So after a 16 hour flight from Sydney with a transit stop in Auckland we arrived in Santiago, Chile. A horrendously polluted city which has a constant layer of smog over it blocking any view which there might be of the Andes. We enrolled on a Spanish course for a week and we are now fluent in Espanol. No not really. Although surprisingly for the first time James can remember Anne is better than James. Therefore Anne has to do all the talking as James has given up!! Although James did take a fancy to one of the Spanish teachers called [View Full Entry]

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So we left the hot and humid but beautiful Whitsunday Islands and decided that it was time to head back south to cooler climates. After nearly running out of petrol it was soon time to camp - still using broken tent and pole - held together with masking tape! An OK campsite was found but with noisy parrots we were up at the crack of dawn and combined with a swim in an icy swimming pool we were soon ready to be off. Our plan was to drive to the Eungella National Park to seek out the elusive platypus. On route [View Full Entry]

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So James completed his scuba diving course and is now a certified diver! We dived down to a wreck and saw a 1.5m turtle from about 30cm away - very cool. Also looked around the shipwreck which has now become an artificial reef with lots of exotic fish and the like. After finishing the course we drove on up to Rockhampton - to a scrappy looking campsite on the outskirts of the city. We were camped along the banks of a great big dirty river - there were signs up everywhere saying to watch out for crocs. James was very excited [View Full Entry]

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So sadly Peter and Rachel left us in the Blue Mountains - no longer could we afford the luxuries of hotel and hostel accommodation from here on its camping only. So we found a reasonably nice campsite in the Blue Mountains after leaving Pete and Rach and hammered pegs into rock solid earth. The evening passed quickly as we started learning Spanish again after our lapse of several months! The following day we went snake hunting - apparently there are large pythons in the mountains - with stout boots (and shorts) we set off towards the ruined castle (great pile of [View Full Entry]

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So what should have been a relaxing time in Christchurch turned into a rapid stressed affair whilst we tried to sell the car and sort things (mainly banking stuff) out for Oz. We managed to visit the Antarctica Centre but that was about all. So an uneventful flight led to Sydney arriving in the early evening - a dubious shuttle bus to Hotel 59 a nice friendly place although as we were to find out later that evening right in the middle of the red light district! At our first meal out we were greeted by "not even the Australians dare [View Full Entry]

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We left Bluff at the southern point of South Island to drive through the scenic countryside of the Catlins. Camped on a deserted campsite, visited a fossilised forest and saw Elephant Seals on Nugget Point before reaching Dunedin. Stayed at gorgeous Backpackers - essentially we had a house to ourselves. The next day we drove down the Otago Peninsula - failed to see the Royal Albatros but went on to see both blue and yellow eyed penguins from specially made hides. A lengthy walk down a deserted beach allowed us to see further penguins followed by a cold walk back in [View Full Entry]

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Hello So we left Qweenstown amid beautiful sunshine our plan to drive to Milford Sound and then onto Southland proper. The weather was still shining four hours later on our arrival. After securing the tent we walked down to the bay and were greated by stunning views of the glacial fiord. This was unfortunaetly not to last as the forecast suggested 3 iniches of rain over the next 12 hours. We awoke around 3am with the familiar pattering of rain on the canvas. This soon turned into a torrent and by morning we were surrounded by a lake of immense propertions [View Full Entry]

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So James finished in A+E on 18 Feb and was picked up by Anne who has basically had a 6 week holiday already. We drove up to Mount Rupehu 2774m - the highest mountain in North Island and camped in a DOC site. The following day was perfectly clear so we decided to climb the mountain - after some hard scrambling and some interesting snow crossing with long run outs we climbed onto the top into perfect sun - the mountain is actually a volcano and we had brilliant views down into the crater lake. Following this we drove up to [View Full Entry]

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