Hi All

Bit of a gap between blogs as internet is tough to come accross!

Flew over the Grand Canyon in the tiniest plane we've ever seen from Vegas - it was that bad the Exit sign had been biro'd onto the inside of the pilot's door! But it got us there & back in one piece & the trip was awesome - photos of the Canyon don't do it justice. We walked the Sky walk & it sends you pretty dizzy looking down through the clear glass!

Lunched at the Bellagio & saw fountain shows twice, followed by show outside Treasure Island at night which was impressive - 2 ships blowing the crap out of eachother & explosions right outside the hotel!

Went in most of the other big casinos including the Palazzo, the Venetian & saw the lions at MGM & the Flamingos & gardens at the Flamingo Hotel

Left Las Vegas & joined the Contiki tour bus with a load of different people our age on board & all are really nice. Most of the first day was taken up by the longest driving stretch of the tour, North to Yosemite Park.

Yosemite was amazing, as big as Rhode Island & we had around 6 hours to explore it, we saw lower Yosemite falls, hiked up to Vernal falls which was gorgeous - large waterfall with pool & rainbow at the bottom, so we had lunch there! We made a start on climbing Upper Yosemite falls but we only had 2 hours before the coach left & it takes 3 hours to get to the top! Early night for early start next morning.

We met the coach early the next day to carry on to San Francisco, stopped at Fisherman's Wharf for lunch - fish is pretty much it! so we had shrimp sarnies! The coach took us over the Golden Gate Bridge, through China town, Haight Street where all the hippies once were! past Golden Gate Park & the Italian district.

We grabbed a quick shower & set off for our sunset cruise round Alcatraz & under the Golden Gate Bridge, unfortunatley for the first time on our trip there wasn't much sun to see set! But it was cool to go closely round Alcatraz & right under the Golden Gate Bridge & see San Francisco at night on the way back.

This morning, 20th Sept we took a tour around the San Francisco Giants Baseball ground which was impressive, it is right on the edge of the harbour & sometimes the players score a 'Splash hit' which is when they smash a home run out into the sea! 47 of these hits have been recorded, 35 by a guy called Willy Mays - who is a legend there! Unfortunately the team is about as good as the Blues - so Gaz has decided to support the Giants from now on! Loser!

We now have 2 free days to check out the rest of San Fran before we fly into Auckland, so we'll send another blog after that.

Hope everybody is well, take care

Love Gaz & Hannah xxx