Simon's first set of dispatches: After an epic couple of days flying we realised that on top of losing the in-car charger we'd also managed to lose a day?!? I think this now makes me technically a day younger than everyone else who hasn't crossed the dateline so Leo and Claire Brittain watch out I'm gaining on you! Queenstown was gloriously hot and sunny. After we'd checked into the teenage mega-city that is the nomads hostel, we headed up the skyline gondola t...

So, those of you who spoke to me before I left will know that I was really excited to see lava on Hawaii. In fact, it's basically the whole reason we came. The whole falling-in-love-with-this-tropical-island-paradise thing has really just been a sideline. So - in lava hunting terms - yesterday was the big day... I don't want to build this up like that joke about the ping-pong ball with the black spot on it, so I'm just going to come out and say it. We didn't see...

After a short overnight in Waikiki, Si and I have ventured to Hawaii's Big Island and, to cut a long story short - I am in love. It's a tropical paradise, warm, pretty, and bursting at the seams with life. It also has some really, really cool things to do... On the Kona (west) side we stayed in a very colonial-feeling hotel called the Manago in the village of Captain Cook (aptly named because that's where the big CC finally got killed by locals). The Manago serv...

Time to leave San Fran.. We've had a really interesting time and ticked some big fat tourist boxes. The city itself is pretty and unusual as far as cities go. It's most unique freature is probably the cable trams, operated by levers that grab on to and let go of a cable that continuously runs underneath the road. They're very picturesque and - for a country that goes to great lengths to warn you that there may be "uneven surface" - pretty white-knucklingly excit...

The eagle has landed. Well, a couple of extraordinarily tired and slightly bewildered eagles anyway. And maybe we're more like mallards than eagles... But you get the idea! San Francisco is warm at a balmy 11 degrees. Si's already a bit concerned that he's over packed insulation-wise. Not seen much yet as we've just arrived at San Francisco International hostel (see photo of our dorm room for two). The slightly drunk girl on reception has told us that there is ...