Hey everyone, sorry its been so long but our trip's been pretty hectic recently! We spent about a week in New Zealand's North Island, visiting Wellington, Napier, Rotarua, Mt Mauganui and Auckland. It was a lot of fun but a little frustrating that we were missing so much out! There's so much more to see there that we just couldn't fit in. On 12th May we flew from Auckland to San Francisco to meet our uni housemate Lara and she has been showing us the sights of California since then! We went camping in Yosemite National Park which was fantastic - the snow on the mountains there was just melting so all the waterfalls were massive, we hiked about half way up Yosemite falls where we got an amazing view and also got pretty soaked! From Yosemite we travelled upto Lake Tahoe and stayed there a couple of nights. We spent our time lazing on the beach by the lake and we drove upto the casinos on the Nevada State Line for the evening which was pretty fun. We finished our road trip with a drive through the wine country and five glasses of free champagne from the Mumm winery! On Saturday night Lara and her friends took us out in San Francisco which was a great night out. Lara is back at work now so Kath and I have been left to our own devices a bit, so yesterday we went into the city and did all the touristy things! We went to Alcatraz, Pier 39, Fishermans Wharf, rode the cable cars and did lots of shopping!! We've had a fantastic time in California and its been great to see Lara. Tomorrow we leave for New York which will be our last stop! Can't believe we leave for London a week today!! Can't wait to see everyone, lots of love, Helen and Kath xxx