Massivo lightening and rainstorm hot Salta before we left and flooded most of the city. Didn't effect us too badly as we were leaving at 01:30. The bus was a bit of a drama as the girl had booked us onto the night before's but some sweet talking in my impeccible Spainish and some Scottish charm managed to get our tickets redated to tonight. Bus was empty so both got 2 seats and managed to get half decent sleep for a change. Arrived at bastardo o'clock , well 8:30 actually but when u didn't get to sleep till 3:30 its more or less the same thing. Crossed the border without incident. Going up is meant to be fine but recon i'll try and fly back down as the crossing is meant to be pain! Also will prob take me best part of a week to get overland back to BA to meet Dad and Ruth! Bolivia is a world away from the other countries, visibly poorer and run down. Food is meant to be grim but the people seem to be nice enough. Stuck in the shitey border town till 3:30 when we can get a train for 9 hours to Uneyui where u can check out the salt plains - more on that later. Right need to dash as hostels need to be booked and food needs to be bought for journey. Laters, Me x

Arrived in Salta after 21 hours on the bus. Nice place surrounded by green verdent hills, which is a nice change from Mendozas arid desert. had a wander round town and planning a last supper in Argentina so it really has to be stake :))

Oh and before i start getting greif for not replying to texts my phone has stopped working (again I know) so apologies to everyone as it is going to take a wee while to get back to you all!

Laters,

C

Spent the day rafting down the Andies, which was fun but nothing overly challenging since both Niall and myself have been on grade 5 in the last couple of months. The weather was stunning and the rest of the boat were good craic. Watched Ireland hammer England over some beers and then a spot of light sunbathing rounded off the afternoon. Disgusted with the Scottish result, just when you feel you can start to beleive in your team again this type of nonsense happens. Not a good day for anyone on mainland Britain as we all seemed to have lost!

But arranged to meet up with the others for the rafting for a boozy night later as we have nothing to do tomorrow except book our transport up to Salta hopefully tomorrow evening.

Bye for now,

C

Had a good night on the beers with the Chilians that we had met but managed to avoid any gay-orientated clubs for a change :) Got up this morning and had a lazy morning repacking the bag and reading and uploading more pics. Managed to get a lot of the pics uploaded and should have all of them done in the next few weeks so will let you all know when the streamload site is ready.

Said to goodbye to our trusty translator Nick and got the best bus i have ever been on over the Andies into Argentina. The mountains were awesome and got me quite in the mood for some hillwalking again!! The border was a joke and had to spend 3 hours trying to cross. The bus ended up being 3 hours late and Niall and myself co9llected a wee band of travellers and started walking the streets looking for the hostel. Found it after not too much nonsense and turned out to be amazing. Had a few beers with the new gang and offto bed in a mo as big day of exploring tomrorow!!

Chou (as they say over here!)

C :D

Yesterday decided that some exercise was in order so hiked up the largest hill in Santiago (6km ups and got junnicular railway down). Pretty good views, although it was very hazing at the top. Broke the boys "jumping shot" cherry and they are now willing converts!! Decided to leave today didn´t wake up in time as went out for a quiet one or two and ended up having a wild one. Went out with the boys and met some Chilians who went went boozing with . Class night and even managed to practise some spainish!! Probably wasn´t making much sense but at least i was trying...Although once again the Chilians ended up taking us to a gay club!! Must be Niall that they all fancy ;)

The others in the hostel went to some strippers which was meant to be amaznig but expensive so glad i missed out on that one. Niall and I are now going to be going through Argentina and Bolivia together and plan to try and either leave tonight or tomorrow for Medoza. Meant to be really nice wine growing district with savage rafting.

Hope the flooding in Bolivia gets better as the Soutern part is largley underwater at the mo...

More later,

Mex

Hey Everyone,

Arrived safe and sound in Santiago after almost 24 hours of travelling. was a V tired boy when we arrived but managed to avoid getting robbed or done at the aitrport. Auckland was a bit of nightmare as they lost my luggage off the Fiji flight and had hassle with that and the sunglasses. But all that is a distant memory as now residing in SAs most expensisve country. Still cheap by recent standards but the language is as they speak V fast and I speak almost 0 spainish at the moment. Stil kicking around with Niall and think we might head up north tomorrow. He is off to peru for some charity work and içm going to go to Bolivia to start the tour of that country.

Right big queue building up for the free internet so ill leave it there but expect the posts to get back to their normal cycleªª

Later eveyone,

C

ps = my phone is working again so can eveyone drop me a text with you contact details so I can save them again. Cheers...

hey Everyone sorry about the lack of updates but there is almost nowhere in this country that has internet and where it does it is well expensive. This place is 3 squid an hour!!

11/2
Right arrived on Fiji about 5 and had to wait in the airport for the Oz flight cause, well don't reallty know except that we were all going to beachcomber and they prob wanted all in the same taxi. So 3 hours later the flight arrives but it's late so we miss the 7:30 boat and have to wait for the 9:30 that arrievs eventually at 11:30. There is a saying here "Fiji Time" which basically means it'll arrive at sometime. Not my fav saying as have V little patience as it is!! managed to fight our way through the wild rainstorm to get to beachcomber about 12ish. Met Niall (mate from NZ) and proceded to get hammered.

12/2
Got up. Still raining. Went snorkelling. Played Volleyball. Laghed at Yanks who were all drunk at 2 pm. Thought i'd join them and the rest of started drinking about 5ish. Stil raining though.

13/2
Stopped raining so went for a wreck dive which was pretty cool. Got back and guess what started rainign again so went back to bed for a bit. Not much to do on this island if the sun is not up as it only takes 7 min to walk around!! Decided to go for a night dive instead of drining which was pretty cool.

14/2
Got the boat up to the top of the Yasawas group and headed for the resort. Usual Fiji time bullshit and the 2 hours on the boat turned into 4.5. Ariived in thr "best place for diving and partying resort" and found the place half derelict and only 4 other people staying. had stupidly paid in advance so stuck. Boked some diving and chilled out.

15/2
went for a couple of pretty good dives. saw some amazing soft and hard coral, couple of sharks, some squid and loads of fish. The weather is still a bit dodge but the rain is staying off. Few beers in the evening and the staff do some underground bbq thing. Some singing and dancing (learnt the Bula dance which is basically a watered down gay Gordans - tried telling the locals but they insisted they had been doing it for centuries!!) but as usual everyone heads off to bed about 8:30!!

16/2
More diving and the Vis is getting worse but decide to soldier on and have a couple of cool dives. Not much big stuff but see lots of cool little stuff that you don;t usually get to see. Sea horses, mussel things and crab. A few more people have arrived so craic might be better tonight. last dive toorrow then it's 5-7 hours back down to nandi on the boat. have hostel booked and will hook up with Nial prior to flying back to Auckland.

More tomorrow when i have a little more time. Sorry about the short post short on time!!

C

Left the boys this morning which is shit as it was cool travelling with the irish maniacs, but then I have addicted them all to the drinking game Arrogance so they will travel the world spreading the love!! Taxi, my bus drive commented on the Stray t-shirt that i am sporting today. Neglected to mention that we blagged them from the office, but then that is starting to be our thing. Demanding free stuff wherever we go :)) Thats 3 in the last week!

Arrived back in sunny Kaikura (V hot and suny today) and booked myself onto a whale watchubg tour. saw two massivo sperm whales. Prob about 20ish m long. hard to tell as most of them was underwater (obviously). Went through 2 batteries taking lots of pics. Need to see how many keepers there are but a savage experience all in all. Got a bbq on tonight then an early night methinks as i've got some serious boozing planned in Wellington as have to catch up with Meika and paddy.

Have to wave bye bye to the South Island tomorrow. Sad as this place absolutly rocks. One of the best places that I have ever been. Queenstown is the only town/city that I would recommend but then u don't fly half way round the world to look at buildings do ya!!

laters folks,

C

Had a crazy night on the beers and kareoke and stayed in the shitest hostel so far. Total dump but it was only for one night. Mike and Rich passed and out and Ronan couldn't find the club i was in as he was off scoring some girl and had to climb a tree after spending 30 min throwing stones at the window :)) Highly amusing. When I got in i found Mike about to piss on Ronan's backpack and then wandering the corridors looking for the toilet!!

Loooooonnnnggggg bus ride today and eventually crawled into Christchurch about 5ish. having a quiet one tonight and went to the flicks to check out babel. ok but nothing special. last night with the Irish but think we are all needing a quiet one. I have to be on the bus tomorrow at 8 and the boys are flying...

Me

Had an amazing couple of days as our Milford Sound overnight cruise was cancelled and we got upgraded to a $350 Doubtfull Sound cruise instead. saved ourself 150 bucks and got a better cruise to boot. Were a little unsure we were going to make the boat as we left a little late due to rental messing up our booking. Thanks to me breaking most of the NZ speed laws we managed to arrive in record time and even had 30 min spare for some light lunch. Got on the boat and it was proper Saga tours action as everyone was over 50. We had to get a boat accross the lake with some sado's that were going on a tour of the power station :)) and then a coach to the sound. The Fyordland Explorer was an awesome boat. Cost 10mil 2 years ago and we had a cabin to oursleves. Everyone was moaning but it was bliss for us as there were only 4 people in the room instead of the usual 8!! Cruised around the fyord and did some kayaking, even went through one of the many waterfalls. The dinner they put on was to die for and we fully took advantage of the all you could eat option. Could barely walk afterwards. Had a quiet night taking some snaps of the area as night fell and then of the moon over the water. Mike and I then had a brainsucking exercise where he planned my S America route and I planned his Oz route. Good nights sleep for the first time in ages (and the soberist) and then up this morning for more pics. The last bit of the fyord we went into is meant to be the best loc in all of the 14 fyords (including Milford) and we were treated to the glass effect of the water. Took zillions of pics and will upload some of the best so you can all see the coolness of the place. One of the highlights of NZ...

Decided to have a day of chilledness after spending 5 hours racing down grade 3 rapids on a body board surfing the waves, getting sucked under in the squirts and spinning in the swirlpools. We were raging as we got stuck in the geriatrics group as they were4 of us and they only had enough guides to take 3 in the fast group but Doyler made up for it by doing some "Hoff" action and saving Kate when she got sucked under. Cue for many kisses and I love u's from her. The river sledging was cool but after all the extreme things we have been doing over the last month it seemed quite tame. But then we are all poper adrenaline junkies now :D

The boys are off skydiving and jumping the nevis at the moment and we are planning on some celebratary drining as Rich and Mike are scared of heights so a major acheivement for them. Then going to collect Team Dutch and go and do some slightly tipsy street leuge racing. 6 people, one track, one spot for glory over 6 races. Should be a good one, if we all survive intact :))

Managed to hire a car for 2 days and are going to burn down to Milford tomorrow morning and are booked on an overnight cruise over the souns. Means you can see it at dawn and at dusk. So looking forward to getting some awesome shots!!

More later...

Had a excellent day today after the carnage of the Hat party last night. Good night boozing and then spent the morning flying down the mountain on little go cart things for the leuging. Me, Rich and Mike were racing and these German dudes started playing dodgems so we brought on the pain. Cue for much ramming of the krauts and vicotry for the good guy's :)) Wicked fun and quite cheap so recon that we are going to have a rally with all the lads on Sat morning.

http://www.flybywire-queenstown.co.nz/photos.htm

Went for the fly by wire thing this evening which was awesome. managed to get mine up to 161.5 km/h which was the fastest of the group and only 9 km/h slower than the record. basically it is a surf board with handlebars that you are strapped too with a massivo fan attached to the back that you can steer with . You are towed up the side of the hill then dropped and have to steer the plane through the swing gaining momentum while you swing. Got a free t-shirt as well and some savage pics :))

The boys are off for a sky dive tomorrow morning and think that i might go shopping as most of my clothes are falling to bits and have loads of admin to do (washing, etc). But might see about the canyon swing which is the highest in the world. Don't worry though dad as it's not a bungy. Basically a giant swing accross a canyon.

Watch this space...