Bariloche came recommended to us by one of Tims friends so at this point we really should say thank you very much to Justin for his advice to travel here. The trip from Chile was pretty good our 7.30am bus from Pucon to Osorno passed eventless and we slept all the way. From osorno we had no follow on ticket as it had been a last minute decision so we walked through the bus terminal to find the company our tasmanian compadres were travelling with only to meet a man shouting "Bariloche" his bus was due to leave and we got [View Full Entry]

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Our first bus journey from Santiago to Pucon was very comfortable and we arrived into the town early. Having slept almost all the way waking up and having to get out into the freezing cold wet weather was some wakeup call!! We had hoped for snow here and were a little disappointed that it was actually raining. Pulling ourselves and our brains into gear we realised that it was 8am on a Sunday morning and that we were the only ones still stood in the bus terminal. We realised that everything looked closed (as you would expect) and that it was [View Full Entry]

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The flight to Santiago was pretty uneventful, comfortable and smooth even though it was the longest we had done yet at 10 hours or so. We arrived earlier than expected which is always nice. We were determined to get the local bus into the city and then the underground from there to the hostel. Armed with our phrase book we headed off in search of the bus terminals. Immediately we were met by a guy selling tickets for a mini bus which would drop us directly to the hostel. After asking prices we realised that even in our back packing dress [View Full Entry]

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Okay so we had the whole international date thing again which meant that we arrived into Auckland late on the evening of Tuesday when we departed Samoa for our 4 hour flight on Monday. Mmmmm we're getting there now and fortunately there was no problem with our booking at the hostel. Having checked in we headed off out to get some food lazily settling for kebabs of all things (have to sort out some healthy food). It was late so after taking them back to the room and watching coronation street we got an early night to pick the van up [View Full Entry]

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We had exceptionally high hopes for Samoa thanks to our poor weather in Fiji we arrived very late into the night to the end of a rain storm!!!! By the time we got a taxi from the airport to our hostel it was gone 1am in the morning. As we went to check in it became evident there was a problem we had actually got our dates wrong and were not booked until the following day. This is all due to crossing the international date line and we could not believe after our endless date workings that we had still managed [View Full Entry]

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As we were arriving in Fiji late in the evening we had already planned to stay a couple of nights on the outskirts of Nadi town at a hostel called smugglers cove. They offered us a free pick up from the airport and having landed and got our bags we found the bus and waited for a few others to arrive. It was nice to sit in the warm evening in contrast to how cold NZ had been!!! The trip to our hostel took only 10 minutes and within minutes of checking in we went to look at the beach. The [View Full Entry]

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We drove into Christchurch on a rather dull and drizzly day. We headed for the centre and decided to drive around before we went and checked into our campsite just out of the city. Tim was keen to find the rugby stadium and see if there were any tickets left for the following days game. After searching out for major floodlights on the skyline we managed to first find a race track and then more successfully find the rugby ground. There were some tickets left but not many mainly due to the fact it was a bank holiday we think. Having [View Full Entry]

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Our campground in Arrowtown was really pretty and peaceful and only 20 minutes to Queenstown so we packed up the van and set off. At this point I'm feeling pretty calm about the whole bungi thing. The weather is quite cold and when we arrive in Queenstown it has started to snow a little. Dodging getting too wet and trying to keep as warm as possible we head straight for the AJ Hackett shop. As we walk in the first thing I was drawn to was the video screens showing the jumps and at this point the reality of what I [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Te Anau late afternoon a slightly larger than normal town it appeared quiet and lazy nestled next to a lovely lake. After a wonder around and much needed grocery shopping we found one of the tour operators for Milford Sound. After porusing the options we decided to book a 3 hour cruise the longest the sound has to offer with a buffet lunch and time at the underwater observatory based within the fiords. Bad weather was due in so we booked for the following day when the weather forecasts had said at least the morning should be fine. [View Full Entry]

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We arrived into Franz Josef late afternoon on a very cold day. We wanted to walk this famous glacier and had already read up about it in out NZ book and various leaflets. Taking a stroll through the small quiant village we found the tour guides and decided on a half day climb. We would have really liked to do the 3 quarter day but it was fully booked and the full day was 8 hours long which we thought may be a bit much. So with that booked for the following day we returned to our carpark home we had [View Full Entry]

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