Today was our last full day in Santa Cruz and we both woke up suffering with our sunburn, plus I had the beginnings of a cold - we can feel your pity for us poor travellers! We found out on Facebook this morning about the birth of our new niece, Rosie Bailey - congratulations Lee and Claire! So Laura went off to find a phone, without much luck. Eventually we headed down to the Boardwalk again, this time to cath the Big Trees and Pacific train to see the giant r...

Today we managed to get up and out of the hostel before they threw everyone out at 11am and we headed down to the beach for the day. This is the first proper beach town we've been to and the beach doesn't disappoint, miles and miles of sand with all sorts of things going on, including a lot of beach volleyball...surely it's too hot for anything that strenuous? The day started off cloudy but the sun burnt it away by lunchtime and it got hotter as the day went on....

After a straightforward trip on the Greyhound (which was a relief after the last time we tried to use them!) we got off and couldn't find the bus the hostel told us to get from the station, so we found a map and set off walking. We eventually found the hostel after about twenty minutes, but we already knew we wouldn't be able to get in until 5pm. The place has some pretty strict rules on opening hours - all guests are locked out between 11am and 5pm and there's a...