look like wee Dora the explorers!, some got so upset because they wanted to come with us! ahhh

The road signs had also changed on the way!!

We were staying at a lodge that night in Coporaique in the canyon called Mama Yacchi´s and the place was fab, the views from our room alone were stunning, they even had their own pet Lama that roamed about the grounds and got bottlefed each morning... his name was spot!

We had a practice hike up the mountain that afternoon as a way to see if we would be ok for the forthcoming inca trail! All was cool though and we got to see the sunset, visit an old religious burial ground and met some interesting characters along the way - one lady who looked like a nice version of the wicked witch of the west from the wizard of oz! The kids however were funny as they would dance and sing for us at any opportunity and they were all dressed in traditional clothing- so cute!

After a gorgoeous buffet dinner that night and a quick dip in their hot springs we had an early night as we were leaving at 4am the following morning to go and watch the early morning flight of the condors in the canyon valleys... Even though this was well painful, it was so worth it as the views were amazing and there were loads of condors in flight , we could have stayed there all day just watching them glid about the place, and we also met a wee dog at Maca on the way!

Unfortunately though we were headed back to Arequipa that afternoon as we needed to get prepped about our 4 day inca trail to Machu Picchu, which for me and Ger was the main event!!

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We left Pisco the following morning for the Ballestas islands which is just like a small version of the Galapagos so myself and Ger opted for the extra 2 hours lie in bed instead and met the others later that morning. We drove south to a place called Ica ( incidently this is where the epicentre of the recent earthquake was and by all accounts what we saw and did there is now no longer there... very sad), in Ica we got to visit a vineyard called El Catador, well nice place where we got the tour and where told all about the processes and the huge botejas that housed the wine...and yes again a spot of wine tasting and more pisco sour, the lads over here really love the stuff, and for me even a sniff has me wobbly!

We stayed here for lunch and they had musicians and the whole lot it was well nice and obviously we didnt want to leave!

In the afternoon we arrived at a place called Huacahina and had the next few hours booked for some sand buggying and sand boarding. This was completely brilliant, huge big dunes and you got into a big sand buggy and just raced up and down them and then if you wanted you got a sand board and we were able to go sand boarding down them instead, it was well cool, no pics though unfortunately as sand in our camera wasnt a risk we wanted to take!
We got back to base late afternoon and lay by the pool for a bit and had more pisco sours before we heading south again to Nasca to our accomodation for the next few days. We even meet a friendly bird at the pool who chatted away to me!

We arrived oin Nasca that evening and after dinner just relaxed as the following morning was another early start! We got picked up at 8 by out guide Suzi and taken first to the Chauchilla cemetery which was in the middle of a desert but which was mad as it was famous for its preserved mummies, their hair clothes everything...

from the cemetery we went to the Nasca airport. I was looking forward to this part of the day as we were going up in cessna planes - 5 to a plane, to look at the famous Nasca lines. These lines were designs of like monkeys, spiders, an astronaut, birds but huge drwawings that could only be seen from the sky properly.

Unfortunately though some people didnt take to the small planes bobbing about so much in the air, and becky in our group in particular left the plane with no less than 7 small bags with her breakfast in them! was quite funny really as all me and ger could hear from the back was ´more sick bags.... more sick bags´ ah well we enjoyed it anyhow!

We had a chilled out evening then in our hotel as the following day we were headed fro Arequipa on a night bus...

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we all headed out to floreana island this morning for more animal watching, its fascinating everyone was just mesmerised...

When we got back our cabin mate Darcus who cleans our room had left us some artwork on our bed, he was so nice and all we could manage to do for him was to block up the toilet every day! Quite funny though as we would see him head up to our room when we left for the island with plunger in hand... all Ger of course now, but the toilets were very small...lol

We met some lovely people on the boat as well, some couples were there on honeymoon and others just on trips like ourselves, our friends John and Denise Vincent from Tasmania and Ivy and Chung Wei from singapore became our drinking buddies!

Elizabeth i even managed to find your name sake on the galapagos!

On our last day we were taken to North Seymour island where we got to go swimming again, play football with the cabin crew from the boats and visit the only post office in the galapagos...The blue footed boobie birds were hilarious they were so cheeky and would come right up close to you, it did however start to cloud over on our last day so the lads thought a game of footy was in order, ger and the boys joined in but what they didnt notice was that the crew had remembered to bring their shoes and even though ger played very well (not biased at all) he did leave the pitch with an injury!

He was grand though and motored on... the post office was well cool as it was just a wooden box where people placed their postcards and you didnt need to bother with stamps you just left it there and the rule was then that the next people to come along that live in your area will deliver it for you..! We left with quite a few postcards for dubliners! But everyone got to leave some as well it was great..

The last trip of the holiday was to baltra island itself for our flight back to quito, but not before we got taken to see the famous red chested frigate birds... these guys had it tough but proper order though! Basically they had to buff out their chests when a lady few past and whoever did the best job got the girl... so funny watching them every time a girl flew past the noises and flapping were incredible, and i have to say the ladies were very fussy as not one of them got a sniff! haha Ger reckoned the lynx effect hasnt been properly marketed in the galapagos!

We flew back to Quito for one night and 2 days more in Quito, so we headed back to the secret garden for the free booze! We did manage to get some sightseeing done though, but only because i think we were boring the pants of the guys in the hostel with our galapagos stories.. ah well..
Quito is a lovely palce but the clonnial section and main sqaure are its highlights..

Not to mention the hard workers!...

We had one night left and it just so happened to be ecuadorian theme night withband in the hostel, we had to fly out the following morning for Lima to start our tour of Peru so we took it easy! Poncho city that night as well, myself and Ger havent got one yet but rest assured we will post the pics when we do... very handy numbers i have been telling Ger and well warm at night, although not sure if he is going for it!

Galapagos - Quito remains copyright of the author geranddebs, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We had booked a taxi to our hostel the Secret Garden and all was going well - checked in, signed up for dinner and free booze for the night, until we remembered our (very expensive) Galapagos Islands trip that started the following day at 7am and we had still to arrange pickup and flights etc to the islands!

Thankfully though the manager of the company True Colours - Peter, had left me amil which Ger only happened to notice on the communal notice board.. pure random! God love Peter for he had left a hand made brown handbag for me with all our letters, boarding passes, maps etc and he said said he himself would be at our hostel at 7am to pick us up. He was well sound ... so we lashed into the free beers on the rooftop patio to celebrate!

The following morning as you can expect was hard going and only for Peter taking our luggage and generally being our guardian angel and mother we probably wouldnt have made it to the airport! We did though and the flight was grand as its only 2.5 hours from the coast.

Once we arrived we were all separated and given our yellow/red stickers for each boat cruise, it was like being back at school on a school trip away but we didnt mind as porters were assigned that carried our rucksacks for us - very posh indeed for us two!
Our boat was called the MY1 Coral and we got the bus to take us to Puerto Ayora first before boarding the boat for lunch and start the cruise. The place was gorgeous and the sun was even shining, our first view of island life and it was fab!

The boat was lush, we forgot what it looked like and because we booked it early we got a cabin on the top deck - it was huge compared to the ones in the bottom of the boat so we were well pleased!

Once on board we sat down to a great lunch and afterwards our first trip out was to the Charles Darwin Stationand Santa Cruz island and the gigantic tortoises.. We were dumbstruck when we seen these lads, they were just huge and you could walk in and around them no bother at all! We spent ages here just looking at them and how slow they move, given they are about 100 years old though they were doing well in our books!

Our first day over and it had been awesome we all headed back to the boat and the 3 course dinner and cocktails were waiting, we felt like royalty it was great. There was about 30 of us on the boat and it had been a great start!

The next day we were headed for Espanola island......this island was just full of animals and all the cameras got a fair beating that day! We got to see the famous marine iguanas, blue footed boobies and their flirty dancing, albatrosses on whats called the albatross airport on the island, nazca boobies, swallow tailed gulls, sally lightfoot crabs, yellow finches, hawks, herons, pelicans... the list was never ending and they were all so tame that we were able to just walk through them and past them or even just sit beside them if you fancied... it was truly amazing! And most photos are of all of them flirting with each other.. the place is well cool total cattle market for animals!

We spent a full day here visisting the islands and then in the afternoon we all got into the sea from teh white sand beach and were joined by hundreds of sea lions! These guys were everywhere on the island and they came so close to you as they wanted to play with you, such a great day!

None of us could believe how friendly all the animals were, we got to swim with the sea lions and there were loads of tortoises as well just swimming right past it was amazing, even if some did look meaner than they were!

Everyone back on the boat and again a fab dinner and drinks and more overnight sailing to the next island the following morning for more of the same - Floreana Island!

Lima - Galapago Islands remains copyright of the author geranddebs, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We wanted to see if we could cover most things on foot seeing we could sort of take our time, so one of the first things we did was go walking all around down by ground zero, wall Street and the famous bull and then on round the coast by the ferries.

The World Trade center site was very sad it is just a building site now but you can see the remnants of the building blocks and foundations where they are building a memorial in its place, the weather was fab all day and needed to get out of it for a it so we decided to go to the famous Bodies Exhibition - real bodies that are preserved so well and you can see muscles, veins, everything! i however had to leave it early as one of the parts was showing mums to be that had died and the wee babies still inside them. It was remarkable though for those who like that sort of thing.... To clear our heads we decided to walk across the brooklyn bridge and it was fab the views were amazing although you have to make sure you stay out of the bike lane as those boys are bonkers and arent afraid to verbally assault you!

We got up on the following sunday morning and decided to go to mass at St Patricks cathedral followed by some store browsing for a while and then chill out in central park and read papers for the day, it was brilliant and that wasnt just because we had visited Tiffany´s and i bought a new charm for my bracelet back home and a new pair of shoes! The whole park was full of people and teams playing baseball, the strawberry fields were as relaxing as ever and we just picked a spot and spent a few hours there, seeing how many people we could count reading Harry Potter!!

The following day it was raining so it was a definite museum day and off we went to the Guggenheim, neither of us are terribly arty people but it was cool to go even if we didnt get why 12 flourescent light bulbs tied together was a peice of art!!

That night we meet up with a friend of ours from the hostel Callum from Reading and we headed into greenich village for a few pints! This off course turned into a bit of a pub crawl and a few hours later after having gone to comedy show by a guy called Paulie.. we ended up in the Red Lion pub with a great jazz band and Callum getting the waitresses number!

The following morning as you can guess we didnt do much at all but meet up with Callum and another friend Lynne from Edinburgh and we headed to Madison Square Gardens for the White Stripes concert. This was fab, the place was amazing just to be there and you can drink away bopping about in your seat! It was a great night and off course pints after where a must as well as hot dogs and pizza slices!

Our last full day in New York and we headed out as early as we could.. to get the ferry for Liberty and Ellis island.

It was another fab day and we got some great views and even found some of our ancestors in the lists of immigrants to Ellis island!

We finished off our day up the Empire State building for sunset before heading back to meet the lads for a leaving drink, we were all leaving the next day - thursday but it had been a great week all round and Ger got to have his infamous hot dog in New York and yes everyone leave we left without buying anything in the diamond district!!

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We arrived late at night as our flight had stopped over at Pittsburgh so when Eimear had picked us up and brought us home the boys were in bed but Khalil had prepared a gorgeous afghan meal and we all sat chatting and drinking wine to the wee small hours. It was great to see Eimear, i felt like i was at home with my own family and again their house was massive so we were enjoying every minute.

The boys were up the next morning and i didnt recognise them as they had gotten so big - Ronan 3 and Lorcan 1 and a half.
Charlottesville were they lived was a quaint university town and the nighbour was so peaceful and quiet we feklt as if we were in the countryside. We went to the pool the first morning and chilled out the kids were a laugh and kept us all going.

Khalil came home exhausted as his hangover was still lingering from the night before but we got our the beers and wine again and sat chatting and catching up. We were staying with the guys for only four days, so teh next day we got a picnic packed and drove up to the Thomas Jefferson house. It was really lovely and totally different to what we expected as it was a massive estate and the gardens and vegetable patches were fab and still going strong.

Ger felt right at home with the gardens and could have stayed there all day!

With the kids exhausted we all headed home but stopped off to do some fruit picking at the local market place, the place really was gorgeous and it felt as if we were in Italy somewhere..

The following day we all headed out to the university Rotunda and the great Lawn to meet Khalil for a picnic lunch with the kids, and they were great even though Ronan the eldest could win hands down in a " how many why questions can you ask in 1 minute!" but he was very helpful with the housework later!

On our last night we all went out for a great Thai meal in their local restaurant.. i had forgotten how much craic it is taking young kids out for dinner and seeing just how much they can get on themsleves and the floor!

One of the gifts we left for the kids was a New Zealand game we picked up called the crazy kiwis, however myself and Ger had spent many a night in the campervan trying to work it out we were eager to see if eimear and the lads could do it... they tried but as yet we still havent managed to crack it!
We left the following day heading for New York for a week - back to hostels, fast food and packing rucksacks! Ger even let me shave his hair before we left .... We had been thoroughly spoiled again and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone.

Virginia - Charlottesville remains copyright of the author geranddebs, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ok so we arrived in Chicago on a wet monday evening thankfully only delayed by 3 hours in Pittsburgh we made it home to Ann's for beers and pizza, and immediately it felt like home, it was great. We planned to stay with Ger's cousins for a week and it was like luxury after backpacking for so long..

Our first morning we got up very relaxed and chilled out for the day and Tom and Mary took us out to Pot Belly's for lunch and then in to see Ann at work - oh and meet all of her colleagues and see the new fish tank!!!
We all headed out for dinner that night then to a place called Flattops - kind of like mongolian bar -b -q where you chose what you want to eat and then they cook it for you and you can return as many times as you like! However myself, Ann, Mary and Helen decided to start our meal with Horny monkey cocktails so we were already set for a good night!

After dinner Mary arranged for us to go to a club with her and her friends called Joes where the Randy
Rodgers Band were playing and who we had seen on tele that morning... the $2 pitchers were another reason but after 3 of these Randy and the boys sounded great!

We managed to get up the next morning with bad hangovers but decided to go into the city to walk it off. The city was fab, and it was all very chilled, and we took our time and Ger got to be my tour guide for the day as he has been here so many times. The city is class not too crowded and everyone is very friendly, especially when we went shopping... the magnigficent mile - avenue for shopping, had to be visited but i did well only getting a chicago cubs hoody whereas Ger left town with a new phone/ internet gadget by Nokia!!

My favourite was the bean which was shaped as such and was like a huge round mirror!

When we got home that night we just chilled out with Ann and the family, her back garden is great just to sit out on the deck and with a couple of beers in hand this is pretty much how we spent most of the week..!

It was great just to be able to chill out in a home from home and Ann and all the family made us feel so welcome, we got tyo catch up with mails and more importantly washing!
The weather was great and bar b q's were a must from Ann back garden to her neighbours everyone was so friendly and we were introduced to everyone including Bob and Tina - bod who works for Charcrust a steak seasoning company was kind enough to give us some samples and some " rub my meat" t-shirts!!..... i even managed to squeeze in a visit to the beauty salon with Ann and Mary to get pedicures! and Ger got to listen to the Dublin match that morning!

One of Ann's neighbours Sue invited us up to her house at Lake Geneva then that weekend so off we went on the sat morning - it was only a 2 hour drive and the weather was great so we all had picnics with sues kids and even managed a dip in the water off the end of the pier into the lake!
The houses up there were gorgeous all with yachts moored outside their private piers and some with slides etc

When we got back from Lake Geneva - you guessed it more bar b q's and beers in Dan's brother Robert's house and we also got introduced to their new arrival Sophie only a few months old!

Sunday morning and our last day in Chicago so Helen and Dan treated us all to a sunday lunch in her back garden..myself and Mary had been lying out on the deck that morning but when a skunk decided to join us under the deck we were ready to go!
It was a great spread and myself and Ger were definitely leaving a little heavier... we spent the whole afternoon drinking cocktails and beers and all staggered home.
For us this had been 5 star and more in our ratings and we didnt want to leave but as we told the folks they will see a lot more of us in future!

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We were booked into the HI hostel in Jasper which was grand as it was only minutes from the wee village centre. We had about 3 days to chill out here before we had to get the via rail train acropss the rockies to Vancouver, Ger even managed to find his mate...!

We immediately fell in love with Jasper, but it is very hard not to as it is just so idyllic you want to stay for longer, its not terribly big but the quaint shops, cafes and bars are gorgeous and all to the back drop of the snow capped rocky mountains.

We just chilled out around the town but we did go up the Whistler mountain cable car for the amazing views and then its optional to continue further on foot to the very top of the mountain and as it looked the world.
Obviously we did it and it was amazing, it took about an hour to get to the top but it wasnt that far it was more the altitude that slowed you down, oh and the fact that i had left the house in flip flops as it was about 35 degree heat but up the mountain it was windy and a lot colder and some parts were covered in snow - this didnt help!! But once we got to the top it was brill and it felt like a super achievement..

On the friday we were leaving on the 3pm train to cross the rockies, the train looked weel exciting as the roof was see through and raised so you could get the full experience of travelling through the mountains. We had booked our trip at home and didnt realise that we got a full 3 course dinner and free champagne when we boarded so it was a treat to be treated like first class as opposed to the travelling look we were used to.. i think we shocked the train ticketer as she advised us to buy our own food before getting on the train as it was quite expensive on the train haha... i guess we werent looking our best that day!

Our dinner seating was at 5pm so we headed for that first and a few glasses of free wine and champers.. meet 2 other girls that had actually won the same trip who were lovely. After dinner we got to go up to the viewing carriages and watch the mountains as they passed by, it was really brilliant we were both just in awe and i dont think we spoke for about an hour!

It was like luxury compared to the train journeys in the hard sleeper in China with Andy and Jane (... but we we were thinking of you guys!). They made up the beds for you at night - whch were huge and it was just gorgeous being able to fall asleep looking up at the rockies and the stars - very romantic lads!
We got into Vancouver the next morning at about 8am and had to wait then til 12 for our bus to Seattle where we stayed for a night before heading to Chicago and Ger's cousins house for a full week. We were kind of sad to leave Canada and would encourage anyone to go as it was definitely one of our highlights!

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There was about 9 of us in the group and once we got our shopping sorted we were away..our first stop was Banff and from here the famous beauty spot Lake Louise. It was a gorgeous day and the place was packed but it was absolutely beautiful, the lake was a green/glacier blue colour and the chateau lake louise was just as breathtaking...

we spent a few hours here so myself and Ger decided to hike up to the tea rooms right at the top of the mountain, after an hour of step climbing we made it to the top along with the other few hundred tourists! It was so busy we didnt have time to get a cuppa but the scenery and views had been worth it.

We headed away from Lake Louise and up the mountain to our hostel for the night called the Mosquito creek hostel - it lived up to its name but it was cool, very rustic, no electricity, toilet outdoors and just the company of the mountain animals - chipmonks, and a camp fire for the night - oh yeah and beers!. The Big Rock grasshopper, kokanee and honey brown went down a treat and by 12 midnight we were having a right laugh...so much so that when a small man approached our fire asking if someone needed luggage i nearly fell on him with delight. We couldnt believe he had found us,although he did say he had been driving around for hours looking, so he was as relieved as us to have the luggage!

The following morning up early, hangover city but with clothes! We headed for the Columbia icefield. This was a huge glacier that you went up to on huge big tonka trucks, each wheel apparently costing $5000.00!

We spent the afternoon here and it was gorgeous, although everywhere in the rockies is a picture postcard so its very hard not to love the place.
From here we headed to Lake Annette for an afternoon dip seeing it was about 35degrees in the shade! The Lake was a glacier lake so it was absulotely freezing but all the girls braved the water while the guys took pictures and got bitten by more mosquitos.. haha

After our swim we headed into the mountains again for our second hostel on Mount Edith Cavell. On the way we got to see Caribou and moose which was class.. but i was still holding out for a big bear! We had been warned what to do if we came across the brown or black bears and everyone had their eyes peeled - it was funny because when you spotted a group of cars stopped it was a free for all to try and get a glimpse as to what animal was there...

We arrived at our hostel which was inside a national park and they had had a mother and 2 cubs in the campsite a few days ago so we were all excited...usual routine though again, dinner on and get the fire lit and the beers cold and we all settled in for another campfire night. It was great craic, we met a couple from Cambridge Eoin and Corin and along with them and our leader Maria we managed to finish all the alcohol!

It had been a great few days and the following day Maria was kind enough to drop us off to another hostel and arrange for the owner to give us a lift out to Jasper for our next few days...

Calgary - Canadian Rockies - Banff remains copyright of the author geranddebs, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We stayed at the Heritage Marina hotel which is very near the Fishermans Wharf but their record keeping leaves a lot to be desired - we waited for an hour for our room but when we opened the door someone was already in there, but hotel staff ensured us they had checked out so they took all their clothes etc out of the room and in we went... only to get a knock/bang at the door by that resident at 12am that night! She wasnt happy and had to go and get another room... only in America!

San Francisco is really gorgoeous - so chilled out and relaxed we immediately loved it not to mention the warmer weather! It was a 20 minute walk into town and the wharf/pier area. On our first day we just walked about and booked some tours out to Alcatraz and Angel Islands, which was just as well as there was a 2 day wait for tickets! The restaurants and fish especially are gorgeous, their speciality being Dunge crab...

The city is very accessible and we walked all around the trendy north beach, seen the famous sentinel building owned by film maker Francis Ford Coppola and the Vesuvio bar, not to mention the street entertainment!

Our hotel was also minutes from the famous crookedest street - Lombard street, but instead of walking down it we walked up! pretty cool though as you can get great views from the top but its always busy with tourists doing the same as us or traffic jams as others want to experience the novelty of driving down it.. once we got to the top though we got the cable car down again!

On the saturday after chilling out for our first few days we went on the tour for angel island. It was lovely - the whole island is a national park now but was once the immigration centre and then a military base, the views from the island of the golden gate bridge and the san francisco coast line are fab..

After Angel island we decided to hire some bicycles and ride across the golden gate bridge and the surrounding area. Very cheap to do but it was brilliant, the area around the bridge is really scenic, once you got to the bridge the wind picks up and you had to hold on!.. it was great though one of the best things we did..

After congratulating ourselves that night we were up bright and early the following day for our boat trip over to Alcatraz island - Alcatraz spanish for Pelican, which we soon found out as there are birds everywhere...

The tour price includes your boat and fee into the jail and we thought it was brilliant. The audio on it was super and it gave you a great insight into life on Alcatraz and the islands history, not to mention the views from the island and the bird wildlife and gardens surrounding it, or the fact that it was claimed by the indians for 16months after the jail closed..

It was quite eery walking through the history of the place knowing what went on with the noises to let you be part of it and well worth the fee. Ger even got to check out some of the gardens and felt slightly at home but they had the fire engines and escape routes all on show as well..

We left San francisco heading for the rockies then on the 2nd June but of course not before we visited the Ghirardelli chocolate factory!!

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We drove on up to a place called Kawakawa where its famous for its toilets.. i have to say the nicest public ones we have come across!

we stopped at Paihia for a bit and caught up on some email and washing..before heading up to the tip of the north island cape Reinga and 90 mile beach. Our ezy cruisa wasnt allowed drive on the sand so we booked on a cool tour to take us all around the beach and dunes.

We booked into another motor camp Top 10 and it was class as it was right beside the beach so it was right and handy for them to come get us in the morning for the day tour. It also had an interesting way of pot planting too!

We all piled on this big beach buggy still bus and headed up the 90 mile beach it was class, the sea was a bit rough but we wanted a bit of wind as the next stop was sand surfing! We all got out and were given plastic toboggan things and away we went up these massive dunes, and told to simply keep your feet in and go for it! It was class although the climb to the top was a killer but you got some speed coming down!

and yes we had some fallers - Ger just before he crashed out!

We stayed here a good bit before heading on up to the tip and the lighthouse, it felt like a real achievment for us both as we had been from the southern tip of the south island and now we had arrived at cape reinga at the northern tip of the north island...it was a great way to round off our driving adventures round NZ.

We stopped just at a beach round from the lighthouse for lunch before we started the 2 hour drive back down the beach for sunset.

But we left our mark on one of the glass/silicon squeaky beaches we stopped at which was lovely..

We arrived back down at beach for sunset and it was great, it was practically god like looking at the sky!

Ger looking very cool on the beach!!

We were heading away the following morning to get back to Auckland to srop off the van - finally! but we stopped off at the Kauri Kingdom to see the worlds largest wooden staircase first! - pretty cool place with loads of class carvings, thankfully says ger none of them small enough to buy and bring with us!

It took us about 4 hours to drive to Dargaville about half way to Auckland so we stopped here for the night , but the drive down through the Kauri forest with huge tress was mad and we even managed to stop off for some sight seeing and rubgy playing!

We arrived into Auckland the next day at about 1 and said goodbye to our wee cruisa van... we had clocked up 4973km in it driving and it has been one of the highlights and achievements we have done so far - if you want to test a relationship that is the way forward! All good memories though.

So we booked into our hotel for the next 2 nights staying in Auckland and i have to say it was great to have space again and a proper bathroom! Auckland is a pretty cool place and teh skytower is class, i was going to jump off it but thought i would save the money and look for a sky dive somewhere as well as i am craving to that more..the views were class though and some building looked as though they had tv's on them..

Apart from chilling out, going to the sky tower the only other place we seen in Auckland was the kelly Tarlton's underwater world - great for kids so we gave it a go and i have to say the best thing about it is the snow mobile ride through the penguins ice home where you can get up close and personal with even the baby ones..

We left Auckland on wednesday the 27th June heading for San Francisco and the next stage! But NZ had been great from start to finish and hopefully we will get to go back to do the tongariro crossing some day!

Paihia - Cape Reinga, 90 mile beach - Auckland remains copyright of the author geranddebs, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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That night when we got back we were going to go the bar - the only one in town... but it shut at 7! can you believe it so we had to make do with cans in the van.. just as well though as we had to be up early at 730 the following morning for our caving adventure..
Up bright and early that morning and the weather was cold, damp and miserable and when our tour giude drove us out to a feild and told us to put on our swim suits and get into wet wellies, and wetsuits we were all having second thoughts!
Our tour guide was the spit for Tom Cruise but he was sound out and soon got us in the spirit of things especially when he got me to go first abseiling down 30m into the caves, and it wasnt the abseil that you do at the side of a building this one you are just hanging in mid air... i dont think he realised girls could shot or give off as much but all he did was laugh and take photos of us!
So one by one we all abseiled down into the caves - it was amazing and once you took that initial step off the cliff you were grand - well you had to be really!

We all got into the caves and the water down there was freezing but once you stayed in it long enough you couldnt feel it and everything went numb... Ger said he developed a second belly button for the first time in his life..haha!
Cruz the tour giude started us cave walking into the dark and then once the water got too deep we got into our tubes for some black water rafting - this was fab! You went down through the caves and over rocks and waterfalls and yes of course myself and Jess went on our ass'... At one stage all i could see were my 2 legs heading for my head in a backward tumble effect - well funny though!

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After the falls and stopping for some chocolate and hot juice we headed back via the glowcaves - millions of them that lit up the whole cave - it was amazing well worth the trip.

The journey back was through crevases, under rocks and more black water rafting and once we got back we each had to rock climb up the cliff face back to the top and once again funny man Cruz made me go first... it was just as well i didnt manicure my nails as it was tough getting back up especially in big water filled wellies!
We all made it back in one piece anyway and then had to strip off and got hot showers and soup which were very welcomed. Back at the camp we were definitely deserved a pint for our achievements - "self appreciation society" - Ger even treated himself to a spa lol
Next morning we all headed north - we were going to Whangarei for a night stop over just - well that was once we got the van towed out of the camp after Ger got us stuck in the mud reversing!!

Waitomo Caves - Whangarei remains copyright of the author geranddebs, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We started with the Rainbow Springs night walk around a man made centre place, but it was all done out in low lit fairy lights and small small streams everywhere with swans and loads of fish in them - quite a romantic setting really..
But they also had an indoor and an outdoor kiwi house and we were well excited as we hadnt seen any yet.

In the indoor one we seen one kiwi but it was sleeping and didnt move but they were bigger than we imagined and when we got to the outdoor enclosure there was one running around the place so we got to have a good look. they are very scared of humans and are really quite weird looking as their beaks are very long but they have no wings so they just look like they are going to fall straight on their faces!

The following day we decided to go to a place called Te Puia to watch the geysers - one in particular that shot up to 30 metres every hour, this was very cool and definitely worth the $35 in! It was huge and all around the enclosure were mud pools and fantastic rock formations and colours.

Around the geysers the ground is so hot its class and everyone is lying on it nice and toastie just waiting on the geyser to explode its hot water.. We got chatting to these chinese guys while waiting one of which said he would make me a princess if i went back to China with him!

After politely declining the offer we headed to the free maori concert in the same place. It was really great as they all dressed traditionally and brought us into the "charenui" - meeting place, and sang songs and then invited people up to join in for the finishing Haka...so yes Ger volunteered along with all the other boyfriends and husbands in the group..it was hilarious watching them trying to imitate the NZ all blacks but Ger seemed to fit in nicely!

We finished here and met up with Jess to head out for a full nights craic at a real maori village called Mitai, where they give you a traditional dinner caled the Hangi. Basically it was a sunday dinner cooked in an oven in the earth and it was absolutely gorgeous - lamb, chicken, roasties, corn, stuffing and even gravy!

After dinner the show started and they wanted a voulteer from our crowd of about 100 people to be the maori 'chief' for the night on stage, and yes once again Ger was volunteered - heehee...
It was hilarious as he was part of the act and they where showing him where and what to do and say - needless to say this was a once in a lifetime moment when i had to bow to him and refer to him as chief!! but it was well funny, raging though he didnt have his dubs jersey on at the time though!

In the morning we said goodbye to Jess and headed for Matamata - the LOR official location for the filming of Hobbiton ( ger was well excited)..
We got there in good time and booked on the tour for $50 each and they take you out on the bus to the farmers land that was used. It was a pretty cool layout but because all the farmers sheep still graze the hills, all the fronts and gates etc from the wee hobbitholes had to be removed as they were eating the props left behind! So unfortunately now its just whiteboards but it was still cool to walk around and in them and even more so for Ger!

We were going to stay in Matamata for the night but decided to head on to the Waitomo caves for our caving trip. We should have been there in about 2 hours but we thought we would take a shortcut - this didnt work and we ended up getting into waitomo camp 4 hours later!
Ah well we had a beer to laugh about it after!

Rotorua - Matamata remains copyright of the author geranddebs, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Instead we opted for the walks that were still ok but we were warned that we needed to be back by mid afternoon before the next big snowfall was due...
We managed to go trekking for about 2-3 hours to the Taranaki waterfalls at the base of the mountain, it was clear enough that morning and the scenery was spectacular and even though Ger is the big LOR fan the mt doom mountain looked very impressive!

From Tongariro we drove north to Lake taupo as we wanted to get back down the mountains before the snow came... so we left the Whakapapa village and headed back onto the thermal highway..
Taupo was a lovely stop, nice quaint shops all set around the huge lake - biggest in NZ..We stayed the night here and got to stock up on beer, check mail, and go shopping! NZ is famed for its wool; mohair, merino possum etc so i wasnt leaving without some samples!!
The following morning we made a big dent in the credit card before leaving but you would only be there once was my moto....

We headed north out of Taupo then and had a list of places we wanted to see on the way to Roturua. First stop was the Huka Falls - a massive amount of water that was so powerful, it was amazing to watch...

Just next to the falls was an area called "Craters of the moon". The so called craters were brilliant as they looked exactly like craters - the smell was horrendous though!
Basically you walked around this area (about 5 fields in size) and everywhere you looked there were these huge holes with steam rising out from them and they all made gurgling, hissing noises too....It looked like they were small volcanos about to erupt.. well cool!

We drove on towards Roturua stopping again at a Lava glass making company to watch and sample their stuff..

Just before we reached Roturua we stopped for lunch in the van just beside some very active mud pools!
these things stunk and in hindsight not the best place for eating lunch, but we could have stayed there all day watching them. The whole place was just boiling and bubbling away and all around us they would explode sending mud flying in all directions. The noises they made were class it was like one massive farting cushion - a smell i couldnt blame Ger for this time!!

Tongariro National Park - Taupo remains copyright of the author geranddebs, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I didnt think Ger would have went for the spa but we got there and ended up booking a private thermal pool and entry after to all the other 9 pools! It was cool but very weird as it was 9 degrees outside and freezing but 38 degrees in the water so when you got out you had icicles on your hair! well either that or myself and Ger are starting to show our age and our going grey!

But it was cool because you could stay in there for as long as you wanted, however i had forgotten to take off my jewellery so 2 hours later after coming out of the sulphur pools it had all turned black and tarnished...oops!

From here we travelled north via Nelson (and Burger king!) to Picton to get the ferry to the north island. The roads felt and looked like we were in Italy and Ger and I were both getting dizzy with the curvy winding roads....On the roads though it was cool because there really isnt much traffic in the south island, most of what is there are rental cars and vans.
The Ezy Cruisa folks like us are all over the place in their own wee vans and when you pass one on the road everyone is all smiles and waves at each other, it was as if we were all a big family and we had been let loose around the country to explore and when you get chatting to others its the same stories of routes, food and alcohol each time - well funny though!

We got across on the ferry no bother, its a 3hour crossing and we arrived in Wellington in good time in the morning. Immediately we noticed more traffic, cars and people. It was a nice place though and easy enough to drive around and get parking. We also had friendly neighbours in our camp that joined us for breakfast!!

We only spent 2 days here though as we were anxious to get further north and spend more time in Roturua/Tongariro and Waitomo. So the only things we did in Wellington was to go up the cable car and visit the Te Papa museum.

The cable car was grand but the views werent as good as we had expected, but the museum was class.. It was massive and had 5 floors with loads of interactive stuff to do!
On one of the floors was a murder mystery and you had to go around this centre looking for clues as to how and who killed the museum professor! it was well funny and we reckon we solved it by the end of the day...we felt like Poirot and Jessica Fletcher it was good craic!

On the top floor thay have a sculpture terrace as well with like random things showing, very different stuff but cool and in this sculpture it was supposed to reflect the greatness of NZ and the winnebago and the need to travel! Very apt we thought...

Hanmer Springs - Picton - Wellington remains copyright of the author geranddebs, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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