There And Back Again

Hello again - I bet you thought this final blog posting was never coming eh?

 

We've been back for just over a month now and are really enjoying being back in our own house and our own bed, and catching up with our lovely friends and family. Already the trip is beginning to feel like a bit of a dream - did we really do all of those incredible things?!

 

We feel so lucky to have been able to have such a great adventure, and will have memories to last us a lifetime. Picking out our highlights has been a pretty difficult task, but we've had a go, so here are The Official Off-shored World Highlights 2007-08......

 

 

Favourite City

Nominees

- Hanoi, for its hustle and bustle

- Sydney, for its beauty and cool

- Melbourne, for its friendliness and style

- Wellington, for its great museums and views

- Buenos Aires, for its life and soul

- Rio de Janiero, for its jaw-dropping beauty

 

Winner........for its stunning harbour and cool-vibes, Sydney 

 

Favourite Town

Nominees

- Hoi An, for its quaint riverside and lively festivals

- Cooper Pedy, for its alien-landscape and other-worldly feel

- Wanaka, for its "we could live here" charms

- San Pedro de Atacama, for its laid-back desert setting

- Pucon, for its great cakes and ice cream!

- Colonia de Sacremento, for its cobbled cuteness

 

Winner........for its beauty and laid back wonders, Wanaka

 

Best Adrenalin Rush

Nominees

- climbing the Bicentennial Tree

- Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef

- Bungy Jumping at Queenstown

- Sky Diving over Lake Taupo

- White Water Rafting in Argentina

 

Winner........for its eye-popping excitement, Sky Diving

 

Lowest Point

Nominees

- No room at the inn in Napier

- Bottles thrown at our hotel window in Nowra at 2am

- Rain obscuring the Great Ocean Road

- Clouds obscuring Torres Del Paine

 

Winner (Loser) ........The Nightmare in Nowra

 

Best Natural Wonder

Nominees

- beautiful Ha Long Bay

- the mountain-side paddy fields at Sa Pa

- the beaches on Wilson's Prom

- the blistering Ayers Rock & the Olgas

- the gorgeous NZ Lakes & Mountains

- the jaw-dropping Milford & Doubtful Sounds

- jumping off the sand-dunes on Farewell Spit

- hiking the Tongariro Crossing

- the vibrant colours of the Champagne Pool

- the other-worldly Atacama Desert

- the stunning Perito Moreno glacier

- the beautiful Iguassu Falls

- the improbable landscape of Rio

 

Winner........for the sheer spectacle of watching icebergs crash into the lake, the Perito Moreno glacier

 

Most Magical Moment

Nominees

- cycling through a river on Cat Ba island

- kayaking in the rain in Ha Long Bay

- exploring the haunted casino on Bokor Hill

- the stunning Kampot sunset

- wandering through the overgrown temples of Ta Phrom

- lazing in the pools of Lichfield Park

- hiking and swimming at the Edith Falls

- the helicopter flight over the NZ glaciers

- swimming with dolphins off Kaikoura

- hiking through the snow in the Torres Del Paine

 

Joint Winners........the Kampot sunset and swimming with dolphins - both amazing!

 

Best Wildlife

Nominees

- crocodiles and birds at Yellow Water, Kakadu

- kangaroos on Pebble Beach

- koalas crossing the road in Australia

- penguins, seals and sea lions of the Otago Peninsula

- the dolphins of New Zealand

- butterflies and hummingbirds in Brazil

 

Winner........koalas...no, penguins...no, crocodiles....

 

Best Man Made Structure

Nominees

- Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

- the temples of Angkor, Cambodia

- Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge

- Auckland Sky Tower

- Itaipu Dam, Brazil

- Christ the Redeemer statue, Rio

 

Winner........for their scale and beauty, the temples of Angkor

 

 

And that's more or less it. Just a few thank-yous before we sign off.....

 

...huge thanks to Jean, Gil & Chris, Vern & Shirley, Tony & Max, the Woods, Walkers, Sorensens, Steeles and Searles for their hospitality and kindness - spending time with friendly faces really kept us going.

 

...big thanks to Sally, Nona, Yvonne, Ross and Sandra for keeping things in order back in Worthing and making coming back home a real pleasure

 

...and finally thanks to all of you for reading this! Knowing that there were people at home interested in what we were up to made it feel like we were never alone.

 

Till the next time....

 

All Good Things....

Hi everyone!

I'm happy to report that we've had a lovely last few days in Rio. The sun has continued to shine and we've really enjoyed chilling out in this gorgeous city.

On Wednesday we caught the train up to the Christ the Redeemer statue. The statue itself was really impressive but the views from the top of Corcovado were even better. We could see pretty much all of Rio from up there. It was absolutely stunning - if there is a more beautifully located city in the world we haven't seen it yet.

In the evening we went to the Maracaña for the game between local side Flamengo and Club America from Mexico. The match was in the last sixteen of the Copa Libertadores, and Flamengo were holding a 4-2 advantage from the first leg in Mexico. As such there was a fantastic party atmosphere in the ground, with 50,000 fans singing, dancing, banging their drums and letting off flares. The stadium itself was also really impressive. It was built for the 1950 World Cup (when it held 199,500 for the final!) and will become the first stadium to host two Wold Cup Finals when the 2014 tournament is held in Brazil. The capacity is 'only' 95,000 now, but it is still an amazing place.

Unfortunately the game didn't quite go as planned, and America ended up winning 3-0 and therefore knocking Flamengo out! There were needless to say quite a few unhappy fans after the game....


Yesterday we had another lovely day and decided to spend it on Ipanema beach soaking up the sun. Unbelievably this was the first day of our travels when we've done nothing but lie on a beach - it was the 244th day of our trip! I've been promising June that at some point she'd get a beach holiday, and yesterday I lived up to my word!


So, this is it. Tomorrow we fly out of Rio and on Sunday we'll be back in good old Worthing. It feels really strange to be coming to the end of our travels. We've had an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime adventure with hundreds of unforgettable experiences, but now we're just looking forward to 'on-shoring' ourselves and living a normal life for a while. Some people are never happy eh?


The End


.....almost. Look out for one final posting when we get home, when we'll try our best to pick out the highlights of the trip. See you very soon!

Here Comes The Sun.....

Rio skyline
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hello again! As you can tell from the photo above the sunny weather has finally arrived, and we've had a lovely day visiting the Sugar Loaf Mountain. The mountain is actually a large rock on the coast of Rio reached by cable car, and is a beautiful spot with stunningly gorgeous views over the city and bay. To my disappointment though it turns out that it isn't actually made of sugar.

Yesterday's trip to the favelas was good and showed us another side of Rio life, although after having been to India and China the conditions here didn't seem that bad comparatively. Having said that though we didn't go on one of the tours that includes a visit to machine-gun-toting drug dealers!

All being well we're heading up to the Christ the Redeemer statue tomorrow, and in the evening are going to see a football match between local side Flamengo and a Mexican team in the South American equivalent of the Champions League. The weather is still supposed to be good until Thursday, so our dream of actually lying on a beach may still come to fruition....

Her name is Rio

Hi there.

 

We've had a good few days in Rio so far, although unfortunately the weather hasn't been quite what we were hoping for. Its nice and warm but a bit overcast with occasional showers, so we haven't managed to hit the beach yet. Instead we've been chilling out and visiting a few different areas of the city, including the centre with its bizarre cathedral, and the hillside suburb of Santa Teresa. We were supposed to go to see a football game today but the agent couldn't get any tickets, so will probably go to a mid-week game instead. Tomorrow we're going on a tour of a favela (slum), which should be interesting.

 

We're saving the "highlights" of Rio (the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugar Loaf mountain) until the weather improves and we can get some nice views. Even now though the city is really beautiful, with huge hills looming over beautiful beaches. We've enjoyed strolling along Ipanema and Copacabana beaches people watching. The people here are a lot more varied than elsewhere in South America - Brazil was a major destination for the slave trade, and there are a lot of their descendants here alongside the Europeans and indigenous people.

 

June has bought a Portuguese phrase book but we're finding it pretty difficult to pick up the lingo. The accent is very hard to understand, and the words that look like their Spanish equivalents don't sound anything like them!

 

We're really looking forward to getting home now. Its been a long road with a few bumps along the way, and it will be good just to be in our own home and see all our friends again. Can't wait....

 

Toucan play that game

Close up toucan
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hello again! We had a good couple of days down in Foz do Iguacu. As well as visiting the falls we went on a very brief visit across the border to Paraguay, visited the awesome Itaipu dam, and went to a great bird park.

The Itaipu dam was really interesting. Its the largest generator of electricity in the world, and cost 6 billion dollars to build. Its been voted one of the 7 wonders of the modern world by engineers, and you could see why - it really was an impressive structure.

The bird park was also cool, and we got up close and personal with lots of birds, including toucans and humming-birds. The humming-birds were amazing. They flew right past our ears making a very loud humming noise, and hovered like helicopters with their wings going so fast you couldn't see them.

Last night we flew up to Rio, the final destination on our world tour. It feels quite a relief to be here - our days of working out what to do and where to stay are behind us! We're staying in an apartment 2 minutes from Ipanema beach and 4 minutes from Copacabana beach! The weather is a bit dodgy at the moment but is supposed to clear up soon, so beach here we come!

Falling in love again....

The gorgeous Iguazu Falls
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hi everyone!

We've had an amazing few days visiting the Iguazu falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil. We'd heard great things about the falls and had very high hopes of them, and we're glad to say they more than lived up to our expectations. There are about 285 falls in total, spread across the the Iguazu river as it plummets down over basalt platforms. We visited the Argentinian side on Friday and Saturday for a close up look at the falls, including a VERY wet boat ride under one of them, and today went to the Brazilian side (where it is 'Iguacu' rather than 'Iguazu') for panoramic views. Its hard to do justice to them in photos but we've put a few up - check out the Argentina and Brazil sets. As you can see from the photos we also saw a fair amount of wildlife there, although we didn't manage to get photos of the amazing hummingbirds.

We're heading into Paraguay tomorrow before flying up to Rio on Tuesday for the last 10 days of our trip. We did briefly consider going by bus and visiting a few more places on the way, but in the end decided that we finally deserve a bit of a rest, so are heading straight to the beach!

Day Trippers

Uruguayan sunset
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Very quick note today before we head off to Iguazu.

We had a great day in Uruguay yesterday. We went to a very pretty historic town called Colonia del Sacramento, which was used as a base for smuggling into Buenos Aires back in the 18th century. It was a charming place with cobbled streets and beautiful old buildings, and had a very relaxed feel. We wandered round a few museums, climed up a lighthouse and watched the sun go down. It was a lovely day. Here are a few photos.

OK, better run. Hasta luego!

Goodbye grey skies, hello blue

Hi again!

Its Monday night now and we've had a few more lovely days in BA. The smoke cleared yesterday, which was a relief - June had to resort to wearing her Saigon face mask again!

To get an idea of what the smoke was like, here's a picture from our flat on a smoky day.....



and here's one on a clear day....




We've spent our time exploring the different areas of the city. We're staying in the old quarter of San Telmo, with cobbled streets and a lively antiques fair on Sunday. One block from our flat is the widest street in the world, Av 9 de Julio. There are 20 lanes of traffic to cross to get to the other side, which is quite a challenge!

We've also visited the very modern marina of Punta Madero, the posher areas of Palmero and Recoleta with their lively nightlife and relaxing parks, and the city centre itself with its monumental buildings. We also went to the Evita museum which was interesting, and gave an insight into her magic. We really like BA and can see why its so popular. Now the smoke has cleared the weather is ideal.

We had a great night out on Friday with Bella and Jez, a British couple we met down in Ushuaia who are here for a wedding. We had a steak meal in Recoleta and a few beers (or margaritas in June's case), and were a bit worse for wear the following morning! The entertainment continued last night at a great tango show - the dancing, music and singing were all amazing.

We've extended our stay in BA until Thursday as we're enjoying it so much, although on Wednesday we're escaping the city (and country!) with a day-trip to Uruguay on the ferry. Then on Thursday we head up to the Iguazu Falls in the north of Argentina. After that its Brazil and then home.

I'm getting a bit worried that although we're 90% of the way through our trip I still haven't had a blinding revelation about what I should be doing with the rest of my life. I'm still hopeful that I´ll get some inspiration before our return, but we're running out of time....

Buenos Aires. Not!

Hi everyone. We've made it safely up to BA and have had a good couple of days so far exploring the city and relaxing in our apartment. Its really nice to have a flat where we can chill out and not worry about what time we get up! There was a bit of confusion when we arrived though - we thought that we could pay with plastic but they only took cash, so we had to run round the city at midnight looking for an ATM!

 

Buenos Aires is a nice city, full of lovely buildings and glamorous people. It has a very European feel to it - it could easily be Madrid or Rome. We've watched some tango and visited Evita's grave and have generally been wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere. The weather has been great and a very welcome change from the cold and snow of the last couple of weeks.

 

Today though we woke up to find the city shrouded in smoke! There have been a series of huge fires out in the farmland around the city and the whole place is really murky. The airports have been closed and visibility is poor, and the air smells funny and isn't great to breathe. We were going to watch a Boca Juniors football game tomorrow but may have to give that a miss if we're not going to be able to see the other end of the pitch! Ironically Buenos Aires means "fair winds" - we could do with some right now to blow all the smoke away.

 

We've uploaded some photos of the pre-smoky BA to the Argentina set.

 

Bye for now!

 

The end of the world as we know it

Hi everybody! Just a quick note to let you know that we're having a good time down here in Ushuaia. The town is in a stunning setting, on the shores of the Beagle Channel and beneath some snow-capped mountains, and despite it being on the chilly side we've had some good weather to explore the area.

Ushuaia is the main departure point for visiting Antarctica, but it's the end of the season now and there aren't any cruise ships running. It would have been cool to have arranged a quick trip down there so we could visit our final continent, but I guess that will have to wait for another time!

We've visitied a couple of interesting museums, one of which used to be a prison and was absolutely freezing inside! We must make sure we don't commit any crimes while we're down here!

Yesterday we went for a hike up to a nearby glacier. There was quite a lot of snow on the ground, and I ended up losing the path we were supposed to follow and doing a bit of ad-hoc mountaineering. Not good!

There are quite a few Malvinas / Falklands war memorials around here, and banners stating that one day the islands will be returned to their rightful owners. There is also a memorial to the 300 people killed in the sinking of the Belgrano, which puts the "Gotcha!" headlines into perspective.....

This morning we're going on a boat trip round the Channel and then flying off to Buenos Airies this evening. We've booked an apartment for a week so should be able to kick back and relax.

Bye for now!

To the Ends of the Earth....

Hello from a very cold Punta Arenas!

 

After having avoided the winter for most of our journey it has finally caught up with us at the end of our Chilean adventures. It's so cold here that we're wearing woolly hats in the middle of the day! June commented earlier that it finally feels like Christmas.

 

Despite the chill Punta Arenas is a nice town, and we've spent today visiting a couple of museums. The first was the Maritime Museum and covered details of Chile's naval battles as well as a display about the rescue of Shackleton's expedition from the Antarctic. We'd both enjoyed the Shackleton mini-series when it was on TV a few years ago, and it was nice to see some relics of the adventure. They survived in the Antarctic waiting for rescue for the best part of a year - at the moment we're struggling to stay outside for more than a few minutes at a time!

 

Tomorrow we head on a long bus journey back into Argentina and down to Ushuaia in the Tierre Del Fuego. Ushuaia is the southern-most city in the world, only about 50 miles north of Cape Horn. Its latitude is 54°47' south. Surprisingly Glasgow is at 55°50' north. I wonder why the bottom of the world is colder than the top? Something to do with hot air rising perhaps?!

 

We've really enjoyed our two spells in Chile. It has some stunning scenery and the people are very friendly. It's the wealthiest country in South America (52nd in the world in the GDP per capita table) but feels less westernised and a little less worldy-wise than Argentina. I don't know if we'll ever be back this way again, but there is still lots we didn't see, including Easter Island, and most of the peaks of the Torres Del Paine!

 

We've got a few days in Ushuaia before we fly to Buenos Airies to thaw out. We've booked an apartment for a week so we can relax and enjoy the city's buzz.

 

Adios!

 

Hello in the Snow!

Back from the Torres

As you can see from June's video above we had quite an adventure in the Torres Del Paine!

 

We arrived in the park on Sunday in heavy rain, but gamely took the boat across to the western side and had an afternoon hike towards the Grey Glacier. The wind and rain was really strong but we made it to a look-out over the glacier - although due to the overcast weather the glacier lived up to its name and looked grey rather than blue! Luckily the rain stopped and the wind dried us off on our walk back to the refugio.

 

The next morning the rain was even worse, and we decided that we'd have to abandon our hopes of walking the 'W'. Most people staying in the refugio and campsite decided to call it quits and headed out of the park, but we thought we'd give it one more shot so got the boat and bus back to the eastern end and checked into another refugio. We had a pleasant (dry!) walk beside some lakes in the afternoon, and went to bed praying for some good weather the following morning so we could make an attempt to get to the Torres themselves.

 

When we woke up this morning, however, there was no sign of the Torres and it was pretty obvious that any walking would have to be through a snow-storm! Fortunately we had bought some woolly hats and gloves and hired some water-proof trousers, so we excitedly headed up into the snow. As it turned out it was a really good fun hiking through the snow, and after a couple of hours the sun came out and we had some great views down the valley, although not, alas, or the Torres themselves. The deep snow prevented us from getting any further, so we headed back down, and were very happy to meet Vicky, a girl who'd been on the rafting trip with, heading up the hill. One of the best things about travelling is bumping into people you last saw hundreds of miles away.

 

As we were about to climb into the bus and head back to Puerto Natales, the clouds lifted and we finally got a view of the Torres. They didn't look as spectacular as they looks in the books, but as least we saw them!

 

You can see the photos we took in the Chile set.

 

The calm before the storm

Driftin'
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Here we are driting down the Rio Manso between rapids - as you can tell we've finally found somewhere where the internet is fast enough to upload our photos. Check out the Argentina link on the right for lots of photos of glaciers, mountains and white water rafting!

We're having a relaxing day in Puerto Natales before we head to the Torres Del Paine tomorrow. Ironically the weather is really nice today - hope it lasts for the next few days! We've done some investigation and it turns out that there are options for doing 1, 2, 3 or 4 day treks, and we can make up our minds as we go along depending on how tired / cold we are. If we were here in the high season we wouldn't have been able to be so flexible and would have had to book all of our nights in the refuges in advance.

It's a bit confusing being back in Chile again. Some things are the same as Argentina - eg hundreds of stray dogs running around - and some things are different - getting 880 pesos to the pound instead of 6 means we have to be careful with our sums!

We'll let you know how we managed on the trek when we get back! Bye!

Head in the clouds (2)

Hola chicos!

We're back in El Calafate now after our hiking trip to the El Chalten region. We did two 6 hour hikes through beautiful countryside, although unfortunately it was a bit cloudy so we didn't have clear views of the top of the mountains, which was a shame as they are pretty spectacular. Luckily we managed to get a peek at them when we first arrived in town, so at least could picture what we were missing!

Our trip to the Perito Moreno glacier on Monday was one of the highlights of our trip so far. It was a lovely sunny day and the glacier was beautiful, and every now and then huge (house-sized) chunks of it would break off and crash into the lake below. It made a continuous creaking and groaning sound, and was one of the most amazing sights we've ever seen. Gorgeous.

We head off on the bus to Puerto Natales in Chile tomorrow morning. The main reason for going down there is to visit the Torres Del Paine national park. The most popular trek in the park is the 5 day "W" route, although looking at the weather forecast we probably won't attempt all of it. The forecast for the next 5 days down there is rain, rain, rain, rain and rain, so maybe a day of two hiking will be enough for us! Hopefully the weather won't be so bad that it obscures the views of the Torres themselves.

We're really enjoying South America now that we've got into the swing of things. Argentina is very traveller-friendly, and a lot more people speak English here, although we (ie June) are persevering with our Spanish. We're meeting lots of fellow travellers with hints and tips of what to do. Pretty much everyone we speak to gushes about Buenos Aires, so we're really looking forward to going there. Whether we go straight there from Puerto Natales or go to the far south of Argentina first (to the Tierra del Fuego) is up for debate at the moment.

Still no photos for you to look at, as the internet is woefully slow here. Hopefully it will be better in Puerto Natales.

Hasta la vista!

Tiene hielo por favor?

Buenos Noches!

 

We've just had an amazing day visiting some glaciers near El Calafate. We went on a boat trip through a lake, sailing past icebergs and coming really close to towering glacier edges. We've visited glaciers in Iceland and New Zealand, but they weren't as impressive up close as these ones. The icebergs were great too and were incredibly blue - very beautiful. We took loads of photos (way too many probably) but can't upload them yet as the internet is painfully slow here.

 

We've got our next few days more or less mapped out. Tomorrow we visit the Perito Moreno glacier, which is one of the few in the world that is advancing rather than receding, and every now and then great chunks of it crash into the lake. On Tuesday we're getting a bus up to El Chalten to do some hiking among the mountains, before coming back here on Thursday and then heading down to the Torres Del Paine park in Chile on Friday. Luckily the weather hasn't turned cold yet, so hopefully we'll survive with our meagre winter weather gear!

 

El Calafate is a nice town and we're staying in a comfy hostel. We haven't managed to get into the whole South American "eat dinner at 10pm" routine, and are famished now so are heading out for (proably) another steak.

 

Bye!

 

A prior engagement

Hello again! We´re in Argentina now, having come over the border on the bus from Pucon on Wednesday. It was a beautiful journey across the Andes, beside clear blue lakes and under towering volcanoes. We had brief stops in a couple of picture-perfect mountain villages complete with chocolate shops - you could almost believe we were in Switzerland.

 

We've spent the last couple of days in a lively town called Bariloche. Its in a gorgeous setting, and yesterday we went on a lovely boat trip around the lake, visiting a couple of islands. The scenery is quite reminiscent of New Zealand, which I guess isn't surprising given that NZ and South America used to be joined together in a super-contintent called Gondwanaland a few hundred million years ago. All those museums trips didn't go to waste after all!

 

We're staying in a nice hostel that overlooks the lake. On our first night here we were put in a pretty basic room with no view and a dodgy bathroom, but the next morning we upgraded to a lovely room with great views and a flat screen TV - 3 quid well spent! Last night we went out for our first Argentinian steak. I ordered half a fillet, which turned out to be a good idea as it was pretty huge (and needless to say delicious!).

 

Today we went on a great white-water rafting trip on the Manso River. The scenery was stunning and the rapids were pretty wild - June and I got thrown in at one point! The last time we went rafting we got engaged, but nothing so life-changing happened this time. We did cross the border back into Chile though, which is the first time we´ve crossed an international border in an inflatable!

 

We bought a CD with some photos of the rafting which we'll upload when we get a chance, but in the meantime we´ve added a few photos to the Argentina set.

 

Bye!

 

Not another volcano!

Villarrica Volcano above Pucon
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hi everyone. We're having a very relaxing time in Pucon in the Chilean lake district. Its a nice town nestling on the shores of a lake, and dominated by the Villarrica volcano sitting above it.

You can do a hike up the volcano, but in the end we decided against it - there are only so many volcanoes you can climb on a holiday! Plus my ankle still isn't right, so we've decided just to take it easy instead. There are lots of cafes and restaurants in town, so we've been kicking back and relaxing. The town has a bit of a European alpine feel about it - it's certainly very different to both Santiago and San Pedro.

Tomorrow we say au revoir to Chile and take a bus across the Andes to Bariloche in Argentina. Again its supposed to be a nice lakeside town, and maybe we'll be up for a bit more exertion there.

On Saturday we're flying down to El Calafate in Patagonia, to start exploring the glaciers and national parks down there. Hopefully the weather will be ok - we're heading into Autumn here, and the further south we go the colder it will get. So far so good though - the weather has been gorgeous, although its been a bit cloudy for the last couple of days.

Better go now as the letters have all been rubbed off this keyboard, which makes typing a bit of a struggle! Hope all is well with you all.

200 days gone, 47 to go.........

Last night I dreamt of San Pedro.....

Hello from the Atacama Desert, the highest and driest desert in the world!

We've had a really good three days up here, although we're finding the conditions a bit tough. San Pedro de Atacama is about 2200m above sea level, and for the last two days we've been on trips above 4000m, and have been suffering from altitude sickness a bit. It hasn't amounted to much more than headaches and tiredness, and has probably been accentuated by the fact that we had to get up at 3.30 this morning so that we could see some geysers before the sun came up. Apparently the geysers are at their gushiest just before sunrise - which is a shame, as at 4000m in a desert at 6am it's bloody cold! So much so that the water running away from the geysers was freezing on the ground...

San Pedro itself is a gorgeous little town. Its just as you´d imagine South America - dusty streets, mud-brick buildings, locals lying in the shade. Its a world away from Santiago and a great place to relax.

The Atacama desert is stunning. Its a mixture of lava fields and salt-lakes, surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. It seems that everywhere you look there are volcanoes - some smoking, some dormant, some extinct. I expected the Andes to be more jungle-clad than volcanic - no doubt they are in other places. We met a Chilean girl yesterday who was going for an interview to work on the new James Bond movie which is going to be filmed here, so it will be interesting to see if we spot anywhere!

We've taken lots of gorgeous photos, but the internet is really slow here so hopefully we'll be able to upload them when we head south.

Hope you all have a great Easter weekend, and speak to you again soon!

Heading to the desert

Hello again.

 

It´s Tuesday morning now and we're about to head off to the airport to fly up to San Pedro de Atacama for a few days in the desert. Apparently there are lots of beautiful things to see up there, although one of them involves a 4am start to see the sunrise. I'm only just falling asleep by 4am some days!

 

We´ve had a great few days in Santiago. Once we'd got acclimatised we really liked the place, and found some cool areas away from the hustle and bustle of the centre. We found a great restaurant last night called ¨Las Vacas Gordas¨ (The Fat Cows), which is what we felt like after the meal! Food and drink is pretty cheap here (although not as cheap as in Asia), and the people are generally friendly. Its really surprising how few of them speak any English though - we´ve had to resort to sign-language and Google Translator when our vocabulary has failed us!

 

We´ve changed our plans for next week a bit. When we fly back to Santiago on Saturday we're not going to stay in town but instead will catch an overnight bus down to Pucon in the Lake District. The last time we went on an overnight bus was from Hanoi to Hue - about 190 days ago!

 

Hope you´re all doing well and thanks for still reading this!

 

Like a Thief in the Night

Evening all.

 

We´ve had a good couple of days in Santiago so far. It´s a very lively city filled with lots of beautiful people and great architecture. This afternoon we went up a gondola to the top of the Cerro San Cristobal, the tallest hill in town. The views were great and we could just about make out the Andes in the distance, although the smog did its best to hide them. After that we went for a nice meal in the Bellavista area, and were surprised to find them celebrating St Patrick´s day!

 

We´ve sketched out our plans for the next few days. On Tuesday we´re flying north to San Pedro de Atacama for a few days in the desert - its supposed to be really beautiful up there. Then on Saturday we fly back to Santiago, and probably on Easter Monday we´ll take a bus south to the Lake District, and then more buses across the Andes and down through Argentina towards Patagonia. Its subject to change, but at least we have a vague idea of what we´re doing now!

 

As expected things have been a bit harder work here than in NZ. People don´t tend to speak much English so we´ve been trying our best to get by in Spanish - so far so good. We were warned that crime might be a problem, and sure enough I discovered someone opening my bag last evening - it was on my back at the time! The incident has made us a bit nervous, but was probably a good thing so that we are a bit more careful from now on. June has been advised not to wear any jewellery, so unfortunately that opal ring is going to be under wraps for a couple of months.

 

I guess we´d better head to bed soon to try and get over the jet lag - we´ve had two very disrupted nights so far. Not feeling 100% comfortable at the moment, but looking forward to what´s ahead.....

 

Chilling in Chile

Hi everyone. Just a quick note to let you know we´ve crossed the Pacific successfully.

 

By the time midnight arrives March 13th will have lasted 40 hours, but I´ve got a feeling we´re not going to last that long - it´s 8.30pm now and we´re pretty much on our last legs!

 

The flight over was good and we managed to get a couple of hours sleep. We watched two movies on the plane - Enchanted and The Martian Child - both were good but the details are a bit blurry in my mind now!

 

From first impressions Santiago seem like a cool place. There are lots of wide open plazas and impressive churches, and thousands of Chileans happily promenading back and forth. It feels quite European, except without the tourists - we barely came across any on our wanders. June has been brushing up on her Spanish and is doing very well, including asking for some ice when I fell off a curb and twisted my ankle! How come I can jump out of a plane OK, but find it difficult to cross the road?!

 

We´re heading to the tourist office tomorrow to get some ideas about how to plan our trip. The problem with Chile is that it´s so long and thin, so if we want to see both ends there´ll be a lot of doubling back on ourselves, and the distances are pretty enormous. We´ve been so busy in NZ that we haven´t had a chance to plan anything for this leg of the journey, but judging by the way we´re feeling now we may take a more relaxed approach to the next 2 months, and move at a leisurely Latin pace.

 

Sweet as

Well, we've just about come to the end of our time in New Zealand.  

 

As you can probably tell we've had a wonderful couple of months here. The country has been even more beautiful than we expected, and there has been so much do see and do. I'll never forget my bungy-jumping and sky-diving, but there have been so many other highlights - swimming with dolphins, flying over glaciers, spotting penguins, seals and sealions, cruising the fjords, climbing a volcano.....the list goes on and on. We can really understand why people would want to emigrate here - it has the feel of being at home in the UK, but with much more beautiful scenery, far fewer people and (in the summer at least) better weather. We've no plans to emigrate (bit too far away from all our friends and family) but we'll definitely be back!

 

 

We've had a nice few days in Auckland. It's a bit like a smaller scale Sydney, sitting beside a beautiful harbour and populated with lots of Asians! One difference though is that it's built on an active volcano zone - in face there are 42 volcanoes in the city! We visitied the museum today and went to a pretty scary exhibit on what might happen if one of them blew - after watching that I'm pretty glad we're about to head off!

 

 

Tomorrow we fly to Santiago, Chile, on what will be the longest day of our lives. There's a 16 hour time difference between Chile and NZ, so we will arrive in Santiago 5 hours before we leave Auckland! I've always fancied a bit of time travel.....

 

Ships that pass in the night

Meeting up with Marina, Mark, Caroline and John
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hello from Auckland!

Those of you from NU/L&E may remember Marina James, who used to work (and ski!) with us. She and her husband Mark, and his brother John and (very soon to be) wife Caroline arrived in NZ yesterday to celebrate John's birthday, watch the cricket, and attend John and Caroline's wedding in Wellington!

Luckily we had a couple of hours overlap with them in Auckland, and we met up for some drinks underneath the Sky Tower. It was great to see them and they did very well to keep their eyes open considering they were severely jet-lagged! Actually Marina was her usual bubbly self, but John and Mark were clearly struggling!

We had a good last couple of days up north. The sun continued to shine and our visit to Waitingi was really interesting. Although there continue to be issues to this day with how the Treaty has been interpreted (especially around land rights), it seems to have been written with the right intentions, and its aim of "one land, one people" was a noble one.

Quick update re the backpacker room we had in the Bay of Islands - unfortunately we didn't have it to ourselves, as three Brazilian girls turned up to share with us at 10.30pm. As you can imagine I was most put out!

We've got a few days in Auckland before we head off to South America on Thursday. We'd better head out now and explore the big city. Bye for now!


PS We've uploaded the photos for the last few days, starting here.

Always Take The Weather With You...

It's amazing how much the weather can affect your enjoyment of a holiday.

We were both feeling a bit glum after 3 or 4 cloudy days, but our mood has brightened along with the sunshine now that we've headed up to Northland.

Yesterday we had a nice time snorkelling amongst the marine life at Goat Island, although the sea was a bit on the chilly side! Luckily we were persuaded to hire wet-suits, which made it a lot more pleasant.

Today we drove up to the Bay of Islands, which, as the name suggests, is a bay of.....islands! There are about 150 islands, and we went on a lovely cruise round some of them this afternoon. It was a hot sunny day and the sea had lots of gorgeous colours. We ended the day watching the sun go down while having a nice meal in Russell, before catching a ferry back to our backpackers.

We've been pretty impressed with the standard of the backpackers out here - they are generally a lot less "youth" oriented than the ones we stayed in in Oz. Tonight we've hit the jackpot and found a 2 bedroom place with kitchen, bathroom & TV etc for £34. There was a chance that
some other people could be staying in the other bedroom, but its 9pm now so I think we're safe! We've probably split our nights 50 /50 between backpackers and motels/hotels, which has kept us (more or less) sane!

Tomorrow we're visiting Waitangi, which is where the original Treaty between the British and the Maoris was signed, and then pn Sunday we head down to Auckland.

Haven't been able to upload any photos for a while but hopefully will soon. Bye!

The beginning of the end

Hi everyone!

 

We've spent the last few days pottering around the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel Peninsula and have been having a nice relaxing time. The weather has been a bit dodgy so we haven't been able to enjoy the beautiful beaches as much as we'd have liked, although at least it was sunny on the day we visited Hobbiton, which was really pretty.

 

One of the places we'd been recommended to visit was the Hot Water Beach, which is a beach where if you dig a pool for yourself at low tide it gets filled by a natural spring of hot water, and you can happily lie back and relax as if you're in a bath. Unfortunately it was really rainy and windy when we were there, and even though it was low tide the waves still came crashing in and quickly filled in any holes we tried to dig! In the end we gave up with the shovels and just wiggled our feet below the sand, and sure enough it was pretty hot under there!

 

We're heading up towards the far north and the Bay of Islands this afternoon. We've got four days up there before we head down to Auckland on Sunday, and then after that we'll be off to South America, the last leg of our journey!

Skydiving - the video!

Here I am in action tumbling towards earth!!!

You may want to turn your volume down before you play the video - the backing music is pretty loud!

June conquers Vertigo!

Here's proof that June managed the climb up Mount Ngauruhoe. What a star!

Mark and June climb Mount Doom

Here we are re-enacting a scene from Lord of the Rings on the slopes on Mount Doom. Its one of the most emotional moments of the film - I hope we did it some justice! I think you'll agree that June's impersonation of Sam is uncanny!

A long hard day!

Mount Doom
Originally uploaded by mark&june

If you ever go sky-diving, don't plan on doing something early the next morning!

I was so excited after the sky-dive that I didn't get to sleep until 2.30am. This wouldn't have been a problem if we hadn't planned to walk the Tongariro Crossing the next day, which involved getting up at 5.30 in the morning!

The Tongariro Crossing is described as the best one day hike in New Zealand, and is a 7-8 hour walk through stunning volcanic landscapes. An optional side-track is the climb to the summit of Ngauruhoe volcano, which was made famous as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings. The sign-posts said this would add 3 hours to the walk, but it took us 4 hours to clamber up and slide down it. The climb up was really strenuous and a bit scary - it certainly felt a lot more dangerous than either bungy-jumping or sky-diving! June did amazingly well doing the climb, especially as she suffers from vertigo! It really was a hard-slog getting to the top - if I was Frodo I would have been tempted to put the ring in a drawer and hope for the best.

Although it was great to have reached the summit, there was still another 6 hours of walking ahead of us. Unfortunately my old skiing knee-injury started hurting near the top, and June had a sore ankle, knee and wrist, so the last 15km were a bit of a struggle to say the least! The views were stunning though, and we eventually got back to the car at 7:45pm, after more than 12 hours of walking!

Needless to say we're having a really quiet day today......

On an All Time High!

Flying without wings
Originally uploaded by mark&june

As you can see from the photo, I did it!

I wasn't expecting to go sky-diving until tomorrow, but we got back to Taupo a bit earlier than planned and the sun was shining, so I thought I might as well go for it!

We went along to Taupo airport and I was given a quick briefing before being suited up. The plane took about 20 minutes to reach 12,000 feet, and before I knew it I was sitting at the edge of the plane about to fall to earth.

Luckily I wasn't on my own, as a Swedish guy called Patrik was strapped to my back. We were in free-fall for 45 seconds, and the experience was awesome : the wind was rushing past me, the G-forces were pretty strong, and the ground seemed to be coming up to meet me pretty quickly. I was shouting and laughing with sheer joy - it was incredible!

We plummeted 7,000 feet before Patrik opened the 'chute and we floated slowly to earth. Patrik let me operate the "controls" for a while, and we had great fun spinning down in circles.

It wasn't at all scary and I would recommend it to everyone! Absolutely one of the best experiences of the trip (and my life) so far!


There's a few more photos over on Flickr, and hopefully I'll manage to put the video up soon.

In Hot Water

Hi everyone!

 

We've had a great few days exploring the geo-thermal hot-spots of the North Island. After Napier we headed to Taupo, where the plan was to go on a hike through the volcanic landscape and (for Mark) to go sky-diving, but unfortunately the weather wasn't great at the weekend so we changed our plans and headed north up to Rotorua, which is the centre for geysers, hot springs and mud-pools. We saw some really beautiful sights and enjoyed relaxing in thermal pools and waterfalls. The geysers were pretty cool, although very different to the ones we'd seen in Iceland. Instead of erupting periodically they seemed to gush incessantly for hours on end.

 

As you can tell from the blog below we also went zorbing in Taupo, which was great fun. We changed into our swimming costumes and climbed into the 11ft balls, which were partially filled with water. We were then pushed down the hill, rolling head over heels until we hit the bottom!

 

This morning we came back down to Taupo. See the blog above for details of what I got up to this afternoon!

Zorbtastic!

June on a roll
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hi everyone. We're just back from having rolled down a hill in a giant rubber ball. It's called "zorbing" and was really great fun. The picture above is of June on the way down!

We've had a great couple of days in Rotorua - we'll add some more details soon - internet connection runs out in 1 minute! Bye!

No room at the inn(ings)

Hi everbody!

We're in Napier right now, which is on the east coast and is a really pretty town. It was devastated by an earthquake in 1931 and was re-built from scratch in the early thirties, the majority of it in Art Deco style. Its gorgeously sunny today so we're having a nice relaxing wander around.

On the journey up here yesterday we heard on the radio that the One Day International between England and NZ was in progress in Napier. I was hoping that we could get here in time to find somewhere to stay and then pop along for the last couple of hours of the match. How wrong I was! We spent a fruitless hour trying to find somewhere to stay, and even visited neighbouring towns looking for somewhere. One motel operator told us that because of the cricket the nearest available beds were in Taupo, a two hour drive away! We decided that our only option was to sleep in the car, and thought that we might as well do so in a camp-site so we'd have access to showers etc. We rolled up at the Hastings holiday camp, and were over-joyed to find that they had a cabin available! It even had a little TV in it, so we could meet our Wednesday night rendezvous with Lost! Needless to say we didn't see the cricket - a shame as it sounded like a great game.

Tomorrow we're heading west towards the volcanoes and lakes on the Taupo region. I'm hoping to go sky-diving there, but will see if I have the nerve or not!

We've uploaded a few photos from Wellington (including one of me in elf ears!) - see the North Island link on the right. We had a really nice time in the city. Although its not as stunning as Sydney it had a really nice feel to it. We had a drive round the "Wellywood" studios but didn't see anyone famous, although we did have one evening meal in Viggo Mortensen's favourite restaurant!

The Iron Duke

Hello from Wellington! We sailed across to the North Island on
Saturday and have spent a very enjoyable few days in the nation's
capital. After a couple of weeks in the countryside its been a nice
change to be in a big city again.

We've continued our tour of the world's government buildings with a
visit to the NZ parliament, which is made up of a mixture of classical
and modern architectural styles, the latter embodied in the famous
'bee-hive' building. There are lots of similarities to the UK and
Australian parliaments, except that the kiwis did away with the upper
house in the fifties as it didn't add much value and cost too much to
run!

We've also been to a few museums, including the excellent Te Papa, and
popped into the National Archives which house the Waitangi Treaty,
which was signed between the British and the Maoris in 1840.
Apparently there have been long disputes about how the Treaty was
implemented, but overall there seems to be a lot more integration here
than with the Aborigines in Australia. Before this trip we assumed
that the Maoris and the Aborigines were more or less the same, but
that is far from the case. The Maoris arrived in NZ about 800 years
ago, but the Aborigines have been in Oz for 50,000 years and were
pretty much cut off from the rest of the world for most of that time.
That lengthy isolation may have something to do with their desire to
maintain their traditional way of life.

Anyway, that's enough history lessons for one blog! We're managing to
have some fun as well, and have enjoyed eating and drinking our way
round the city. Tomorrow I'm off on another LOTR trip, while June gets
her hair cut and no doubt enjoys a few hours peace and quiet!

Look me in the eyes

Walking on water
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hi from June in a wet and windy Kaikoura!

Its not all wall-to-wall sunshine out here as you might imagine from the photos we post, though to be honest it has been pretty beautiful weather in NZ - much better than we had expected.

Yesterday we woke early to a lovely calm sea and sunny day which was just about perfect for our Dolphin Encounter. I wasn't sure what to expect and was a bit worried that it might not be quite the right thing to do to try to swim with these wild animals.

Once we were kitted out in our wet suits we watched a briefing film explaining that they are wild and if they don't want to play with you they won't, definately don't touch them and basically if they find you interesting they'll play.

After about 25 minutes boat ride we came upon a big pod of dusky dolphins, they reckoned there were about 400 of them - what an amazing sight - they were swimming along with the boat, jumping out of the water, doing back flips and sommersaults and we just slipped off the back of the boat with our flippers and snorkles in amongst them.

They had recommended we try to make eye contact and make nosies to attract the dolphins' attention - I got the tune of the Chattanooga Choo Choo into my head and hummed that incessantly which seemed to do the trick and soon I had 4 or 5 dolphins swimming beside and around me making their little clicky noises. A couple of times I concentrated on just one and and we kept together for 30 seconds - a minute maybe, swimming round in circles diving down and back up but I quickly ran out of breath and stopped humming and they were off.

I couple of times I bumped into Mark and we just grinned inane snorkly grins at each other and set off to find our dolphin friends again.

I feel absolutely fine now about having swum with them. They aren't tempted to come to the boat in any way - they're not fed or enticed and they weren't performing for us, they were just doing what they do and seemed briefly interested in us - and the feeling of looking into their eyes and them looking back at you as you're swimming along is something I'll remember for a long time.

Slow down, you move too fast....

Hello again! This evening we find ourselves in Kaikura, which is a town famous for its off-shore whale and dolphin populations. We're really looking forward to going swimming with the dolphins tomorrow morning - hopefully they'll be feeling in a friendly mood!

 

We've spent the last few days travelling along the north coast of the South Island. Our first stop was the Abel Tasman National Park, which was good but didn't quite live up to the expectations we had based on the photos we've seen. We went for a walk along the coastal track, hoping to admire the beautiful beaches and green-blue sea, but the track was so enveloped by trees that we only got brief glimpses of the sea! We did visit a couple of beaches and went for a ride on a water-taxi, but it wasn't quite the paradise we had hoped for! Maybe the overcast weather had something to do with it.

 

Much more enjoyable was the trip to the far north west, where a huge spit of sand stretches out into the sea. We visited some stunning beaches with beautiful sand dunes and wild seas, and had great fun jumping off the dunes - hopefully we'll load some of the photos tomorrow.

 

Next stop was Nelson, which is a cool town with lovely cafes and restaurants. We spent one night in the town and then spent last night with Eileen and Rob in their gorgeous house in the country. It really was a beautiful place, set in 5 acres of land with views in all directions to the mountains and sea. Unbelievably the house isn't worth much more than our little terrace in England. We had a great time with them, and I even really enjoyed the vegetable lasagne, which is something I didn't think I'd ever say.

 

Before I sign off I have a confession to make - I have a New Zealand criminal record! A few days ago we were happily driving along when an un-marked police car behind us put on its lights. To my surprise I was speeding! We've spent the last month crawling along in our hire car, being overtaken by everybody, so it was a real shock to find we were driving at 67kph in a 50 area. In my defence, m'lud, the speed limits seem to be pretty random over here - one minute it's 100, the next its 50, then its 70. No excuse of course, and I ended up with an $80 fine, but hopefully no points on my licence.

 

Will report back soon about the dolphin swim. Love to you all, and thinking of some of you especially right now.

Ice, Ice Baby

Morning everyone. The internet is painfully slow here so I'll keep it brief!

 

We've spent the last couple of days on the West Coast, exploring the Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier. They were both really cool places (geddit?) and we enjoyed hiking to them, but the highlight was definitely a helicopter flight over them. The views were awesome and we landed on the Fox Glacier for a quick walk around. It was really beautiful and peaceful.

 

We're heading up to the top coast of the South Island this morning, to take in yet more stunning scenery at Abel Tasman National Park. We are continually amazed at how beautiful NZ is - it seems that round every corner there's something amazing to behold. We've uploaded some more photos if you want to take a look.

 

Today marks 5 months since we left the UK. We've done and seen so much, but at the same time it also seems to be going quite quickly. We often count our blessings that we've been able to take this trip - its an amazing experience. Thanks NU!

Its a Small(ey) World

June, Rob and Eileen
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hello all, and greetings from Wanaka! We've spent the last 3 days here - its an incredibly gorgeous town about an hour north of Queenstown, and like most of the places we've been to is on a lakeside and surrounded by mountains. Its a really beautiful, relaxing and cool place. After a few days in backpacker's we've been staying in a lovely studio with its own garden, which has made our time here even better.

Yesterday we had one of the most enjoyable days of our trip so far. In the morning we visited Puzzling World, which has a great 3-D maze to get lost in, and a number of rooms built at strange angles to confuse the senses and make it look like balls were rolling up hill. We spent 3 very happy hours there and left with big grins on our faces!

Later on we went to the 'Cinema Paradiso' to see No Country For Old Men. The film was great but the cinema was even better. It didn't have traditional cinema seats but was filled with sofas and lazy-boys, and there was an interval half-way through the film to go and get cakes and coffees. It was the most comfortable cinema we've ever been in!

In the evening we went out for dinner with none other than Rob and Eileen Searle. Those of you who worked at NU / L&E might remember Eileen as Eileen Smalley, Gordon Dunse's PA. Rob worked upstairs in the business. They moved out to NZ about 3 years ago and just happened to be holidaying in Wanaka at the same time as us, and June spotted them walking down the street as we were sitting having a coffee! It was a bizarre coincidence and it was great to catch up with them and learn about their (seemingly idyllic) lives in NZ. They live at the top of the South Island, so if our timing works out we hope to visit them again next week.

We've loved being in Wanaka so much that we even spent some time looking in estate agents' windows and doing some sums. At the end of the day NZ is probably a bit too far away from home for us, but otherwise this place feels pretty perfect.....

Mark bungy jumping at Kawarau Bridge!

As you can see from the video, I went bungy jumping and lived to tell the tale!

This morning we set out from Queenstown for the Kawarau Bridge, which is the world’s original bungy jumping site. I was hoping for a few minutes to calm my nerves before the jump, but there was no one ahead of me in the queue so I was quickly strapped to the cord and led to the edge of the precipice. It’s a 43m drop to the river below, and I’m not afraid to say I had a moment of panic when I peered over the edge. Why on earth am I throwing myself off a bridge?!

Luckily though I had no time for second thoughts, as the guy said, “OK then, 3, 2, 1….” and with that I launched myself into the abyss. You may be able to make out a roar of elation as I hurtled earthwards – absolutely not a scream of terror as June believed it to be!

If that wasn’t enough adrenalin for one day, we both went on a jetboat trip up the Shotover River in the afternoon, which was really good fun. Jetboats don’t have any propellers and are able to operate in 4 inches of water, and can do incredible twists and turns. We got pretty wet but had a great time.

Today was a total change from the last few days. We had a lovely time cruising the Milford and Doubtful Sounds – they are really stunning and peaceful places, and on both days a pod of dolphins came up to see us, which was magical. We tried to take a few photos of them, but they move pretty quick!

Yesterday we arrived in Queenstown and went up Deer Park Heights, which is a nature reserve which by happy coincidence was also a location used in Lord of the Rings! So both June and I had a lovely time there. Some cute photos of the animals are on the Flickr site.

Time to go and lie down now I think…

Sealed with a kiss

Hi all. VERY quick blog today as the internet cafe closes in 3 minutes. We're in Invercargill at the moment, which is at the southern tip of the South Island. We've had a lovely few days travelling through the Otego Peninsula and the Catlins, both of which are teaming with wildlife - we've seen some albatross, seals, sealions, penguins, dolphins and sheep! We've loaded a few pictures up.

 

Tomorrow we're heading up towards the fjords, and hopefully will take a cruise on Milford Sound, but haven't got round to booking anything yet. We are very much making this trip up as we go along....

 

Will give you more of an update when we get to Queenstown in a few days. Bye for now!

Och Aye The Noo!

Hello from Dunedin, the Edinbugh of the southern hemisphere. We're staying just off Princes Street and have stood beneath Robert Burns' statue, so we're feeling very Celtic at the moment.

 

The trip down here from Oamaru was along a beautiful stretch of coast, and we saw some more penguins and a large colony of fur seals on the way. We also visited the Moeraki boulders, which started their life as dead animals or plants but over the millennia have been encased in incredibly spherical layers of rock.

 

Dunedin is a nice, albeit very hilly, city. We puffed and panted our way up Baldwin Street, which is the steepest street in the world, with a gradient at one point of 1 in 2.4. We fancied trying out our hire car, but wasn't convinced that its engine and / or brakes would be up to the job!

 

Tomorrow we're heading off to the Otago peninsula to spot some more wildlife, before driving south to the Catlins and then on to the fjords.

 

We've added some photos of the last week to the South Island set.

Pick up a Penguin

Hi there! Just a quick update to fill you in on what we've been up to for the last few days.

 

After leaving Christchurch we headed off towards the Southern Alps, and have had three lovely days amongst truly beautiful lakes and mountains. We spent a couple of nights in a small town on the shores of Lake Tekapo, which is a very blue glacial lake surrounded by snowy peaks. The following day we travelled to the Mount Cook National Park, and went on a long walk to the base of NZ's tallest mountain. We didn't climb this one though - its 3070m tall and covered in snow and ice! It was a really gorgeous place.

 

Today I went on a quick LOTR trip to the location where the Pellenor Fields scenes were shot, while June relaxed with a cup of coffee and a book. We then drove though lovely countryside down to the coast to a town called Oamaru, and headed down to the beach to see some Yellow Eyed Penguins come ashore after a day's fishing. Unlike on Phillip Island in Australia we got really close to the penguins and were able to take some cool pictures - we'll try to upload some tomorrow.

 

In the end we decided not to hire a camper van and have got a hire car instead. Financially it makes much more sense - the car hire was $19 a day (about 8 pounds!) and we've been staying in really nice backpacker places for about $55 a night. Compare that to a camper van cost of $140 per day, and its not rocket science. Although it would have been nice to go back to nature in a camper van, we feel happier driving around in a normal sized car and having a few home comforts.

 

OK, time for bed now. Tomorrow we're heading down towards Dunedin, which apparently is a very Scottish place, so hopefully June will feel right at home!

A message from the land of Rohan.....

Flying the Flag of Rohan
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hello again! We've just had a fantasic day visiting Mount Sunday, which was famously used as the set for the city of Edoras in the Lord of the Rings.

Its in an amazingly stunning setting, surrounded on all sides by snow-tipped mountains and a grassy plain with blue rivers running across it. We climbed up the small hill to the place where the Great Hall was built, and learned a bit more about the making of the film from a very entertaining Kiwi tour guide. We took loads of lovely photos, including this one with a replica prop from the film.

Even if we weren't fans of the movies it would have been an amazing place to visit, but it was even more special to see all of the sights we recognized from the film (including the valley where Helms Deep was digitally inserted, only a couple of miles from Edoras, not a five day walk!).

Definitely one of the best days of the trip so far!

Kia Ora from New Zealand!

I'd better get my moaning out of the way before I go on.

 

Unfortunately the last couple of days have been a bit of a blur for me due to a severe onset of "man-flu". I began to feel a bit rough in Sydney (cold, cough, headache, fever, aching muscles, sore throat etc), missed two nights sleep, and then to make matters worse on the flight over to NZ my ears got blocked up and wouldn't clear. I ended up with two blocked nostrils and two blocked ears, and resorted to having to breath through my mouth and smell through my eyes, which wasn't easy. I spent my first 20 hours in New Zealand in bed. Maybe my body needed it though - we've been going full pelt for 4 months, and the last week in the outback was pretty tough. June was also a bit low yesterday, but has done an admirable job of looking after me. I think I'll let her keep the opal ring.

 

Anyway, we're both feeling much better now, and really looking forward to exploring New Zealand. We're in Christchurch on the South Island, which is a very pretty town set up by the Church of England about 150 years ago. It has a nice cathedral, punters lazily drifting down the River Avon, and picnic-ers lounging in the park. It feels a bit like an idealised version of England, and the people are all incredibly friendly and helpful.

 

The death of Sir Edmund Hillary has been pretty big news here, with flags flying at half-mast and books of condolence being signed. He's probably the most famous Kiwi that's ever lived - to be honest I can't think of many others - Jonah Lomu, Peter Jackson, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, urm...

 

Tomorrow we're going on a gondola trip up a nearby mountain, and on Tuesday we're heading off for a day trip to Mount Sunday, which was used as the location for Edoras in The Lord of the Rings films. It looks like a stunning place, and it will be really cool (in a geeky way) to be there and to pose for photos with props from the film. We'll report back in a few days. Bye for now.

 

Farewell from Australia

Hello again! Apologies for the long gap between blogs - we've been in the outback for the last week and only now that we're back in Sydney have we managed to log on.

 

We had a fantastic time exploring the Red Centre - it was certainly one of the highlights of our trip so far.

 

Our first stop was Coober Pedy, which is famous for its Opal mines. Its a small, desolate place in the middle of nowhere and felt very different to anywhere else we've been. Its got a bit of an "end of the world" feel to it, and has been used in films like Mad Max and Pitch Black - there were lots of abandoned movie props lying around. Most of the houses are underground or built into the side of hills to keep them cool, and during the day the streets were pretty empty as everyone tried their best to avoid the 45 degree heat. Although it certainly wasn't somewhere we would want to live it was a great place to visit, and the surrounding landscape was beautiful. We visited an opal mine / museum which was really interesting, although while my back was turned June managed to blow three weeks of our budget on a lovely opal ring! We've added some photos of the area to the South Australia set.

 

After Coober Pedy we carried on up the Stuart Highway to our next stop, Uluru. We were wondering whether it could live up to our expectations, but it really was a beautiful and magical sight. We visited the Rock at sunset and sunrise to see the shifting colours, and went on a very long hot walk around the base. We decided not to climb up it though as it was made pretty clear that the Aboriginals aren't keen on tourists trampling over their holy ground.

 

Right next door to Uluru are the Olgas, a collection of huge rocks that we went on another stunning walk through. Due to the excessive heat we had to do our walking in the morning - most people started about 6am, but as you may know we aren't really morning people and only got going at 8ish, meaning that we finished on our hands and knees at midday!

 

We shared a cabin in Uluru with a lovely Candian couple, Jessie and Dustin, who are doing a similar trip to us in the opposite direction, but who are made of tougher stuff than us, sleeping in tents in freezing temperatures, going for 3 day hikes in NZ and occasionally sleeping in their car. I tried to convince June this might be a good way to recoup some of the cost of the ring, but she wasn't having any of it!

 

After Uluru we drove on to Kings Canyon, another beautiful area of red rocks and scorching heat. Luckily the hotel we were staying at had a lovely pool, which we happily spent the afternoons floating in after the mornings' exertions.

 

Our final stop in the outback was Alice Springs, which wasn't at all how we had imagined it. Instead of being a desolate desert town it was a (relatively) pretty place with lots of greenery, surrounded by hills. We took a couple of interesting trips to the Royal Flying Doctor Service control station and the School of the Air, which broadcasts lessons to children living in remote areas by two way radio and web-conferences. We also went to the cinema a couple of times to escape the heat!

 

All in all we travelled 3000km in the week, and luckily didn't break down in the middle of nowhere or get attacked by wild dingoes / kangaroos / lizards. The worst we suffered was a cracked windscreen and a little bit of heat exhaustion! Our photos from Uluru, Kings Canyon and Alice are here.

 

 

Today is our last day in Australia before flying off the New Zealand tomorrow morning. We've had an incredible time here and have seen and done so much. Its a beautiful, friendly and fascinating country, and hopefully we'll be back again one day to try and visit the areas we missed this time.

 

Speak to you from NZ!