Hope you all had a great Christmas.

We have now made it into South America. The weather is great. Not done anything here apart from go for food and sleep. That should change today.

So, since my last blog, we´ve spent a night in Taupo, 3 nights in Rotorua and 3 in Auckland. There was pretty much no point to the Taupo stop. It rained heavily all day, and besides that there was nothing to do. Rotorua was nicer. On the first night we went to a Maori night at a local Maori village called Tamaki. It was obvious it only existed for tourism, but it was still cool. We boarded our bus after watching a brief video on how the Polynesians came to New Zealand and named it Aeotearoa (land of the long white cloud). Our bus was named the Weka tribe, and we had to elect a Chief who was Brave, Intelligent and Handsome. I was the only one willing (settle for 2 of 3!), so I was made Rotohiri (chief). I had to do the Hongi with the driver, which is the Maori greeting where you press noses twice, before entering the village.

Once in the village, the 5 "Chiefs" had to stand in front of the crowd while 3 Mori guys danced around with tongues out and bulging eyes trying to intimidate us. If anyone laughs it is seen as an insult and could result in war. The head guy would select a chief to pick up the peace offering, and it was obvious from the word go that it would be me, as he kept eye contact with me the whole time. Not to disappoint, I did the same back! Once they had finished, I walked forward, picked up the fern leaf and walked backward, as you are never meant to turn oyur back on them. After that, we were allowed into their village. We got to see what their lives would have been like centuries ago. We saw the ladies weaving, and the men playing games with sticks designed to strengthen their wrists for combat (sounds rude, I know). After that we saw the people give a concert of dancing and singing, and they all performed the Haka which was amazing. Then we got to go to the food hall for a traditional Hangi, which is food cooked in a hole in the ground. It was awesome! The fish was amazing, and there was beef, sweet potato and heaps of other stuff. I ate so much!

At the end of the night the Chiefs were given a necklace from the tribe (just a wee wooden Maori face) and the bus drivers all did the Haka. On the bus home I had to sing a song from m yown country, so I sang Flower of Scotland over the microphone. How embarrasing!

Our first full day in Rotorua was a bit of a wash out as it was raining, so we just wandered about and saw the hot springs. Roturua is a smelly place due to these hot springs. It is the smell of the sulphur. I also bought new shoes as my old ones had holes and were making my feet grey when it rained! Oh, it was also my birhday, but we only went out to Pizza Hut for food, and it was rank! Day 2 was more interesting, as we went to the hill to do the luge. It´s not proper luge, just go-carts and hills, but it was still great fun. We got 5 runs, and I managed to overtake heaps of people. Guess the extra weight had something to do with it! Merle was a bit slowe, but still not bad. It had a great view, so all in all it was well worth the 7 quid it cost. The rest of the night we just watched tv and got an early night.

Last stop in NZ was Auckland. We didn´t do much here as it was close to Christmas and not everything was available. We just wandered around the shops and streets really. The first night was spent in a hostel, but then we spent 2 nights in a nice Hotel thanks to Merles family. This was such a change to what we had been used to while travelling. We made use of the pool and sat in our bath robes at night and watched movies on sky tv. Bliss! The mini bar was a bit over priced so I brought in a few beers to toast Christmas day. On Christmas day we went for a meal at a nice restaurant, courtesy of mum and dad. This was strange, as it was a buffet lunch. Starters were pretty much all fish, not that I complained. The only problem was triyng to get a bit of everything, as there was so much to choose from. I had chicken, steak, fish etc....! Pudding was also amazing, so we were both pretty bloated by the time we left. That night we watched King Kong and drank beer in our robes again!

That pretty much brings me to now, in Santiago. Once we have done something, I will let you all know.

Adios!