Hello everyone and thank you for tuning into Ollie and Shay's 'Great Escape'.

After years of dreaming and saving we still can't believe that the time has finally arrived. We are (finally) unemployed and about to embark on the trip of a lifetime. But first we have six weeks in Norway to spend Christmas with Ollie's family and New Years with friends. We will be making the most of this quiet time to brush up on our Spanish and get last minute items ticked off the list.... in between cold water surf sessions, of course!

THE road trip starts on the 16th Jan 2009 with the starting point being San Francisco. Our plan is to buy "La Casita Viajera" (little house that travels), which will be our transportation and home for the next seven months. Once set up with our ride, we will travel through California, detouring off track to visit Sin City, Grand Canyon and the nostalgic Route 66. Then its across the border into Baja California - bandido territory. We will cross the Sea of Cortez by ferry to mainland Mexico and continue our journey of surf and cerveza's even further south, eventually ending up in Panama.

Next stop on the Round-the-World ticket will be Samoa in the South Pacific, a good opportunity to recharge the batteries and get into island life before heading to New Zealand, where we will see in 2010 with Shay's family.

All things going well, we will be heading back to the northern hemisphere early 2010, with a short city break in Tokyo on the way back.

So with that, all that you need to do now is to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.....

ROADTRIP STATISTICS

• Miles Driven: America's-10'000 (16'093 km), NZ-4'971 (8'000 km)

• Countries Visited: 12

• Federale/Military Checkpoints: 39

• Flat Tyres: 2 (both in NZ)

• Truck Guests: 21 (Van Guests NZ: 6)

• Surf Sessions: 143 (North & Central America 114, Samoa 8, NZ 21)

• Cold Beers: lost count

• Pies Eaten: too many