South Island
After a thankfully not so choppy crossing from the North to South Island we had our first night back in the campervan after having a week of luxury out of it!! We headed to Nelson ( What is said to be the sunniest part of New Zealand!) When we arrived it was raining! Typical! After being confined to the campervan all day we headed out into town to watch the All Blacks v France and hopefully enjoy the Kiwi rugby company!
We went to the sports bar in town which was packed and after standing at the bar and being asked by several people who do you think is going to win my quick response was the All Blacks! Watching the game was very different to the bars in Cardiff we're used to in that Kiwis actually watch the game and don't take part in any form of singing which was disappointing as we thought they might have they own Kiwi take on Bread of Heaven! When the All Blacks played rubbish + France won we made a swift exit!
The following day we headed west and having been over many mountain ranges in NZ we were used to them. However on this occasion we were coming down one hill for what seemed like a very long time and after a while we turned the down music down to realise the van was making a strange noise. We pulled over to find our tyres steaming! The van obviously couldn't take the amount of breaking we were doing so we sat and had a cup of tea for an hour waiting for the wheels to come back down to normal temperature! We did start to feel stupid when many kiwis took pity on us + asked us if we needed any help!!
The next day we embarked on a two day sea kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman National park! To begin with I thought it was a stupid idea in that we would be the only ones staying in little huts in the winter overnight ( as the park was only accessible by water or on foot) Luckily there were two other Americans ( you can decide for yourself if you think this is lucky!!) stupid enough as us hiring a kayak which put me a bit at ease! When asked which one of us was going to sit at the back of the kayak Nic jumped at the opportunity to steer!!( By lunchtime I was at the back of the kayak steering as we had had a couple of close encounters with some rocks).
The kayaking consisted of some hardcore paddling at times in some choppy waters! We stopped off at some of the most beautiful beaches + bays which in summer I could have imagined being packed, I suppose being in New Zealand in Winter has its plus points in that we had the beach to ourselves!! We got to the beach where we were staying for the night after getting wet we were thankful for a gas heater!( Obviously a hot shower would have been better but we didn't have such luxuries!!) As it was dark by 6pm and no electricity i.e no lights we were pleased to be accompanied by about 10 other people!! After our nutritious meal of noodles we exchanged travel stories with a couple of other people! Then a German guy came bursting through the door saying " You've got to come outside I've never seen the milky way so clear" At this point I felt a bit stupid in that I knew the milky way had something to do with stars but didn't actually know what it looked like until we went outside! I have never seen so many stars in the sky! We couldn't believe it! It was unbelievable! So there we were 10 complete strangers, stood on a beach in the middle of nowhere staring at stars! Quite surreal!
The next day we continued the kayaking and saw some seal colonies + at the end of the day got picked up by a water taxi! By the end of the trip you could say we definately feel at home with nature. To say I was sad to be leaving my kayak I would be lying because a hot shower appealed to me way too much!!
We had arranged to meet my friend, Laura, on the Tuesday to do a days wines tasting in Marlborough but once we were in the van we soon realised it was actually Tuesday night and therefore the fresh air had obviously had a big effect on us!! The following morning we went to sample some New Zealand wine and even splashed out on a bottle in my quest to make Nic like wine!
We then headed down the east coast to Kaikoura a place where there are lots of marine animals e.g seals, dolphins + whales! We did a coastal walk which we find ourselves doing more and more walks as due to the budget it is an activity to do which is FREE! I made the mistake by walking out the shore and whilst walking back I had my head down to see what I was stepping and I heard the loudest noise which could only be described as a bark and it turned out I had got too close to a seal and it wasn't very happy with me!!
The next day we booked onto a dolphin swimming trip and after waking up far too early with excitement we headed to the bay in our quest for the dolphins. However to our disappointment the sea was too choppy so our dreams of swimming with wild dolphins were slashed . Following the bad news we headed south.
We arrived at a sleepy town town called Hanmer Springs ( famous for its hot springs!) We quickly got changed in the freezing conditions and jumped into the 40 degree volcanic springs. It was surreal to be sitting in boiling natural springs in temperatures below zero with views of snowcapped mountains.
We woke up early next morning and I jumped in the car to get us on our way, however instead of listening to Nic I managed to reverse into a big pile of snow! So not for the first time the campervan was stuck! After lots of wheel spinning, arguing and mud flying at nic the van was eventually free and on his way to Christchurch!
After checking out what the very British city had to offer us ( not a lot) due to it only being about 150 years old! we headed to Methven, a small ski town at the base of Mount Hutt. We had high hopes for the ski resort as kiwis raved about their skiing unfortunately we were very disappointed when the piste map and mountain did not quite match up because there was really only one run with a few variations. However it did offer fantastic views and was really cool to be skiing above the clouds. I found myself on a number of occasions throughout the day half way down the mountain turning around to find out Nic wasn't there! 10 mins later he would appear covered in snow saying he'd fallen over. This was a reccurring event throughout the day and I'm still hearing about his painful hip!!
Our next stop took us to the glacier country on the West coast after a beautiful 6 hour drive we pulled up to 1 of only 3 forward moving glaciers in the world. However after seeing the glaciers in Argentina this one didn't quite compare!
Again heading south we headed for a small town called Wanaka which is home to the world famous Puzzling World, lots of rooms of optical illusions. After we spent the morning there we headed to the maze. After an hour of walking in circles and getting no further we decided to leave out of the emergency exit before we stopped talking!!
The following day we ended up in the touristy Queenstown. After a quick check of the bank balances we decided that we couldn't afford to ski and that it would have to be our favourite of walks for the next couple of days!! We did however go on a trip to Milford sound which is rated as one of the most beautiful places in the World. The trip involved a boat trip through the Milford Friords with snow topped mountains, 200 m waterfalls which made us feel very insignificant in the unbelievable landscape. While stopping to look at the waterfalls we heard the captain shout dolphins (finally) so as everyone rushed to the front of the boat, however due to their speed and my photography unfortunately they weren't captured on film!
One day we headed up to a mountain to a deer park with again fantastic views over Queenstown. After plucking up courage we bought some feed and started feeding the various animals, this was hard for Nic as him and animals are not the best of friends!! Therefore he retreated to the car most of the way round!! While in Queenstown a big winter festival started, the opening cermony was cool and there was lots of fireworks!! Even the New Zealand prime minister opened the event!!
Our final day in queenstown consisted of a two hour walk to another view point. ( There was a gondala up the viewpoint, however due to the tight pursestrings we decided to walk!) This was a bad idea as I was very tired and grumpy about the walk in that it was only saving us 8 pounds!! then again when your a traveller every penny counts!! At the top we luged down the mountain which consists of little karts on a race track which was fun!! In the evening Nic had bumped into an old school friend (Chris Lewis) who invited us round for dinner which was really nice and we had our first sunday roast of the trip!
On our way back to Christchurch we stopped at Lake Tekapo. Takepo is famous for is turquoise colour and awesome views over Mount Cook the tallest mountain in New Zealand!
Therefore the second legg of our trip has come to an end! We've travelled 5,283km in the cosy campervan and enjoyed every minute but we are definately looking forward to finally getting a tan in fiji!!
Hope everyone is well at home!!
Lots of Love Nic and Jen xxxxxxxxx
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Monday, 8 June 2009
New Zealand - North Island
Kia Ora,
Well it has been an actioned packed couple of weeks and to our disappointment it has only got colder than Argentina!
We arrived in Auckland being very confused by the time difference and the 2 days that we seemed to lose on the aeroplane! We arrived at our hostel at 6am and luckily the door was open so we were able to sit in the common room where I soon had my first cup of decent tea!! That day we headed into the city and went up the cities stand out feature the Skytower ( the tallest building in the southern hemisphere!) it was sunset and was quite spectacular especially when we got it at a student rate!! Later that night due to the severe jetlag we were in bed at 8pm which only resulted in a vicous cycle of waking up at 6:30am!!
The following day we got a boat over to a suburb of Auckland called Devonport. We thought it was only our luck when it started bucketing down once we started walking up a hill! Luckily once we reached the top we had fantastic views of the city including a rainbow across the skline! Further wandering around the city and again another early night due to the early start!
The next day was the day we would start our campervan adventure! Following a lot of papers whereby we signed our lives away we were off to get our supplies!! After a few little arguments due to nic's map reading around Auckland we were onto the road and heading north of Auckland! We stayed a couple nights up the coast and went for walks on some stunning beaches! One night we even managed to watch a super 14 game in a bar! We did find some caves which were even better once we found out they were free!! We passed a guy coming out of the caves ( he was by himself crazy!) who said that we would definately need a torch and that he had turned back because he saw a huge spider there was also apparently eels in the water!! At this point i was thinking no way am i going in those caves but once we got to the opening nic wadded through the water until the point it was pitch black and there was hundreds of gloworms so i thought this was an opportunity i couldn't give up. Luckily we didn't see any spiders or eels!!
The following day we headed to the Bay of islands, which is a holiday destination for kiwis surprisingly it was quite good weather! We headed to a bar that night and being Saturday night it was quite happening! We were soon handed out raffle tickets and to our surprise they were giving out prizes!! The ticket to be pulled out first was nic's number!! Couldn't believe it! There was a catch though because you had to play a game of play your cards right to win the prizes! It was all nic's luck the first card drawn was a 7 and when he said lower and the next card was a jack saying i was disappointed was an understatement!!
Luckily there was a group of people next to us that won and because they were heading back to Auckland the next day they couldn't use any of the vouchers so they gave them to us!!! So after using our 2 4 1 drinks vouchers we headed back to our very cold campervan! ( I'm starting to realise there is an underlying theme of freebies in this part of the blog!)
The next day we used one of the vouchers to go on THE MACK ATTACK! The fastest boat in the bay of islands! It travelled up to 70 kmph and on some of the waves let just say we got a spraying!! I was a bright sunny day and we headed out to what was a literal description of a "hole in the rock"! The most annoying thing about the trip was that our guide decided to rub it in saying that the week before they had seen killer whales in the bay and they would often see dolphins but the days before they hadn't seen anything and on this occasion we didnt :(
The next day we headed north to the northest point of New Zealand, however the only problem was that you had to drive on 20 km of unsealed road and because we didn't take the extra windscreen insurance out we were very worried! (I was even more worried than nic because i was in the passenger seat!!) We finally got there and it was tipping down with rain so instead of seeing the views in the rain we camped there for the night hoping the weather would get better in the morning! We reached the camp site which was a government run one which meant it only consisted of cold showers and a long drop! We parked in the field designated for campervans. We soon realised another campervan drove in and drove straight back out and we saw that the entrance was becoming very muddy so we decided to follow them and make a quick exit! I think i spoke too soon when i said quick as I managed get the campervan stuck!! The wheels were skidding and at this point we thought we were stranded with no one around! Nic got out and tried to push but soon became covered in mud! After a short while of continuing to try luckily a kiwi guy came to help us dressed in the appropriate attaire of wellies compared to nic's flip flops!! He managed to work out how to get us out and we were very thankful!!
The following morning was a sunny day and we headed to the lighthouse on Cape Reinga which symbolised the Northest point of New Zealand and where also the Tasman and Pacific ocean met!! We were really pleased with the weather as the views were spectacular and even more happy when we got in the car and it started to rain again!
We took a couple more days to meander back to Auckland along the west coast and it is certainly true there are a lot of sheep in New Zealand!! We arrived back in Auckland where we met two of my friends Charlotte and Laura and headed on a night out!! I managed to barter in one bar for 4 drinks for 20 dollars the equivalent of 2 pound a drink which for a sat night wasn't too bad!! we ended up in a club which sold cocktails in teapots which was pretty cool!!!
We got back on the road and headed to a place called Rotoura (Maori capital). We arrived late afternoon and headed to our first adventure activity Zorbing!! For anyone who doesn't know what zorbing is it is getting in an inflatable ball and rolling down a hill and in our case it was also filled with water!! We were still with my friend Laura and we managed to blag half price!! We were travelling up in the van to get to the top of the hill and the guide (who was a maori) was asking us what we were doing the next day. Laura's response was that we were going to an aboriginal village!! (bearing in mind kiwi's hate Australien's) i think it was a massive insult and couldn't believe she said it but they took it in good spirits! (probably because they knew they were about to throw us down a hill!) Anyway the zorbing was so much fun and we could not stop laughing all the way down!! Almost to the point I nearly wet myself!! That night we met two guys from leeds who shared travel stories and turned out were heading in the same direction as me and nic.
The following day we were feeling cultural and headed to a geothermal maori village! We had a tour and it is very difficult to describe the smell because it absolutly stank due to the sulphur from the ground! The tour ended with a maori cultural performance which consisted of the HAKA!! I was very dissappointed with nic though because they were calling the men in the audience to come up and learn the haka but nic didn't go but then again it is meant to scare people and the only person nic would probably scare is himself!! Following the tour we parted ways with Laura and headed South with our newly found Northern friends.
We reached Lake Taupo where the lake is bigger than singapore! There was a few ideas going around that we all wanted to do a sky dive and that nic and another guy wanted to do a bungy jump!! It was soon thought why not do both in one day!! ( i know what you are thinking thats bloody crazy!!) I was thinking the same thing! We had KFC to give us all the needed energy!!haha and after some cards had an early night!!
It was the start to the adrenaline day!! We headed very early to the bungy place and after looking over the edge i was having second thoughts!! Nic went first and following his analysis of the jump there was now no turning back for me!! You sat down on a little bench where they straped you in and stood towards the edge and all the said was 1 2 3 bungy and you jumped off all very quick and easy but also very scary yet amazing!! After the adrenaline had calmed down it was difficult to believe that that afternoon were were also going to be jumping out a plane at 12,000 ft!! We had our lunch then headed to Taupo airport!!
We were shown a dvd of a skydive which only got us more and more scared but also excited!! we met our instructors which one of their response was "don't worry I'm only really hungover" at this point I wasn't finding anything funny!! We started to get all the gear on but I soon realised that I was missing a piece of equipment that everyone else had!! Since my instructor had disappeared I asked someone else and it turned out he had forgotton to give me a Lifejacket and considering we were skydiving over a massive lake I thought that it would have been a vital piece of equipment!! Anyway after a couple of photos we were all couped inside a tiny plane! At this point we still had no instruction of what to do!! After being in the air for about 5 mins my instructor decided to tell me some very vague instructions in my ear! All i could really hear was something about making the shape of a banana!! Before we knew it the two guys before were falling out the plane and it was my turn!! It is very difficult to describe the sensation of falling out of a plane but it was AMAZING! My instructor decided to spin us round and go upside down so I could see the plane we'd just fallen out of!! After 45 seconds he opened the shoot and on the clear day we had fantastic views of the lake! Sadly before we knew it were on the ground :( But we can safely say it was the best thing we had ever done!!
That night we had received vouchers from the skydive place for drinks in the pubs in town so we thought it was rude not to head out!! It turned out it was quiz night in the irish pub so we soon signed up!! Unfortunately it turned out to be the hardest quiz ever!! However we came 10th out of about 20 which wasn't bad!! We then hit Element a bar/club where we took part in some very strange dancing with our adrenaline junky northern friends!!
The next day a little hungover we found out about some free thermal springs which sounded like a good idea when we probably hadn't showered in about 3 days due to saving on campsite costs!! The thermal pools were like a warm bath but we were probably sweating due to the high temperature!! We then parted ways with our northern friends and had an early night!!
The following day we headed to Napier which is on the East coast! In lonely planet it kept describing it as an art deco capital! If i'm honest I have no idea about Art deco but Napier was also described as a british seaside town and that I could see!! We went to the National Aquarium which was pretty cool!!
The folowing day we headed further South to a spot of luxury by staying at Nic's friend's house in Wellington! We have currently been here for 4 days because there's so much comfort such as showers everyday that we don't want to leave!! We are planning to head to the South Island soon but the thought of sleeping in minus temperatures when hearing the weather is so good back home is somewhat putting us off!!
Lots of Love
Nic and Jen
xx
Well it has been an actioned packed couple of weeks and to our disappointment it has only got colder than Argentina!
We arrived in Auckland being very confused by the time difference and the 2 days that we seemed to lose on the aeroplane! We arrived at our hostel at 6am and luckily the door was open so we were able to sit in the common room where I soon had my first cup of decent tea!! That day we headed into the city and went up the cities stand out feature the Skytower ( the tallest building in the southern hemisphere!) it was sunset and was quite spectacular especially when we got it at a student rate!! Later that night due to the severe jetlag we were in bed at 8pm which only resulted in a vicous cycle of waking up at 6:30am!!
The following day we got a boat over to a suburb of Auckland called Devonport. We thought it was only our luck when it started bucketing down once we started walking up a hill! Luckily once we reached the top we had fantastic views of the city including a rainbow across the skline! Further wandering around the city and again another early night due to the early start!
The next day was the day we would start our campervan adventure! Following a lot of papers whereby we signed our lives away we were off to get our supplies!! After a few little arguments due to nic's map reading around Auckland we were onto the road and heading north of Auckland! We stayed a couple nights up the coast and went for walks on some stunning beaches! One night we even managed to watch a super 14 game in a bar! We did find some caves which were even better once we found out they were free!! We passed a guy coming out of the caves ( he was by himself crazy!) who said that we would definately need a torch and that he had turned back because he saw a huge spider there was also apparently eels in the water!! At this point i was thinking no way am i going in those caves but once we got to the opening nic wadded through the water until the point it was pitch black and there was hundreds of gloworms so i thought this was an opportunity i couldn't give up. Luckily we didn't see any spiders or eels!!
The following day we headed to the Bay of islands, which is a holiday destination for kiwis surprisingly it was quite good weather! We headed to a bar that night and being Saturday night it was quite happening! We were soon handed out raffle tickets and to our surprise they were giving out prizes!! The ticket to be pulled out first was nic's number!! Couldn't believe it! There was a catch though because you had to play a game of play your cards right to win the prizes! It was all nic's luck the first card drawn was a 7 and when he said lower and the next card was a jack saying i was disappointed was an understatement!!
Luckily there was a group of people next to us that won and because they were heading back to Auckland the next day they couldn't use any of the vouchers so they gave them to us!!! So after using our 2 4 1 drinks vouchers we headed back to our very cold campervan! ( I'm starting to realise there is an underlying theme of freebies in this part of the blog!)
The next day we used one of the vouchers to go on THE MACK ATTACK! The fastest boat in the bay of islands! It travelled up to 70 kmph and on some of the waves let just say we got a spraying!! I was a bright sunny day and we headed out to what was a literal description of a "hole in the rock"! The most annoying thing about the trip was that our guide decided to rub it in saying that the week before they had seen killer whales in the bay and they would often see dolphins but the days before they hadn't seen anything and on this occasion we didnt :(
The next day we headed north to the northest point of New Zealand, however the only problem was that you had to drive on 20 km of unsealed road and because we didn't take the extra windscreen insurance out we were very worried! (I was even more worried than nic because i was in the passenger seat!!) We finally got there and it was tipping down with rain so instead of seeing the views in the rain we camped there for the night hoping the weather would get better in the morning! We reached the camp site which was a government run one which meant it only consisted of cold showers and a long drop! We parked in the field designated for campervans. We soon realised another campervan drove in and drove straight back out and we saw that the entrance was becoming very muddy so we decided to follow them and make a quick exit! I think i spoke too soon when i said quick as I managed get the campervan stuck!! The wheels were skidding and at this point we thought we were stranded with no one around! Nic got out and tried to push but soon became covered in mud! After a short while of continuing to try luckily a kiwi guy came to help us dressed in the appropriate attaire of wellies compared to nic's flip flops!! He managed to work out how to get us out and we were very thankful!!
The following morning was a sunny day and we headed to the lighthouse on Cape Reinga which symbolised the Northest point of New Zealand and where also the Tasman and Pacific ocean met!! We were really pleased with the weather as the views were spectacular and even more happy when we got in the car and it started to rain again!
We took a couple more days to meander back to Auckland along the west coast and it is certainly true there are a lot of sheep in New Zealand!! We arrived back in Auckland where we met two of my friends Charlotte and Laura and headed on a night out!! I managed to barter in one bar for 4 drinks for 20 dollars the equivalent of 2 pound a drink which for a sat night wasn't too bad!! we ended up in a club which sold cocktails in teapots which was pretty cool!!!
We got back on the road and headed to a place called Rotoura (Maori capital). We arrived late afternoon and headed to our first adventure activity Zorbing!! For anyone who doesn't know what zorbing is it is getting in an inflatable ball and rolling down a hill and in our case it was also filled with water!! We were still with my friend Laura and we managed to blag half price!! We were travelling up in the van to get to the top of the hill and the guide (who was a maori) was asking us what we were doing the next day. Laura's response was that we were going to an aboriginal village!! (bearing in mind kiwi's hate Australien's) i think it was a massive insult and couldn't believe she said it but they took it in good spirits! (probably because they knew they were about to throw us down a hill!) Anyway the zorbing was so much fun and we could not stop laughing all the way down!! Almost to the point I nearly wet myself!! That night we met two guys from leeds who shared travel stories and turned out were heading in the same direction as me and nic.
The following day we were feeling cultural and headed to a geothermal maori village! We had a tour and it is very difficult to describe the smell because it absolutly stank due to the sulphur from the ground! The tour ended with a maori cultural performance which consisted of the HAKA!! I was very dissappointed with nic though because they were calling the men in the audience to come up and learn the haka but nic didn't go but then again it is meant to scare people and the only person nic would probably scare is himself!! Following the tour we parted ways with Laura and headed South with our newly found Northern friends.
We reached Lake Taupo where the lake is bigger than singapore! There was a few ideas going around that we all wanted to do a sky dive and that nic and another guy wanted to do a bungy jump!! It was soon thought why not do both in one day!! ( i know what you are thinking thats bloody crazy!!) I was thinking the same thing! We had KFC to give us all the needed energy!!haha and after some cards had an early night!!
It was the start to the adrenaline day!! We headed very early to the bungy place and after looking over the edge i was having second thoughts!! Nic went first and following his analysis of the jump there was now no turning back for me!! You sat down on a little bench where they straped you in and stood towards the edge and all the said was 1 2 3 bungy and you jumped off all very quick and easy but also very scary yet amazing!! After the adrenaline had calmed down it was difficult to believe that that afternoon were were also going to be jumping out a plane at 12,000 ft!! We had our lunch then headed to Taupo airport!!
We were shown a dvd of a skydive which only got us more and more scared but also excited!! we met our instructors which one of their response was "don't worry I'm only really hungover" at this point I wasn't finding anything funny!! We started to get all the gear on but I soon realised that I was missing a piece of equipment that everyone else had!! Since my instructor had disappeared I asked someone else and it turned out he had forgotton to give me a Lifejacket and considering we were skydiving over a massive lake I thought that it would have been a vital piece of equipment!! Anyway after a couple of photos we were all couped inside a tiny plane! At this point we still had no instruction of what to do!! After being in the air for about 5 mins my instructor decided to tell me some very vague instructions in my ear! All i could really hear was something about making the shape of a banana!! Before we knew it the two guys before were falling out the plane and it was my turn!! It is very difficult to describe the sensation of falling out of a plane but it was AMAZING! My instructor decided to spin us round and go upside down so I could see the plane we'd just fallen out of!! After 45 seconds he opened the shoot and on the clear day we had fantastic views of the lake! Sadly before we knew it were on the ground :( But we can safely say it was the best thing we had ever done!!
That night we had received vouchers from the skydive place for drinks in the pubs in town so we thought it was rude not to head out!! It turned out it was quiz night in the irish pub so we soon signed up!! Unfortunately it turned out to be the hardest quiz ever!! However we came 10th out of about 20 which wasn't bad!! We then hit Element a bar/club where we took part in some very strange dancing with our adrenaline junky northern friends!!
The next day a little hungover we found out about some free thermal springs which sounded like a good idea when we probably hadn't showered in about 3 days due to saving on campsite costs!! The thermal pools were like a warm bath but we were probably sweating due to the high temperature!! We then parted ways with our northern friends and had an early night!!
The following day we headed to Napier which is on the East coast! In lonely planet it kept describing it as an art deco capital! If i'm honest I have no idea about Art deco but Napier was also described as a british seaside town and that I could see!! We went to the National Aquarium which was pretty cool!!
The folowing day we headed further South to a spot of luxury by staying at Nic's friend's house in Wellington! We have currently been here for 4 days because there's so much comfort such as showers everyday that we don't want to leave!! We are planning to head to the South Island soon but the thought of sleeping in minus temperatures when hearing the weather is so good back home is somewhat putting us off!!
Lots of Love
Nic and Jen
xx
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Patagonia, Wine district, Mendoza and Chile
Hola!
Its been a while and we've done a lot in that time so think this is gonna be a bit of a long one sorry!!
We've got on out first internal flight in Argentina and headed South to a place called El Calafete the flight took 5 hours so it shows how big a country Argentina is!! We arrived in what was probably a one roomed building absolutly tiny and when you stepped outside the airport (if you can call it that) there was nothing to be seen! We got on a trusty minibus which took us to our hostel! We don't really know what we were expecting but it was like a big open space with a couple of houses dotted around with a view of an amazing blue lake! Our hostel was really nice and to our surprise they were putting on free dinner!yey! For dinner that night it was cottage pie which we thought was great. However, we didn't have the usual peas or carrots with it. They had rice! They do love to carbo load and all argentinians still remain skinny! (I hate them!!) We got an early night as the next day we were to do our mini trekking on the glacier!
8am we got picked up by the bus and it was still dark outside, it took an hour and 20 mins to get the glacier by which is had only just got light when we got there! We got on a boat which would take us across a lake. We went on the top of the deck to hopefully get good views but after about 5 seconds we couldn't handle the wind or the rain so it was very short lived! we were met the otherside by our guide 'Carlos'. We had all the clothing to do the trekking i.e warm jackets, hats etc. But we were missing gloves. We had met a northern couple who had done the trek the day before and said they asked to borrow some gloves and they were lent them so we thought we'd do the same! Nic asked Carlos if there was anyway we could borrow some and he turned around and said 'No, you were told to bring all your own clothing'! Following this response he gave a little talk about the glacier and said 'its very important to wear gloves as the ice can be sharp!!' we were thinking thanks Carlos!! Luckily we were fine though and there were no tumbles! The trek was awesome. We were given proper grampons which proved to be very difficult to walk in as you had to walk like John Wayne to avoid tripping over! We were on the ice for about 1 1/2 hours and our reward at the end was a glass of whiskey with freshly chipped ice from the glacier and a chocolate! ( the only problem was, niether nic or i liked whiskey).
After the trek we were back on the boat where we went to a viewing platform whereby you could see how big the glacier really was! (it was bigger than the size of Buenos Aires and BA was big!) Very cold and tired we were out cold sleeping on the bus on the way back and i woke up to forget where i was! We had another free dinner that night but unfortunately got landed talking to the most annoying couple in the world! The girl was from London and boy from Hereford! I couldn't believe Herefordshire could produce such a wanker! They both went to Warwick therefore spoke down to us considering we only did sports science ( in nic's case sports coaching haha!) and banged on about how great peru and bolivia were and couldnt believe we didn't go there! We swiflty made excuses that we had to go to bed and escape the patronising conversation!
The next day we were organising our next move which we soon found out the bus would take 28 hours!! all because one road was closed because it was coming into winter!! But it was gonna be a comfy bus and we hoped for english speaking films again! we got on to find most of the people on their were travellers which was pretty cool! 6 films later and hours and hours of deserted landscape we eventually found our selves in our next destination Bariloche!
We arrived to again more rain and it was 10 o clock at night so we got a taxi to the hostel! We soon found out when we got in there was no seat belts! After this we realised the driver speedometer didn't work and when were were probably going about 70 miles an hour he thought it was a good idea to answer his phone!!! We were very happy to arrive at our hostel to say the least! After a good nights sleep we were pleasantly surpirsed when we came out to breakfast to see a fantastic view of a lake!! On a quite a nice day we thought we would we would be active and go on a famous bike tour of the 7 lakes ( which is what makes Barlioche famous). We were told the distance was 27km which was a scary thought to begin with but they were pretty good mountain bikes with 24 gears and thought we'd stop off for a nice lunch etc. After about 5 km I was pushing my bike up the hill!! ( Yes i know what you're thinking we're sporty we're supposed to be fit, but not hills like we were doing on gravel!!) After about 7 km we were very happy to stop for a hamburger and homemade chips for lunch in a quaint swiss little village. We sampled some homemade beer then were on our bikes again! After lots of pedalling, pushing the bikes up hills and some spectacular views I was more than happy to reach the bike shop and hand the bike back!!!
That night we realised that we were very much hurting from the lack of cushioning on the seats and headed out for some drinks with a scottish and geordie lad to num the pain!! We soon realised we've been out of uni for too long and could not keep up with their drinking pace!!! especially when it was more homemade 10% beer! We played some cards and soon got kicked out of the pub to head home for a goods nights sleep before being active again the day after!!
The next day was the day nic would overcome his fear of horses!! We booked to go on a 2 hour horse trek! We thought we would come to some big stables etc! but no, there was just one man with about 12 horses attached to a tree! The demonstration was very short considering most of us were novice riders!! It consisted of hold onto the reigns and kick the horse! After this he even gave us a stick!
Luckily the horses tended to follow the one in front but this also meant when the one in front trotted your horse started to trot! It was all my luck I got stuck behind an Israelly girl who didn't like hurting animals, therefore didn't use the stick or kick the animal!!! The path was really narrow and I couldn't get past!! No matter how much our guide shouted at her 'use the stick' her horse was happily walking along!! I took it into my own hands to kick my horse as much as possible which made her horse run as well! We eventually caught up with the rest of the group! We climbed up a pretty steep mountain to an amazing view and on the way back down, feeling a little more confident we trotted and cantered a lot more!!
That night we had a couple of drinks with two irish lads which came horse riding. The beer was quite expensive in the hostel bar so we soon moved onto the red wine (which was an error). We woke up very hungover the next and awaited our bus to the next destination.
We got on the bus at 4pm and it was going to take in total 17 hours! We had a very chirpy steward and about 4 hours into the journey he brought round bingo cards!! Although after realising we didn't speak much spanish he put the tray of numbers on nic's lap so we could see what numbers he pulled out of the bag!! Sadly we didn't win being very competitive we were disappointed to miss out on the prize which was a flask!
We arrived in Mendoza (wine district). The first day we walked around the city which wasn't a lot and stopped for steak for lunch! and that night we headed to a pizza party organised by the hostel!! After all you can eat pizza there was free tequila shots and lots of (dodgy) argentine music!! We didn't drink too much considering we were going on a wine tour the next day.
We rented bikes and headed to our first winery, where we had a tour of how wine was made etc and how you are meant to taste it!! We now like to think we are wine experts but that was after a few glasses of malbec!! We also went to a chocolate and liquor place and further wineries one of which we had the best steak sandwich ever!! After what seemed like a very informative day we went to bed fairly early ready for a further day of travelling the day after.
The next day we headed to Chile on an amazing ( hair raising) bus journey over the Andes. We arrived in a very nice hostel and had our daily siesta and headed out for dinner. We asked the guy in the hostel what some traditional Chilean dishes were and one consisted of Chips, fried onion, fried egg and a sirloin steak so that was a definate choice for us and we even shared it and could barely finish it!! The next day we did pretty much the only thing there is to do in Santiago which is to go up a cable car. Which was pretty high and because Santiago is so polluted you could see where there was a layer of smog over the city!
Today we are just wasting time before catching our flight to Auckland, where we will most definately be happy to be able to have conversations with natives in english!!
So Part 1 of our trip ( South America) is over and we're definately looking forward to the rest!!
Nic and Jen
Its been a while and we've done a lot in that time so think this is gonna be a bit of a long one sorry!!
We've got on out first internal flight in Argentina and headed South to a place called El Calafete the flight took 5 hours so it shows how big a country Argentina is!! We arrived in what was probably a one roomed building absolutly tiny and when you stepped outside the airport (if you can call it that) there was nothing to be seen! We got on a trusty minibus which took us to our hostel! We don't really know what we were expecting but it was like a big open space with a couple of houses dotted around with a view of an amazing blue lake! Our hostel was really nice and to our surprise they were putting on free dinner!yey! For dinner that night it was cottage pie which we thought was great. However, we didn't have the usual peas or carrots with it. They had rice! They do love to carbo load and all argentinians still remain skinny! (I hate them!!) We got an early night as the next day we were to do our mini trekking on the glacier!
8am we got picked up by the bus and it was still dark outside, it took an hour and 20 mins to get the glacier by which is had only just got light when we got there! We got on a boat which would take us across a lake. We went on the top of the deck to hopefully get good views but after about 5 seconds we couldn't handle the wind or the rain so it was very short lived! we were met the otherside by our guide 'Carlos'. We had all the clothing to do the trekking i.e warm jackets, hats etc. But we were missing gloves. We had met a northern couple who had done the trek the day before and said they asked to borrow some gloves and they were lent them so we thought we'd do the same! Nic asked Carlos if there was anyway we could borrow some and he turned around and said 'No, you were told to bring all your own clothing'! Following this response he gave a little talk about the glacier and said 'its very important to wear gloves as the ice can be sharp!!' we were thinking thanks Carlos!! Luckily we were fine though and there were no tumbles! The trek was awesome. We were given proper grampons which proved to be very difficult to walk in as you had to walk like John Wayne to avoid tripping over! We were on the ice for about 1 1/2 hours and our reward at the end was a glass of whiskey with freshly chipped ice from the glacier and a chocolate! ( the only problem was, niether nic or i liked whiskey).
After the trek we were back on the boat where we went to a viewing platform whereby you could see how big the glacier really was! (it was bigger than the size of Buenos Aires and BA was big!) Very cold and tired we were out cold sleeping on the bus on the way back and i woke up to forget where i was! We had another free dinner that night but unfortunately got landed talking to the most annoying couple in the world! The girl was from London and boy from Hereford! I couldn't believe Herefordshire could produce such a wanker! They both went to Warwick therefore spoke down to us considering we only did sports science ( in nic's case sports coaching haha!) and banged on about how great peru and bolivia were and couldnt believe we didn't go there! We swiflty made excuses that we had to go to bed and escape the patronising conversation!
The next day we were organising our next move which we soon found out the bus would take 28 hours!! all because one road was closed because it was coming into winter!! But it was gonna be a comfy bus and we hoped for english speaking films again! we got on to find most of the people on their were travellers which was pretty cool! 6 films later and hours and hours of deserted landscape we eventually found our selves in our next destination Bariloche!
We arrived to again more rain and it was 10 o clock at night so we got a taxi to the hostel! We soon found out when we got in there was no seat belts! After this we realised the driver speedometer didn't work and when were were probably going about 70 miles an hour he thought it was a good idea to answer his phone!!! We were very happy to arrive at our hostel to say the least! After a good nights sleep we were pleasantly surpirsed when we came out to breakfast to see a fantastic view of a lake!! On a quite a nice day we thought we would we would be active and go on a famous bike tour of the 7 lakes ( which is what makes Barlioche famous). We were told the distance was 27km which was a scary thought to begin with but they were pretty good mountain bikes with 24 gears and thought we'd stop off for a nice lunch etc. After about 5 km I was pushing my bike up the hill!! ( Yes i know what you're thinking we're sporty we're supposed to be fit, but not hills like we were doing on gravel!!) After about 7 km we were very happy to stop for a hamburger and homemade chips for lunch in a quaint swiss little village. We sampled some homemade beer then were on our bikes again! After lots of pedalling, pushing the bikes up hills and some spectacular views I was more than happy to reach the bike shop and hand the bike back!!!
That night we realised that we were very much hurting from the lack of cushioning on the seats and headed out for some drinks with a scottish and geordie lad to num the pain!! We soon realised we've been out of uni for too long and could not keep up with their drinking pace!!! especially when it was more homemade 10% beer! We played some cards and soon got kicked out of the pub to head home for a goods nights sleep before being active again the day after!!
The next day was the day nic would overcome his fear of horses!! We booked to go on a 2 hour horse trek! We thought we would come to some big stables etc! but no, there was just one man with about 12 horses attached to a tree! The demonstration was very short considering most of us were novice riders!! It consisted of hold onto the reigns and kick the horse! After this he even gave us a stick!
Luckily the horses tended to follow the one in front but this also meant when the one in front trotted your horse started to trot! It was all my luck I got stuck behind an Israelly girl who didn't like hurting animals, therefore didn't use the stick or kick the animal!!! The path was really narrow and I couldn't get past!! No matter how much our guide shouted at her 'use the stick' her horse was happily walking along!! I took it into my own hands to kick my horse as much as possible which made her horse run as well! We eventually caught up with the rest of the group! We climbed up a pretty steep mountain to an amazing view and on the way back down, feeling a little more confident we trotted and cantered a lot more!!
That night we had a couple of drinks with two irish lads which came horse riding. The beer was quite expensive in the hostel bar so we soon moved onto the red wine (which was an error). We woke up very hungover the next and awaited our bus to the next destination.
We got on the bus at 4pm and it was going to take in total 17 hours! We had a very chirpy steward and about 4 hours into the journey he brought round bingo cards!! Although after realising we didn't speak much spanish he put the tray of numbers on nic's lap so we could see what numbers he pulled out of the bag!! Sadly we didn't win being very competitive we were disappointed to miss out on the prize which was a flask!
We arrived in Mendoza (wine district). The first day we walked around the city which wasn't a lot and stopped for steak for lunch! and that night we headed to a pizza party organised by the hostel!! After all you can eat pizza there was free tequila shots and lots of (dodgy) argentine music!! We didn't drink too much considering we were going on a wine tour the next day.
We rented bikes and headed to our first winery, where we had a tour of how wine was made etc and how you are meant to taste it!! We now like to think we are wine experts but that was after a few glasses of malbec!! We also went to a chocolate and liquor place and further wineries one of which we had the best steak sandwich ever!! After what seemed like a very informative day we went to bed fairly early ready for a further day of travelling the day after.
The next day we headed to Chile on an amazing ( hair raising) bus journey over the Andes. We arrived in a very nice hostel and had our daily siesta and headed out for dinner. We asked the guy in the hostel what some traditional Chilean dishes were and one consisted of Chips, fried onion, fried egg and a sirloin steak so that was a definate choice for us and we even shared it and could barely finish it!! The next day we did pretty much the only thing there is to do in Santiago which is to go up a cable car. Which was pretty high and because Santiago is so polluted you could see where there was a layer of smog over the city!
Today we are just wasting time before catching our flight to Auckland, where we will most definately be happy to be able to have conversations with natives in english!!
So Part 1 of our trip ( South America) is over and we're definately looking forward to the rest!!
Nic and Jen
Monday, 4 May 2009
Rest of Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls
Hola,
The rest of our stay in Buenos Aires was good and have definately had the best food ever which at the moment our days are revolved around!! We thought we would sample the local buses and when we stood at the bus stop the destinations we wanted was on the front of the bus so we happily got on! after about 15 mins we realised we hadnt reached our destination (which we should have done) and we soon found out we had got the bus in the opposite direction!!(you are probably thinking thats a stupid mistake to make) However it appears that when you can speak very little Spanish it is an easy mistake to make standing on the wrong side of the road! So after about an hour on the bus doing a round trip (we cant say we havent seen all of Buenos Aires) we reached La Boca! This is a part of town with lots of colourful buildings and holds the famous Boca Juniors stadium! Home of Maradona!!
We are learning a few more words in Spanish the most used is Habĺa Inglesas? (Do you speak english?) But when nic went to ask for something (having told him bout 20 times how to say it) he said to the guy Pablo Inglesas!!! I think the guy just humoured him at his response saying "a little"!!
Having grasped the local buses we went onto another area called San Telmo where we officially had the best steak ever!! it was in a quite a dingy place but was absolutely filled with people and was quite noisy! we shared a fillet and by the size of it was very glad we did along with some chips and salad!!(very british) we did refrain from asking for tomato ketchup!!Along with a litre of beer the bill came to 10 pounds!!
Everyday we have our usual siesta and that night we headed out for a couple of drinks in the nice part of town Palermo! found some really quirky bars one of which had a whole room dedicated to board games, therefore we took advantage and played a game of battleships!! Our next bar was a little bit more upbeat playing some stevie wonder! we shared our first bottle of argentinian wine which cost us 3 pounds! being a litle bit tipsy we headed back and got on the bus home arriving at our hostel about 2 o clock the same time the argentinians are going into the clubs!
The next day we finally go to go to the zoo! It was brilliant for 3 pounds! saw all the big cats, elephants and even a polar bear! ( not sure how happy he was in the 25 degree heat!) after we headed for our usual lunch had menu del dia for 5 pounds - steak with the most amazing mash potato a drink and desssert!! That evening we headed to the oldest cafe in town (Cafe Tortoni) for some tango!! In a small intimate room of only 50 people we listened to a live band, a dodgy man singing and two brilliant dancers who would give Vincent and Flavia a run for their money!we paid 12 pounds for the 1 hour and half show!!Not bad for our live version of Strictly Come Dancing! This was our last night in Buenos Aires!
The next day we had the morning to kill before catching our bus to Iguazu falls! We werent really sure what to expect from the bus but we were pleasantly surprised! Wide comfy seats a pillow and a blanket! and to top if all off the films came on and were in English with Spanish subtitles brilliant!!We watched Slum dog millionnaire, the boy in the striped Pyjamers!! the time flew by and we both probably got 6-7 hours sleep which wasnt bad! We arrived and headed straight to the falls which were amazing never seen anything like them!(will try and put some photos up) Again the next day we went which consisted of about 10 km walking!! Not good when I have continuous shooting pains going through my foot!!We saw lots of animals incluing monkeys and colourful birds! Luckily on the second day we were just leaving when it started to absolutly piss down! We got stuck in a tropical thunderstorm!!We think it rains in england! Nothing like this!! Our final day in Iguazu we headed to the Brazilian side (another stamp on our passport)! It was a really good panoramic view of the falls! We then got back on our trusty bus yesterday and headed back to Buenos Aires where we arrived this morning! Just killing time today before catching our 8:10am flight in the morning to patagonia! Where the glaciers will be our next stop!!we have our warm jackets ready for the cold!!
Hope all is well
Love Nic & Jen
xxxxx
Monday, 27 April 2009
First Stop: Buenos Aires
Hi!!
Just an email to say i arrived here safely!! plane was definately good once my tv wasn working and we got moved up a class on the plane which had a lot more leg room!! got to choose what tv you wanted to watch was amazing! absolute miles from the easy jet iḿ used to!! Our hostel is nice only got one other german guy in our room who is nice but stupidly walked home the other night from a bar on his own and saw someone get mugged!! don worry Iḿ not that stupid!! We havent seen anything bad at all!We get free breakfast in the hostel which is good and cereal (which actually tastes good because the milk is not funny!) then bread ham and cheese which is their obsession but can get orange juice which means Iḿ definately getting 1 of my 5 a day!At the moment only eating breakfast then another meal as we`re not really hungary (strange for me!)
Having quite acclimatised yet to eating at 10 o clock at night!! First night we were disapointed went into a busy resturant but had a pizza and it wasn nice!! but last night we went to what seemed like a more locals place and shared a grande pizza and 2 beers for 12 quid. But its not as cheap as we thought here when we are on our 30 pound a day budget!! yesterday we walked around our part of town and saw evita house where she spoke to the people!! then went to a football match last night which did cost us about 30 quid cos it was organised by the hostel but so glad we did cos we could have ended up in what was called as the "hooligans" stand which was mental!! the game was amazing crazy atmosphere it was 0-0 at half time and the home crowd just started chanting this angry song at their own team!! but in the second half river plate scored so the fans were happy again the opposing goal keeper even got sent off for hitting a ball at the ball boy so their was lots of dramas! there was lots of singing and drums but it was the tightest security we got frisked about 3 times going in!
Today we tried to go to the Zoo but it was closed on a monday but no-one knew! so we wondered around this nice part of town walked around lots of nice parks got a bit lost but ended up in this resturant with a nice roof terrace cos its quite hot was about 25 degrees at 5pm! all the argentinians are walking around with jumpers on tho!! at the resturant we had a 3 course meal each and the total bill came to 11 pounds with drinks!! nic had veal as his main and I had a chicken dish but by english standards it was even quite swanky!!
Tonight will be our 3rd night and we staying an extra two more night in this hostel then have booked to get the bus on thursday up to iguzu falls it cost about 36 pounds but its overnight! gonna stay up there for 2 nights then get the bus back to buenos aires to then fly down south cos it works out as the same price as getting the bus.
Lots of Love
Nic & Jen
xxx
Just an email to say i arrived here safely!! plane was definately good once my tv wasn working and we got moved up a class on the plane which had a lot more leg room!! got to choose what tv you wanted to watch was amazing! absolute miles from the easy jet iḿ used to!! Our hostel is nice only got one other german guy in our room who is nice but stupidly walked home the other night from a bar on his own and saw someone get mugged!! don worry Iḿ not that stupid!! We havent seen anything bad at all!We get free breakfast in the hostel which is good and cereal (which actually tastes good because the milk is not funny!) then bread ham and cheese which is their obsession but can get orange juice which means Iḿ definately getting 1 of my 5 a day!At the moment only eating breakfast then another meal as we`re not really hungary (strange for me!)
Having quite acclimatised yet to eating at 10 o clock at night!! First night we were disapointed went into a busy resturant but had a pizza and it wasn nice!! but last night we went to what seemed like a more locals place and shared a grande pizza and 2 beers for 12 quid. But its not as cheap as we thought here when we are on our 30 pound a day budget!! yesterday we walked around our part of town and saw evita house where she spoke to the people!! then went to a football match last night which did cost us about 30 quid cos it was organised by the hostel but so glad we did cos we could have ended up in what was called as the "hooligans" stand which was mental!! the game was amazing crazy atmosphere it was 0-0 at half time and the home crowd just started chanting this angry song at their own team!! but in the second half river plate scored so the fans were happy again the opposing goal keeper even got sent off for hitting a ball at the ball boy so their was lots of dramas! there was lots of singing and drums but it was the tightest security we got frisked about 3 times going in!
Today we tried to go to the Zoo but it was closed on a monday but no-one knew! so we wondered around this nice part of town walked around lots of nice parks got a bit lost but ended up in this resturant with a nice roof terrace cos its quite hot was about 25 degrees at 5pm! all the argentinians are walking around with jumpers on tho!! at the resturant we had a 3 course meal each and the total bill came to 11 pounds with drinks!! nic had veal as his main and I had a chicken dish but by english standards it was even quite swanky!!
Tonight will be our 3rd night and we staying an extra two more night in this hostel then have booked to get the bus on thursday up to iguzu falls it cost about 36 pounds but its overnight! gonna stay up there for 2 nights then get the bus back to buenos aires to then fly down south cos it works out as the same price as getting the bus.
Lots of Love
Nic & Jen
xxx
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