30/11/02

Had a proper tour of the island with Patricio, the brother in law of Terresa our hostess. It was very good but quite tiring. I can't remember the names of all the sites we visited but I'll have a go. We started at Vinapu where we saw a wall behind the ahu (alter), the bottom half was old the top half was newer and built like an Inca wall. There were toppled moai and top knots as well but they are at every site. Vaihu has a row of 8 broken moai and some remains of houses; Akahanga, more moai; Hanga Tetanga had some bones under the ahu and the last moai to be put up. Then we went to Rana Raraku the volcano "factory" where the moai where carved, they're everywhere. There's loads of heads sticking out of the ground, they are all complete moai that have become buried over time. Patricio took us on an 1½ hour walk to the top of the volcano then down inside the crater and round back to the van. On the way we saw moai in various stages of completion. They were carved straight into the rock, the last bit of the process was separating them from the bed rock and sliding them down the hill. We saw the unfinished giant moai that's 20m long and we saw one in a different style to all the other, it has legs and it's arms are clasped in front. At the top of the crater we saw water holes cut for the workers and more moai. The stone inside the crater is darker at the bottom than that outside. There's a lake in the crater where they still have an annual triathlon. The people seem to have made very efficient use of the available rock and very little space is wasted between the moai, some are even carved upside down or on cliff edges. On the way down to the van we passed moai we had seen from a distance on the way up. All have just the heads above ground, they have been excavated but the holes filled back in to protect them, although what good that does if the heads eroded away I'm not sure. 2 of the moai are unusual, one is of a woman, you can tell by the boobs, the other has a carving of a sailing ship on his front, done by the locals after they first saw one. After a quick lunch we went to the next ahu just over the road, on the coast again. Tongariki was destroyed by a tsunami in 1960 but the Japs have paid for it to be rebuilt to it's original state. It's the most photographed ahu on the island and has 15 standing moai. There are also some petroglyphs on the rocks near the road but they weren't v clear. We drove north past the Long Ears trench (which you can't really see) to another site with more petroglyphs, all of them done during the birdman phase. Next we went to an astronomers/star gazers hut in some ruins next to a small fisherman's harbour. It's the only one on the island that's still standing and has never needed to be restored, although that may change if the fisherman's kids don't stop climbing all over it. Next stop was Te Pito Kura, "The navel of the world", it's the original name of the island but now refers to the extremely large pebble in this old village. They say touching the rock brings you luck and it looks like a few people have done that as it's v polished. The locals also say it gives you energy and when P held a compass over it it span in all sorts of directions, it's magnetic. Last stop was Anekena beach, one of only 3. It's here that the Polynesians 1st landed and also where Tor Heyerdahl landed his Kon Tiki boat in the 50's. He restored one of the moai, not v well I think. There is another ahu there with 5 moai that is really well restored, they have carvings on their backs which is unusual. The beach is really nice, shame we couldn't stay longer. After that we drove back to Hanga Roa and had a kip, we were knackered.

28/11/02

Went for a walk around Hanga Roa the capital. Started off by the cemetery and saw our 1st moai, there's a row of 5 eroded ones and another big one that is complete with topknot and eyes. Walked along the sea road past some more modern sculptures, the harbour and a swimming pool before turning up into town. The towns a bit spread out and it takes a while to find everything but once we did we were OK, trouble was it was all closing for lunch so we had to stop and have some ourselves. Was completely shocked when at lunch, I guess due to the price of imported food here, we were served with chips that were actually cut from real potatoes! Wondered around more in the arvo, did some e-mail, found a good restaurant to eat in.

26/11/02

Toured the city sites, well some of them. We did some of the city walk from the LP starting at the old railway station, then the central market, some old colonial buildings and churches, the cathedral, more of the shops, the old Presidential palace then we climbed Cerro Santa Lucia which looks like a fort from a distance. V nice, good walk up the hill through gardens, excellent view from the top. Went home after that. Had dinner in the kitchen and spent the evening talking to James (who comes from Storrington) and Alexis, young couple who are doing a Spanish language course before setting off on their trip, they are learning fast but it seems like a lot of homework and it's all grammar.

24/11/02

Got the bus to Viña del mar. Slightly cleaner but still has a dog prob. A lot of the guest houses are closed and we struggled to find one, the ones we had picked from both books were shut. We ended up in a right dump, sheets and floor look clean but the whole building needs seriously renovating. It's a beach resort but as usual when we go to the beach it was cloudy, also as it was Sunday all the museums closed at 2:30. We walked down to the bus station and booked ourselves on the 9:30 bus for tomorrow morning, we're not staying.

22/11/02

Got the bus to Valparaiso. Tourist info people at the bus station got us an excellent hotel, cheap, near the centre and with a free lift there. Went for a walk around, it's a dirty port town with a large stray dog problem. There's some nice old buildings but it's just v drab and grey for some reason, I think it might be the dogs, you have to watch where your treading all the time.

20/11/02

Cleaned the van and took it back, didn't have any probs and got the deposit back straight away. Got dropped off at the airport. Flight left at 5:10pm, excellent plane, the best we've been on so far. It had movies and computer games on demand, watched 4 films. Flight was v smooth and only 10 hours, we arrived in Santiago at 12:10pm same day, that makes this the longest Wednesday ever, 39 hours. Sorted out somewhere to stay at the desk in the airport, they were v helpful and booked it for us. The guest house is OK. We fell asleep by 5 as we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore, trouble was I woke up at 3am, doh, jet lag!

18/11/02

Got the bus into Auckland which seemed to take forever, then caught the ferry to Randitoto Island, a volcano out in the bay. We walked up to the top and round the crater. The Americas Cup racing was on and we could see the boats, not really sure what we were looking at though, there were lots of boats and they all seemed to be going in different directions. On the way down we went through a lava tube, not a big one like Undarra, just a narrow one like a covered ally way, it was v dark in places. We got back to the last ferry just in time, if we'd have missed it we'd have been stuck on the island overnight.

16/11/02

Got picked up @ 9:15 by Lisa from Blackwater Rafting, she took us to the HQ. There were 8 of us on the tour + Lisa and Logan the guides. We were kitted out in thermal top, wet suit, shorts and white rubber boots, all highly fashionable and v sexy. We also got a miners helmet with light. There was a short bus ride to the cave entrance where we had an abseiling lesson on some practise ropes, then it was off, 1 by 1 we abseiled 35m through a narrow opening into a cave. It was a tight squeeze through the opening but opened out after that so I could bounce down. Next we shuffled through a tunnel to the top of a flying fox that we did with all the lights out. As you got to the bottom you got your first view of the glowworms, they're tiny, like pin pricks in a blanket held in front of a light bulb. When we were all down we got bagels and hot chocolate as a snack and watched Gollum the eel swimming around in the stream below us. After picking an inner tube each we next had to jump off a 3m ledge into the stream. We had to do it so we landed bum first sitting in the tube. I had to go 1st, it was more nerve wracking than the abseil, it was cold when you hit the water. When everyone was in we paddled ourselves over to a rope then pulled ourselves upstream for a bit. We all formed into a chain, turned off the lights and floated back downstream, all of this was through a huge cavern full of glowworms, it was like looking @ the stars, couldn't make out any constellations though. When we got back to our starting point we ditched the tubes and waded down the stream, over a dam where there was a small slide, we walked through the caves and climbed out of them via some waterfalls and small tunnels that we climbed up and crawled through. It was all really good. Didn't do anything else for the rest of the day.

14/11/02

Drove up towards Ruapehu and did a walk through forest and swamp to see some waterfalls. V nice, excellent place to have lunch. Drove up to the snowfields after that, they have a few lifts on the side of the volcano, it made me want to have a go. Had a spa when we got back to the campsite but it was only a large bath tub with water jets so not as good.

12/11/02

This morning, after a scenic 5 minute flight over Motueka and the Abel Tasman National Park, I jumped out of a perfectly good aeroplane @ 13000ft (4000m). There was a bloke called Bob strapped to my back and luckily he was wearing a parachute. That was fortunate as it stopped us hitting the floor @ the 120mph we accelerated to in the first 4 seconds after we left the plane. I have very little recollection of those 4 secs other than the one thought that hit me straight away which was "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, WHAT THE F*@K AM I DOING?!!!!" I'm not even sure if I had my eyes open or not. Once we were in level free fall I could have a look around and enjoy the ice cold air blasting me in the face and slowly freezing my teeth. The freefall wasn't that bad, after you hit terminal velocity there is no more acceleration so there is no sensation of speed, the ground is still a long way below you and it gets bigger quite slowly. At 5000ft the parachute opened, I didn't hear it, there was just a swinging sensation as we came vertical and my legs swung around in front of me. We had a good 5 min decent, Bob pointed out all the sights, we could see all the way to the mountains on the east coast, we couldn't see North Island as it was covered in cloud. We did a few spirals to get in position over the airfield and Bob touched us down perfectly. Bloody amazing, I want to do it again! Took a quick trip into Nelson in the arvo to get some shopping. Had a quick drive around the town but it didn't look that interesting.

10/11/02

Lie in and a lazy morning as our guided walk didn't start until 1:30. It was raining a blowing a gale again last night, there was even some thunder and lightening. Drove into town for 1'ish and checked in, there were 30 people in total for the tour. After a brief talk we were sent upstairs to be kitted out. We got hat, gloves, socks and glacier boots which were soaking wet. There was a small sign on the wall that said "Gum boots for hire $3" but we ignored that, we also said no to the over trousers, all of which turned out to be a bad idea. The weather still wasn't at it's best, it was drizzling and windy. After a short bus ride to the glacier car park we started the walk, as we got further and higher the rain got heavier and the wind got harder. We walked about for about 3km in our own shoes to the face of the glacier, some of this was through streams and puddles. I think the guides take you that way on purpose, they don't care they've all got gum boots on. I was OK as I could jump most of the streams but S had to wade through a few, her feet were soaked. Once we reached the glacier we changed into our boots and climbed up onto the ice. We walked about 1km up it passing crevasses, blue ice, ice holes and lots of moraine (rocks to normal people). The wind was so strong by this point that it was nearly blowing me off my feet. I thought for a while that this was alright as it was drying my trousers, but then it started raining again. Still it was impressive, @ one point the clouds cleared from the top and we could see it. On the way back it hailed just to add to the fun, the hail stones were like bullets in the wind. Got back to the campsite and had a go in the spa to thaw out.

8/11/02

Up late, S did some washing. Set off to do a walk. We chose the Mount Iron walk as it was a loop walk on the other side of town. It was good but we have become v unfit and it seemed quite hard, even though it wasn't really. Still, it got the heart going and the view from the top was good, Mnt Iron is 549m, pleased we changed our minds and didn't try the Mnt Roy walk, that's 1579m and would have killed us. We stopped in @ A's office on the way back to have a look, he's just moved in but it's smart. Saw some of the video's he's been doing, v good, he's going to send me a copy of his promo DVD so I'll be able to steal some of his ideas. Popped in and spoke to J, they have invited us around 2 theirs, we can even stay if we want. We went round @ 7, J cooked lamb shanks, v nice. We decided not to stay, even though they are really nice it still seemed a little odd, we've only met them for 2 nights before that. Wish we had now as it started blowing a gale during the evening and this carried on all night , it kept us awake.

6/11/02

Drove to Queenstown. We had been planning 2 do a tandem bungy jump but S got herself v worked up about it, she was really frightened, so we went on a jet boat instead. I'm not that fussed about the bungy, I will b doing a parachute jump @ some point. The Shotover Jet was OK, small boat+monster engine=fast ride, the jet is directional so they can, and do, do 360° spins. It didn't seem fast enough though, I think that maybe because of the ride we had in Laos. After that we were going to go up on the cablecar and have a go on the luge but we passed Caddyshack City mini-golf on the way and had to stop @ that instead. It's indoor crazy golf gone mad. No windmills or loop the loop tyres here but airports with planes, rockets castles, volcanoes, ski-lifts, gondolas and a sky scraper, excellent, you even get a free drink and a lolly @ the end.

4/11/02

Drove from Dunedin to Te Anau, the scenic route. Drove down through the Caitlins, stopping @ Matai Falls and Florence Hill lookout, both OK. The Caitlins are very beautiful, if we had longer we could have stopped for a couple of days and seen more. There were lots of sheep as well. We went through Invercargill down to Bluff, they call it the Lands End of NZ but it's not really. From there we drove to Te Anau, it was a long drive but worth it. Te Anau is small but nice, on a huge lake with views of the mountains. The woman @ the campsite reception made a mistake with the credit card machine and charged me $4500 for 2 nights, better be worth it. She gave us a free session in the spa which was v relaxing, have to get one @ home now.

2/11/02

Phoned Phil as it's the old farts b'day, he is v old. Drove to Dunedin. It was quite a long drive, very scenic. We took a detour to go through Arundel, we missed it twice, there's one art deco petrol station, 3 houses and a million sheep, that's it. Dunedin is v hilly!

29/11/02

Walked from Hanga Roa to the volcano Rano Kau. Took the shorter path up rather than the road but after a while we lost it. Aub managed to lead us to the volcano crater which has a lake and where we stopped for lunch. We followed the road around to Orongo ceremonial village where the Birdman cult rituals were performed. Many of the houses have been restored here and the views across the crater and ocean are great. Returned home along the road which seemed to take ages. We walked for nearly six hours today and are definitely out of practice.

27/11/02

Lazy morning. Packed our things and waited around until we had to leave for the airport. We did pop out for a walk and had a coffee. After lunch we were taken to the airport to get our flight to Easter Island. The flight was delayed for an hour so we did not arrive until 10pm. We managed to find a room for only $20 a night which was great. There were a lot of people at the airport offering accommodation. The room was fine and after a pisco sour we hit the sack. The bed was like sinking in sand, once you'd sunk in you couldn't move again.

25/11/02

Spent most of the early hours waiting to get up, I cannot believe we stayed here. Anyway at about 8am we were out of there making our way to the bus station. It was quite a walk (about 30 mins) so we stopped once or twice to give our backs a rest. Got there in time for a quick coffee before the bus left. When we arrived in Santiago we got a taxi back to where we stayed before and the first thing we did was have a shower. Popped into the city centre and confirmed our flights to Easter Island. Once again we looked for the tourist info centre but it looks like it is no longer there. Came back for a nap before going out for dinner.

23/11/02

Slept so well last night that I didn't wake up until 11am. Went for a walk and took one of the ascensiors (lifts) up the hill away from the main centre. Stopped for lunch at the Brighton Hotel which over looked the city. Walked back to where we were staying from here.

21/11/02

Walked into the city centre and had a look around. Tried to find the tourist office but we left the guide book behind and couldn't find it. After some lunch we decided to walk back as we were beginning to feel tired again. Later we popped around the corner for a meal, very nice place and the food was good.

19/11/02

Popped over to the local shopping centre to send a parcel home. After lunch we caught the bus to the city. Checked our e-mail and had a quick look around.

17/11/02

Another drive today to Auckland. Arrived lunchtime and had a lazy afternoon.

15/11/02

Drove to Waitomo. Arrived about lunchtime. In the afternoon we visited the Waitomo Caves Museum.

13/11/02

Up early to drive to Picton to catch the ferry back over to North Island. The ferry arrived just after 2pm and we drove to Ohakune. Long drive again, we arrived about 6:30pm.

11/11/02

Very long drive today from Franz Josef to Richmond near Nelson. Took about 6 hours.

9/11/02

Visited Puzzle World which was good fun. Found our way through the maze, saw the room of faces which follow you around and felt very giddy in the tilted house. We then spent the afternoon driving to Franz Josef Glacier. The scenery through the mountains was stunning. Lots of native trees and many waterfalls.

7/11/02

Went luging this morning. Caught the gondola up and then a chair lift and luged down the hill. Not quite as good as the one in Rotorua but still good fun. We then headed to Wanaka, nice drive up through the mountains. Arrived early afternoon. After booking into the campsite we went and saw Howard who we had met in Fiji. Aub then phoned his friend Antony and we went to his place for drinks and stayed for dinner. Met his wife Johanna and his son Oban.

5/11/02

Drove to Milford Sound one of the most visited Fjords in NZ. Did a cruise which was very enjoyable although the weather was terrible. Sadly we were unable to see most of the stunning scenery as it was covered in cloud. We did see plenty of waterfalls. Apparently you are lucky if you get a dry day here as it rains about 200 days a year.

3/11/02

Drove to the steepest street in the world and walked up it. Walked around the Octagon in the city centre, took photos of the council building and railway station. We then drove to Lanarch Castle which is the only one in NZ, built in 1871. Quite small compared to castles at home but a nice building and interesting history about the family who lived there. We then drove to the end of the peninsula to see the albatross. We saw a few flying around and visited the visitor centre. We next went to see the Yellow-eyed penguins which are the rarest in the world. We saw quite a few but as they are a little unsociable with each other they do not seem to do a great deal. Well worth seeing though.

1/11/02

Caught the bus into the city. Climbed the cathedral tower to get a good look at the city. Later in the afternoon we went rowing on the river. Very much like being at home.