So the 1st test match was at Hamilton. The day before the game Chris and I made our flag, which took hours, whilst it poured down with rain. However the next morning it was clear and hot. As you will know by now England lost the game, after some poor batting from our top order and some poor bowling from Harmison. Best moments were Sidebottom's hat-trick and Ambrose's 50. We met with some nice people (John, Babs, Paul, Michela and Andy) and spent several hours most evenings discussing the days play. The atmosphere at the game was good, with lots of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well this trip started with the 4 of us travelling together, and now there are 5 of us! That's right Mandy is having a baby!!!!! She is nearly 3 months pregnant, and has had a scan - and everything is OK. So our trip together will change as Mandy is not able to go to any countries where we need to take malaria tablets. So Chris and I will be going to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and India by ourselves. Mandy and Miles are unsure of their plans after Australia, they might stay in Thailand for a bit longer. We have just [View Full Entry]

---

---

So our adventure continued with us going to the 5th ODI between New Zealand and England. As followers of cricket will know the game ended with rain and New Zealand won the game and the series. We enjoyed the game, but more so watching the spectators having fights and getting arrested by the police. We weren't sure what most of the fights were about, but they were nearly all between New Zealand supporters. I've been to a lot of cricket games at home and abroad and never seen anything like it. Thankfully we were at the edge of the seating so [View Full Entry]

---

---

So our adventure in the South Island started off with a flat tyre. We pulled into a petrol station and after a short while we were on our way with the spare tyre in place. The boys did an excellent job! It then started to rain and was quite cold. Not a great introduction to the South. We drove south and went to the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. Both were quite impressive, although small compared to what we have seen in South America. After there we went to Wanaka, a pretty town next to a lake. Thankfully the weather was [View Full Entry]

---

---

We thought that the flight from Chile to New Zealand was going to be a nightmare, but we had the wind behind us and it only took 11 hours. We crossed the international dateline on the way so arrived at Auckland airport at 3.15 am on Thursday morning, having left Chile at 11pm on Tuesday night. We managed to stay awake all day and haven't really suffered from jetlag at all. We picked up our campervan and went to the nearest supermarket to get brown sauce, bacon, baked beans and other foods that we had been missing. Mandy and I also [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a short bus trip we were at Punta Arenas, about as far south as you can go on land in Chile and over 8000 miles away from home. After here it is the sea and then the Antarctic. We arrived in rain and after walking around the whole town with our packs on trying to find a decent and reasonably priced hostel, we ended up at the hostel nearest the bus station. At least we got some exercise! We haven´t done too much here - booked our trip to the Penguin colony, got loads of washing done, and watched Fulham [View Full Entry]

---

---

As promised the Torres Del Paine photo´s...... [View Full Entry]

---

---

So on Monday morning we headed down to the port to catch The Navimag south to Puerto Natales. We weren´t quite sure what to expect but we were all pleasantly surprised by the boat. Although there were 22 bunks together, they were separated into groups of 2 or 4, so we had a small area just for us. The beds were comfortable and there was a locker for our stuff to go in. The toilet/shower area had mens and womens and they were often cleaned so no problem there either. Luckily for us the weather was fantastic. The first two days [View Full Entry]

---

---

Valporaiso is described as unique and unusual by our guide book, but it didn´t really grab us as a great place. It was unusual in that it has 15 funicular´s which go up and down the steepish slopes of the town but that was about it. We had a good time though, and had a hostel with a kitchen which we made full use of, cooking dinner for ourselves. There was free internet, so we made full use of that as well and booked quite a few things for New Zealand which is our next country. After Valporaiso we went to [View Full Entry]

---

---

I realised I forgot to put the photo´s of us at Concha y Toro vineyard on my previous post, so here they are..... [View Full Entry]

---

---