Relaxing in Naxos

We arrived in Naxos after a 5 hr boat ride and strolled around the bays to the Flisvos resort which has nice accommodation just a few minutes from the beach and windsurfing hire center. We met Tommy and Sarah (from Wellington) who are working at Flisvos for the summer. I got a short sail in the afternoon in a light breeze. The center is really well kitted out with a huge range of RRD and Neil Pryde gear. We had a meal at the beach cafe and numerous cocktails with the kiwi crew.

On Wednesday we biked over the hill to Plaka beach and had a good look around the shops at Naxos. It's nice to come here before the peak season without the massive crowds this place is geared up for. On Thursday we hired a buggy and drove over the hill and down to Flisvos's Kitesurfing center. They're having unusually weird weather at the moment so there wasn't a huge amount of wind so we spent a few hours soaking up the rays at the beach before heading back to Naxos. By this time the wind had kicked in and I got out sailing on some big sails (7.7 and 8.2) for a few hours.

Arrived in Greece

Luckily we had Kerianne (one of Sheryl's friends) meet us at the airport and take us to her place in Glynfada. We spent most of Monday chilling out as we were quite tired from all our traveling. We decided to catch the early ferry on Tuesday to Naxos. We plan to return to Athens for 2 days later next week before we go to Egypt.

Rome in a day

We had 24 hours to see Rome - so as soon as we had caught the train to the Terminus we headed to our accommodation just 3 blocks away. Our vibrant and entrepreneurial host Mabri (he runs a laundromat, internet cafe and rents out the local's spare rooms!) gave us some tips so we could cram in all the mains sights. We got a crammed bus and headed towards the Vatican.

The buildings are amazing in Rome with such a long history behind everything. The city was packed with tourists so it was all pretty full on most of the time. Before our fight on Sunday we walked passed the forum towards the colosseum. We caught our plane to Athens on Sunday afternoon.

Croatian Islands

On Saturday we had a early start after staying the night in Central London so we could easily Tube it to Heathrow for our flight to Split in Croatia. We arrived in Split to a welcoming warmth in the air, our boat had already left at 1pm so we had to play a bit of catch up. We ended up chilling out at a restaurant for most of the afternoon eating pizza and drinking some local beer. Finally we caught a 830pm ferry to Stari Grad. The complete lack of taxis on arrival took us by surprise but we managed to squeeze into the old mini van to make it over to Hvar where our boat was moored. What a day!

On Sunday morning we met most of the other people on our boat which would be our home for the next 6 days. The local Croatians sailing and cooking for us were great with Igor quite an entertaining host! We were surrounded by Kiwis, Aussies and a few Brits and Canadians. Luckily our boat was mostly couples, the other boat that sailed with us had a pile of obnoxious Aussies and Kiwis who were intent on being drunk constantly. We met a neat couple from Wellington that a based in London that we'll catch up with when they get back in November. We quickly got used to the morning cruising, a swim before lunch on a few occasions (it was frickin cold), followed by huge cooked lunch. We got to visit some interesting towns, Dubrovnik being the highlight with its interesting history with the recent war in the mid 90's. We also squeezed in a day trip to Mostar in Bosnia Hertzgovna which is a town that got badly damaged during the same war. The week was really relaxing and great to see lots of different seaside towns in Croatia.

We left the following Saturday in torrential rain heading for Rome.

Chaotic London

We spent the last 4 days in London and stayed with Danny, Janine, Isla and Lulu in Hitchin, about a 30 minute train ride from central London. After quite a bit of flying we did a day trip up to Cambridge which was really relaxing and fun to punt down the river past all the schools of Cambridge University. We picked up some bargain on some warm clothing which was a must as it was only about 12 degrees - usually cold for this time of year. The next day we did the big bus tour in central London and went for a ride on the London eye and took a ride down the river Thames. We walked down Regent Street and had a good look at all the elaborate shops. We caught up with Anthony (Sheryl's old boss) for a curry and had a few beers with a couple of Sheryl's friends and Nick, Heather and Max. The transport system in London is really good but there is just so many people everywhere, so I can't see myself ever wanting to live there. A good place to visit though!

Bring on Beijing

We arrived in Beijing this morning after a 13hr flight from Auckland. Beijing is a busy modern city, unfortunately we didn't know the weekend was a national holiday so the population swelled well beyond the usual 16M.

We had a tour guide for most of our 4 days and crammed in all the main tourist attractions including the great wall, the Ming tombs, the forbidden city, the temple of heaven, the pandas at the zoo and the summer palace. We had a lunch with a local family in the Hutong district, got to see the Olympic site and went to cloisonne, jade, tea and silk factories. We even managed to squeeze in an acrobatic show and a peking duck dinner.

Waikiki beats the winter in Wellington

On Monday we got up early to get out to Kahului Airport for our flight to Hilo. We had such a great time in Maui but it seemed to go so quickly.

We picked up a rental car in Hilo and took the scenic drive around the coast to Kona. The resort we stayed at was located in a nice bay with heaps of restaurants and souvenir shops. This was a good chance for us to sit back and relax for a day or so, soak up a bit of sun and even squeeze in a bit of shopping at the new mall in Kona.

On Wednesday we drove down the coast and up the mountain towards the volcano. Unfortunately the weather changed pretty quickly and before long we were driving in torrential rain. It didn't let up and a lot of the roads were closed due to dangerous levels of sulphur and recent lava flows so we bailed and drove onwards back to Hilo.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived back in Honolulu. Our flight was interesting as the plane was mostly full with US marines coming to Oahu before they head off to Afghanistan.

Waikiki is a pretty mad place, there are people everywhere! Who said we're in a recession? The hotel we're staying at is just across the road from the beach and the view from our room is pretty awesome. It's really warm here - 30 degrees today so we hit the shops this morning and then went down to the beach later this afternoon. We'll try and get down to the beach earlier tomorrow before it gets too hot. Having a great time!