New Zealand, Chile & Argentina

Como estas? well thats it the enitirity of my knowlegde of the spanish language... well at least until it comes to food where ive become quite a conisur.  But anyway thats enough of that, im gonna pick up from where i left ya if i can remember any of it. I do recall i was about to do something with Dolphins.................thats right swim with them.

We eventually arrived at our destination namely Kiakoura after another lengthy cross country car ride.  Getting to the site was realitively short and painless, finding them however took a little bit longer but once the target was acquired and were kitted out in our funky wetsuits we were soon wallowing in freezing cold ocean with our equatic friends, the experince however was definately worth it.  The visiblity was pretty poor but once these guys started flying around you it didn´t matter.  Everywhere you looked you could see dolphins, sometimes they would swim with you, other times at you, over you, round you, under you, your looking one way you turn around and another one is almost sucking your face or eyeballing you, which i have to say was a little bit of a shock at times as they would often appear from nowhere.  It was also a good thing that there moverabilty was far better than mine otherwise there could have a fair few collisions.  What made the experience even more intense was we were previously informed that Mako sharks and killer whales also inhabited the waters, fortunately for us the sharks feared the dolphins and the killer whales had not been seen in the area for some time.  In any case i was too busy trying to interact with the doplhins to worry about the other residence of this partricular part of the Kaikoura pennisular.

Our time with flipper and his chums however soon came to an end and we were once again on the road heading north to see as much of the north island as we could as our time in NZ was running out.  We high tailed it straight through wellington and hit the Tongiriro region of the north island where we partcipated in another scenic trek through beautiful ruggered mountainace terrain before heading off for a three day canoeing trip down the Wanganui river.  The trip was pretty amzing as we pretty much had the river to ourselves for the 3 days and the experience was further highted by the many rapids we ecountered and conquered in our little plastic canoes.  Some of which i might add were a little more hair rasing than we were initially lead to believe (the things people tell you or more to the point dont tell you to get your money!!!!!) needless to say we survived the ordeal thanked poseidon and our lucky stars and carried on our journey east to Waitomo.  Waitomo is an area in the north island which is renowned for its many cave formations and we decided to investigate some of them by partaking in some Black Water rafting and underground shannanigans so booked ourselves on a tour. We abseiled down a 30m hole into the cave and for three hours we experienced, wading and drfiting on rubber rings down a freezing subterrainean river with only glow worms as a light source overhead, clambering through narrow holes barely big enough to fit my head and climbing up underground waterfalls, three hours was just not enough time , i could have spent the whole day down there but for certain parts of my body, which at the time where in disagreement.

From Waitomo we set off to Auckland to spend our last few days before boarding our flight  to the Americas.  It was good to experience a bit of the city life after being away from it for so long but that didn´t last.  However it was good to see Nicola and Paul and the very cute new member of the family, Maria, who i believe is now 8 months old (If im wrong Nic you can slap me later) and clearly wasnt phased by the invasion of her home. By the way mother dont be getting any ideas i´m just relaying facts and experiences.  Moving swiftly on we had an enjoyable time with Maria and Co but it was soon time to say adios and board our flight to the Santiago.

After a gruelling 10 hour flight where i spent most of the time becoming extremely well acquainted with my Knees, we arrived in Santiago, Chile, tired, bruised and not knowing the lingo, i still have no idea how we managed to get to the hostel.  We didnt spend too much time in santiago as neither of us was too impress with it, instead we hightailed it to Mendoza, Argentina.  Mendoza was by far a more beautiful and vibrant city.  We spent our days there wondering around the plazas and parks enjoying the cheap and wholesome steaks (there big by the way) and enjoying the vibrant nightlife, which usaully kicked of at about 3 in the morning.  We even managed to squeeze in a horse riding expedition with a local Goucho (cowboy) who took us on a tour of the surrounding countryside and  i have to say it has been one of the most hairrasing experiences i have had so far.  The guy was asking us where we wanted to go and we had no idea where we were let alone where we wanted to go and on top of that our horses my in particular had his own agenda and refused to do anything i told it but would just stop and eat then take his own route, poor thing doesnt realise how close he was to becoming dinner for the evening.  He would have gone down well with a glass of red and some salad.

Anyway most of our experiences after that were of the fine wines, big steaks plush buses and the hustle and bustle of cities like Buenos Aires which even after the nightcluib fire at new years managed to retain its reputation as a happening city.  One regret i have though was not being able to go and see a Boca Juniors match at there famous stadium, where there still worship Diego.  (I´m talking football for all those who are looking perplexed at the moment).  From BA it was time to head to Iguazu one of the great natural wonders of the world.  These water falls can only be described as awe inspiring and they make Niagra look like a baby dribbling.   Im not even going to try and produce an indepth description of them as i would not do it justice, you have to see them with your own eyes to believe.

From Igauzu it was off to northern Argentina and then the salt plains of northern chile via the spectacular Andean mountain range where we spent a few days exploring the salt plains at breath taking altitudes (literally) in preparation for the Inca Trail and Macchu Picchu.  From San Pedro we hit Iquique on the coast of Nortern Chile where we partook in some paragliding over the neighbouring sand dunes and over the city where you could see seals playing in the sea it was so clear, after which we took off for Peru.  We spent a short time in Nazca to the north and Arequipa in the south before arriving in Cusco.  The journey to Cusco from Nazca turned out to quite an eventful one as not only did it take us 17 hours on a rickerty looless bus but halfway there we were delayed for a further two hours due to road blocks caused by local farmers who weren´t too happy about certain government policies.  They had literally ripped down a road sign found some abandoned tires (at least i hope they were abandoned) and set the whole lot alight. I took the bus driver and a few of his party quite some time to persuade these guys to clear the road infact some aggresive tactics were used i.e dragging the sign of the road with people on it, before the issue was resolved.  It was resolved however and we were soon climbing the mountainace road to the Inca capital of Cusco .

O.k I´ve had enough of writing so i´ll tell ya about the trail once the blood has returned to my fingers and the weather turns bad so you´ll have to wait until then.  We´re in La Paz at the moment trying to adjust to this insane altitude, the city is the highest in the world at 3800 meters, you just have to frown up here and your out of breath.  So needless to say this is tiring stuff so I´m off to lie down and suck on some coca leaves.

So Mi Amigos hasta luego

Don Phillipe de la familia Bongomin

Adios