Saturday 31 December 2011

Akaroa summer sun, fun and lots of NZ wine


23rd Dec 2011-1st Jan 2012
We have spent the last week enjoying the xmas holidays in a small holiday town called Akaroa.

Akaroa is 1 hour south east of Christchurch, there are not normally many more than 500 residents. However for the xmas holidays loads of people from Christchurch head down to their batches (That’s Kiwi for holiday home) towing boats and jet skis to chill out for the week.

Now unlike cold northern hemisphere xmas holidays that means, Sun, Sea, Boats, Fish and summer fun!

Our Friend Gretchen’s parents have a ‘batch’ in Akaroa and Sarah and I were lucky enough to get an invite for the whole xmas break. So after the shock of the quakes we all headed down to Akaroa on Xmas eve.

The batch is a beautiful wood cladded house sat on the corner of a bowling green and playing field, with the beach only a 5 minute walk. The first job for Grant Gretchen’s dad was to hoist the NZ flag!




Akaroa has French heritage which is strange as it was first discovered by the English (Long story but the French told the English they were going so the English got in a faster boat and beat the French here by a few days!)

Xmas day was a beautiful day where the sun shone and the amazing NZ wine flowed. Unlike home xmas dinner is not a Turkey extravaganza but a seafood extravaganza! We had Cray fish, White Baite and Freshly caught smoked Tuna. In typical fashion the food was cooked outside on a BBQ.





 




Boxing day as in the UK is a quiet affair dedicated to getting over xmas day and drinking a little more great wine! We however decided with the persuasion of Nicks uncle to go for a game of boules at the green across the road. We didn’t expect to become addicted and go there 3 more times before we left!






We were again lucky enough to get to go out on Gretchen’s parents jet boat, Yes I said jet boat. Kiwi designed this boat is the same as a jet ski design, no propellers. With a big whopping V8 it makes a lot of noise and goes pretty quick! So we blasted out in to the bay and were lucky enough to see a group of Dolphins that swam all around our boat for 10 minutes jumping out of the water and playing around the boat. This was better than any tour we have ever been on to see dolphins!















Later in the week after eating and drinking too much we decided to take a hike up in to the hills on a cloudy day to get us back in the mode for our trekking next week. The walk was beautiful but when we got to the top we were not blessed with weather. However it was good training walking from Akaroa at sea level to 700 meters almost as high as England’s highest peak!




At the end of the week came NYE, the rest of NZ was under a foot of water as the North island had experienced record December rain fall but down in Akaroa the sun continued to shine! We had some drinks with Nick and Gretchen’s friends and went to a small local bar to see out 2011 and in 2012 (and yes Sarah was on the Jager bombs- oh dear!!!).

We need to say a massive thank you to Jen and Grant (Gretchen’s parents) for having us to stay and being so welcoming and accommodating over their xmas break, we appreciated it so much! Also a huge thank you to Nick and Gretchen for putting up with us for 2 weeks now, they still have another week of us in a few weeks we’re just breaking it up for them!

So 2011 has been and gone, but it has been an amazing year for us, we have been to many places, we have seen many things and met many people. We however have no doubt that 2012 is going to be equally as good. We’re going to miss the Olympic games, blessing or curse as we helped pay for them we’re not sure, but we will hear how great they are from family and friends with tickets.

2012 prophesised as the end of the world as we know it …..Lets see what happens they said that in 2000.


Monday 19 December 2011

Welcome to New Zealand...Finally... plus a little shaken!!

14th Dec 2011

So South America had one last sting in the tail for us, we arrived at the airport in Santiago a little early for our 11.30 flight at 7 pm.

By the time we had gone through immigration and checked out the duty free we settled in a bar called "The last pisco sour". Sarah made friends with the bar staff and ended up dancing around with them until 10.30pm when we heard the call for our flight, we finished off our drinks and headed for the gate.

Then came the first 20 minute delay for "refuelling", then 20 minutes later came the second delay another 30 minutes. By the time our flight should have left we were advised there would be no updates until 2.30 am!!! But we were being given a sandwich, great!

By 1 am we were advised that the flight was delayed until 11.30 am and we would be taken to hotels for the night, a night in a free hotel sounded good to us!

Unfortunately by 3.30 am there was still no sign of a hotel or any movement so we headed to the check in hall to try to sleep on the floor, outside the LAN checkin desk.

By 5 am the airport started filling up again and our sleep was over...We knew by now we had missed our connecting flight in Auckland so booked another at 3 times the cost of our last one!

By 12.00 we finally took off another 30 minutes late.

We were now on a day flight so unless we wanted to wake up in Auckland having slept all day we needed to stay awake again.

By the time we finally landed in Auckland it was almost 48 hours on the go and 3 hours of sleep....

We were met by our friend Nick and have spent the last week relaxing in Christchurch. What we were not prepared for the scale 5.8, 5.3 and 6.0 earthquakes followed by many tremors that was about to rock Christchurch on the 23rd December.

At the time we were packing our bags to head to Akaroa and the earth started to rumble, next the building started to shake....then things started to fall over...Having never been in an earthquake before I suppose survival instincts kicked in and we both ran to the door way then the front door and got out. Whilst outside the ground continued to rumble and all the telegraph poles swayed, then silence, and then we heard all the alarms and the dogs howling.

Over the next few hours the minor tremors continued until we were all sitting with a bottle of New Zealand pinot noir watching a movie it started shaking again, when it starts your not sure how bad this one's going to be. But this one got more and more powerful. The TV started wobbling, a full wine glasses fell over and Sarah and I bolted again for the door.

A surreal experience but it would seem a normal occurrence in Nz...James always said he wanted to experience an earthquake so that's ticked off the list!

We head to Akaroa on today for xmas and new year some fresh fish and diving is on the cards.

Not a lot more to report at the moment, job hunting and getting heads back in the work space.

Thursday 15 December 2011

South America- Top of the Pops

So this blog post is going to encompass some funky stats for you on our trip through South America. None of it is particularly useful but interesting maybe and potentially funny if you know us!


Number of countries : 6


Days in South America : 239 days (21st April to 15th December 2011) 


Cities/Towns/Villages stayed for 1 night or more : 43


Length of time on buses : 426 hours or 17.75 days or 2 and a half weeks solidly on buses!!!


Number of Bottles of wine drunk- too many, we are ashamed to mention how many.


Number of gym sessions : 35- hell yes!! (none in Bolivia though)

Nights camping : 29
Days trekking : 50

Spend:
So as you know Sarah is an accountant so yes we have an 'all singing all dancing' excel spreadsheet which tracks exactly how much we have spent and how much is left out of our budget. This is the average spend per day in each country in GBP (£):
Bolivia was interestingly the most expensive country as we spent the whole time doing activities and eating out, as the hostels don't have kitchens!! Argentina and Chile were so cheap the second time round as we spent so much time camping in National parks.

This is the total spend split (%) between activity, accommodation, transport and food for each country:
(please note James has nothing to do with this and objects to it every day)


Budget over spend :£220 in 8 months (average day budget was £50 for both of us)


Best Activity: Torres Del Paine 9 day trek, Patagonia, Chile.

Best City : Rio

Worst City : Quito

Best Hostel : Bannanas (Itacare, Brazil) 41 Below (Bariloche, Argentina)

Best Snack food : Tapioca and Acai (Brazil), Pop corn (Bolivia), Empanada (Argentina, Chile), Cherries in Santiago.

Best Steak : Argentina (Bariloche/Buenos Aires)

Best Beer : Brahma (Brazil), Caparinhas (Brazil)

Favourite memories :
Machu Picchu -  http://theotherwayroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/wedding-anniversary-on-inka-trail.html
Santa Cruz Trek - http://theotherwayroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/08/3-amigos-do-santa-cruz-huaraz.html
Huyana Potosi - http://theotherwayroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/10/condirri-trek-and-huayna-potosi-summit.html
Iguazu - http://theotherwayroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/05/iguazu-falls.html
Torres Del Paine - http://theotherwayroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/11/trekking-guide-to-torres-del-paine-full.html

Worst Time : Food poisoned by our tour guide at 4000 meters in a tent, snow outside and with no water.

Dodgiest moment : Driving down the runway of a military airport in a taxi with military personnel waving guns at us in La Paz.

Top Ten Natural Wonders :

1.Iguazu (Argentina)


2. Cordilla Blanca (Peru)


3. Glacier PIO XI and Grey Glacier (Chile)



 4. Uyuni Salt Flats (Bolivia)


5. Torres and Fitz Roy mountains (Patagonia)





6. Atacama deserts and Volcanoes (Chile & Bolivia)




7. Quilotoa Volcanic crater (Equador)




8. Chapada Diamantina National Park (Brazil)



9. Huacachina Sand dunes (Peru)


10. Chilean Fjords (Chile)



And Finally a video with some of the best pictures.



Enjoy, we did!!!

Wednesday 14 December 2011

S.AMERICA : Friends and Travelling buddies


As we are departing South America we decided to mention all the friends we made along the way and send them a message if they still read the blog!

Dan Shoup - USA – We spent 3 weeks travelling with Dan in Argentina and Peru, a great trekking buddy but cusses like a Texan. Favourite moments with Dan were definitely on a 4 day trek in a 3 man tent! A friend for life! Was really missed in Patagonia -  Favourite moments - “we fu**ed sh1t up!” “Im trying to have a fu**ckin Sh1t here!” “Do you think if we sawed an inch off this tent pole it may fit the tent?”





Danny and Natalie - NZ– We spent about a week or so with Danny and Natalie, and look forward to seeing them in New Zealand very soon! “How did that camera affect the budget danny?”




Lorri - USA – We spent about 2 weeks travelling with Lorri in Ecuador and Argentina. Sarahs BTF for life.



Cassy and Kassey  – OZ – Anyone for another glass of wine hey girls ;-)

Emily and ChirsUk and OZ – We met Emily and Chris over several bottles of Cachaca in Rio. “ Do you think we can drink two bottles of Cachaca?” Answer easily…oh dear. PS: We just finished the final episode of series 3 'The mentalist'- thank you!!




Vidjar – Columbian – Worked in our hostel 'Casa 579' in Rio a great guy to know if you want to know anything about anything!

Our Itacare family

Pete and Debs – UK – Our hostel owners for our 3 week stay in Itacare, run a great hostel and are pretty crazy to boot! Had the only cats James has ever not been allergic to! Favourite moments: “Lets get fu**ed up!” “ Sarah just make your own Caparinas you drink them too quick I cant be bothered” “ Did Sarah just fall off the stool….YES”




Cassidy and Chad – CAN – Two crazy Canadians, one from the jungle book the other from oil wealth. Only one thing to say to these boys “Its Canada day!!!!!!!!!”




Astrid, Lea, Liv, Kristine, NatukDenmark – Made the guys days by being prancing around in their bikinis all day on the beach and cooking them food. Hope you girls are all doing well back at home. And Kristine Sarah wears your jacket every day!!!! Thank you




Reza- USA : Surfs up dude!!!


King Louis and TertiusUK – “See you at 5 am for surfing Louis” ;-)



Bruno and Marilia - Brazil – Thank you so much for recommendations for great music, we listen to 'Seu Jorge' almost every day! Proof that Brazilians are some of the nicest people you can meet!



Simon and KatlinUk and USA – we met these lovely love birds at a mountain retreat in Peru, we did a day trek together but had little time, James completed a 3 day trek with Simon in rain snow sun and wind! Hope you guys are having a good time in USA!!!





BethUK – We also met Beth at the mountain retreat and in Cusco, unfortunately or fortunately for James Sarah did not get to party with Beth in La Paz!

Anders and IngenNorway – Another mountain retreat couple who got engaged the day we met them, so massive congratulations to them!

Huyana Potosi Crew

LindsayUSA – Our saviour on the second day of the trek swooping in with re hydration salts!!! We spent in total 3 weeks on and off with Lindsay making our way to Chile. Hope home is good but get back to SA asap! “Anyone for cheese?”




LeaFrance – Also on hand to provide medicine in our moment of need after food poisoning, so huge thanks due!!! Another hardcore mountaineer (She is French!). Also spent 3 weeks with Lea, most notably a very funny evening in San Pedro de Atacama where she demanded to be allowed to dance! “I don’t want a fuc*in' pizza I just want to dance!”




Johannes – DE – AKA 'Your Highness' the German Prince (thanks Lea) AKA the 'German machine'! We spent about 4 weeks on and off with Johannes following the same route as with the girls, but also in the lake district in Chile. He cooks a mean steak and was missed in Patagonia. We hope Ski school is good and James continues to eat Kuky’s for you, p.s. Sarah keeps talking about hitch hiking.




CalebUSA – We only had 2 days with Caleb while climbing Potosi but he livened the mood at moments of despair! Hope your travels are good. The only man to carry a red bull to the top of a mountain to get a photo for sponsorship from red bull, and have been too cold to open it.

Navimag ferry

Karen and Aaron – OZ – Hope Torres was as good for you as it was for us and it lived up to Galapagos J




KatherineUK – Katherine :We did the 9 day trek the walk to the hostel almost dying was the warm up!

D – IRE – Sorry we missed you in  TDP, but are definitely going to catch up in Oz, did you manage the full circuit in the end? ;-)

Canadians and 1 Dutch - Canada (strangely enough) and Holland – We met these guys on the Navimag, they all knew each other through their wives, and had convinced the three to let them go to Patagonia for 3 weeks!!!! Genius well done guys. We also travelled around the TDP circuit with these guys but they were crazy and did it 2 days less than us!

Hostal 41 below crew - So we stayed in Bariloche for 6 days in a great hostel with a great bunch of people, special shout out to Anna, Trent, Andrew, Carmen y Brad (AUS), Jo (UK), Isabel y Dominic (DE), Lucas y Whitney (NZ)