The drive to Wellington took about 4 hours, but took us through stunning scenery. We drove around the lake, stopping at a look out point, before driving through a National Park where we could see Mount Doom where Lord of the Rings was filmed. We drove through several towns, before driving along the coast road to Wellington where there were pretty beaches and truly blue seas. It was such a contrast from driving in to London. We have seen nothing ugly about New Z...

The following day we headed off to Rotoura, famous for it's thermal activity. The drive was about 3 hours and very scenic with green hills and rivers. To drive in New Zealand is very easy, the roads are quiet and everything is well signposted. Our van is also an automatic so it helps. In Rotoura we headed to Kuirau Park where you can see thermal activity for free! We saw mud bubbling and volcanic gases escaping from the ground. There was a horrible smell of egg...

We slept fairly well on the flight and after several 20hour bus journeys the 13 hour flight went quickly. We arrived at Auckland at 4am and had to wait until 10am to pick our campervan up. We waited at the airport for a while before heading in to Auckland and wasted time in a in a cafe near the depot. We headed on our way to Waitomo, i pod plugged in for the 3 hour drive. We arrived at the caves at about 3pm after finding a camp site in the nearby town of Ohr...

We arrived in Santiago with Fabien at 7am after a 23 hour bus journey. Once at the hostel we freshened up and took a stroll to find some food before deciding to go on a free walking tour of the city. The tour was very good and took us to all the main points of the city whilst giving us some brief history of Chile. It lasted 4 hours and after a 45 minute walk back to the hostel we were all exhausted so had an early night to make sure we were on top form for th...

After saying our goodbyes to the the rest of the group, us two, Fabien, Dorf and Anthony caught our bus, which turned out to be a nice people carrier to the border crossing for San Pedro de Attacama. The boarder was a long process and Rachel got caught out as she forgot there was an apple in her bag, although the immigration staff let her off. We then got dropped off in the centre of town, where we were surrounded by promoters for hostels. Dorf and J went off t...