Of all the cities I was planning to visit in South America BA was the one that excited me the most. Maybe it was the Tango, the cobbled streets and all night café’s, the Red wine and steak houses or the football matches and it didn’t disappoint!! I arrived early on Tuesday 21stFebruary after a 7 hour flight from Quito which stopped briefly in Guayaquil. I remember the immigration cue was very long and it seemed to take ages to get my passport stamped and pass through customs. Having spent three months with family Vallejo I felt very alone and a little disorientated but also excited with the upcoming travels through Argentina. However the shuttle bus trip to the Ayres Portonos hostel was really easy and the weather was pleasantly warm compared to Quito. I liked ... read more

The RWC in NZ was an amazing experience but with the wet and cold weather I was thinking about the beach a lot! So one windy day in Wellington I popped into a bookshop and looked at a few guide books for the Pacific Islands that looked ideal for relaxing on the beach for a few weeks after the RWC. The options were the Cook Islands or Fiji. Both were in shoulder seasons with the rain arriving late November/December but Fiji won as it seemed more of a place travelers would go as it was on the RTW route via the USA. I also remembered that people I’d met from the 2008 trip were heading there and recommended it. How to travel around seemed quite complicated though but after much research on the Internet and the ... read more

Some pictures from the trip to Milford Sound on 20th October. Enjoy. ... read more

New Zealand was one of my favorite countries from the last trip and when I heard they were hosting the Rugby World Cup I just had to go back. I arrived late afternoon of Thursday 29th September and after clearing a surprisingly quite immigration and customs I was soon back in the Kiwi International hotel on Queen Street again. It felt great to be back and I couldn’t wait to explore again and headed to a couple of the pubs that I’d been to before. The fans were out in style and i got chatting to some South Africans who were confident in their team who were playing Samoa on the Friday. The Irish Pub Father Ted was packed with Welsh and Irish supporters. The Welsh were heading to Hamilton that weekend and the Irish were ... read more

The journey into Hong Kong on Friday 16th September from Shenzhen was easy enough I just followed the crowds and there were plenty of other westerners travelling the same route. I got the bus from outside the airport to the train station with Andrew from Melbourne and Camelia from France. At the train station the directions are not so good but with a combination of asking the police and following the rough directions we were soon walking over the bridge which hundreds of people crossing to and from Hong Kong it was pretty exciting. On the HK side we got the MTR to Chungking mansions, which is backpacker central and at first a very intimidating place but you soon get used to it. In the afternoon I watched a World Cup rugby game which really got ... read more