Australia and its creatures of death

Hello readers.....

You find us sat in an Internet cafe in KL just about to leave Malaysia and head, via Hong Kong, to Vietnam. We left Australia over a month ago so thought that it was about time we further shared our Antipodean trials and tribulations with you.

First stop Sydney(home of the Sydney Funnel Web Spider - the most venomous spider in the world) and after a trouble free flight with Qantas (who have been excellent) we checked into Big Hostel on Elizabeth St. A reasonable enough place full of crusty student backpacker types and a couple of other slightly disgusted looking thirty something couples not unlike our goodselves. If this trip has taught us one thing it is that we dont like 'student' style accommodation anymore! Not that we have expensive taste in hotels you understand.....more that we dont like scooping half a pound of margarine out of the communal peanut butter every morning when 'enjoying' the 'free' breakfast (lets face it hostel owners - you would do well to charge for this!).

The hostel was actually ok, the room was quiet (not the norm) and the location was excellent. We had a few nights in Sydney and got stuck in as soon as we arrived. We took in quite a few of the sights on our first day including the Opera House/Bridge and Harbour area, heading into Chinatown that evening for some cheap and tasty food at a really neat little Malaysian restaurant called Mamak. Our Sydney Highlight came the following day when we headed accross the harbour to the excellent Taronga Zoo. http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/taronga-zoo.aspx This is a great zoo with a fantastic array of animals all in really nice enclosures. Well worth a look if you are ever there, and in a really spectacular setting with great views back accross the harbour to the Opera House and Bridge. The Bird Show is a must if you ever go here.....a highly entertaining display of amazingly well trained birds that cannot fail to make you smile.

We spent a fair bit of time exploring some of Sydney's other sights including the fish market, which was excellent, allthough better if you intend to buy some fish! some of the nicer suburbs such as Surrey Hills and Paddington (cool craft market here) and also some of the city's eating establishments. One of highlights of these was the famous 'Harry's Cafe de Wheels' Pie stall down near the docks, a great pie with mash and mushy peas for a couple of quid....another culinary highlight was a Vietnamese place called Xic Lo in Chinatown, our first introduction to Vietnamese staple 'Pho'.

Before we moved on we thought it best to take a swift day trip to the famous Blue Mountains area outside Sydney. The trip was doomed from the start as we awoke to a gloomy, overcast and drizzly day, not unlike the ones that we occasionally see at home. We boarded our train and headed to Koona Wagga Wunga Munga or some such place destined to arrive about two hours later. Unlike the UK the Aussies have managed to make trains run on time (they have to be good at something I guess ;-)) and sure enough we pulled into our station bang on time....The weather had deteriorated somewhat during the journey and we were glad to have packed our waterproofs! Stoically we got off the train and pushed on through the foul weather to the nearest cafe with a spare seat and indulged in a an excellent lunch. Visibility outside the cafe appeared rather poor(about 3 metres) and as we had come to view expansive vistas of mountains clad with Eucalyptus trees we decided to cut our losses and head home. Another two hours on the train and we were back in Sydney, none the wiser as to the famous Blue Mountains scenery......still, I guess we tried!!

Having looked into travel options twixt Sydney and Melbourne we opted for a cheapo flight with Virgin Blue and headed west.

We checked into our hotel, great location and cheap rooms....only to find that they had the builders in and works starting at 7am every day in our wing! Excellent....that will explain the cheap rate then!! Still, we booked through an agent's website which mentioned nothing about the aforementioned works. Roblanda's hotel complaint skills are legendary and we made short work of 'charismatic' (in the same way that a piece of wood is charismatic) front of house manager Greg who quickly came to his senses and upgraded us to the business floor. Much better thank you.

We really liked Melbourne and spent a very enjoyable few days pounding the pavements and enjoying the sights. Queen Victoria Market was a highlight here....best collection of deli type stalls anywhere. A rather too brief (Robin's fault for not getting in touch sooner) lunch was had with Robin's erstwhile Oddbins colleague and itinerant Australian Marco Hall, now back in his home town. Good to see you sir.

Robin struggled to keep recently self-confessed post-Vegas gambling enthusiast Yolanda out of the massive Crown Casino complex but finally relented and allowed team Roblanda to have a cheeky flutter on the penny slots. A great decision as Yolanda promptly won $50....good work partner. On the same day Yolanda was roped into a street magic act with an american man in a strait jacket called Magic Brian....this was particularly amusing for Robin as Yolanda had been trying to push him to the front of the crowd for audience participation since the start of the show.

Our visit to Melbourne coincided nicley with the world famous Melbourne Comedy Festival so we organised tickets for a few shows and got stuck into that. Check out the clips and links below to see who we saw.....all were excellent and made us laugh a lot. David O'Doherty was particularly excellent, there's loads of stuff on youtube.com so check him out....

Wil Hodgson - from Chippenham!! His show was called 'Straight outta Chippenham' so we had to see that as it is only four miles from our house...

http://www.wilhodgson.co.uk/

David O'Doherty - Funny Irish man with a casio keyboard....very funny just to look at, never mind his excellent songs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAG18UUDPPI&feature=related

Kristin Schaal (aka Mel from HBO's Flight of the Chonchords) - very very funny show....loved it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl4cCCDqOyE&feature=related

We awoke on our final morning in Melboune to more biblical weather, so promptly donned our full waterproof gear for the half mile hike through Melbourne's rugged CBD area to collect our hire car. Once safely ensconced in our stylish white Toyota Corolla we put the pedal to the metal and headed out of town (via Burger King) to start our Great Ocean Road camping adventure. Thankfully the weather improved!

NB - we had high expectations of the 'Great Ocean Road', due in part perhaps to its name. Note also that we had just come from NZ, by far the most scenically beautiful place in the world which had great ocean roads a plenty.

Our first stop was at a campsite near the town of Wagga Bugga Mugga and we managed to find a decent pitch and got the tent up in the dry, good timing as it pissed it down for most of the night. We happened to put the tent up right next to a small tree and, as Yolanda watched Robin erect the tent, she happened to notice a Koala Bear about ten feet above us in the tree....result! Not being the most dynamic of creatures the obliging little fella posed for lots of pictures and generally kept us company for our nights stay.

We awoke the next morning, our first night of camping in Australia, a country known for its many creatures of death, to find a menacing looking spider running around inside our very small two man tent.....excellent! After a few minutes pondering the predicament Robin deployed the hard outer case of the travel scrabble set to excellent effect thus saving the fair maiden Yolanda from almost certain spidery death. Species identification in the aftermath was difficult as Robin had taken something of a shock and awe approach to pest control, however after careful identification Roblanda agreed that it was almost certainly a 'Red Backed Funnel Web Blue Ringed Octopus Box Spider' and that they were both lucky to get out of the tent unscathed.

We spent the next couple of days driving along the Great Ocean Road stopping frequently to look at the many fine views and spectacular sea cliffs. It's eroding at a hell of a rate and makes for an ever-changing landscape. Overall we enjoyed our trip along this famous road but left feeling that it was not quite what we expected....the road itself doesn't actually sit right on the coast for the main part, rather on a plateau several hundred metres back from the cliffs. The result of this is that you dont actually see the sea for large parts of the drive and that you have to stop at the many viewpoint carparks along the way and walk several hundred metres from each one to view the various coves, grottoes and arches. It is indeed a spectacular stretch of coastline when you can actually see it, just not that engaging a drive. We would suggest that the road is perhaps renamed 'The Quite Good Ocean Road' or the 'near the Great Ocean Coast road' and that the road south to Kaikoura in New Zealand or perhaps the road around the Coromandel Penninsula (also in NZ) inherits the 'Great' title instead as these are somewhat better roads in our humble opinion.

We headed away from the coast and spent a night at the slightly odd but strangely enchanting town of Mt Gambier. An excellent campsite and a chance to catch up with the laundry followed by a poke around the town's bizarre blue volcanic crater lakes in the morning.

After a brief and windswept lunch stop in the lovely coastal town of Robe (thanks for tip Marco) we finished up the day on the Fleurieu Pennisula, in the rather charming town of Goolwa. Some free internet at the library, a couple of cold beers in the most Australian pub in the world (pub and bookmaker in one dangerous combo!) followed by an excellent wood fired pizza and we were ready for bed.

The next day we headed up to the famous winemaking town of McLaren Vale to say hello to some more of Robin's wine contacts, this time Linda Domas and Steve Brunato at Linda Domas Wines. Despite being absolutely exhausted from 5 weeks of almost continuous work during one of the toughest vintages they had known (there was a heatwave halfway through vintage which meant that the grapes ripened too quickly and 13 weeks work had to be done in 5 weeks!!) they took the time to show us around and let us try all their latest wines straight from the tanks. Once again we were looked after royally and taken out for a lovely meal at a local eatery....thanks again guys, we had a fab time and haven't laughed so much in ages!

The wines were tasting fab as usual....if you ever thought that Aussie wines lacked finesse and were over-concentrated, alcoholic monsters then think again...these wines are elegance vinified! Available in the UK through Novum....though you may be lucky and grab a bottle of the delicious Boycatt Merlot from your local M&S in the coming months. For more info check out http://www.ldwines.com.au/

We waved a fond farewell to Mclaren Vale and headed towards Adelaide for a couple of nights suburban camping, stopping on the way at the excellent Warrawong Wildlife park where we were lucky enough to see a Duck Billed Platypus. The weather in Adelaide was foul (mega windy and loads of rain) so we spent most of our two days there in the campsite kitchen or the local mall/cinema before heading to the airport for the flight up to Broome. Unfortunately we never made it into Adelaide itself.

We had spent a bit of time looking into various Broome related ideas, one of which was hiring a car and driving south down the west coast to Perth. This along with everything else in Broome was unfortunately prohibitively expensive so we resigned ourselves to a week of sitting by the pool in the sweltering (a word which has new meaning in Broome - the most humid place in the world in April) heat of the WA sun. Despite feeling pretty broke and there not being too much to do in Broome on a budget we made the best of time there and topped up out tans nicely. We watched a couple of beautiful sunsets over the stunning Cable Beach and generally had a very relaxing week.

We had already started to realise that a combination of a very weak exchange rate(2 AUS$ to the pound) coupled with a pretty expensive country was taking its toll on the Roblanda finances and during our time in Broome decided to cut our time in Australia short by a fortnight and head up to Asia early in search of some cheaper food and lodgings. A quick phonecall to Qantas and all was sorted. We were to depart early and head to Malaysia!

We still had a bit of time in Oz and headed down to Perth to hook up with friends Emily and Travis for a few days. Due to our last minute change of plans we were a bit stuck for accommodation (Em and Trav would have put us up but they were still building Archibald Towers and currently stopping with Travis' folks....) so after trawling the internet we booked ourselves into 'Mountway Holiday Appartments'. If ever you are in Perth and stuck for accommodation we would suggest sleeping in one of Perth's many lovely parks or bus shelters before giving any money to this festering cess hole of an establishment. We are not going to say any more on this for fear of not being able to stop.

Despite the rather grim accommodation (which in fair wasn't too bad once you got used to the smell) we had a fab time in Perth. It was lovely to see Emily and Travis and they looked after us superbly. Some great meals out, an excellent day touring the wineries and vineyards of the Swan Valley and a fab BBQ at Trav's folks house on our last night in Perth. We had a super time and will doubtless be back when you have finished building your enormous house! Thanks again guys we had a lovely time and hope to see you in Corsham at some point in the future.

Our time in Perth was a lovely end to our time in Australia and it was all too soon that we were once again packing our bags and heading off to yet another airport on our way to Kuala Lumpur.

New Zealand - It's like Lord of the Rings

Hello Fans....

It seems like a disgracefully long time ago that we last updated this blog of ours...this is for good reason as it was back in February when we last sat down to share our travel experiences with our avid readers (32,000 at last count)

So you last left us as we were heading to the mystical land of New Zealand. A country made famous in recent years by the booming sales of Anchor butter in the UK. The good news is that, on the 29th January, we touched down safely at Auckland airport, picked up our trusty steed (a 2.0l Ford Focus, in Silver) and sped off up the country's only motorway North towards Whangarei (two points to mention here.... 1) when I say 'sped off' we did in fact stay within the speed limits unlike Robin's own mother a few years ago whose flagrant disregard for this fine countries laws landed her with a stern talking to and a weighty fine! 2) the use of 'Wh' in NZ place names is actually pronounced as an 'F' as such Whangarei is pronounced Fangarei and so on....this becomes amusing when visiting such places as Whakapapa....)

Whangarei was a great place to start, sunny, warm and hospitable. We spent the first few nights at a peaceful backpackers lodge in the countryside called Little Earth Lodge. A bit of exploring on the first night lead us to a cracking little fishing village, the name of which eludes us, but which had the best fish and chip shop this side of Babbacombe. The next day we borrowed helmets and torches from the guy at the lodge and headed down into Abbey Caves to look at the amazing gloworms - fab!

From Whangarei we headed North towards the Bay of Islands region where we spent a few nights. This was the first time that we had set foot inside 'Darth' (our tent, on account of it's uncanny likeness to the leader of the Dark Side) since our 'bad camping' experiences in Chile. Well, what a contrast, NZ campsites are quite simply amazing. Incredible facilities, immaculately clean in a way that no other country's campsites could be, and unbelievably friendly staff....what a great place!

The Town of Russell in the Bay of Islands was a super place to spend some time and we both loved it. Quite beautiful and the surrounding area was a delight.

From here we pushed on north towards the most northerly, northen most point in the North Island....Cape Reinga. We intended to camp up here for the night but we had made good time and decided to try and get a bit further back down the pennisula before stopping for the night near the incredible 90 mile beach. You can actually drive down the full length of this bad boy at low tide but not in a hire car apparently....this didn't stop the intrepid travellers venturing on to the sand for a quick drive through the surf though ;-) This is a really amazing and wild looking beach which stretches for miles and looked simply stunning as the sun went down.

Next stop on the way back down the Island was at a fab little campsite near the Kauri Coast (so named becasue of the enormous (trunks with 5m diameters!) Kauri trees that used to dominate the area. A few remain as they are now protected against all uses other than the odd ceremonial Mauri canoe). The campsite was run by an lovely old couple who ran night time Kiwi spotting walks in the local nature reserve. The walk was guided by Herb (like the garden!...his words, not ours) and was a wonderful experience. Kiwis proved elusive but we did manage to hear them calling to each other.....and saw an enormous eel that Herb fed with a large ball of cheese!

After a brief overnight stop in Waiwera, just north of Auckland, we headed East towards the Coromandel Penninsula. This is a delightful area, quite stunning and surrounded by wonderful turquoise seas, rocky coves and golden beaches. We spent some time exploring the town of Coromandel and then headed across to the beach resort of Hahei. This is a beautiful place and should definitely be on the list of most beautiful places in NZ - a big list admittedly. Highlights of this area included the beautiful, rocky enclave that is Cathedral Cove and the madness that is 'Hot Water Beach'. The latter is a very unusual experience. At low tide you dig a hole in the sand and hey presto, 60 degree C water comes bubbling up through the sand from the subterranean springs. How cool is this....not very actually, it was almost too hot to stand on never mind sit in...only the lapping of the waves kept things cool enough to be bearable.

We had a total of three weeks in the North Island and at this stage we needed to start heading south in the general direction of Wellington. The next major stop on this journey was Lake Taupo. On the way there we stopped in Rotorua for some bubbling mud action at 'Hell's Gate', a slightly expensive and unbelievably smelly place but strangely wonderful nevertheless.

We based ourselves for the next few nights at the town of Taupo, a lively little place right on the shores of the crystal clear and turquiose waters of the Lake. There's loads to do in this area so we got the tent up at yet another great campsite and got stuck in. Huka Falls was a real highlight here, the most unbelievable quantity of clear blue water being forced through a very narrow gorge with spectactular results....right up there in Roblanda's list of the world's best waterfalls! Just a bit further downstream from here there is another watery spectacle at Aratiatia Dam - a couple of times a day they open the gates on the dam and an awful lot of water suddenly fills the rocky gorge below....very cool indeed.

Next on the list of 'fun things to do in Taupo' was fly fishing. The area is world reknowned for the quality of fishing and we decided to find out why. As a mutual christmas pressie to ourselves we decided to hire a guide and head off into the back country with a view to catching a large trout or three. Our guide was called Marcel and looked after us well, do look him up if you are in the area - though please mention to him that it would be sensible to advise his clients to take insect repellent with them when they go fishing for the day! We had a really great time on the stunning and isolated Waipunga River, Robin rekindling an interest from his days as a boy, and Yolanda learning something new. We lost a couple of fish each (yeah, yeah - they were massive) and after some testing conditions and a battle which lasted for hours Robin finally hauled in a beauty - a nice fat 3lb Brown Trout.

After a cracking Thai meal on our last night in Taupo we headed a little further south to the aforementioned hamlet of Whakapapa - the staging post for one of the most famous walks in NZ, the Tongariro Crossing. This is a pretty testing days walk (17kms) up and over Mt Tongariro, one of a group of three large volcanoes that dominate the landscape for miles around. Neighbouring Mt Ruapehu is still active and coughs out some rocks and mud every so often, this doesn't stop the skiers and snowboarders however as it is an active ski resort as well as an active volcano! The third peak of this angry trio is the conical and enormous Mt Ngarahoe or 'Mt Doom' if you've watched those films about Hobbits from a few years back.

The Tongariro Crossing was in retrospect a fantastic walk coupled with a great sense of achievement. At the time however it was a fantastic walk interspersed with moments of abject terror. A combination of steep drops, scree slopes along with Robin's fear of steep drops and Yolanda's fear of scree slopes all combined to make this a testing experience for all concerned. The views were spectacular however and overall we did enjoy ourselves (we think :-/ ).

After resting our weary limbs for a day or two we were able to head on to our next stop which was the beautiful Art Deco town of Napier in the famous Hawke's Bay wine region. Napier was flattened by an earthquake in the early 1900's and was all rebuilt in the architectural style of the period- it's a great looking town. We spent two great nights staying with Gordon and Pia Russell where we were treated to some cracking NZ hospitality. Gordon is Chief Winemaker and GM of Esk Valley Wines so we were treated to some fabulous wines to accompany Pia's wonderful cooking and given the run of their fabulous beachside house. Gordon took some time out to show us around the winery and taste the latest wines straight from the barrels - amazing! All are available in the UK and are really well worth a try. http://www.eskvalley.co.nz/ An added bonus of staying with Gordon and Pia was that they had just got a kitten - called Flash - who was a constant source of entertainment but seemed determined to wreck the house in Gordon and Pia's absence, in a thinly veiled attempt to get Roblanda into trouble...

Our visit to Napier happened to coincide with the much publicised 'Napier Art Deco Weekend'. This is an annual celebration of all things Deco and really was a joy to behold. All of the town's residents (and we mean all....young and old) spend the weekend and preceeding week dressed in period costume and attending all manner of social events from dinner dances to vintage car rallies. The atmosphere was amazing as were some of the outfits!

We were neally at the end of our three weeks in the North Island. Our last destination was Wellington before heading across the Cook Strait to Picton. We spent a thoroughly enjoyable few days in Wellington staying with Yolanda's family (Kev and Ruth) who showed us around the area and looked after us superbly. They have a self contained garden flat which we had the run of and a very well stocked cellar, the contents of which we were encoraged to drink! We had a blast here and were priveleged to meet our first Spoodle! (Kev and Ruth's dog, Monty, a Spaniel/Poodle cross) Thanks so much guys, we had a lovely time!!

From Wellington we took the car and ourselves accross the water to begin our South Island adventure.

The trip across the Cook Strait was a nice little jaunt in it's own right. The crossing takes about 2 1/2 hours in total but most of that is taken up during the careful navigation of the Marlborough Sounds. This is a really beautiful boat trip helped in our case by the beautifully sunny and calm conditions.

We disimbarked from the 'Interislander' at Picton and from here drove straight down to Blenheim in the heart of the Marlborough wine region. The main reason to stop here was to pay a visit to one of Robin's wine contacts, the slighty insane Brian Bicknell at the recently aquired Mahi winery.

Brian was a fine host (we've been lucky in regard to fine hosts thus far!) and spent loads of time with us over the couple of days we were there. Lunch, tasting, vineyard tours...you name it, we did it. It was a cracking and highly entertaining time and we both laughed a lot. The wines that Brian makes are real hand-crafted beauties, most from single vineyard sites and all really quite amazing. They are available from Novum in the UK if should wish to purchase and we whole heartedly implore you to do so. Check out http://www.mahiwine.co.nz/ and once you tire of the lengthy content ;-) check out this American wine evangelist maniac Gary Vaynerchuk wax lyrically about Brian's 2007 Sauvignon Blanc - a highly entertaining watch! http://tv.winelibrary.com/2007/12/21/power-friday-tasting-buckle-up-episode-376/

After waving goodbye to BB we headed on down the coast to the nature fest that is Kaikoura. The drive down here is really remarkable, right along the coast with mountains on one side and wild ocean on the other, quite stunning, and with the added bonus of wild fur seals right by the road (and we mean right by the road) just as you approach Kaikoura itself. Very cool indeed especially as they were obliging in front of the camera.....work it ladies!

The town of Kaikoura is a pretty laid back kind of place and is in a really beautiful coastal setting but the real reason for being there is the abundance of marine wildlife - so abundant are the whales, seals, dolphins etc. that local rumour has it that Attenborough filmed all of the critically acclaimed Blue Planet series here on his own without having to leave the comfort of his hotel room.

As keen wildlife enthusiasts we duly purchased our whale watching tickets for the following day and after a fitful nights sleep in a noisy campsite boarded the good ship SS Frodo and headed out to sea. We were quickly rewarded by three excellent sightings of Sperm Whales two of which were thoughtful enough to perform their clever tail in the air trick as they headed down into the depths. After about an hour of whale watching we headed back to base via a pod of hugely entertaining Dusky dolphins! There were dozens of these crazy beasts all jumping out of the water and doing their trademark flips for the cameras. We defy anyone not to grin like a cheshire cat whilst watching this delightful spectacle!! That said 30 minutes later Robin was not in any shape to do any grinning as he was gripped by a sudden bout of sea sickness...not a good sailor, despite the rumours.

Next stop on our tour was to be with Rik and Sarah at the house of Cousin Sloth in Christchurch. An excellent time was had here and once again we were looked after royally. Tickets for the England one day match against NZ had been arranged so a boozy day was had here watching England get a proper shoeing...we also managed to catch up brieflywith Officers Chris and Lou of The Yard who had flown out especially to keep the Barmy Army in check(we were quite pissed so perhaps they could confirm that we did actually meet up with them??!).

After the gentle pace of life in ChCh we felt the need for a dose of Adrenalin - we are so EXTREME its unbelievable - so we set off for the amusingly named town of Geraldine and set up camp at the HQ of Rangitata Rafts http://www.rafts.co.nz/. Rik and Sarah drove down after work and joined us for a night of camping before the following day's rafting. This turned out to be a really great day and was a ambition realised for Robin. The rafting company were great and super organised. The river was awesome and had some truly incredible grade 5 rapids which were both terrying and fun at the same time! Following a swift BBQ and saying farewell to Rik and Sarah we headed west in the general direction of Queenstown.

We spent a few nights getting to Queenstown and on the way took in the spectacular lakes Tekapo (for a swift nights camping with some nosiy neighbours who Robin took issue with) and Pukaki(the bluest lake you could ever imagine) and also the wonderful Mount Cook National Park. Mount Cook is a big-ass mountain and is where Sir Edmund Hilary practised before taking on Mt Everest. We did a cracking walk up the Hooker Valley and listened to the huge chunks of glacial ice crashing down into the valleys below, an eerie and incredible experience. There was a climbers memorial near the carpark which was unfortunately rather well subscribed and illustrated just how dangerous this mountain is.

We got to Queenstown in the middle of some foul weather and found a campsite a bit out of town but conveniently situated next to a very cool hot tub spa kinda place http://www.onsen.co.nz/pools.php with great views over the Shotover gorge. This was the perfect antidote to the rubbish weather!

There's loads of things to do in Queenstown and some great places to eat, notably Fergburger http://www.fergburger.com/fullscreen.html - a fine establishment which is unequalled in our minds! We spent the morning looking out over Queenstown and the stunning Lake Wakatipu from the Gondola station above the town. Robin bought a cheapo fly fishing rod and proceeded to irritate some rainbow trout by pulling them out of the lake over the following days!

After our first visit to Queenstown we set off to drive to Milford Sound. This is probably NZ's most famous attraction and justifiably so. Words will struggle to do justice to this incredible place. It is truly incredible and we urge you to go. Just the road to get there, which takes in the Homer tunnel (dug by hand!!) is one of the most breathtaking routes we have ever seen. Towering walls of rock, crystal clear rivers, verdant forest and gushing cascades of water all combine to produce a truly humbling environment. The sound itself is a super deep inlet with gargantuan tree-clad cliffs that tower into the sky around you. We saw it on a beautifully fine day but it would be equally as spectacular in bad weather as many waterfalls erupt from the rock walls. Now you may think that the UK gets some rain....this place gets 8-9 metres (yes metres) a year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's pretty moist....

On the way back from Milford sound we stopped for a night at a great little DOC campsite (Dept of Conservation - guardians of all things nature in NZ and quite possibly the finest organisation in the world http://www.doc.govt.nz/ ) at a fine spot by a river called Deer Flat - perhaps the most perfect campsite in the world.

A brief two night soujourn back through Queenstown was long enough for us to get our previously thwarted trip on the famous Shotover Jet http://www.shotoverjet.com/ which was great fun and an excellent Christmas pressie from Robin's mum - Thank you again!! We got off the boat and then headed along the lovely Crown Range road to Wanaka.

Wanaka is a cracking little place that we both loved. Appropriately sat on the shores of Lake Wanaka this is super little town and would defo be on our list of places to live in NZ should we ever consider such a thing. Whilst here we took in a lovely agricultural show which was a highly entertaining way to spend a few hours - sheepdog trials rock! - and a great little cinema called Cinema Paradiso which was filled with old armchairs and sofas and did great homemade ice cream! Here we took in the Coen brothers latest offering 'No Country for Old Men' which was a masterpiece, if slightly dark....go and see it!

We waved a teary farewell to Wanaka and drove through the Haast pass (yet another incredible road - this country is amazing, sooo much spectacular scenery!) to the Glaciers of Fox and Franz Josef. We had a good look at the Fox glacier first (retreating at a fairly spctacular rate if the signs (and Al Gore) are to be believed) which is (sh*t running out of 'spectacular' - type adjectives) ..........a bodacious sight :-/. We were also entertained by the rather bold Keas (alpine parrots of some confidence) who were tucking into various car and bicycle parts in the car park!

As we moved on up the road towards Franz Josef a rain storm, biblical in its enthusiasm, descended from above. The prospect of camping in this was not much fun but being the brave explorers that we are we got the tent up in a brief intermission and dug in for the night. An early but very worthwhile start got us to the serene Lake Matheson in time for sunrise and the most beautiful reflections you could imagine. Then a quick peek at the equally impressive Franz Josef Glacier and we were on the road again.

We were definitley on the home leg by now, as far as NZ was concerned, and melancholy thoughts of departing this special country started to nag. We spent a few excellent nights at some lovely lakeside campsites either side of Arthur's Pass where Robin - by now an angler rivalled only by JR Hartley - bothered some more trout. Arthur's Pass, another awesome road through another dramatic glaciated valley was a venue for an overnight stop at pehaps surprisingly, the noisiest campsite in the world - right next to noisy freight railway yard, a main road and some irritatingly loud Israeli's.

Rik and Sarah, our hosts from Christchurch, had already suggested that we join them once more in Christchurch for our last night in NZ, an offer which we gladly accepted. Our return visit enhanced further by the addition to the household of two new kittens, Roxy and Ralph. A great meal at the fine establishment in Merivale known only as Tuto Bene(ke) was a fitting end to a quite wonderful chapter to our trip.

The following morning after an expensive trip to the post office to rid ourselves of excess baggage, a swift cappucino and farewells to Rik, Sarak, Roxy and Ralph we headed to Christchurch aiport and set off to the land of burning beds, Vegemite (lets face it, it's no Marmite) and many creatures of death that is Australia.

That's all for now folks....we are currently in Malaysia and will update you as to Austrlian goings on in due course. Off to Hong Kong followed by Vietnam and Japan after that so any hot tips on places to see or stay will be greatly appreciated!

They've only gone and done it!!! (written the next blog update that is - not got married in Vegas!!)

Well it only seems like yesterday ;-) that we were sitting in the humid climate of Iguazu writing our last (well...only) blog posting. Thank you all for your patience and sorry for being rubbish at keeping this up to date....we could bore you with sorry tales of expensive and infrequent internet cafes but we wont...!

So....

After leaving Argentina we headed off to Chile with much anticipation and excitement. First time in Santiago for both of us so we were really looking forward to it. We had already been told that our choice of hostel was excellent and rightly so - if ever you find yourself in Santiago on a budget, Happy House Hostel in the Barrio Brasil district is the place to stay....really great.

After a few days mooching around the (not particularly exciting) city we headed back to the airport and collected our hire car from Alamo (more about these guys later -it's not a happy story either). A fine vehicle (Vauxhall Corsa Saloon - a beauty) which despite its rather rustic appearance, filthy interior and empty washer bottle would actually turn out to be a bit of a reliable workhorse. We crammed our stupidly heavy luggage into the boot, breathed a sigh of relief and headed south....

First stop was a pretty nice little campsite near Lago (that's lake folks!) Rapel. Mucho tranquilo and all very relaxing...this was a great stop off for the following day as we had arranged to visit the excellent Cono Sur Winery in Chimbarongo (one of Robin's Novum contacts).

Cono Sur were great hosts and we had a good few hours there touring the winery, vineyards and cellars followed by an excellent tasting and a really lovely lunch. Great wines, available in most UK supermarkets and before you ask, no, we're not on commission! http://www.conosur.com/

From here things began to deteriorate!! Our plan in Chile was to hire the car and drive south to the Chilean Lake District (an area well endowed with natural wonders according to our guide book), maybe getting as far as northern Patagonia and the 'mystical' (read 'shite') island of Chiloe. On paper this looked good and we were right up for some walking/camping and general wilderness buffoonery. Unfortunately it was not to be....

Our first campsite at Lago Rapel had been pretty good as campsites go. Grassy, flat, clean and near a lovely lake. It turns out that this must have been the best campsite in Chile! From here on we struggled. We should have known it was was going to be bad when we arrived at the next campsite (a dustbowl in a forest - hmmm...nice) and saw the posters warning of the dangers of Hantavirus (or Rat AIDS as we chose to call it from here on). A rather nasty rodent borne virus with a 50% mortality rate in humans. Campsites in Chile are pretty prone to this if they are not kept spotlessly clean (which they are not - far from it in fact) and everyone is responsible with their food and rubbish (which they are not either). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hantavirus We pitched the tent in the dust and embarked on a meal of (dusty) pasta in a dust sauce. Things got better as we were finishing dinner when a small scorpion decided to show its face from under the table and stroll around our dinner plates for a bit....which was relaxing as you can imagine.

All in all Chile didn't really get much better than this.....fair enough, there are some spectacular landscapes, particularly the volcanoes in the Southern Andes, but really very limited infrastructure (one road down the middle of the country - no good for touring really as you can only go back the way you came) and very little interpretation or signage for tourists anywhere.

The lake district paled by comparison to ours. In fact it was a bit of a tourist destination for Chilean masses and as a result was more like Blackpool or Saaafend. Not the peace and tranquility of the Andean wilderness that we had been lead to believe by the guide books....If we went back we would definitely head for either the Atacama Desert at the top of the country or go way down south to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego - and wouldn't do it on a budget either!

One of the very few highlights of this part of the trip...no, actually, the only highlight of this part of the trip was our day at some really very cool thermal springs hidden away in a steep gorge in the Andes http://www.termasgeometricas.cl/ this was a really amazing place and we thoroughly enjoyed wallowing around in the unbelieveably hot waters follwed by the odd dip under an icy waterfall. Great road to get to it as well....really windy and past some spectacular rivers and volcanic fallout. Go here if you ever have the misfortune to find yourself in this part of the world....it makes things better!!

After one too many nights among the rat AIDS infested campsites of southern Chile we decided on a whim to see if we could change our flights and get the hell out of there a little earlier than planned. A quick visit to the LAN Chile office and we were sorted. Only thing was that we were a thousand kms. from the airport and the flight left the following evening - best get in the car right now then! The Chile dash!

After a fine piece of driving from The Colonel/Robin/Beener/The Beanmeister/Snake/RC (delete as appropriate) we arrived back at the Alamo car rentals desk in Santiago airport (having previously phoned to tell them of our changed plans) and proceeded to be on the wrong end of the worst example of customer service either of us has ever experienced. Truly astonishing. They overcharged us and wouldn't accept it, they were rude, confrontational and then decided to add some extra charges on as well, despite telling us at the start of the rental that the price was fully inclusive....When they threatened to charge us even more and that we could take it up with Head Office Yolanda had to be physically restrained. Truly unbelievable attitude (Alamo, not Yolanda!!) We will never use Alamo again. The flight out of Santiago was slightly delayed so we sat and watched a group of geriatric Americans on some tour or other try to figure out the departures board...highly entertaining...lots of tracksuits and fanny packs...it was like a scene from Cocoon...

In light of the changed flights we were now faced with the prosepct of a week in LA. Reports about LA were not great with most people telling us that it was a bit of a dump....as a result we had planned to see if we could change our flights to NZ as well and just get there a week or so earlier. On arrival at LAX the Qantas office was closed so we vowed to call them the following day and jumped in a cab bound for Hollywood. Yolanda had booked a great hostel (no commission unfortunately!) http://www.orangedrivehostel.com/ which was one block back from Hollywood Blvd. and pretty much right behind the Kodak Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. A great place to be if you want to see the famous Hollywood sights. The difference in customer service in the US having come from South America was staggering...the USA gets a pretty bad rap from the UK media on the whole but in reality it is a great country with some amazing people....we had an absolute ball....LA also gets some pretty bad press but we loved it and would urge everyone to give it a fair go...loads and loads of really cool stuff to do. We ate pancakes, went to Venice Beach, did an open top bus tour of Hollywoood and Beverley Hills (no Beckhams anywhere to be seen). Also went to a very cool place called Farmer's Market which claimed to be the first Farmer's Market in the world...allowing local farmers to sell direct to the public. http://www.farmersmarketla.com/ We had been warned by my brother to 'just act normal' should we see any celebrities but thankfully we didn't have to as there were none to be seen - the bus driver had seen Will Smith the day before though, so they do exsist!

The unbelievably helpful girl on the desk at our hostel had advised us that two days in LA would be long enough so we now had a bit of a quandry on our hands...we were having a blast in the States so do we stay for a bit longer or crack on to NZ?? After a bit of time spent trawling the interent we had hired a car, booked a hotel and were heading to Las Vegas!! Yolanda had been before but it was to be a first for Robin and he was very excited.

The next morning we picked up the car (free upgrade - get in - even more massive american car - such a shame as we were carbon nuetral until this point) and headed east to the bright lights of Vegas. This would turn out to be a particularly bizzare couple of days.

We checked into to our 3000+ bedroom hotel (The Monte Carlo) which was slap bang in the middle of the strip and pretty much next door to The Bellagio and it's amazing fountains. If you never been to Vegas you must go - it rocks! Kitsch - yes, tacky - yes, full of freaks, misfits, gambling addicts - yes....but really it is an incredible place to spend a few days. Each hotel is an economy the size of a small country, never mind the town...gambling revenues are around the $12-13 BILLION mark - thats per year!!....We went to some great restaurants including Thomas Keller's Bouchon http://www.venetian.com/BOUCHON.aspx, played the slots (Yolanda won about $50 on the last night - great work!), went to a Cirque de Soleil show called 'O' at The Bellagio which was AWESOME go if you ever get the chance - you wont regret it. http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/o/o-Las-Vegas.htm

We booked a trip to the Grand Canyon on our third day which we were really looking forward to, but prior to this got roped into going to a timeshare presentation at Planet Hollywood on the promise of some free cash and dinner - sounds too good to be true right...we were skeptical but went along for a laugh (2hrs being talked to by a 50 something all-American salesman called Joey who, to be fair, was very good at his job in a slightly desperate, sweaty, Glengarry Glenross kinda way!) and sure enough we walked out of it with $80 casino credit and a free buffet dinner for two....the $80 credit was quickly turned into $84 dollars cash thanks to some nifty slot play by team Roblanda. All good so far. We had our dinner and went to bed ready for our 6.00am departure to the Grand Canyon. This would turn out to be one of the most bizarre days of our lives!

All was well on the bus...we saw the Hoover Dam - very low water level and getting lower each year thanks to Las Vegas growing and the climate getting hotter - and drove on to the Grand Canyon....about half an hour before arrival the bus driver got what sounded like quite a serious phone call and proceeded to infom us that the top four floors of our hotel were on fire! (we were on floor 31 of 32 so this was excellent news as you can imagine) 'Oh bugger' said Yolanda, going a sickly ashen colour....'I think I left the iron on.....I feel sick'. The next hour was spent desperately trying to get a message home to reassure parents etc. in case they had seen it on the news and then trying to get some info from the hotel as to just how bad it was.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7210121.stm Thankfully everyone got out unharmed as the fire started at around 11am.

It turned out of course that Yolanda's fears of being sued by a Las Vegas Hotel were unfounded and that the fire was started by a careless welder on the roof of the hotel. We got back from the (snowy) Grand Canyon (dont really remember much about it cos of all the chaos about the fire - but the photos look good!!) and checked into the really rather swanky Mandalay Bay Hotel as instructed by the staff of the now closed Monte Carlo. We were given a complimentary suite as compensation for the disruption but at this stage didn't know whether our belongings had been trashed in the fire. To be fair the Vegas hospitality came up trumps and we didn't have to put our hand in our pockets once for the rest of our stay... Breakfast, dinner, clothes if you wanted them, laundry, toiletries were all provided FOC. (we checked our bank account the other day and they have even refunded the cost of our room for the first 3 nights before the fire...!)

After another 24hrs we had managed to get our belongings back in their entirety, all undamaged by smoke, fire or water....phew!...that wouldn't have been good - some were not so lucky judging by the rather smoky looking patterns on several suitcases that we passed.

All in all we had a truly amazing time in Vegas and would both go back at the drop of a hat...it was a slightly weird few days what with one thing and another but hey....that's Vegas, what did you expect!!

Next posting will be Roblanda's North Island NZ Adventures......coming soon (yeah right) to a PC near you....

We'll also try and get some more pics onto Flickr soon but dont hold your breath as it takes ages to upload 3-4Mb pics in an internet cafe...we'll try but no promises....words may have to suffice.

Thanks for reading, more as it breaks....

Miss you all

Roblanda xxxxx

We have made it to NZ!!!!

Well hello!

So sorry for the delay.....didn't realise we had such avid readers!

Coming soon in the next blog (to be written very soon and with pictures!) is:

Chile's rat AIDS
Bad Campers
Thermal Spas
Chiloe
Car hire muthas
Getting out of Dodge
LA
Vegas baby
Yolanda's hotel fire trauma
........and beautiful NZ Chapter 1

Much love

Roblanda xx

The first episode......Argentina

We are in Iguazu at the moment, arriving here from Buenos Aires a couple of days ago. We went to see the falls which were absolutely amazing :) then on into the rainforest for a couple of days staying at an Eco Lodge called Yacutinga (www.yacutinga.com).

It was lovely there although much to our (well actually Yolanda's) distress there were WAY too many spiders. They just hang there in their webs inbetween trees being 'big' and waiting for you to walk into them! Nice!!! The accommodation and food were lovely and the people were really great. The humidity there was about 80% so 'hair down' wasn't really an option and it had to have been around 35 degrees so we have spent alot of time sweating! We did a couple of really cool rainforest walks, one group saw a rattle snake but we didn't unfortunately. We did however see some really cool monkeys :) from our raft/boat thing on the Iguazu River.

Now we are back at Iguazu catching up on emails and updating our blog, flying back to Buenos Aires tomorrow. After just the one night it's off to Chile for some more exploring.

All our accommodation has been really very good. Although in the first place in BA, we were allocated a bedroom that was right above a night club....this night club closed at 8am each morning which meant that even with ear plugs sleep was almost impossible. We managed to change rooms the following day and all was well again. We have slept soundly since thankfully.

The temperature hasn't dropped below 35 degrees since we arrived in Argentina and because of the humidity is really uncomfortable - I think we are averaging about 3 showers a day at the moment!

We had a good New Years Eve in BA. Everywhere was chocablock but we eventually found somewhere to eat. Food was overpriced and a bit average as one would expect but we got a bit caught out as it was approaching 11pm. We were eating our meal and drinking our wine on the restaurant's terrace at Puerto Madero and all of a sudden the masses around us started counting down to the New Year! We couldn't understand it! Do they celebrate at a different time here?! We are sure we set our watches right - we did what the captain on the plane said! Before we knew it the restaurant played the Europe classic 'Final Countdown' and the fireworks started......we went with it in an elated yet confused fashion and saw in 2008. The next morning we checked the time with the hostel and sure enough, the clocks went forward on the 30th December but nobody had thought to mention this to us! Just as well we found out as we had a flight to catch that day!

More news as we get it.........photos when we can xxx

And they're off!!!!!!!!!!!

We start our adventure on the 27th of December 2007 - First stop Buenos Aires where I believe Tango (the refreshing soft drink) is made.