Well I could bore you with the last month or so of work, but we've both been working fast food so you can guess how much fun that has been. Some things have changed, however. Instead of our epic trip through Asia we are now spending 4 weeks on a Kiwi Experience bus tour of New Zealand and 6 weeks on a West USA road trip through renting a car before heading back home.
The Kiwi Experience has always been a little too expensive compared to public transport so it's never something we thought we'd go for but thanks to some great offers (60% off) on their website, we've signed up fo a pretty comprehensive tour of both islands - see picture. I'm really looking forward to it: I've always thought of travelling as great chance not only to see the world but to exchange experiences with fellow travellers and make new friends. Sure we've couchsurfed with some great people and recieved fantastic advice about some lesser known spots we'd never have found by ourselves, but there's something reassuring about being part of a group tour and taking those famous photos that almost every other traveller has. We get both sides of the coin. We've also added Milford Sound to the trip because who really visits the South Island and doesn't go there! I think Sophie is only really interested in spotting as many Lord Of The Rings locations as possible so keep a lookout in our pictures for that.
As for the second part, we are both incredibly excited! Road trips in the US are something of legends so I've been making sure this has enough planning yet equal spontaneity to make it organised but open to adventure. We're flying to and from LAX, so will be heading on an anti-clockwise round trip through Los Angels, Sequoia NP, Death Valley, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone NP, Seattle, San Fransisco, Yosemite NP and down the Big Sur back to LA. Those are the planned sections of the trip which comprise about 4 weeks, leaving 2 for exploring, recommendations along the way and pointing randomly on the mpa saying "let's go there today." We have made a rough route on google, which I invite you all to take a look at....
http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=216641271821975495319.00049f97789121f344e00&z=4. If you have been to America before and have any advice we'd love to hear it.
See you next time
Jon
