Day 6 and we left the Bay of Islands and took the long drive up north to Cape Reigna, the northernmost point of New Zealand, and the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific. It really did feel like the end of the country too, as the weather was awful, and it was so remote there were only about six people in the whole campsite. At the tip of the Cape is a lighthouse and distance signs from loads of major cities around the world, so we did the touristy snaps a...

After a 4 hour drive from Auckland through beautiful NZ countryside, we arrived at Paihia in the Bay Islands. This was a pretty seaside town and was a good base for our cruise around the Bay islands. It was all very scenic, it seemed like most of the islands were surrounded by clear blue waters. We also got to see the famous hole in the rock just off Cape Brett, which had been etched by wind and wave creating the hole which allows boats to skillfully navigate the...

After a 12 hour flight we landed in NZ on the 3rd Nov at 4am. After all the crappy food and frequent use of Spanglish we felt like kissing the ground. People speak English great !!! Our first stop was Auckland, the largest city in NZ. It was a really nice city, has a lovely harbour and the famous Sky Tower in the centre giving magnificent views of the whole of Auckland. Whilst in Auckland we took in a few sites, the first being the Auckland Museum which had seve...

OK, unfortunately we didn´t make it to Easter Island, but we liked the picture and as we have no camera have run out of pictures to use. After the robbery (maybe over-dramatizing a bit.....the bag snatch), we made it to Santiago, the capital of Chile.  Santiago, in the travel guide, supposedly has a feel of a US or European city.  OK, it is hectic with businessmen and women rushing around, and has a few fast food places, but that´s prob...

We arrived in Mendoza after 30 hours on a bus, for a couple of days of relaxation, good food and nice wine.  Well that was true for the most part. Mendoza is a nice city of about a million people, though still maintains quite a relaxed feel, probably as it´s surrounded by Argentina´s wine region (which produces 70% of Argentina´s wine).  It´s also not far from the Andes and the Chilean border.  The streets are wide and ...