Hi, Next stop after Venice Beach was the tropical island of Oahu in Hawaii. First impressions sadly weren't as we expected. The weather was miserable and there were no Hawaiin girls doing the Hoola! I also got stopped for the 100th time to have a " special search ", the rubber glove jokes are now wearing thin! Our hotel was great - 49th floor overlooking Honalulu which was amazing. Our first full day was spent at Pearl Harbour which was very interesting and dignified. My second day was spent fishing, which has to have a mention!!!!!!!! We then moved up to the North Shore staying at a place called the Surf House, I think Surf Shed would have been a better name but it was dry and had a bed none the less. Not a lot to do here unless you are bit of a surf dude!! We did manage to watch a Pro Surf competition which was good, for about ten minutes. The waves were too small and the surfers too far from the beach for it to get too exciting! We then headed back south to Waikiki which was very touristy. We did have a great night playing pool and drinking beer with a load of American Navy Engineers who got comprehensively beaten by Claire and me! Despite being called a crafty butcher by a flight attendant for drinking Toohey's on the way to NZ, it didn't mar our arrival. We were picked up in Auckland and soon packed in our campervan on our way to the Bay of Islands. The 5 hour drive was well worth it as the scenery and weather was fantastic! We then drove south to Whakarewarewa to experience a Mauri village and live Hake and take a half hour dip in some thermal pools. After an expensive ferry journey to the South Island we made it to the Franz Josef glacier for a half day hike and believe it or not Claire did not stack it once! Pretty breathtaking experience (the glacier). After climbing the Temple Basin mountain track in Arthur's Pass National Park and hiking glaciers we were prepared to take our extreme sports a bit further. I did a bungy jump at the Kawauri bridge, the very first bungy site. Then the next day we both did a 12,000ft skydive over Queenstown which was literally breathtaking and the highlight of New Zealand. I also managed to catch a trout for dinner earlier that morning! Dunedin was our next stop. Here Claire insisted we do the Speights Brewery tour so I reluctantly agreed. It turned out to be really good! The Taeri Gorge scenic railway was a little less exciting, despite being called one of the best in the world by Lonely Planet. We then sadly had to head back to Auckland to drop the van back and catch our plane to Sydders. We did stop off on the way to visit the glow-worm caves at Waitomo which were very impressive. We enjoyed our last night in Auckland at a restaurant overlooking the harbour where the America's Cup yachts dock. All in all, a great trip! Spice.