Oceania Hawaii to LA to San José (CR) Strap yourselves in, we've got about 24 hours of travel coming up... First stop, the Honolulu airport via a taxi from Waikiki. We leave at about 5am. There's a guy on a food delivery bike preaching the good word to a couple of hostel residents having
Oceania Hawaii - Day 2 Apparently all we do is exercise now so we're up early again but for a hike this time. We strap up and scoff an iced coffee and banana and head for the Wa'ahila Ridge Trail to climb Mount Olympus. It's about a 15 minute
Oceania Hawaii - Day 1 OK, time to see what this island looks like in the daylight. We strap on our shoes and go for a run. It's only 7:30am but it's fast approaching 30 degrees (c). We do a loop of a big park down the east end of
Oceania Cook Islands to Hawaii After a week on Cook Islands we're ready for our next stop - Hawaii! We're up early and see one last sunrise over Raro. Gorgeous. We do a quick workout to burn off some nervous energy and then jump in the shuttle to the airport. Our
Oceania Cook Islands - Day 9 The gang are off early to the airport back to Sydney. So it's just Jeff, Courts and the new pet cat to carry on the journey. We check out of the villa and jump on the anti-clockwise bus back to Avarua. The bus is roughly on time considering
Oceania Cook Islands - Day 7 Well, it looked like the weather was turning yesterday and it did. Wild wind and rain all night. It's no surprise to wake to the messages from some of the gang saying their trip to Aitutaki was cancelled; not before driving all the way to the airport at
Oceania Cook Islands - Day 6 We rise and have brekky of eggs and coffee and discuss the day's plans. We're really getting into an island routine. We've got a snorkeling with the turtles activity booked for today but it's become quite windy and overcast. There's
Oceania Cook Islands - Day 5 It's hike day! Up to The Needle. We've convinced most of the crew to come, although Jack has been a bit sick and sits it out. We set off to the North of the island where it's recommended to start the trek. You can
Oceania Cook Islands - Day 4 As promised we're up early for our sunrise paddle. We slam down a quick brekkie for some fuel and hit the lagoon. Sadly, she's a bit windy this morning but we get out there anyway and see what we can see. We paddle out to the
Oceania Cook Islands - Day 3 Later start this morning and straight downstairs for some homemade coffee and breakfast with the gang. Bacon and scrambled eggs for all. The weather is good and the water looks great so everyone is keen to get the sunscreen on (properly this time...) and get out there. Jeff and Cat
Oceania Cook Islands - Day 2 We're up early and feeling fresh, as we should be after averaging about 11 hours sleep each. We want to get to the markets around 9, so we tuck into some coffee, toast and eggs. Just as we're fishing our hosts drop off our breakfast. Whoops.
Oceania Cook Islands - Day 1 We take off from Sydney at 930pm Friday night and land in Raratonga at 7am Friday morning. Yep, the Cook Islands are 20 hours behind Sydney so we get to do Friday twice! Not a lot of sleep was had on that Jetstar flight, so we're feeling pretty
Oceania Green Gully Track - Day 4 Remember on day 2 when we were forced to bum slide down the mountain it was so steep? Well, today we're going back up. The plan is to leave a bit earlier this morning, as today's ascent is supposed to be criminal (600m in 3kms; steeper
Oceania Green Gully Track - Day 3 Nice easy start to the day. No hills scheduled, thank God. Just a lazy 13.5kms following the Green Gully Creek upstream the whole way to the next hut. Some of it will be on tracks, some we will have to make up ourselves. It doesn't take long
Oceania Green Gully Track - Day 2 - Bird's Nest Hut to Green Gully Hut We've got a cruisey 15km on the agenda today. Just kidding. Today is said to be the hardest all of 4 days on the hike, mainly due to the very steep descent. Jeff and his ankle are not looking forward to this. We start off with our usual
Oceania Green Gully Track - Day 1 - Cedar Creek Cottage to Bird's Nest Hut We arrived at around 6pm the night before, to a welcoming mob of kangaroos. The cottage and the setting had us pleasantly surprised. A great spot to transition out of the city head-space and slow it down ready for a week in the bush. We wake with trepidation on Day
Oceania Overland Track - Day 7 - Echo Point to Lake St Clair No rush today. We're 10 (hopefully) short kilometres away from the end of our journey. We are up early anyway. 530am after a great sleep. We decide to sit at the end of the jetty and watch the sun rise. It tries its best, and we see some
Oceania Overland Track - Day 6: Bert Nichols/Windy Ridge to Echo Point We wake at our usual early time and decide over breakfast and coffee that we'll combine today's hike with half of tomorrow's. The scheduled hike for today is only about 3 hours and tomorrow's (last day of the trek!) is around double
Oceania Overland Track - Day 5: Kia Ora to Bert Nichols/Windy Ridge We are up and ready for a new day. Bodies are feeling good, motivation is good. We smash down our breakfast and get back into our wet clothes... Yaaaay Time to take down the tent. Usually a nice, easy task considering there isn't much too it. Throw in
Oceania Overland Track - Day 4: Pelion to Kia Ora We survived our first night in a tent despite the rain and it was about 50x better (and quieter) than the huts. It seems like the sunny and clear weather was short lived, the cloud and drizzle is back. We head to the hut for our freeze dried brekkie (porridge
Oceania Overland Track - Day 3: Windermere to Pelion We're into a good routine of waking up around 6am when daylight starts breaking and today is no different. We've got a 17km hike ahead of us, so we don't want to dilly dally. We have our usual breakfast of freeze dried eggs, beef
Oceania Overland Track - Day 2: Waterfall Valley to Windermere Early to bed and early to rise! We're up before the sun thanks to our early bed time and woeful nights sleep. We decided to sleep in the hut and it was pretty noisy and uncomfortable. We're debating over breakfast whether to combine today and tomorrow&
Oceania Overland Track - Day 1: Ronny Creek to Waterfall Valley We're all up bright and early and before our alarms, anxious to begin the Overland Track. We head back to the visitor centre to meet the Overland company driver, who'll be taking our bag with non-hike gear, for us to pick up on the other side.
Oceania Overland Track - Day 0: Cradle Mountain Bus to Cradle Mountain arrived nice and early at our accommodation in Launceston. We don't start the trek until tomorrow, but decided head up to Cradle Mountain a day early, so we can head off as early as possible on day 1. We make a breakfast pit stop
Oceania Lake Tekapo to Christchurch It's our last full day of travel as we've got a very early flight back home tomorrow morning. We're keen to make the most of our last day, so one last hike is in order. We rise early, pack up the car and make
