15 November, Wednesday... We arrived in Valparaíso or Valpo for short in the early afternoon and checked into a rather different hostel to the one in Santiago. It wasn't run down per se but it was in a rather old building and smelt a bit. Anyway we weren't planning to stay for long and headed out soon to see this town the guidebook had promised us would be so beautiful. At first glance it seems quite similar to any other city and we were none to impressed but on closer inspection is is actually quite a nice place, the houses are colourful and all of differing styles and spread out haphazardly over the hill which leads down to the port (and a beautiful port it is too). As the city is built on a hill and ... read more

1 November, Wednesday... So much to update this time around... Stayed in Queenstown for a couple more days. Without wanting to spend too much more money we walked to the botanical gardens (not so great but good view of Lake Wakatipu), headed up the gondola (cable car to you and me) to the nearby peak (don't know the name), where we went for the cheapo 'extreme' luge down a track at the top of the hill. Luging basically involves sitting on a plastic sled with handlebars and letting gravity take you away. Unfortunately they do have brakes and I accidentally stopped a couple of times which didn't look too good on a race track! Oh well, it was good and cheap and reasonably fun. 2 November, Thursday... Day trip to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is a ... read more

17 October, Tuesday... What an exciting morning, time to say goodbye to our faithful camper aka Mr Apollo Creed. Unfortunately that meant an exercise in cleaning for the best part of the morning, it's amazing how dirty 3 guys can make a van. Anyway, out went the mini cricket and football sets along with the poker set all of which had only one use each. Money well spent I think. Time to take the van back home to the lovely germans at the Auto-Bahn (or Barn) and they noticed immediately the small matter damage done by the petrol station back in the first days, $150 thank you very much David. Although we checked into a six bed dorm full of men it was still nice to have our own beds and a kitchen. We celebrated by ... read more

5th October, Thursday... Dave and Thom dragged me to Movieworld, a Universal Studios style theme park, early in the morning. I think I might be getting a bit old for theme parks and the drinks the night before certainly didn't help. I'd say the highlight was seeing Shane Warne who was there with his kids and was being stared at by hundreds of onlookers, myself included. After a few rollercoasters we hit the road and made it to Brisbane and its one way system in time for nightfall. 6th October, Friday... After a nice early start thanks to all the passing trucks and early morning parking restrictions we moved the van and headed to the botanical gardens in Brisbane, as everything else was closed. There are lots of pretty flowers and trees there including palms and ... read more

25th September, Monday... Back to Sydney in the afternoon and didn't really do much, just a bit of shopping. It doesn't make for an exciting entry does it? 26th September, Tuesday... Dave arrived in Sydney to help out with the driving up the coast and everafter this day shall be known as D-day, or not. We prepared a fine welcoming banquet of cereal and tea to eat in our hostel and we were set up for the day. Out we went to the Sydney tower for some views over the whole city which would have been really cool if only Thom and I hadn't flown in over the city the day before and gotten all of the aerial shots we wanted, I think Dave liked it but he was flagging a little after hardly sleeping for ... read more