For some weird reason, the buses from Uyuni to Tupiza all leave at 6am. At that time in the morning it is freakin' freezing, and our bus was as basic as they come (no heating). We were the only tourists on the bus (we were travelling with Mike - a chap we met on our salt flats tour), and everyone else looked on pitifully as they loaded their bags, laden with blankets (at least 4 each). It was a very long seven hour journey through mountains on only dirt tracks, but by the time we reached Tupiza, the feeling in our [View Full Entry]

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In the touristy town of San Pedro de Atacama in the north of Chile there was one main attraction for us - an astronomy tour offered in one of the best star gazing locations in the world. Looking through some pretty impressive telescopes, we were shown a gaseous nebular, Alpha Centauri, a very impressive Saturn (rings and all) plus a close-up view of the moon. The tour was led by a slightly crazy Frenchman with a great (if a bit risqué) sense of humour and an amazing knowledge of the stars. Our intention was to get from San Pedro in Chile [View Full Entry]

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Buenos Aires We flew into a ghostly quiet BA (slightly dodgy flight with a "reject" landing…) - the streets were empty due to a massive football game at the nearby Boca stadium. It's a fantastic place, one of our favourite cities - full of beautiful architecture and friendly people. We walked to all of the main touristy sights including a famous cemetery (Cementerio de la Recoleta) full of decorative mausoleums of the former rich and famous residents. Many have the coffins on display which was a bit eerie, but most people just come to see the final resting place of Eva [View Full Entry]

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Hey Chicos! After a couple of days in Santiago we took a plane to Punta Arenas, right at the southern tip of Chile. It was a complete shock to get off the plane to 6 degrees C (having spent the last 6 months in the heat!) We only spent a night there, and the following morning took a bus to Puerto Natales. The scenery was spectacular, and we got even closer to the action on a trip to the Torres Del Paine national park. It was a really lovely change to be in the mountains taking in the views of glaciers [View Full Entry]

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We were really looking forward to visiting Easter Island, and have to say that our week there did not disappoint. We stayed at a great guesthouse called Te’ora, which had a fantastic location - a prime time spot for watching the sunsets with a Pisco Sour in hand (the national beverage - yummy!) The accommodation has a mascot, a lovely dog called Michigan who takes on the job of body guard to all the guests. He often followed us out on walks into Hanga Roa, making sure we got home safely. The village is actually very relaxed, and at the most [View Full Entry]

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Huahine Our next stop was Tahiti, and from there we caught a tiny plane to the beautiful island of Huahine. We were really lucky to find a slice of paradise called Motu Mahare (an even smaller island separated from Huahine by a few hundred metres of water in a truly amazing setting) which was made even better as we were the only guests. Our hosts, Kim and Walter were fantastic, lending us their kayaks, bicycles and snorkelling gear so that we could explore. It was lush, especially the crystal clear lagoons and colourful coral reefs. We spent a day cycling around [View Full Entry]

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One of the best day-walks in NZ is the Tongariro crossing. It takes around seven hours and involved a rather early start (and a random bus journey to the beginning of the track on a 1970s bus, fully equipped with the driver’s puppy under the seats). The weather is very changeable and started off a little wet, getting slightly colder and wetter as we reached the highest point, before finally turning into a glorious day. The crossing is in an active volcano area and takes in several craters - mixed with the eclectic weather, the steam rising from the vents and [View Full Entry]

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South Island - Happy campers!!! We collected the camper (a truly camp Nissan “Vanette” which we have named Vanessa) in Christchurch and spent our first night at a fantastic campsite right next to miles of empty beach. In Kaikoura we took an awesome trip whale watching, and were lucky enough to see 5 Sperm whales, all showing us their massive tails (the money shot!) as they headed down to the bottom of the sea. We also saw over 200 Dusky dolphins playing, they are renowned for their acrobatic skills and watching them show off doing somersaults and back flips was ace. [View Full Entry]

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Fantastic Sydney! We have had a brilliant time here. The weather has been perfect and we’ve been busy seeing the sights, walking for miles around the opera house and harbour, across the bridge (the official bridge climb was fairly expensive and as Australia is crippling our budget we decided to take the advice of fellow travellers and go for the free option, walking across it instead : ) Have to admit that we have eaten far too many ice-creams whilst generally chilling around Darling Harbour. As luck would have it our time here coincided with the Sydney festival so we’ve [View Full Entry]

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We knew that our visit to Port Douglas would be right in the middle of rainy season -and it’s safe to say that the weather predictions were very accurate (one night it rained 400mm.) The town lies next to four mile beach, which is pretty much as it says on the tin. Given the season, we had free reign of about 1 ½ miles on our first day, but failed to take any pictures - and the monsoon rains meant we only saw it the once. Luckily the one day that we went on a boat to the Great Barrier Reef [View Full Entry]

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