Santa Barbara is what the Americans call an old colonial town(OCT). To me it's a strip of up market stores and a few buildings dating before 1900 . The old mission here did however almost redeem the marketing description of the place .Now an interlude to discuss further aspects of the American dreamEating is an event over here and if anyone has viewed man v food you'll know what I mean . The portions are horrendously large and 'her indoors' grand nachos starter w...

A long flight on a 737 ( hought they were only local but we arrived on time and intact to Hawaii Oahu at 6.00am with little sleep. In the US we have hired cars and the first was this morning. Now for those who know her indoors you will understand my trepidation but luckily we have a Garmin gps to help us Anyway a quick drive brought us to Waikiki home of the famous beach . It doesn't disappoint if your looking for a typical American beach , all Baywatch and P...

Simon:Before I get to Fiji a quick word on Auckland. There's very little to do unless you go to the Islands so we went to the museum and what a surprise, it was excellent with a very good summary of the Maori history including a dance that seemed to me to be a cross between strictly come dancing and a rugby match with the all blacks.To Fiji and on arrival it is evident to see this is a third world country. The airport is being rebuilt after last years cyclone and...

Simon: Missing me blog readers? Well New Zealand has many virtues but sometimes wifi is a little difficult to get or too just expensive.From Franz Josef we travelled via Lewis Pass to Kaikora on the west coast. Now on this long day of some 500 Kms, I know it does not sound very far but in a campervan believe you me it takes an age, we were running very short on fuel and with 100 km to go we had two options namely a main road or the alpine way. My not so trusty n...

Simon: Another new country awaits us after an excellent flight on Emirates who really know how to look after you . Arrival into NZ is a troublesome affair with customs taking an age and everybody's luggage being x ray'ed , luckily we were not selected for the full body search , yes some 30% of passengers were .After a night in the excellent Peppers resort near the Christchurch airport we went to collect our Mighty campervan. A word on campervans in NZ , they ar...