Hello and Happy New Year!!! First I have to apologise for the shocking lack of blogging, we have been so busy since we arrived here in New Zealand with xmas, new year and general Kiwi Experience bus shinanigans!!! We spent our first 3 days in Auckland where we wandered around feeling very jet lagged and completely shocked by how expensive (compares to SA) and bloody cold it was! By cold I don't mean Sheffield in December cold of course, but still pretty chilly after South America! We treated ourself at the Base hostel in Auckland and stayed in the Sanctuary [View Full Entry]

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It was good to be leaving Auckland and heading North to the sun! OUr forst Kiwi Experience driver was called Andy and he was great! very knowledgable about the country and so helpful. We met up with two swedish guys, Thomas and Karl, Matt from the UK and Jay from Flarida so a good mixed bunch! We drov up to Paihia which was beautiful. there are 144 island in the Bay of island but we could only see about 2!! the hostel (the Pipi Patch) was really small and friendly (complete with a cat!) so we were pleased to be staying [View Full Entry]

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Hello again! (can you tell Laura and I are taking it in turns to catch you all up?!!) Well after another brief stop in Auckland we hopped on another Big Mean Green Machine (you do not want to know what other names the kiwi buses have!) and a new driver who was suitably crazy and funny, called Dave, otherwise known as cuddles. We had a stop at the top of Mount Eden for some lovely views of the city before heading to Cathedral cove which is only accessible by foot. There were dolphins swimming in the cove and some of [View Full Entry]

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It was good to be leaving Auckland and heading North to the sun! OUr forst Kiwi Experience driver was called Andy and he was great! very knowledgable about the country and so helpful. We met up with two swedish guys, Thomas and Karl, Matt from the UK and Jay from Flarida so a good mixed bunch! We drov up to Paihia which was beautiful. there are 144 island in the Bay of island but we could only see about 2!! the hostel (the Pipi Patch) was really small and friendly (complete with a cat!) so we were pleased to be staying [View Full Entry]

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With slightly sore heads, we got up and jumped back on the bus. Our first stop was hot water beach which was really quite strange! When the tide is out you can dig holes and just below the beach there is a hot geothermal river so you can create hot pools to lie in right on the beach! The boys got carried away with their spades and built a huge pool for us all! Next stop was an old mine for a walk, mainly in the dark! Then unexpectedly, Dave shouted to just left to avoid the rocks and jumped [View Full Entry]

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After Rotaru, we trucked on to Waitomo where we stopped at an angora rabbit farm where we saw Zoe the Rabbit being sheared!! she looked very cold afterwards but apparently, if its not done regularly she will die so all good really!! Waitomo was a tiny little place with the nicest hostel in we had stayed at because it had no bunk beds, yippee!!! that night, our driver Dave cooked a great BBQ for us and it wasa good to get to know everyone off our bus a bit better. The next day it was an early start to go Black [View Full Entry]

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Well after hearing soooooo much about Buenos Aires ( and none of it bad!) we finally arrived there! We got a ferry (where we randonly bumped into some people we knew, it´s a small gringo trail!) across from Uruguay which docked in the port at around midnight, all the skyscrapers were lit up and it looked amazing! We found our hostel, OOHostel in San Telmo and collapsed for the night. I know this seems pathetic for a Sat night in B.A. but I was nursing a serious hangover form the night before and we were assured that all the cool [View Full Entry]

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It was just a short journey up to Colonia from Montevido and on the way, we managed to pick up a guy from Oz and the three of us headed to the hostel together. it was really nice (i will try to remeber the name!) and had big, clean dorms and a sunny courtyard. we went to sort out our ferry for the next day to Buenas Aires and found out that ´cattle class´didn´t leave until 8 the next evening which was good because it meant we had extra time to check out Colonia. What a pretty city it was! we [View Full Entry]

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After the chilled out atmoshpere in Punto Del Diablo, it was time to hit another capital city, Montevideo. We got there early afternoon and went ot check out the city. it was really relaxed for a capital, againm i think people could quite easily fill the day drinking coffee and paople watching. we then wandered to the port where there is a great food market. It consisted of lots of Barbeque grills serving anthing from fish caught fresh that day to tripe and glands!! We decided it would be a great place to come back to later for dinner but when [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Uruguay! Considering we had never planned to come to this country it could well be my favourite so far! It´s just as developed, sophisticated and cheap as Argentina but the people are so much warmer and more friendly! We crossed the border from Argentina to a town in the North called Salto. It was a really nice small town with plenty of shops, restaurants and plazas to keep us occupied for a day! I even managed to buy a pair of Quicksilver board shorts a lot cheaper than I could in Oz! The next day we visited the town´s [View Full Entry]

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