After what was really just a?quick flight from Santiago in Chile up to?Quito in Ecuador, I arrived totally shattered. I?d had to get up at 2.45am to get to the airport in time for my plane and after a three hour stopover in Lima and then a short delay it was almost 17 hours later when I finally reached my destination...My first memory?of Quito will be of the rain as no sooner had I left the airport than the heavens opened and it rained as if?it had never rained b...

I spent my last day in Chile exploring the Aconcagua Valley, or more accurately the vineyards of the Aconcagua Valley! If you ask most people what Chile is famous for, wine will undoubtedly be somewhere at the top of the list, and as a personal fan of a bit of Chilean merlot I thought it would be rude not to make a visit... There were only two of us on the tour so rather than the usual stuffy and cramped minibus we had a car - it was like being chauffeur driv...

My first experience of Santiago was a somewhat confused one as having left Auckland in New Zealand at 6pm on 30 April I crossed the international date line and found myself landing in Santiago at 1.15pm on the same day...so it was a bit like groundhog day, living the same day twice, only with very little sleep in between! Upon first glance Santiago doesn't look like much more than another big city. And to be fair a short wander around on my first day didn'...

My final stop in New Zealand was Auckland, a big city much like any other. I was glad I only had a couple of days here as there's not really that much to do. I went to a couple of the weekend markets, wandered through some of the city parks, including the Domain (Auckland and New Zealand's oldest park), felt very poor in the more swanky districts of Ponsonby and Parnell as by this stage I only had enough money left to window shop and climbed up Mount Eden for a 3...

It's a four hour drive from Auckland up to the Bay of Islands in the north of the north island (!). There were no real notable stops on the way as the main focus was on getting there as early as possible to maximise time there. Some people had chosen only to stay for the day, but I was staying for two nights, so had more time to look around.I spent the afternoon on a boat cruise around the Bay of Islands, passing Cook Bay, Twin Lagoon Bay and right around to ...