C: We left Wellington on Good Friday heading across the Cook Strait on the aptly named Interislander ferry. It was really busy due to it being the start of the Easter weekend but we were very excited when they brought round (free!) hot cross buns. The crossing takes a little over three hours but the last hour is spent travelling through the dramatic Marlborough sounds which meant beautiful views all around. We collected our next hire car at Picton and then headed off to the centre of the Marlborough wine region, Blenheim. Very little is open on Good Friday so we were relieved to see a nice-looking pub directly opposite our motel. However, they have strange licensing laws which means you can't have a drink on Good Friday without ordering food. As we wanted dinner, this ... read more

R: Next we had some time to kill. We took a scenic drive to Napier on the east coast over some exciting mountain terrain that was better than it looked on the map. We took our first obligatory trip to Countdown - a Sainsburys like supermarket that we seem to have spent half our trip in. After a quick picnic by the sea, trying to find Cape Kidnappers (so called as some Maori once thought the British were kidnapping a young polynesian child, who actually was working in their ship as a cabin boy). The area is inaccessible due to a colony of ganets, so we moved on. But it did look very reminiscent of Dorset cliffs. The area, Hawkes Bay, is full of wineries. This area is famous for its Syrah and Chardonnay. We arrived ... read more

R: After an epic 6 hour drive, we arrived in Rotorua at our motel. We were warned that the air here would carry a certain odour due to the volcanic field nearby but we couldn't smell it... That would soon change. There was a slight moment of panic when the motel was closed, but the owner was waiting in a darkened room for us... Our first day we headed for the Whakarewarewa thermal village which is a Maori village built in a thermal area of town, where the Maori guide people around the maze of bubbling mud, thermal pools, geysers etc. and have done for hundreds of years. In fact, one of the previous guides was the first Maori to study at the University of Oxford and is buried in a cemetery in Oxfordshire. We sat ... read more

R: LAN airlines scrutinised our travel documents harder than anyone I have ever seen before. Our onward flight was checked. Our permission to stay in both New Zealand, and Australia (including our eVisitor) was asked for. We had to bring out the iPad several times to prove it. They checked in vain for a paper visa for New Zealand in our passports before agreeing that the British didn't need these to get into NZ! after looking it up. Begrudgingly, after 20 minutes (no exaggeration) at check in, they gave us a boarding pass. Which put us right next to Shelley, my walking buddy from Pucon, on the plane by complete coincidence. Well, after we moved the Chilean man who thought he could sit wherever he wanted. The flight departed at 00.05 on the 8th March. We ... read more

C: We arrived into Santiago quite late in the evening after a 12 hour bus drive from Pucon. Not a fun way to spend the day but the rest of the world could definitely learn something from the South Americans about comfortable buses, great reclining seats and loads of space. We got to our Airbnb which is a cute little duplex apartment on the 12th floor of a huge building right in the centre of the city, great location. The next morning we headed off to explore central Santiago. There isn't masses of sights but it's a nice city to wander around in, clean and smart, and pretty much everything is in walking distance. We found a very sweet district called Barrio Paris y Londres which is basically just two streets named after those cities. Lots ... read more