We travelled in a minibus to Kilimanjaro airport. We had to pass through security immediately on entering the airport, and once through, were able to check in our luggage. We went for a coffee and bought some bottles of water. When we made our way to the gate, we found yet another security gate which meant we weren't able to take our bottles of water on the flight. We sat down and drank our way through 750ml of water and then boarded. The door onto the plane was at the rear of the plane, and the engines were already fired up, which meant we were being blasted with really hot air and exhaust fumes as we boarded the plane. It was a relief to finally get on board and breath air-conditioned air. The flight was with Precision Air and was on a small turbo prop plane similar to those that fly from Wellington to Nelson. The flight was comfortable, and we left 15 minutes early.

When we arrived at Zanzibar airport and left the plane, the heat that hit us was quite intense. We caught a taxi to St Monica's hostel where we were to spend the night.

We wanted to visit a tourist centre and needed to book a ferry back to Dar es Salaam on the Sunday. The hostel arranged for a taxi to take us to the necessary locations. First up was the tourist centre. The taxi driver took us to the water front, to a small shop. To us it didn't really look like a main tourist centre. We asked to go to the government tourist information, so he took us there. When we arrived, it turned out to be just an office. There was a locked glass cabinet containing brochures for various attractions and accommodation, but we couldn't get access to it. In the end, we abandoned the tourist centre and decided just to book our ferry. The taxi driver took us to the harbour, which was alive with the hustle and bustle of people moving around, and touts attempting to sell tickets. We emerged from the taxi and was immediately surrounded by 7 men asking us if we wanted to book a ferry. One of the men sheperded us into a ticket booth where we were able to book and pay for our ferry in relative safety. For an extra $5USD each, we were able to book a VIP seat, what ever that means.

We had arranged a spice tour for the afternoon, and around 3pm, the Taxi came to collect us. The taxi had no rear shock absorbers, so it felt similar to travelling around in a wooden horse drawn cart. He took us to a bank so that we could draw some cash out, but as your'll read later, this wasn't enough. We continued onto the spice fields, and we were greated by Cecil our guide for the afternoon.

The spice tour was really interesting, and we were shown many different plants, and in most cases were asked to guess what the spices were from the aroma and look of the plant or its fruit. Catherine was used to show the different uses of some of the spices, for example lip stick, and a pair of glasses made from Pineapple leaves. Later on in the tour we were able to sample milk from a young coconut from a small coconut tree, and taste a ruby grapefruit. We were also presented with crowns made from banana leaf, and Paul was also presented with a Banana leaf tie, but these would have to remain in Zanzibar, because New Zealand quarantine rules wouldn't allow us to return with these items. The taxi driver took us back to the hostel.

I downloaded Google Maps for my mobile phone and searched for somewhere to eat out in Stone town. We found Mercury's bar which was on the water front, but the phone number on Google was wrong, so we couldn't call them to reserve a table. We spoke to reception at the hostel and they recommended Mecury's bar, so we decided to walk there. We headed in the general direction from the hostel, through narrow passage ways, and tall buildings. It was past 7pm, so was dark and we had to rely on the street lighting. Some of the alleys seemed dark, so we avoided them. We eventually came out into the old part of Stone town and Paul spotted a sign for Mercury's bar. Several people approached us asking if we were looking for somewhere to eat, another man was trying to sell music CD's and another asked for money. Relieved, we eventually arrived at the bar and were treated to a good meal and view of old Stone town which was now illuminated.

The following morning we had arranged for a minibus to collect us from the hostel and travel up to Kwenda beach in the north of the island. The journey was just over an hour was was taken at high speed. Every time anyone was near or on the road either on foot or on a bicycle or moped, the driver would beep his horn. It apears to be a "get out of my way or I'll run you over"attitude here. We hadn't booked any accommodation at the beach, but met a South African couple on the minibus that had stayed at Sunset bungalows before and recommended it. The road was tar sealed all the way up to Kwenda, but was a bumpy dirt track to the resort. We arrived at a walled resort with a large gate. Paul went to check out the various accommodation options and left Catherine at reception with the packs. After consideration, I decided on the Deluxe Bungalow with airconditioning, on the beach. It was $70USD per night, but was within budget. We could walk out of the bungalow, straight onto the beach. The beach wasn't very busy, and at any one time there were probably only 10 to 15 people on the entire 100m stretch of the beach. For lunch and evening meal we had the choice of several bars, but mainly ate at the restaurant associated with our accommodation, or Kwenda Rocks next door. We hadn't anticipated the remoteness and lack of infrastructure at the resort, and hadn't bought enough cash with us, so the fact that the Kwenda Restaurant next door was able to take Visa, meant that we had most of our meals there.

The South African couple that we met on the minibus were booked on a snorkeling trip to a corel reef and invited us. Due to our money situation, we weren't able to do it, but after chatting with the guide we had an opportunity to stop at the bureau de change to get some money using my card.

On our first full day at Kwenda beach we were up faily early for breakfast, so that we could meet the snorkeling boat on the beach at 8.30am. 6 of us departed from Kwenda beach, and we stopped several times to collect another 7 passengers. We called in at Nungwi to try on some masks and flippers, and we took the opportunity to get some cash, but the bureau de change was closed. We left Nungwi for the coral reef. The boat we travelled in was a smallish wooden sail boat with a 40HP outboard and we cruised along at a very slow rate, taking about 2 hours to get to the reef.

We eventually arrived at the reef, and were given some do's and don'ts and then told to go and enjoy ourselves. There was a slight hesitency as people got ready and waited for the first person to jump in. We were soon in the water and swimming amongst the fish and coral. It was the first time Paul had snorkeled amongst coral, and it was amazing. He had his waterproof camera with him, so took plenty of photos and video of the fish and coral. After about 15 minutes Paul returned the camera to the boat and then continued snorkeling with Catherine. We eventually all returned to the boat and then set off for the beach for a fresh fish BBQ. After the BBQ, we started our journey back to Kwenda, under sail, although it was a slow journey back, and the tide was going out, and we occasionally scraped the bottom of the boat on the rocks and sand. We had another attempt at getting cash, but the bureau de change was closed again. We had an awesome day, the weather was fantastic, and we were really happy that we had the experience to go snorkeling in Zanzibar, despite the cash flow problem.

Our second full day on the beach we decided to completely relax, and spent the whole day on the beach, and swimming in the ocean. There was a brief rain shower at lunchtime, but the sun came out again in the afternoon. The previous 2 nights we had experienced an awesome Indian Ocean sunset, but tonight we missed it. We a candel lit dinner on the beach at the Kwenda Rocks restaurant, and then retired to bed.

The following morning we had to be up, packed and ready to leave the beach, and head back to Stone town by 10am. The minibus collected us and we hurtled along the narrow roads back to Stone town. We had agreed with the driver, to drop us off at the Mercury bar, which was immediately adjacent to the ferry terminal, and that is where we are now. We've been here for the past 3 hours, and have another 45mins before we are able to board the ferry, although, as yet, there is no sign of the ferry. We've had an excellent lunch and it's a beautiful day here. We're looking forward to sitting on an air conditioned boat for 2 hours. Tonight we stay at the Jambo Inn in Dar, and then start our journey back to New Zealand tomorrow, arriving in Wellington late Tuesday night.

If you've got this far reading our blog, thank you :-)

We arrived at the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge as the sun was casting a shadow across the crater. There was a faint haze over the crater, making it look sereal like a landscape painting. We had an awesome view from our room. When we woke we couldn't see the crater at all, because of the thick fog that filled the crater. We left the lodge for safari the next day at 7.30am, and drove down the steep road into the crater. Straight away we came across zebra and wildebeast. Two female zebras were having a bit of a girly scrap, running after each other kicking and screaming, which was quite entertaining to watch. Later on we came across a herd of water buffalo that had blocked the road. If it had been wildebeast, we would have just driven through them, but because water buffalo are very agressive and would charge at any opportunity, Cypy turned the truck around and diverted our course. Sections of the crater were in flower, with mainly yellow flowers similar to rapeseed. It reminded Paul of England. We came across a warthogs family, which included a mummy and daddy warthorts and three little piglet warthogs. At the start they ran away with their tails in the air, which is a sign of danger. But after a while they came closer to our truck and were quite inquisitive. During the day we saw several elephants, most of which with OAPs (old age pensioners). The old elephants go to the crater to retire because there is plentiful soft grass to eat and although they have seven sets of teeth during their lifetime, when they get to a ripe age of about 60, they have run out of sets. There appeared to be a firemans hose coming from the undercarriage of one elephants, with enough pressure to put out a small house fire. There was also an elephant in the forest munching on branches of trees. Out on the grassland again, Cypy spotted what looked like warthogs in the distance, but for their size and distance from the truck they appeared too large. As we waited, straining to see the animals through binoculars, eventually they stood up and we realised they were actually a pair of black rhino! Black rhino are extremely rare in the wild in Africa, so we felt extremely privledged to see them . =20 Cypy got word that there were some lions nearby, and we followed a convoy of Citroen employees down a narrow infrequently used track, in about 8 tinny little 4x4s. In the end it turned out to be a wild goose chase and we turned around and headed to the hippo pool for lunch. While at the hippo pool, Cypy and Catherine went to use the facilities, and Paul started eating his lunch in the truck. Cypy had advised us to eat in the truck because otherwise the black kites would swoop and steal our lunch from us. Paul stood up, eating his lunch as he tried to spot hippos from out of the sun roof. When he turned back to his seat, a small yellow bird was helping itself to what remained of his lunch. The moral of the story is that small things can catch you unaware, while you're watching out for the big things :) Once we'd successfully eaten our lunches, we drove out the steep and windy road up the crater rim to our next destination, Mosquito River, a town outside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The following day we went on a cultural tour of the town. Freddy, an avid Manchester United fan, took us on a tour of the town which is populated by numerous tribes from different parts of Africa including those that fled from Mozambique during their civil war in the 1970s. That tribe from Mozambique were reknown for their wood carvings, and we saw a group of men carving and were encouraged to buy their art (we bought some salad services which we hope we can get through customs). We were also shown an open-air art studio and gallery. We didn't buy any paintings. Walking out of the gallery we walked near a funeral. Appartently a man in his 20's from the village had died from anemia, we could hear loud cries and shrieks from mourning women, but didn't see any of the funeral. Next stop was the local pub that served locally brewed banana beer. The pub was actually just a grass hut, and we were served a large plastic cup of banana beer. It was largely wasted on us as it was not to our taste. Catherine had two sips just to be polite and Paul had three sips to prove he was a man. We also when into a kindergarten for 3 to 6 year olds. There were 75 kids in one room with one teacher - not a job that we envied. The kids were v ery cute, but seemed to chew on their exercise books like chewing gum rather than write in them! The teacher showed us how they learnt by reciting and singing as a big group. There were lots of unfinished houses in the town. Freddy explained that people spent money on building the houses when they could, and a expensive house of brick or concrete block could take up to 20 years to be completed. The traditional mud house only took 2 weeks to complete, but were being slowly replaced with brick or concrete ones.

Back at our accommodation, we joined Cypy for lunch, picked from exactly the same menu as the previous night 'beef, chicken, or fish. Rice, chips or mashed potatoe'. We had yummy mashed potatoe with beef stew. After lunch we drove back to Moshi. That night we had dinner out with Sandra and Frank to celebrate Sandra's birthday.=20 The following morning we were to fly from Mt Kilimanjaro airport to Zanibar.

Greetings from Zanzibar. We arrived here today after a 5 day safari.

Our safari started on Friday the 24th April, but we met the guide and saw the vehicle on the Thursday, and were completely stoked with the vehicle we had be given.

Cypy arrived 8am on Friday morning and we left for the Serengeti. We stopped at the Ngorongoro conservation area gate on the way, for lunch. We passed a large group of baboons sitting in the middle of the road, and after pausing briefly for photos we continued on our way.

We stopped off at Oldu vai gorge for some history in to different human species, which was really interesting.

We saw many animals on the road between Ngorongoro and the Serengeti, including a Hyena with a broken leg, which we felt very sorry for. We arrived at the Serengeti lodge around 6pm. It was an awesome loged, built on the side of some huge rocks, and the rooms looked across the Serengeti. We had vervet Monkeys living in a tree outside our room, and when we left the balcony door open, the got a little too friendly, and we decided it was safer to leave the door closed. We had dinner in the restaurant with only a handful of other tourists, and then went to bed.

On Saturday, we were up early, had breakfast and was out on Safari by 8am. The morning was a bit slow, but we saw 2 leapods lying in different trees, and one of them having an antelope of some description in the tree with it. This was it's lunch and dinner, and it kept it in the tree to keep in away from other predators. We stopped for lunch at the Serengeti international airport, actually it was just a grass air strip :) On the way we encountered a large group of Baboon with young. We stopped for a while to watch the young playing, jumping and swimming in a pool by the side of the road.

After lunch we drove further afield and ended up at the visitors centre. We started following the Wildebast trail that led us around the centre, when someone approached us advising us that there was a Cheetah in the centre and we should head straight back to the main building. As we turned to head back to the building, Catherine and Cypy spotted what looked like a leopard jumping up a rock about 30m away! We quickly walked back to the buidling. There we met an Engish couple that had come face to face, with what turned out to be the same Leopard. We left the centre and carried on our tour, and screeched to a stop when we saw a lioness in the grass 2m away from us. And about 100m away were about 4 others with cubs in a tree. Serengeti lions climb trees to see their prey. We saw the lionesses stalk some prey, unsuccessfully. It was amazing to see these wild animals in action so close to us.

We left the lionesses and drove further around the park. We were following and being followed by an English couple in their 4x4, in case either of the vehicles broke down or became stuck. We spotted a stationary 4x4 about 200 metres away and after looking through binoculars we could see that they had stopped by a Cheetah. When we arrived at the location of the 4x4, we discovered a Cheetah feeding on an Antelope of some description, but it was slightly obscured by the grass, to the relief of Catherine who wasn't sure about seeing Bambi being tucked into by a wild cat. Everytime the Cheetah stood up, there was a ralley of camera shutters and it felt more like a cat walk, than a cat feeding. After seeing the Cheetah, we headed back to the lodge for the evening.

On Sunday, we were up at the same time and checked out of our lodge for a day game drive in the Serengeti park. The morning was pretty quiet. We saw what we though were people in a 4x4 taking photos of a pigeon, but it turned out to be a Goshawk. We left the park and headed towards the Ngorongoro conservation area. We stopped at the Serengeti gate for lunch, before continuing our journey.

In between the Serengeti gate and the Ngorongoro crater we saw a migration on a scale neither of us had experience before. Thousands and thousands of Wildebeast and Zebra crossing the road, and lines of them disappearing off in to the distance in either direction. Ahead of us we saw a Hyena walking in the middle of the road, and as we got closer we saw another with something red and dripping in it's mouth, and realised that there had been a kill. We saw a group of hyenas about 150m away, but it was too far to see what they had brought down.

We carried on towards Ngorongoro and came across at Tortoise on the side of the road. As we started climbing up onto the Ngorongoro crater plateau we spotted a group of Giraffe with young, feeding on Acacia trees right by the side of the road. Some of the giraffe crossed the road behind the vehicle.

We carried on our journey to the Ngorongoro wild life lodge to spend the evening there before the game drive in the Crater in the morning.

After 5 days slowly working our way up Kilimanjaro, we camped yesterday at = Barafu camp, and went to bed around 6pm.

At 11pm Catherines alarm went off and it was time for our final push up the = Mountain. We got into our tramping gear, which included 3 bottom layers, = and 4 upper layers, including a down jacket. We couldn't under estimate how = cold it was at over 5000m.

When we emerged from our tent, we discovered that it had been snowing, and = there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, about 5mm.

We had 7 hours of walking, all up hill, in front of us, and a head torch to = guide our way in the pitch dark. It was a clear night, and we could just = make out the silouette of Kibo against the night sky.

We reached the final zig zag climb which leads up to Stella point, and = feeling pretty good. That feeling didn't last too long, and after an our = climbing up to Stella point, we were both feeling pretty exhausted, a = little bit nauseous, dizzy and didn't know how long we had left to go. Paul = had mixed feelings, on the one hand was so tired, feeling sick, difficult = breathing, headache and wanted just to get off the mountain, and on the = other hand, had come so far, and wanted to reach the summit at any cost. We = eventually reached Stella point at 5756m, and the horizon was starting to = turn an orange yellow colour. We still had 140m to climb to the = summit.

140m doesn't sound far, but it was the longest 140m we had every climbed. = Thoughts were still going through our heads about abandoning the = climb.

After 7 hours, we eventually reached the summit. It was so beautiful, and = had been such a physically and mentally exhausting challange for both of = us, that we cried. The rising sun was glistening off the glaciers around = the rim of the crater. There were less than 20 people at the summit, having = their photos taken next to the summit sign.

This has been the most physically and mentally demanding chanllenge that = either of us has ever done, and it will take a lot to beat it.=20

I haven't mentioned this to Catherine yet, but maybe we could do the walk = to Everest base camp ;-)

Another awesome morning with awesome views of Kebo, and Mount Meru poking it's top out through the clouds.

We had a 3hr walk from Karanga camp to Barafu camp, the final camp before the summit climb. We were given a fantastic lunch and dinner, prepared our clothes and packs for the climb, and now it's time for Lala Salaama. We have set the alarm for 11pm, and will be starting the climb at midnight.

We are excited, but a little anxious.

We woke to an awesome view of Kebo from our tent, and also a view looking down the mountain over a sea of cloud.

We had a shorter walk today, so we left a little later, around 10ish. The first climb of the day was Barranco wall. A steep 300m climb straight up. The mist started shrouding the wall, but cleared to give us an awesome view back to the campsite. From the top of Barranco wall, we had a gentle up and down walk until we reached Karanga valley, where we had a steep climb down, and then back up the otherside to the campsite.=20

One of the groups that were camping with us at Barranco had walked straight to Barafu camp, but we had split this stretch of the walk in two, to give us some more acclimatization.

We arrived just in time to miss the rain, and were treated to a chicken and chips lunch. Not sure about 4 day old chicken, but hopefully they wouldn't try to poison us.

Tomorrow is another short day, and will be the last day before the climb to the summit.

The rain has stopped, the clouds have cleared and we had an awesome view of Mt Meru, Moshi and beyond.

When we emerged from our tent at Shira camp we had an awesome view of Kebo the summit. There seems to be a pattern, it's clear in the morning and the evening, and it starts raining around 1pm.

When we started walking, it was clear and warm, and we were wearing short sleeve tops. By the time we reached the path to Lava tower, it was hammering it down with rain. It was cloudy, and there wouldn't be anything to see, so we decided to walk straight to the Barranco camp. As we walked down the valley to the camp, the clouds cleared briefly and we were treated to a view of the tower. We were able to find a cave to shelter and eat our lunch.

We arrived at the camp, wet, cold, and miserable and we discovered that our tent was leaking. We changed into dry clothes, and the porter Dominic brought us a bowl of hot water so that we could wash.=20

As the evening drew in, the rain started to ease, and then the skies cleared.=20

For some reason Paul wasn't feeling too flash. He was cold and shivering, and had 3 layers on and was inside his sleeping. From there he ate his dinner, served to him by nurse Moss and then laid down and didn't talk to nurse Moss the whole evening because he could only manage a grunt. Later on, his body recovered.

That was our 3rd day on the mountain.

Sorry, I didn't take any photos on my phone today, so I've attached a photo of the map of Kilimanjaro showing Barranco.

We got up around 7am, and a bowl of hot water was brought to our tent for washing. Our new sleeping bags had provided us with a very warm nights sleep.

When we eventually emerged from our tent, we discovered a beautiful morning, blue sky and an awesome view of the summit. We sat outside for our breakfast, which consisted of porridge and a cooked breakfast. We packed our bags and started the steep ascent to the Shira camp at 3700m.

We stopped for lunch around 12. There was a group of Americans walking the same route, and they just didn't stop talking. After lunch we continued the climb, and as we did, I started to feel a headache coming on. By the time we reached the camp, around 1.30, I just wanted the lie down. I took some pain killers, and by the time dinner was ready, I was able to eat some of it. Catherine didn't have a headache, but was feeling a bit breathless. She read all afternoon while I rested.

It's going to be much colder tonight, and a clear sky means there will be frost of the ground in the morning. Catherine has set the alarm for 6.45am.

Friday morning we were expecting the arrival of the Kilimanjaro crew around 9am, but 10am passed, then they eventually arrived at 11am in a small pickup. We had a few bits and pieces to buy on the way, and arrived at the park gate around 12.

After signing the gate register, we started the climb. Slowly slowly we went, about 2km/hr. It was such a slow pace that it was almost tedious, but the rainforest was beautiful. It was dry at first, but after lunch it started to rain. Because we had left the gate so late, we didn't arrive at the camp site until after dark. We unpacked our bags, dinner was brought to our tent and presented beautifully, but it was a little cramped. We went to bed around 10ish.

The first camp was at 3000m above sea level, so no issues with altitude sickness.

It's been noted that there is an issue with the date of the blog entries, this looks like it has been caused by the changing time zone, and I'm not able to fix it here, so I hope it's not too confusing, and you will be able to read the latest entries.

Another beautiful morning in Cape town again. We drove our hire car to the airport and dropped it off at the rental place. Checked our luggage in and boarded the flight to Johannesburg. When we arrived at Jo'burg airport, we waited for our luggage, but it never arrived. After checking our luggage label we realised that it had been sent straight through to Dar es Salaam.

The flight from Jo'burg to Dar es Salaam was with South African Airways, and we had heaps of leg room.

We arrived in Dar, and I had several attempts to complete my visa and immigration forms, and after half an hour, we were handed back our passports.

We walked around looking for our luggage, Catherine found my pack, but there was no sign of Catherines pack. Catherine lodged the missing pack with lost and found and we left the airport. Catherine was very calm at first but had a small melt down in the taxi. $25USD got us a taxi from the airport to the Jambo Inn.

Wednesday morning we had breakfast and then caught a taxi to the Scandinavian bus terminal. The journey took 8hours from Dar es Salaam to Moshi. The bus was cramped, but we could open the windows which kept us cool.

We arrived in Moshi around 5.30pm where Sandra was waiting to take us to her bed and breakfast. We had an awesome view of Kilimanjaro from the back garden, and sat down with a bottle of Kili beer and watched the sun set against the mountain. We had dinner at the Keys Hotel, and then went to bed.

Today is Thursday, and last night we heard that Catherines bag had been located and flown to the Kilimanjaro airport. It was 40km from Moshi, so Sandra kindly offered to drive us there. Catherine had to enter the airport via a security gate, collect her luggage and return through security at Arrivals. When she appeared at the arrivals lounge she had the biggest smile you can imagine :-D

We had lunch at a cafe in Moshi, and then bought a Tanzania sim for my phone, and booked our flights to Zanzibar. We then walked back to the house, where Catherine is now having a shower and putting on some clean clothes, after 3 days in the same clothes :-)

Tonight we'll meet the guide and cook for our climb up Kilimanjaro, and then pack our bags ready for tomorrow.

We've had a fairly relaxing time in George. Thursday morning we got up, had breakfast and then spent most of the day relaxing by, and in the pool. Later on in the evening we met up with Jared and Andri at their holiday home on the coast, and then went for drinks on a cliff top overlooking the Indian Ocean and watching the sun set. We then went back to the house where Jareds parents were staying, and they cooked an awesome Braai (charcoal BBQ)

Friday we drove along the coast to Knysner, and then on to Tsitsikama and Storms river, stopping off at the highest bungy jump in the world. We took a walk along the coast to a waterfall. I stopped to take some video. While catching up with the others, I rolled my ankle, and sat on the floor for several minutes thinking about the Kilimanjaro walk. That evening when we got home, my ankle had come up like a balloon.

Saturday morning we met up for brunch with Jared and his mates, Catherine was the only girl, and she tried to use that as an excuse to go shopping ;-)

Saturday afternoon we drove to the venue for Jared and Andris wedding. It was a pretty spectacular place, and was a perfect setting for the wedding. Catherine danced, and I hobbled the night away, and we all got back to the house around 1 in the morning.

Sunday morning we met up with some locals from the wedding and went to an ostrich farm about 60km from George. We drove over a mountain range to reach the farm, and at was a spectacular driver, and once on the otherside, was noticably dryer than the George side. We had an hour guide around the ostrich farm, and then had an opportunity to sit on and ride an ostrich. I could sit on, but not ride the ostrich, because I was too heavy, but it was probably the safest option considering my ankle.

After the ostrich farm we drove over to some caves for an hour tour. The caves were huge, and I got some great photos using my new tripod.

Sunday evening we drove back to George and Catherine and I packed ready for our drive back to Cape town.

Monday morning, we started our drive back to Cape town, stopping off at the transport museum in George for a quick look.

We stopped at Mossel Baai for some lunch and then continued on to Onrus where we had dinner, and then drove back to Cape town arriving around 8ish.

It's now Tuesday, my ankle is much better, and the swelling has gone down. We caught a flight from Cape town to Johannesburg and we are now waiting at Jo'burg airport for our flight to Dar es Salaam, and the start of our adventure on Kilimanjaro.

Our last day in Sydney started off dull and windy, but turned into an awesome afternoon with clear blue skys. We caught the ferry out to Taranga zoo. Due to the cost, and the fact that we were going to be on a 5 day safari in a couple of weeks, we decided to skip it and walk around the pininsular instead.

We had a fairly early start on the Monday morning and Jeff drove us out to the airport for our 10am flight. The Qantas flight from Sydney to Jo'burg was average. We arrived in Jo'burg to a pretty new and modern terminal building and had a few hours to kill before our flight, so found an Irish bar and I had a pint of Guiness and a basket of chips.

The flight from Jo'burg to Cape Town was good, I managed to get an hour sleep. Mike, Andrew and Nicolai met us at the airport, and we picked up the hire car and drove to the Backpackers.

We stayed at the Zebra backpackers, and it had pretty good facilities and really pleasent surroundings, an awesome view of Table Mountain.

This morning we took a drive to the coast and sat on the beach eating breakfast. Afterwards we drove up to the Table Mountain car park. The queue for the cable car was huge, but that didn't bother us, because we planned on walking to the top, a total of 600m. It was really hot, and it was difficult to judge how far we had left to go. The sign at the entrance said 2hours, and we managed to do it in 1hr 40, and were pretty pleased with ourselves.

This afternoon we went to the Victoria and Alfred waterfront, walked around for a bit and then drove along the coast to watch the sunset, and have dinner before heading back to the backpackers for a well deserved sleep.

Tomorrow we pick up the cars and drive up the Garden Route to George.

We had an early start Wednesday morning, or at least it was meant to be. Collected the hire cars from town and drove out to Simonstown for some breakfast. After breakfast we drove out to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point.

As we started walking up to the lighthouse, a young girl had her ice cream snatched by a hungry Babboon. We continued up the path to Cape Point and stopped many times to take a look at the awesome view across to the Cape of Good Hope.

After our visit to Cape point we started our drive to George. We stopped off to have a look at the penguins. It was awesome seeing them in a natural habitat, groups of them swimming up onto the beach.

The drive from Cape point took 3 hours and we arrived late Wednesday evening.

Catherine and I were up at 4.15am yesterday morning, ready for the shuttle at 4.40am. After an hour getting through check-in, customs and security, we finally boarded the plane. The flight with Air New Zealand was nothing special. Catherine and I were in the last row by the toilets, which meant we couldn't recline our seats.

We arrived in Sydney in good time, and Tina and Jamie were already there waiting for us. We left the airport and went to watch Troy playing football. The weather wasn't too flash, there was a cold southerly, but not as cold as a Wellington southerly. After the football Jeff took us for a tour of the bays and beaches. We went to Botany bay and saw where Cook first landed in Australia.

We got back to the house and Tine cooked us an awesome bacon and eggs.

After lunch Jeff took us to the place where he works. There is a lot of history in Sydney, and many old buildings. We then drove out to Bondi beach, had a brief walk on the sand, and then went to a cafe for a hot drink and a huge chocolate cake.

Tina and Jeff dropped Catherine and I off at a beach on the way back home, and we walked along the coastal path. The sea was really rough and that made for a pretty spectacular coast line.

Today, we are going to head into the city, visit the Opera house and harbour bridge.

Tomorrow morning we fly to South Africa.

While searching Youtube for a video on Kilimanjaro, I stumbled across this classic from Monty Python. Thankfully we won't be using their guides. :)

Enjoy

It's getting close now, with only 2 more evenings availble for packing before we fly to Sydney, and every waking moment spent getting ready for our holiday.

Afrter putting our packing list together, I was starting to wonder if I was going to have enough room for everything. Our back packs will have our camping and tramping gear for the Kilimanjaro walk, as well as all the usual holiday stuff that you take away with you.

I finished writing the software for the website this evening, so hopefully this update will find it's way to you.