We’re now well into our month in Buenos Aires (BAr) and the more we see of the place, the more we love it. Whilst we’re not exactly “portenos” (a resident of Buenos Aires) yet, we do feel like the length of our stay has allowed us to integrate into life here more than a “normal” holiday would and gain a different perspective on the city and its people. Every morning as I walk Angela to Spanish School (!!) it’s fascinating to watch the city slowly stir from its slumber and the hustle and bustle builds as the day goes on. Locals [View Full Entry]

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We have a month in total in Buenos Aires (BAr) and are staying in its oldest “barrio” (district) of San Telmo. It’s a very historic suburb with narrow tree lined streets and pretty square’s (plaza’s) bursting with tango cafes, art galleries and shopping arcades. It used to be the most prestigious place to live in the city until it was hit by a yellow fever epidemic in 1871 and its rich inhabitants relocated to other neighbourhoods. This led to a large influx of immigrants who converted the enormous, grand houses into smaller, less expensive apartments. This divers [View Full Entry]

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And so, the middle of our three legged twelve month tour of the world soon came around. After our return home from New Zealand we had a fantastic time back in the UK for three weeks. It gave us the opportunity to reflect on our vast range of experiences and memories from the first section in Asia and Australasia but, more importantly, the chance to spend Christmas and New Year with our friends and relatives. In addition, there was also planning for our upcoming travels to be done (not easy on a dial up connection - don’t ever take broadband for [View Full Entry]

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The return journey from The Cook Islands to New Zealand involved our time machine (a Boeing 737) taking us back to the present day by recrossing the international dateline. It meant us “losing” a full Thursday but at least we knew where we stood again time wise. This was to be our final section of the first leg of our year travelling and was based on New Zealand’s North Island. NZ is made up of the North and its South Island (which is meant to be full of adventure and stunning scenery) but we opted to visit just one of [View Full Entry]

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This is getting ridiculous; it doesn’t take much to confuse me but this time zone thing is about to make my head explode. I’ve got used to going forward an hour or so each time we move on - it’s no real problem other than having to get up at extremely anti social times to watch United (in Adelaide it was after 4am when the match against Arsenal finished, and when I woke up in the morning I was convinced their last minute equaliser - which, by the way, definitely did not cross the line - had been a nightmare). This [View Full Entry]

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Our plan now was to have four days in Auckland then fly out from there to the Cook Islands for about a week; we’d then return to NZ for a longer stay allowing time to discover it at a more leisurely pace. The flight into New Zealand provides a sneak preview of what you’re likely to encounter during your stay there. Down below, mountains and deep green forests stretch out for as far as you can see in all directions, interrupted only by rivers and lagoons but very little in terms of civilisation. It’s a country of many volcano’s (mostly dormant, [View Full Entry]

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We were well into our drive from Adelaide across to Melbourne by now and made our final South Australian overnight stop in the tiny seaside village of Robe. The next morning we quickly crossed the border into Victoria which is geographically the second smallest state in Australia but actually the most populous. It was founded as a farming community in the 1830’s but was transformed into a leading industrial and commercial centre by the gold rush in the 1850’s. This section of the drive is renowned for being one of the most spectacular journeys you can make by car as a [View Full Entry]

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Waiting at the tram stop, rain falling from a leaden sky and we were wondering if we’d done the right thing in coming to Adelaide. A cold wind whipped up and even the fact we were on our way to the races didn’t make me much happier. Our initial plan had been to carry on down from Brisbane and visit Sydney again but, for a number of reasons (mainly the fact we’d been there before) we chose to come to Adelaide instead. We hadn’t counted on this weather though and, despite the fact we’d put on all our warmest clothes, this [View Full Entry]

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They say time flies when you’re having fun and we were now over half way through our allocated period in Oz - it was time to head south a few of the larger cities. To do this, we hired a car at Port Douglas with a one way drop off booked for Brisbane, some 2000km down the east coast of the country. In a previous visit to Australia six years ago we’d driven from Sydney up to Brisbane and this meant two things: - By the time we had completed this journey we’d now have driven pretty much the whole of [View Full Entry]

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The next leg of our trip was one that we’d particularly been looking forward to - diving at The Great Barrier Reef. The reef is located off Queensland’s tropical northern coast and is one of the natural wonders of the world; it is 2300km long and one of the best places to access it from is Cairns. This meant a 4am start from our hotel to get the 06.10 flight east out of Darwin, but it’s only 2 hours in the air so you still have a full day ahead of you on arrival. This area is unique as it is [View Full Entry]

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