Newfound friends in NZ

After battling it out on volcanic island Rangitoto and hitting Waiheke Island without a local to show us the best spots, Greg and Loretta from City Impact Church Auckland made sure we saw everything that was left to be seen. With trips to all the nicest beaches, volcanoes, eateries and even a ripping luge park, we were left loving Auckland like never before and almost wanting to skip Sydney for another few days just to catch some more of the place.


One of the highlights was spending Sunday night and some of Monday in the coolest church in the city. A brand new complex and 2000-seater auditorium with one of the nicest interiors I´ve seen, 95 percent of the place was built by the church members themselves, occupying every Saturday for 2 whole years! That´s what I call a church.

Thanks Greg and Loretta and thanks to NZ for having us.

P3 Planet This Saturday!

Now on the other side of the world, we've checked in to a beautiful old house by Auckland's biggest park and we're spending most of our time catching rays whilst trying to choose whether to hit some volcanoes or take a ferry to Waiheke Island tomorrow...life's rough!

To add to our joy, we just got the news that Sara's been chosen for this Saturday's P3 PLanet on Sveriges Radio. Hopefully the first of many, her slot will be sometime between 6 and 7pm, so tune in all you Swedish speakers and show some support for the lovely lady and help us peak the polls in hope of some more shows as the globetrotting continues.

We're missing you all back home, so drop us a line and let us know what's going on. We'll try to keep you posted with some pics from our first two stops as soon as we get some wireless and don't have to wrestle with an old PC at the downtown internet cafe!

God bless.

Does LA really belong to the USA?!

21 years later and I´m finally back in LA, and the first thing that hit me was some serious dejavu from trips to Latin America. We bought "boletos" for the train, got "billetes" from the ATM, and went for burritos at the Mexican diner, before heading past the "lavanderia" and the "supermercado" on our way home. Get rid of Hollywood Boulevard and it´s stars and you could just as well be in Panama City or somewhere in Mexico.

But then there was the part where we headed towards the China Theatre where we stumbled across Will Smith holding a speech about his plans to change the world with the help of Hollywood movies and we realised we definitely weren´t anywhere other than the U S of A! Moving on from his anecdotes about meetings with Mandela and the human spirit we found ourselves in a store off the Boulevard where we bumped into two of our flight attendants from Virgin Atlantic the day before, who turned out to be Brummies living just down the road from our flat in Moseley. Small world.

After strolling down Sunset Blvd, checking out some chic in Los Feliz and going for dinner with some friends on Melrose Ave., we head back to the North Hollywood hostel. Run by a Russian Jew with a big appetite for conversation, the place turns our to be home to an out-of-work Ukrainian, a Russian cleaner, a lost Israeli, and a Latvian on probation. Between these guys, clans of Latinos and the boys from Birmingham, we´re still in search of the stereotype American. Today´s destination: Santa Monica Beach.

To be continued...

Round the World

Just a day and a half to go and we´re round-the-worlding! With 7 countries and 3 continents on the list and Sara´s brother and sister´s family heading for Bolivia at the same time, there´s lots coming up for the GómezHawkes clan.

Stay tuned here for pics and updates, and for more from the Gómezfamily, check out www.lafamilia.be