I spent 5 great days in Tokyo, an amazing city. There is just endless sprawl of tall city miles in every direction, except the acres of gardens, open space and moat around the Imperial Palace. There are impressive skyscrapers, traditional markets and temples, lots to see! The first area I visited was the famous Tsukiji fish market which was chaotic and fun.

I also did a day trip to Mt Fuji, meeting some people from UK and Australia who all had their own story about why they were in Tokyo. The Aussie guy was there coming back from LA to Sydney, taking the long route as he got the flight for free, and was very interesting to here his views on Sydney and how backwards he thinks the government is.

The Sushi restaurant I visited was an authentic experience. None of this conveyor belt stuff I have seen before. They serve you like in a restaurant, and they prepared the dishes to order, but I sat at a bar opposite where the food was being prepare by the hard working team of cooks. There is constant shouting between the cooks and the waiting staff and makes for a noisy and lively atmosphere. Although it was good Sushi I didn't go back as there is only so much raw fish I can stand eating!

I am now in Bangkok and had to take 2 flights and a long ride from the airport in obscene traffic to get here so going to relax and decide what to do next. The weather is looking better in Laos over the next few days so probably will head there today or tomorrow. Although in an ideal world I want to see Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, I don't think it is worth it as it will be chucking it down there.

The last few days have been tremendously busy, so not much time for blogging. I am waiting for my flight to Sydney to connect to Tokyo. I think it is 4 hours then 9 hours. This time I have sleeping pills. I've never taken pills to sleep in my life so this will be a new experience, hopefully it will be like time travel...

So what have I been up to? Well yesterday I did a 19km trek with some steep climbs - the Tongariro crossing. It is where you find "Mt Doom" of Lord of the Rings, impressive waterfalls, bush, snow, colourful rocks, beautiful lakes and pools. Many thanks to The Doctor for recommending it. It is one of the world's best one day walks - apparently. I loved doing the crossing but visibility was poor and I think summer would be better. I ache a bit now, but not as much as I thought (I assumed I would be completely immobile today!)

Also did the usual Rotorua things - Geysers, Geysers and more Geysers! Some Geysers 'just worked' and others required chemicals to be chucked down them to fizz up. More impressive than the Geysers are the colourful pools of water that form in that area such as the Champagne Pool - photo to come later...

At Te Puia I watched the traditional Maroi war dance and greeting between tribes (us tourists were the visiting tribe).

I've also met people and chatted with people more over the last few days, which has helped me feel less isolated on the other side of the world. Whilst exploring Rangitoto Island I met a couple of private investment bankers from... well London who were doing a 3 week North and South island trip whilst enjoying gardening leave. So like me they had 1 week for the North Island and were belting it round.

Some pictures to come soon. Once I get to Japan I will upload a few from the last few days of NZ.

I look forward to Tokyo where I don't need to drive over 200km and walk 19km just to tick something off my list!

P.S. Please shoot me for talking in silly units like kilometeres!

Sunday I got my hire car - and it looks like an old banger, but I paid old banger money. The boot randomly opened while driving it today, and they set me off with a nearly empty tank, so I desperate drove aorund looking for fuel ... but it drives like a beauty and like the car in Australia it is automatic, which I really like as you can use the spare hand to hold a map.

I did a 2 hour sailing trip on my first day in an 1995 America's Cup (I think) racing yacht. It's one where the passengers have to get physical and help the crew sail ... which I think is a cheek! Opening line was "It takes 17 people to sail a boat like this and as you can see there are only 4 of us....". The views of Auckland were spectacular.

I started the west coast with a look at Kare Kare beach as recommended by Dan. It is in a beautiful landscape, the first thing I saw was an amazing waterfall and I met a camping guy who was moaning that there was nowhere to refill his water. Which reminded me I needed to get some water if I was going be out walking and stuff, so I drove up to Piha to get the water and check out that beach. The beaches I saw all had black sand and some have a mix of black and gold / silver colours which looked rather cool.

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Rima and I set a budget of £500 each, the max we would pay each for a cheeky last minute upgrade to business class. However the check in girl had a rod up her backside and took great pleasure in not only telling us there were no upgrades, but in seating us in different rows in the plane. This was awful :-(

Anyway Rima managed to save the day ... with a massive queue behind us at the gate, she argued with the guy checking the boarding passes and magically two seats next to each other appeared and we got those.

On arriving at Sydney we were warmly greeted by a Rima's family and friends and family. Her younger sister Samar was very helpful, lugging our cases and driving us back. We got back in the evening and I met her parents who are lovely, they made us some traditional Lebanese food including stuffed zucchini (aka courgette). I thought I was tired but for some reason it was impossible to sleep.

On the first day we slept alot but managed to go and visit McMahons Point for a wonderful night-time view of The Bridge and The House.

The next day Rima took me to Bondi beach - the famous beach that I missed last time I came to Sydney as I went straight on a tour. It's a beautiful beach and considering it's 10 minutes from the city it's quite amazing. It has good sand, nice wave, great bars but it was a bit on the cool side as it is early spring here. Below is me on Bondi - notice the rolled up trousers fashion statement!