Into the Latin Quarter (by Joe)

Santiago may not be one of the world´s greatest cities (rather grey, low-rise, sprawling and polluted to be honest - see top), but it nevertheles feels great to be in Latin America, and to begin the final quarter of our trip.

We both like the feel of being in Spanish culture very much. Laura speaks the language fluently, I am enjoying learning it, and we both love the temperaments of the people, which seem to be served double-strong south of the equator.

Chile is one of the more developed countries in South America, and we´ve enjoyed the cosmopolitan cafe culture and buzz of early evening shopping in central Santiago. Walking around the city centre we´ve come across terrific food markets, big Spanish colonial architecture (see left) and games of chess played in public squares (see right/ below).

But we´re not staying here long: before it gets too cold we´re off south to Patagonia for big nature, hiking, and to meet up with our friends, Rick and Tasha, who will be joining us for a week. It´ll be a taste of home: we´re looking forward to that very much.

Joe

Dazed and confused (by Joe)

We´re in a state of confusion having crossed from New Zealand to South America. The flight was about 12 hours, but because we crossed the international dateline, the time difference is effectively a whopping minus 17 hours.

This meant that somehow we arrived in Santiago some 5 hours before we left New Zealand. It also meant that we had, in effect, two March 27ths !?)

I´ve found the whole episode surprisingly upsetting. And goodness knows how I´d have felt had we crossed the other way ...

Sitting at home, I may not have thought about it a great deal, but I´ve never had a problem with the concept of the international dateline.

But I now know it´s one of those things, like major family disagreements or the Kingston one-way system: simple when seen from a distance, but virtually impossible to grasp when you are involved directly.

Joe

Australia and NZ summary (by Joe)

Five weeks to see Australia and New Zealand was never going to be enough.

We've nonetheless had a wonderful time here and feel privileged to have had the chance at least to get a taste of life on this side of the world.

After India and SE Asia, coming here took us firmly back to the first world in terms of culture, society ... and also, unfortunately, in terms of cost.

It's also been back to a world with which we naturally hold a deep 'connection'. As a Brit touring both Australia and New Zealand you simply cannot escape the feeling that you are visiting 'family' (albeit perhaps a sibling with which we often squabble!).

As for the places themselves:

We were greatly impressed with Sydney and Melbourne. These were striking cosmopolitan modern cities with tremendous confidence in their futures. We liked them very much.

If for us Australia was about the cities, New Zealand has been all about the nature. Throughout our tour we've felt deeply exhilarated by the continual sense you get here of being on the edge of enormous nature -specifically the wilderness of the Southern Ocean/ South Pacific.

We particularly liked New Zealand's South Island. In an area the size of England, this incorporates an incredible diversity of lansdscape: fjords, Alpine mountains, fells and rugged coastlines. Driving through it on clear, well-maintained roads was an absolute joy.

Though we spent less time there, we also liked North Island and leave in awe of its smoking craters and volcanic landscape.

Finally, New Zealand was a happy and healthy time for us. We did a lot of outdoor activities (walking and mountain-biking mostly) and lived well. We've had a great tour here.

We're now over halfway through our trip: it's on to South America.

Joe

NZ - ten of the best (by Joe)

With so much stunning natural beauty, New Zealand has been wonderful to photograph.

Here's ten of our favourite pics:

From top: Big weather on Nugget Point/ Clear skies on Queen Charlotte Track/ Laura at Manapouri Lake/ Lakeside road, Queenstown/ Cairn over Queenstown/ Me, thoughtful at Queenstown/ Mountain pass/ Tongariro volcano/ Laura on Hokitika beach

Joe

Roadkill (by Laura)

As Joe says in his blog below, driving in New Zealand has been a fantastic experience - so much space and nature right at your door, rather than dimly distant across a six lane motorway.

However, for a vegetarian of almost twenty years, there has been one serious obstacle to complete enjoyment and relaxation: roadkill.

It's not that I'm squeamish and have a problem with the sight of blood. It's more that our little compact car seems to be adding so gleefully to the numbers of carcasses littering New Zealand's highways.

Birds and butterflies seem to throw themselves willfully at our windscreen, divebombing in quick formation and bouncing off across the windscreen. Possums and other furry friends likewise make a mad dash in front of our advancing wheels. The resulting bloodbath is mainly due to a lack of decent training ground. You would never catch a worldly London pigeon being caught in the path of a car (if only).

All it's meant for Joe and I is that we've spent many an otherwise enjoyable journey struck with the sort of faces we would normally reserve only for watching an England vs Ireland rugby match.

Laura

Top gear (by Joe)

We've covered massive distances on our NZ road trip - over 2000 miles - and it's been fabulous, especially through South Island.

We hired a 1.3 Sirion Daihatsu for our full three weeks here (see top). It's no high-performance sports car, but on these roads driving a Model T-Ford would be pretty exhilarating.

South Island is just a driver's dream: we've motored over mountain passes, by the sides of long crystal clear lakes, through miles of farmland, through thick forests, and alongside windswept coasts and beaches ... and all on wonderfully clear, well-maintained and well-signed single-lane highways.

Driving in the UK is always so disappointing - so much traffic, too many restrictions, so many speed cameras. Here, it really is as it's always depicted in car ads - clear roads, beautiful scenery: 'freedom'.

I reckon it's got to be the best driving experience you can get these days outside PlayStation. And in our case, it's all been to a 'Best of Oasis' soundtrack: perfection.

Here's a few pics:

Joe

Tick-tock KAH-BOOOOM! (by Joe)

This is not a picture of me at the seaside (top).

It was taken on the shore of Lake Taupo in North Island, New Zealand. The lake is 606 square kilometres and was formed by a massive volcanic eruption which produced 800 cubic kilometres of ash (100 times more than Krakatoa). This covered the whole of North Island up to 100 metres deep in poisonous toxic volcanic ash, wiping out all vegetation.

The thing is, this eruption happened not millions of years ago, not even hundreds of thousands of years ago, but 26,000 years ago - a little while in human terms, but not that long.

More recently - in fact less than 2000 years ago - another eruption took place in this area. Although smaller, it was still about 3 to 4 times the size of the Krakatoa eruption and large enough to generate reports of darkened skies in Rome and China.

You see, the majority of North Island is above a rather lively (250 km by 100 km) area of volcanic activity, known as the Taupo Volcanic Zone. It makes for stunning scenery, and like most tourists, we've enjoyed walks across smoking volcanoes (above right) and gone to see the steaming geysers and bubbling hot mud-pools at attractions with names such as 'Thermal Wonderland' and 'Craters of the Moon' (below left).

But touring around you can't help but be reminded of 'the cataclysmic' ...

The frightening truth is that pretty much all human activity here can only be temporary: it's like living on the San Andreas fault or by Yellowstone National Park in the States. Probably not in your lifetime, but at some point, sooner or later: KAH-BOOOM!!!

Joe

Joe and the hills (by Laura)

One of the things that has become abundantly clear to Joe and I since we've known each other, is that our taste in holidays is a little different.

Given a straight choice, Joe would head for the seaside and I would head for the hills. So a certain amount of flexibility is always needed in organising our trips.

One of Joe's regular complaints when we go anywhere is that I seem to march up the nearest hill for no apparent reason. When I climb one, I apparently just want to go and climb another. And he's never understood the need. We've fallen out many times over it.

So you can imagine my utter delight when, following a recent climb up the nearest peak in Wanaka, South Island, NZ, Joe momentarily let his guard down and said in rapture, "Awesome!! You get to see for miles up here!".

By God, I think he's got it ...

Laura

Tramping (by Laura)

There are thousands of kilometres of tramping tracks in New Zealand (hiking trails to you and me). As a result, the country attracts a huge number of people whose sole aim is to cover as much of the country on foot as possible.

The most popular of these tracks are called the 'Great Walks'. There are nine Great Walks across the north and south islands, which are deemed the most beautiful and are also subsequently the most crowded.

To give you an idea, The Milford Track, perhaps the best known of all, is booked up about 6 months in advance of the summer season. All the Great Walks and a large number of all other tracks are excellently maintained by the Department of Conservation, which invests a huge amount of effort and money (in comparison to other countries) into ensuring that its rambling tourist population doesn't get lost on its mountain passes.

The booking of the walks in advance is principally to ensure that the shelters and campsites are not overrun during the summer months. However, this and the fact that the usual fare of compasses, survival bags and laminated OS maps are redundant (given the signage provided by the DOC), does seem to rather take the adventure out of some of the walking.

We didn't have the foresight to book any of the Great Walks, but have attempted sections (of 6-7 hours) as tasters (see right). We also had a fabulous 3 days walking the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds- not yet a Great Walk, but certainly up there in terms of stunning views and scenery (see top).

So we've had a good tramp; it's a word I've decided I rather like as it conjures up all sorts of images of sodden and slightly dishevelled walkers doggedly heading for home....ultimately to put their feet up, as we ourselves did (see left).

Laura

NZ sport (by Joe)

So, as we all know there's only one major sport in NZ and that is ... golf. Well, it is in participation terms anyway - and the stats are pretty amazing:

According to the New Zealand Golf Association, out of a total population of less than 4 million, there are an amazing 138,000 golfers with registered handicaps. Including tourists, some 482,000 people play at least one round of golf in the country each year - and with 385 courses, the country has the highest number per capita in the world.

Other popular sports include cricket, hockey, horse-racing, sailing, squash and netball (for which there are, apparently, an incredible 100,ooo registered players in the country!)

But of course in terms of following, rugby is, by a long way, the number one sport. Its popularity is illustrated by the content of a sports supplement in today's paper. Of the 16 pages, 5 were given over to ads, 2 to horse-racing, 2 to cricket, and the rest (7) to rugby - and specifically the 'Super-14' southern hemisphere club rugby tournament.

Football remains a long long way behind, which for me, makes a refreshing change. However, we must beware: NZ has just been awarded a franchise in the expanding Australian soccer league (the A-league) ... and if there's anything that will get a Kiwi fanatically behind a particular sport, it's playing it against Australia.

Joe

Happy campers (by Joe)

It would be disrespectful to my happy-camper parents to blog New Zealand without mentioning that this is campervan-central.

There is virtually no place you can go where a campervan is not every fourth or fifth vehicle you pass ... and in the wilder parts of South Island, they probably outnumber other vehicles.

We looked into hiring one ourselves, but eventually opted for the hire car, hostel and tent option. This worked out slightly cheaper, but if you had cash to splash, then hiring a top of the range van would definitely be the way to go.

There are masses of companies offfering rentals ... and some of their offerings can be rather funky (see right).

Joe

What's on the telly (by Joe)

British TV is very popular in both New Zealand and Australia, with our exports claiming just about as many peak-time minutes here as home-grown or big US programmes.

A quick flick through today's New Zealand TV guide (courtesy of the NZ Herald) reveals late afternoon or evening slots for Coronation Street, The Bill, Life on Mars, Dragon's Den, and UK re-runs of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

New Zealand also seems to share the British fascination with TV chefs: Jamie Oliver, Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsey are all on the box at some point today.

So it appears that Britannia still rules the air-waves, at least.

Joe

Rose-tinted Polaroids (by Joe)

New Zealand truly is very beautiful, but the whole experience has been taken to a new level for me by the purchase, as we left Australia, of a pair of Polaroid-lens sunglasses (see right/ below).

The experience these things give is incredible: it really is like turning up the 'vivid' button on everything you look at.

And it's not just the richness of the colours you see around you; they make me cheerful, and I seem to burst spontaneously into song whenever I put them on.

Magic!

Joe

Lucky with the weather (by Joe)

A week or two ago I blogged that we simply could not escape the clear skies and hot weather here in New Zealand and that we were seeking desperately some wind and rain to remind us of home (see 'Unlucky with the weather').

Predictably, soon after committing that to web, the weather changed and since then we've had good days and we've had bad days.

Here's some pics of us enjoying the change:


Joe

To the end of the earth (by Joe)

We've liked New Zealand very much, but time and again we've driven miles to find supposedly 'major' provincial centres and been spooked by how incredibly deserted everything is.

Even New Zealand's three biggest cities are tiny by contrast to cities in the UK and Europe:

Auckland - 1.2 million (less than one-tenth the size of London)
Christchurch - 331,500 (smaller than Stoke-on-Trent)
Wellington - 205,500 (smaller than St Helens)

South Island in particular is incredibly sparsely populated. It is roughly the size of England but with a total population of under 1 million (one-third of which lives in Christchurch).

The other 'major' population centres in South Island are Dunedin (111,000 - slightly larger than Basildon) and Invercargill (49,300 - smaller than Clacton-on-Sea). There is nowhere else of any significant size in the whole of South Island.

Australia is the least densely populated country in the world because of its enormous and barely inhabitable 'red centre', but at least it has truly significant cities. Travelling around the south and west of South Island New Zealand, driving through tiny communities amidst big country and along coastlines of enormous oceans, you really can't help but get a strong 'we are at the end of the earth' feeling.

You can see - absolutely - why Kiwis so often travel and seek experience of life in the UK and Europe.

Joe

Note: UK stats from 2001 census/ NZ stats from Lonely Planet

Beautiful Queenstown (by Joe)

We're both smitten with a beautiful lakeside resort called Queenstown (just down the road from Kingston, funnily enough) in the southern Alps region of South Island, New Zealand.

In the winter months Queenstown is a major winter sports centre. In the summer it's developing a big reputation as an outdoor sports centre where you can do any and every form of lake- mountain- river- or air-based adventure activity.

For reasons of frugality (50%), for reasons of just not being that keen (30%) and for reasons of general cowardice (20%), we haven't taken part in any of the following:

Wind-surfing; kite-surfing; yachting; dinghy-sailing; jet-boating; water-skiing; para-gluiding; hang-gluiding; parachuting; bungee-jumping; bungee-swinging; heli-biking; quad-biking; motocross; white-water rafting; white-water tubing; white-water kayaking; white-water bellyboarding or 'fly-by-wire' (we're not sure exactly what this is either!).

We have, however, been for several mind-numbingly beautiful walks into the nearby mountains and around the lakeshore (see top). It's just beautiful and very very photogenic. We love it.

Here's far too many pics of the lake and around:

... and my favourite, taken by Laura:

Joe

Beware The Kea (by Joe)

We've found a pest troublesome enough to rival India's monkeys.

It is The Kea of New Zealand, a very large, heavy, long-beaked, green and red highland parrot. Unique to NZ and a protected species (goodness knows why!), they are described in tourist leaflets and 'warning' signs in car parks by careful euphemisms:

- 'Inquisitive'

(i.e. they actively approach you and your car, use their long sharp beaks to pull, tug and rip with at anything shiny (e.g. glasses/ keys/ door handles) or that moves (e.g. windscreen wipers/ radio aerials/ your hands).

- 'Confident'

(i.e. they are completely unmoved and unimpressed by attempts to wave or shoo them away).

- 'Territorial'

(i.e. moving towards them waving a stick to try to get them off your car will incite them to hop or fly directly at you talons out and squawking).

We had a major run-in with one in a car park near Milford Sound, a fjord on the south east coast, which nearly cost us our windscreen wipers (see top). After 10 minutes of losing ground, the best we could do was to get in the car and drive off (it was pretty brave to do that, frankly).

Remarkably, not only are they 'protected', but the Kea are actually 'celebrated' by south islanders. For example, they are widely seen on postcards, in pictures and, say, in restaurant and hotel names.

Perhaps the south islanders associate with the 'inquisitive', 'confident' and 'territorial' Kea rather more than the soft and docile Kiwi ...

Joe

Unlucky with the weather (by Joe)

After five months of sun and heat in India, SE Asia and Australia, we were hugely disappointed with the weather in New Zealand when we arrived: it was an unseasonal 30 degrees (plus) with virtually clear blue skies.

... and it's been like this since, apart from one (lovely) cloudy day on the south coast.

This simply wasn't what we are paying our NZ dollars for (we'd been looking forward to a serious dose of wind and rain to remind us of home). It has, however, given us chance to appreciate, through clear visibility, just what a truly beautiful place South Island New Zealand is (and boy, is it ...?!).

Here are four of the many many 'lake-mountain-sky' shots that I've taken over the past few days (incidentally, the top photo is of Mt Cook, the highest in Australasia):

We're still hoping for a change in the weather, though!

Joe