The Good Life Down Under

After visiting Kiwiland, it was time for our next stop: Oz. Our two weeks down under is actually almost coming to its end. We have a couple more days and then we will be heading to our next stop.

From Sydney we have been traveling the east coast up to Noosa. We had a few stops on the way: Port Stephens, Port Macquarie, Yamba and Brisbane; with many adventures in those towns. We spotted wildlife: koala’s, kangaroos, penguins and pelicans, and even fed them as well. We have been active for the last couple weeks as well: jumping from cliffs, bicycling at the beach and we’ve done some surfing. We barely managed to stand on the board, but it was a lot of fun though!

All the way from Noosa we went back to Sydney and drove further to Melbourne, with Crescent Head and Canberra in between. We did some more surfing and hanged out on the beach. We really try to absorb as much of the sun as possible before returning to cold winter wonderland :).

West from Melbourne there is a great road, which is called: the great ocean road. The scenery is amazing on this road. We spotted some more koalas’, seen amazing beaches and the 12 apostles.

Now its time to enjoy our last couple days in Sydney. We’ve already been to the harbor and downtown. We’ve been on a cruise see the skyline and Opera House from another view. And we even got invited by the captain to come and try to sail for ourselves, a great experience. In the end everyone survived the trip with us behind the wheel.

The only thing left on our list for Sydney is: Bondi beach. So tomorrow we are heading to the beach again.

Lots of love,

Lieu & Phuong

Land Of The Kiwi’s

After the small islands of Fiji, there is another island to discover: New Zealand.

First we had a couple days to discover Auckland.
After that we went further to the north part of New Zealand.
We had the chance to swim with dolphins at the Bay of Island. It was amazing to be able to swim close to them, but very exhausting as well.
You can’t give wild dolphins directions and it’s a big ocean so they will swim wherever they want of course. It was a great experience though.

Cape Reigna is the most northern part of New Zealand. At this point we were able to see two great oceans coming together.
The two colors, of the Tasmanian sea and the Pacific Ocean, are twirling into each other at this point.
We have already seen some big dunes near Chicago and thought it couldn’t get any bigger, but we were wrong.
On our way from Cape Reigna to the 90 mile beach, we first had a stop at one of the huge dunes for sandboarding with a boogie board.
The toughest part was getting on top of those dunes in the hot weather. Everytime we took one step forward, it seems the sand send us two steps back, but eventually we did get up there. And it took us about 4 seconds to get down again.
At the end of the day we got sand everywhere.
Driving the 90 mile beach with a rental car wouldn’t be such a bright thing to do, people have tried it and got stuck. During our trip in a tour bus we even saw some remains of the cars. 

They were left behind after getting stuck there.

We ended our New Zealand trip in Auckland again.
Time to fly to our next destination.
Which one will it be? Could you guess the right one?

Fiji; Another week in Paradise

After leaving Hawaii, we hopped on the airplane to go to another paradise; Fiji.

It’s Fiji time! Which means: relax and take it very easy.

The last couple days we indeed took it very easy, but time flies by when you’re having fun in paradise…

Our days were filled with hanging out at the beach or swimming pool, with a “island affair” or “tropical sin” cocktail in our hand.

Snorkeling and kayaking in the ocean. Walking at the long white sandy beaches at South Sea Island. 

Having a delicious tropical dinner at our resort and got entertained by Fijian people from the small villages.

We couldn’t ask for more..

Now it’s time for our new destination and more adventures. 

Aloha; A True Paradise

Aloha!

The last couple days we have spend on a paradise called Hawaii; Oahu.

We stayed near the famous Waikiki beach and each morning we could roll out from our bed onto the beach.

A true paradise indeed…

Hawaii; Oahu doesn’t only have beaches, there is so much more to discover.

This island has some beautiful nature treasures hidden all over the place.

And we had to see them all.

Even the water life is exciting. With a snorkeling tour at Hanauma Bay we had a closer look at all the exotic fishes and corals. 

We even saw a water turtle swimming around us.

By night we got entertained as they do it here; the Polynesian style.

We even learned how to hula dance their way. We are not good in it though but still it’s a lot of fun to learn it. 

It's time to leave this paradise for another one...

The Golden State: California Girls

After the city of sin it was time for something totally different and our next destination took us to our next State as well: California, here we come! 

In Fairfield we discovered the world of the delicious Jelly Belly Beans. It was so much fun to try all kind of flavours. Some of them were very tasty and some of them were just horrible. It was impossible to smell the disguisting flavour, so we just needed to take a bite to try them out. Skunk spray, Canned dog food, baby wipes, pencil shavings or rotten egg, can you imagine? And yes we really did try some of those flavours, but won’t tell you which one. Try to guess the right one ;).

One tiny Jelly Belly Bean will be gone in one bite, in about a second and guess how long it will take them to create just one bean. 

It will take them over a week to finish the whole process!

Time for our next stop: San Francisco, the city is build on about 43 hills. It has amazing views of the city on top of those hills, but it will take some effort to get there. The first hill will take your breath away and not only because of the great view. Walking during our stay was for sure the best work out we had in months. After a couple days non-stop walking in SF, it was time again to get in the car and go on with the journey.

Highway 1, well known as Pacific coastal Highway, is an All Americain Road with an amazing coastal scenery.  This road took us from San Francisco to L.A. with many stops on the way. 

Spotting sea lions, looking for moonstones in Cambria, visiting Santa Monica and many more things. Eventually we arrived in L.A.; our final destination for this roadtrip. 

The last few days we spend in Hollywood, Chinatown, Beverly Hills and downtown L.A.  We’ve seen the obvious tourist things like the Hollywood Sign, the walk of Fame and did some window-shopping on Rodeo drive. Beside those things we also visited the Farmers Market and the Grove. 

There were some unexpected suprises for us, like a meeting with a friend from L.A. she showed us all the local things, which is the best way to explore a new city. And a visit to the walk of fame turned in a free movie premier of the new movie The Company Men with Ben Affleck and Kevin Costner.  That was a nice suprise as well. 

A short recap of our last 5 weeks on the road:

- Travel from Florida all the way to California

- which took us through 19 states

- The yellow beetle have droven approximately 7000 miles (over 11.000 km)

- we used about 280 gallons (over 1000 liters) of gas

- spend our nights in 23 different hotels/motels

- have seen and done so many things

- and most of all: had a lot of fun!

We are ready to continue our journey. Do you wanna know where we will be spending our next 5 weeks? Read our next post :).

Love, Lieu&Phuong

Viva Las Vegas

Casinos, nights clubs and all over the top hotels are the things you will find in Fabulous Las Vegas.

We arrived in Las Vegas on the 31^st of October and that means Halloween; trick or treat!

The whole town was dressed up in the funniest costumes we ever had seen, like a huge baby ‘girl’ and a Parisian guy with his French poodle dog. 

It was nice to celebrate this holiday in the states.

On the second day we had time to visit the strip with all the crazy hotels over there. 

Each and every single hotel has a theme and many attractions. 

After walking all day there, we’ve seen the whole world. From Paris to Egypt to New York City and all the way back to Venetia. No need for a world trip anymore, we could easily pack our bags and go home ;).

It was really over the top. You could even find rollercoaster’s in some of the hotels!

We also had time to visit casinos and gamble a little bit and in the end, we even won some money!

The next day we went to the great Grand Canyon. 

Unfortunately the Grand Canyon wasn’t that great.

The last few weeks we’ve seen so many national parks in the states and this one just didn’t popped out for us.

But the view was still beautiful.

Next stop San Francisco.