Galapagos or Bust

After our amazing time in New York we headed for our very early morning flight to Quito in Ecuador. On our taxi ride there we tried to put any nerves we might have about our next journey aside, however once we arrived at the airport we found out that our flight had been cancelled due to a plane crash in Quito - needless to say this did not help our nerves much! We stood at the check in desk smiling as sweetly as possible hoping we would be able to get on a flight within the next few days. After about half an hour the lovely lady behind the desk found us a flight the next morning leaving from Miami. We jumped on the next flight and before we knew it we were sunning ourselves at quite possibly the seediest hotel Miami airport had to offer. Whilst checking out the following morning at 4am a gentleman was checking in with a bottle of JD's and what can only be discribed as some filth to keep him company.

We arrived in Quito safely, checked into our hostel and then ventured out to order some lunch. Using our minimal Spanish we managed to order a soap sandwich, as our Spanish teacher later informed us.

Over the next 5 days we visited both the fake and real equator. The fake being what the French discovered over 200 years ago and the real one which has recently been found using GPS. The real one is much more fun and we did experiments on the equator line such as balancing an egg on a nail and seeing which way the water spiralled down the plug.

We woke early one morning and started a climb up Guagua Pichincha which is a dormant volcano at 4,871 metres. Our day started well with our 4 wheel drive getting a flat tyre, or so we were told! We were then put in a taxi van which got stuck in the mud so we ended up walking twice as far, suddenly we wondered why we had eaten so many pastries in France. It was an amazing walk, but very slow. Apparently it is a good way to acclimatise yourself. The view is also apparently spectactular but as is usual for us when we finally reached the top after 4 hours we couldn´t see anything.

We jumped on a bus to Otavalo market, which is a traditional market where local people still dress traditionally and sell their colourful arts and crafts. Since we had such a chilled out day we decided that it was only right to sample the local nightlife in Quito with people from our hostel.

Slightly hungover we decided to visit Quito´s male prison with some friends - what else would you do after a few hours sleep! We wrongly obtained the name of a foreigner staying there but the guards allowed us to still go and visit a gringo or 5 who had been caught trafficking. We spoke with them, bought them supplies, heard their stories, visited their cells and walked around the prison without any guards and as if we were in a shopping mall. Anything goes at the prison by the sound of it but the guard did make Sarah breath on her because of the alcohol that was seeping from her pores and was under the impression that she was still drunk, which seemed to amuse the local women!

After saying goodbye to all the people we had met at our hostel we flew to the Galapagos. Upon arrival the sun immediately struck us as we were still wearing thermal socks and walking shoes. We were taken to our yacht but not before we got our first glimpse of Sea Lions. They were lounging around the seats at the dock and swimming in the water. We were given the first of many fantastic meals - mainly fresh seafood which was brought to the yacht by little fishing boats! We were taken through the mangroves by a small dingy and saw turtles mating and white tipped sharks. Over the next 5 days we also saw dolphins, stingrays, mantarays, sea turtles, penguins, pelicans, countless birds, marine and land iguanas but the highlight was definitely snorkelling with sea lions which came so close you could almost touch them if you could catch them and swimming with white tipped sharks.

The last few days we have been in the spa town Banos soaking in hot springs, enjoying massages and quad biking through the valley to look at various waterfalls in the soaking rain - what a hard life!

We are then going to spend the next few day crossing the border to Peru where we hope to enjoy more sun and beaches.

The Big Apple and the Capital

After saying good bye to a number of friends that we have made in the UK and closing the book on almost 4 years in London we headed to stay with Ant and Kai in New York in their very cool New York apartment.

We flew into JFK and saw New York and its high rises looking just as they do in the movies which was very cool. We spent the next day travelling around New York visiting Times Square with its huge advertisements all of which made Sarah hungry even though we had just had breakfast! We then went to the Rockefeller Centre and travelled to the top look out over all of New York from the Hudson River to Central Park to the Chrysler building to Brooklyn. It offered an amazing view of the Empire State Building. We also saw the famous ice rink but no one was proposing. We then headed up 5th Avenue to Central Park and enjoyed the obligatory Hot dog. We walked through Central Park and visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art which was impressive. We also visited a burger bar and had a cheese burger and ate pop corn on the way home. That night we ventured into Chinatown and Little Italy which was pretty cool especially hearing people talk just like in Sopranos but didnt bump into any mobsters. Shaun was looking for them at the Italian restaurant.

The next morning we headed to the construction site that is the World Trade Centre and the area is simply huge. Strange to look at the places you saw on that day. We then walked over to the place where millions are made and lost each day Wall Street and saw the Stock Exchange then headed over to Brooklyn Bridge. It was then time to head uptown to see the end of the New York marathon as Ant's uncles were running it but it was madness so we gave up and went and watched a gridiron game at a bar called ESPN Zone and it is a sporting fans dream with huge screens playing the main game and every other game on smaller screens. You can even book a booth or a corporate box. Shaun would never leave there on a weekend if he lived in NY. We are staying with Ant in an area which is predominantly gay and it is intriguing to see so many guys getting their nails done, going out on dates drinking huge martinis and quite often talking about how he was such a catty bitch. Sarah is loving the people watching and Shaun is tired of being checked out!! haha hardly.


The next morning we jumped on a 5 hour bus ride to Washington DC catching a bus from China Town which is an experience as you have to find the bus which aren't exactly a scheduled thing. It seems that you walk along and then they come and find you and put you on a bus to where you want to go which leaves in 5 minutes but then they come and grab you off that bus and tell you that "that bus now go to DC so you get on it, not this one". All part of the fun and the buses werent too bad. We arrived in DC and couldnt locate our hostel so we visited the information office. The lady said that she had not heard good things about our hostel and that we should go to another one. We informed her that we had already booked and would be charged for it if we didnt turn up. She said that we would get what we paid for and suggested that we should get a taxi there then. We looked at the map and decided it wasnt that far so we would walk as now travelling on a tight budget.

When we started walking we realised why she had tried to persuade us not to go there or if we had to, to go by taxi. We were walking into the Bronx of Washington essentially. Security guards were escorting kids onto buses. The library said that it was a drug free zone and every car passing by was looking as if to say what are you two crazy white folk doing walking into this area!! We found the hostel which was run by a guy who didnt appear to have washed for a week and watched tv and surfed the internet all day. He greeted us saying that although it didnt look it there had been no crime there for 5 years as all the rich folk in Georgetown got robbed as nothing worth stealing in this area. Comforting! Sarah looked around and decided we were getting the hell out of there the next day. We decided to head into town for dinner and to see a bit of the Capitol. The owner said to catch the X2 bus and leave the door open so that he could make sure we got on the bus safely. He worringly looked out twice before a bus pulled up. We hopped on and were the only two white faces and had to walk to the back of the bus which was interesting as gangsters young mothers grandparents alike stared at us especially when we spoke to reveal our accent.

We went to look at the large white building at the end of the mall which Shaun mistook for the White House!! Sarah was reading the map and thought the White House was further down. Surely a misprint in the Lonely Planet according to Shaun but Sarah then realised it was Capitol. We then went looking for the reflecting pond which Forest Gump runs through but the reflecting pond in front of Arlington seemed to again fit the description at night time. Tick. Anyway we walked down to the Washington Memorial and then headed up to the White House well what we again mistook for the White House and which we realised the next day was the Treasury Department. The Treasury building is a large building with columns all lit up at night guarded and is the neighbour of the White House. Anyway after all this we caught the bus back to our hostel to jump on the internet to find another place. On the bus home were a few homeless people some more gangsters etc. As we got off Shaun thanked the driver who was shocked that we were getting off where we were and probably thought that was the last that would be seen of us.

The next day we got up early and headed into town to find another hostel as one hostel had 250 beds. Surely a place for us. We visited it and found out that it was booked out even though it was a Tuesday. We went to a hotel and it too was booked out. Desperation started to kick in as we didnt want to head back to the Bronx and a 100 fried chicken restaurants. Luckily we found a basic hotel in a great location where the price for staying one night was the equivalent of 3 at the hostel. Decision made, stay one further night in Washington rather than 2 blow the budget and see as much of Washington as possible before heading to the luxury of Kai and Ant's flat in NY. We therefore headed to see the awesome Air and Space museum and saw the Wright brothers original plane, Lindenburgh's St Louis, we touched a piece of moon rock, saw the original lunar pod and the fastest ever plane 6 x the speed of sound. We then walked down the Mall looking at the Washington Memorial locating the actual White House and realising our mistake. We then saw the WWII Memorial, the reflecting pond the Vietnam Memorial which was very busy as this weekend is Veterans day we then headed to the Abraham Lincoln memorial, saw the spot where Martin Luther King Jr made his "I have a dream" speech saw the Lincoln memorial which is very cool and has his speech "Four Score and Seven Years ago" written out. We then saw the Korean War Memorial which Shaun thought was the best, 17 tired looking soldiers walking through a rice paddy field. NZ is honoured there as well.

We visited the holocaust museum which is very good. It was moving seeing a number of rabbis crying and praying in the hall of rememberance. That night we headed to Georgetown which is a very pretty place and looks a little like an old english village. We ate at Martins Tavern and saw where JFK proposed to Jackie.

We visited Arlington cemetary seeing some of the 300,000 graves including JFK's and his family and learning about the place, the civil war and how it came to be, the criteria for been buried there and a few of the stories behind the graves. The changing of the guard was impressive and after that we headed back to NY.


We headed out early the next day to catch a boat to the Statue of Liberty and see Ellis Island. Sarah expected the statue to be bigger but Shaun now felt that they had been to NY as he had seen the lady up close. Ellis island which is where the immigrants were processed was really interesting. We headed up to see NY at night from the Empire State building. The building was not as impressive as the Rockefeller Centre but the view at night on a cloudless night was simply spectacular and the photos dont do it justice. It seems that the whole place is lit up with lights and Times Square is unreal. We decided to see Times Square at night but with all the lights it might as well be day. We stopped off at Madison Sq Garden before heading home.

The next day we walked through China Town and did some shopping for cheap watches for Sth America and sunglasses. We walked across Brooklyn bridge to an old Brooklyn pizza place called Gimauldis where Frank Sinatra used to hang out. We then headed up to Strawberry field where John Lennon used to hang out which is opposite the Dakota building where Yoko Ono still lives. We then head to FAO Schwartz to see the piano from the movie BIG before walking down 5th Avenue with all its amazing shops.

We have eaten so well in the past ten days and it has been so great having Ant and Kai take us to all their locals. We have done a bit of shopping but you wouldn't believe how hard it is having to restrain yourself from buying too much!

We are now flying down to South America and our first stop is Ecuador and after five days in Quito we head out to the Galapagos Islands.

Onwards and Upwards

After San Sebastian and the sun coming out we headed along the Pyrennes to Toulouse to see the last of the All Black Pool games against Romania. We arrived early to ensure that we could meet up with friends, Chris and his brother Tim, and Greg and Amanda to watch the England v Tonga game which England disappointingly won. The French barman was astounded that these white guys speaking English were supporting Tonga. The next day, being game day, turned out to be a large win for the All Blacks. Words like Job Done were echoed and to our neighbours at the game who we had sat next to at every game so far we said see you at the semi in Paris. We randomly met up with Andy Ebbett and Matt Peachey from School and a host of others for a large night out drinking and watching the Fijians surprise the Welsh and make it to the Quarter Final against Sth Africa. We left Shaun at 4 in the morning with Ebbs and Ben (a huge Samoan prop who plays 1st division rugby in France and who looked a little like Jonah Lomu) searching for another bar as the French kept giving Ben free drinks.

After a massive hangover we left Toulouse late at night and headed to Roquelare, near Auch with talk about the quarter final against France and then who would be the All Blacks semi finals opponents.

The next day we headed into Bordeaux and visited the town of Condom, according to Mark it has the lowest teen pregnancy rate in France and is extremely safe. The French word for condom is however "preservative" but still a lovely little town. That night we stayed at a deserted camping ground in Le Teich just outside of Bordeaux where Mark and Shaun went for a swim in a pool that was artic with both turning blue before checking to see that they were still men and confirming winter was on its way. Chance to do washing as well so with the washing hung we headed to bed to be awakened by howling winds lightning and torrential rain. Sarah and Shaun could hear Mark laughing in his tent as they rounded up their clothes at 1 in the morning soaked.

Bordeaux is an extremely pretty place with vineyards everywhere and some amazing Chateaus. After visiting the information centre and finding that all the tours (80 euros per person) were sold out the lady found us a chateau which did very good vines whose owner loved the All Blacks and New Zealanders and would therefore give us a free tour so we headed off with 3 other kiwi boys who were surviving on a budget of Nutella and french bread each day and driving round in a van that was rough to say the least with a protable radio as their stereo. We were shown around the Chateau given free tastings, learnt about the sorting of the grapes, the harvest, the barrels and how they only hold the barrels for one year and bought a few bottles.

The next couple of days we headed through Bordeaux up to La Rochelle stopping off at Cognac to do a tour of the Hennessey distillery. Made recently famous by the gangster rapper Snoop Doggy Dog (Sarah being from South Auckland gave us the full run down on this). One of the best tours we have done and we learnt how they only use certain grapes, learnt about the barrells and the angels share (evaporation of the cognac) and again tasting where we could actually tell the difference between the two cognacs. Any more cognac and we would not have been seeing straight. We declined a bottle of the stuff with the most expensive costing 3,500 euros

We spent a few days at La Rochelle looking around the town and visiting the island of Ile de Re. To get to it you can take a ferry or drive across a 4 km long bridge. The island would be beautiful in summer as really nice beaches and lots of cool places to go and visit by bike. We visited a few of them and Shaun managed to get distracted by Mark looking over the wall at a sorting plant before putting his bike in a ditch and jumping over the handle bars to avoid a complete catasatrophe. There was a quick visit to the Casino in the afternoon with Mark returning that night to lose a little of the money he made in Monaco.

After La Rochelle we decided to head to the rugby town Nantes to watch the ABs v France. After a fierce battle of mini golf won by Shaun, Mark and Shaun headed to Ten Pin to bowl the night away with Puss cleaning up. Puss thinking that they had rented the lane by the hour discovered when they went to pay that it was by the game so an expensive night.

Next day being game day, Mark and Shaun wearing All Blacks jerseys and Sarah in black headed into town to watch England v Australia followed by the All Blacks game. Supporting Australia we watched as the most boring side in world rugby beat them.

In shock at Australia losing we came back to that bar which the owner told us would be the best bar to watch the game at because it would be packed with french for the game and was the rugby bar. We told him about how we had been travelling around watching the games and loving France and he was very happy to have an international flavour at his bar. Needless to say that the bar was packed with about 250 French with people blocking up the street to watch the game on outside screens. The French were quiet as the NZ anthem started and continued to remain silent until we 3 lone kiwis started to sing the national anthem (very badly according to the people around us) at the top of our lungs to the surprise of the French. At the end of it and with the hairs on the back of our neck standing on end every one of the French started applauding and then turned to give us their anthem. Best anthem in the world!!

Throughout the game we were told about how we were going to win how the ABs were the best team in the world but then the tide turned and the ABs choked and blew out. As the French scored the place erupted and we were kissed left right and centre as they were so happy. Then when they went ahead and won the place went completely crazy. People came up and apologized to us for the French winning and offered to swap their French jerseys for the ABs jersey. We declined which in hindsight we regretted as it would have been a good souvenir but at the time it was just to hard to give up that jersey. So with heads bowed we headed out to see people running along every street with French flags, hugging and kissing each other, cars beeping their horns and the French anthem been sung everywhere. The emotion that they displayed was like nothing we had ever seen before or will see from kiwis. There was no handshakes or pats on the backs here or comments like job done. They were deliriously happy and while very humble towards us, wanted everyone to see how happy the were. One word summed up our feelings "gutted" or 2 words and the first one beginning with "F" and the second been gutted. Once again the "best rugby team in the world" had let us down at a world cup.

The next day in shock we left Nantes and didnt even bother to watch the other 2 quarters as our world cup was over. We headed up to St Malo and St Michel which are amazing castles set out on the coast with St Michel been out in an estuary and is very breath taking. Shaun went overboard with the photos and from there we headed across to the Normandy beaches and stayed a night almost on Utah Beach. We visited the museum there and then headed to Bayeux where we saw the 71 m long tapestry which recounted the Battle of Hastings and William the Conquerors entry into England. The tapestry was created so the illiterate could follow the story by looking at the pictures. Amazing to think how old it is and the condition it is in.

We then headed to Omaha beach and saw the difference between the beaches of Utah with a gentle rise up the beach and Omaha where it is almost cliff like. Reminded us of Gallipoli but with Gallipoli been worse. We visited the Americans cemetery where there are 9300 Americans buried. We did a tour and saw the grave of the Captain on who the captain played by Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan was based on and told the story of the brothers on who the film was based although their names were changed. We also saw the graves of the Roosevelt brothers. The place is so different from the simple graves which the Australians and NZers have in Turkey. We also saw the Mulberry Harbour remnants at Aramanche which are huge. The Harbour was towed over from England to create a harbour so they could off load the troops and supplies as the one at Cherbourg was destroyed by the Germans.

We then started to headed up to Le Havre which was competely destroyed in WW11 and rebuilt. It was then time to make our way back to Paris for the semi final in Paris but before that we spent 2 days in Jumieres which is a little national park and very scenic and relaxing andd took LB on a ride over a river by a small car ferry.

We arrived in Versailles and saw the Palace of Versailles and the estate of Marie Antionette. Unbelievable the amount of money that must have been spent to create a place like that and understandable that the French revolted. We then watched the game of France v England in the rugby bar in Versailles which the English again won! Unbelievable. The difference in the way that the French acted when they won the week before and the way the English acted when they won were worlds apart. The English were rude and obnoxious towards the French and just yobbish. The two cultures couldnt be more different. Enough said as all of us have english blood in us even though we were supporting the French.

The next day we headed to Champagne and picked up Chris in Reims. We had a few drinks that night as we watched Sth Africa beat the Argentinians to set up the worst possible final we could think of Sth Africa v England. We also had a look at the cathedral which was also amazing. The next day we headed to the Mumm Champagne house and its 25 kms of cellars with the longest tunnell been 400m. We asked the lady how they stopped the cellars been raided by the Germans in WWII and she said the French just bricked up the entrances to the cellars and therefore the champagne was safe. That night we had a number of wines from around France and set off the next day to pick up Chris's brothere from Epernay and visited the Moet & Chandon house which was a very good tour and whose champage we thought was better than Mumms. We also visted an excellent smaller champagne house where alot of tasting buying was done. Chris' brother Tim is a chef at one of Toronto's top restaurants so along with the wine we were given a lesson in food which was so interesting and so good as well including the duck pate and duck fat on bread. A large number of champagne was consumed that night with the highlight of the night to be the vintage champagne that Chris bought that day. As Chris went to open the bottle his hands were shaking with excitement which lead to him dropping the bottle just as the cork popped and thus drenching LB and us in vintage champagne. Epernay was by far the prettier of the champagne towns and the champagne houses themselves were immaculately presented.

The next day we dropped Chris off in a champagne smelling campervan and headed to Euro Disney. The hotels were ridiculously expensive but Puss took one to ensure showers for everyone the next day while Sarah and Shaun slept in the campervan on the main street of the Disney village. Up and early we hit Euro disney. Sarah was a little dissappointed not to see Mickey and Miney waiting for her. We headed straight for all the main rides to do them before the queues got to long which was the right move. We were also lucky that we went on a Thursday, the sun came out and the train drivers went on strike so people couldnt get out to Euro Disney unless they had a car :-) We went on every ride that Euro Disney and Walt Disney Studios had to offer with the favourite been Its a small world. We saw the parade, bought souvenirs and then refelcted on been kids for a day again. Always sunny at disney land and always a great chance to be a kid.

We then headed into Paris for the final and Shaun's 30th. Shaun was not a happy camper on the morning of his 30th but then after an amazing lunch, wine and a few more drinks he livened up and we went to an English pub, The Frog and Roastbeef to watch the final in which we supported Sth Africa much to everyone's amazement when they found out that we were kiwis. A huge night was had and we finished up about 5 in the morning. 30 isn't so bad after all!! Sarah can now put another tick in the box as has now gone out with a 30 year old......

We then left Paris to head up and see Dunkurque and the beach where they had the evacuations and after travelling 5000 miles in LB who was beyond expectations we headed back to grey rainy and miserable old England and London. Sad that this leg was over. Some might say Job Done but it was more than that and hugs were definitely in order. Beautiful country, friendly and hospitable people, fantastic experience and the trip of a lifetime.