Tina Writes Next stop was Queenstown. The home of adrenalin fuelled activities. This is where Bungy was pioneered and we had come here to do just that. On the way to Queenstown we stopped off at ‘Blue Pools’ as recommended by Rob’s skydive master. There were suspension bridges built over the beautifully blue waters. I jumped and rattled them as much as I could until I got scared. We walked down to the water side and discovered there were loads of perfect skimming stones, so we had a skimming match. These waters are amazing for skimming, we were getting 8’s and 9’s and even all the way over to the other bank. On the road again as we neared Queenstown we came across Puzzling World. This is a place I have read about in other travel ... read more

Tina Writes For the past two weeks we have been travelling the North Island in our van ‘Donkey’. After our first nights campervanning, we headed further north, in fact we went to the most northerly part of NZ, Cape Regina. It was a nice drive up. We parked and headed down to the lighthouse and lookout point. There was information everywhere about the traditional Maori views about this area. This is where the spirit goes to after death. You can also see the Tasman Sea meeting the Pacific Ocean. We soon headed back down the coast and decided to stay at the same free DOC campsite as the night before. Setting up camp can be good fun, one of us cooking and the other setting up either outside or inside the van depending on the weather. ... read more

Tina Writes This is a short one because for the past 6 days we have done virtually nothing. We arrived in Arequipa on Halloween and quickly found a hostel for 65 Soles per night (£15). The hostel was still being built and looked like it would be nice when finished. When I was shown the room, the guy quickly offered a room away from the road if we preferred it quiet. This made me happy, finally a hostel that understood their guests might want to sleep. So we took the room at the back of the hostel. Once settled we took a wonder to the Plaza de Armas, I think all Peruvian cities have one of these. It seemed a lovely city with most of the cathedrals and churches made out of sillar (white volcanic rock). ... read more

Rob Writes We were up at 5:20am. This would usually be way too early for my liking but excitement had got the better of me and was wide awake. It was a cold morning so we had to wrap up warm before heading downstairs to wait for the trek company to pick us up. We weren’t waiting long, maybe twenty minutes or so and we were soon in a bus with about a dozen other people, heading for Ollantaytambo where we were due breakfast. The bus ride seemed to take forever partly because I was keen to get stuck into the Inca Trail, Tina on the other hand was quite nervous. We arrived in Ollantaytambo at about 9am, the bus taking about three hours or so. Although we weren’t sure at the time, it turned out ... read more

Tina Writes We were expecting prices to shoot up as soon as we entered Peru but were pleasantly surprised when we got a hostel for S40 (£9) per night. I say hostel but this was a lot more like a hotel room. It was decent enough and even had an Ethernet connection to the net, so we had a really good connection. It did get very cold in the room and I had to have a hot shower to heat up before I went to bed. It was the best shower I have had in South America, with actual hot water. It was difficult to get out. There had been some sort of concert and parade going on in the square nearby all day and when the parade passed our hotel it was rather noisy so ... read more