New Zealand to Argentina, and the many shenanigans that lay in-between!

I arrived in Auckland in a state less than 100%, I shall blame this on illness but if researchers delved into it, they may surmise the 6 heavy consecutive nights, copious Fiji bitter and cava may have had something to do with it. This led to a cheeky 14 hour hibernation period which ended just in time for a world cup game!

I witnessed an 87 point, 12 try thriller!.... It just so happens that South Africa were responsible for all of these pointeroons making the game somewhat one sided, bad times for Namibia! the atmosphere was wicked non the less and the scoreline didn't do Namibia justice, as I and every other non-South African in the stadium will tell you, as we were of course, supporting Namibia!

I then headed north. Here I boarded a boat that trundled around The Bay Of Islands, very cool and some unbelievable sights, we also managed to track down some dolphins which was a bonus (another item crossed off 'the list'!).

My evening plan was to have a relatively quite one, as a I had an early start and the following evening England were playing so that would inevitably get messy....this all went to pot however when I decided to utilise the hot tub. Here I met Matty a fellow Englishman and a Canadian couple who were well and truly aboard the 'goon train' I obviously felt obliged to hop on and the evening descended into a goony/tequilary filled blur where drinking games were played post bar closing, hot dogs were devoured and bed was reached at half 4....don't regret the change of plans!

The half 6 start the following day was a struggle to say the least but sand dune boarding (very very fun!) and rocking down ninety mile beach in a badass bus were too good to turn down. (Ben a fellow passenger on the goon train however did not feel the same way and bottled it). It was absolutely amazing rocking down the beach,wading through streams and every now and then encountering a car skeleton that took to the beach and lost!

The England, Romania game kicked off just as the bus got back and the drinking began in full force once again, the atmosphere for the rugby was brilliant, especially the New Zealand, France game and I blame this for the state I ended up in, the best illustration of this is my 3am 'snooze' in the hot tub and rocking around the dorm in my birthday suit. (I don't recall this last part and had to be informed of such things the morning after by a lovely girl staying in the same dorm....whoops!)

The state I was in the next morning wasn't ideal so I decided to get creative with my hangover cure and decided the best course of action would be to jump out of a plane! 16000 feet later and I felt brilliant! The views were stunning and the adrenaline of a 60+ second free fall was nothing to be sniffed at, I can handle turbulence on a plane but I am less pleased with such things happening when I'm strapped to a bald man who has nonchalantly given me control of the chute which I would liken to a scratty sleeping bag!......Exciting though!

It was then back to Auckland for a cheeky bungy jump (I felt this was necessary as I enjoyed both so much last time I was in kiwi land!), again I found this scarier than the skydive! I then had the pleasure of witnessing Argentina deny Scotland a place in the quarter final, in the presence of a whole heap of Scottish people. I felt compelled to fly to Argentina and congratulate the nation personally, so that's just what I did. I was joined on the plane by the Namibia national team, I didn't chat with any of them though as I didn't think "hey, I saw you get spanked by South Africa 87-0...." would go down very well!

Buenos Aires! I arrived in Argentina slightly daunted as it was new ground for the Spencer clan and I had no idea what to expect, the only things I had heard about the country was I had to try the steak and be able to speak Spanish, confident of the first task but the laughable amount of german I learnt from 6 years of study didn't bode well for the second!

I had a jaunt around the area I was staying in and took in some of the unbelievable architecture, on my wanderings I managed to accidentally participate in an election drive/protest, I'm still not really sure which as my Spanish is about as comprehensive as Chinese is to a dyslexic, but it was quite exciting all the same!

The highlight of my short Argentinian stopover was the night tour I embarked on, on this I successfully obtained a breathtaking steak (the recommendations were definitely accurate!) observed some argentine tango, the 8 series of Strictly Come Dancing Motherbear has forced upon me have slowly worn me down and I now posses a keen interest. Well keen enough to, when very inebriated, try my hand at such things...the result was fairly successful I think, although I recon my dancing partner humoured my attempts somewhat, she definitely appreciated the enthusiasm I displayed, which far outweighed my abilities!

The whole night was brilliant, from the live band in one place to the local spirit which I still can't pronounce and the pub crawl aspect, one highlight of my night which made me chuckle was the bartender opening his arms wide on our arrival to a relatively posh place and announcing in a strong Spanish accent; "welcome to my bar, come and get drunk, would you like some free shots?".....brilliant!

I spent the next few days exploring the various sights and markets with some girls I met at my extremely awesome, quaint, rooftop hostel, continually falling in love with every other native lady I saw (so so attractive!) before it was time to dive back on a plane and make my way to Chile! The next country on my South American expedition!

I will report back to you on such places shortly! Hope you're well and enjoyed the read.

Luke. X