Chile

We arrived at Santiago airport very tired and jetlagged after a sleepless 11.5 hour flight and were immediately scammed by an overcharging taxi b*stard. It mostly our own fault as were knew he was probably overcharging us for the ride into town, but at the time we just wanted to get to a bed. Once we´d spent a couple of days recovering we went out to see what the city was all about, and it turned out not a lot. Unfortunately this seems to be the pattern in middle Chile. We did walk up to the top of a small, but high, park in the middle of the city which was quite good. But after a few days we were ready to leave and were already tiring of the food! Completos (hot dogs with avocado paste and chopped tomatoes), burgers, pizzas and empanadas (pasties with various fillings either fried or baked).



We had a one night stop in Rancagua where they were holding the National Rodeo Championships and we were warned not to leave the hotel at night. The next stop was Chillan, another city that seemed lacking of activities other than wandering the streets and browsing the markets. We seemed once again to resemble something from outer space as we were drawing looks and shouts wherever we walked. Stray dogs also seem to be a common theme in all of the towns, they are quite timid although packs of them follow us down the streets in case we dropped some food - probably the reason they hang their rubbish off the trees here.

Pucon was next on the agenda, a much more touristy affair. The town was built in the shadow of the Villarica volcano, its huge imposing snow capped form could be seen from everywhere. Every building is a hotel/hostel, internet cafe, restaurant, supermarket, tour operator or tourist trinket shop. There are activities abound here and we bravely decided to sign up for canopy. Basically its a zip line on steroids; we were strapped to a huge cable with a harness and given leather gloves to brake with. After some brief instructions in Spanish we were let loose on lines of up to 1km long adding up to a total of over 3km. It wasn´t quite what we were expecting though, not quite extreme enough to be thrilling, but not quite laid back enough to be relaxing.



We carried on our journey south stopping breifly in Valdivia to watch the HUGE sea lions that hung out next to the riverside fish market in the hope of some scraps, along with millions of cormorants. Back on the bus (some of the best we´ve ever travelled on, eat your heart out National express!) we ended up in Puerto Montt in possibly the scariest hostel ever. the room was pretty basic, but behind a scary looking curtain there was... another empty room with its own door! Also we had a door that led out onto the street that was boxed off with its own little viewing room into ours, and the bathroom was made of left over bits, none of which fitted together. We swapped places the next morning. The reason we´d come to Puerto Montt was to catch the ferry south. Once we´d booked our tickets we had a couple of days wait for the next sailing. Another town lacking of things to do, we witnessed the start of some kind of fun run, with the campest marching band ever and wandered round a couple of shopping malls, as well as admiring the giant papier mache sculpture of a man and woman looking out to sea.



After all this the ferry was a welcome change of pace. We were shown to our cosy bunks in a 22 bed dorm (we were the only ones in it), with a window to view the awesome snow capped mountain ranges. A highlight of the trip was seeing loads and loads of groups of seals playing about and jumping alongside the boat. We arrived in Puerto Chacabuco where we got a couple of buses through to Coyhaique, where we are still recovering from the hugest plate of pichanga (chips with various toppings and meats such as pickled carrot, eggs, cheese, olives, avocado, tomato, hot dogs, salami, pork & beef). Tomorrow the plan is to travel to Puerto Ibanez, get a ferry across to Chile Chico then cross the border into Argentina.



For those unfamiliar with the make up the land Chile is separated roughly into 12 regions, 1 in the north and 12 in the far south where the boats heading for the Antartic leave from. Currently we´re in region 11 heading through Argentina to region 12. We´re going to go and get some warmer clothes now...

Australia and New Zealands best and worst

Favourite country visited so far

Nikki: New Zealand
Mark: New Zealand

Australia

Highs: Camping in our van, Mon Repos turtles, Noosa Heads, free public BBQs, back to the land of the "English" speakers!
Lows: Hostel in Brisbane, Gold Coast, lack of travelling time, the Americanised attitude and towns.

Nikki
Best: waking up in Springbrook National Park and rolling the door open to the amazing view, watching Dad catch a squid (freaky animal!) and catching 3 little fish mzself (well 2 little fish and an evil looking congar eel that got away), being able to make our own food again, Running under the waterfall at Springbrook, salt and vinegar crisps (very sadly missing from S/East Asias repetoire)! Driving.
Worst: Having cold water thrown over me in Mark´s attempt at a "shower", 42º heat while driving 7 hours in the van without a/c, not being able to see more of the south and west coasts, missing Ayres rock.

Mark
Best: Wet ´n´ Wild water park, Wentworth Falls walk, Inventing a "shower", driving, meal at Shaky Tables, seeing kangaroos & koalas, campsite at The Entrance.
Worst: Losing bank card, Byron Bay, first boiling hot night in the camper van.

Best Accomodation: Our camper/Sydney view apartment

Best City: No city per se but enjoyed the drive up and down the coast.

New Zealand

Highs: Awesome scenery, Wellington city, ease of travel, laid back people, less americanisation, just generally an amazing country.
Lows: The extremly annoying German girl who seemed to be on EVERY SINGLE BUS WE EVER TRAVELLED ON and would not SHUT UP or SIT DOWN! the ease of travel (made us lazy travellers), arriving in a town late at night and leaving early in the morning, lack of time

Nikki
Best: Wellington, the hot water pools in Rotorua, awe inspiring views, Te Papa, not wanting to leave, Burgerfuel (shhhh).
Worst: not having long to spend in places, pushy bus drivers only out to get their commission, the german girl...

Mark
Best: Free chocolate at Cadbury World, Burgerfuel burgers, amazing scenery, Franz Josef glacier.
Worst: Hurting ankle in Rotorua kiddy playground, leaving, felt too rushed, Auckland hostels.

Best Accomodation: Sequoia Lodge, Picton

Best City: Wellington!

New Zealand

As we´d arrived in New Zealand with an extra two weeks to spend there we had no idea what to do at all. We landed in Auckland just in time to miss the last shuttle bus into the city centre. Luckily we were rescued by a couple of locals who we shared a taxi with as well as another back packer which saved us some cash while offering up some travel tips. We checked into our noisy windowless box of a room and went out to find some food. The streets were a little crazy, full of backpacker and student types and lots of live street performers, clearly meant for the streets and nothing more...

We decided to move out of our box room into a more colourful affair across the street to save a little money. Hearing that Billy Connolly was due to perform at a big arena in the city centre we went on a hunt for tickets and found out they were stupidly cheap compared to the UK tours so nabbed a couple of them for the final night. The show was pretty good but was mostly directed at New Zealanders (obviously..) and as we hadn´t seen anywhere outside of our box room and Auckland city we were a little lost at times. With not a lot to do around the city we spent our few days there wandering around taking in the sights and getting incredibly lost in an architects joke of a shopping centre.

We decided to book ourselves onto a ´hop-on\hop-off´ bus with a company called Magic which would take us on a tour of both the North and South islands. The first day on the bus we realised that it was a little more for beginners (travellers) than we´d first thought as they gave us a running commentary of the towns we passed through, handed out ´activity sign up´ forms and accomodation booking sheets to complete (from which you would be dropped off and picked up at the appropriate times), stopped for 5 minute photo ´opportunities´ along the way and counted us as we got on a and off the bus; it was only a short step ´til they were telling us to hold onto the belt of the person in front... One of the drivers even asked us why we were on the bus after all the independant travel we had done so far, we weren´t so sure either.

Below is a map of our journey, starting and finishing in Auckland (the coloured dots show places we stayed overnight).



On the way to Rotorua we stopped at a placed called Waitomo which had glow worm caves:

"visit the famous Glow-worm Caves which are over 30 million years old. Here you can take a walk and slow boat through the caves to view the amazing caverns and glow worms."

Well... why not. Here´s why: Possibly THE most patronising time of our lives, like being back in pre-school but the sight of 30,000 glow worms above our head was pretty impressive. Back on the bus we began to notice a distinctive wiff of rotten eggs, while looking around for the culprit we arrived in Rotorua which is situated in an area of high geothermal activity - hence the smell. Taking a deep breath we stepped off the bus into a relaxed hostel with slouchy sofas and chilled music. We went for a wander into the citys park with boiling mud pools and steaming, multi-coloured lakes as well as warming foot baths and childrens play areas; not for adults as Mark found out when he went flying off a merry-go-round, much to his ankle´s despair.



Back on the bus a couple of days later we stopped at a geyser (very adamently pronounced GI-ZER not GEE-ZER!) which was a much more relaxed affair than we had first imagined. After a couple of minutes talk by the park warden he walked up to the steaming stack and threw in a couple of bars of soap whose chemicals reacted with the pool below the ground and stepped back as the geyser started to froth and overflow. After a couple of minutes the frothing got stronger until the geyser was pushing great steaming jets of water about 16ft into the air and still we were more reminded of the bubbling of a jacuzzi say, than the jet of water we´d been expecting.

Further south and we were heading into Wellington, the little known capital city of New Zealand. After a cloudy few days the sun broke through as we walked along the attractive marina area, watching kids jump into the green-blue waters and visited the national museum, Te Papa to learn a bit more about NZ´s history. After a couple of days we crossed over to the south island by ferry; a 3 hour journey passing through the amazing scenery of the Marlborough Sounds with dolphins jumping in our wake. After a night of indulging in free chocolate pudding and ice cream at our hostel in Picton we were back on the bus and travelling down the rugged west coast to Queenstown.



The scenery along the way was beyond stunning; as we stopped at the Franz Josef glacier and a perfect mirror lake with a backdrop of snow capped mountains it was easy to see why Lord of the Rings was filmed here. Mark´s ankle by this point was fluctuating between two to three times it´s normal size, especially after insisting it didn´t hurt at all and was ok to walk up a big hill to the geographical centre of New Zealand then presently falling over on a flat surface as soon as he was done.



Queenstown was the mecca for backpackers with its massive lake plus beach, mountain backdrop and massive burgers courtesy of Ferg Burger.



Back up the east coast of the south island we stopped at Dunedin for a much needed call into the Cadbury factory and a bag full of free samples. Everyone on the bus chipped in for a big BBQ at Lake Tekapo (on reflection we saw a lot of lakes in NZ...) cooked up by our driver who mysteriously had steak while we had ´meat patties´ and lots of salads and awesome potato bake.

We were now on a bit of a tight schedule to get back to Auckland in time for our flight so we were rushing back up to the north island. The ferry journey was a lot rougher going north on which we were assured by the cabin crew that we would be sick. We were on the 7th floor of the boat watching the waves crash over our windows and the floors above but with Nikki doped up on sea sickness tablets and Mark´s stomach of steel we did not yeild to the call of the sick bag and made it safely ashore with wobbly legs back into Wellington. Due to the bus schedule we had a few more days in Wellington which was not a bad thing as we´d both fallen in love with the city and it´s laid back atmosphere.



Another few days on the bus passing through Napier and Mt. Maunganui back to Auckland where Burger Fuel managed to top Ferg Burger for the ´best burger EVER´ award (we also had a lot of burgers...) All of a sudden we were back at Auckland airport after a one month whistle stop tour of New Zealand, wishing we had longer to spend in this amazing country and dying one day to return (with a hell of a lot more money).

Santiago here we come...

When Nikki's parents came to visit.

We had booked a car to pick up Annette and Clive from the airport, little did we realise it was knight rider in disguise. The car was automatic, which I´d never driven before and it was in the 6th basement level of a car park. It only took an hour to get get, but all the time a warning error was flashing. Nikki went to find out what it meant - I´d left the foot brake on the whole time! We then got very lost getting back to the hostel and stressing out about dinging the car, so we had to spend the evening relaxing to calm our nerves.



We picked Annette and Clive up from the airport early the following day and drove across to North Sydney to the awesome apartment with views across Sydney harbour that would be our home for the next five nights. We spent the following days exploring Sydney and making use of the great boat system there. We went to see comedienne Judith Lucy at the opera house, she "sang" at the end, so we´ve seen a opera performance at Sydney Opera house! Clive, Nikki and I got up early one morning to go to the Sydney fish market (the second largest in the world, the first being Tokyo). It was pretty organised with Dutch silent auctions for most of the fish, walk along bidding for the shellfish and a big room that housed tuna, marlin and groupers. I got some sushi for breakfast while Clive & Nikki got us some mussels and prawns for dinner. We also went to Sydney Wildlife World and Aquarium. The wildlife world was great, with kangaroos, koalas, wombats and a big weird blue bird thing.



Also on the agenda was a trip out to Manly, we took the boat out, and almost as soon as we´d stepped onto land it started chucking it down and didn´t stop! It died down long enough to watch the surfers but came back strong so we headed back to the apartment. The boat ride back was pretty rocky, and every time the boat crashed over a wave it soaked anyone on the decks.

The remaining 10 days we spent exploring New South Wales, from Sydney we headed north spending a night in The Entrance and then a long drive up to the Hunter Valley wine region. Whilst driving around we eventually saw some kangaroos in the wild, we visited a few cellar doors and tasted some smelly cheese. The accommodation there was great, we were a little wary at first as it looked like stables, but the rooms were great, the peace & quiet was welcome and we had an awesome meal at the Shaky Tables restaurant.



After a couple of days indulgence in Hunter Valley we headed in land and south to the Blue Mountains, so called for the blue mist that rises from all the eucalyptus trees. We were staying just a stones throw from Echo Point and the famous 3 Sisters rock formation. We were treated to some great BBQ meals by Clive on the hot plate in the garden area including kangaroo meat, which is quite tasty and apparently better for the environment that beef. We spent a day doing a walk near the town of Wentworth Falls in the rain forest to go and see the Wentworth Falls which were pretty spectacular. We visited scenic world which, through a combination of a sky way, a cable car and the world´s steepest train, took us over, around, down and up the rain forest valley. Surprisingly for a rain forest it rained while we were down at the bottom, and we got soaked. Every evening we also made it our goal to do some star gazing at and see the 3 Sisters lit up at night. Every evening after dark we went down armed with blankets to Echo point and every evening we got clouded over! Although it was quite fun walking around inside a cloud.



From the blue mountains we set off for the coast to get in some beach action. On the way to a place called Huskisson we stopped in a nice little town called Kiama where we saw a boat that had just reeled in a huge Marlin. When we got to Huskisson we noticed an abundance of mullets and strange looks as we weren´t locals, so the following day we headed back to Kiama, but not before Clive had his drink poured on him by the waitress at the local Indian restaurant.

On the way back to Kiama we stopped off in the Booderee national park, which has some awesome white sand beaches. Once we arrived back at Kiama Clive booked a fishing trip for the following day just before a big lightning storm came across the town. We Went to a local Chinese restaurant and while we were eating there was a total power cut, so we ate by torchlight. On the way back to our villa we stopped at the blowhole point to watch the lightning storm out at sea. Clive brought back a few different fish for us to try from his trip and had tried to sort out another trip to catch some big game fish, but the boat captains were all a bit dodgy and greedy. It was also Clive´s birthday while we were in Kiama, so while I dropped him off at the tackle shop Annette and Nikki made him a birthday cake. We went out onto the rocky head in the park we were staying in and Clive tested out some squid jigs he´d purchased and managed to catch one. While he was trying to show me it´s beak it sneezed ink all over him, so we cooked it and had it as a starter before going out for a meal! We´d just sat down in a restaurant which we were already having doubts about due to some slack service when the woman at the table next to us mouthed 'Don´t eat here!', so we made our excuses and after an exhausting search ended up back at the same Chinese restaurant.



And that was the end of our Australian adventure. Nikki & I had rearranged our flights so that they left just a couple of hours after Annette and Clive´s. So while they boarded for an exhausting 24 hour trip back to the UK we got our 3 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand.