Summer, innit marvelous eh!

Longer days, the smell of mown grass, beer outside pubs, shorter skirts and lower tops.

All hail Rai the sun god for he is good!!

Hail Rai!!

Leo and Sonny on Tour - NZ & Chile

New Zealand:

We arrived in Christchurch feeling a little sad to leave Sam and Jon (yes - them again! We had such a good time). We had been advised not to spend any time in Christchurch as we were very tight on time and there was so much to see in the south island. We had 10 days for south and 10 for the north. I'll say right out that you need more - at least 2 weeks will get you round the highlights of the south island, just, but I'd say 3 if you don't want to feel rushed. As it was with us, we had to make a couple of mammoth drives in a very underpowered Nissan micra (all the roads are single lane and you absolutely 100% want to be able to overtake some of the time as those trucks full of sheep can smell a bit when behind one. So from the airport we putted out in our hire car (brand new, but as mentioned, a micra - ugh), to a place called Kaikoura. This is a top stop for most travellers as it is famous for it's whale and dolphin watching. We got a deal on wotif again (amazing for NZ - hotels and motels in every town you would want to visit, as well as countryside, vineyards etc.), staying at a beautiful old nunnery away from the town a bit. It had been built in the late 1800's and had served as a nunnery and a girl's school. The architecture resembled a lot of the countryside houses in the States during those years, white picket fences, white wooden structure resembling a church with a school attached to the side of the main building. We stayed in the school section in a very twee room. We were pretty tired from getting up at 6am after drinks with Tony in Manly, flying, then driving for 3 hours, so we hit the sack straight away. We woke up to find that we were already late for dinner. Not a problem, except that everyone ate dinner together as we found out, so we kind of stumbled in to find people halfway through their main courses. Having woken from a deep slumber, it was a little tricky at first to make conversation, the lady sitting next to me was rather elderly, and completely bonkers. She vets candidates for immigration, as well as having a keen interest in Metaphysics. Hmmmm - not something I am too keen on. On my other side was a young pig farmer from Northern Island. A quiet chap, and definitely didn't know anything about metaphysics, so her attempts to bring him into the conversation bore no fruit. The other end of the table was an insane lady from Cheltenham, who's family was into horses. She had the look of a well moneyed old gal - gold all over the place and that too-bouncy, blond/grey haircut you see a lot on these types. When she opened her mouth, I was nervous, but she turned out to be hilarious. Completely posh, but also completely non politically correct. Sonny had a ball talking to her about the 'immigration problem' in the UK. I'll say no more except that this lady was no holds barred....and she said f*ck a lot, which sounds more like fack coming from her. Hilarious. We took an early night after this onslaught and woke up nice and late for a good breakfast before heading off into town to check out the whale watching situation. It turned out to be poor - all the trips for that day had been cancelled due to bad weather and it wasn't looking too good for the next day. That was bad as we could only really afford to spend 2 night in town if we wanted to get on and do the rest of the island. On advice from a local, we booked to go at 6am the next morning as, if anything, that would be the best time to go, the sea being calmest in the morning.

After booking this up and having a coffee, we headed out to the seafront walk which promised seals too. Ideal. The walk was great - along a huge cliff top with not a lot to stop you being blown off the edge. Sheep everywhere and you could take a path down to the beach a few KM along and walk back along the beach to the start where the seals were. We did this, only just managing to skip around the headland before the tide made it too dangerous. A bit of clinging to rick faces was required and was our first real oo-er moment as it was slippery with small shards of rock whipping into your face, with the freezing cold sea lapping at your feet. Sonny was not too pleased, but I thought it was fun! The seals were unfortunately mostly out to sea when we got there but we did find one sleeping in a bush. Very cute indeed - they have puppy-dog faces with big whiskers and these were furry ones, but they stink do of rotting fish and seaweed so you wouldn't want to hug one for too long.


We spent the rest of the afternoon in a winery and ended up taking a small tour with a tasting - it was good stuff, but only a small local vineyard, not one of the big famous ones we were hoping to see later in the week up in Blenheim. A lot of these places do a lunch of some nice cheese, pickles, fruit and things like mussels which you can have with your wine - highly recommended. We met a guy who works for the Oxford University press who was doing a tour of the island. He had managed to get out on the dolphin watching and said it was tops - hundreds of dusky dolphins swimming around you, right up to your mask. The winery was set on top of this hill overlooking the sea and the actual tasting was done in front of this huge window where you could admire the stunning views whilst enjoying a few glasses of the local vino, ideal. The tour round the cellar was pretty nuts, the local community hosts a fashion competition where designers have to design and make outfits out of recycled materials. The winner was a bra made of old champagne corks, we do have some piccies to show you! The cellar was a few metres underground and one of the main rooms was used as a function room in the summer for weddings and corporate functions. They had an entire wall made up of the back ends of champagne bottles, it was nuts. Turned in early in a simple motel on the seafront after some nice seafood chowder which you see on most menus in NZ. Also cracked into some of the nice pale golden beer they have but I can't remember the name now though but you'll know it if you see it as it's sold everywhere.

The next day we dragged ourselves out of bed at 5.30am for the whale watch (sperm whales was what we were expecting, although some orcas may be around). The sky was indeed clear and the sea didn't look rough. From the shore where we were that is. We got to the whale centre, found that we were definitely 'on' but were advised that the sea was very rough and we should invest in some seasickness tablets and these little acupuncture wristbands which drill into your pressure points on your wrists. We had been trained how to relieve seasickness in this was by a Chinese guy when travelling down the Yangtze river so I didn't feel the need for the jewellery, but we got the full dose of the medicine, which turned out to be herbal ginger tablets in the end which tasted foul and burnt your throat. A short coach ride brought us to the whale watch catamaran. A huge floating vomit-platform with rows of airline seats and seatbelts with copious sick bags. We started to get worried at this point. Whales is one thing, but 4 hours of puking didn't sound too hot. We strapped our selves in next to a nice German couple (who I was damning to eternal hell-fire by the time I got off) and the boat cruised out into the fairly smooth seas around the harbour. This nice smooth ride lasted about 5 minutes, then we hit the big mothers. It was like an insane roller coaster. The company seems to realise that everyone is basically going to get seasick, so the driver throws the boat into full throttle to 'just get to the whales as fast as possible', to take peoples mind off of the feeling. The whole boat was sealed so that the vats of water, which broke over the boat as it performed another massive jump over a wave and into a trough, could not get in and drown us all. I think at some point we were under water. We reached about 40 knots or something which was pretty impressive for a boat this size (there were about 50 passengers).

We were motoring for about 20 minutes and we were already starting to feel pretty grim by this point. After about 20 minutes, they stopped the boat and let us out for some fresh air - 'fresh air is your friend' they kept chanting. Yeah Right. It certainly helped me for a while, but then a guy stumbles up next to be and deposits his breakfast all over the side of the boat. Nice. When the boat is not motoring you see that the waves are about 4 to 5 metres high and the boat is pitching and rolling so much that you can't see the horizon which is my favourite way of avoiding motion sickness. The stop also gives the captain a chance to lower his microphone which they use to listen for the loud clicking noises these whales make to locate each other and communicate. There was also a spotter helicopter in the air which would radio down to all the boats once a plume from the whales exhaling had been spotted. The guides explained that once the whale had surfaced, you had about 15 minutes to get to it before it dove again. So when the radio went off giving the position of the next whale, it was a mad rush to get back to your seat and jet off for another roller-coaster ride to the whale.

If you got there in time, which happily we did on 3 different occasions, then you got right up next to the beautiful things. They are truly immense - the whales we saw must have been about 20 to 30 metres in length overall. The hump of their backs was clearly visible and you could see and hear them breathing every 20 seconds as they re oxygenate their entire bodies before another 30 to 45 minute dive. These animals are truly breathtaking to see in the flesh - tv does not do them justice. When they are done breathing, the guide announces that they are about to dive (didn't work out how they could see this) and you then have about 5 seconds to take the photo of a lifetime of the classic whale-tail shot as they disappear vertically to the bottom of the ocean, about 2.5 km below us where we were. We also stumbled across a sleeping whale called Noodle. You can tell they are asleep as the breathing is only about once every 5 minutes and it doesn't dive. It was quite surreal to think of them just lying there sleeping. According to our guide a whale can sleep as little as a few minutes up to a few days so they weren't sure how long noddle was going to be around for but apparently he was the laziest of the local residents. Apparently these whales have been visiting the waters around Kaikoura between 10 and 15 years so the locals know them very well and each of the whales is named. The way they can identify them is by looking at their tale, each one is different and they are the equivalent to human finger prints. They also told us that the whales in that region are only ever males, the water is too cold for females and babies who tend to spend their time in much warmer waters, particularly around the Pacific area in Mexico. The whales are called Sperm whales because when they were originally discovered the whalers thought that gel like liquid found on top of their heads was their sperm. These whales were hunted for many years as the jelly was used for all kinds of things like hair gel, NICE.

After the first whale everyone perked up enormously and realised that it was worth all the vomit in the world. But a collective sigh of relief was heard all over the ship when it was announced that it was time to head back and it does make you instantly feel better knowing you are heading for land. Having said that, the two Germans puked all the way back though into a growing array of sick bags clutched in each hand. We found out during the ride back that despite everyone frowning at Japan and shaking their heads over whaling, there are shockingly 28 countries which still practice whaling. We signed the petition in the foyer of the whale watch place to register our extreme displeasure with these countries. More is needed though.

After kissing the ground when we arrived back in port, we walked off our seasickness and headed for breakfast in a cafe before setting off for the town of Blenheim, where we were expecting to taste some nice wine as it's where all the big names like Villa Maria, Montana, Cloudy Bay are to be found.

The drive up to Blenheim was stunning and we began to realise why so many people had told us it was probably the most beautiful country they had ever visited. Leaving behind the wild and rugged looking coastline of Kaikoura and the deserted plains leading up to the old whaling town, we entered the wine region on a very sunny day which really did make the whole place look pretty spectacular. In fact with the sun shining, we noticed that we had never seen sky so piercingly blue and without a cloud in the sky, the effect of the blue was all the more dramatic. One main road led to all the main vineyards which made it very easy for cyclists to pop into as many as they liked and it really was one of the nicest cycling routes we had ever taken. As far as the eye could see were hectares of neatly lined vines and every so often you would get to a huge entrance or a gate which would lead up to a very impressive tasting house. Most of these were beautifully constructed in the style of old haciendas and painted in very bright colours which no doubt was designed to attract as many visitors as possible. Where there were no vineyards,little country houses dotted the very colourful landscape.

According to our guidebook the best way to get around the area was to hire a bike and stop off at a few wineries for some lazy afternoon tasting. We found a local company that was only a 10 minute drive away from our motel and part of the deal was that the owner came and picked us up and and drove us back. He was a really nice guy from the South East who had moved to New Zealand with his wife a few years back. Apparently they were inspired by a long holiday they had taken with friends a few years back and realised that this was where they wanted to settle. Their house couldn't have been set in a more picturesque place, it was built around a small vineyard and had a lovely little courtyard surrounding the main building. We were kitted out with our bikes which sported a very cool little basket that could hold up to 6 bottles of wine or a few water bottles if you were uber sensible and too healthy for you own good! We were given some tips on some great wineries and a place to stop for some lunch. Our first stop was at quite a large well known vineyard called Nautilus where they did a great cheese platter lunch which was a fab accompaniment to some wine. Well the first tasting session didn't disappoint, we tasted around 6 of their wines which were really nice, in fact we got so carried away with the whole experience that we ended up buying a couple of bottles and we had only cycled about 10 minutes up the road from our starting point!!!! We could describe in detail each winery but lets face it, they are wineries and we tasted lots of it and it made us feel pretty light-headed which was all good. We visited around 4 or 5 wineries and each tasting was pretty extreme, they all automatically gave you a glass of 4 or 5 of their wines and of course, not wanting to waste a drop we decided that spitting it out would be a terrible crime so we necked every glass, LOVELY! Our final stop was at a winery called the Mud House, this one had been recommended by the bike hire guy, we were told that they had special offers on some of their Sauvignon Blanc and he said that it was probably his favourite Sauvignon Blanc and it was definitely worth a visit. It was a really pretty place set around this lovely courtyard where they had tables and chairs outside that you could have sit and have a spot of lunch or just get carried away with drinking all their wines. The lady behind the counter was English and really really friendly, I think she got excited about us being from the same country and ended up topping up our glasses quite a few times. We found out from her that a couple of their wines are sold in Waitrose and at old Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, so we thought, if it's good enough for that miserable sod, it's good enough for us. So initially we thought we would take the name of the wines down and once back at home we could buy a bottle or two as a nice reminder. But there was a catch, the bottles sold over in the UK were nearly three times the price that they were being sold at the winery. When you see a bargain don't hesitate! They were doing a special on a mixed case and we had had such a great afternoon there that we decided to buy a case and on a rainy day back home we could crack open a few bottles and look back on this amazing trip. After a full afternoon of cycling and drinking we decided to take it easy as we had an early start the following day to the Abel Tasman National park.

Well we thought we had seen some pretty spectacular scenery since arriving on the South Island but when we got to the national park we realised that we hadn't even scratched the surface of what this country had to offer in terms of scenery. The Abel Tasman national park covers land and sea. A huge dense forest covers miles of land on the northern tip of the North island and is located right on the coast so all the beaches and nearby islands also form part of this parkland. There are so many different walks, some of them can cover up to four days where you get to camp on beaches and inland. One of the great things to do there is to split your visit between a walk through the forest and some kayaking along the coastline which we ended up doing thanks to Sam and Jon recommending the trip. We drove to the nearest town near the entrance to the park which was equally beautiful as it was surrounding by lush green hills full of horses, sheep, chalets and little country cottages. We stopped for the night at a place called Seaview Chalets. These were lovely little wooden chalets spread out across this hill overlooking the sea in the distance, a really inspiring view to wake up to. Each chalet was kitted out with a kitchen, a balcony with a table and the usual bedroom stuff. A real home away from home. It was such a peaceful setting that we could have easily spent a few days just sitting around reading our books, admiring the views and doing some walking along the coastline. Having settled ourselves in we went for a walk into the little town that was located right on the waterfront. The weather was perfect, a very bright sunny day with a little breeze to cool you down when walking which made long walks so much easier. We were busy doing our food shopping for that evening when we heard the radio in the shop alerting the girls working there that some orca had been spotted just outside the bay. We rushed out onto the beach and sure enough in the distance you would see three huge black fins wading their way through the waves, closely followed by a few sailing boats. You could occasionally see them coming up for air and it looked as though it was a couple of females with a young baby. What a great way to start our trip through this park! We spent the first part of the evening soaking up the last of the rays and had a game of trivial pursuit.

The next morning we dropped our bags and our car off down the road and were picked up by the company that was going to take us kayaking. This was a 7:30 pick-up, hence the early night! We were taken to their main offices where we were registered and introduced to our two very funky and very friendly guides. Dave and Dragon (yes he was called Dragon but in Japanese and i can't remember what it was in Japanese). We were also introduced to a couple from London who were going to be doing the same tour. It was so nice to find out that we were going to be a total of 6 people including our guides. After the usual safety talks and the pleasantries we were boarded onto a speedboat that was towed by a tractor (yes it's weird picturing this but the tractors lower the boats into the water) and were taken to where we were going to start our journey. It was quite strange being backed into the water by a tractor but it worked. The water taxi zoomed off and we were taken to a tiny little beach where lots of kayaks were lined up on the sand. Lots of other groups had arrived for the same training. Our guides showed us how to put our strange gear on which was going to help keep us and the rest of our stuff dry when out on the water. We then had to spend the next half an hour doing some training on how to kayak. We all looked completely ridiculous sitting in kayaks on dry land learning how to use the oars, how to get out of the thing if it capsized or turned over, how to join up if the water got rough, how to get the kayaks into the water and out (we thought it would be as simple as just drag and jump in....yeah right). So embarrassing training moment done it was time for us to get going. The plan was to spend four hours kayaking along the coastline, do a bit of sailing (yes with kayaks) and visit a couple of seal islands. Kayaking was probably the best part of the whole experience at the Abel Tasman. It was so much fun and it was great to see the park from the water and the stunning beaches that dotted the coastline. The water around these beaches were turquoise and so transparent you could see all the fish swimming about and the beaches were a lovely bright white colour. You could definitely understand why so many people choose this as a holiday spot and nowhere else. It took a while to get used to paddling at the same speed but once you got the hang of it, it was really good fun. Our first stop was a tiny little island where lots of seals were busy sunning themselves on rocks, some of the females were busy teaching the babies to swim and the others were busy swimming a little closer to the kayaks as they are very curious creatures. Our guides told us that some had actually climbed onto kayaks in the past. We weren't actually allowed on the island as it was protected by the park so we had to keep our distance but we did hang around for a bit and just watched these really playful animals get on with their thing. We spent a couple of hours kayaking around the coastline and then stopped off at a little beach for some lunch.

We knew that our food was being provided on the tour but we had no idea how amazing it was going to be. Once out of the kayaks we helped the guides unload some of the equipment they had stored in some of the storage compartments, we had no idea how much stuff you could actually fit in these things until they set to work on cooking us lunch. They set everything up on a picnic table that was on the beach. They got some fresh muscles out and steamed them in a wok as a starter, whilst we were busy scoughing our faces with seafood they were busy heating the portable bbq where they were going to cook some freshly marinaded lamb kebabs which they were going to serve with warm pita bread and mixed salad. As if that wasn't enough, they then got some freshly baked walnut and banana cake out for pudding, anything else?! We had a good hour on the beach eating, playing frizbee and generally marvelling at our funky guides who just got better and better as they day went on. After lunch we packed up our kayaks and headed out for another 2 hour trip to the beach where our lodge was. About half an hour before we were due to arrive at our final destination our guides told us that the sea and weather conditions were perfect to give some sailing a go. So they asked us all to join up. The guides were in their own individual kayaks and were in the middle side by side. They then asked Leo and I to join up on one side and the other couple to join up on the opposite side. They then unfolded this little sail and asked the girls who were at the front of the kayaks to hold one end each and the boys were to attach their corners to the end of their oars which were going to act as a mast. And that's it, you then just head into the wind and hold on for dear life. At about that point Leo and I noticed some little blue things bobbing up and down on the surface, to begin with we thought they were just odd blue plastic discs that someone had chucked into the sea. Our Japanese guide spotted one and told us it was a blue bottle jelly fish. They both said that it really wouldn't be a good time to capsize or to turn over in the kayaks as those little buggers can do quite a bit of damage....FAB, i wasn't at all scared!

Our guides dropped us off at our lodge which was this beautiful wooden house right on this beach. After we said our goodbyes we spent the first hour just wandering up the beach and exploring the area before settling on the terrace and enjoying a good read and a glass of wine. That night we were seated with all the other guests and a couple of guides who had done the cooking. The food was fab, the company to begin with was hard work. The majority of the guests were a group of retired ladies on a girly holiday, the loudest couple from Texas on their honeymoon and a couple from Newcastle. The guy was actually really annoying and seemed to enjoy just contradicting anything you said or tried to correct you on certain facts such as the fishing industry...WHATEVER. Half way through the meal we got talking to one of the guides, a guy called John who was also in his 50's or 60's with long white hair tied back in a pony tale who seemed to have a wealth of knowledge on all kinds of topics. It turned out that after living most of his life in the city, he and his wife had decided to settle in one of these hippy communities and live off the land, spend time reading, learning and just living. They had children but his wife had died a few years back. He told us that he was now living with a partner he had met a couple of years back but that the commune life hadn't gone down well so he had moved into a house near the park where he began working as a guide. He had been coming to the Abel Tasman with his father since he was a boy so he knew the whole area really well and his family actually owned some land down the coast so he was very much into preserving the environment etc. He was also really into physics and science and ended up talking to Leo for hours on all kinds of theories which totally escaped me. We also spent a lot of time talking about travelling, reading, living in different countries. Before we knew it we realised it was midnight and everyone else had gone to bed. He had a series of hilarious catchphrases like 'Get off the Grass, man' which meant 'What are you talking about'. I think he is some sort of ex-hippie intellectual. He gave Leo and I a 'Big-Love' hug when we left which made us really feel like we had met someone. He was cool.

The next morning we left the lodge and the group and began our five hour walk through the park back to the entrance where we were going to pick our car up. It was such a lovely walk through this dense forest, where every so often you would get a glimpse of the coast or some secluded little cove or beach where a few people were having a swim or a bite to eat. The views from some of the viewing points were spectacular and you really got a sense of just how huge this park was and how far the forest stretched. We stopped by a little place called Cleopatra's pool which had been recommended by John. It was definitely worth the detour, it was a lovely little pool and a mini waterfall and when we got there there were only a handful of people swimming. On our way out there were loads of people heading that way. Considering how many people actually visit the park, it was amazing how quiet it was, we very rarely ran into people and the only sound you got through the forest was from the animals. Really really peaceful experience. Because we needed to get going on the road we decided to try and walk as far and as fast as we could, it was also going to be good practice for our Machu Picchu climb. We made it in five hours and stopped briefly at the end for a picnic lunch prepared by our lodge.

Our next stop, again highly recommended by the very well travelled Sam and Jon was Fox Glacier. The drive that was recommended was inland through the Haast Pass instead of along the coastline til you got to a pretty non descript town called Greyhound. One of the things we really wanted to do at Fox Glacier was a heli hike as we had seen Sam and Jon's piccies and it did look incredible. The plan was to allow ourselves a couple of nights there in case the weather was rubbish and the trip was cancelled at the last minute. The drive leading up to the Fox Glacier was another breathtaking experience of snow capped mountains and huge green plains surrounding the mountains. It was hard not to stop the car every five minutes to take another picture of the same stunning mountain range. We finally did get to Fox Glacier, a tiny little town with four restaurants, one shop, a few tour companies and a handful of motels. We just hoped that the weather would be perfect the following day so that we could move on quite quickly as there wasn't much else to do if the weather was bad. The weather on the day we arrived was perfect, sunny, clear, lots of blue sky and virtually no cloud. The first thing we did was stop by the main tour office and book ourselves on the 9:00am heli hike the following morning. With that out of the way we checked into our motel where we found that our bedroom view was the glacier, absolutely stunning. We strolled into town bought some food for the evening and just hung about town as there wasn't much else to do.

The following morning we woke up very excited, drew the curtains open to discover that the entire glacier was covered in thick cloud and the ground was wet. We went over to the office and found out that our flight was cancelled due to bad weather but they wait-listed us on the 12:00. We had a couple of hours to kill so we decided to head over to Lake Matheson which has a picture postcard view of the glacier and on a really clear day when the lake is calm the mirror image is reflected in the water. The walk through the forest which really did remind us of Fangorn forest in Lord of the rings (lots of moss covered very old looking trees) was lovely, we then crossed a suspension bridge and got to the lake. Even though the sky was pretty grey the reflection in the water was still pretty inspiring. By the time we got back to the car the cloud looked as though it was lifting a little. Unfortunately my tummy decided to play up and when we found out that there were no toilet facilities beyond the place where the helis leave we realised that a two hour hike might not be the best thing under the circumstances. Poor Leo had to spend the rest of the day feeling very disappointed, especially when we saw the helicopters leaving. I felt incredibly guilty all day and just prayed that the following day we would have clear blue skies and that it would be 100 times better to visit the glacier on a clear day instead of a wet cloudy one. With our disappointment over we decided to walk to the foot of the glacier. It was raining but apparently it was worth it just to see the beginning of it.

The following morning we woke up to sunny blue skies and we were booked on the 12:00 hike so we took the car and drove to the next big town, Franz Josef where the Franz Josef glacier was. We spent the morning soaking up the sun in a cafe having a lazy brunch before heading back to Fox for our hike. We got there just in time to register when we realised we had left our camera back in Franz Josef (not a great start). Luckily we realised we had left it at the internet cafe at the office belonging to the same tour company so they phoned up and arranged for the camera to be brought to Fox. We were taken by bus over to the site where the helis were. There we were kitted out with proper walking boots and were given some instructions on how not to get your head or other limbs sliced off by the propellers when making your way to and from the helicopter. I was lucky enough to get seated in the front next to the pilot on both the journeys so i got an amazing panoramic view. The 15 minute ride up to the glacier through the valley was probably the best thing we have ever done, it was a really majestic site to see the whole glacier rise before you. Just before it landed, the pilot asked us all if we liked roller coasters, as we all answered affirmative, he took a massive swoop towards the rock face and down towards the ice and the rest of the group waiting for us. That really did make your stomach turn, it was terrifying and thrilling all at the same time. Our guides were waiting on the ice and we were taken to where all the equipment was. They gave us crampons to fit to the soles of our boots and walking sticks. They taught us how to walk in them and gave us some safety instructions, mainly "walk exactly where we walk, don't wander off as you may end up falling down a crevasse and pay attention to what we say at all times". Once all that was out of the way they took us on the most amazing two hour trek across the glacier. We got to see some incredible ice waterfalls, we scrambled through some ice caves, jumped across some scary looking crevasses and got some amazing pictures taken of the whole experience. The guides would hack away at the ice and carve out areas to step on, occasionally leaving the group a couple of minutes so that they could go on ahead and suss out the terrain, all very exciting and you really did feel like Scott of the Antarctic, of course, nowhere near as hardcore.


That was the beginning of a series of pretty adventurous activities we undertook in New Zealand, maybe it just made us a little braver. With the heli hike out of the way we left Fox behind and headed for a place called Lake Wanaka which was between Fox and Queenstown, adventure hub for the South island. The drive up to Wanaka we had been told was very picturesque and it didn't disappoint. You basically drive down to a town called Haast and turn left inland. Haast is named after the discoverer, and namer, of the Franz Joseph glacier - it is named after the king of his country at the time, the country might have been Norway. d I think you hit Wanaka first, then the other, then the road takes you back to Wanaka again. Many stops had to be made to take photos of new, more-amazing-than-the-last views, as well as a running competition we had developed to capture the field with the most sheep in it. I think the record was around here somewhere. Wanaka itself was a pretty town with lots of cafes and bars along the water front. We had found a good deal on wotif again and it turned out to be a kind of resort where lots of Japanese go to have golfing holidays. Felt a bit weird, like being back there again - lots of staring. We were quite tired though after our helihike and long drive so we had a quick burger and glass of wine and hit the sack. The sack turned out to be in a monster room/apartment they had upgraded us to (obviously trying to diversify their client base away from Japanese people)
. They were very proud to present us with this place, but we literally rolled into bed and went to sleep. The following day we wandered into town, got a haircut, bought a few nicknacks to send back to the UK for our future house from this nice little shop - ornamental stuff mostly which seemed quite unique to NZ. We had also arranged to go and on one of the famous jet boats down in a place called Queenstown so we set off there a little after lunch.

Queenstown is the 'adventure capital' of New Zealand, or so the south islanders will tell you. The north has the region around lake Taupo as it's champion. It's a ski resort in winter and is situated at the foot of a mountain with a prominent chairlift off to the summit. In summer the mountain is beautiful - covered in pine trees and you can still go up on the lift for the amazing view. The town itself is nice, but every fifth shop is not a tourist shop selling some extreme adventure, so it's a bit hard to find anything else. We had been searching all over New Zealand for a Chile Lonely Planet and so were trying to find a bookshop. Impossible. The Jet boating was a drive out of town to a place called shotover canyon. No idea where it got its name from, but it's a stunning set of gorges on the main river which flows down past Queenstown. The boats are these huge red, custom designed fibreglass hulls, with two 8 litre Buick truck engines mounted on them somewhere. It's called a jet as the engines just pump water out of a couple of nozzles mounted in recesses in the bottom of the boat. These provide the thrust and steering and allow the boat to travel in water only 5 centimetres deep! About 20 of you get in the boat and you get a handlebar at the front to hold on to, not much else. The boat moves pretty fast then and the driver is a trained maniac. He drives you down these canyons at a top speed of 80km/h and swerves the boat left and right so that the boat just misses the canton walls. It's better if you sit at the back by the way - we were at the front and you don't get the full effect of the walls rushing towards you there as we could tell by the screams from the Chinese people on the back seat. The boat can also do 360 degree spins at full pelt. The driver will indicate that you should hold tight by spinning his finger in the air like some bad disco dancer, then he'll throw the wheel round and the boat too. It's amazing. You get soaked. The scenery is stunning too and I would highly recommend this place to do the jetboating - you can do it anywhere, but not sure it could be so good. The driver also takes the boat through water depths that make you shut your eyes and wince in anticipation of the crunch as the hull hits the floor, but it never happens. With the power of the engines, I don't think any of the hull is in the water - just the water jet. High on adrenaline, we were just obliged to spend 20 quid on the folder of photos and postcards of us and a load of Chinese with their mouths open. I'll send you one for your mantelpiece. Interestingly, they had a wall of fame of people who had survived the shotover jet, including god himself, the inventor of most young boys childhood know Chris) - George Lucas. Wow.

After Queenstown we faced another long drive down to the area where we were to catch a boat down Doubtful Sound. We had been advised that this Sound, as opposed to Milford Sound was less touristy and also less distance to travel, although Milford was known for having slightly more dramatic scenery as it has cliffs lining the gorges. I will challenge anyone though as Doubtful turned out to be absolutely beautiful. To reach it we stayed the night in a very very quiet place called Manapouri in a backpackers hostel. Dinner was quiet and the night quieter still, then an early rise to get to the boat. We were the youngest by far, except for a few babies. It reminded us a little of the boat tour on the Yangtze river - lots of over 60s Americans as well as Chinese, an Israeli guy who was really nice and interesting, a couple from Australia, the lady was Australian and the guy was a Maui. He was the first Maui we actually met and had a chat with. We spent most of our time chatting to our Israeli friend Adam and the nice Australian couple. The Australian couple talked about their family and their lives back home and we found out that they had taken in a girl a few years back who had spent most of her life being moved from one foster home to another, following years of neglect at the hands of her alcoholic mother. They explained that it had been hard work to convince her that she was safe and loved and most importantly, would not be sent away again. They have now taken action to formally adopt her. It was so lovely to see how selfless these people were and how much they loved all of their children and wanted to give this girl a normal and balanced life. Right, back to our incredible journey through the Doubtful Sounds. The day started with a boat trip up the Manapouri lake which was pretty impressive. Apparently the Maori would kayak up this lake moving from one settlement to another throughout the year as it was good hunting ground. The boat trip up the river lasted about half an hour and we decided to brave the cold weather and sit upstairs outdoors to appreciate the beauty and the tranquil atmosphere. At the end of our boat trip we were transferred onto a huge coach that was to take us across the national park to where the boat would leave for the Doubtful Sounds. We were told later on that only one company was allowed to offer tours through the park and the Sounds, unlike Milford Sounds which is a lot busier. This would explain why we never saw another boat throughout our day trip. Another way of travelling across to get the boat was a three day extreme hike through the "bush" as they like to call it in New Zealand and Australia, due to the weather conditions being so unpredictable walkers could end up wading their way across a river with water up to their wastes, so definitely not a walk for the faint hearted. Most of the land was dense forest surrounded by hills, the occasional waterfall and one dirt road that crossed from one side of the park to another. The only place to stay in the entire park is a youth hostel that is normally used by schools for summer trips. Our guide back in Fox Glacier told us he had visited Doubtful Sounds once when he was at school. The only other accommodation is camping. The coach stopped at the top of a hill that had a fabulous view down to the Doubtful Sounds which you would see stretched out towards the horizon, as our guide said it was a million dollar photo. It was great to see what we were about to sail up and if it looked as impressive and breathtaking from so high up, we knew it was going to be infinitely better once we were actually travelling up them. The boat journey last a couple of hours and there was so much to see that you really didn't notice you were on a boat for that long. The scenery reminded us a little of what we had seen on the Yangtze river, huge cliff faces on either side, surrounded by water and in the distance, hills covered in mist. This gave it an eeryand isolated feeling. Every once in a while you would look to one side and you would see the water branching off into another isolated area with similar spectacular cliff faces and deserted pebbled shores. Apparently Peter Jackson used the Doubtful Sounds to film a few scenes in the first part of his trilogy and had chosen this area as it was so deserted. Towards the end of the trip the captain came on the loudspeaker and told everyone that he planned on switching the engines off for a couple of minutes so that we could really appreciate just how quiet and isolated this area was. He asked everyone to sit very still, switch off all phones and not take any pictures. In those two minutes you could have heard a pin drop, it was probably the quietest place we had ever been to. The only noise that could be heard was nature. The birds flying by, dolphins swimming up to the boat, the sound of the water gently splashing the side of the boats, you could even hear the breeze. Another incredible part of this journey was the wildlife we got to see. Halfway through the journey a family of five dolphins were seen following the boat at a comfortable distance as they had a baby with them. It was amazing to see these creatures in the wild, the males were busy trying to impress the females and were playing in the water. They would leap out of the water every few minutes, we had never seen anything like it. They would swim up to the boat to take a good look at us all. We also stopped by a little island very near the open sea where a colony of seals had settled. Honestly words can't really describe just how beautiful this place was, you'll have to see the photos.


After our incredible day out we jumped in the car and started our journey towards Invercargill where we were due to fly out of the following morning. The journey was quite long and by the time we got there it was early evening so we didn't have much of a chance to see the town. We found a little motel by a small park where we settled for the night. The following morning we drove the car to the airport where we managed to get a speeding ticket!

We spent a couple of days in Wellington which really was a beautiful city. Lots of very nice colourful period houses perched on hills and around the port area which had lots of funky little bars and restaurants. It had a really lovely vibe to it, everyone was really chilled out, the weather was great so everything looked even nicer. The main city centre had lots of old Georgian looking buildings, including the Parliament buildings and some lovely little squares and parks to wander about. Our first day there we decided to go for a walk around the little cobbled streets in the Cuban quarter and noticed lots of people walking around in fancy dress costumes. At the beginning we thought that they could be students on rag week, we then noticed lots of 50 and 60 year olds as well as children in similar costumes and realised that it really couldn't be rag week unless children went to university. We then noticed lots of signs up for the Rugby Sevens tournament and eventually found out from some locals that we had arrived on the day of the final, hence all the celebrations and mad dressing. It was a really great atmosphere and we were kind of gutted that we hadn't caught on to this before we had arrived. Leo had mentioned that he had seen the stadium from the air as we were coming in for the landing and had noticed that it was quite full but hadn't really registered that it could be a major tournament. We found a great little restaurant that had been recommended in the guide and it was quite close to where our hotel was, we had some fab Indonesian food and quite a few drinks to join in the celebrations. On our way back to the hotel we had to walk through this other hotel and noticed a lot of guys who looked like rugby players in the lobby, queueing for the lifts. As we walked outside three mini vans pulled up outside, each of them with a country flag and the Sevens logo. The French, Fiji and Papua New Guinea teams were just arriving. It was all incredibly exciting. The following morning we were feeling a little hungover so Leo went out in search of a bakery to pick up some much needed comfort food for our brekkie. He came back and said that one of the rugby teams was still up celebrating and was totally pissed. He had walked passed the hotel where we had seen all the teams checking into and had heard lots of singing and shouting coming from one of the rooms facing the main road. He had looked up and noticed some guy holding a pint of beer in one hand, his other hand on his crotch doing some dance to a rugby song that his team mates were busy singing. He had noticed Leo in the streets and had waved at him and had done a little dance for him. He had also noticed an old couple staring out of the window above this room looking pretty exhausted and not very amused...if you can't beat them, join them right?

We decided to spend most of the day at the museum in the city which had been highly recommended as it was mainly on the Maori history and the general history of the country. It was a great museum and you could really spend an entire day soaking up all the culture. They had a few rooms that were still used by the Maui as main meeting places so they had a lot of the traditional buildings there which you could go in and have a look at. the government is really keen on encouraging the Mauris to retain their heritage and customs even though they have successfully integrated themselves into the western culture. They also had rooms dedicated to the history of the different tribes that make up the Maori people, their traditions and beliefs, the history of the western settlers in the country and how both cultures have managed to live side by side so successfully. The museum also had some lovely gardens and a great view out onto the port and the other suburbs. After a full on day of museum visits and more walking around the city we decided to go and do something a little more relaxing. We spent the early part of the evening watching a movie at the cinema where the world premiere of one of the lord of the rings had taken place. It was a really beautiful old cinema theatre with gorgeous art Deco architecture, stained glass windows, a great bar on the top floor with huge leather sofas where you could come and listen to some live jazz on certain nights. Following on with the Lord of the rings theme we headed over to one of Viggo Morthesen and Orlando Bloom's favourite hang-outs during their lengthy stay in Wellington, a great Belgian brasserie which had the most incredible muscle dishes and wine...beer for Leo. We had never seen muscles this big, they were absolutely enormous and you got a huge half a kilo of them. We measured one and it was larger than my index finger. A great evening spent drinking lots of lovely kiwi wine, Belgian beer and eating lots of lovely muscles.

We left Wellington the following morning and headed out into the countryside to Whanganui National Park. Our plan was to find somewhere pretty remote and chill out for a few days. Through the tourist office we hired a great little 200 year old cottage out in the middle of nowhere. It was surrounded by fields which were invaded by sheep and cows, in fact the only noise you could hear when you were sat outside was them bleating and mooing, bliss. The weather was beautiful so we parked our bums on the bench on our porch and spent a couple of days just reading, chilling out and going for some walks when we got the urge to move. The only other house near our place was the owner of the cottage who came to check we were fine with the place when we first got there. She did tell us about a little Maori settlement further down the hill which we were welcome to look around provided we checked with the locals. The two nights spent out in the country were so relaxing and it was great to snuggle up by the fire in the evening after a pretty hearty meal and just read until you couldn't keep your eyes open. It was then time for our hot water bottles to be filled and to bed. There was no central heating in this place so the bedroom got pretty cold but what a great night's sleep you got. After a couple of days of living in the countryside we jumped in the car and started on our next leg of the journey to another national park, Tongariro. This park had been highly recommended by Sam and Jon who had recently spent a few days there. This park had a couple of volcanoes which were quite famous, one was made particularly famous by Peter Jackson when he used it for his shots of Mount Doom in all three films. He had also filmed various other scenes to do with Mordor there as the landscape was so barren and deserted. One of the best places to stay was a ch?teaux which looked out onto the volcano and was located right in the middle of the national park. We stayed at the much cheaper crustier place next door but all the same we had some incredible views of the park and the ch?teaux We got there early afternoon and decided to head straight out there and get some piccies of the famous spots for our various friends and family members who are huge Lord of the rings fans. We went on a great couple of hours hike to see a couple of waterfalls and to view the volcano. Apparently there are some hikes up to the volcano but those take hours and we didn't have hours or a guide. However, our walk was great and the landscape really did bring back lots of scenes from Lord of the rings and we couldn't help but talk about the films quite a bit. After our walk out in the cold we came back to our motel room and cooked a lovely hot plate of spag bol and settled down to some tv, we switched it on and guess what was showing....yes The Fellowship of the ring...how appropriate and brilliant.


As some of you know one of the things we had wanted to do whilst in New Zealand was a skydive so we had planned on doing this at Lake Taupo, one of the most scenic places and the cheapest place to do it in the country. Our plan was to give ourselves a couple of days there so that we could book ourselves on one and hopefully get the right weather. So the following day we drove down there to suss it all out. Lake Taupo was really beautiful and surrounded by nice countryside and some pretty spectacular hills. Unfortunately when we got there the weather was not good at all so we knew that any jumps were likely to be cancelled. We did call a few companies to find out whether we could book ourselves on a jump the following day but they were all booked out due to all the jumps being cancelled that day so they advised us to book in for the day after that. Unfortunately we were pressed for time and realised we had to move onto our next destination as we had planned on meeting up with Ollie Reeves and his girlfriend Tina who were due to arrive in Rotorua a couple of days later. We hung about Taupo for some lunch and had a walk around the lake shore and then got in the car and drove down to Rotorua where we knew we could do a jump and see Ollie.

The drive to Rotorua was just as spectacular as any in New Zealand but we ran into a storm, the likes of which we had never seen before. It was like driving through a carwash on steroids. You couldn't see a thing, even with the wipers on full blast. We virtually stopped and it was pretty hairy as many other drivers just kept going and didn't turn the lights on so you couldn't see when you were about to run into the back of one because of the spray. A tense half hour later, we were surprised that the whole regions wasn't underwater, and finally got into rotorua. That's when the smell hits you. It's bad eggs and you've all probably all smelt similar somewhere in the world where they have volcanic springs, but these springs are right in the middle of town, so the smell is inescapable. You have dinner - smelling eggs. You have a shower - smelling eggs. You eat - smelling eggs. It's intense. We rocked up to a hotel, the rain still pouring and managed to get into the room without getting completely drenched. The evening, we wondered into town in the subsiding rain and realised that it was Sunday and so the whole place was completely dead. We went to the local cinema and watched Hernias, which to the uninitiated, is a lot of talking animals, but if you had read the books, was quite fun. We had dinner in a really crummy US style meat-joint. Tough steak, bland all-u-can-eat salad bar, lots of old people. Bit of a downer after all the nice time we had spent in the countryside up to now. The next day made up for it though as we woke to clearing clouds, called the Extreme-Zone sky-dive place and were told we were on. With hearts pumping at full pelt, we drove out to the airport in a bit of a daze, not really acknowledging what we about to do. The place was cool - lots of gnarly instructor dudes who did about 20 jumps a day. They made you feel nice and at ease (As much as possible). The plane didn't though - it was a steel tube with one propeller and some shark's teeth painted on the front. After getting strapped into all you gear - flightsuit, cloth cap, goggles and many straps to attach you to the instructor (we were doing a tandem jump - you need much, much training to do one on your own), we were stuffed into the tube and hit the sky. One whole side of the fuselage was windowed so you could get a really nice view of the ground disappearing and turning into a something resembling a map with small, fluffy clouds. The jump we were attempting was the in the middle of the heights they offered - 12000, 15000, 18000 feet - with increasing expense and scare factor. To get to 15000 ft takes about 20 minutes in this little plane, so there was plenty of time to lose the optimism we had managed to build up by smiling and joking around with each other on the ground. With 10000 ft still to climb, Sonny was looking fairly green and I was starting to remember just how nuts it was to jump out of a perfectly good flying machine (I had done a quick 4000 ft jump back at school with no actual skydiving - just an army parachute style jump). I found that when faced with these situations I can take comfort in the inevitability of things happening quickly and scary stuff being over before you knew it had started - presentations, meetings, throwing yourself from a plane. I just kept grinning and waited for it all to over. The time came - the instructors started getting pumped - making gnarly 'hey-dude' signs with they hands. I waved hopefully at Sonny and tried to shout 'see you on the ground', but she didn't hear me. She was going first with a separate cameraman to capture her fall to earth. To get out of the plane, you sit on the laps and they bum-shuffle towards the gaping hole and basically drop you out to dangle in the wind while they hold on to the plane and prepare for the jump. You are instructed beforehand to look up at the sky (don't look down being one of the more frequent bits of advice in any insane height-situation), and tuck your legs under the plane. A second later, you feel a push, there is a second of disorientation, your guts attempt an escape via your mouth, then you are righted and falling at incredible speed. The time to accelerate to terminal velocity is so small (under 10 seconds) that you don't really feel too much discomfort from the acceleration. The feeling of the wind in your face though is extreme - it really bites, and it was a bloody cold day on the ground, let alone up at 15000 ft. The freefall time for us was 45 seconds during which you are just focusing on the hope that the parachute is eventually going to go up, and you are not going to be the 1 in a million or so who have some kind of folding problem in the backpack or worse. The view is limited in this time as, despite the goggles, your eyes are streaming from the wind and cold, and a quick bit of advice is to clear you mouth of saliva, or worse, your nose of mucus before attempting this - otherwise you can get it all over your face or worse, the instructors. So, 45 seconds later - the chute goes up with an almighty jerk and you are floating above a majestic vista of lakes, volcanoes and those little fluffy clouds. You enjoy this view for a while and finally notice that the view is getting nearer and it's time for the instructor to navigate towards the landing area. For me this is the worst bit as he starts a series of swooping 360 degree turns, using the parachute as a glider. This made me feel distinctly sick and I was glad in the end to hit the ground. Landing is basically done using your undercarriage. You are attached to the instructor quite low so he can see over your head, so landing on feet it too difficult. He basically gets you to lift your legs up and you both land on your arse, and slide along in the mud. I landed first being bigger and watching sonny come down was hilarious as she instantly jumped up and started hugging the instructor and jumping around shouting that she wanted to go again. I think we have finally found a sport we both love! The video you will have to get a copy of - Sonny's face exhibited the usual funny rippling effect, but you could see, but not hear her shouting at the top of her voice 'I LOVE THIS, THIS IS AMAZING'.



Back on the ground we were still on an adrenalin high but our appetites started to return and we thought it might be a good idea to stock up on a little food seeing as we hadn't been able to face any food or drink before the jump. We drove back into town, half tempted to turn around and book ourselves on another jump, the big one which the guy behind the desk had told us there was still availability in the afternoon. We found a great little cafe in town and had one of New Zealand's great dishes, pie! And boy are they nice. The plan was to give Ollie a call just after lunch and see what they were up to. We were hoping to spend a couple of hours having a drink with them and catching up before leaving town for our next destination. We were just leaving the cafe when we noticed Ollie queueing for some food with Tina and her mum. Leo suck up behind him and pretended to be some security guard accusing him of trying to nick some food which made him jump out of his skin. It was really lovely to see them again and they were in town for a few days catching up with Tina's mum before they were due to leave for Queenstown for some adventure packed activities. Not wanting to take up too much of their time seeing as Tina hadn't seen family for ages, Ollie decided to come and spend the afternoon with us looking around a famous buried Maori village. Buried under lava from an eruption back in the 1800's. Archaeologists had dug out most of the main buildings which you could have a peak at. There was also a little walk down to some waterfalls and a great view over the lake and the volcano in the distance. The village was literally a few holes in the ground with tin roofs to protect some of the artefacts found and some pictures of what the village had looked like before the disaster along with accounts of some of the survivors stories. Our walk around the place took under an hour after which we drove back into town and found a nice little pub with a beer garden where we had a few drinks. We dropped Ollie off at Tina's mum's place and headed out to our next stop, the remains of the Hobbiton film set...well you can't come to New Zealand, home of the trilogy and NOT stop by the set.

The set is actually located on private farm land near a tiny village called Atamata. We booked our tour and whilst we waited for our transport the friendly ladies at the tourist office also recommended an apartment that had recently been built overlooking some stunning countryside and was part of a farm. They said it was the nicest place to stay so we decided to give it a go. It was going to be our first house-stay. It was quite a small group that had booked to go on this tour and we were bundled into a mini bus and taken 20 minutes outside the village onto the land belonging to this farmer. We had never seen so much land belonging to one family, it just went on for miles. Our guide told us that anywhere we saw little white blobs in the distance, that was land that belonged to this guide and those were his sheep. The land was incredibly hilly and you immediately recognised the landscape seen in the films, it was stunning. The guide explained to us that Jackson had sent out a whole team of people in search of various sites that would be used for various scenes and the most difficult one to find was Hobbiton because Jackson wanted to get the scenery described in the books. They stumbled across the place and the two things that sealed the deal were the tree that stood by a little pond (which was going to be the party tree) and the fact that there were no signs of modern living anywhere (telegraph poles, buildings that would need to be struck out etc.). These guys apparently knocked on the front door and were greeted by the owner and told to come back an hour later as he was in the middle of watching an important rugby game. Once everything was agreed the farmer and his family had sign confidentiality agreements which meant they couldn't talk about the project or what these people were doing on their land. Jackson got the army to come in and build several roads and a car park that would be used by the crew and the cast. Apparently Jackson was such a perfectionist that he didn't use any of the sheep in New Zealand but flew English ones in as they had to fit the description given by Tolkein, sheep are sheep we thought but apparently this is not the case. The tour started at the area where the paddock used to be located, this was where all the animals featured in the Hobbiton scenes were housed and where the trainers would spend their time looking after them. We then walked over this hill and got our first proper view of the hobbit holes. Part of the deal that Jackson had made was that all the sets had to be destroyed after all three films had been shot and released, this was particularly relevant to 90% of the sets which were located in national parks and other natural surroundings that the government felt it important to return to normal. Apparently during filming there were a total of 57 hobbit holes but only 12 remain. After the filming was done a crew was sent over to destroy everything and they had managed to get most of them down but a few days of very heavy rain followed which prevented them from finishing the job. Jackson apparently got on so well with the family that owned the land that he didn't really follow anything up. A lot of the stuff has disappeared and the frames are now only painted in white but you can definitely recognise the village and Bilbo's house. You even get to walk through the front door and look out at the view outside his front door which is pretty amazing. The garden fence and front gate are still there as well as the clearly marked path where Gandalf rides up with Frodo. They have lots of piccies of what the set looked like and the guides tell you lots of stories involving the filming. They also show you some of the tricks of the trade and how they made simple polyboard etc look like stones that were supposed to be hundreds of years old... all in all an amazing and very interesting day for those of you who love films, film making and the Lord of the rings. For those of you who are dying to see what we mean, there are plenty of piccies and some video footage for my sis who is a massive LoR fan.

After our tour of Hobbiton we picked the car up from town and drove out to this place that the tourist office had recommended. It was absolutely gorgeous. The apartment had lovely views over the countryside and the rolling hills and you got that lovely isolated feel which we had been craving for a number of days. It was located right next to the main building, a farm with a beautiful little courtyard. The owners of the farm were busy renovating the whole place and had decided to build a little two bedroom apartment for tourists to hire out. The guy was a lawyer and in his spare time had taken up farming and his wife, originally from the UK was a teacher and in her spare time she managed the whole B&B thing. They had a very friendly black Labrador who relished any time you spent scratching his back and petting him and we often found him standing outside our patio doors hoping for an extra pat. The place was so nice that we decided to extend our stay to two nights as there were some caves a little further up the road that were apparently worth a visit. It was so nice to have such a cosy place to ourselves that really did feel like home away from home and because we were out in the countryside it was so lovely and peaceful that we spent the first part of the evening sitting out on the decked patio drinking some wine and enjoying our books. The rest of the evening was spent indoors curled up on the very comfy sofas watching the rugby and enjoying more wine.

The following morning hour hosts invited us over to the main house and we had breakfast with them. The lady had prepared a great but enormous breakfast, we weren't sure how many people she was intending on feeding when we first got there as we were faced with the largest dish of sausages, bacon, grilled tomatoes and eggs as well as all the usual cereals, yoghurt, fresh fruit and juices that they expect you to start with. They had gone into town earlier to pick up some leaflets on some cave tubing because we had mentioned we fancied doing something during the day. These caves were in a town called Waitomo, about an hour's drive away. The main attraction were the glow worms that live on the walls of the caves. Tour operators out there organise hour long adventures through the actual cave to see these things and it featured in Lonely Planet as one of the highlights of the region so we thought it would be worth giving it a go. We got to the place where the tours started from and were taken to the back of the building where we were kitted out with wet suits which were extra thick because the water was very cold down in the caves. We were then driven about 20 minutes away to the entrance of the caves where we were asked to pick a rubber ring from the selection available and measure it against our bums. When bending your knees in a semi squat position the rubber ring was to fit a little snugly around your bum so that you wouldn't lose it when jumping from the waterfall. Our guides then took us through various safety guidelines and taught us how to assemble in Indian file after the jump. The only real bit of advice that they gave us was to listen out for the directions they were giving in the tunnels when our headlights were turned off. The first part of the adventure was walking or rather scrambling through a lot of very narrow and very low ceilinged tunnels that were submerged in water. This lasted a good 15 minutes, we then got to a big underground pool area where we were asked to get onto our rings and follow one of the caves, this was the beginning of what they call "tubing". We spent around half an hour exploring these huge caves, passing through various tunnels and practising our waterfall jump on a mini one which was quite fun. Half way through the tour we got to a very tiny and very cramped chamber where our guides asked to switch our helmet lights off and look up and there they were. Thousands of these glow worms that made the ceiling look like a starry night, it was beautiful and definitely worth sitting in very damp conditions. These worms glow in order to attract insects that get swept into the caves via the river. They each have a very fine sticky looking rope that dangles down and that traps the insects. Our guide held a torch up close so that we could see thousands of these things and they looked like very fine threads of silk.

Once we were introduced to these very magical insects we went through some really impressive and very high ceilinged chambers where there were thousands of them all over the place and formed some really beautiful patterns on the ceilings. After a bit of a float around in some incredibly cold water we finally got to the waterfall. The trick was to stand to one side, helped by a guide and bottom facing the waterfall so that you could jump backwards. But you needed to make sure you pushed out as far as possible when you jumped, otherwise you could end up falling straight out of your tube into the actual falls. It wasn't a huge waterfall but it was high enough to get you a little nervous. We didn't expect the water to feel that cold and when you are underground for over an hour floating through this stuff you really can feel very icy. The guides kept reminding us all to keep moving rather than just lazily float through, if we headed for each side of the cave we would keep warm by pushing ourselves off from the walls. They also asked us to alert them if you began to shiver a lot and feel very very cold as they didn't want anyone suffering from hypothermia...NICE. All in all it was a great day out and definitely worth every minute, the caves were beautiful and the way we travelled through them was so different to the usual tramping through various chambers on walkways. It was also really lovely to see the ceilings all lit up with the worms.


The following morning we headed up to Auckland where we were going to stay with Emma and Cads which was really exciting but it was also going to be our last stop in New Zealand. Boo. Auckland has a beautiful setting around a series of bays full of boats. The skytower is an obvious landmark which identifies the city in any photograph - a huge tapering concrete structure which is basically just a big viewing platform with a restaurant and bungee jump facilities. We parked up near China town and found that it was actually Chinese new year so there was a big colourful festival going on in the park. We returned to this later and saw lots of familiar sights from China and Japan (the Japanese seem to hijack this festival a bit - serving sushi and yakitori sticks alongside the noodles and fresh Chinese dumplings). There was also a martial arts show from the local kids club which was actually pretty good. They had their own Mr Miyagi and everything. It was raining, so we decided to go up the tower to see if the murky view was any better from up there. It was - the tower is really worth it, despite me having major issues with the glass floor in the lift. Spent most of the time with my eyes shut. From the 400 odd metre vantage point, you can see fully 360 degrees around and you you notice that Auckland is not actually that big. Unlike London, you can see the edge of the main business area quite easily and there are actually streets of houses very close by. It's a nice, compact, walkable place, but has all the nice features of a city, and some amazing architecture, particularly the university buildings. The main theatre and cinema complex is interesting too. Following a walk around town, we headed over to where Emma and Cads live - just outside of town in a funky, Old Street style area with lots of hip restaurants and bars surrounded by warehouse conversions and gyms for the all the young professionals who no doubt live there. We really liked it funnily enough! Meeting Emma again after a good 4 years was great and I hadn't seen Cads for even longer. We had a ball - and 3 bottles of wine and 4 pizzas too. We explained that there was nothing nicer that being in a real home after being on the road for so long. We hung around there for two days, eating, drinking, talking and sleeping. We made an absolute pigs ear of trying to get to Devonport in the car, having forgotten my wallet, having no petrol and not actually finding the place and driving 30k outside of town. We crawled back into town and just had a lovely lunch with Emma, then a game of tennis with Cads, followed by a huge Curry, a bit of TV, then Bed. Ideal. In the end it turned out to be another one of 'Leo's perfect days'. Emma and Cads are top people and we were really sad to move on. So finally we left New Zealand, having seen a hell of a lot, but feeling like there was a lot more to do. Definitely a place to return someday, but only if you can get a month of work to justify the 28 hour journey. Cripes!




I had always wanted to visit Chile so this was particularly exciting for me. I had read about its natural beauty and had been intrigued by its turbulent past when reading Allende's novels. We arrived in Santiago at lunchtime and were really excited because were about to meet up with my parents who had decided to come and join us for a week's holiday as they were already in Mexico. The plan was to spend three days getting to know the capital and then take a couple of days tour of some of the famous vineyards in the Colchagua valley which produce the country's best red wines, our favourite in fact. Santiago was nothing like a 'normal' South American city. Having spent quite a bit of time getting to know some parts of Mexico and having heard lots about other cities in various countries we were expecting it to be rather chaotic, spread out across quite large surface area with a handful of areas that would be inhabited by a minority wealthy class, the rest - lots of run down suburbs. But to our amazement we realised that none of it looked bad at all - the highways into the centre were some of the best we had seen on our travels and later found out that the Chileans really did like anything that was modern so they were particularly proud of their new city centre which was full of very large American-style shopping malls with little plazas, lots of very large hotels and big fancy restaurants. While this is not your ideal picture of South America, it was kind of nice to have everything you wanted in one place. The actual city was set against the stunning backdrop of the Andes mountains, but there is quite a lot of smog on some days so watch out!

It was brilliant to see my parents again and, all plagued with jetlag, we just spent the rest of the afternoon sampling the national drink, pisco sour in the hotel bar and catching up. The following day was my birthday so my dad had organised a day trip to a famous town called Valparaiso on the coast, about two hours away from Santiago. It was famous for its huge port, its multicoloured hillside residential areas which could be accessed by some very old and very scary looking trams up very steep hills. A lot of Chilean writers had settled in this area and had attracted lots of other artists over the years. The drive out to Valparaiso from Santiago was beautiful, in the distance you had views over the snow capped Andes and lots of vineyards. The town right next to it called Vina del Mar is a popular seaside resort used by the residents of Santiago for summer weekend breaks. We got talking to our taxi driver who was a really nice guy who ended up telling us a lot about his memories of the Pinochet years and how Chile has managed to recover from a very dark passed. He pointed out some of the areas that had been used by the general's secret police and where lots of people ended up disappearing. Apparently Pinochet still lives in the capital and is expected to croak any day now and still needs an armed guard with him as there are lots of people who would quite happily put a bullet between his eyes. We got to Valparaiso just before lunch and went for a stroll up in the hills around these famous houses made of corrugated iron (nicer than they sound!) and are painted in beautiful pastel colours which makes the town's surrounding hills really picturesque and colourful. There was a tiny restaurant run by an eccentric Frenchman that had been highly recommended in our guide book which we decided to have some birthday lunch. When we first arrived, only a handful of tables were occupied but within twenty minutes it was rammed and there was a massive queue outside which made us realise we were onto a winner. We had a great lazy meal with lots of wine and pisco sour and had a walk back to the tram area where we stopped in a lovely bar to have another pisco sour whilst admiring the views over the port and the old town. Our driver came to pick us up by the seafront and drove us back to the city in time for another pisco and some more food. In fact we spent more time eating and drinking than doing anything else during that week which was great, it really did feel like a holiday. That evening we went out to one of the plazas and had some more great tapas with lots of lovely Chilean wine.

Our last day in the city was spent wandering around the old historical centre which really was interesting and quite beautiful. They had a few quarters that were named after various European cities or countries such as Paris, Inglaterra etc. The buildings in these areas were all very similar to the architecture found in those cities around the early 19th century. The largest of the main plazas looked like a traditional old colonial style plaza with a very large grand looking church, the town hall and some other pretty stunning buildings. We walked past the presidential palace where the military coup had taken place, fighter planes had flown across this huge avenue and had helped take the building when Pinochet came to power. We found some gorgeous little squares that were deserted and had some time to sit on benches under the shade of the trees and take in the atmosphere and the beauty of the surrounding colonial buildings. After a day's walk around the city we were back at the hotel for another rewarding cocktail before heading out to dinner.

The following morning we picked up a rental car and drove out of the city to begin our tour of the famous Colchagua Valley and, being massive wine drinkers, this was going to be the highlight of our tour of the central part of the country. My parents had tried to sort out some accommodation as a birthday pressie at a lovely old hacienda called Los Lingues which was also one of the oldest vineyards in the area. Unfortunately the person in charge of the reservations had messed up so we weren't able to stay there but we decided to stop off for some lunch and see the place. It was absolutely stunning. It was well hidden off the main highway, and surrounded by vineyards which really made the place feel completely isolated and peaceful. The manager (an intense German guy called Dieter, with an uncanny resemblance to Donald and Kieffer Sutherland), showed us around before lunch and a lot of the rooms have been left the way they were last decorated by the family that owns the place back in the late 1800's. These rooms were full of antiques, portraits and photos of the family that owned the place and lots of personal belongings such as gifts given to them by friends and business associates for over a hundred years. It was a really beautiful museum. The hacienda also had a family chapel which was originally built in the 1600's and is still used by the family for occasions such as weddings and christenings. We also found out that Sydney Pollack had stayed there a couple of times and had given the bartender his very own Negroni recipe which is written on a poster he signed which is hanging on one of the walls in the bar. The food was exquisite as was the wine and we spent a couple of hours sitting out in the courtyard soaking up the sun. The manager came to find us and told us that we were invited to come and watch a show put on by the hacienda's horse trainers (kind of like gauchos in Argentina, but not really cowboys as such, more like professional horse riders).

These guys sported the traditional dress of the Chilean horse riders - ultra wide-brimmed, felt hats, ponchos, leather boots, spangled (is that a word?), jangling spurs, and a long leather ropey, this was demonstrated on several occasions which was quite scary but breathtaking to watch. We were also told that the animals were trained to stop on the spot if their rider fell off and would also listen to the sound of stirrups alerting him to what the rider wanted it to do. He also showed us how they were able to side step from left to right, something we had never seen before. and also go backwards! We were then asked (actually instructed by the intense German owner - 'You, ride, Now!') to have a go and see just how amazing these animals were and how well trained they were. I hadn't actually been on a horse for years as i had fallen off and had never really had the courage to get back on but somehow this manager convinced to give it a go and i am soooooo glad i did. This horse was incredible and not once did i feel nervous. It was so brilliant that he told us to come back on our way back into Santiago and do a trek up through the hills which he would organise for us.

We left the hacienda on a real high, it was the most beautiful place in the world, the manager had been brilliant and had spent time showing us around the place, the food had been incredible and I had managed to overcome my fear of horses. We arrived at Santa Cruz, a little town in the middle of the Colchagua valley where a few vineyards were located. The town itself was really pretty and our hotel was located on the town square overlooking a lovely old colonial church. The hotel was actually built to resemble an old hacienda so the pool was located in this beautiful courtyard surrounded by lovely trees and flowers, a very relaxing spot to enjoy a few too many pisco sours, the national drink. My parents had decided to treat us to this stay even though they had treated us to our stay in Santiago but it felt so nice to be pampered. We spent the last few hours of the day around the pool enjoying our pre-dinner drinks and the last warming rays of the sun. Lonely Planet had mentioned the restaurant in the hotel and it was supposed to be one of the best in town for local specialities so we ended eating there. We had some great little appetizers, made of pumpkin and are deep fried and served with a nice Salsa (not a hot one to the disappointment of Cuqui) and very very naughty and addictive. We were told by our waitress to give the pastel de choclo a try as it was famous in the region and Chileans apparently loved it. It was this really heavy pie made of maize and it rested in your stomach like cement for hours which wasn't ideal seeing as it was evening but all in all a great evening of great Chilean wines and food.

The following day we decided to go on a proper wine tasting at one of the local vineyards. We found out that one of the oldest in the areas was actually located on the outskirts of town so we decided to go and investigate. The actual hacienda was really beautiful and very colonial in its architecture. The restaurant was located overlooking the vineyards and you could sit outside enjoying the views and the great weather. Before lunch we went and had a proper tasting session and the lady who was teaching us about the different wines took a liking to my mum and ended up giving us three extra wines to try which weren't normally on the list of tastings as they were from the special vintage section. She also didn't stop topping up our glasses and the stuff was so nice that we couldn't face spitting it out to try the next so by the time we got to the table we were all pretty merry but that certainly didn't stop us from ordering more wine with the food. One thing we had noticed in Chile was the portion sizes of the food, they were ENORMOUS. We ordered some fish and they ended up serving us each a huge local fish each. After a very long and lazy lunch we wandered back through town stopping off at a few shops and ended up buying a few souvenirs. We spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing...all that wine!

On our last day in Santa Cruz we decided to go and visit the local museum which according to the Lonely Planet was one of the best in the whole country. It was set in one of the oldest haciendas belonging to one of the local families that had decided to move away from the town and had handed it over to the local government to house a lot of their personal belongings as well as countless objects they had collected since the early 19th century. It was one of the most interesting museums i had ever visited, part of it was dedicated to the old indigenous history of the country and the conquest in the 16th century so there were so many artefacts, including some incredible chairs made out of solid silver that had belonged to an archbishop of Chile during the 18th century, lots of Mapuche jewellery etc. Another part of the museum focussed on the family's personal possessions that had been handed down through generations, along with portraits and diaries of some of its members. The last section housed an incredible collection of Nazi memorabilia, including Goering's personal hunting knife given to him by Hitler, virtually new looking SS uniforms, weapons, identity cards and other articles. You were left with the impression that quite a few of these guys had ended up emigrating to this part of the world when the war ended. They also had a huge old barn that housed carriages dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries, and cars that ranged between the early 1900's and up to 1970's. This place was so interesting that we didn't really notice the time go by and we ended up spending nearly three hours there. By the time we got out it was lunchtime so we jumped in the car and went back to Hacienda los Lingues. After lunch the manager came to get us and had organised a ride up through the hills to see some of the countryside. We spent just over an hour riding high up into the hills to enjoy some spectacular views over the valley and the vineyard below. After our ride we drove back into Santiago for our last night together.

It was a really sad evening as my parents were flying back to Europe the following day and we were continuing down South. We had got used to having company again and having spent such a lovely week together it was really hard to imagine ourselves on the road again alone.

The following morning we flew down south to Patagonia and landed in a town called Punta Arenas which is used as the main starting point for any trips to the famous national park Torres del Paine. We had been convinced by the local tourist agency at the airport to book a certain hotel and decided to give it a go. Unfortunately it was a total rip off for what it was so we decided to stay there one night and search for another place the following day. The actual town was nice and had lots of very European looking buildings dating back to the 1800's. It was almost like walking around certain areas in Paris or even London. The plan was to spend a couple of nights in town so that we could organise a trip out towards Tierra del Fuego to see some of the seal and penguins colonies. We decided to book a trip out to these islands for the following morning. We were picked up from the travel agency the following morning along with another 12 or so passengers and were taken by bus to the coast. It was a good hour's journey but it gave us an opportunity to see some of the scenery outside of town. When we got to the boat we realised it was a massive Zodiac (a huge rubber boat) with no roof and a few very uncomfortable looking planks of wood that were going to serve as seats. Once on the boat and the engines started it turned out to be quite a fun trip as long as you remained standing for as long as you could without your fingers falling off from the bitter cold air. We sailed through Magellan's pass where the pacific and Atlantic meet admiring the Chilean coast from the sea which was beautiful. A good 40 minutes or so later we stopped off at Magdalena Island to admire its local residents, penguins. There were literally thousands of them spread out across this tiny island and the only sign of any human presence was a lighthouse at the top of the hill which had been used since the late 18th century. According to our guides the lighthouse was managed by a group of people that rotated their stay on the island but back in the 1700's an entire family would reside there and would only make infrequent stops to the mainland for supplies. It was great to walk around the place and see these birds in their natural environment, many of them were nesting in their holes dug in the ground and they always nested in pairs. We walked all the way up to the lighthouse to get a great view of the place and the mainland. The penguins were some of the smallest in the world and live there all year round. After a good 45 minute walk around the place we were told to get back on the boat for our last stop, Isabella Island some twenty minutes away which was inhabited by sea lions. When we got there we were told that the government had banned humans from landing so we had to admire these creatures from the boat. There were hundreds of them resting on the shore and playing in the water, quite a few them became curious when they saw us stop and came over to investigate, swimming round the boat and having a good look at us all. The bulls were enormous and quite intimidating even on land. The dominant ones tend to claim their territory where the females congregate so a small colony of young males had settled a little further off, apparently waiting until they were old enough and strong enough to challenge the dominant ones. We hadn't actually noticed a very rare visitor, an elephant seal which had been lying completely motionless on the rocks and due to its colour had been camouflaged very well. The guides told us that it they hardly ever saw any of these animals on this island. This thing was the size of a huge bolder and we had no idea how it had managed to lug itself all the way up to the higher part of the rocks. A few hundred piccies later and we said goodbye to these very cute and very playful animals and headed back to the mainland. We got back to Punta Arenas in time for lunch and the cold sea air and the very early start had helped build up an appetite so we went in search of some food before picking our car up ready for our drive out to the famous national park Torres del Paine.

Our hire car turned out to be a tin can on its last legs, a Fiat Uno that had definitely seen better days but it was cheap and were only planning on spending two or three nights in that area. The hire company reassured us that we had a "paved" road practically all the way to the park and the only thing we had to do was make sure we drove very slowly on the rougher roads to ensure we didn't end up with a stone hitting the windscreen which already had a visible crack. The drive up to Puerto Natales was really lovely, huge deserted plains as far as the eye could see and the road was virtually deserted. The landscape was such a contrast to the very fertile and very colourful Colchagua valley further north. The drive was long but we managed to get to our hostel by late afternoon in time for a snooze. That evening we went for a stroll through the town and found a great little cafe that served some really nice home cooked curries, soups and a few Chilean specialities and of course lovely wine to wash it all down. Puerto Natales wasn't that exceptional but it had some good little restaurants and was the main stopover before getting to the park. Early next morning we began our drive to the park and discovered the "unpaved" road as they had described it. We didn't quite realise at the time just how long it was going to take us to get to our lodge so to begin with we thought it was quite funny as the car was making some very unhealthy noises as it tackled the pot holed sandy track. Half way to the entrance of the park the situation got slightly worst as there were road works (not quite sure what they were working on as the area they were busy faffing around with looked exactly the same as the side we were travelling on). The park was actually stunning, lots of very sweet looking llamas were roaming the plains and in the distance you could see the peaks of the some of the famous Torres or Towers and some snow capped peaks of other mountains. A couple of hours later we stopped the car off at one of the main lookouts to admire the "Cuernos" or Horns that were capped in snow and surrounded by some lovely looking lakes and lagoons. It was such a beautiful view, a view that would inspire any artist to paint it.

We arrived at Hosteria Pehue where we dropped our bags off and headed out to our walk up to the Mirador Cuernos which was supposed to be a nice walk. We passed a lovely waterfall at the beginning and through some very wild terrain full of very small green shrubs, a few cactus here and there. An hour later we arrived at the lookout where there was a bench. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, below us was a lake with crystal clear inviting water and towering above were these pretty impressive peaks that looked like cones. The sun was actually shining onto part of one of its faces which made it glitter, it was really beautiful and so peaceful. After a good half hour just taking in the views we headed back to our car. Our Hosteria was located on this lake, you had to walk across this huge white bridge to get to it and the views from the restaurant were lovely. The only places to eat are the hosterias so we ate at ours that night. The following day we decided to try and drive a little further through the park to get to a place called Lago Gray where we could get a ferry that would take us up to Lago Grey's huge glacier. Unfortunately we had to turn back half way there as the road got much worst and we didn't think the car was going to make it. We realised it was probably a good idea to head back as all the cars we passed by were 4WD and the drivers were giving us very strange looks. We did find out that there were a number of walks to do around the park so we decided to give one a go which was very near the exit and it was a good two hour walk. We parked the car at a nice looking hosteria and started our walk towards the famous Torres. The proper round trip walk would have taken 7 hours which we didn't have as we needed to be back in Puerto Natales that evening so that we could head back to Punta Arenas in time for our morning flight. So we cut it short and did a two hour round trip walk. It was definitely good practice for our Machu Picchu hike as it was all uphill and pretty steep. I don't think we had realised just how unfit we had become since leaving the UK but within ten minutes of starting our walk we needed a break to catch our breath. Unfortunately we didn't get a great view of the peaks as they were covered in pretty thick cloud but we did stop at the top of this very scary cliff that looked down into this valley. Earlier on we had seen two horse riders heading that way and not sure how that rider had managed to remain cool when faced with the narrowness of the path and the very long fall down to the roaring river below.

Our last night in Puerto Natales was pretty uneventful. We found a restaurant on waterfront that served great seafood. I ordered grilled fish and in true Chilean style they totally overdid it on the portion size. I didn't get one huge fillet of fish but five! They obviously have an abundance of fish and seafood in that area as all the other dishes seem to be equally large. Half way through our meal a very large group of extremely noisy Israelis arrived and were busy looking for a table. We had recognised them from the previous couple of nights as they had occupied the rooms around us and had decided to stay up pretty much all night singing songs and their voices weren't that great. Two of the women, probably in their late 60's who were sporting some very gear that really did make them look like mutton dressed as lamb were standing right beside our table and literally reached across and pointed at the table opposite us to the others. Not only did they cut Leo half way through a mouthful of food but they didn't acknowledge what they had done and just continued chatting amongst themselves. I had a major sag at that point and looked up and said really loudly "do you f*cking mind, we are trying to have a conversation here" but nothing. That ruined the evening as i was fuming all the way back to our hostel.

We drove back to Punta Arenas and had our last meal in a beautiful little place on the outskirts of the city centre. It was a good job we had decided to venture a little further out as this was a real gem. According to Lonely Planet it was supposed to be one of the best restaurants in the country but there was nothing really fancy or posh about it but it was cosy, atmospheric and had so much character. The building was an old 19th century home and the dining area had been filled with interesting little antiques and nicknacks. A couple of the tables were placed in tiny little alcoves giving the whole place a lovely intimate feel. The food was some of the best we had had in the country. I started with a salmon which was lightly smoked in black tea and was as thick as a steak and tasted just like sushi does when it melts in your mouth. That was followed by freshly made tagliatelli with a local squid ink. Leo had a fab steak and an empanada to start with.

Well, we thought that Patagonia was stunning, the wine region outside Santiago beautiful and the lakes region didn't disappoint us either. Aside from New Zealand we had never been to a country where you could experience such different landscapes. When we landed in Puerto Montt we drove straight down to our first stop, Puerto Varas which is used by most travellers as a base for touring the lakes region. Puerto Varas was quite a pretty little town with lots of chalet style buildings dotted along the waterfront. We had a great tapas meal on the waterfront and after a few too many got quite sentimental and attached to various stray dogs hanging around, particularly one little sandy coloured dog that we named SNAFU. WE ended up sneaking lots of our leftovers into paper napkins when the waiters weren't looking and hiding them on our laps when they came over to clear the plates away. On the way back to our hosteria we ended up giving our little treats to SNAFU and a couple of her other mates. Unfortunately she also got quite attached and ended up trying to follow us all the way back. We had read in Lonely Planet that there are a lot of stray dogs in the country because people buy pedigree dogs when they are puppies, get bored of the responsibility of caring for them and turn them out. Having said that, they didn't really look ill or malnourished. In fact the majority of the ones we saw in Puerto Varas looked very well fed, we were sure that a lot of the restaurants were pretty kind to these little furry creatures due to their guilty consciences.

We had a very lazy morning strolling around town before getting in the car and heading up to Petrohue which was famous for its views of various volcanoes, the daddy of them all being Osorno. We found a lovely lodge right on the lake shore. The lounge area had huge comfy sofas to sink into and a fireplace to warm yourself up after some walks through the park. We went on a walk along the shore which black volcanic sand, very striking against the crystal blue waters of the lake. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy when we began the walk so we didn't catch a glimpse of the volcano. Half way through our walk it began to rain and by the time we got back to the hosteria an h