Predictably, I woke up (after several false starts) feeling pretty terrible on the morning of 19th April 2011, as I'd just spent the night in the thin sleeping bag in a car, and I had an imaginary imp drilling both my ears for company. I drove to the lookout for the peninsula I'd be climbing soon, and I checked out that view as well as Phallic Rock. Obviously a rock that needs no real introduction, Phallic Rock is a rock shaped like a penis. And who says I don't ...

I'd kind of already planned this, but it still comes as a surprise to me when I find myself in a sleeping bag in the driver's seat of a car on the side of a random highway on the remote island of Molokai. I'd arrived here with no accommodation booked, and that's precisely what I got. Why was I expecting more? Well... I started the day off with a fair bit of pain in my ears, most likely due to a bit of free diving that I did while snorkelling yesterday. Not sure ...

So to recap, my 46-hour day eventually ended with Pat and Kim taking me out to Thai Chef with the lovely waitress Rose (who gives as good as she gets) and I crashed out at around 11pm, still on the 12th. I was hoping when I woke up the date would have changed. Not only did the date change, but I missed the entire AM of the day when I finally woke at 12:30pm. Over 13 hours of sleep! I know I told Pat and Kim I wasn't really a morning person, but still... After lu...

I just deleted a huge blog that I made of this day, and that annoys me. I'll try to replicate the same amount of sarcasm and wit that was in the last one, but this time it'll be structured and just, well, better. It will however lose some of the spontaneity and detail of that beautifully written former piece. Ah the humanity. "Low tide, mid tide, tsunami?" was the question I was faced with on my stopover in Nadi, Fiji as I sat drinking kava with the "Kavaholics"...

Another long day! After the nightmare of finding our hostel last night we were treated to a nice early 7am start as Charna drove us to Tane Mahuta or the "God of the Forest" - the largest known living kauri tree. These things are so massive that Maoris used to carve entire wakas (boats) out of their tree trunks. This one stands at 17.68m and its trunk measures 13.77m around. We then walked to Te Matua Ngahere - the Father of the Forest - whose "trunk girth" is a ...