After the brief stop in LA, when we arrived in Mexico DF it felt like the holiday proper had begun. It was a hot dusty ride through masses of traffic to reach our gorgeous B&B, The Red Tree House . Greeted by Victor and introduced to our other "hosts" - Craig, Jorge (the two owners), Ernesto (the manager), and Alejandro, we quickly settled into our rooms and went off to explore a little of the city. As it was already nearly 4.00 pm we didn't venture too far away, to the Bosque de Chapultepec, about 20 minutes walk. The Chapultepec is a massive park, providing the 'lungs' for Mexico City, and we were heading to the Castle, which sits on the outskirts of the park, where Craig had told us we could get a great view ... read more

Finally! After six amazing weeks the Rugby World Cup Final was upon us, and the All Blacks were ready to bring the cup home. Or so we all hoped. With Craig, who'd popped over from Melbourne for a mere 18 hours just to go to the game, and Cam, still in Auckland for work, we walked the fan trail to Kingsland. The atmosphere before the game was electric. New Zealanders and French alike were waiting nervously for the start of the game......anticipation was in the air. We found a bar and tried to ease the pre-game nerves with some of the sponsor's finest ale. We were like giddy school children on the night before Christmas! Cam and I settled into a comfy seat, sent Craig on his way to the game, and we sat back waiting, ... read more

After a particularly busy time at work, and the weather in Auckland starting to cool down, I was very excited about my trip to Bali. A group of eight of us had booked a luxury villa in Canggu. It promised a pool, four large double bedrooms, a chef and a pool boy. It did not disappoint - heaven! It soon became very hard to leave Baraka Villa . Our flights were delayed two hours, and then arrived without my luggage, so we spent a further hour at the airport while I filled in forms and tried to get some sensible information. We bumped our way through the narrow lanes, navigating around the potholes on the truly dreadful road, and had countless calls to the villa trying to find the house, so when we finally arrived at ... read more

I landed in Santiago on Sunday morning at the ungodly hour of 5.15 am and the first thing I noticed was that it is BLOODY COLD. Much colder than I was expecting. I don't know what I was complaining about in Bogota. I was told when I got here that electricity is super expensive and to be careful not to leave the heater on in my room. This explains why no-one seems to have cottoned on to indoor heating here and I am freezing wherever I go. It definitely has an influence on fashion, as people wear layers of blankets, ponchos, and scarves in order to stay warm. However all that said I have been enjoying my time in Santiago so far. I arrived in the B&B, Casa Moro and went straight to bed for a ... read more

My journey into the Amazon rainforest only got better. After the piranha fishing (very unsuccessfully I might add, tricky little buggers can nibble around the hook), we went on another short hike through the forest. To our delight, just near the lodge, we saw some small black monkeys called Black-Mantle Tamarin. They had been hanging out in the area for a couple of days. Then a short while later we came across the Pygmy Marmoset Monkey, apparently the smallest monkey in the world. Not long after that we saw some Squirrel monkeys, and later we saw more Squirrel Monkeys who had joined up with a troop of Capuchin monkeys. As we getting in our canoe and heading up the canal towards the lake that leads back to the Lodge we had to stop and make way ... read more