Jo and Mark Davies

Thankfully we have survived our 9 day tour in the jungle with a mear few mosquito bites. No jaguar attacks, snake or spider bites, but a few funny encounters with the wildlife! It wasn't long into the trip before I felt the adrenalin pumping! The road we travelled on was probably the worst I've ever been on in my life. A narrow dirt road, really uneven from loads of landslides & a complete sheer drop to the side with about a 1000 metre drop. I had to close my eyes for most of the journey! We travelled throught the cloud forest & stopped to view the "Cock of the rock " birds performing their "display" for the ladies. Beautiful birds but obviously the display was not good enough as no girls showed up! We enjoyed our ... read more

We left New Zealand at 1630 on the thursday & arrived in Chile at 12 on the thursday, the first time I've ever gone back in time!! We have a had a great first few weeks In Chile & Argentina with Jen & Thomas. It was a particular help that Thomas speaks fantastic spanish! We had a couple of nights in Santiago, adjusting to the time differences & then took a bus further south to Temuco. The bus passed through some areas that had been badly affected by the earthquake. It was a Sunday & we passed through a village where everyone was gathered outside the church. There was rubble everywhere & so many homes that had collapsed. Along the road we passed several bridges that had collapsed but it was amazing how much they had ... read more

We had a lovely few days in pretty Arrowtown. We met a geordie couple from Gosforth & talking to them made us feel at home. We moved on to Wanaka & did a good walk up to a glacier, even better was our trip to Puzzle world. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to complete the maze there. Not the usual way i spend my time! Next we went up to the glaciers & did a days walking on the Franz Joseph glacier with plenty of layers on & our crampons. It was really good fun walking on the ice & we went through a few tight squeezes. They took us to a new route through a split in the ice. Lets just say it was touch & go that we got through, a girl ... read more

NZ has kicked off well, may it continue! We had great weather as we flew over from Australia & great scenery as we landed. We picked up our rental car, which is even older than our Mondeo was, but seems to be doing Ok so far! We head straight up to Northland to the lovely seaside resort of Pahia on the Bay of Islands. We stayed in a great hostel called the Pickled Parrott & Mark was delighted that they actually had a parrot there. He was called Rockie & was very friendly, he would just climb up the chair & onto your knee when sitting down. There was also a cat called Betty & I was quite confused when the cat walked in & the parrot started meowing!! It also did a great impression of ... read more

We have had a fantastic first week In Australia It has been lovely to come to a warmer climate. We’ve spent the week in Sydney & it has flown by. We were pretty shattered when we arrived as it was an overnight flight & we didn’t get much sleep at all. I think that was partly because of all the great films that were on including the Micheal Jackson this is it film which was great! We felt much better stepping out into the sunshine & having a walk around the lovely botanical gardens, taking in the famous sights of the Opera House & Harbour Bridge. We were very excited to go to the supermarket & buy cereal, pasta & cadburys chocolate! It has been lovely to be able to cook for ourselves. We enjoyed our ... read more