Fourteen hours overnight on a bus, three and a half hours in a car, one and a half hours in a 4x4 down a very wet and bumpy track, and one and a half hours in a boat......300 Reais. Arriving at an air conditioned lodge with lunch waiting......priceless. We had made it to Brazils' wetland area known as the Pantanal, and were immediately introduced to our guide who was keen for us to join him on that afternoons walk. He advised us that as it was the end of the rainy season the path was still "a bit wet" so we [View Full Entry]

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Leaving the cold behind we flew north to hot and humid Buenos Aires, immediately ditching the jeans for much missed shorts. We first visited BA´s biggest tourist attraction, the Recoleta Cemetary. Despite being possibly the strangest tourist attraction ever, it was really quite fascinating. As you enter you find yourself emersed in a mini city full of narrow streets where the houses are in fact huge mausoleums remembering BA´s elite, and one Sra Eva Peron. Our next trip was to see world famous footy team Boca Juniors play not so famous Colon De Santa Fe. Arriving in La Boca we soon [View Full Entry]

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Santiago marked the start of our mainland South American leg. After our airport pick-up failed to show we grabbed a taxi and headed off in search of our hostel. After stopping at a number of places that clearly were not our hostel, the taxi driver eventually swallowed his pride and we were guided in by passers by. We spent a couple of days exploring Santiago, mostly trying to avoid getting stuck behind the locals, who walk at a pace similar to that of the changing seasons, before booking ourselves on an 11 hour bus ride to Pucon in the Chilean lake [View Full Entry]

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We arrived back in Chile at the town of Puerto Natales, edging ever closer to the bottom of South America. Having survived for the previous 4 months of our trip in a uniform of shorts and t-shirt we were shocked to find that the temperature had plummeted to a point where even Andy had to put on a coat. Puerto Natales is the gateway to the Torres Del Paine national park, which is famous worldwide for its spectacular scenary and trekking. Although we are not really "the strap a bag on my back and leave me for 4 days" type we [View Full Entry]

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We flew through the night from Tahiti to Easter Island and were greeted by some very thorough passport checks as we formally entered Chile (about the only security they do have) and received flower necklaces from our host. By chance we had arrived in time to catch the last few days of the annual Tapati Rapa Nui (Easter Island Festival). That afternoon, after a loooong wait we watched the parade (the 4 o´clock parade in true Polynesian style started at 7). It comprised various floats and lots of singing and dancing by the very scantily clad locals covered in mud. Having [View Full Entry]

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As the plane began its descent into Tahiti we caught a glimpse of what was in store for us as we flew past the neighbouring island of Moorea, with its lush green jagged mountains rising from the surrounding turquoise sea. Once on the ground we were given a native flower which we duly tucked behind our ears, before smugly cutting the queue and going through the EU channel, as it is effectively France. We then had to figure out how to get to our hotel. After a chat with a very helpful and extremely camp information dude who told us that [View Full Entry]

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With only two flights having landed at Queenstown on our day of departure from the South Island (due to the very strong winds which made one of those planes face the wrong way only seconds before landing) we were quite lucky to make it to the North Island. We picked up our second 'El Cheapo' car and wobbled north to the Bay of Islands, booking a dolphin swim for the next day. We had hoped that our dolphin swim would be more successful than the failed seal swim, but the one pod of dolphins we found unfortunately had calves with them [View Full Entry]

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Australia obviously did not want to let us go, us being bringers of well needed rain, so after another monumental delay at Sydney airport (note - it wasn't showing a delay, its' departure time was just 6 hours later than shown on the tickets) we made it to Queenstown and the South Island of New Zealand just in time (the airport shuts when it gets dark). Now we thought that customs in Australia were strict but as we had declared that we had a tent and walking boots we got to spend some quality time with the New Zealand customs officers [View Full Entry]

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We braved a taxi from the airport and to our relief he spoke English and took us straight to our penthouse apartment for the week (thanks again Neil, Lauren and Jamie!) in Bondi Junction. After a quick kip we got the train into the city and wandered round Circular Quay trying to scope out a good spot for New Years Eve, before checking in to climb the Harbour Bridge. We did the new "Discovery Climb" (you can get twice as many people on the bridge that way), climbing up the inner arch before ascending to the very summit. Fortunately the forecasted [View Full Entry]

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Having queued the length of Melbourne airport in the pre-Christmas rush we arrived in Hobart, picked up our luxurious non-van and headed to Mount Field National Park. During the day we walked to Russell Falls and at night ventured out with a torch to try and spot some of the 'abundant wildlife' the Lonely Planet had claimed was there. We weren't disappointed as we saw lots of pademelons, some with joeys, three possums, one of which was carrying a baby on her back, and two bandicoots (think kangaroo rats). We awoke the next morning to discover that as two engineers we [View Full Entry]

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