Hey there everyone! We've been in Peru for a month now and have seen glaciers, been horse trekking in the mountains, rafted the rapids in Urubamba, stroked a crocodile in the Amazon jungle and finally made it to the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu. The scenery is beautiful, but it's very cold up here.... had to stock up on wooly hats, gloves and extra layers! Brrrr!! The altitude is also causing a few problems.... just crossing the road leaves us out of br...

Hola, hola, hola! Well, here we are in our 13th country and third continent. We crossed the international date line and landed in Chile before we had left New Zealand. Work that one out!! Santiago is a bustling metropolis surrounded by spectacular mountain ranges which dwarf the city skyscrapers. We haven't done much sightseeing as we've been zonked out with jetlag, but we managed to stay awake long enough for a two hour crash course in Spanish to in...

Sorry for the gap in news.... if you check out the photo albums, you'll see how busy we've been! Back in the South Island, the rain finally cleared and we did a hike up Fox Glacier before heading down through tranquil Lake Wanaka to Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of NZ. We watched someone else do a bungy jump (Chicken? Us? You betcha!!), drove to Paradise (oh yes!) and then headed west to stunning Milford Sound in Fjordland National Park. Next we skirt...

So here we are in the land of mountains and fjords, glaciers and volcanos, Hobbiton and Middle Earth, kiwi fruits and kiwi birds, and many, many sheep! It's now the 10th May and we're stilll looking for a hobbit, but we've been having a fantastic time. We bought a sassy 1988 white Ford Telstar in Christchurch, named her Delilah, and have travelled around half of the South Island so far. The scenery has been spectacular, with bright blue skies and autumn le...

Our final stop in Australia: Melbourne. Obviously, we saved the best till last. We've been having a fabulous time with the Bond family (no relation of James, but a cousin of Claire's dad). We had a champagne Sunday lunch with an old family friend, Cindy, who took us sightseeing along the beautiful Melbourne coastline. Thanks again, Cindy! We checked out the art gallery and the Kylie exhibition at the arts centre. Claire looked fabulous in those gol...