Trek America

Joined up with the tour group early on the 7th in San Francisco. First up we headed back to the Golden Gate Bridge, then to the park again for some picture opportunities, before setting off for Yosemite National Park. The weather was overcast when we arrived, and pretty chilly so my backpack full of summer clothes wasn't exactly helpful.

Yosemite itself was stunning, snow on the ground, huge rock faces surrounding all sides of the valley. The hostel just outside the park was decent, with its own cafe/bar which did some decent food, which was a change from the rubbish i'd eaten the previous week...after being awoken to the sound of an Israeli in our room doing press-ups at 6am we headed back into the park to do some exploring, walking halfway to the top of Yosemite falls, before realising that it was a bit of a bigger trek than we'd anticipated, we descended, explored the rest of the valley and ultimately ended up sitting in a gift shop to keep warm!

Early start the next day with a long drive through the desert to Las Vegas. And as the saying goes: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Needless to say, it couldn't have been much more different than Yosemite...here are some of the nicer pictures...

From Vegas we ventured down to the Grand Canyon, which again, couldn't have been more different than Vegas. The Canyon is like everything else in the country: massive. We took a 30 minute helicopter ride over the Canyon, which gave us amazing views of the scale of the thing, seeing as though it is about the same size as Switzerland! We went back into the park to watch the sun set over the Canyon, lighting the sky up orange and yellow, but also freezing cold.

Another early rise the next day in order to catch the sun rise over the Canyon at 6.45, which was even colder than the previous night. When the sun had risen we trekked down into the Canyon itself, getting nowhere near the bottom obviously, but far enough down to notice a sharp rise in temperature and get some great views.

Around Midday we got back on the bus and travelled to Lake Havasu, on the Arizona/California border. There was a marked change in temperature at the lake, gone were the gloves and coats from the Canyon and out came the t-shirt and shorts. Lake Havasu itself is a popular Spring Break location for American university students, and we arrived at the beginning of Spring Break, so the whole place was pretty seedy and debaucherous. We partook in a few quiet drinks and remained relatively civilised, on the whole.

We left the lake again the next morning, returning to Los Angeles, visiting Hollywood again, Rodeo Drive and Sunset Boulevard, before hitting Venice Beach again. The trip came to an end that night, with people flying home at various points through the night. Those of us who remained tried to recover from the week at the hotel near LAX.

To 'celebrate' my birthday the next day Michelle and Steve (two of the people from the tour) and I wandered round Hollywood again before going Downtown to the Staples Center to watch the LA Lakers basketball game against Orlando. I left knowing as little about basketball as when I entered, which is very little, but a good experience nonetheless.

Steve joined me on my train ride to San Diego, where we walked around the harbour before going out and meeting some locals in the bars in the Gaslamp District, we made friends and annoyed Americans by beating them at their own games.

This morning we went up to San Diego Zoo, in Balboa Park. Again, the place was massive, taking 4 hours to walk round it all.

2 more days in San Diego, before I fly to the east coast to finish off the trip.

Better late than never: The start of the USA

Flew out of Auckland at 3pm on the 28th February, having been sitting there since 9am after dropping off the car. 12 hour plane journey, arriving at 6am on the same day. Needless to say I was quite tired when I arrived at my hotel in Santa Monica. Not the greatest time to have a conversation with a radical Canadian about the meanings of war, but I impressed him with my ancient history knowledge, despite most of it being false.

Took a stroll round Venice Beach, which was 5 minutes away from the hotel. Again, not a great place to go when a bit disorientated, as the place is full of absolute fruitcakes, trying to sell you stuff, dancing to themselves, playing home-made musical instruments and being generally weird. The weather was sunny but not particularly warm, however opinions differed, some people thought it was hot, some people thought it was cold and some people thought they were monkeys...

Decided to walk the short distance down the promenade to the slightly more upmarket Santa Monica, where there was a cool shopping district and a picturesque pier and people were a little friendlier.

After a good night's sleep I ventured into Downtown LA, an hour's bus ride away from the beach. I made an excellent first impression by trying to pay the conductor with New Zealand coins. I then got on the subway to go to Hollywood, a place that is exceptionally underwhelming, quite run-down and a bit of a ghetto. Certainly not as glamorous as in the films...walked along the Walk of Fame, not recognising most of the names on the stars, realised there wasn't much else to do and went back to the hotel to catch up on even more sleep.

Had to check out of the hotel the next morning and had booked a bus to San Francisco for 11pm, so had to carry my bags round LA's few sights all day. The bus station was in the roughest part of town, so I arrived 5 hours early to avoid getting stabbed. After a 7 hour bus ride I arrived in San Francisco.

San Fran was a lot nicer that LA, cleaner, fewer people, fewer cars and most importantly everything was within walking distance. But being the 2nd hilliest city in the world (after La Paz...FACT) all the walking did involve some outrageously steep climbs. Walked round the dock area, to Pier 39, where all the tourists flock to the gift shops and restaurants. The next day I took the ferry to Alcatraz and did the excellent audio tour of the cell block and walked round the island. The following day I hired a bike and cycled across the Golden Gate Bridge, cycled straight back across and then round Golden Gate Park, however the hills were not particularly cyclist friendly, especially not those as unfit as me.