Wednesday 11 August 2010: Start of Contiki Shortly after we left Las Vegas, Nevada we passed through a security check point into the sunshine state, California!! While road tripping we passed a town called Baker. Baker has the world's largest thermometer. It read 87 degrees Fahrenheit, about 31 degrees Celsius as we passed. Just after Baker, California we passed along the edge of Death Valley. The name suggests it all, pure sand dune desert. We stopped for...

Tuesday 10 August 2010:We were hoping to do the Canyon on Monday but unfortunately the tour we booked was full and we had to reschedule for today. We had to be up at 5am for a bus pickup at 6am. No surprise I slept on the bus!Americans really love their queues. Once again we had to go through a number of processes before we could actually hit the road to Grand Canyon. The bus that picked us up dropped us off at tour headquarters where we queued to listen to the w...

Monday 9 August 2010:Las Vegas is overwhelming, exciting, intense, insane, colourful, absurd, over-the-top,........the list goes on!! Oh and hot, very very hot!There is something for everyone in this desert city. Excaliber hotel and casino has a massive roller coaster, Mandalay Bay hotel and casino has an aquarium, and MGM Grand has a lion enclosure in the middle. The Bellagio has a gigantic fountain outside that puts on a show every 15 minutes to the rhythm of c...

The good news is that BC received some rain. Bad news is that it was still raining when we left so we never really got to see the Mountains in their full glory. We still had an amazing time though exploring the beautiful city! Saturday 7 August 2010: Vancouver is a city of bridges. Massive bridges connecting central Vancouver with it's surrounds. We drove over the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge to get to North Vancouver and the Capilano Suspension Bridge. The Ca...

Big HI from friendly Vancouver! Where you can get drive-thru coffee and Reeses peanut-butter confectionary on every corner! So first things first. We manage to arrive safely in BC no thanks to New Zealand weather. Due to horrible rain and low cloud in Wellington I was unable to fly down and meet my sis for lunch and I couldn't join Steph for the start of the big trip. But never mind!! Instead I had a lovely lunch with my parents before boarding the plane for ...