Pucon, Chile to Coromandel Peninsula, NZ

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Back tracking slightly...... it feels like we left South America months ago! From El Chalten we had a few days of travelling to take us back over the border and into Chile for the last time. Our destination was Pucon, in the Chilean lakes. The town has two claims to fame - one being an immense, perfectly conical, active volcano towering over the town, and the second being a beautifully blue lake. The south american summer weather had arrived (just as we were leaving) and we spent several days relaxing, hired bikes and generally savouring the last few days of our south american adventure. Then it was time for 12 hours on a bus to Santiago, a brief but very pleasant stay in a top spa hotel in Santiago (a belated 2006 christmas present from andy, thank you!) before our flight to Auckland NZ. I felt a bit sad leaving South America - we have had a brilliant time there despite a few hairy moments! I would recommend it to anyone.

Leaving Chile at 11pm on the 26th got us to Auckland at 4 a.m. on the 28th, in just 13 hours on a plane. If that leaves you a bit confused, it certainly left my body a little uncertain of quite what it should be doing, when. We had a few days in Auckland to recover from the flight - the city was really pleasant, and certainly very different to the past few months. We quickly discovered the food in NZ is delicious and filled our tummies with lots of Asian food we had been craving for months. I also managed to fit in a spot of shopping and a haircut. Such luxury! That said, we have realised that our budget isn't going to stretch quite as far as it did in South America - we might not be able to eat out every night (the shock!), and will even have to do our own washing. What hardship!

We picked up our hire car and headed north, up to the Bay of Islands. We had heard great things about this place but we don't think the cloudy weather really showed it in its best light. That said, we had a great day out on a real sailing boat around the islands. The captain got me to believe that the water was warm so off I went into the pacific to swim ashore to an island, only to discover his idea of warm wasn't quite the same as mine. It wasn't even as warm as tooting leisure centre.

From the Bay of Islands, we went north via some very pretty coastal scenery, heading for Cape Reinga, one of the most northern points of New Zealand, where the Tasman sea and Pacific ocean meet, crashing into each other. We got in some good walks, and tried our hand (or perhaps bottoms) at a spot of sandboarding down some massive dunes. After a few days we left the Northlands behind and are now on the Coromandel Peninsula which I'd say is the best scenery we have seen in NZ so far, but it could be because the weather has improved (although it is still tipping it down outside tonight).

All in all, the change in continent is a welcome one now we have got used to it. Things seem gently beautiful here, but things have also got so much easier on a day to day basis. This now feels like a 9 week holiday, only to be followed by something similar in Oz!

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Photos

Volcan Villarrica
with real smoke coming out of the top...

Would you trust this man with your sailboat?
Captain Andy in the Bay of Islands

Sandboarding
About as adventurous as I expect to get here

Comments

[Rebecca]

Sunset image
Hi there, I'm building a website for some clients in Coromandel who have some beautiful sunset views from their accommodation, but not at this time of year unfortunately. They are looking for a sunset image to use in the mean time. Would you give them permission to use this photo in the web banner behind text and logo? If so what sort of credit would you prefer i.e name at bottom, money, or none of above...? Kind Regards, Rebecca

[Andy and Clare]

Hi Realise this is now a year later (we don't log on much these days) but in the unlikely event you still want to use that photo no problem and we don't need anything for it. Sorry for not responding quicker Andy