Third to last flight on Interjet which was very similar to AeroMexico…loads of room, although we did have to pay for baggage which was a surprise.

San Francisco on first glance, reminds me of a cross between Auckland and Wellington but with fog, not wind.

The people are super friendly and polite with downtown (where we were staying in a hostel just next to Union Square) full of skyscrapers and colonial buildings. Restaurants and food markets abound everywhere along with mass consumerism jostling against the plethora of homeless people who the vast majority, seem to have severe mental health problems and / or are high. Wafts of marijuana mix in with the steam spewing from the street grates. Pure hedonism and a little scary at times.

The food we tried was a bit hit and miss and covered every imaginable cuisine, and as we expected costs were high.

We walked up and down the hilly streets through the chaos of Chinatown to reach pier 33 where we were doing the touristy thing of going to Alcatraz. I had to book it three months ago and chose the night tour as it was meant to be less busy and I thought would add a bit of ambiance.

The trip out on Alcatraz Cruises was slick and safety conscious with our guide providing some background on the infamous island. From its 19th-century founding (to hold Civil War deserters and Native American dissidents) to its closure by Bobby Kennedy in 1963, Alcatraz was America's most notorious jail. In 1922, when the 18th Amendment to the Constitution declared selling liquor a crime, rebellious Jazz Agers weren't prepared to give up their tipple - and gangsters kept the booze coming. Authorities were determined to make a public example of criminal ringleaders and in 1934 the Federal Bureau of Prisons took over Alcatraz as a prominent showcase for its crime-fighting efforts. The Rock averaged only 264 inmates, but its roster read like a list of America's Most Wanted. A-list criminals doing time on Alcatraz included Chicago crime boss Al 'Scarface' Capone, dapper kidnapper George 'Machine Gun' Kelly, hot-headed Harlem mafioso and sometime-poet 'Bumpy' Johnson and Morton Sobell, the military contractor found guilty of Soviet espionage along with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Although Alcatraz was considered escape-proof, in 1962 the Anglin brothers and Frank Morris stuffed their beds with dummies, floated away on a makeshift raft and were never seen again. Security and upkeep proved prohibitively expensive and finally the island prison was abandoned to the birds in 1963. Native Americans claimed sovereignty over the island in the '60s, noting that Alcatraz had long been used by the Ohlone people as a spiritual retreat. But federal authorities refused their proposal to turn Alcatraz into a Native American study centre. Then on the eve of Thanksgiving 1969, 79 Native American activists swam to the island and took it over. During the next 19 months, some 5,600 Native Americans would visit the occupied island. Public support eventually pressured President Richard Nixon in 1970 to restore Native territory and strengthen self-rule for Native nations. Each Thanksgiving Day since 1975, an 'Un-Thanksgiving' ceremony has been held at dawn on Alcatraz, with Native leaders and supporters showing their determination to reverse the course of colonial history. After the government regained control of the island, it became a national park and by 1973 it had already become a major tourist draw.

Along the 15-minute ride to the surprisingly small island we took photos of the San Francisco city landscape which on one side is the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and the other the newly opened San Mateo-Hayward Bridge which at first glance we thought was the famous one.

After docking, we proceeded up the steep climb to the Cell Block and took the 20-minute audio tour around the jail house in the waning light of the day. It was a fascinating tour with first hand accounts from former inmates and guards taking us through the various areas such as the quite creepy D Block of solitary confinement; where some men spent 10 years in the complete dark in a tiny cell. It was odd to think that some guards along with their families also lived on the island with San Francisco so tantalisingly close. Several talks were held afterwards including the recounting of a number of escape attempts, some possibly successful although the water is icy and the currents strong, so it is not known if anyone ever did make it to freedom.

We checked out Fisherman's Wharf on Pier 39. The focal point of Fisherman's Wharf isn't the waning fishing fleet but the carousel, carnival-like attractions, shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, maybe because it was winter (and it was a little chilly), everything closed down around 8pm so we didn't really get to explore the area too much, apart from having some pretty good seafood.

A morning was spent at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, (SFMOMA), showcasing a new collection of 1100 modern masterworks. SFMOMA was destined from its start in 1935 to defy convention, investing early in photography, installations, video and other then-experimental media. Once the collection moved into architect Mario Botta's light-filled brick box in 1995, SFMOMA showed its backside to New York and leaned full-tilt toward the western horizon, pushing the art world to embrace new media, new artists and new ideas. It was highly experimental, and at times felt a little too high brow and inaccessible.

We were lucky enough to catch up with a few of Josh's relatives living here. Lisi, Tukasi and Lini who Josh hasn't seen since he was 18 when he left Tonga. They picked us up and whisked us off to a viewing point after we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. It was great to be able to see the bridge close up.

After much catching up and laughter they then took us to a waterfront view restaurant in Sausalito for a seafood dinner. It was a great night and it was so nice to meet them ,and it was lovely to see them all catching up after so long.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave SF our last stop of our nearly 7-month adventure and head back to Aotearoa. We have mixed feelings about going home and are not quite sure what life will have in store for us. But it will be great to see everyone and come back to a balmy kiwi summer. It has been a surprise to me how cathartic writing this blog has been and due to my terrible memory for places and names such a good thing to do.

I have been asked which country is my favourite and I can honestly say I don't have one. Sure, some places stick out more than others, but for different reasons. One thing I do know is that no matter how many countries you visit and for how long it doesn't quench the lust to travel. Until next time...