March 16th, 2008. I decided to head off to climb Ruapehu with a couple of the other volunteer hut wardens, Lisette and Vince. Ruapehu, at 2797m is the highest mountain on the North Island. It is a huge, sprawling volcanoe, best known for skiing in winter. We were hoping to get a chairlift part of the way up, but it was closed, supposedly due to high winds. Ignoring the dire warnings of the staff at Iwikau village we set off, scarambling over glacial and volcanic rubble encountering only a light breeze. There muast have been something seriously wrong with the anemometer [View Full Entry]

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March 8th, 2008 After my kayaking in Abel Tasman I had to put my foot down in the Subaru to reach Picton in time for my ferry to Wellington. I just about made it and before long I was back on the North Island. I spent the next couple of days exploring New Zealand's capital city. Despite its location on the coast it is not the prettiest of cities. First, I decided to check out Te Papa, the National Museum. It was strangely disappointing. Most of the displays and exhibits were aimed at kidsand somehow failed to convey any meaningful information. [View Full Entry]

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March 1st, 2008 After my attempt to swim with dolphins I made my way back to Christchurch and the Jailhouse Hostel. That night I had booked myself in for a cultural treat - a production of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. The theatre was packed. Mind you counting the number of seats that meant about 250 people... The performance was very entertaining, the actors belting out some lengthy and failry obscure monologues with a great deal of panache. The only real downside was the quality of the Welsh accents. I am sure one actress made reference to 'did' people at [View Full Entry]

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Feb 26th, 2008. After getting dropped off in Glenorchy by the shuttle bus I picked up the car and decided to drive north to Wanaka, a town billed as a slightly quieter and more 'chilled out' version of Queenstown. I treated myself to Fush and Chups, a delicacy the Kiwis seem to take almost as seriously as the English. Although, I have to say the quality of their fish seems to be slightly better than ours. The following morning I was up early and hired a sea kayak to go out on Lake Wanaka. It seemed to be a better idea [View Full Entry]

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February 21, 2008 I left Te Anau and headed off on the road to Milford Sound. It really is one of the most impressive (I think I've run out of superlatives to describe the NZ scenery!!) alpine road journeys I have been on with vastly varying scenery. I stopped a couple of times on the way. First, to go up Key Summit (919m) which has views across the Fiordland National Park. Second, to visit the Chasm where the gradual forces of the river and the elements have carved strange and unusual formations in the rock - giving the impression of something [View Full Entry]

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February 13th, 2008 After my flight from Auckland I arrived at my hostel in Christchurch, appropriately named 'the Jailhouse' as it was indeed a prison in a former life . It certainly fitted the bill with whitewashed walls and high walkways above the large central hall for the inmates to get to their cells... The next morning I was straight onto the important task of buying a car to get myself around NZ. I rang a few numbers I found on the hostel notice board of other travellers selling cars they had finished with. I got an immediate response from a [View Full Entry]

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Feb 13, 2008 After my truck trip I spent a few more days in Buenos Aires attempting to improve my Spanish (and failing miserably) inbetween eating more steak....I then flew home on Jan 23rd and spent a few days catching up with friends and family. Next thing I knew I was boarding a flight to Singapore on Feb 8th. Several films later I arrived in Singapore on Feb 9th and made my way, using Singapore's unhealthily clean and efficient underground transportation service (what's wrong with a bit of London grime I ask?) to my luxury four and a half star hotel. [View Full Entry]

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January 5, 2008 I spent a few days relaxing in Buenos Aires after my Aconcagua trip. It was then time to catch a plane down to Ushuaia on Jan 5th. The plane took off from Jorges Newberry on time and we flew over endless patchwork fields, stopping briefly at the Welsh settlement at Trelew, before heading on to a cloudy and gloomy looking Ushuaia. After a tedious wait for my luggage I was on my way to the Antarctic Hostel in temperatures that seemed a good 15 degrees colder than Buenos Aires. After dumping my stuff I went out along the [View Full Entry]

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December 10th, 2007 After the Inca trail I spent a few more days in Cusco before heading to Lima for a day on my way back to Buenos Aires. Lima was probably one of the grottiest South American cities I have been to. The taxi journey from the airport into the centre of town took me through shanty towns full of stray, mangy dogs and children clambering of heaps of rubbish. People sifting through the detritus of their lives. A truly depressing sight. The centre of town isn´t too impressive either. There is a main square (Plaza de Armas) with the [View Full Entry]

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November 25, 2007 I spent a few days in Cusco after the trip to the Manu Biosphere. It mainly involved going out and drinking a lot. I think I ended up in a club called Uptown at least 3 times. It´s one of those places where they play music which is about ten years out of date and its full of tourists who get incredibly drunk and make idiots of themselves - well, at least that´s what I did.. I also bumped into an insurance broker I know from London which was very strange. Small world, etc, etc. One thing I [View Full Entry]

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