hello- liz here! well we got on the road to hanmer after a relaxed morning in kaikoura. i took the wheel and lauren guided through the very complex road system they seem to have around here! NOT. very similar to the road up to kaikoura, just long and bendy with not a lot of traffic so nice and easy.. lauren took a piece of video which was funny and we had a fun time singing a long to some classics on the ipod and new zealand radio isnt really up to much! Arrive...

HI, Lauren here...... 1st things first our bags arrived on Sunday evening so thats all sorted now, and we were then ready to embark on our next part of the adventure our Jucy Crib Camper van... its actually more like a converted Toyota people carrier but its perfect for us seats in the back by day and a spacious double bed by night!! To give you a menal picture its bright green with purple and white graphics so we definatley stand out!!!! We collected it and th...

it all begins with a slightly strange man collecting us from the hostel in our shuttle bus who asked us which airline we were flying with. when we told him american airlines he laughed and said are you sure your flights not cancelled becuase they're having a lot of problems! we thought he was just trying to scare 2 innocent girls from england until we got there and out 16.10 scheduled flight to LA was in fact CANCELLED. great so got in the queue at the most un he...

Our last day in san francisco..... We had alcatraz booked so we headed back down to Fishermans wharf in the morning, quite oblivious to the fact that the Olympic torch was heading through San Francisco today! SF has a large chinese community and we were soon faced with anti-Tibet protestors begining to build up along the pavements... but this didnt effect our alcatraz tour, which was slighly eeri but intersting... was a nice day so we headed up to the bridge(sti...

HELO FROM SAN FRAN LAUREN HERE We are feeling much better today, after ariving like a pair of zombies.... Weve had a wicked day and been down to Fishermans warf, which is like the bay that Alcatraz is opposite, its was really blue and sunny but the wind was pretty chilly but still nice. To get around we are using the Trams, which are quite a trade mark for the city we are discovering. Oh we went to Pier 39 which was covered in Californian sealions, there was Loa...