South America, the last leg of the trip

An eleven hour flight took us to Santiago de Chile. We hadn’t read up much so didn’t know what to expect but we’d booked into a hostel in a nice area of town for two nights. Only problem was I’d managed to forget that Chile is behind NZ by about a day so while we may have left on the evening of the 31st, this did not mean that we would arrive on the 1st of course it meant we arrived on the 31st! Unfortunately I only realised this on the plane so there wasn’t a lot I could do about it and unfortunately for Ed it wasn’t an April Fools.
Luckily for us the hostel had a space so they changed the rooms around and we were all sorted. No one speaks English here so we are getting by on my pidgin Spanish. Having not slept at all on the flight - can anyone sleep in economy?? We grabbed a couple of hours to feel more human and then just went to a local restaurant for a local dinner – Mexican-local ish??

Day two we explored the city centre and a couple of their museums. The weather here is really lovely, we had anticipated cold and were prepped with jumpers and rain jackets but in Santiago I mostly wore dresses and Ed shorts, it was a nice surprise to be basking in some sunshine.
Santiago is a pretty nice city, very nice in comparison to many South American capitals. We discovered a super cool area stuffed with bars and restaurants that night and had a fun time trying out the national cocktail ‘Pisco Sour’ and local beef.

Steak, Chile style

After another chilled out day in Santiago we grabbed our first bus of this leg to Argentina. Buses in Argie are SO much better than Thai buses, comfy seats, food and drink included and most importantly, films! A very twisty windy route took us up and around the Andes that separate Chile from Argentina and we crossed the border into the Fatherland. On arrival into Mendoza-the wine capital of South America-we strolled to our hostel with our bags on our back, problem was we arrived at a very swanky looking hotel. Turns out there is a Hostel International (where we booked into) and a Hotel International (where we currently stood) we wandered in just in case we hadn’t made a mistake but on the Concierge’s demands of a voucher and a slight grimace at our rucksacked selves we realised we were in the wrong spot. Half an hour more of walking in the warm midday sun led us to our hostel, the correct one. It’s never a good sign, we have decided, if your hostel is painted a ridiculous bright colour. This Orange monstrosity was clean enough but full of really young ‘travellers’ that don’t seem to travel the world just travel the worlds hostels, hanging out in the communal areas all the time and playing on Facebook!

Anyhow, Mendoza is a really nice city and was a great introduction to Argentina, we scoped out town and booked ourselves into a wine tour. There were budget ones we could do on a bike but we chose a more expensive one that took you to further away vineyards in a comfortable bus. The guys on our tour were lovely, a couple of grandparents from America, a young swiss couple, us and a gal from San Francisco. We had a really good day and an excellent long 5 course lunch with matching wines thanks to Wedding gift number 15 thanks to the gorgeous bridesmaids and also Nathan, Mari and Isabel. It was great to try some delicious Malbecs and the speciality here of Torrontes- a really beautiful white wine. At one of the vineyards we were lucky enough to see them working with the grapes as it is harvest time, handpicking out the bad grapes and bugs before it all goes into a machine to get rid of the stems. Having got somewhat squiffy at the New Zealand tour I tried to pace myself a little more in Mendoza and it worked, I just loved all the wines ; ) We have researched how many bottles you can bring back to the UK so if we are staying with you while homeless in the UK you may be lucky enough to try some. Assuming I don’t quaff it all!

Yey, arrival into Argentina!


Ed does some beer tasting in Mendoza!

Don't worry they were 'taster' size glasses!

Steak, Argie style- it must have been at least 2 inches thick.

Needless to say I couldn't manage it all

Wine tour with snow covered Andes just behind us. Big thanks to Meli, Zoe, Hannah, Nathan, Mari and Isabel xx

New Zealand

Wow, so we are now in Argentina having spent three weeks in New Zealand and a couple of days in Santiago, Chile. Clearly we’ve been having way too much fun to write! Highlights of New Zealand are many and include, a fab walk in Abel Tasman National Park, a fun night with friends Jj and Marcus in their amazing house near Nelson, each Saturday involved a trip to the local farmers market to pick up supplies and then a rugby game in the evening, not sure how Ed managed it be we ‘coincidently’ ended up in a town with a match each weekend, amazing!

Ed super happy to be at yet another rugby match

The best experience for me for the whole time in NZ had to be the Franz Josef glacier. Ed had been before but was keen to show me how amazing it was. So Wedding gift number 10 (huge thank you to Mike and Sarah) saw us take a scenic helicopter ride up to the glacier –most amazing scenery and I managed to ride shotgun next to the pilot both times. Then we had 2/3 hours hiking on the ice, we got some spikes which simply strapped to the bottom of your boots and away we went, it took a while to get used to the ice, you have to really stomp to get good grip on the ice but once we’d mastered the aggressive cowboyesque march we were on our way. The guide took ten of us on a walk about and we climbed down into a cave and climbed along a canyon. The blues were so incredible I have never seen anything like it. Very excited now to see Perito Moreno in Argentina to compare, I have a new found respect for ice and mountains, not least because I managed to fall into a well! As we were climbing through the ice canyon I managed to put a foot slightly wrong and fell into about 3 feet of ice water, bloody chilly!! Oh well, all fun!

Not the best outfit choice but with only one pair of trousers, things are limited!

Moments before the big fall and one very very wet leg.

Ed climbing deep into the cave.

Driving around New Zealand is spectacular, the scenery is so grand so extreme and beautiful. We likened it to Wales but it’s like Wales on drugs, all beautiful rolling hills or snow topped mountains and lakes an aqua blue I have never seen before.

Some of the nicest scenery was around Queenstown and we had an awesome time on the river there thanks to Neil and wedding gift no.11. Jet boating. We were lucky enough to be on the “Most exciting Jet boat ride in the World”. Fantastic, an exhilarating 30 minutes going at a ridiculous speed in a canyon, we got soaked but it was exhilarating and to be honest we’d had a lovely meal out the night before (with the obligatory vino to accompany it) and so it was a good hangover cure!

Wedding gift number 12 – massive thank you to the Chapmans and the Amos - was a rainy and misty trip to Milford Sound. The day previous it had been clear blue skies but we caught it on a wet and grey day but it all adds to the atmosphere and the waterfalls were in their element.

Gorgeous Milford Sound

Ed manages to 'find himself' in a coffee table book in Auckland!

Another big highlight was our first proper wine tour, we’ve done a couple in Oz and NZ already but this one we took a proper organised mini bus and visited 6 winerys (I think it was six it all got a bit hazy towards the end!) So a ‘iachi da’ to Sion and Ellie (wedding gift 13-not unlucky for us) for the glorious pinot noir, chardonnay, Sav blanc, merlot, Riesling (NZ risesling rocks btw) and a German sounding wine beginning with G that tastes like Turkish delight-an acquired taste.

Ed’s highlight would probably be an evening tour we took to see penguins, courtesy of Paul and Katie and gift no.14. A fun evening where we visited blue and yellow crested penguin colonies, it was fun to watch them waddle to shore to their homes and fight some rabbits on the way, ok there wasn’t much fighting going on but still.

A penguin but not the ones we saw on the tour!

All in all New Zealand passed by in gorgeous scenery, fantastic wine, beautiful weather (on the whole), rugby games, local markets, pit stops at waterfalls, lunch and picnics on beaches, in woods and by lakes it was perfect and probably our favourite time away so far. We were utterly relaxed and enjoyed every second of it. The last two days were a blissful relax on the Coromandel Peninsular which I cannot recommend enough. It was bliss, desolate beaches, islands that have a very similar look to Thailand, beautiful weather, really nice people and it was the most perfect way to end our trip to New Zealand.