We had some great weather the first few days in SF, it was 25ºC, sun splitting the rocks. Booked a trip over to Alcatraz about three days after we arrived and by then the weather had started to turn, so by the time we actually got to the Rock it was cold, raining and foreboding; exactly how I thought it should be!

The place itself is amazing, the cells and spaces occupied by the prisoners and gurds. There's also a whole load of history that most people don't know and that doesn't get shown in the pictures; it was a US military fort to protect the west coast during the Gold-rush, then a miltiary prison, then a state penateniary that also housed all the guards and workers families, then when Bobby Kennedy closed the place a group of Indians took the place over until they were sabotaged by Nixon who sent in people to subvert the movement because the news coverage of the Indians occupying the island interupted a televised speech Nixon was giving at the same time!

Now it's a National Park and bird roost, it's really weird how quickly the things man built have been crumbled or been taken over by nature. I'll have more photos up soon, still a bit jetlagged from the flight to NZ!