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Mud glorious Mud!! Bit hot though!!

These are a few pics, look at the landscape!! also check out scottie! and the cool poster enticing kiwis to fight in ww1!!

NEW ZEALAND!!!!!!

WAHEEYYYY what a reverse culture shock!!! In New Zealand EVERYONE understands us and the Queen is on the coins!!!! ha ha The people are also really really freindly!!!! First stop was Auckland which was a nice place, the suburb we were in was a bit posh but really cool. So the first day we went to the new zealand museum which was great and had lots of maori stuff and lots on the wars which seem to have forged both new zealand and oz. The next day we decided to hire a van...called scottie!!! yeh!!! so off we set to explore North Island, such a cool place where everywhere that you look looks like lord of the rings!!
First stop Waitamo caves where we saw some amazing caves and glow worms, next we headed to Taupo but because it was getting cold we decided to tailor our stops to where there were hot springs so for this night and the next we stayed near taupo and rotorua near hot springs, really great, it was cold outside but in the hot baths it was brilliant! We also had a mud bath! Which i can still smell on my towel now!!

SANTIAGO CHILE

Well Mendoza was okay nice tree lined town with lots of references to wine. But alas suze was ill again so it was a bit dodgy with doing anything really. We also suspected that the andes to chile might be closed and we were to fly out in 2 days so had to book a flight over the mountains. It took just 45 mins, straight up and down with lots and lots of bumps on the way which was a bit scary! But then we were in the second major city of the trip! Santiago de chile!!! It was pretty cool, big place but very modernist in its design which spoiled lots of it! he he. On our last day we went into the national library and i complelety confused this guy who just didnt understand why i was in the national library of chile when i didnt speak any spanish....i tried to tell him it was because of the building (see above) but he still couldnt grasp it. Anyway Next stop NEW ZEALAND and was have to say goodbye to South America. its been a long arduous journey but what an adventure! I must say that i was looking forward to new zealand largely so i wouldnt have to be so bothered about getting mugged but the reality is that we never saw any crime in south america. Had some dodgy scenarios but nothing, i saw more crime last year in barcelona than here.
Anyway we got our night flight and headed off to our next continent....

Uyuni to Chile then back to Argentina

Well what a trip it was, now we decided to spend one last day in San Pedro to recover, it was positivley warm compared to where we'd just been. Just a shame we had to say goodbye to al our friends on the trip. They got dropped off in Uyuni but we had a lift back with another driver in the evening. Now that was an experience aswell, He didnt quite crash but broke down twice but loved a bit of terrorvision so that was okay. We stayed in another place with no running water and had to get up at 4am which none of us where particualry chuffed about, but hey at least it got us closer to chile! At 4am i saw the morning star low in the east that was amazing, so many stars and no one about but me in for a few moments. was pretty cool. So then we set off, the jeep was frozen and we saw dawn over the desert before arriving just before sunrise at the hot springs. We had visited these on day one and i'd gone for a swim but not today, they were steaming much more because it was so cold! anyway arrived back in chile and the next day got a bus to Salta in Argentina!!! wahey!! it was WARM, there were TREES, and it was so european except with an amazing latin american twist. We stayed at hostel del centro, a really really cool place with a great owner and staff. It was centro aswell and the first night we soaked up the evening heat and had a meal outside on the square. The next day we chilled out and just spent time in town, we then went for a steak dinner, it was argentina after all. I ordered one steak which was grea and suze ordered mixed meat platter and her plate came with two teeny little sausages on it! It wasnt until 20mins later that the second plate came, then the third, then the fourth! It was crazy. The next day we went to the museum in salta where they had found more inca mummies.
These three children were really well preserved after being on top of a mountain for the last 1000years! Really wierd and spooky stuff but shows the impact of the Inca even this far south.

The next day i think suzes steak dinner got the better of her and she was ill for about another week. So she was confined to bed and i was left to roam salta on my own. Nothig much happened i just skethced a bit and explored a bit. Next stop was Mendoza.