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114 DAYS

Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Chile & Argentina

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Posted on December 16, 2010


NEW FRIENDS

You do meet some fabulous people in odd places, and Chile had its fair share. We
flew into Santiago, then headed west to Valparaiso on the coast for a few days.
Then south by overnight bus (love the semi cama fold right back seat option) to
Pucon, a lovely lakeside town with a spectacular view of the mighty Villarica
volcano (more on that shortly). Last two stops were Puerto Varas in the Lake
District, and then south to Castro on the island of Chiloe before heading across
the Andes to Bariloche in Argentina. A bit of a whistle stop tour, and summary,
but time is running out with only two and a half more weeks to go, so finding
time to update the blog has been a little short!

Anyway. My/our favourite people deserve the credits below

Valparaíso

Top place goes to Boris, my Chilean cooking instructor for the day, who taught
me how to cook pebre (a kind of salsa), razor clams with parmesan, Chilean corn
pie and then poured pisco sours and wine down our throats. Tough day that one…

Bottom of the pile in the loveliest, craziest city Chile has to offer goes to
the dog who followed us for a whole 45 minutes whilst we were doing a sight
seeing walk in the hills around the city, and who we had to dodge into a shop
and hide for 15 minutes to get rid of. Never say hello to a stray dog in
Valparaiso unless you want a shadow for the day – those of you who know me and
my love for animals can quite rightly point the finger at me for that episode.

Pucon

Lots of lovely people to mention here, including the fabulous Tamara, the
Austrian/Egyptian girl working at Ruka Rayen, a fantastic farm twenty minutes
outside of the town where we stayed for four days or so. She not only helped me
make a birthday cake for Alex, but taught us how to belly dance and Viennese
waltz at the subsequent celebrations round a campfire, ably assisted by Pablo,
horse rider extraordinaire and also the son of the local Mapuche chief. Pablo,
it turns out, does a mean salsa. Couldn’t make that night up…

Special mention has to go to ‘mi amiga’ Connie, the adorable five year old niece
of the owners, who lives next door, clearly didn’t care about the language
barrier and gave great cuddles. She nearly got kidnapped.

Final Pucon credit has to go to Mauricio, the president of the Pucon Mountain
Climbing Association who got me (Alex was storming it) through five hours of
climbing in the snow and ice up the Villarica volcano, crampons, balaclava, ice
pick and all. If I’m honest, the climb was horrible, and the chlorine and
sulphur being pumped out at the crater lung crippling, but the views were
unbelievable, and the slide back down in the snow on a plastic tray (!!) was the
best way ever invented to get back down a volcano. Awesome fun.

Puerto Varas

Got to hand it to Jess, our white water rafting guide, who got us down the
biggest white water I’ve ever seen and who was in training to raft full time.
Only problem came when she was doing some impromptu ‘how to get back into the
raft unaided’ drills to test herself on a quiet part of the river, and couldn’t
get back in. In fact, all of us were in the river happily floating past the
landing point at that moment, admiring the three local snow capped volcanoes and
waving merrily to the people on the bank. Last time I rafted that river was ten
years ago at the end of summer and it was a LOT quieter…

Chiloe

Our host at our hostel in Castro was fantastic, but did look quite a lot like
Smeagol from Lord of the Rings. Slightly unnerving. I had a couple of days
really good horse riding with Wilkie, who, despite his limited English and my
limited Spanish, was the perfect guide. My horse, Llavan (I think that’s how you
spell it), was just brilliant – a really forward going chestnut quarter horse,
who took the instruction to canter gently along the beach as a full on
invitation to switch up the gears and gallop for Chile. Compare it to getting in
a car and finding out it’s a Ferrari for all you non riders out there happy
days…

Posted on December 2, 2010December 2, 2010


NZ – NORTH ISLAND.

The adventure continued…

Hubble bubble toil and trouble... geothermal action in Rotorua. The gases may
turn the branches a pretty colour near the bubbling bits but it still all
smells. Cas´s patented stopping the smell technique. Either do this or take a
gas mask. You don´t get used to it no matter what the people who work there
say. Right by horrible smelling sulphur-y smoke. It was quite impressive in a
molten bubbling kind of way. Green lakes? It´s just not right. No food
colouring used promise. One of the many Martinborough vineyards in the Wairarapa
valley just outside Wellington. Vines to make wines. Tongariro National Park,
North Island. First volcanoes of the trip. Tongariro NP Maori war canoe at
Waitangi. This is still put to sea, and takes (if I remember rightly) over 100
people to paddle it. Fabulous, and not a little intimidating. The head of the
Maori war canoe, Waitangi. The flags of Britain, the first flag of NZ, and at
the top, today´s NZ flag. Waitangi. Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Where NZ as we
know it was born. Detail from the Maori Treaty House, Waitangi. Paua shell eye
decoration on the Treaty House. A little blue penguin doing its own thing in the
Bay of Islands. Bottlenose or common dolphins. We saw both in the Bay of Islands
and my zoology degree was a long time ago. Our boat went through the hole in the
rock. Madness. Happy to be out the other side. Top driving lady boat captain.
Orca, Bay of Islands Alex takes some great photos... Orca and the scientists
studying them. A good day at the office. Orca. Done.
Posted on December 2, 2010December 2, 2010


NZ – SOUTH ISLAND.

Some of our favourite places in South Island. North Island to follow…

At our friends´farm. Lush. My first motorbike. Out with Ken on the farm - I
held so tight to the handlebars that the grips left an imprint in my hands.
Didn´t get out of first gear either! Will do better next time... One of my
favourite places. Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown beach. Head of Lake Wakatipu -
think Lord of the Rings Two very happy campers at Lake Wakatipu on the way up to
Glenorchy. One of the best places I´ve ever been. Spot the tourists. The bum
bags were to hold our crampons, so at least that´s a bit mountaineering-y. On
the glacier at Franz Josef. The awesome Tasman Sea at Karamea at the northern
end of the West Coast, South Island. Mirror Tarn, Oparara Basin, north of
Karamea. Alex and our kayaks, Abel Tasman National Park, post orca visit. Dinner
time for them or me? At the Acquapackers, Abel Tasman National Park The Japanese
garden in Nelson, north end of South Island. Spot the Cas. Cas, garden, Nelson.
The centre of New Zealand. Only it´s not really, it´s about 50k away. It´s a
nice plaque though. Big pointy thing pointing to the not centre of NZ (Alex
explored all this - I was lying in a hammock in the sunshine at the
backpackers). The gorgeous Kennepuru Sound, part of Marlborough Sounds. Alex at
Kaikoura, swimming with dusky dolphins. It was just a *little* bit cold. Dusky
dolphins, Kaikoura Wandering albatross, Kaikoura. Wandering.
Posted on December 1, 2010December 1, 2010


A LITTLE BIT OF SYDNEY.

Sydney. Opera. House. OK so it was sunny for one day. I swam here. It was cold.
Icebergs at Bondi.
Posted on November 26, 2010


LAST DAYS IN NZ…

One thing I´m loving about our travels (apart from weird keyboards where the
buttons don´t do what you want them to – especially tricky in Japan) is the
amount of stars we can see. Though mainly they´re different to ours, Orion has
made an appearance (upside down), and if it´s cloudy, you can get yourself to
Waitomo and sail in a little boat through a cave with millions of glowworms
hanging from the ceiling to get the same effect – absolutely magical.

From Waitomo and the glowworms we headed north, through Auckland and out the
other side as far as we could be bothered to drive in one day, ending up in an
unpronounceably named town called Whangerei. We had planned on staying in a
gorgeous little hostel out of town that offered horse riding, but when we
eventually found it, it was like a creaky hotel from an episode of Scooby Doo,
complete with odd caretaker and crazy lady who was living in the hut in the
garden, so we left smartly and found ourselves a much nicer place in town run
by a lovely couple (though we didn´t see the wife who probably wisely left her
husband to deal with all the backpackers) and a multilingual golden retriever
called Sage who was in charge of cuddles. It also had a bath (equals heaven) but
some selfish bugger locked themselves in it pretty much all evening so I am
still dreaming of a steamy bath with lots of nice smellies.

The next day we carried on north to the Bay of Islands, and to the Waitangi
Treaty Grounds where NZ as we know it was born out of a treaty between the Brits
and lots of Maori chiefs. Fantastic place with a real sense of history, both
Maori and European, side by side.

We spent a few days loitering around, and went on a great day long boat trip
where we managed to see lots more orca close up – this time a mother teaching
her juvenile to hunt sting rays, very successfully as it turned out, though not
for the sting ray.

We did meet a few rays with better luck at lunchtime when we stopped on one of
the many islands and went paddling - when there are orca about the rays seek
shelter in the shallow sandy bays where the orca can´t go. They seemed pretty
happy to come to within about a metre of us, and I´m going to leave it there
before the inappropriate Steve Irwin jokes start bubbling to the surface.

So, add in lots of common and bottlenose dolphins as well, oh and a friend from
the UK (hello Tan) and his girlfriend who were, by complete coincidence, on the
same boat trip as us and you´ve got a great day out.

Tan´s girlfriend Rachel must get a special mention for lending me her ghds
before we all went out that night to drink ourselves silly. I´ve had to cope
without them for the last three months and was pretty giddy with the excitement
of having lovely straight hair again. She´s a keeper that one.

So, barring a very drunken night in Auckland with some Irish guys, that´s been
our NZ trip. It´s only really now that I´m so glad we´ve got this blog and
the brief diary I´m keeping, otherwise we´d just not be able to remember it
all.

I have loved our time in NZ more that I ever thought I could. It´s a place with
real heart, the most laid back, friendly and welcoming people I´ve ever met,
and some of the most glorious scenery. Awesome. We´ll be back.

P.S. It´s Fang-er-eye. Clearly.

Posted on November 20, 2010November 29, 2010


VALPARAíSO BY NIGHT



Posted on November 8, 2010


UPDATE PART THE SECOND – BEST THINGS AND RANDOM THINGS AND THINGS TO GO AND DO

Note to self, must be better at uploading things as we go along. In the
meantime…

1. Sea kayaking with killer whales is the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Fact.
One swam right under the water taxi we took out to the start point with a shark
in its mouth. Which despite its wriggles, was pretty much screwed I’d say. We
spent two days kayaking and hiking in Abel Tasman National Park and it was just
amazing – also loved the Aquapackers, the backpackers on a boat and the mad
German who threw himself off the roof into the sea on several occasions (we
weren’t drunk by this point and I only jumped in from the deck. Alex took some
persuading but he did throw himself in too).

2. The best things happen when you don’t plan them. We decided on the spur of
the moment (and with no idea of what we were getting ourselves into) to head
(as it turned out) to the most upmarket, luxury lodge-esque backpackers I’ve
ever seen, on Kennepuru Sound in Marlborough Sounds at the top of south island.
If you ever do a trip to NZ, you have to get yourself to Mike and Linley’s pad
at Hopewell, by 4wd, water taxi, float plane or just walk dammit. Go mussel
picking at one of the farms in the Sound with Mike, who’ll then cook you up the
biggest bowl of the most enormous green lipped mussels you’ll ever see, or just
head out at low tide and pick up as many oysters as you fancy from the shore.
Sit in a hammock, go kayaking or just lounge around in the hot tub before
picking up one of Linley’s fantastic pizzas. They sell v good wine too and are
more than happy to drink with you.

Happy days. Go there. Now. And tell them we sent you

3. Kaikoura on the east coast is justifiably known for the opportunity to swim
with the very beautiful, nosy and sociable dusky dolphin (enough to make even
the best swimmer feel very ungainly and OMG it was FREEZING), but is probably
less known for the terrifying WWII style siren that went off about 2am the night
we were there. They should let people know that it’s the best way to summon the
volunteer fire crews, and not a warning for an impending tsunami that will hit
the hostel 20 yards back from the beach that you might well be staying at. Those
unfortunates who know what I’m like when woken up suddenly can only imagine the
reaction.

4. As a favour to me, if you’re ever in Christchurch, please go and say hello to
the rescued little blue penguins at the Antarctic Centre – there’s one called
Alex who has a broken beak and only half a left wing – aaaaaaahhhhh

5. Don’t fly from Dunedin to Christchurch to Auckland then drive to Rotorua on
the day after a booze fest at the races. It’s not clever, and Rotorua is very
smelly (all the sulphur from the hot springs etc) when you get there. And no,
you don’t get used to it.

6. Best surprise – Wellington does the most AMAZING Bonfire Night fireworks at
the harbour, got very giddy about that whilst Alex fell asleep!

So we’re now in Waitomo, having driven here from Welly today, in gorgeous
sunshine past massive snow capped volcanoes (!!). We’ve got a cave trip tomorrow
planned (lots of glow worms but hopefully no Gollum), and then we’re heading up
through Auckland and out the other side to Bay of Islands, where we’re looking
to do nowt for three days or so before heading back to Auckland to fly to Chile
on Sunday. I love this country – it’s just amazing, and I know Chile and
Argentina will be fantastic too, but I’m already a little sad about leaving NZ.

Posted on October 25, 2010October 25, 2010


UPDATE PART THE FIRST.

Free internet access at a backpackers is a wonderful thing, and full marks to
the Green Monkey in Nelson where we’re currently staying. Lovely private double
room, great host, and free cake every day – it’s like staying in a ski chalet
(except that there’s no extremely dodgy free wine that only tastes bearable
after six glasses). 

We’re having a very lazy afternoon after a hectic couple of days – perfect
opportunity to hog the computer and update the blog before heading over the road
to the local pub for more local beer and cider and some fud. They don’t serve
any there, but they have an admirable arrangement with the quite classy
take-away next door where you go in, order and pay for your fud, and they
deliver it to you in the pub. Rocking goose.

More pics to come too – we’re lagging a bit behind on those, but just put it
down to the time difference :).

Have to say my brain is getting slightly mushy these days so hopefully this is
all in the right order, but this is the first instalment about the size of our
trip so far (since the mad river canyoning day…).

We ended up staying in Arrowtown near Queenstown for about five days, weather
just glorious and we had a lovely place to stay, so it was quite hard to tear
ourselves away. We did make it to Milford Sound, which was as majestic, grand,
dramatic etc as you would expect it to be, but I wasn’t expecting the drive up
there to be so good too – temperate rainforests, giant parrots, endless
waterfalls (as there had been a fair bit of rain at night), and switchback roads
and a nasty steeply sloped tunnel that added a slight adrenaline rush too. We
did a cruise for a couple of hours, and saw Fiordland crested penguins and a pod
of juvenile bottlenose dolphins as well. Mezzin.

After leaving Arrowtown we headed through breathtaking scenery (it does that a
lot here – makes falling asleep on car journeys impossible) to the west coast,
and up to Franz Josef, where it proceeded to boot it down quite impressively for
the first day we were there. Not to worry, the glacier wasn’t going anywhere
(though it can move up to 5m a day in summer if it feels like it apparently), so
we raided the local bookshop and holed up in a cafe for a few hours (Alex’s flat
white addiction and my admiration of the NZ version of cheesy chilli nachos
grows daily).

We did tackle the glacier on a half day walk the next day in the glorious
sunshine , thoroughly pissing off the poor unfortunate gap yah
backpackers staying in the same place as us who’d done the full day trek in
the pouring rain the day before. I only laughed quietly and to myself I promise.

to be continued…

Posted on October 20, 2010


PORT DOUGLAS PHOTOGRAPHS

Pics from Port Douglas. There are very few as much of our time was spent
loafing.

The beach seemed to go on for (four) miles! Cas on the beach - this was a
crocodile free day. The view from our front door (much of our time was spent in
the pool - no crocodiles or stingers) Makes you want to dive right in! Me +
beach
Posted on October 20, 2010


TOKYO PHOTOGRAPHS

We got there in the end! Here you go, a carefully chosen selection of our
favourite pics from Japan – nearly a month after we left…

Early morning at Tsujiki fish market - the largest in the world...
Tokyo or Blade Runner.... building the Sky Tower
Our room at the Ryokan Sawanoya - a traditional Japanes Inn (was fab)
Kamakura temples - about an hour south of Tokyo
Alex and one of his many vending machine drink experiments
Kamakura - calligraphy on 'tori' - the gates into a shinto shrine
Imperial Palace parkland - central Tokyo
How to transport your charges to nursery school
The only corner you can see of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo
The awesome massive hanging animated globe at the Museum of Design & Innovation
The plastic food shop - where restaurants buy the plastic food that advertises
what they sell
Kamakura again The childrens' buddha - Kamakura Shinto wedding at Meji shrine,
central Tokyo - a ridiculously hot day, she was dressed sitting next to a mobile
air conditioning unit

 


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