I arrived early morning for my second to last destination - Hawaii!

Many people stay just down the road from Honolulu in a place called Waikiki, which has high rise hotels next to an excellent beach. I still find it strange to walk along a beach and not get hassled as I often did in South East Asia.

On first impressions, Hawaii seemed really picturesque and this was highlighted after a walk up the crater of an old volcano that blew it's top years ago. The view was stunning as the photo below indicates, but it quickly brought forward how developed these islands have become at the hands of the US of A. There are convenience stores over here called 'ABC' and there are sometimes 3 on each block - It's insane, yet they are always busy with Americans buying food and drink....





Hawaii really doesn't cater well for backpackers like the other places I've been to so far. It's really a place for old people and others on holiday looking to do all-in tours with money not often an issue.

Usually when I ask a hostel worker for tips on places worth seeing, they're only too happy to help - here in Hawaii no one seems keen. On the whole I've found the people to be quite rude, whether it be on the bus or people in shops.

Oahu is the most popular of the Hawaiian islands and is home to the famous Pearl harbor. There is a relatively good bus network, but it's painfully slow to get anywhere. The other islands can't even offer much in the way of buses so if you don't have a car, you don't get far.

The pictures below are of Waikiki beach at day (with the crater in the background) and night.







For one of my spare days I took the bus to the East coast of the island to check out what I'm told was voted the best beach in the US. It certainly was pretty good and not too busy either, which was a bonus. Pictures of this are shown below...








One of the attractions I hoped to see the most was Pearl Harbour and to visit the museums and memorials. The picture below is of a memorial which sits across the Arizona battleship that was taken out by the Japanese. The ship is pretty much a mass grave which is obviously sad and leaves you feeling a little down.





I managed to get some pretty cheap flights enabling me to island hop to Maui and the Big island (called Hawaii) but it was close to pointless, as they don't cater for people without cars. There's the odd bus (not in service on weekends!), but really I shouldn't have bothered. Would have been excellent if someone had told me this, but what with people not being friendly etc...

It wasn't a complete waste of time however, as I met a good group of guys who had hired a car and went out with them couple of times, to the beach etc. Two of them were Spanish and from Barcelona so I mentioned I supported Liverpool. What a win >: )

So that's the short and sweet version of my time in Hawaii.

I'll add this edit - Hawaii really was great in many ways and the pictures show that. If you decide to go however, make sure you drive so you can make the most of your time. It's just that I wasted a few days due to the poor public transport >: )

Next (and last) stop, New York....

So the next stop was Fiji for a week.

I was looking forward to a bit of sun to top up the fading tan, but was met with quite a bit of rain. Right now Fiji is just coming towards the end of its rainy season, but incredibly it hadn't seen much, (if any at all) for December and January. The week prior to my arrival saw it rain pretty much constantly, which continued for a couple of days causing concern. Nadi, which is the town/city you fly into, was severely flooded past waste height and my bus trip around the main island had to be put back a day or more depending on when the rain stopped.





To see info on the flood, check out the link below....

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=56950


Luckily the water level somehow managed to recede and my trip began for the 4 day tour of the island, but many homes and businesses were damaged causing millions of dollars worth of damage. Fijians are not the type to have insurance either so it was quite serious.

The 1st day of the trip we had a BBQ on a beach, although most of us stayed and ate it on the coach as the weather was still quite bad. We then moved onto a local village to see an interesting example of how many Fijians live from day to day.

The picture below is of where we stayed the first night...




There was a great little bar on the first night which we took advantage of, although I must admit I didn't do the Tequila 'Suicide' like the other lads. This is a slight adjustment of the Tequila 'Slammer'. The 'Slammer' is where you lick salt off you hand, do the shot then bite the lemon.

The 'Suicide' is where you snort the salt through a straw, do the shot, then squeeze the lemon or in this case, lime, in your eye. See picture below for more detail...





On the 2nd day we did a 3 hour trek through rain forest to arrive at a lake. It took me 4 hours as I helped a 78 year old lady do the walk. Her name was Barbara and she was a good stick - she bought myself and a couple others a beer for our troubles. To be getting involved at her age was excellent and she didn't stop there.

At the end of the walk we arrived at a river and tubed down it in similar fashion to the time in Laos. The picture below is from this:





The river level was quite high which made it all the more interesting, but we didn't do it for long before being stopped. We had to get out of the river to go and jump off a waterfall, which was pretty darned good, although most people chickened out.

One random thing I'll say about Fiji is that if you don't get bitten by mossies etc, you're one lucky guy/girl - the picture below if of my precious leg...




On the 3rd day, we again visited a Fijian village and joined them for a traditional meeting in what is effectively their community hall. We brought gifts including a root, which was ground down to make a muddy water styled drink called Kava. This is actually a narcotic and makes your tongue go numb, but when in Rome.....

We all had one drink each and then the ladies were taken off to make bracelets. It was then the job of us men to finish off the bowl. After 7-8 rounds, I was finding it quite difficult not to pull a natural face of disgust, brought on by the fowl taste. This we were told, would not go down well, so I had to try hard to suppress those feelings. Imagine not pulling a face after sucking on a lemon and you get the picture.

The place we stayed at on the 3rd night was really quite lovely and it was a shame I couldn't spend an extra day there. It's well known in Fiji for excellent sunsets and the picture below perhaps indicates why:




On the 4th day we visited a hot mud pool and got...muddy >: )


The picture blow is quite clearly from this:





Next to the mud pool was a lovely hot pool of water, which was like a bath that I nearly couldn't go in due to the heat - this is where we cleaned up.


I had another night in Nadi after doing a full circle and then caught a boat the following day to an island known as Beachcomber. This little island took 10 minutes to walk around and had the best snorkeling I've ever experienced. The water was incredibly clear and the tropical fish plentiful.




The voucher to go to the island included all meals, which were excellent although the meat gave most of us diarrhea. Once again, thank you Imodium!

There were about 10 of us who'd made friends during the tour around the island and we all had a rather large night celebrating the birthday of a guy called Scott. He was 21 and being American, needed to make the most of legally being able to drink; this he did quite well although he remembers very little.

I had most of the next day to chill out on the island before catching a boat back to the mainland and then hoping on a bus to the airport.

Next stop Hawaii.....

So now came the North island.....

I got the 3 hour boat to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and was there for 4-5 days in the end. If I'm honest, I just caught up with mates and read a couple of books, so I didn't do the 'must do' things, such as the museum of New Zealand.

I stayed in Wellington for more days than intended due to a guy called Charlie. I met him in Hoi An, Vietnam, where I got the suit made; he also got one made and the picture below is of him wearing said suit >: )

When you make a stupid suit, you have to go for it and I'm a little upset that he found an even better/worse material than I did.

He had met a guy called Elliot in Hoi An also (the day after I left) and they kept in touch. Basically, between them they managed to win and get hold of tickets to the Rugby 'Sevens' tournement, so I stayed an extra day to go. I'd like to thank Elliot for giving me his spare ticket and for putting us all up at his place. Thank you to Charlie for cooking us a great English breakfast before we hit the stadium. The eggs tasted better than they looked >; )

The Sevens tournement is famous for being one big fancy dress party pretty much and people didn't dissapoint. Virtally everyone got involved and there were some excellent constumes. The picture below indicates one of the more 'controversial' examples...

After Wellington, I travelled on up to Taupo, which is next to Lake Taupo, the largest in the southern hemisphere. Here I did what is regarded as one of the best walks in the world and to be honest it probably was. I say probably, as I can only go by the pictures I saw from a mate who did it the previous day. The day I went up, I spent 6 hours walking through clouds. The walk takes you across a volcano and past what many of you may know as Mount Doom from The Lord of the Rings (Below). This was where Frodo threw the ring into the lava at the end:

I managed to get hold the pictures to see what I missed; some parts were as you'd imagine Mars to be like on the surfice. Pictures, curtisey of Tom Evans are shown below....

The following day I did a skydive over Lake Taupo from 15,000ft. This was an incredible experience and it still hasn't quite registered yet. I was the only one who did it from 15,000ft (the others jumped at 12,000ft) and I was quite nervous while climbing that little extra, after watching them fall out. To be honest though, it wasn't too scary and as many people say, was easier than a bungy or the canyon swing I did.

The chute opened at 5,000ft so I fell 10,000ft in about 60 seconds of freefall. My eyes watered like crazy which made me lose a contact lense and my sinuses felt as though they were about to explode. When you leave the plane the temperature is about -5 degrees which made my hands a litle chilly >: )

The noise of freefall is extremely loud, but when the chute has opened it's virtually silent, with the guy telling me what certain things were in the distance.

After Taupo, I headed on up to Rotorua which quite litterally stinks. There are geysers and hot springs etc, with a great deal of sulpher being released, making the whole town stink of rotton eggs. Here I did Zorbing which was a good crack - you climb into a big ball with a mate, they add water, you get pushed down a hill and then giggle like girls. The picture below is from that.....

From Rotorua you can do a day trip to a cave with water running through it. This was excellent and included an abseil of 100ft or so. I was the '1st person in 14 years' that hurt themselves on this I was told! I was just moving to hang myself over the edge, when some flesh from my hand got caught in between the rope and a metal clip. I couldn't get it out as now my whole weight was pulling down and adding pressure. We managed to get me released eventually after the guide worked out what had happened and I was left with a small blood wound. Accident prone through this trip I fear...

It really was good fun and the glow worms were incredible. The pictures below/above are from this day.



The last night in Rotorua I attended a meal and show at the local Mauri replica village. We were shown the mock up village of what it used to look like and the various things they used to do. It was interesting enough, but the all you can eat buffet was the real highlight >: )

After Rotorua I shot up to Auckland for one night, before heading to Paihia in the north. To be honest, I didn't have time to see much of Paihia, but it seemed ok. Nice enough place to take a canoe out and explore.

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and home to a third of the population - however, it's not really a place with a great deal of character and I didn't make any particular effort to wonder about.

This is the end of my New Zealand exploring and next I'll be posting on my week in Fiji >: )

See you soon....