April Analogue
April 2006
Kia Ora Everyone,
I’ve been back home for a week now so I think it is time to write my final analogue (well for now anyway). I had an amazing year away, it really was the best thing I could have done. I want to thank you all for your support while I was away; I really appreciated the emails, letters, cards, and photos that I received while I was in the States. I spent my last three weeks in the USA road-tripping from New York to Los Angeles, so this analogue will update you on that.
I left my host family on March 6th and that was pretty sad. I was so blessed to have such a great host family and I really hope to meet up with them again. I was travelling with a company call Trek America (www.trekamerica.com) which does tours of all shapes and sizes around the Americas. I was doing one called the ‘Southerner’ that left NYC and finished in LA 19 days later. Because my tour left from NYC at 7:30am on March 7th I had booked a night at the hotel my trek left from. I ended up sharing a room with another girl from New Zealand who was also on the trip. We met the rest of our group the next morning – Bridget and I from NZ, Jenny, Harriet, and Rich from England, Hiro from Japan, and Pim from the Netherlands. The only American on the trip was our tour guide/driver – Mike. Everyone in our group got on really well with everybody, this ensured that we had an amazing time and I think part of the reason we got on so well is because nobody knew anybody else before the trip started. In the summer months these treks usually have 13 people, we had 8 which made long days travelling a lot more comfortable.
Day One: We left NYC (NY) at about 8:00am and headed down through New Jersey (NJ) and Pennsylvania (PA) to Philadelphia, PA where we had a stop to see the Liberty Bell and eat a ‘Philly Cheese Steak’ for lunch. We carried on through Delaware (DE) and Maryland (MD) until we got to Washington DC. Where we headed over to the Arlington National War Cemetery – this was actually an amazing place, especially seeing the thousands of rows of white crosses of people who were willing to give up their life for their country. We checked into our hotel before going on an illuminated walking tour of the Washington Monuments. On this walk we saw the Capitol Building, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, and lastly the White House.
Day Two: I had woken up feeling pretty bad and I think it was the ‘Philly Cheese Steak’ disagreeing with me. Luckily we had this day as a completely free day – do and see what you want to. I stayed in bed until about lunchtime then went out with Bridget. We grabbed a bite to eat then headed to the top of the Old Post Office building where you can get great views of the city. From there we went to the Holocaust Museum, although I knew a lot of the information, having lived with a Jewish family gave it a deeper meaning. I somehow got separated from Bridget so headed over to see the White House in daylight before heading back to the hotel, and catching up with the rest of the group to head out for dinner.
Day Three: We left DC and continued our journey south through Virginia (VA), and North Carolina (NC). Except for lunch and petrol stops we drove all day until we got to Charlotte, NC. Stopping in Charlotte was just to break the trip from DC to Atlanta.
b Left Charlotte and headed south west through South Carolina (SC) and Georgia (GA) until we got to Atlanta, GA. It was a short drive and we had arrived in Atlanta by lunchtime. In Atlanta we went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Museum, the Coca-Cola Museum, and what remains of the 1996 Olympic Games Athlete’s Village.
Day Five: Started heading West through GA and up to Tennessee (TN). Stopped in Chattanooga, TN and had lunch at a Civil War Battle Site. Continued west past Nashville, TN and arrived in Memphis, TN late afternoon. We checked into our hotel then had a couple of hours before heading out to Beale St. We had dinner in a New Orleans style bar, then headed to an outdoor bar where there was a Jazz/Blues band playing.
Day Six: We were supposed to have this morning free to do what we wanted to do. So Jenny (who is also a Christian) and I decided to try and find a Gospel Church to go to. When Mike found out what we were doing he decided to come too! Not only that but he helped us find one, Rev. L Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle. But wait, there’s more… because this Church was so close to Graceland (where we were booked to go to later that afternoon) our whole group ended up going! The singing and life of the Church was amazing and everyone was really friendly. We couldn’t stay for the whole service, but Jenny and I got some positive feedback from a couple of others in the group!!! We had some traditional Southern Fried Chicken for Lunch before heading over to Graceland. We had an audio tour of Graceland and it was a lot more interesting than I had anticipated. When we got back us girls went to check out Beale Street in daylight and we also walked down to see the Mississippi River.
Day Seven: Today was our longest day travelling. We left Memphis at 7:00am and travelled South West through Arkansas (AR) and Texas (TX) until we got to Austin, TX at 6:30pm! The only stops we had along the way were for the bathroom and petrol; and a lunch stop in Dallas, TX to see where JF Kennedy was assassinated. In Austin we stayed in a log cabin at a RV (Recreational Vehicle) Park; it was our first night not in a hotel, it was also our first night cooking and sitting round a ‘campfire’ (our BBQ).
Day Eight: After visiting the Texas Capitol building (where we had our photo taken with Texan Rangers) we headed south to San Antonio, TX. San Antonio is only a couple of hours south of Austin so we were there by lunchtime and headed straight to some of the Spanish Missions. These are ruins of forts that the Spanish Missionaries and Military used to gain more territory; we went to three of these missions including Mission San Jose which has been restored to its original state, and the Alamo.
Day Nine: It was Harriet’s birthday today and we pretty much spent the whole day travelling. However it was fun. We’d stayed in a RV Park in San Antonio and the girls’ cabin was on the other side of the park to the boys’ cabin. When they came to pick us up that morning, there were balloons tied all around the outside of the van, and the inside of the van was decorated with balloons and streamers. As they drove up, the three guys were standing on top of the van singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Harriet! We continued South West through Texas until we got to Big Bend National Park which is right on the USA/Mexico boarder. When we arrived it was dark and tonight was our first night camping so we had to learn how to pitch our tents in the dark. Bridget and I were sharing a tent, but we ended up pitching it to put our bags in and we slept outside under the stars.
Day Ten: We spent all day today hiking in Big Bend National Park (NP). First was a 14km return hike up Emory Peak which is the highest point in Big Bend NP. It took us about 3.5 hours to get up and the view from the top was amazing, we could see for miles. Big Bend NP has a number of rocky outcrops, but the land all around is very flat and barren – similar looking to the desert road. Our second hike was into the Santa Elena Canyon which is on either side of the Rio Grande River. The side of the river/canyon that we were walking on was the United States side and the other was Mexico. It was a good day, and I really enjoyed the hike DOWN Emory Peak! That night we headed to a natural hot pool in the park that was right beside the Rio Grande River. A couple of the guys in our group swam across the river just to say they’d been to Mexico.
Day Eleven: Left Texas today and headed North West into New Mexico (NM) where we went to Carlsbad Caverns NP. These are limestone caves with stalagmites, stalactites and columns and pretty similar looking to Waitomo Caves. We started at the top of a mountain and worked our way down the inside of it to the bottom. At the bottom we caught an elevator to the top! We spent the night in a cabin in Carlsbad, NM.
Day Twelve: We continued west through NM and stopped at White Sands, NM. Part of White Sands is a NP, the other part is used by European Countries for missile testing. We went to the NP and borrowed a couple of toboggans to go sliding down the sand-dunes. I was the ‘White Sands Open’ Champion. From White Sands we carried on west through NM into Arizona (AZ). We finished the day in Tombstone, AZ home of Doc Holiday, and the OK Coral.
Day Thirteen: Spent this morning checking out Tombstone. Tombstone still looks like it would have during the ‘wild west’ times and locals wear period costume daily just because they want to. Six of our group dressed up in period clothing to have our photo taken in a saloon setting – it was lots of fun. We also went to a gun show, acting was a little shabby but the rest of the group had a good laugh at me jumping every time the gun went off! We travelled north to a cowboy camp just outside Phoenix, AZ. Here we got to try our hand at lassoing a ‘cow’ (a pink plastic one), had a chuck wagon dinner and a great time round the camp fire that night.
Day Fourteen: Had a horse trek this morning. It was pretty cool as we were riding western through Cacti, but as someone put it, “…it was like driving an auto, and I’d rather a manual.” We left the cowboy camp and headed north to a place called Monument Valley (AZ & Utah). Monument Valley is also called Navajo Nation and is an Indian Reservation. This was even more barren than NM and TX. It was all an orange-red colour and the geography of the place was pretty cool. Flat plains with huge Mesa’s rising out of them, we could see for ages and one of the things we saw were the Rocky Mountains which were over 100 miles away! We went on sun set jeep tour of part of Monument Valley and to see the sun setting on these mesas’s is incredible. That night we slept in a Hogan (traditional Navajo residence) on top of a mesa.
Day Fifteen: Spent the morning in Monument Valley. A lot of movies and commercials have been filmed here; one being ‘Forest Gump’. The part where Forest is running across the country is filmed here and we went to that place and all had a photo of us running. We also went to what I think is the most amazing place in Monument Valley, called Slot Canyon. Slot Canyon is an underground canyon with just a ‘slot’ opening at the top. The colours and landscape of this is just breath taking. Monument Valley had not had any rain for 2 years, but on the day we were there not only did it rain, it snowed! We left Monument Valley and headed towards the Grand Canyon (AZ), although it wasn’t too late when we arrived, we were in the middle of a snow storm so didn’t get to see the Grand Canyon. Luckily we weren’t camping here so we checked into our hotel.
Day Sixteen: Got up early this morning to go and see the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. Since most of us hadn’t seen the Grand Canyon before, Mike got us to close our eyes and hold hands in the car park and he led us to the viewing platform. He should have had a camera to take a photo of our reaction because the Grand Canyon is spectacular! Unfortunately that’s all we saw of it that day, the cloud rolled in and that was it! 3 of our group hiked down into the Canyon, I wasn’t one of them. Jenny and I did sections of the rim walk, and even though we were looking down onto cloud it was still quite cool and the fresh snow on all the forest around the rim was beautiful. We were supposed to go on a helicopter tour but were unable to due to the cloud.
Day Seventeen: Before leaving this morning we headed back to the Grand Canyon. This time there was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun was shining into every crevasse. It really is amazing. We continue on south west and spent a bit of the day on Route 66. Route 66 is famous for a couple of reasons; first it was the first major road connecting the East and the West – it goes from Chicago to Los Angeles. Secondly it was the road travelled to California during the 1950’s and 1960’s hippie movement. We arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada (NV) about 3:00pm and had 5 hours to do what we wanted before meeting to hit the town that night. Most of our group decided to have a swim in the hotel’s pool. We had a dinner reservation at an Italian restaurant for 8:30pm, then were picked up from there at 10:00pm by a limousine! We had a tour of the strip and saw the outside of all the casinos. We headed over to the old part of Vegas, where the original casinos were. From there we were bought back to the strip and dropped off at the Bellagio. This was my favourite part of Vegas as the Bellagio is the hotel/casino with the water exhibition out the front. After watching a couple of the water shows we walked down to the New York, New York casino and the people who were old enough and wanted to could gamble while us young ‘uns watched.
Day Eighteen: We left Las Vegas mid-morning and drove for a couple of hours to Death Valley NP, California (CA). Death Valley is the hottest place in the USA and also has the lowest point at 84.4m bsl. It was the most barren place that I have ever seen but at the same time was amazing. We pitched our tents then went on a couple of short walks. The geography here was also quite amazing. We were staying at the Death Valley NP campground, but right next door was a ‘resort’. They had an arrangement with the campground that campers could pay a couple of dollars and go to the resort for a swim and shower. When we got to the pool a couple of the guys threw me in fully clothed! It was actually quite strange going for a swim when you know that you’re in the middle of a completely dry desert – it was very refreshing though. Tonight was our last night, so we all got up on top of the van and talked for ages.
Day Nineteen: We were all pretty keen to get to LA so were packed up and ready to go at 8:00am, on the way out of Death Valley NP we stopped at a place called ‘Bad-water’ which is the lowest point in the United States. It took us a good 7 or 8 hours to get to LA and when we got there we headed straight to Venice Beach. We were only there for about an hour as one of the girls was meeting her mum and I had a plane to catch later that evening. After dropping Bridget off at the hotel where she was meeting her Mum, the rest of us headed over to the place where the rest of the group was staying. They checked in and we went to a restaurant beside the hotel for dinner. After eating a quick dinner I said goodbye to the rest of the group. It was quite sad because after travelling cross country together we became pretty good friends. I caught a shuttle to the airport to catch my flight to San Francisco, CA to stay with a high school friend, Hayley.
Day Twenty: Hayley and I headed into San Francisco just before lunchtime and went straight to the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked about halfway across and back again. From the Golden Gate Bridge we walked to Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39. It was longer that we had thought and took us a good couple of hours, but was a nice walk along the bay. We decided to go on an hour sunset boat cruise that went around Alcatraz and out to the Golden Gate Bridge. However, when we got out to the bridge something happened with the motor and our boat broke down. The US Coast Guard was called out to make sure we didn’t crash into the bridge and another boat had to come out to tow us back to shore – it was actually quite fun.
Day Twenty One: Hayley had arranged for us to go out to Alcatraz. We had about an hour before our boat was to leave so checked out the shops/stalls on Fisherman’s Wharf. Alcatraz was quite interesting. We had an audio tour so were given quite a bit of information about the building, the inmates, and life at Alcatraz. One of the things that made me laugh (after having lived in NY) were the names the prisoners gave things. One of the rows of cells was called ‘Broadway’ and at the end of Broadway leading into the dining room was called ‘Times Square’!
Day Twenty Two to Twenty Four: I had an early flight back to LA from San Francisco and because Hayley had to work, she dropped me at the train station at 5:30am so I would be at SFO in time to catch my 7:50am flight. But the train broke down and delayed me by an hour so I missed my flight. It was ok though as they just put me on the next flight and I didn’t have to pay any extra. I got to LA just after 10:00am and after I’d collected my bag walked to the Air New Zealand terminal which is pretty much on the other side of the airport to where I arrived in from SFO. I got to the Air New Zealand desk and at about 11:30am and found out that they didn’t open until 12:45pm. I was checked in and through security by 1:30pm and then had 8 hours to waste before my flight left. My flight was coming from Heathrow, stopping over in LA to refuel and pick up passengers before heading to NZ and because it was delayed in leaving Heathrow it meant we were delayed leaving LA. The flight was supposed to leave at 8:30pm but it was closer to 10:00pm before we ended up leaving. We made pretty good time though and were only 40mins late arriving in Auckland. I arrived back in Auckland at around 6:00am on Thursday 28th March and I was through customs just after 6:30am. Mum, Dad, Sarah and Naomi were there waiting for me and I was home by lunchtime.
It’s kind of strange being back home. A lot is still the same, but there are some changes as well. My plan for this year is to find a job and then start uni at the beginning of next year. I know I’ve caught up with a lot of you and I’m looking forward to catching up with those of you I haven’t seen in the near future.
Lots of Love and God Bless
Anna
Kia Ora Everyone,
I’ve been back home for a week now so I think it is time to write my final analogue (well for now anyway). I had an amazing year away, it really was the best thing I could have done. I want to thank you all for your support while I was away; I really appreciated the emails, letters, cards, and photos that I received while I was in the States. I spent my last three weeks in the USA road-tripping from New York to Los Angeles, so this analogue will update you on that.
I left my host family on March 6th and that was pretty sad. I was so blessed to have such a great host family and I really hope to meet up with them again. I was travelling with a company call Trek America (www.trekamerica.com) which does tours of all shapes and sizes around the Americas. I was doing one called the ‘Southerner’ that left NYC and finished in LA 19 days later. Because my tour left from NYC at 7:30am on March 7th I had booked a night at the hotel my trek left from. I ended up sharing a room with another girl from New Zealand who was also on the trip. We met the rest of our group the next morning – Bridget and I from NZ, Jenny, Harriet, and Rich from England, Hiro from Japan, and Pim from the Netherlands. The only American on the trip was our tour guide/driver – Mike. Everyone in our group got on really well with everybody, this ensured that we had an amazing time and I think part of the reason we got on so well is because nobody knew anybody else before the trip started. In the summer months these treks usually have 13 people, we had 8 which made long days travelling a lot more comfortable.
Day One: We left NYC (NY) at about 8:00am and headed down through New Jersey (NJ) and Pennsylvania (PA) to Philadelphia, PA where we had a stop to see the Liberty Bell and eat a ‘Philly Cheese Steak’ for lunch. We carried on through Delaware (DE) and Maryland (MD) until we got to Washington DC. Where we headed over to the Arlington National War Cemetery – this was actually an amazing place, especially seeing the thousands of rows of white crosses of people who were willing to give up their life for their country. We checked into our hotel before going on an illuminated walking tour of the Washington Monuments. On this walk we saw the Capitol Building, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, and lastly the White House.
Day Two: I had woken up feeling pretty bad and I think it was the ‘Philly Cheese Steak’ disagreeing with me. Luckily we had this day as a completely free day – do and see what you want to. I stayed in bed until about lunchtime then went out with Bridget. We grabbed a bite to eat then headed to the top of the Old Post Office building where you can get great views of the city. From there we went to the Holocaust Museum, although I knew a lot of the information, having lived with a Jewish family gave it a deeper meaning. I somehow got separated from Bridget so headed over to see the White House in daylight before heading back to the hotel, and catching up with the rest of the group to head out for dinner.
Day Three: We left DC and continued our journey south through Virginia (VA), and North Carolina (NC). Except for lunch and petrol stops we drove all day until we got to Charlotte, NC. Stopping in Charlotte was just to break the trip from DC to Atlanta.
b Left Charlotte and headed south west through South Carolina (SC) and Georgia (GA) until we got to Atlanta, GA. It was a short drive and we had arrived in Atlanta by lunchtime. In Atlanta we went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Museum, the Coca-Cola Museum, and what remains of the 1996 Olympic Games Athlete’s Village.
Day Five: Started heading West through GA and up to Tennessee (TN). Stopped in Chattanooga, TN and had lunch at a Civil War Battle Site. Continued west past Nashville, TN and arrived in Memphis, TN late afternoon. We checked into our hotel then had a couple of hours before heading out to Beale St. We had dinner in a New Orleans style bar, then headed to an outdoor bar where there was a Jazz/Blues band playing.
Day Six: We were supposed to have this morning free to do what we wanted to do. So Jenny (who is also a Christian) and I decided to try and find a Gospel Church to go to. When Mike found out what we were doing he decided to come too! Not only that but he helped us find one, Rev. L Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle. But wait, there’s more… because this Church was so close to Graceland (where we were booked to go to later that afternoon) our whole group ended up going! The singing and life of the Church was amazing and everyone was really friendly. We couldn’t stay for the whole service, but Jenny and I got some positive feedback from a couple of others in the group!!! We had some traditional Southern Fried Chicken for Lunch before heading over to Graceland. We had an audio tour of Graceland and it was a lot more interesting than I had anticipated. When we got back us girls went to check out Beale Street in daylight and we also walked down to see the Mississippi River.
Day Seven: Today was our longest day travelling. We left Memphis at 7:00am and travelled South West through Arkansas (AR) and Texas (TX) until we got to Austin, TX at 6:30pm! The only stops we had along the way were for the bathroom and petrol; and a lunch stop in Dallas, TX to see where JF Kennedy was assassinated. In Austin we stayed in a log cabin at a RV (Recreational Vehicle) Park; it was our first night not in a hotel, it was also our first night cooking and sitting round a ‘campfire’ (our BBQ).
Day Eight: After visiting the Texas Capitol building (where we had our photo taken with Texan Rangers) we headed south to San Antonio, TX. San Antonio is only a couple of hours south of Austin so we were there by lunchtime and headed straight to some of the Spanish Missions. These are ruins of forts that the Spanish Missionaries and Military used to gain more territory; we went to three of these missions including Mission San Jose which has been restored to its original state, and the Alamo.
Day Nine: It was Harriet’s birthday today and we pretty much spent the whole day travelling. However it was fun. We’d stayed in a RV Park in San Antonio and the girls’ cabin was on the other side of the park to the boys’ cabin. When they came to pick us up that morning, there were balloons tied all around the outside of the van, and the inside of the van was decorated with balloons and streamers. As they drove up, the three guys were standing on top of the van singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Harriet! We continued South West through Texas until we got to Big Bend National Park which is right on the USA/Mexico boarder. When we arrived it was dark and tonight was our first night camping so we had to learn how to pitch our tents in the dark. Bridget and I were sharing a tent, but we ended up pitching it to put our bags in and we slept outside under the stars.
Day Ten: We spent all day today hiking in Big Bend National Park (NP). First was a 14km return hike up Emory Peak which is the highest point in Big Bend NP. It took us about 3.5 hours to get up and the view from the top was amazing, we could see for miles. Big Bend NP has a number of rocky outcrops, but the land all around is very flat and barren – similar looking to the desert road. Our second hike was into the Santa Elena Canyon which is on either side of the Rio Grande River. The side of the river/canyon that we were walking on was the United States side and the other was Mexico. It was a good day, and I really enjoyed the hike DOWN Emory Peak! That night we headed to a natural hot pool in the park that was right beside the Rio Grande River. A couple of the guys in our group swam across the river just to say they’d been to Mexico.
Day Eleven: Left Texas today and headed North West into New Mexico (NM) where we went to Carlsbad Caverns NP. These are limestone caves with stalagmites, stalactites and columns and pretty similar looking to Waitomo Caves. We started at the top of a mountain and worked our way down the inside of it to the bottom. At the bottom we caught an elevator to the top! We spent the night in a cabin in Carlsbad, NM.
Day Twelve: We continued west through NM and stopped at White Sands, NM. Part of White Sands is a NP, the other part is used by European Countries for missile testing. We went to the NP and borrowed a couple of toboggans to go sliding down the sand-dunes. I was the ‘White Sands Open’ Champion. From White Sands we carried on west through NM into Arizona (AZ). We finished the day in Tombstone, AZ home of Doc Holiday, and the OK Coral.
Day Thirteen: Spent this morning checking out Tombstone. Tombstone still looks like it would have during the ‘wild west’ times and locals wear period costume daily just because they want to. Six of our group dressed up in period clothing to have our photo taken in a saloon setting – it was lots of fun. We also went to a gun show, acting was a little shabby but the rest of the group had a good laugh at me jumping every time the gun went off! We travelled north to a cowboy camp just outside Phoenix, AZ. Here we got to try our hand at lassoing a ‘cow’ (a pink plastic one), had a chuck wagon dinner and a great time round the camp fire that night.
Day Fourteen: Had a horse trek this morning. It was pretty cool as we were riding western through Cacti, but as someone put it, “…it was like driving an auto, and I’d rather a manual.” We left the cowboy camp and headed north to a place called Monument Valley (AZ & Utah). Monument Valley is also called Navajo Nation and is an Indian Reservation. This was even more barren than NM and TX. It was all an orange-red colour and the geography of the place was pretty cool. Flat plains with huge Mesa’s rising out of them, we could see for ages and one of the things we saw were the Rocky Mountains which were over 100 miles away! We went on sun set jeep tour of part of Monument Valley and to see the sun setting on these mesas’s is incredible. That night we slept in a Hogan (traditional Navajo residence) on top of a mesa.
Day Fifteen: Spent the morning in Monument Valley. A lot of movies and commercials have been filmed here; one being ‘Forest Gump’. The part where Forest is running across the country is filmed here and we went to that place and all had a photo of us running. We also went to what I think is the most amazing place in Monument Valley, called Slot Canyon. Slot Canyon is an underground canyon with just a ‘slot’ opening at the top. The colours and landscape of this is just breath taking. Monument Valley had not had any rain for 2 years, but on the day we were there not only did it rain, it snowed! We left Monument Valley and headed towards the Grand Canyon (AZ), although it wasn’t too late when we arrived, we were in the middle of a snow storm so didn’t get to see the Grand Canyon. Luckily we weren’t camping here so we checked into our hotel.
Day Sixteen: Got up early this morning to go and see the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. Since most of us hadn’t seen the Grand Canyon before, Mike got us to close our eyes and hold hands in the car park and he led us to the viewing platform. He should have had a camera to take a photo of our reaction because the Grand Canyon is spectacular! Unfortunately that’s all we saw of it that day, the cloud rolled in and that was it! 3 of our group hiked down into the Canyon, I wasn’t one of them. Jenny and I did sections of the rim walk, and even though we were looking down onto cloud it was still quite cool and the fresh snow on all the forest around the rim was beautiful. We were supposed to go on a helicopter tour but were unable to due to the cloud.
Day Seventeen: Before leaving this morning we headed back to the Grand Canyon. This time there was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun was shining into every crevasse. It really is amazing. We continue on south west and spent a bit of the day on Route 66. Route 66 is famous for a couple of reasons; first it was the first major road connecting the East and the West – it goes from Chicago to Los Angeles. Secondly it was the road travelled to California during the 1950’s and 1960’s hippie movement. We arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada (NV) about 3:00pm and had 5 hours to do what we wanted before meeting to hit the town that night. Most of our group decided to have a swim in the hotel’s pool. We had a dinner reservation at an Italian restaurant for 8:30pm, then were picked up from there at 10:00pm by a limousine! We had a tour of the strip and saw the outside of all the casinos. We headed over to the old part of Vegas, where the original casinos were. From there we were bought back to the strip and dropped off at the Bellagio. This was my favourite part of Vegas as the Bellagio is the hotel/casino with the water exhibition out the front. After watching a couple of the water shows we walked down to the New York, New York casino and the people who were old enough and wanted to could gamble while us young ‘uns watched.
Day Eighteen: We left Las Vegas mid-morning and drove for a couple of hours to Death Valley NP, California (CA). Death Valley is the hottest place in the USA and also has the lowest point at 84.4m bsl. It was the most barren place that I have ever seen but at the same time was amazing. We pitched our tents then went on a couple of short walks. The geography here was also quite amazing. We were staying at the Death Valley NP campground, but right next door was a ‘resort’. They had an arrangement with the campground that campers could pay a couple of dollars and go to the resort for a swim and shower. When we got to the pool a couple of the guys threw me in fully clothed! It was actually quite strange going for a swim when you know that you’re in the middle of a completely dry desert – it was very refreshing though. Tonight was our last night, so we all got up on top of the van and talked for ages.
Day Nineteen: We were all pretty keen to get to LA so were packed up and ready to go at 8:00am, on the way out of Death Valley NP we stopped at a place called ‘Bad-water’ which is the lowest point in the United States. It took us a good 7 or 8 hours to get to LA and when we got there we headed straight to Venice Beach. We were only there for about an hour as one of the girls was meeting her mum and I had a plane to catch later that evening. After dropping Bridget off at the hotel where she was meeting her Mum, the rest of us headed over to the place where the rest of the group was staying. They checked in and we went to a restaurant beside the hotel for dinner. After eating a quick dinner I said goodbye to the rest of the group. It was quite sad because after travelling cross country together we became pretty good friends. I caught a shuttle to the airport to catch my flight to San Francisco, CA to stay with a high school friend, Hayley.
Day Twenty: Hayley and I headed into San Francisco just before lunchtime and went straight to the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked about halfway across and back again. From the Golden Gate Bridge we walked to Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39. It was longer that we had thought and took us a good couple of hours, but was a nice walk along the bay. We decided to go on an hour sunset boat cruise that went around Alcatraz and out to the Golden Gate Bridge. However, when we got out to the bridge something happened with the motor and our boat broke down. The US Coast Guard was called out to make sure we didn’t crash into the bridge and another boat had to come out to tow us back to shore – it was actually quite fun.
Day Twenty One: Hayley had arranged for us to go out to Alcatraz. We had about an hour before our boat was to leave so checked out the shops/stalls on Fisherman’s Wharf. Alcatraz was quite interesting. We had an audio tour so were given quite a bit of information about the building, the inmates, and life at Alcatraz. One of the things that made me laugh (after having lived in NY) were the names the prisoners gave things. One of the rows of cells was called ‘Broadway’ and at the end of Broadway leading into the dining room was called ‘Times Square’!
Day Twenty Two to Twenty Four: I had an early flight back to LA from San Francisco and because Hayley had to work, she dropped me at the train station at 5:30am so I would be at SFO in time to catch my 7:50am flight. But the train broke down and delayed me by an hour so I missed my flight. It was ok though as they just put me on the next flight and I didn’t have to pay any extra. I got to LA just after 10:00am and after I’d collected my bag walked to the Air New Zealand terminal which is pretty much on the other side of the airport to where I arrived in from SFO. I got to the Air New Zealand desk and at about 11:30am and found out that they didn’t open until 12:45pm. I was checked in and through security by 1:30pm and then had 8 hours to waste before my flight left. My flight was coming from Heathrow, stopping over in LA to refuel and pick up passengers before heading to NZ and because it was delayed in leaving Heathrow it meant we were delayed leaving LA. The flight was supposed to leave at 8:30pm but it was closer to 10:00pm before we ended up leaving. We made pretty good time though and were only 40mins late arriving in Auckland. I arrived back in Auckland at around 6:00am on Thursday 28th March and I was through customs just after 6:30am. Mum, Dad, Sarah and Naomi were there waiting for me and I was home by lunchtime.
It’s kind of strange being back home. A lot is still the same, but there are some changes as well. My plan for this year is to find a job and then start uni at the beginning of next year. I know I’ve caught up with a lot of you and I’m looking forward to catching up with those of you I haven’t seen in the near future.
Lots of Love and God Bless
Anna
posted by AnnaJ @ Thursday, April 06, 2006
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