The bus journey down to Puerto Natales was pretty uneventful. We did see the Torres del Paine mountains in the distance however the only point of note was marvelling at just how long the border crossing process took. We passed this time with Rory, Emer and Bettina who we first met on the ruta40 trip and had met again in El Calefate and their stories of taking nearly 24 hours to cross a border in Africa! We arrived at about 10pm on a Sunday night and therefore we weren´t hopeful of our chances of being able to get to Torres del [View Full Entry]

---

---

The journey south from Bariloche started very badly and didn´t get much better! We left 7 hours late and as a result didn´t arrive at the town of Perito Moreno until after 3am. We didn´t stop much at all on route except at petrol stations in the middle of knowhere to fill up. The following morning we were up at 7am to go to see Cueves de los Manos which is a set in a spectacular canyon. Inside the caves there is fantastic hand painting from 9300 years ago (believed to be the oldest evidence of man anywhere in South America). [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a relaxing day in Queenstown with only a walk up to the top of the cable car overlooking Queenstown to note, we went for our much discussed ´farewell meal´ (as the following day Jules and Becca headed for North Island and us for Chile) at Finz. A delicious meal washed down with a couple of bottles of Marlborough wine seemed a fitting way to end a fantastic month on south island. Jules failed to identify the lychee flavour that he has talked about frequently since our day of tasting!! The following morning we said our farewells and headed for Queenstown [View Full Entry]

---

---

It was another early start as we were collected at 6.25 to Doubtful Sound. We had met with the rest of the group the night before and Jules had expressed some concern about the mad dutch girl but otherwise they seemed good - his concerns about her sanity were justified - she was a fantastic person to have on the group and made it lots of fun! The trip started with a boat across lake manapouri and a short drive along a gravel road to deep cove. The wildlife was abundant - particularly the sandflies! We went through lots of insect [View Full Entry]

---

---

We made the decision to reverse the route around the Keplar track as the forecast was for really strong wind over the alpine section of the route. It was a decision that we were glad of when we met two americans on the second day who had to shelter overnight on the ridge when strong winds forced them to abandon the walk to the next hut. The first day we walked from Te Anau to Control gates and on to Motaro rut via Rainbow reach. The forests were really nice but after 5 hours walking in them with heavy packs we [View Full Entry]

---

---

After all the activity it was time to slow down a bit with a bit of 'tramping'. However we couldn't resist a couple more trips before the tramp so we stopped off on the way to Queenstown for a river surfing trip - 2 trips down a 5km grade 3 section of the Kawarau river with only a glorified body board and a few guides for company. The trip was great fun with lots of white water and the odd small whirlpool to 'play in'. We then headed for Queenstown the self styled adventure capital of the world. As we approached [View Full Entry]

---

---

After our great day on the glacier, the forecast bad weather arrived so we decided to drive on south towards Wanaka. First stop was a walk to Monro beach where a penguin colony can sometimes be seen. We arrived to a stormy, windswept, empty beach. After admiring the power of the waves crashing on the rocks at the south end of the beach we strolled up to the other end of the beach more for the sake of it rather than in expectation of seeing anything. Much to our surprise we saw one small ?? crested penguin. Great to see, despite [View Full Entry]

---

---

we might have been forgiven for thinking that the weather gods were not looking over us when we woke at Fox Glacier the following morning. We woke at around 5.30am to hear the rain pouring down and unsurprisingly when we woke up Mount Cook was covered in cloud and our scenic flight was not happening. However this gave us the opportunity to go for a quick walk around Lake Matheson before our glacier hike that was starting at 9.30. Unfortunately the reflections on the water for which this lake is famous only served to dampen the mood and put Jules more [View Full Entry]

---

---

We boarded the Cougar Line boat at Picton on a damp dismal morning with our bikes and headed for Resolution Bay near the far end of the Queen Charlotte Track ever hopeful that the weather gods would shine on us again. On arrival an unpromising push up a very steep track took us out of the bay - with over 45km to go that day we were all hoping it wouldn't be typical! Fortunately we quickly joined the main track which looked much more rideable. From there we headed up and over to Endeavour Inlet and then round the various smaller [View Full Entry]

---

---

We flew from Palmerston North to Nelson via Wellington in small low flying planes that felt more like scenic flights (particularly as it was the best weather of the trip so far!) than 'normal' flights - flying in to Wellington looking through the cockpit on the approach to the airport was great, as were the views of Queen Charlotte Sound. On arrival at Nelson we picked up our 'spaceship' (a bright orange converted people carrier) that is to be our home for the next 10 days. As we had a day to wait before Jules and Becca arrived we headed down [View Full Entry]

---

---