AUCKLAND (NZ)

We arrived in Auckland at the end of May and we were really lucky being able to stay at Mike and Andrea's little apartment. We don't think we would have survived without them having hardly no money left and finding it difficult to find work straight away.

Petra finally found a job as a Dental Assistant in a really nice surgery in St Heliers Bay and Phil took on the challenge as a animal control officer (who is controlling who??).

After 4 weeks living with Andrea and Mike we had money again and could afford to share a little wooden house with another couple, Chris and Anna. Now we are saving up for a second hand car but that means working for a few more weeks.

We are planning to do little weekend trips on the North Island so you will hear from as soon.

MOOREA (TAHITI)

On Tahiti we walked all the way to the port in the boiling hot only to find out that all ferries to Huahine are fully booked a week in advance. A little bit disappointed we changed plans and took the ferry to the closer island of Moorea instead. The weather seemed nice and as we didn't camp for a few months we decided to give our tent another chance. We got flooded 2 nights in a row, one of the pols snapped and unfortunately it had to go in the bin after all.

We cycled 60km all around the island. The bikes were old and our bums did hurt badly after that day. We also snorkeled with white tipped sharks, sting rays and lots of other sea creatures. Hitch hiking is the best way to get around the island but it can be quite frustrating too seeing pick ups after pick ups and no one wants to pick US up.

After a week in the rain and the sun we headed to our final destination New Zealand and we were looking forward to meet up with Mike and Andrea.

LOS ANGELES

Our airport arrival was very humiliating being sent back three time before we finally filled in all the boxes correctly for American standards. We had no idea were to go, the information was already closed and we started to miss South America already. Luckily someone offered us a lift to a hostel in Santa Monica. We moved to Hollywood the next day, a more exciting area but also the start of Petra being ill. Phil enjoyed his freedom joining a 65 year old lady showing him around and buying him lunch. She even took him into a beauty saloon but unfortunately he refused any treatment. At night he met Marcus who bought him Jack Daniels until he could not remember anymore but he was very pleased with his achievements for the day.



Next day Petra was feeling better and we enjoyed a day at Universal studios with awesome rides and brilliant shows. Los Angeles is the place for the rich and famous and the strange and wired ones too. What we thoroughly enjoyed was suddenly getting hot water again for 24 hours and being able to throw toilet paper into the loo again even that we were still looking for the bin in every toilet. We left Los Angeles after a week staying at the airport 24hours before catching our next flight because Petra mixed up the times on the ticket.

OUR TRAVEL MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA

09/06 - 05/07

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS (EQUADOR)

We booked a 8 day boat tour to visit the Galapagos Islands. We saw many birds, lizards and mammals we would not get as close to anywhere else. We also did not have to share the first class boat with the older generation as we first thought. Instead it was a bunch of young people from various places in the world. Phil enjoyed his first lunch break jumping of the boat with Tanja and ended up with major headaches and a sinus infection. On his birthday he got two nice shots in his bottom from the island doctor and he finally started feeling better. He was not the only one staying in the cabin a lot. Alon, an Israeli guy got himself overdosed on seasickness tablets and we did not see and hear much of him until he realized his mistake. The tipping was apparently a sensible matter for the crew and so it was for our wallet too.

We decided very spontaneously to stay on the island for another week to do our PADI open water course but at first we spent a few days on Isabella to totally cure Phil's infection. We went to swim with turtles and rays, we were holding little shitting turtles and we saw two flamingos very close too. After 3 days we took the 2 hours speed boat back to Santa Cruz to start our diving course. Petra was absolutely useless to blow out the water from her goggles and Phil had a few problems with equalizing and we even lost him once (or he us). After 4 dives and a written test we are the proud owners of a diving certificate and we hope we will use it again soon.