Blimey O'Reilly - you'll never guess where we are? Only on one of the most remote spots in the entire world, that's where. Welcome, friends, to the mysterious Easter Island. Our flight from Santiago left at 9.10 am meaning that we had to check out of the hostel nice and early. Neither of us slept well again at the Casa Roja due to all the traffic noise and general thumpiness of our fellow residents. We thought we had booked a private taxi for 7,500 pesos (about £7.50) through the hostel but we ended up with a minibus choc full of other [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone! Just a little blog for you today as we've not been getting up to very much at all these last few days back in Santiago. Tomorrow we fly to the very remote Easter Island for a couple of nights so expect lots of photos of giant head statues very soon ;-) Most importantly however, we wanted to take a moment to say a big thank you to all of you who've been taking time out to read the blogs. We're curious to know who is reading so if you have a minute, why not send us a quick message [View Full Entry]

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When we originally planned this trip, we didn't plan on staying in Chile for more than a couple of days. Now I remember why - there's really not an awful lot to do here! After spending an unstrenuous week in Santiago, we decided to venture up the road a bit and take in the sights of Valparaiso, a UNESCO world heritage site. It's another big city and there are people milling about absolutely everywhere making walking down any of the main streets a bit of a headache. The Chilean people have this habit of walking in a row regardless of how [View Full Entry]

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Much as we like the Casa Roja where we are staying, we haven't been sleeping too well because of the constant noise of people walking around upstairs or using the ladies bathroom right next to our room. On consecutive nights we've been woken up at 5 o'clock in the morning by a group of Brits detailing every moment of their conquests that night, or at 2am by a couple of Spanish girls practising a 2-part harmony for some bizarre reason. Needless to say we've been getting a bit ratty. Not even earplugs can fully drown it all out as the noise [View Full Entry]

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After having been blessed with a couple of days full of sunshine, yesterday it was time for the rain to have its moment and we were essentially confined to the hostel for most of the day. Today, however, the rainclouds were just a distant memory with the promise of a real scorcher on the cards from the minute we set foot outside. We had no set route planned so simply let our feet do the walking. Our fist encounter was at the presidential palace (at least I think that's what it was...), an imposingly grand building flanked by guards at every [View Full Entry]

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The primary goal this morning was to make it to the long distance bus station and scope out ticket prices and availability for our onward travel to Valparaiso next week. We hopped on the great value and very efficient metro (subway), climbed a couple of steps at the station exit and hey-presto, we were there. In my broken Spanish I managed to find out that buses run every 20 minutes to Valparaiso - something that came as a positive surprise. We're used to there only being a couple of buses per day for our chosen destination so this was a welcome [View Full Entry]

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We honestly had no idea what to expect of Chile or its capital city, Santiago, when we arrrived other than having been warned by numerous people to be extra vigilant with our stuff. Leaving the hostel armed with only the bare minimum, we made our way into the CBD, a kind of triangular shaped bit of the city centre flanked by the river on one side and the metro lines on the other two. Our first impressions of the city were far from what we had been led to believe. The weather was superb with a gloriously hot sun beating down [View Full Entry]

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Being back in Christchurch has felt a bit like coming home, a sure sign if any were needed this would be the city we would immigrate to if we and when decide to make the move. Most of our time since finishing our campervan tour has been spent with practical matters such as trying to get our flights changed although that has been no easy task. Unfortunately for us, Qantas decided to close its Christchurch office back in December so where had nowhere to go for help. I called up the freephone number only to be told by the Qantas rep [View Full Entry]

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Hola amigos y amigas! It's hard to believe that just this morning we were still in New Zealand, still amongst a culture and language that we know and understand. So where are we now? In South America, that's where - and no-one here speaks English. Crikey! Our day began at the ungodly hour of 4.15am in time for our shuttle to the airport. Our flight was at 7am and by 8.30am, we were in Auckland for the second time. Despite having over 9 hours to kill before our connecting flight, we didn't bother heading out into the city and instead explored [View Full Entry]

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I've been meaning to upload a blog of free and cheap campsites on South Island, New Zealand for anyone hitting the road in a campervan without an on-board toilet. People will tell you that you can camp almost anywhere on the South Island but actually it can be a nightmare trying to find somewhere without a 'No Campervans' sign to call home for the night. These are the places we found on our month-long tour of this beautiful island. Hope it's useful to you! 1) Carpark on little peninsular before you get to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsular. It's by the [View Full Entry]

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