Currently in NZ and will explain all soon, but first to fill you in on the rest of South America.

After a surprisingly comfortable 16 hour bus to BA that served us up a pleasant hot meal with complimentary beer and champagne we were a little disappointed when Michael Schumacher (aka dangerous taxi driver) dropped us at our hostel to find it fully booked for the next 4 days. In fact, all hostels were. Luckily, however, my spanish held up well enough in a few phone calls to wangle us an apartment in the heart of Palermo for a week. Fully eqipped with cable TV, air con, balcony view, it was actually cheaper than staying in a drom in a hostel.

Here we spent a very chilled week in BA with plenty of good steak and red wine. In between basking in the sunshine in parks and fine dining we also managed to learn some tango, see some professionals do it properly (to dispel any sort of hopes that we were good) and see the famous street art in La Boca.

Next was Mendoza, and a bit of a comfort shock. Accustomed to travelling in the low season we had grown used to turning up to a new place before sorting that nights accommodation. However, in Mendoza we found EVEYTHING full. After driving 15km out of town in search of some cabins that didn't exist, we eventually found a campsite that had space (many didn't). Our hire tent was tiny with a few holes, a broken zip and no ground sheet or roll mats. Consequently we laid out all our clothes to sleep on and prayed for no rain. Obviously this hope was followed by the loud crack of thunder and multiple flashes of lightning. But somehow, no rain. Indeed, our luck with the weather held out during our last week and we had an awesome day cycling round local vineyards sampling the vino tinto.

From here it was a relatively short trip to Santiago, Chile, across the Andes. There was a spot of bother at the border when a keen nosed sniffer dog unearthed an apple from the depths of my bag that I had foolishly not declared on my entry form (because I had intended on eating it before the border, not because I was testing border security). After a brief telling off, being made to rewrite my declaration, and assuring them that I was not a fruit terrorist in a terribly British accent I was eventually allowed in. I wonder now if it was worth the effort.

Our two days in Santiago were two days too many. After 12 hours exploring the utterly dead city we decided to leave. This involved a day trip to Valparaiso, an old port on the coast commonly regarded as Chiles culture capital. On the whole we didn't see that much culture here, but we did join in a student protest at the congress building only to be shot at with water cannons and followed by large men in full body armour wielding trucheons. The local press had turned out to watch precedings and since we were directly opposite one film crew when the water canons were unleashed, I have a strong suspicion that we may have made the Chilean news that day. Anyway, after avoiding arrest here, and avoiding another bag robbery in Santiago centre by comically amateur thieves (pretending to look at a menu that was clearly upside down whilst trying to swipe a bag which they couldn't reach even though I was watching them) we finally could leave for NZ.

Hope everyone is well at home. Anyone get a postcard or were they all lost? Im currently 8 days into my time in NZ but rarely use the internet here because its expensive. Will try to keep doing this blog but its probably just as easy to look at Charlottes photos for NZ- so many seem to be taken. Take care all.