A short drive south from LA landed us in San Diego, home of Sea World!! We only had a short time here so we picked a nice hostel in the middle of the historic Gas Lamp District. Our first afternoon was spent relaxing and people watching (unfortuntely the weather had turned on us and it rained a little). But after the hectic life in LA it was nice to slow down a bit! In the evening we walked around the Gas Lamp District and enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere. The be...

After 10 hours driving we finally arrived in LA only to find that our hostel had no parking facilities, and so we set off in search of some! Eventually, with the help of a friendly car park attendant (a crazy crazy man!) we managed to find a 24 hour carpark where we could leave the car for the 4 days we would be in LA. For our first day in LA we decided to spend it taking in all the obvious tourist sights the city had to offer! Our hostel had a fantastic locatio...

Road Trip: Highway 1 - San Francisco to Los Angeles After a four day break from driving I had to quickly get used to driving (yet again!). Having successfully managed to navigate our way out of San Francisco's one-way streets and hills we continued onto Highway 101. Once we made it out of the city we joined the famous Highway 1, enjoying the amazing coastal scenary and hill-side driving (Dad you'd be proud!!) of Santa Cruz, Monterey and Monterey Bay. From here w...

Our flight over to America was the longest one yet (12 hours) and so when we arrived we were slightly confused! This was because when we had left New Zealand it had been 7.30pm on the 6th of march and upon arriving in America we found it to be 10.30am on the 6th of march!! And so began the longest day of our lives..!! First stop though, was Budget Car Rental, where we had reserved a 'compact' ford focus. However, as we soon found out, everything in America is big...

Driving up to the Bay of Islands was quite spectacular except for the torrential rain! Luckily though, five minutes before we arrived the sun broke through the clouds for the first time! Once we'd checked in to the hostel we walked around the very small town of Paihia which was beautiful and nice and quiet. After shopping for food we headed back to cook Tacos (a nice change from rice and pasta!!) and then had an evening stroll along the beach. The next day we he...