Since Friday we have been in Valparaiso, a two hour drive away from Santiago. We've had a relaxing three days here, and much preferred the ambience to that in Santiago. It's a really cool, characterful place, with cobbled streets, brightly painted corrugated iron houses and lots of little cafes, restaurants and bars. There's also stunning views down to the port, out across the sea and over the many hills, covered with colourful and individual housing. We got to ...

Hola! Welcome to Chile and the start of our final two thirds of travelling. We arrived in Santiago on Monday, in what was one of the most surreal days ever. It was a pretty unremarkable day too though! Our flight left Auckland at around 5 p.m. NZ time, and arrived eleven and a half hours later, but around five hours before we had set off, allowing for time differences. We'd flown into the night, but had an awful night's sleep as the cabin was so hot! I managed t...

On Wednesday we got up ridiculously early, at 6 in the morning, to start the long drive up to the Bay of Islands from Rotorua. It didn't seem too bad, however, partly because I think we had prepared ourselves for such a long journey, and partly because it was such a great day, with blue sky everywhere. It made for a pleasant drive up. We arrived at Paihia, the Bay of Islands, at around 12:30, after one pit stop for lunch. Typically, we managed to book ourselves i...

On Sunday we packed up our stuff and said goodbye to Tim and Caroline, Max and Emma and Annabel and Taylor, who sent us off with a slap up breakfast and plenty of goodies. We were driving over to Rotorua today, but stopped en route in Taupo to finish off our sightseeing there. We first of all visited the Huka Falls, which we laid eyes upon at a viewing point on the surrounding hills before driving down for a closer look. We crossed a bridge over the surging chasm...

Here's an update about our first six days on the North Island in NZ: We were up early on Monday so that we could check in for our ferry over to Wellington at 7. The ferry departed at 8, and took an absolute age to get across to the city, arriving at about 12. There wasn't a lot to do on board, so whilst Jo and Joe napped, I finished reading my paper and listened to my IPod. Wellington seems a cool little city, although when we first arrived it seemed huge to us ...