The plane touched down in Lima International Airport yesterday at about 3pm, and stumbling into the sunshine, missing about 12 hours sleep and with the United States thousands of miles (and two flights) behind us, AJ and I hopped into a taxi and headed into town, surrounded by honking horns and gridlocked traffic, the sound of Peruvian traditional music pummeling our ears through the speakers of the taxi, the mumblings of Latin American Spanish all around us. Peru is a monster in itself, an alien country hinted at by the immigrant culture in California and Texas but presented there in a diluted form. We realised the phrasebook we´d brought with us would be a useful commodity when it became clear on the plane that without it we couldn´t complete the immigration form. There has been no ... read more

"We're coming in, sir, you have to wake up. You got everything you brought with you? We'll be at the station in five minutes. You're still sleepy, huh?" There were streaks of rain against the window pane and a numbing ache in my neck but after 17 hours of running along the edge of the waters of the Hudson, then plunging into darkness as we sped through Indiana, I was finally in Chicago. There were dark clouds overhead and the industrial wasteland that was scarred with the blackened, overused freight train lines gave the Windy City a foreboding appearance. Through some small miracle I'd managed to salvage some sleep in the journey, despite the constant wingeing and moaning of the two small kids on the seat across from me, whose mother's best effort at consoling them ... read more

Once again I rolled into town in a daze and without a clue where to go. This time, however, there were no family to greet me from the train and no-one to cook me a home cooked dinner, take me to a parade, place a beer in my hand or go to the baseball with me, or to drop me at their house then offer to buy me lunch before we went to the store. Here I was, a stranger in a foreign land, finally all on my todd. Well, at least I had a map of Washington DC and an idea of where there was a pharmacy for my lethal headache. I had an AWESOME time in Hammond. My last couple of weeks were spent throwing in the first pitch at a baseball game, hanging ... read more

So here we are, back in Rotovegas and another belated update later. It seems that not only is it difficult to find internet in the South Island but it is impossible to find any form of communication past letters on the East Cape! As such I'll have to try and carry on from where I left off...so lets see... Now I think you left us in Christchurch all those days ago, and after the disappointment of not seeing Bumley and Meatyard (the former having crashed his car and the latter turning out to be in Dunedin...) we headed north to Kaikoura with our new driver Murray, who was a bit crazy and a bit out there and raced us into the overcast and dull Kaikoura much earlier than we'd expected. Now while it is a nice ... read more

Another belated update! ARGH! As you may have gathered now the South Island often seems completely desolate in comparison to the North, with total lack of reception anywhere other than the 'hub' towns (think Te Anau, Invercargill, Queenstown etc) which are seperated by mass expanses of beautifully empty, dramatic bushland. 1/3 of the entire population of NZ live in the South Island, which is almost twice as big as the North. When you consider that more people live in Auckland than they do in the South Island, you can understand how 'frontierland' this stage of the adventure is! Anyway - time to continue from where I left off and hopefully update without boring you to death, dear readers! We left for the Franz Josef Glacier early in the morning, giving ourselves enough time to have a ... read more