So from galapagos went to quito for the night and then made our way up to Columbia to Cali where there is a massive 5 day festival with salsa, bullfighting, parades and just general mayhem. thought we would leave on 23rd, spend 1 hour or so at border and be there morning of 24th. eh...not quite the way it worked out. The ecuadorian border was mayhem, 1 queue for both getting your exit stamp and entry stamp and just so busy. arrived at 4pm, the place shut at 10 and we had barely moved so in order top not be in [View Full Entry]

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So...after being upgraded to business class (probably 1st and only time in my life), arrived on santa cruz island. Plan was to try and get a last minute deal when i got here, but on looking aruond prices not massively cheap. Decided to just do a few day trips to some islands and mooch around the main santa cruz for a while. Went to the Charles Darwin centre where the giant tortoises are and u can get right up close and personal with them. Also went to the lovely white sand tortuga bay which is just gorgeous and more so by [View Full Entry]

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Ok so had a few problems with my photos and crappy computers and just generally being rubbish so will try to cram 2m into 1 page! After inca trail hung around in cusco for another week or so, going out lots and went on a 3 day raft trip on grade 3-5 rapids on the apurimac river. Good fun although camping was very normal compared to luxury of inca trail! washing my own dishes i dont know!!! From cusco went to arequipa where did a week of spanish lessons which was fun, especially my gay teacher who was very reminiscent of [View Full Entry]

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Sorry for the 2m delay but here they are finally!! Got to Puno and managed to negotiate both leaving Bolivia and entering Peru ok (only 1 armed man shouting at me to come back-all for no reason in the end but made everyone stare!). Had a few hours to kill in the bus station so went on a tour to the floating reed Uros islands which were actually pretty cool, everything is made out of reeds and folks do live there. Very damp though! Well made it to Cusco after a very long and very bumpy 12 hour alternative route to [View Full Entry]

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Well managed to negotiate chilean customs and immigration with my lack of spanish but not too much else! Oh well all adds to the experience i suppose! Landed in Santiago after a 10h flight on which even the air hostesses didn´t speak english and my wee tv was broken so no movies! Santiago is alright, a few cathedrals and museums to see and lots of ice creams and hot dogs to eat! Seems to be the national food-i´ve never seen so many! Spent 2 days here then got a 24hour bus up to San Pedro de Atacama in the far north [View Full Entry]

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Kia Ora everyone! Rotorua This town is famous for being the most active geothermal area in NZ. The crust is so thin that you wander round the town and steam is rising from the ground. Tried not to think about standing on top of all the lava and stuff! Wandered round a few parks with some cool geysers, the big one Pohutu is 30m tall. Some pretty cool boiling mud pools too. Had to wait a few days to raft the Kaituna river, which has the highest commercially raftable waterfall in the world-7m! Had been raining for a few days so [View Full Entry]

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Wellington Ferry journey across was luckily nice and calm-don't think i could've coped with more seasickness! Really nice coming out of the Marlborough Sounds. Wellington is really nice and chilled-plenty of cafes with lots of yummy food and nice harbour to wander round. Seems a lot warmer as well...or maybe it's my imagination. Spent 2 days here doing the sights, the national museum Te Papa which was ticked off in 2 hours-prob a record! Got the cable car up to the botanic gardens and then wandered down the hill towards the parliament buildings and the famous beehive. Day before had [View Full Entry]

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Sorry its been so quiet for the last 2months! Been busy (and sometimes not so busy) working away in 3 little practices earning some pennies to keep going. Kiwis that i meet think i have been working in the strangest places (and they're right!) but it's all money and that's what counts... Westport First stop Westport (small town on the west coast funnily) for 3weeks. Mixed practice with lots of dairy farms but thankfully all the cows were out at grass drying off preparing to calve so no work for me. Just did some small animal work and a bit of [View Full Entry]

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Wanaka Pretty little town but quite quiet-think it only really gets going in the height of summer. Decided I had to start getting fit if I was to do any of the Great Walks so went on a day walk-fairly beasted it and did in 5 hours what should have taken 7-8. Was a bit knackered by the end especially after a 2 hour straight up and down glacier walk at the end! Had my first run in with the DOC (Department of Conservation) office. The woman here was lovely though and really encouraging. Not so much the further south I [View Full Entry]

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Christchurch Arrived a lot more smoothly in Kiwiland than Oz. First on my to do list was buying a car as till then couldn't leave the city. Cue several days of fruitless searching despite everyone telling me it was a buyer's market. Nearly talked myself into buying a campervan but thankfully the guy pulled out on me and i bought myself a nice old estate! Tis an automatic which i was a bit wary of at first but is like driving a go kart! First thing I did was to go shopping and buy more clothes-is freezing here compared to cairns, [View Full Entry]

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