New Zealand North Island, Week 2

Monday 25th January, we reached the Bay of Islands after a stunning drive along the coast which included a stretch called 'million dollar view road' and a quick stop at the monument to the Rainbow Warrior; a Greenpeace boat which was blown up by the French secret service in Auckland harbour in 1985.

We opted to stay in Russell, which was the first European settlement in New Zealand and was a lovely quaint little place to spend a few days. Having set up camp we grabbed our fishing rods and headed for the wharf to try and catch our dinner. The fish were virtually jumping out of the water into my lap and with some great beginner's luck I landed 5 or 6 snapper, as well as a wrasse; while Dave's hook remained well and truly empty! He was obviously saving his energy for the almighty fight between man and fish which was to follow and ended up with this monster on the jetty.

The next day we booked ourselves onto the 'Cream tour' which follows the same route as the original supplies ship for the Bay of Islands. The weather was gorgeous and we took up our positions on the bow of the boat as we sailed amongst the natural wonders and spectacular scenery.

After visiting a few of the islands with deliveries for the residents we headed out into blue water in search of elusive dolphins and to take in the sight of the 'hole in the rock'. Our captain Billy manoeuvred our rather large catamaran right through the hole and out the other side!

After a picnic lunch on the beach and a refreshing swim it was time for some 'boom netting'. This involved climbing into the boom nets on the side of the boat and then clinging on for dear life as we were dragged through the water, lots of fun but rather painful; particularly for Dave who received some 'net burns' after I lost my grip and catapulted myself into him. After a fantastic day on the water we returned to Russell and enjoyed a wonderful sunset over the harbour.

After resisting the temptation to stay another day we left the Bay of Islands behind and headed south, stopping off at Goat Island Marine reserve for some snorkelling. The Lonely Planet reliably informed us that the water would be teeming with fish, but we were disappointed with what we saw; maybe we caught it on a bad day or maybe we have been thoroughly spoilt with our previous snorkelling locations!! We stayed a night on the cape overlooking Goat Island, visiting the very posh Farmer's market in Matakana, resisting the lure of the 'boutique' vineyards but giving in to the pull of the micro brewery on the way back to the campsite.

The next day we passed back through Auckland, pausing only briefly to shop for essentials such as sunglasses and a teapot! We were soon back on the road though and heading for the Coromandel Peninsula; we camped just outside of the town of Coromandel itself and it was here that Dave finally decided to take the plunge and shave his head or rather let me shave it for him. We tested the new do that night with a trip to the Coromandel hotel bar for a pint of Tui and a crack at the Key game; we didn't take home the $500 prize which was probably a blessing in disguise as the locals were tough looking and steaming.

We left Coromandel town the next morning, twice. Having driven 40 minutes down an unsealed road into the mountains we realised that we had left our trusty fishing rods behind and had to return to collect them. Looking on the bright side, this gave us the chance to drive the alternative route across the peninsula and take in fabulous views such as the ones below.

Before Dave's fishing rod epiphany we had discovered the Waiau falls along route 309 and on seeing the icy waters before him Dave stripped off and plunged in; I stayed on dry land to fulfill the important role of photographer.

Is he, isn't he?

We eventually hit the west coast of the peninsula and made the compulsory stop at Hot water beach, where hot water springs filter up through the sands and hundreds of tourist dig themselves a hole and sit in the warm water. The tide was coming in as we arrived and the cold sea water was rushing into these holes creating hilarious screams from those wallowing around in the hot spring water. The life guard was keeping a close eye on things though, as unbelievably this beach sees one of the highest levels of drownings in New Zealands due to dozy tourists being swept out of their DIY spa pools and into the ocean!

We motored on down the coast road until we reached Whangamata and having inspected the town's two dismal campsites we headed out to the DOC site at Wentworth falls and were rewarded with a picturesque pitch alongside the river. Having picked our spot amongst the trees we set off in the evening sunshine up the track to Wentworth falls and this time it was my turn for a dip beneath the cascades. We walked to the top of the falls and then returned for dinner with Delilah.

Another day dawned and we were on the road again, heading for Rotorua; we passed through luscious green countryside on gloriously empty roads. An obvious highlight of the journey was our stop in Paeroa, the birthplace of New Zealand's national drink L&P, where several of these giant bottles could be found.

The heavens opened as we approached Stinksville but we still managed a walk around the town's Kuirau park with its crater lake, pools of boiling mud, steaming holes and mineral baths; incredible that all this volcanic activity bubbles away and life carries on around it.

We camped a fair way out of Rotorua centre to escape from the sulphur smell but returned for a visit to the Kiwi sanctuary and a Maori 'marae', which included a delicious 'hangi' and lots of dancing and singing.

New Zealand, at last!!

Welcome back readers - Apologies for the rather large gap in posts - New Zealand is a little bit backwards with regards to internet access - it is rarely available, never free and I lack the tools to hack encrypted networks (it is also slightly illegal).

We arrived in Auckland on the 17th of January and picked up our home for the next two months. Delilah, as she is known - christened after Stoke beat Arsenal in the FA Cup, is a lovely little van with just the basics.

We hung around in the city for a couple of days, buying bits'n'pieces from Warehouse and Pak'n'save to aid us on our two month tour of the Land of the Long White Cloud. Auckland is a pleasant enough city and saw a few sights including One Tree Hill (although it has no trees on it at the moment - bit of a sore point).

No Tree Hill - but great views over Auckland without having to climb the Skytower - The southern hemisphere's tallest building...

We headed north from the "City of Sails" driving up the west coast. Stopping where ever or when ever we wanted - It is a great feeling to be free to do what we like and not be constrained by bus timetables.

Despite being only a short drive out of Auckland this coast is rugged, wild, mostly deserted and truly fabulous. Our first stop was Karekare, which is one of the most dangerous beaches in New Zealand and where someone out of Pearl Jam nearly drowned while visiting someone out of Crowded House, apparently! No sign of any damp pop stars while we were there though, no sign of anyone actually.

We stopped for a night at Piha, stumbling across the World Junior surfing championships while we were there; these kids were amazing to watch and provided us with an afternoon of entertainment. (Please refer to blog entry from San Juan, Nicaragua for photos of similar surfing ability!)

Moving on up the coast we visited a gannet colony at Muriwai, which sparked a frenzy of Galapagos style photograph taking from Temple and I had to drag him away to continue our journey northwards. Our next two campsites were conveniently water side and Dave whipped his rod out at every opportunity, while I relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful, unspoilt, uncrowded surroundings.

Delilah, Kate and Rod!

Dave's first NZ snapper - Greedy little buggers; I was using a huge hook and still only managed to catch the small fry.

Having not made it that far north in our first few days we needed to get a few miles under our belts so we ignored the attractions of Dargaville (not hard) and pressed on until we reached Waipoua forest, which is the largest remnant of the once-extensive Kauri forests in this area. We visited the 2 largest kauris left in New Zealand, both were magnificent and incredibly wide and it was easy to understand why in Maori culture these trees are seen as forest gods.

A few miles further north we hit Hokianga harbour and stopped to admire the view before descending to the coast and setting up camp for the night on its shore.

Opted for the car ferry to cross the waters of the bay the next morning and then stopped for a humongous cooked breakfast in a quaint Victorian town called Kohukohu. With our bellies full we motored on and briefly visited the southern most point of 90 mile beach, Ahipara; Dave was very excited as we entered the town and started coming over all Keanu, as this place is the setting for surf film 'Endless Summer'. After the obligatory place name photograph was taken and Dave had done his best to dig some clueless Kiwis' non-4x4 out of the sand at the edge of the 'drivable' 90 mile beach we pushed on, only stopping for a 'handle' at New Zealand's northernmost tavern before finding our campsite for the night.

After a bracing cold shower, (fine in 100degrees plus Honduras, not so nice in a rather cool and windy New Zealand!) on our department of conservation camp we journeyed the last few kilometres to the northern most tip of NZ; but instead of the easy option we decided to park Delilah a few miles down the coast and then walk the cliff path to Cape Reinga. Our efforts were rewarded with gorgeous views, the appearance of the sun and the realisation that several months of South American beer has had a detrimental impact on my level of fitness!

Having ticked the 'been to the northern most part of New Zealand' box we turned around and headed south. Not far down the road Dave spotted a sign to the 'largest sand dunes' and we took a small detour to check them out. Te Paki sand dunes did turn out to be rather large and so Dave decided that he needed to climb to the top of them. I followed behind at a slightly slower pace, as Dave took off like a Marathon de Sables competitor. Another amazing landscape to behold and lots of fun running back down the other side; although don't bring up the failed video attempt of Dave's descent, resulting in a lot of huffing and puffing back up to the top for take 2, whoops!


We ended our first week on the North Island with a very chilly night on the Karikari Peninsula, so cold in fact that we needed another trip to The Warehouse (where everyone gets a bargain) to purchase a duvet - Sweet As!

Chile, Santiago

Our last South American border crossing turned out to be the worst, with Chile turning out to be harder to get into than a nun's knickers! Arrived into Santiago four hours late and in the dark so we took the easy option and headed to the same hostel as an Australian girl we'd met on the bus and hoped they had a room. They did and it was rather nice so we spent our last 2 days in South America there.

We only had one full day in Santiago but we filled it quite well. Our main priority was hunting down a copy of the Lonely Planet for New Zealand (tip for anyone intending to by books in Chile - DON'T - they have a massive 20% tax on them and what should have cost us £15.99 actually cost about £30). Once we had updated our library we took a walking tour of the city taking in a few of the sights. Unfortunately Santiago is rather smoggy and spoiled some great views.

One of the more unusual attractions was Cerro Santa Lucia. It is a hill in the middle of the city upon which a castle was built. Much of the old castle has now crumbled away but at street level it has been lovingly restored to its former glory.

From the top you can get great vistas of the city, including views of Cerro San Cristobal, a smaller version of Rio's Cristo de Redentor.

The remainder of our time in Santiago was spent relaxing, updating the blog and drinking the wine I won! - yes, I know, we are several weeks behind - the cheapest internet access we can find in NZ is about NZ$4 an hour!!

Mendoza

Arrived into Mendoza and found ourselves a great little place called Hotel Alexander, swayed by the loveliness of the owners and the fact it was named after my brother (and Rob - work that one out!) we booked in for the next few nights. We spent the first day in the city trying in vain to find a 'Gaucho experience' to take us off into the Pampas on horseback for a few nights; after admitting defeat on this one we consoled ourselves by booking a wine tour and just a days worth in the saddle.

We were picked up the next day from our hotel and ferried out to the vineyards on the outskirts of Mendoza to be shown the intricacies of wine making and more importantly to sample some of the vino! Being the only English speakers on our tour we ended up with our own private guides and the chance to guzzle as much of the produce as possible. We also visited an Olive oil producer and a small business which produced liqueurs disguised as innocent products such as chocolate sauce and dulce de leche, when if fact they were highly dangerous, alcoholic demons! Apologies for the lack of photographs from the first couple of days in Mendoza, but the extreme heat obviously effected the performance of the chief photographer.

Sunday in Mendoza was quiet and spent exploring a small corner of the city's General San Martin park, which is as big as New York's Central Park; as well as sampling some of the glorious ice cream we found.

Monday bought renewed activity and we set off for another day on horseback. We were driven out into the Pampas to a ranch where we were given our horses and set off at a leisurely pace. The main event of the morning, however, was the opportunity to finally sample Mate (remember the tea from Uruguay, also popular in Argentina?) This is how its supposed to be done, passed around and shared amongst a group of friends; I found it rather bitter but Dave enjoyed it and declared himself a Mate convert.

We rode on for a while after the tea break and eventually arrived back at the ranch for a lunch of Asado (BBQ meat) and red wine, perfect.

Back in the saddle after lunch and time to tackle some more difficult terrain, steep hills and uneven ground and a full on gallop at the end of the trek which evoked a scream of 'shit, no, stop!' from me.

Our last day in Mendoza and we thought we should capture some of the picturesque squares of the city on camera so we set off with that in mind. There are 4 corners of the city and each one has different square in which people can gather in case of another earthquake ( the last one bought Mendoza crashing down around their ears in 1861). We started in the central Plaza Independencia and made our way out to Italia, followed by Espana which was intricately decorated with beautiful tiles. Very difficult to do it justice on camera so you'll have to make do with a picture of me in front of a monument instead!

Plaza San Martin was next and lastly Plaza Chile with this very tempting fountain in the centre, we resisted the urge to dive in and escaped from the heat to the shade of a bar for a refreshing beer.

Time to wave goodbye to our lovely hosts at Hotel Alexander the next day and jump on our last South American bus to Santiago, Chile.

Bariloche

After the inner city delights of BA it was time to head over to mountains and lakes of Bariloche. We booked ourselves onto a swanky bus for some more creature comforts - no scrimping for us! An added bonus to the journey was a game of bingo from which I won a lovely bottle of Chardonnay...sweet!...or should that be...dry!

Bariloche is desperately trying to be an alpine village. To be fair it does it quite well. A lot of chalet style houses and more chocolate shops you than you can shake a hiking stick at! It does having some slopes available during their winter but I don't think I will be flying here specially for the white stuff any time soon.

We took it easy the first day but were soon eager for some exercise. It was decided we would cycle around "Circuito Chico" which snakes through some stunning scenery around Lake Moreno and Lake Nahuel Huapi. I don't think there was one flat section which made it quite an exciting ride. We stopped for a hot chocolate and brownie at Colonia Suiza (swiss colony - for the non Spanish speakers ;-P) promptly undoing all the good work we had done!

As I said the scenery was amazing. The weather was great but a little chilly. On some of the downhill sections the fingers nearly froze to the handle bars. If we hadn't had to return the bikes that day we would have been tempted to see more of the area on two wheels.

Next day we took a cable car ride up to Cerro Otto - a lookout point with rotating restaurant. Apparently we could have walked up but only found that out once we had reached the top. Again, stupendous views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. It was still chilly so had to dig out the silly Peruvian hat - comfort over style is my new motto! We avoided the hordes of tourists in the revolving eatery and instead opted for a short hike up to another peak with a packed lunch (Yes, G&C we too can do budget!)

We only had three days in Bariloche but could have spent many more. The area is beautiful and virtually untouched. The fact we only a few days here may have been a blessing in disguise as we managed to scoff some more Argentinian steak on two separate occasions. The first being bife de chorizo (nothing do with the sausage) and the second bife de lomo all washed down with some lovely red wine! The trout fishing is also meant to be superb, unfortunately a little over our budget, definitely a place to stick on the future holiday list - along with about 50 others!

Buenos Aires and New Year

We crossed the Rio Plata and stepped onto Argentinian soil for the second time during our trip. A short taxi journey into Buenos Aires and we arrived at our swanky hotel in the Almagro district, the birthplace of many famous tangos apparently! Our stay didn't start off too well when my cash card got eaten by an ATM and Dave got charged for money he never received from the machine; our first problems of this kind though so can't complain too hard.

Spent our first day in BA meeting up with friends we had made in other far flung places and exploring the up market neighbourhood of Palermo; with fancy boutiques, hip bars and comfortable coffee shops; I thought I'd found heaven.

Evita was on the agenda the next morning, you really can't come to Buenos Aires and not visit her grave; it is still adorned with flowers, bought here by her adoring Argentinian public.

Another must do was ticked of the list that night when we made our way to the Carlos Gardel tango show. We enjoyed a juicy steak, free flowing wine and the amazing talents of the tango dancers; unfortunately we have no decent photos as flash was forbidden.

Another day, another walking tour around this fantastic city; Wednesday 30th December and we headed to the central part of the city. We started in Plaza San Martin and discovered the impressive Torre de los Ingleses, a tower given to Argentina by Britain to commemorate its independence from Spain back in the 1800s; somewhat ironically as we crossed the road we found the memorial to the fallen from the Islas Malvinas (Falklands to you and me) conflict. We lowered our voices and tried to appear less English, had a quick look and scuttled off before the soldiers on guard duty got a whiff of Los Ingleses.

We crossed the 12 lane 9 Julio Avenue, gazing up at the obelisk monument in the middle and made our way to the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace on the Plaza de Mayo. The balconies are where Evita made her famous appearances and the square in front, where political protests are often held.

New Years Eve in Buenos Aires was fantastic; we were invited to a party at a hostel by our Austrian friends from the Pantanal, Stefan and Enrique. We enjoyed a meal of barbequed lamb up on the roof terrace before watching Buenos Aires erupt into the night sky to welcome in 2010.

We drank lots of beer,
laughed lots and lots and
and at around 2am made our way to a club for some dancing. We finally stumbled home at around 5am and only reappeared on New Years day due to the promise of seeing the Dakar rally contestants leave the city centre.

We joined the cheering crowds on the city streets to watch the bikes, quads, cars and eventually the huge trucks set off on the first stage of the famous rally.

On the 2nd January we left Buenos Aires via a much less exciting mode of transport, another bus!

Colonia and Christmas

Arrived in Colonia del Sacramento on 23rd December and checked into the very cosy Posada del Flor. The Posada is on the banks of the River Plata and a stones throw from the cobblestone streets of the barrio historico, designated a world heritage site.

Spent our first afternoon exploring the small town and enjoying the views over the river to Buenos Aires as we ate our lunch. Dave was still suffering with the lurgy he picked up back in Punta del Diablo so we returned to the hotel to relax on the roof terrace, me with a glass of wine, Dave with flu tablets and cough medicine.

We awoke on Christmas Eve to torrential rain and a fairly hefty storm and hoped that this didn't mean an end to our hopes for a sunny and hot Christmas. Amused ourselves during the wet weather trying to master the art of Mate (pronounced Marr-tey) drinking; Mate is a herbal tea which is an obsession here in Uruguay. It is unusual to see any person walking down the street without their mate cup in hand and a thermos tucked under their arm. There is a very specific way to arrange the mate leaves in the gourd (cup especially for the tea) and then how to put the bombilla (metal straw for drinking the tea through) is a whole skill in itself! Thankfully the storm abated after lunch and we left the Mate lesson behind and ventured back into the town to enjoy the beautiful streets of Colonia.

Christmas Eve here in Uruguay is when everyone enjoys their main Christmas meal and celebrations; the restaurants were full of festive family groups and at midnight the skies exploded with fireworks to welcome in Christmas day. This year our Christmas gift was a gorgeously sunny and warm day when we awoke on the 25th. We decided to hire some bikes and cycle along to the beaches which are on the shores of the Rio Plata and just on the outskirts of Colonia. Enjoyed a few hours on the bikes and then chilled out in the sun on the beach. On our return to the town we enjoyed a Christmas beer in one of the river front establishments;the sun was beating down and it felt very strange to be hunting out shade from the sun on Christmas day.

We chose a lovely open air restaurant for our Christmas meal and enjoyed a mountain of barbequed lamb washed down with a not too shabby bottle of red. A very different Christmas day, but a very lovely one!

Boxing day morning bought another window shaking storm and an excuse to watch some English Boxing Day football, unfortunately Stoke didn't manage to deliver a late Christmas present. The afternoon bought clear skies our way once more and we made our way to the old lighthouse in the middle of the historical quarter. Dave clambered to the top to take some birds eye photographs of this picturesque town.

Our relaxing Christmas stay came to an end the next day and we climbed aboard the seacat to cross the Rio Plata and head for the lights of Buenos Aires.