Congratulations --you are the 10,000 viewer!!

Yup to bring in the new year the flickr web site (with the photos on) has just had its 10,000 view! wow we are popular buggers arent we! 

Talking of the new year, we will of course be celebrating new years at midday on the 31st in your time, so we will give you a heads up on how  2009 is shaping up, and try to pass on any advice we will have learnt from the future!

anyhoo just to prove im not talking out my arse..... the last column shows total views! and the above map shows where you all are coming from!

Merry Christmas to all

...and to all a merry christmas.

So its our first Pacific Christmas in the sunshine (and the sun is shinning though it rained all yesterday) and a whole new type of festivity. Mostly the festivity revolves around having a day off... but also all your lovely cards, prezzies and some classic Christmas chow. I am unsure as to whether either of us have eaten this much blue cheese, nuts or chocolate EVER. Luckily Adam bought me an exercise ball so there is still hope as to recovering from it all. We weren't entirely lazy today though, we walked up to the lookout point of Taupo (3 mins away) and contemplated life bvefore heading down for a swim in the lake. Well.... I swam in the lake while Adam declared that I was a nut. The water was beautiful, as blue as the Caribbean, as cool as Lake Champlain and as fresh as a cenote in Mexico! lol, its been a good year.

Blogging of late has been a little sparse its true though we've been having a wicked time in-between the hard slog that is the real world. Exploring the Huka Falls, bathing in the hot springs, seeing glow-worms for the first time and blah blah blah. Though the best thing recently by far was getting to see Adam's parents... heh! We LOVED getting to show you Taupo (toepaw! lol) and it was fantastic having a bit of an explore with you guys. Thank you soooooooooooo much. We finally got to see and learn a bit about Maori culture, and... my favourite, ... wine culture! Dude, we can now spot a good Riesling or a spicy Viognier in an instant. It was also really great to have a christmas corner in the house, with our stockings, presents and pine cones (not to mention a fully stocked fridge), So thanks again!

I hope you  guys all have a wonderful Christmas. By the time you read this it will probably be at least boxing day for us (which means back to work). We'll be thinking of you stuffing your faces with turkey, goose, chicken or ham and dreaming of yorkshire puddings.

Take care everyone, get fat.

Lord of the Rings!

When Mr Adam Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magni- ficence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton......

In our very own Lotr adventure we journeyed  to Mt Doom, a long and dangerous journey across middle earth(well 1hr 30 down state highway 1, but is was 5 am!) so that we could, like Frodo destroy the one true ring...or go for a walk in the snow. The approach from Taupo at around 6am, the sun casting a deep red glow across the mountains and mist we could almost believe we were in the movie....

 

ok well not quite... we were taking part in the tongariro crossing, one of the great walks of New zealand and said to be the best one day hike in the country and in the top ten of the world! The Hike is around 18.5km and took us about 6 hours, from the start in the volcanic slopes of the mountains to the snow capped plains nearer the summit the down past the geothermal pools and the golden grass medows and through the birch forest to the end. The walk was in no way as hard as half dome, but with us working full time (doing this on our day off) we really felt it (well at least i did!) Unfortunately as we reached the high point the clouds started to set in and so the promised view of coast to coast never materialized, however the views were still incredible! We did'nt climb up Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt doom) (due to the lack of climbing equipment and experience, but we did attempt to reach the summit of Mt Tongariro, however the mix of snow, ice and deadly drop made us stop half way (Tess would have gone on....) but hey, at least we got to play in some snow!

Here is the view from the base of Mt doom! Oh yer if you are looking at the photos on flickr tess is wearing shorts for most of the alpine walk... that there some hardy little legs!

The far side of the world

----------- CRAZY NEWS!!!!! - now i think this may be a error on the behalf of Flickr, but yesterday it is recording over 650 views of the site in under 12hrs (i dont really believe it) what the hell you guys doing?!-----------------

Hey all.

So i decided to fill you all in on whats  happening here in  New Zealand and what we have been up to since we left fiji also 3 weeks ago. After arriving at Auckland we grabbed a tent (tess once again showed her obbesive compulsive need to name everything, the tent is 'Milly') and a car ('oti') and we decided to hit the road exploring where we would like to base ourselves. Of course this is the simplified version, and without the help of David and Sue im sure we would still be wondering around car dealerships with no ideas what was happening! To keep this brief, our road trip took us up to the Coromandel penisular (at one campsite here i asked where the water was, and the guy pointed at the river like i was a moron 'what no tap?' i cried. Again the same look as he explained there was no need for a tap, as he had just pointed out, the river is just there!) then we went down the Mt monganui, played with a kite on the beach and did a short hike, then to Rotorua, the thermal hot springs and Kiwis breeding center. From here we went down to Napier, did some wine tasting and enjoyed the chilled out seaside town atmosphere before arriving here, in Taupo.

Now this is where the story gets even better. After sending out some CVs and waiting a bit we both now have jobs! both in cafes, Tess in 'Replete' and me in 'Taste'. With jobs under the belt the tent was put away and we have now found a nice little apartment 20min walk out of town overlooking the lake and moutains (which i totally forgot to mention, Taupo has the most amazing setting next to the largest lake in austrailisa with three snow covered moutains as a backdrop. The one mountain was Mt Doom in lord of the rings?!, which basically means we live next to a celebrity! Anyhoo just wanted to keep everyone up to date!

YAH

holy poop.....i may have got every photo from Trek america (and therefore the whole of america) on flickr!

wow

now best get started on fiji and new zealand......

you better all go look and leave amazing comments!

Fiji!

I feel bad for Fiji because it kinda got lost between trek and the anticipation of New Zealand. So I think that it should get its very own blog. It was actually really lovely. We were both taken aback by how much we liked it. We arrived early in the morning, just before dawn and got through customs in an instant. As our driver took us to our hotel, telling us a little about landmarks and Fijian culture the dawn broke over the mountains to reveal a stunning and dramatic landscape that neither of us expected. We never even looked into what Fiji would be like. It was always a sort of stepping stone between America and Australasia… the half way point of the whole trip really. The people of Fiji have been the kindest and most sincere that we have ever encountered. Everyone was friendly and interested in what we had to say and really willing to tell you about their traditional customs and belief. As we drove, the island came to life with sugar cane workers and ox drawn ploughs tending the fields. People hitch-hiking to work, goats crossing the road, horses grazing along under the coconut trees. Like nothing you could ever have expected.

Our hotel was great; all the staff had learnt our names within a day and always greeted you on your way to and fro. We had a sea view or the coral coast which was perfect for snorkelling. We saw loads of shoals of pretty coloured fish and some ominous looking sea worm things. They looked like under water snakes but were harmless. It was reallllllly warm too. Like a bath almost cause it was so shallow. All round it was a great place to recover from having lost a whole day on route from the USA. In fact we pretty much slept and cotched for 4 days. But we did break up the sleeping and eating with one day trip to a traditional Fijian village… by river canoe and bamboo raft of course!

So after an hour or so of canoeing we reached the village where they greeted us with a Kava ceremony. A drinking ritual of a root tea to welcome important visitors to the homestead. The whole village (minus the chief) were there to welcome us, dance, cook and show us their way of life. They unearthed our meal… literally and served us lunch. Then we saw the school kids who sang for us. To wear of the food we all danced with the ladies as the men played guitar and sang. Great fun! Our guide was really informative and generally lovely (as almost all Fijians seemed to be). We left and he took us further up river to some hidden waterfalls. The landscape was just like in the Jurrasic Park films… so I was happy. We had to hike to the big waterfall through the river which was kinda novel, then we got to swim at the base of it and play. Just like you imagine a South Pacific paradise to be.

All in all, it was incredible and I recommend that you all by-pass the Caribbean for your island dream trip and head straight to Micronesia.

Adams Note –
So as im sure you have noticed, we have been missing from your everyday lives for over 6 months now (please, no tears). How is it to travel for so long? Well, I hate all my clothes (mostly my ‘dyslexics untied’ due to the two types of morons who approach me when I wear it – first the wow what a brilliant idea, im dyslexic too! Were basically best friends! And the idiot who decides to tell me who long they were staring at my chest to work out the joke. Do I look like someone who wants a stranger talking to him?) plus they always smell, after 6 months BO is so ingrained into the fabric there is no getting it out., also none of it fits which brings me onto my next point, my weight has never yoyo-ed so much in all my life. One place I losing (mostly in liquid form from one orifice or the other) it so fast I can climb in and out my trousers without undoing the buttons, next its storing its self in huge great tyres across my waist (thank you USA), only to be walked off (thank you half dome). I dislike the reliance that I have on battery power, its not until you cant charge everything up in an instant you realise this, there is (and this is a fact) nothing more disappointing than your ipod running out of juice 7mins into a 10hr drive. I dislike The French , they are everywhere (like a bad rash) whats worse is you can normally tell that’s they are French before they open there mouth and insult you. Brilliant example, to write this blog in a wifi café we had to plug the laptop in, but a lovely young French couple had plugged their inerpopiatly large adapter into the center socket so noone else could plug in the sides ones. And then they had placed bags and assorted crap around the plug so there was no way of getting to it anyway. They could oviosly see that I wanted to plug this in, would they move? hellll no. (in the end tess went in all guns blazing and we are now plugged in, yah!)

So tess is looking at me in disappointed way, she thinks that I have ruined the perfectly pleasant post with my complaints so now for the things I do like.

The term European and how it can be applied to anything and make it posh, its not caburys dairy milk, its a rich European chocolate. Its not just pasta with tomatoe sauce, its European, italian pasta, its not a slutty mini skirt, its European fashion. Therefore I am not a dirty English man, im a stylish European traveler.

 I like the freedom of just getting in the car and driving, seeing new cultures and mocking them cos its just not like England (look at these silly fools,on the wrong side of the road!). I like the queen, and the fact she is still on the money here. (in fact i have become positivly patriotic), if anyone asks we we know/met etc the queen i reply, 'who? oh her britannic majesty? everyone knows her!' I like the fact you can tell an American you are 21^st in line to the throne and they will belive you and that by law you have to send her a birthday card on at least one of her b'days.

. I like the fact people look forward to going to London and seeing the white cliffs of dover (hehe poor buggers) Most of all I like all the people we have met, who have shown us uncommon friendship in times of need, helped us and truly gone out of their way to help make this one of the best experiences ever.

 As that last comment is a bit gay, the one thing I love the most more than anything else. My darling, my love  my Nikon D80 with her 50mm lens.

adam

Las Vegas and Los Angeles

Part 4... the end on the USA! Adam wrote this one... so it'll be long and probably include lots of B***ching:

From the peaceful settings of Zion nation park we headed 4hrs west, to the city of sin!. Now I have wanted to visit Vegas for ages, not because of a addiction to gambling, the love of alcohol or seeing way to much CSI but due to a discovery channel feature I watched about 5 years ago about all the little secrets (eg. I made a bet with Rohan that he would never see a clock on a gaming floor..) and the logistics of running a city in the desert (so if you didn’t already know that I’m quite sad, I think I just cleared it up for you). Anyhoo after we arrived we went for some Italian in a cool little restaurant, where you ordered portions for the table (so they were huge!), and the table came with its own effigy of the pope in the centre…. Then we were picked up by a ‘party bus’ which gave us a tour, took us to the Vegas sign and the light show in downtown (the road out side the golden nugget is now under the largest TV screen in the world, which shows a different music video every night (we had the pleasure of ‘we are the champions’ by Queen, At first pictures of the band and the union jack were shown, then as the song reached its climax, a US flag took over the screen as pictures of American doctors, police, fire crews and ‘free, strong and all American citizens’ flew round to cheers from the crowd. Then it was back to the strip for drinks.

The next morning we got up early to hit the strip, Tess had decided to go to every casino (not the crappy ones) and get a dollar chip, and in the really big ones spent a dollar on a random game (which for the most part was the wheel of fortune, no skill involved but relatively exciting). We started at the Luxor (shaped like a giant pyramid) and worked our way down the 3 miles to the Stratosphere. Now most the casinos were amazing (sorry Excalibur and treasure island, you were naff) but the 3 that take the price were the Belllagio, the Palazzo and the Venetian (the Mirage, New York New York, Planet Hollywood, Mgm Grand, Caesars Palace were also pretty amazing). We spent some time in the Bellagio and had lunch there, the place exuded wealth and class, now we went for a buffet lunch and expected for our $20 dollars not that much……it was amazing, the best meal we had in months. There was steak, sushi, soup amazing salads, fish, Chinese, Indian, tapas, hand made pizza, a carvery and the deserts…..ohhh the deserts.

Anyhoo, then off to the Venetian with its canals and gondolas, I knew about the one outside, but the canal, opera and shopping street on the 2nd floor….again just amazing, you cant believe that under all this there was a casino, and no leaks!. In the Venetian we made the most money (for a $1 bet we left with $50…..what high rollers we have become!!) It was also here that after losing $10 on Casino war, Rohan looked like he had just been kicked in the nuts, we watched the guy next to us play $500 and lose it in under 20secs, then play $1000 and double it. That’s the way to do it!.

In the Palazzo we went looking for a bar, and whilst asking for directions Tess got us $30 dollars worth of free drinks (you have never seen us look soooooo happy!!). The bar was incredible, dark, sleek and stylish (like in the movies) with us sitting in 4 week old unwashed camping gear… the wash basins had the water come from the ceiling down into large stone vases! And the free drinks again, wow. A sage mojito, and a white grape crushed something or other. Anyhoo after several casinos we reached the rides at the Stratosphere, we did the tall drop and the rotating arm over the strip, both gave wicked views of the strip. Then we headed back up to cool bits before heading back to bed.

Fright night

For the last day of the trek I insisted that we all went to fright night at universal studios, because it is possibly the coolest thing on earth. Now I believe that most people especially tess thought it wasn’t going to be that bad, I mean it doesn’t take to much to scare me. So when the chain saw wielding actor chased tess down the corridor and she attempted to literally climb into my skin and out the other side, without a care for Sophie who lay on the ground in a state of fear I knew that I had chosen a good way to end the trip!

Although all the haunted houses and rides (different to the orlando ones!, the mummy is totally different!!!) were amazing, my favourite moments came when after carefully checking the exit Tess and Amanda left the one haunted house to be chased by an actor scrapping a metal bin on the ground for about 100m. Then at the end all the actors gathered at the exit, as a siren went off at midnight they all stopped there chain saws and stood for pictures, we decided the night must be over. So we went for some pics, then about 2min later another siren went off and instantly amongst all the crowds of photo taking people they started their chainsaws and chased people. Seeing the look of terror in people eyes as they realised the zombie clown who they had just been having their photo with was now chasing them out the park was pure glee!

New Video

Hey all,
Greeting from Auckland !!!
just a quick one. Now many of you (ok none of you) have asked how you can see some of the best photos with some catchy music in under 4min from the trek America trip..... check it out (i love my mac)

Grand Canyon and Zion Nat Park

Part 3!!!!!

Grand Canyon was a really cool camp ground. We set the tents up in a little circle and had a private long-drop! Lucky us eh? This was our last night in our tent (Billy)… except we ended up sleeping out under the stars cause they were just so twinkly and beautiful. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. First off, on the way we made up some paper-bag masks so that we would be blindfolded from the view up until the last minute. Adam saw this as another opportunity to wear his creepy tranny mask whose eyes and mouth he covered with the electrical tape. Don’t worry, I’ve thrown it out now. As we piled out of the van the walk to the edge was really an exercise in trust as Monica led us in single-file past the confused public to a view point. It was really worth it though. I’ve never seen anything so incredibly vast. It was breath-taking. Well I thought so… then Adam exclaimed “well its not what I imagined”. He still to this day believes that tv ruined this moment for him. That sunset we watched over the Canyon before heading back to make dinner. Where team B (that’s us plus Rohan and Mark) kicked culinary butt with our shepherds pie, cauliflower cheese, green-beans, sweetcorn and peas. The fire that night was HUGE and toasty and we settled down to sleep under the stars to the sound of near-by Coyotes. We were up at the crack of dawn to see sunrise (much the same as sunset but in reverse) and do a hike down the canyon…then back up again. Check out the pics.

Zion

Our last night out camping, our last national park and our last hike was today at Zion. I’d never thought about seeing Zion so I didn’t know what to expect. Although the name should have given it away I think that everyone was completely unprepared for how incredible this place was. It was named by the Mormons who tried to settle there because of its intense natural beauty but they had to move out because of problems with river flooding. Anyhoo, it was made into a national park and I vote it up there next to Yellowstone… or pretty damn close. It has the deep red rock of “The Great Staircase” but has all this lush green vegetation aswell. Check out the photos, I just can’t do it justice. That night we didn’t bother with the tents and pretty much the whole group slept out under the stars. It was the best nights sleep I’d had, really warm in my sleeping bag but with a cool breeze on my face. It was the perfect way to end the last 4 or 5 weeks of camping. The hike that we did here was called Angels Landing. It was my favourite one of the whole trip because it was pretty short with amazing views at the top and a good bit of steep incline rock scrambling for excitement/adrenaline or whatever. This bit was sooo much fun, it was really narrow and some bright spark had to put the cables… when there was any… on the inside rather that the outside. This meant that at times we were scrambling along a 12” ledge with a drop half way down the mountain. Anyhoo, it only took about 4 hrs so we were done before the hottest part of the day and still pretty full of energy for the night in Vegas...

next installment coming soon!

Monument Valley and an early halloween

Heres part 2 of our catch up posts...:

Ok, so for all those who have seen Forrest Gump you may recollect the point where he decides to stop running and go home. On route to Monument valley we passed that very spot and played chicken with the passing traffic as we tried to get some pics of us in action. No casualties and some good group shots later we headed on to our first real cultural experience of the trek. We were really excited, cause we are sad like that… and we were gonna get to meet some Navajo Indians and stay the night in one the their traditional Hogons (mud homes that look a bit like an igloo, but orange and with a complex wooden structure thing inside). This was also the first time we were gonna get to stay in the heart of one of these incredible landscapes away from other campers and hikers.

The reserve was AMAZING, the whole world as far as you could see was deep reds and oranges… exaggerated by the fact that we arrived pretty much at sunset. We were picked up by Marvin… possibly the funniest guy we met on the whole trip… in his make-shift tour jeep on which we feared for our lives at every turn. I think that his true calling was to be a stunt driver cause that is the only reason I can imagine why he would hit the accelerator at every sharp corner or vertical drop. He took us around the valley, pointed out the shapes in the towering rocks and told us any myths or stories about them. As the sun went down he took us to some rock carvings that he had to illuminate with a torch. That only made it more atmospheric. Last thing before heading to the hogons, he took us to a cave with the shape of an eagle on the ceiling where we lay back whilst he sang us some native songs.

At the camp we were served a delicious meal and danced and sang around the fire before heading off to our sleeping bags in the hogon. Just before we turned into bed we did some star gazing and I saw the brightest shooting star EVER. Perfect. In the morning we were up before the sunrise and headed out to get some pics as the sun crept over the horizon. Despite the fact the Elmer (our Navajo informer) made no sense at all and managed to avoid answering any question with a structured sentence, I would recommend this trip to everyone! For those wondering where monument valley is… for oldies John Wayne films were set here… for middle-agers Back to the Future 3 (bit at the start with the Indians and cavalry) was here and if both of the above are before your time Will Smiths Wild Wild West film, Mission Impossible 2 (the bit at the start where he is rock climbing) and one of Metallica’s rock videos were all here as well.


Easterns Halloween,
Ok, so somewhere along the trip we had decided to have an early Halloween party, carve pumpkins, dress up and dance the night away. Don’t know how that happened… but as I’ve always wanted to celebrate a proper American Halloween I was pretty chuffed with the whole idea! After an on-route dip in the controversial Lake Powell, we made our way to a super Wal-Mart to put together some creepy consumes. Now Adam really took the word CREEPY and ran with it. In fact he ran with it sooo far that barely anyone would dare say a word to him later that night. Everyone else had dressed up as zombies, vampires, clowns, witches … the usual. Adam however being the creative little being that he is donned a skin-suit and a tranny mask. Then he covered himself in fake blood and carried a butchers knife around with him. I’ll say no more. We made some delicious punch and had an awesome night.

Seattle to Utah

Hey all, So while we were on trek america we wrote some blogs that never made it to the net... here is the first. Sorry for the lack of photos, the internet here is on Fiji time. Just keep checkin flickr, we'll put some more on when we get to New Zealand in 3 days!

p.s what did you all do on Monday the 6th? For us the day disappeared totally as we crossed the international date line... weird or what! We want to live our lost monday through you guys!

Over the last week we've gone from having freezing cold weather to really hot down here in the desert. We've also been some amazing places and done some wicked things!

So lets start from the top! Seattle was kinda fun, Adam REALLY liked it, it had a really creative atmosphere and the Pike Place market was wicked! It probably helped that some of his fav photographers are based there too. We got to see the original starbucks and got a well needed thermos which was to become our best buddy over the next few days as the weather got colder and colder.

The next day we were off to Montana to stay on a cowboy ranch and do some horse riding. It was a great place, check out the pics! we lodged in cowboy lean-tos made of canvas... complete with some muddy bear prints leaning up on the window. We rode in the evening as the sun was setting on a small loop around the ranch. got a bit of a trot in but nothing too dramatic. Adam looked a little ridiculous on his 3 yr old ... having said that he didn't want a pansy ass horse... he got the smallest of the bunch! tehe. In the evening the ranch over did a cook out of spare ribs and we played pool and checkers in the barn with the new members of the group.

Then it was off to yellowstone, possibly one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen. We spent 2 days hiking around, seeing amazing waterfalls, golden plains, bison, elk deer and the hot springs. On the evening of the first day we went up to boiling river (sounds cool or what!), where a river and a hot-spring meet, creating a hot section of the river, we spent an hour swimming around in the hot water, carefully avoiding all the cold currents!. Next day we were off to see 'ol faithfull', who as promised went up in all his glory. Whilst hiking around this area we were chatting on the trail when about 10foot away a large rock stood up..... well a dirty great bison got up (at this point the warning signs stating to stay at least 50ft away from bison as they would 'gore you' came to mind as we backed away slowly!) he gave us one quick snort then walked off down the path.

Camping in yellowstone was essentially hell. no kidding, there was a 70% threat of snow (thank god the 30% won out!) but it did get down to -5c. so everything froze, beer, pens toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo (didnt know that could happen).

From yellowstone off to jackson, a cowboy town where we went white-water rafting, which was amazing! it was just like in the movies! the best bit was when Tess got to sit at the front for one rapid and the biggest wave threw here right back into the boat (hehe). Whilst here we went to the Grand Teton nation park, and did a morning hike up around jenny lake, it was like a blue mirror reflecting the mountains and trees, again one of the most beautiful places we have vistited. Here camping was just as bad, we had to leave at 6am (up at 5) as we packed up the tents were frozen, which made it even more fun!

Now we are in Utah (a dry state!) at arches nation park. Its amazing here, again the places we go keep getting better and better. Last night we hiked up to watch the sun set over delicate arch, the sunset mixed with the reds of the sandstone was amazing, looked just like a wild west movie!

hope you like the photos!

cya all later

Speed blog

Hey, greetings from Seattle. We only have a few mins on the internet (spent most of the time puting photos up on flickr). In the last week we've been to San Fran (awesome) met an Alcatraz in-mate who signed our book and went on a sailing sunset cruise and a wine tasting!; we've been kayaking in the Redwood forest, Dune buggies in Florence, been painting in Paradise (Mt Rainier), Bathed in the Hot Springs of Olympic Nat Park and went to a rainforest (spent about 40hours in a van driving between all these places!).

Anyhoo hope you all love the photos on flickr... there'll be more on the way! oooohhhh, cause of all this camping we have had chipmonks play on the tents, raccoons try to steal our food and some dirty great bears patrolling the campsites! tehe.

No idea when we'll have access to the net again but keep checkin!

Miss you all.

Top of The Dome

Just a quick one. Here is a panorama from the top of the dome! see a bigger one on flickr... Enjoy!

trekkin' tales

hey people, 

well we are in the first few days of the trek, and so far after LA we traveled up to Santa Barbara which is just like in the O.C, then up the big Sur and route 1 to Marina before heading inland to Yosemite nation park and now we are in San fran preparing to leave for the redwood forests tomorrow phew.....

anyhoo i have loaded  a ton of photos up (so far i have taken over 600 in 4 days so think yourselves lucky that only 49 made it to flickr....)

We have lots of fun stories but the one we are proud of was at Yosemite, where we decided to go on a hike and climb up the half dome mountain..... google it.....its big!

We had the idea that we would go on the hike as far as we could then when it got too hard, we would take some photos and come back down... well after 11hours, 16 miles and a 5000ft elevation gain we reached the top...

we started off on the easy walk and reached the first waterfall, from the pictures you can see i still had my sense of humor and Tess was feeling good about the experience.

By the 2nd water fall (considered the medium hike), our spirits were failing, but the views of the mountains and the semi-cute animals kept us going (even thought this bit included a grueling climb up 600 steps well not really steps, just big stones that jutted out, ouch)

now the difference from the medium walk to the hard was noticeable, the path kinda disappeared from time to time and the incline got much greater till in the end we had to scramble up a granite surface to reach the top!..

well we thought we were at the top, as we came over the top this was the view that greeted us..

now you notice the small back dots on the left had side of that rock, yup they are crazy ass people climbing up the side of a 85 degree wall, using nothing but two guide ropes to support them. Now we arent stupid, and so we decided to be happy with the semi-top (which is just as cool) we got to after 5hrs, anyhoo, its not the winning the matters, its the taking part.

What a load of toss, what a naff blog story that we be for you guys. We saw those ropes and ( after a little hesitation) the adrenaline kicked in and up we went, a 120m climb up a granite surface with no safety rope just so we could share these photos with you guys! yes, YOU! we just cant stop giving!

on the photos the little black dots sitting on the end of the rock are us! 

all comments on how amazing we are will be appreciated.

Of course the only problem with going up is the coming down, another 4hrs down with knee destroying steps and tracks.... but hey we did get to see a bear (just before he was shot by a ranger...with a bean bag to scare him away, which was mighty cool!)

anyhoo just wanted to rave about how amazing we are!

adam x

ps tess is still tending her massive blisters ( will get photos cos they are gross)

Vermont and a run in with Gustave

Alright, I think that our regulars haven't been getting their blog fix this week, sorry! Its been a manic week... or rather a manic weekend and several days of stress recovery!

So we packed up (or rather threw all our stuff into the boot of a rented car) last Friday and headed north into rural New England. City living was fun and all but it was time to follow the trees and see some of the countryside. Basically, we had spent some time watching episodes of the Gilmore Girls and wanted to see small town living Vermont style. On the 4 hour drive up through New Hampshire: "Live Fee or Die"... yes their state slogan was such a shock that I missed the camera op, so you'll just have to believe me... we stopped off in the White Mountain National Forest for a walk, a wonder and a run in with some pretty persistent mosquitoes.




By the late evening we arrived in Cabot where we met Lydia and her Mum... the plan was to meet her in town, when we asked where in town she replied that we'd know that when we got there. Turns out town was only two shops so all was well. We had a perfect evening in Caleb and Mary's farm house where we picked and ate the best sweetcorn I have ever tasted, home-grown burgers and many local favorites like local ales, dips and of course Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Thank you for having us!

As we woke up the next morning we found out that Hurricane Gustave was heading towards New Orleans and that our flight for the following morning was canceled. With a lot of help from Lydia and Peggy (Brock's mum) we avoided too much financial pain... sort of. Honestly, both of you deserve medals thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much. So hurricane or no we had not been deterred from visiting Ben and Jerry's factory on Saturday. It was tasty and filled us with dreams of creating an empire of ice cream!




To de-stress Lyds took us to Brock's bar/restaurant called Splash, on the Lake Champlain water front of Burlington (which is also really pretty). It was really beautiful and the water didn't smell like lakes in England. It was clear, fresh and bordered by distant mountains. Vermont really was the most beautiful place we've seen in America. Anyhoo, that in mind we got drunk... and took photos... eeek.

Next day we took a dip in their private beach which was realllllly cold but definitely chilled me out. I say we of course by that I meant me and Lydia , the boys were too chicken. HA. Then we headed out to the mountains to get a good view of the landscape... truly breathtaking. You all should go see it.



In the evening we were lucky enough to get an invite to the family corn-roast... even after we has been such a pain with stress and phone calls, can you believe it! We headed out into the sticks to Lydia's grandmothers farm. This was such a cool night, we got driven on a chevy truck thing to a field where a fire was lit and a buffet of homemade grub was laid out on the back of a truck. Our gift the the group was a pack of jammy-dodgers and some hobnobs. I think they went down pretty well!



Having Brock as a chef/tour guide we got to experience over the next few days the best breakfast places in town (they were amazing, i have a new appreciation of breakfast and its many forms). Throughout the week we camped at North beach, an amazing site right next to the water with amazing views across to the mountains, and spent 2 days wondering up and around the lake and the town, eating in cafes, going to tea shops, shopping and watching Tv at Lydia's.

Now we are sitting in LA after a 7hr flight across country, tomorrow we start our 28 day Trekamerica, so for those Blog junkies out there, expect some delays!! but we cant wait, its going to be amazing!!!

New York, New York!

I'd say that this pic pretty much sums up our impressions of New York

So it was quite a commitment going to New York... cause it meant that to avoid spending LOTS of money we had to get a reallllllly early bus. We got up at 5am ergh! to get our cheap China town bus from town. We had spent days trying to give Greyhound our good money to get tickets that would have been twice as expensive but to no avail. So we spend half as much and got there quicker with the Fung Wha. Seriously recommend it. It was comfy and quick... our only issue was with the camp kid behind us who had an unusually loud, brain-piercing and head-ache giving voice. It takes me quite alot to be confrontational, but as I saw Adam creasing his little brow... ear plugs in and still unable to get this kid out of his head I had to say something. The only other issue was that at this time in the morning people were eating egg fried food at every angle. Now I can list several things that I wouldn't want to smell after only a few hours sleep... fried chicken is at the top of that list but ah well.

That is the Statue of Liberty on Adam's shoulder... lets hope she isn't luring him with her promises of freedom

We got to New York sometime before midday... I was still trying to avoid my watch at this point... and went to get the Statton Island ferry. A great way to see the Statue of Liberty it has to be said, especially cause it was FREE! It only took like 20mins each way and we got to see some great views of the city from the water as well as the Statue of Liberty of course! Sleep and caffeine deprived we went in search of Central Manhattan to find a Starbucks (it had to be done).

We looked for the Big Apple for ages but we didn't even see an unusually large one

We passed Ground Zero on the way which was sort of moving. Just to be in that place where such a horrible thing had happened... in real life. And the space was just so big! They really must have been Huge.

Our rather over-sized tourist map made sure we stood

out as practical and well planned people

Walking through central park was just like on tele and in the movies. People jogging, picnicking and reading under the trees. All very cool but we really didn't get a sense of the size of it until later, when we saw it from above. As yet we had not encountered one Starbucks. Which really went against everything we had heard about the coffee fueled citizens of the Big Apple. Walking down 5th Ave (where all the expensive and posh shops are) it was not until we hit the Rockefeller that we found one! Course afterwards we saw them all over the bloody place but thats Sods Law I guess. Adam took pride in ordering a very complicated coffee as fast as he could just to test the efficiency of the staff.

Recharged we went in search of Grand Central Station to get some lunch and watch people buzzing about being city-going Americans. Now i imagined the station to be a but like..well a train station, but as we entered the huge chandliers, arches and amazing painted ceiling (and lack of trains, as these are hidden behind some posh looking doors) made it seem like the entrance to an art gallery or museum. True to our word we grabbed 2 salads and sat watching the world fly by. Adam set up his camera on a slow shutter to try and capture the hussle and bussle of all these people moving around.

Us at the top of the Rockefeller in front of the Empire State

After food we headed to the Crylser building and the UN before walking back up to the Rockefeller center to go up the 70 floor to the top of the rock observation area. Part of the visit incluced a video (an advert for the center) and a photo made to look like the famous one of men sitting having their lunch on a girder 70 floors up. Now everyone else in the que sat nicely and smiled, me and Adam, knowing that we were not going to buy the photo decided to have a more eventful shot, i hung from the girder, whilst Adam stood on it trying to pull me up... tehe!

We tried to wait on the roof until the sun went down and the city got lit up, but after an hour and a half we were just too bored of waiting and decided to go for a cocktail (not that it wasn't an incredible view but there is only so many times you can walk to all 4 sides of the skyscraper.) We had a Manhattan in Manhattan and a Long Island ice tea just for good measure... felt like we were in Sex and the City. So which characters do you think we'd be? ooo, we'll put pics up on Flickr soon... after we have had some more sleep.

Adam rather enjoying the cherry in his Manhattan

Day trip to ....Plymouth!

As promised we headed off yesterday to see Plymouth, Plymouth rock, the Mayflower and the Plimoth plantation. I could go into the details of all the things we saw in excutiating detail .... however i hope a few small select stories should suffice....

Sooo we are at the Mayflower, and im reading about scurvy when a delightful family decides to join and parks their ass right in front of me (not that uncommon, its seems) now the small ( i use the term 'small' to describe age, not his pyhsical attributes) child starts asking his mother about scury and the british...' Oh all british have black teeth, cos they dont eat them vegtables, and they die cos the vegtables stop scurvy, thats why the english eat limes so we call them limies but they call them lemons'

wow... i would have grinned and beared it, but that may of scared them more!

I think we all can learn a bit about English culture from this - People eat your VEGTABLES thats whats killing our youth! I almost expect this family to get an BA flight to heathrow, and during the preflight saftey talk, just after ' to buckle your saftey belt (by the way, if you cant do that, you shouldnt be on a plane) 'Ladies and gentlemen in the event of scurvy limes will drop from the ceiling, please eat your lime before assisting those around you'
Just in case you have started to get worried....

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleid=332&sectionid=10


if you have any of the symptoms eat a lime, dont just do it for yourself, do it for me...

im sorry, this is why Tess does most the blogging (i hate people)

Next we get onto Plymouth rock. So for a game, which below do you think is the plymouth rock...






Yup its the 2nd one, behind dirty plastic, metal scafolding it really was just a rock, the only real way to see it was to scrabble down the side of the beach. We decided against doing this and so went to see some of the other interesting less famous rocks in the area (end photo) and had a game of rock, paper sisors.

Next we took the 1/2 hour bus (totally empty, just us the driver and his remixed versions of 8o classics played on the panpipes) to Plimoth plantation. I have to admit that it was quite fun here, a small indian camp, a english villiage and lots of role players. My only issues were that all the 'english' were this weird mix of accents, they had been told how to say certain words in a 'English way' such as Laaaandan, or toon instead of town, but everything else was in an american accent. Also i find role players a little scary, dont know why, but hey ho.

I promise to let tess start blogging again soon.....
adam

Random Boston Days

Over the past few days we have done a few things that weren't quite blog worthy but together they may just pass as a half decent Blog...
Sooo we went to the science museum to see the world largest Imax (tess had never been to one before) we went to see a movie about the Grand canyon- preparing ourselves for the real thing in a few weeks! anyhoo.. after pushing the thousands of kids away( or by using foul language so their parent moved them for us ....whats sad is that really happened...) we had a play on some of the toys (we spent about 5hrs there)

Later in the week we went to Harvard, which was very cool. We spent time wondering round and going into book stores. Whilst in the Harvard Bookstore, as tess looked at history book i found possibly the only 'pub humour, dirty joke book' in there and so spent much of my time giggling away in a corner. I admit Harvard is nice, but Nottingham, i believe is nicer....we have a Lake for example.... and errr.....lots of concrete buildings!

Then we headed off down the Freedom trail....basically a trip that reminds everyone how America won its independence and how they beat the British etc etc (yawn). Most the time it sounds like the script from Star Wars (The big evil tea swigging empire trying to take the universe whilst the republic saves the day and destroys the death star) anyhoo we got near the end and wound up at USS constitution, which was very cool (even though the HMS Victory is older and has a better name, and won battles by not cheating) there were loads of Navy folk hanging out all over the path which just made we giggle lots ... lots of seamen all over the place covering the freedom trail etc etc

anyhoo tomorrow we are off the Plymouth rock, which i am assured is just a rock (not even the first place they landed, that would be Provincetown in Cape Cod) but should be Fun......

cya later Adam

Salem

So a few days back we got up nice n early and trudged down to the port to catch a boat to Salem, a nearby historic town which is most famous for its witch trials and then hangings in 1692. This was our first boat trip so we took LOADS of pics on the boat trip looking back over the sunny cityscape of Boston... Don't know if you'll find these at all interesting but just in case ...

After the usual social dance with the locals on the boat ("oh you're from England! These people are from England too!") we sat back and enjoyed the stunning views of the New England coast. The sea front houses were idyllic, of the typical American style but with views of the ocean and set against little tufts of woodland. Most of them also had steps going down the cliff to their HUGE private yaughts... *sigh*. On arriving we wondered down a huge painted red line that conveniently took us to, and on a tour of the town. I swear I have never seen anything so many bizarre exhibits that claim to be 'museums' in one place. Every corner we took there was another Ghost museum, Witch wax works, Horror museum, Witch village, Witch life museum. It wouldn't be sooo bad had they not had big, tacky, Halloween-costume style window decorations that made them look really tacky and kitsch. We decided to go to 'the most visited museum in Salem', the Witch museum in hope that we might get a proper idea of the history of the town trials etc etc.

The give away should have been the big ugly hag statue and the painted witches on broomsticks out the front of the building but we were trying to keep an open mind! We were led into a large auditorium where we sat in the dark for about 15minutes before the presentation finally kicked in... honestly we had begun to believe that the 'horror' of the story would be being stuck in a room with about 50 motionless, silent strangers with no air con.... but that turned out just to be part of it!

The presentation told the story of the trials... sort of... it seemed to add some weird comments and conclusions as to why the whole thing started... like the repression of young women (ok maybe...) then the idea of the devil as a black person causing these girls to go insane (what?). Then, to conclude, they tried to justify the whole thing by saying "19 people were killed in the village its ok, cause we weren't as bad as Europe... they killed more". Also they mentioned that it was a good thing in some way because it reminded Americans to be tolerant and in that way better than Europeans... (hmmm can you say Mc Carthy witch hunts?). Just as we raised our eyebrows the final concluding statement told us to "Ask Europe who the devil is and who's side he was on". You can understand why this caused offense to the few Europeans in the room who stared at each other in utter confusion and disbelief. We left with the cliche pagan anatromical midwife started talking about being a 'strong women'.

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After a wonder around the town taking pics of the old houses and gravestones we headed to the Peabody museum to see the Maori tattoo expedition which was very cool. Then we had a really delicious and HUGE dinner in a harbour front pub. I tried the local delicacy of clam chowder which was really very tasty. I thought I was very brave!

On the way home we did get a little scared as at the habor we were the only two people waiting for the last ferry home.... so when the 400 person capicty ferry arrived it was quite fun to go to the very front and play lots in the cold wind ( a much more sexy version of Titanic i think you will agree!) we also tried our hardest to get some pics of the city at night without a tripod. Still pretty but next time we will go more prepared!

Call me Ishmael...or Adam.....The story of Adam Dick

So for my Birthday i decided we were going to go Whale watching, Tess had been reading Moby dick and the timing seemed perfect. The only problem was dragging our sorry butts out of bed at the crack of dawn so we could get to the boat!
I have to admit that i was expecting to see one whale several miles off for a second and that be it...and thats how it started


.....then they just seemed to appear around the boat, the marine biologist started by saying 'now look to the left and you will see ...' to then 'Wow! just look anywhere off the boat and you will see something!'


They managed from people photos on the journey back to identify over 20 different individuals! We saw several mothers and calf's humpbacks and lots of feeding!.




The feeding basically involves swimming round under water blowing bubbles so the fish get confused and trapped in the middle of the circle, then the whales come up in the middle with their mouths wide open.




The sea birds fly round looking for an easy meal and often sat on the whales whilst they swam round! Then one woman shouting something about 'Believing' and grabbing an oar jumped off the ship and danced on the nose of one whale whilst the rest of us chanted 'SHAMU, SHAMU'




Ummm......
The three hours flew past then we headed back into town for some food shopping and a movie. A good day allround! Anyhoo the pics dont really do it any justice, kinda just look like wet rocks!, but it was truly amazing!

The JFK Museum

Sooo yesterday we headed off out of Boston (well just south) to the JFK museum to see what it was all about... i shall not bore you with the details of the exhibits that we saw... instead we have some pics of the architecture which was really cool! (Few more on Flickr!)




Ps. Todays favorite moment came whilst on the 'T', with my map out a friendly local came over to see if i needed help. 'nope im fine' i replied....a look of amazement appeared over this face....'Your English...my brother visited England once...Hey mike come over here, there from England!' i saw the look on tessa's face, she was turning away trying to avoid the fast approaching awkward conversation.... HA! like a lightning bolt it hit me, the perfect way to end this ...' You know tess is from London' i said it quickly waiting for the inevitable response 'HEY!, i went to London do you know the.......' i turned with my map and chuckled, the best thing about coming from the Midlands is no one ever goes there.....

Boston, week one.

So I'm sure you all know by now that we arrived safe and sound in Boston. After a mild panic attack on the first couple of days... which we wont talk about... we settled into our place here for the month. We have been finding it hard to blog about Boston because we have been so darn busy exploring! We have yet to take the camera out into town I am afraid but we have got some pics from the highlights of the week.

There are all sorts of free money saving activities that we have been taking FULL advantage of. Our favorite so far came about from the rivalry between two local Boston beer companies Sam Adams and Harpoon. So we thought it was only fair that us beer drinking Brits go and show them what it is all about.


We had a nice early start so as to fit in the optimum about of beer tasting. Off we ventured on the T (Boston underground) to the far end of town in search of the fabled Samuel Adams. Arriving at our stop we made a point of looking gormless until a very nice assistant gave us directions. By the time we got there it was only about 9.45am... this was gonna have to be bloody good beer to settle on our stomaches so early. We got two tasters on arrival, a blackberry and a coffee one.


My God were they delicious, more than made up for the association of Sam Adams with the Boston tea party. The tasting continued through the tour and into the official tasting room. I have to say that there wasn't one that I disliked and to top it off I won a posh beer tasting glass for guessing the secret ingredient in their most expensive brew was (c: not bad for a mornings work eh!


After a hearty and delicious meal at a local pub with sweet potato fries and freshly battered onion rings we headed off to the docks to compare Harpoon. The brewery here tried a different approach to a beer tour, less of a tour more a open bar with free samples of all there beers. While drinking you would get a brief history of each drink and how it was made. Seeing from our ID's that we were British, the tour guide/barman immediatly assumed that we would allready know about different types of European Beer and so would regularly redirect questions to us (Are German beers fruity?, whats your option of French strawberry beer...etc etc) and at several points during the 'session ale' taste asked about how we would drink this at every meal and what an Englishman would consider a good alcoholic content for such an Ale...


Anyhoo maybe it was the 2 free tasting glasses, or the fact Tess won a prize, but we preferred Sam Adams, sorry harpoon.....

Ps .. my favorite moment came when a southern man , who proclaimed himself to be a true beer drinking American asked the tour guide at Sam Adams why they were effeminate beer by adding fruit and 'delicate girly' tastes. All he wanted was a real American Bud!. He looked proudly at his son, as if he had just beaten some sense into all these 'beer homos'. The tour guide sighed and asked us in the calmest manor ' i hear in Europe Bud is seen as an effeminate drink compared to Ales such as Sam Adams? Oh yes! Tess replied, something you would give to children..