The end of an Incredible Journey

Its hard to believe that 112 glorious days have already gone by and that we are at the end of our adventures. The last few days on the cruise ship were very relaxing as we passed over the equator and cruised into the port of Hilo. The weather was a little rainy and blustery so our plans to rent bicycles or kayaks were thwarted and we mainly shopped and walked around instead.

The final port of call was Honolulu which is by far the largest city in Hawaii and here is the spectacular night view of the skyline from our room.

Thinking back over everything we have done over those 4 months there is really not much else that we wanted to do or that we wish we could have done.

We did so many activities, including but is not limited to : walking, hiking, running, bushwalking, swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, biking, spelunking (cave exploring), jetboating, camel riding, pubbing, rock climbing, bridge climbing, lava walking (and Jude still has the scars to prove it!), dune buggying, camping, hobbit hunting, sailing, cruising, golfing, riding in a helicopter, a train and a skyrail, picture taking and last but not least Zorbing!

In terms of total distance travelled we have flown about 35,000 km, taken two cruises for another 18,500 km, rented cars and driven 4000 km and put another 2000 km on the camper van. That totals 60,000 km which is the same as travelling 1 1/2 times around the world!

We have had close encounters with all sorts of creatures including : kangaroos, alpacas, kiwis, dolphins, geckos, pythons, dugongs, lizards, giant spiders, sheep, lambs, deer, seals, wallabys, emus, cassowarys, humpback whales, octopuses, eels, fox bats, giant spiders, sea turtles, manta rays, sting rays, Jude's favorite the koala, saltwater crocs and of course sharks!

We would like to thank everyone for sending us so many great comments and emails. It has been lots of fun to share our experiences with everyone (about 1000 different people have read the blog!) and we now have a great record we can go back and reminisce some of the wonderful memories. It was full of so many incredible adventures that will live with us for a lifetime. Thanks for traveling with us via this blog over the thousands of miles we covered. We hope you enjoyed the journey, Andy and Jude