Our final country is well and truly upon us - we have been in Oz now for about 3 weeks and have not found a better place yet than Coff's Harbour (loving it here). We have driven from Melbourne (great city) to the end of the Great Ocean Road (via the highway) and subsequently driven along it. It was beautiful although not as good as the hype would suggest (contraversial, moi?...). The spotting of a koala in the middle of the road just before dawn was a high point - he just wouldn't move...that is until P put the full [View Full Entry]

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When you first set foot in Australia it takes a little time to adjust...and you get rather sore from kicking yourself to remind yourself of the fact that you are actually here... Melbourne was our first stop and the cafe culture and little streets reminded us a bit of our home town. The sun was shining and the three days there saw us go to the Aquarium, the Immigration museum and the Queen Vic market. We also sorted out our next campervan and generally made a nuisance of ourselves..... The aquarium was great - saw sharks, sting rays, deadly spiders, nemo.....all [View Full Entry]

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Pics are coming, we downloaded them to DVD and now can't find an internet cafe with a DVD drive... give us a few days we will find one.... SOUTH ISLAND The ferry crossing was a little blustery and the first time we have had to wrap up in warm weather gear since our arrival in NZ. On our last night on the North Island P got speaking to a local who gave us a bit of a tip for our journey. As you get off the ferry take a right at the first roundabout and you will have a great view [View Full Entry]

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After a brief stop in Hawkes Bay we set off north for Gisborne, then stopped and turned the campervan around and decided to go south to the Wellington area. About 100km into our journey the exhaust popped and the campervan suddenly sounded like a tank...... We pulled off the road into a village called Otane and stopped at what looked to be the only bar in town to use the phone. Following our chat with the rental people we turned around to be confrunted with all four locals who intruduced themselves, had heard we were in trouble with our Van( not [View Full Entry]

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Pitures to Follow...... Santiago...the capital of a country that is over 4000 km long and never more than 200 km wide, situated roughly in the middle, and in between the highest of the Andean mountains and the pacific ocean. A city we only had a couple of days to explore - so what did we do? We visited the Presidential Palace - the place where the ex-president, Salvador Allende, was killed (the official story is he committed suicide) when the Military regime bombed the place at the start of the coup d'etat in 1973. I hoped to learn a bit more [View Full Entry]

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We had booked a room at a resort just out of Puerto Montt when we were in Bariloche, looked lovely on the internet - as they often do - and we had a transfer from the bus terminal in a luxury 4x4. When we arrived it was late and dark but the room looked lovely - cabin style, with a balcony overlooking the bay. The staff didn't speak English, but the manager bought his daughter along who is studying translation at university so we got a bit of info. It seemed very quiet, and we were the only ones having dinner [View Full Entry]

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5 weeks in Argentina...we only originally planned to stay for 3 or 4 then head into Chile, but we loved it so much we decided to cut short the visit to Chile. Highlights in our tour of almost the entire country - the 8th largest in the world; and in my humble opinion one of the most diverse - included Mendoza, Iguazu Falls and the Glaciers. We ended our journey in Bariloche in the Lake District, central Argentina. After 2 days of bus travel up Ruta 40 we arrived late evening in Mid-February (sorry dates are a blur...) and got a [View Full Entry]

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OK, so last thing you heard we were sweltering in 36o heat in Bs.As....well we took a flight to nearly the end of the world (sorry Ushuaia we didn´t make it that far) and were nearly as cold as those of you suffering in Blighty right now. El Calafate is a strange place; a bit like an alpine village with the architecture and chocolate shops (yes we did buy some...). Quite a pretty place next to Lago Argentino, the biggest lake in Argentina. It is in the soutern part of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (Glaciers National Park) which has the [View Full Entry]

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One of the reasons we travelled to South America was to see Iguazu Falls; so on Monday 29 Jan we flew from Buenos Aires to the little town of Puerto Iguazu. For those of you that don't know the area it is the pinch point between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil with the falls are sandwiched between Brazil and Argentina. Typically our plane was delayed so instead of ariving at 1400 we didn't get there until 1700. This was a little disapointing as we had planned to go to the Brasilian side of the falls that afternoon. So instead the first evening [View Full Entry]

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So long without news and then 3 blogs come at once, you lucky things! We have been in Buenos Aires for a week now, its a great city - really busy especially at night. Like most places in Argentina it is quiet during the day when the sun is at its hottest, and everyone comes out in the late afternoon. Shops are open until 9-10pm which is great, you can go out, do some shopping then have dinner. Dinner is usually between 9 and 10pm, and often later, especially at weekends when the clubs don't OPEN until 2am...... We arrived here [View Full Entry]

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