Evening all!

We arrived in New Zealand at 4:45am this morning & lost a day on route from LA as they are 19 hours ahead here! So we are a bit bleary eyed!

Internet access is much better here so we can get more photos onto our blogs!

We spent our last 2 days in San Fran doing a trip to Alcatraz via ferry & an audio tour around the old cell block - which was really good - commentary was by ex guards & convicts & heard about 2 escape attempts - one successful the other not so much pretty mad what happened but the 3 that did escape may or may not still be alive today - nobody knows - spooky!

We had some time before our evening meal with the Contiki guys so we walked to Golden Gate Park, which was nice once we got past the strange characters at the font gate!

Had a meal at the sausage factory in the Castro area of San Fran which is the Gay area so the name of the restraunt was apt & which Gaz found highly amusing.

Early start the next morning as we set off for LA, via Santa Barbara, quiet beach town which is home to Neverland! - Beaches were nice & we took a walk down State street which is the main street. Ended up at Carpinteria where we stayed for our last night with the guys we met on the tour, so we all had a few cheeky ones to celebrate!

Next morning we set off early for Hollywood - which wasn't as glamorous as we thought it would be, but we checked out the Hollywood walk of fame, found our favourite's stars, walked through the Kodak theater where the Oscars are held & got some good views of the famous Hollywood sign. We stood outside Mann's Chinese Theater where stars like George Clooney, Arnie etc have left hand & footprints with messages in the pavement which was cool to see. Then we strolled down Sunset Boulevard - looked at the shops we dreamed of spending cash in & jumped back on the coach for our last stop.

Our Contiki tour ended at Venice beach, where Baywatch was filmed, so we walked most of the way up the beach & got our feet wet in the sea the Hoff & Pam had once patrolled, which was an honour!

Venice was closer to our hotel near the airport so we said goodbye to everyone we met at Contiki & grabbed a taxi for our one night stop over - which was pleasant but very noisy with planes flying out every 10 minutes - pesky things!

We've now had chance to check out Auckland, which was formed by loads of volcanic erruptions & is a pretty cool place - city living & a lot of nice scenery around it. We headed straight for the Sky Tower which is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere & took a glass bottomed lift to the top. The city looks amazing from up there, 360 panoramic views of the harbour & 48 volcanos can be seen.

We took a walk all around the wharfs & harbours & checked out the Harbour Bridge from pretty close up & then had a walk around some of the parks, Victoria, Albert & Auckland Domain, which were all really nice.

We are planning to take a ferry to one of the beaches tomorrow & go to Antarctic World, then we get picked up on the 29th to start our Stray trip of the islands - we can't wait!

Will post again soon

Take care

Love Gaz & Hannah xxx