Though not quite the end of our trip yet, there was one last place on our must-see list before leaving this incredible country. However, getting there would involve another long distance journey on another bus (this one would take 17 hours). So, with the scars of our recent experience getting to El Calafate still fresh in our minds (see blog entry ), we decided to make it as painless as possible by treating ourselves to a pair of Cama Suite bus tickets. The bus left Buenos Aires shortly after 7pm on Monday evening and as we rolled north, we enjoyed all [View Full Entry]

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After leaving the wilderness of the Los Glaciares national park behind, we arrived 3 hours later in one of the most populated cities in the world. Buenos Aires is home to more than 12 million people and is the financial and political centre of Argentina. Our first glimpse of the city was from our taxi window as we drove down the massive Av 9 de Julio, the widest street in the world with no less than 14 lanes of traffic! Along the avenue, we passed the famous Teatro Colón (unfortunately closed for refurbishment at the time of our visit) and the [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday 21st July We looked out the window of our hostel in Puerto Madryn. The weather was starting to change for the worse, the wind was picking up and the rain was getting heavier. We were starting to panic - our taxi had still not arrived. It was now 6.25pm, the bus station was 10 minutes away and our bus was due to leave at 6.40pm. "C'mon, we can't wait any longer" yelled Gaston, as he ran to the door with Ryan in his arms, "I'll drive you". We grabbed our backpacks and chased after them down the driveway. Just as [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Bariloche, we had been hoping to continue our journey south along the legendary Route 40 (the road that Che Guevara famously travelled in his book the Motorcycle Diaries). Unfortunately though, it turned out to be closed for the winter, so we decided to head east to the Atlantic coast instead. After a 14-hour bus trip from Bariloche, we arrived bright and early at our hostel in Puerto Madryn. Peninsula Valdes Puerto Madryn is situated in the central Patagonian province of Chubut and is the gateway to Peninsula Valdes, one of the most valuable wildlife areas in the wo [View Full Entry]

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From Valparaiso, we decided to head east into Argentina in the hopes of experiencing Independence Day on the 9th of July, so we booked some tickets for the 8 hour bus journey to Mendoza. This turned out to be an incredible journey right through the heart of the Andes and was a great introduction to long-distance bus travel in South America. After reaching the bus station in Valparaiso ahead of schedule, we waited eagerly for our bus to arrive at the platform. We were delighted when, right on queue, a huge double-decker coach rolled up. The buses here are modern and [View Full Entry]

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We left Auckland shortly after 6pm on Saturday June 27th and after 11.5 hours on the plane, we touched down in Santiago just after 1pm on Saturday June 27th. Magic! Crossing the international date line would wreak havoc on our body clocks for the next week and a half though. During the flight, we were amused by the "map" of the plane's route which consisted of a blue square labelled South Pacific Ocean most of the time. At one point, we did see a recognisable land mass in the shape of Tahiti which popped up briefly on the map as a [View Full Entry]

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After enjoying a 3-hour cruise through the stunning scenery of the Marlborough Sounds and across Cook Strait, we arrived in Wellington on the North Island. Windy Welly certainly lived up to its name when we were there, treating us to a mixture of rain, hail, snow & strong gales. Despite the weather though, we managed to catch the cable car from Lambton Quay up to the Botanic Gardens where we had some great views of the city. We also strolled around some of the trendy downtown shopping areas such as the beautiful Edwardian Old Bank shopping arcade and the pedestrianised shops [View Full Entry]

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Our first glimpse of New Zealand was the spectacular sight of the Southern Alps from the airplane window as we flew over the South Island. It was like flying over a frozen world and, considering we were going to be driving around it, the views both frightened and excited us at the same time! We touched down in Christchurch on 2nd May and began our Kiwi adventure. Christchurch Christchurch is New Zealand's most English city and this influence can be clearly felt in the city centre with trams running down the streets, punts meandering down the Avon river and a large [View Full Entry]

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Our first port of call after Townsville was Mission Beach on the coast, which is a cassowary conservation habitat. Cassowaries are an endangered species in Australia now and it's believed there are only 1200-1500 of them left in the rainforests of north Queensland. Unfortunately for us though, we saw neither cassowary nor beach in Mission Beach as we were drenched in over 12 hours non-stop tropical rain! It got so bad even the road was sinking and the emergency services were called!! So, we decided to cut our losses and head straight to Cairns for a few days instead. On the [View Full Entry]

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The next part of our journey follows the Bruce highway from Brisbane to Townsville. Our first stop after leaving Brisbane was Landsborough on the Sunshine Coast. Landsborough is just up the road from the Australia Zoo - home of the famous Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. We saw lots of native animals there, such as eastern water dragons, crocodiles, cassowaries, emus, koalas and echidnas and also watched the famous Wildlife Warriors show where they hand feed the crocs. The highlight of our day though was hanging out with the 'roos. We got to hand feed several grey kangaroos, including a baby kan [View Full Entry]

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