Well we've made it to civilisation in the beautiful Andean hill town of Banos after another truly amazing week after having left Quito. Firstly we cycled down Cotopaxi Volcano, which is the highest active volcano in the world! We then met up with the rest of our group and guide and then took a public bus to some hot springs where we got to chill out for a night before heading to the Amazon. Ruth managed to fit in a hydro massage at the complex as she wanted to wa...

We've arrived after the longest journey yet, it lasted 23 hr's but we got here in 6???????????????? (crossed dateline) Still acclimatising with the help of 4 beers at 11am due to the footy. Not sure whether now drowsy due to beer, excitement of game (unlikely), jetlag or altitude! Woken up at 8am by beeping horns and shouting due to start of Ecuador vs Costa Rica the party is still raging down the streets (including caracas and drums) what spirit!!! It's incredib...

Well time is running out for our adventures of New Zealand- and we find ourselves in Kaikoura, the whale watching capital of the world. We hoped to get a brief glimpse of these natural wonders before we left these shores. Unfortunately having booked ourselves on a boat we awoke this morning to torrential rain and sleet!! There has been a sudden cold front here and even up to a foot of snow in Christchurch. This is a little worrying as our plane leaves from there ...

Another exciting week with Bungle!!! Fortunately we've only had our trip to the glacier dampened by bad weather - we weren't impressed with the equipment when 40 mins into a 6 hr excursion the waterproofs failed and boots started leaking but at least the sandwiches weren't soggy ...!! It definitely wd have been far more impressive in the sun but it rains there 270 days a year so we weren't too unlucky apparently!! The scenery is still stunning us and each jo...

Whistlestop, nighttime tour of Christchurch - we're here for 12 hrs and most of that we'll be sleeping following a fantastic trainjourney from West to East side of S.Island via Arthur's pass. This is reputed to be one of the top 4 train journeys in the world, so in honour of Pete we changed our plans at the last minute and booked a return ticket. The scenery was phenomenal topped off with a bottle of wine, the only thing threatening to spoil it was a 70yr old in ...