20th October 2009 A lazy start on another morning with a cloudless blue sky. We popped into town to do some shopping, before heading back to the guesthouse for a sandwich lunch on the beach. After lunch, we went back to Fruits of Rarotonga and hired some snorkelling gear. We saw a few fish swimming round, but the water was a bit chilly, so we didn’t stay out for long, but came back and sat on the warm beach to dry off. ...
21st October 2009 We headed off to explore Avarua this morning to buy some postcards and stamps from the tiny post office. After a bit of a wander around town looking at some of the black pearls, we went back to the guesthouse to make some sandwiches with the free bread that we get every morning. The lady that lives here, Moka, works for a bakery so we get loads of fresh bread every morning. She keeps complaining we don’t eat enough of it! ...
28th October 2009 The weather was looking much better today so we decided to make the most of it and get up early and catch the first ferry across to Rangitoto Island. Rangitoto sits just off the Auckland coast and is a unique volcanic island with a fascinating landsacpe of rugged lava crops, native bush and sandy coves. These days there is no permanent population living on the island and it is a public nature reserve. ...
23rd October 2009 Another early start today, we were booked to take a tour with Taranga Tours so we had to be at the supermarket for 8.30ish. We arrived just as the landrover was pulling in with the other people on today’s tour, a family of 3 from New Zealand. Before we began the tour, our driver, Useless (honestly!) said a prayer in Cook Islands Maouri, then he talked to us about the umu that we would have on our return from the tour. ...
18th October 2009 Our last day in the States and we were determined to see the Hollywood sign before we left. We took the Mulholland Drive scenic road to a view point overlooking the Hollywood Bowl and downtown LA (rising out of the smog). Then we went to the Hollywood and Highland Shopping Centre which is another good place to see the sign and also includes the Kodak Theater and Mr Mann’s Chinese Theater, so we relented and parked up to wander along Hollywood Boulevard, where Claire found Anthony Hopkins (from Port Talbot!) and we popped into Mr Mann’s Chinese Theater to star spot the hands and signatures in concrete. ...
17th October 2009 We were only driving 20 miles south today to our final motel before flying out on Sunday, but we decided to take the scenic route. We headed back to our old friend the Pacific Coast Highway and drove through Malibu with its roadside beaches and beachfront homes. Then we saw a pier with a ferris wheel on it heralding our arrival in Santa Monica. We parked up for a few hours to wander along the pier thronged with people enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. There were also plenty of people on the beach and in the water. Before returning to the car, we walked along the promenade above the beach. ...
16th October 2009 Temperatures in the 90s and a cloudless blue sky - a perfect day for riding roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain. We started with X2, not really knowing what to expect. Wow! Intense! We seemed to have started with the most radical one, you start lying on your back with your feet in the air and gradually move to a sitting position as you climb up to the first drop, which you go over head first! Definitely really scary. ...
15th October 2009 The sun has reappeared and we’re finally having to use our sunglasses again. We headed down to the wharf at Pismo Beach and spent a pleasant half hour in the sun watching the surfers catching the big waves rolling into the shore. Then we re-joined highway 101 and headed south, making a detour across a lot of agricultural land to the Guardalupe Nipomo Dunes. These are the largest coastal dunes in the United States. Lots and lots of sand with pounding surf crashing onto the beach. We also saw these long billed, long legged birds, which we think were long billed curlews (after some Googling). ...
14th October 2009 A brighter morning today, and one of the first days recently where it has been warm enough to be out in just a t-shirt. Since we couldn’t explore Monterey Bay yesterday when we arrived, we headed down to the wharf this morning to at least get a look at where we were staying. On the one side of the wharf a lovely long stretch of sand and on the other a marina packed with boats. It seems like a really nice town. ...
12th October 2009 Twin Peaks was our first destination today having had recommendations from several people about the views over the city. We certainly weren’t disapointed, from here we were able to see the whole of San Francisco Bay from the Golden Gate right round to the Bay Bridge. After taking in the views we headed off to Golden Gate Park which was the first city park of its kind in the USA, much bigger than Central Park in New York. We made a few stops in the park which the 49 mile drive passes through. ...
13th October 2009 Watching the weather last night we were warned that the west coast was in for a soaking as a result of the tail end of tropical typhoon Melor which hit Japan a few weeks ago. We hadn’t quite appreciated how much rain and wind this meant we would get. When we opened the door this morning, this is what we saw!! ...
11th October 2009 An early (and cold) start to get to Pier 33 on Fisherman’s Wharf to catch our ferry to Alcatraz at 9am. We had planned to use the urban rail system (the BART) to get to downtown SF, but because it’s Sunday they don’t start running until 8am - rubbish! So we ended up driving all the way to SF. ...
10th September 2009 It’s Fleet Week in San Francisco. Somehow we’ve managed to be heading for San Francisco on an extremely busy weekend, so it’s up early to leave Santa Rosa and get to the city for a decent time. Fleet Week is a celebration of the armed forces in the USA and features the Navy, Army, Marines and Coast Guard, they have recruitment stands and navy ships alongside the piers and on Saturday and Sunday an airshow featuring the Blue Angels as the star act (the American version of the Red Arrows). ...
9th September 2009 The Sonoma and Napa valleys are great places to visit, very picturesque, and not unlike a browner version of home (their grass seems to be brown rather than green). With their many vineyards stretching for as far as the eye can see. However, aside from wine tasting and shopping in the small and very pretty towns in the area such as Sonoma, St Helena and Healdsburg, and the hot springs and spas available around Calistoga, we’ve found very little to do here apart from wine tasting. The area lives, breathes and sells wine. That’s fine, but unfortunately without staying in one of those pretty little towns (and everything is so far apart that even then), you do need a car to get around here. ...
8th October 2009 We were picked up at 10.30 by Jennifer from Terriffic Tours (clue’s in the name!) before heading off to pick up another couple Amy and Tony (hi guys!) from New York. That was our group for the day which was lovely, and the fact that we got on really well with Amy and Tony who are in town for a conference (my type of conference!), we chatted for most of the day (in between tastings of course!). ...
For our first day in Sonoma County, we wanted to go to the Ravenswood winery. Back at home, we are quite partial to a drop or two of the Ravenswood Zinfandel wine, which is produced here in California, so making that our first stop seemed to be the right thing to do. Ravenswood run tours every day at 10:30, so we arrived shortly after 10 and paid our $15 each for the tour. We were then given four different white wines and a rose to taste. Despite not drinking much white, there were a couple in amongst there that would go down very nicely on a summers day! ...
3rd & 4th October 2009 One final drive through the Ponderosa Pines, Cedar Pines and Sequoias of Yosemite before leaving the park through the north west exit and heading for Sacramento. We followed scenic highway 49 through many small towns set up during the gold rush including Sonora where we stopped for a lovely sandwich followed by a massive cinnamon bun (between us!). We headed off again, passing through a tiny settlement with just a camp site and garage and surprisingly flying the Welsh flag - of course we had to stop for a photo :). ...
October 5th & 6th The Lost Coast lies between the Kings mountain range and the Pacific coast and became ’lost’ when it was deemed too expensive for a highway to be built due to its steepness. They weren’t joking!! It should actually have been called the lost mountains since we spent a good hour and a half getting to the coast and then another hour and a half back to the highway. The views along the coast though were fantastic, but there is nothing else along it but cows. ...
2nd October 2009 A day for superlative views. This morning we headed out to Glacier Point which afforded us stupendous views of Yosemite Valley, putting us almost level with Half Dome, 3000 foot above the valley and about 7000 foot above sea level. We even managed to pick out some of the people who had hiked the 17 mile round trip to Half Dome. ...
1st October 2009 Today we decided to take two ranger led walks in Yosemite Valley. The rangers here have loads of information about the park and are really keen to pass it on, along with their passion for Yosemite. These walks are totally free of charge and a fantastic way to learn more about our surroundings. On leaving the car park, we encountered our first big wildlife (there are masses of squirels and chipmunks about), deer who were using the bushes in the carpark as a fine breakfast. ...