Category: Uncategorized

La Recoleta Cemetery (Spanish: Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a cemetery located in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy, and a granddaughter of Napoleon. In 2011, the BBC hailed it as one of the world’s best cemeteries, and in 2013, CNN listed it among the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world. It is eerily spooky, fascinating and captivating all at the same time.

Requiescant in Pace

We found ourselves lost on the streets of Buenos Aires today. We asked a police officer for directions to a particular street. He gave us the wrong directions. Although this may have been due to a lack of basic Spanish or miserable pronunciation, I feel as though I should arrest this officer for giving us false information. However due to our previous dealings with the police during this trip, I may just let this incident pass. Should it happen again, well we will see 👀
We also managed to book a trip to the Iguazu Falls – we fly Monday – we think 😄 and we are allowed to walk through the Brasilien border to see the other side of the falls – we think 😃
We continue to be able to order food – just look at our laden table – no problem in this area as I would be prepared to act a charade of “death by chocolate” in order to get my cake and eat it. The waiter suggested a different wine to the one we pointed out on the menu. We wholeheartedly agreed as the Argentinians know their wine. It was full bodied with an attractive aroma and the wine was nice too 😉

A few pictures of the streets of Argentina today.

I seriously think we should have a tango lesson – I might have to have a glass or 2 of that full bodied fruity wine to get started 💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃

Tomorrow we start our sight seeing in earnest 👍

Buenos Aires

I am lying in somebodies bed after a 12 hour flight taking off from Auckland at 8pm on Sunday 1st May and landing in Buenos Aires at 5pm on Sunday 1st May with a 15 hour time difference. Whose bed this is I do not know – it’s one of those Air B and B thingy’s where nice people let you live in their flats for small money – it also has a toilet which means I do not have to go outside and put my coat on in the middle of the night as I have done during the past three weeks – so it’s very luxurious to me at the moment and I am enjoying it so much I’m just not getting up anytime soon ☺️
I finally got up and we ventured out around our neighborhood of Palermo – yep – it’s great – it has loads of little boutiques (I can’t buy anything a) I am a broke backpacker b) I have 25kg of luggage and my next Eco flight is 20kg)…,
But those boutiques are divine 😄
Equally important it has loads of restaurants – so I won’t starve here – as yet I have no photos but we are sightseeing tomorrow after an evening of research and 8 episodes of some random series called “togetherness” which was quite weird but obviously addictive.
We’re both loving this flat – we can stand up without bumping heads and the loos – well I’ve mentioned them already – one each 😃
– simple luxuries …

View from the window…

A final farewell to New Zealand.

Start 145455km – finish 148588km
3133 km one way from North to South New Zealand with quite a lot of east to west and west to east as well.
An amazing journey and before I even ask myself the obligatory question after visiting a country – I already have the answer – yes I would do it again…. and again…..and again. I have been cold at night, bitten by sand flies which itch more than 1000 mosquito bites – I have showered and also not showered on dubious campsites varying in their levels of hygiene – I have eaten cold tomato soup and dodgy van made sandwiches, done treks and trails till my bones ache and I have wept (oh Patty that’s just pathetic!!!) – BUT I have loved every single minute of it – the amazing open space – the silence in the mountains – the feeling of being alone in a vast universe (apart from the Asian coach tour buses) – but seriously…, breathtaking moments and sheer amazing scenery.
Meeting up with amazing people in Auckland and saying farewell to them at the end of our visit after flying back from Christchurch was also an added bonus.
I was wondering why it took us three weeks to travel down both islands and only an hour to get back – weird!!
To finish just some random photos……in absolutely no particular order 😊

As we set off from Haast down the Haast Pass Highway 6 we stopped at the Blue Pools. The Blue Pools derive their name from the distinctive blue of the water. Blue colour is a result of light refraction on the clear, snow-fed, icy cold water in fact it’s azure glacier-fed water just to be absolutely precise.
Well into the azure glacier-fed water did this kid dive.

Oh how I wish I was so carefree and brave – how do you do that ? Where is my adrenalin desire – I am severely lacking in that, enormous deficit – his mates did however did think he was crazy – I asked them if they were up next but they said “no way!!!”. I did not expect them to dive in as they had their jackets still on, which was a relief really, otherwise I might have felt compelled to dive as well…..it was hard, but I managed to resist 😄

Passed Lake Wannake

Passed Lake Huwea

Arrived in Queenstown

We spent three nights in Queenstown, the longest we’ve spent anywhere in New Zealand. So what do you do here?
You can go Bungy jumping, canyon swinging, or take a weird bumpy boat ride with a safety helmet on. So having done all of these already…. (just joking …..the boat ride I’ve done without a helmet in Thailand and that was REALLY bumpy and a fraction of the price) – anyway so you can go on the Sky Gondola and see a rainbow…

and do the Queenstown Hill Track/Timewalk (hard work) but somehow rewarding 😄

but eat an amazing burger after – you just have to stand an hour in the queue before you can order and then wait 20 mins with your order number – but it’s fine because you can eat a big fat hokey pokey ice cream while you’re waiting – New Zealand you have contributed massively to my hippo waistline

but I still ❤️ you and could roam your shores and swear my way up your treks forever – please ❤️ me back and say you want my footprints on your sands and hear my beautiful words in the winds up the hills……..and while I wait for your answer…..

on our last day in Queenstown we did the 12 hour coach tour to……
Milford Sounds.

Mmmhhhh shall I be honest? Ok, well at one point I wasn’t quite sure what country I was in as we seemed to be on one of the hundreds of Asian coaches travelling New Zealand. I did get a picture of the mirror lakes without one single Chinese in it which was amazing as there was the usual line up of a Chinese taking a photo of the person taking a photo of the person taking a photo of the person taking a photo of the person taking a photo of the mirror lakes…..

Milton sounds boat trip (2 hours of the 12 hour trip) and the best part….the other 10 hours I choose to forget.

From Queenstown to Mount Cook……

Mount Cook/Aoraki

Breathtaking views of Mount Cook and glacier valleys. The air, the cool blue water, the snow on the peaks accompanied by sunshine pure – unforgettable moments – a steep walk up to the Red Tarns, silence as pure as the air – simply stunning (apart from the ascent obviously – I dug really deep – but offered many expletives along the way as ever – this happens when I climb the flights of stairs at work, so you can imagine an hour into an ascent I’m offering an array of swear words in a couple of different languages to avoid being terribly boring).
Love it, love it, love it, or as the woman in a London Burberry store once said to me “lurv lurv lurv” as she drooled over a shawl thing I once extravagantly bought) – if my husband is reading this – honestly I’ve had thst shawl thingy for “ages” 😂😂😂 – and anyway aren’t we all a little L’oreal – ie. worth it.
I think because of the sunshine, the height of Mount Cook capped in snow, the glacier lake, the red tarns, hooker valley, the clear icy fresh air, that the Mount Cook area is one of my favorites – we had the red tarns to ourselves – it was so beautiful all of the surrounding area.

After this we drove to Christchurch and I’m sat in a restaurant with a couple of glasses of New Zealand wine intus and Boney M is the preferred music – I like Boney M but there’s other music I love more!!!!!
Just heard someone saying they’re going to wipe the tables down which means wine is over as is Boney M and it’s over and out from me. Tomorrow I will explore Christchurch get my grey roots turned into something new and prepare myself for South America 👵🏼

Wellington – Interislander Ferry to South Island – Picton – Kaikoura – Punakaiki – Greymouth – Franz Josef – Fox Glacier – Haast

The day after the Tongariro Crossing hopped into the van…….correction…….hobbled to the van and heaved myself in – yes that’s a more accurate description – hopped in sounds like I am a gazelle or something – totally ridiculous really.
Thinking of the mountains and hills yesterday, I often ask myself if I were reborn what talents I would ask for in the genetics queue. One would be to be an amazing singer, but if I had to be an animal I think it would be a sheep in New Zealand – not any old sheep designated to lie on a plate next to somebody’s mint sauce, but a sheep who starred in “Lord of the Rings” who would live off the royalties from the film and graze forever in the Shire…..

Anyway back to reality…..
we then made our way to the capital city of Wellington. It is literally possible to eat your way through Wellington and I’m always there where there’s good food and drink 🍔🍩🍝🍰🎂🍡🍢🍹🍨🍷🍸
We started eating samples at the tiny peanut butter factory and I haven’t stopped eating peanut butter even 4 days later after buying a big pot of the dark chocolate crunchy variety…..then came the Wellington chocolate factory – well….it would be rude not to go in – wouldn’t it? After sampling the beer chocolate (what a GREAT combination) we drank hot chocolate and I had a raspberry marshmallow.

We could have sampled a soda in the soda shop but I forgot to mention the “Hanger Flight Coffee” where we drank coffee and ate a blueberry ginger muffin – this was all in the space of about 90mins at the most and I had to skip the soda.

However evening meal time came around and we found a restaurant called “The Library” – another wonderful combination of food and a restaurant surrounded by shelves and shelves of books – paradise for book nerds like me.

The next morning returning to the city of Wellington for more food – a sumptuous breakfast of poached eggs on thick seeded toast, crumpets and coconut yoghurt with lemon curd, English breakfast tea and then hot lemon with honey and ginger. Those people who have been on a whale watching trip and not seen a whale have obviously not been on the same boat as me – what I lost in pounds in India has been replenished by stones in New Zealand – thin to fat – just like that.

The Interislander ferry, a 3 hour ferry trip took us from Wellington at the bottom of North Island to Picton at the top of South Island – a small picturesque harbor town.

The next day we travelled to Kaikoura – a lovely seaside town on the east – with a peninsula walkway, up to whale watchers bay and beyond. Also hosts a seal colony.

From Kaikoura a magical 5 hour drive back through mountains to the west side of the island to Punakaiki, – the drive listed as one of the top three most beautiful drives in New Zealand. Arthur’s pass with an elevation of 920 metres or 3,020 feet is a mountain pass in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. The pass lies in a saddle between the valleys of the Otira River, in the west and the Bealey River in the east. Arthur’s Pass lies on the border of the Selwyn and Westland districts. It really is a breathtaking ride!!!

Sometimes a short break for stray sheep is required.

On arrival in Punakaiki you can see the pancake rocks and blowholes – and the Chinese tourists taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each other taking picture of the rocks.

From there to Greymouth – unfortunately really was grey as it rained continuously as we passed through Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. Note the blue water at Fox Glacier – wonderful – is that where the mints come from I wonder?

We travelled down to a nest called Haast, which boasts a population of 300 people and offers two tours. We really are in the middle of the back of beyond this evening – but believe it or not, I have spotted 3 Chinese taking pictures – one taking a picture of the other taking a picture of the other taking a picture of a random mountain.
Tomorrow we head on to Queenstown – 8 more sleeps in this cramped space !!!!

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is an extending trek over steep volcanic terrain. The amount of climbing is apparently minimized if you start at Mangatepopo Valley which is the preferred route. However I cannot confirm that the amount of climbing is minimized as I just wanted to cry most of the way up which is pathetic really, but true. There’s a part where you have to pull yourself up with chains – yes chains – I was at this point thinking “you cannot be serious” – but serious it was.
First of all you start on a track with a “gentle” gradient to Soda Springs – where you can go to the loo and this is advisable even though it stinks 😷 as there ain’t no more till 6k before the end and no bush if you do 🙄
Then it’s a steep climb to the Mangatepopo Saddle between Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe. Poles lead across the South Crater to the tracks high point at Red Crater (1886m) a still and steaming vent. Beyond Red Crater the track passes Emerald Lakes and skirts Te Wai Whakaata-o-te Rangihiora the Blue Lake. Incidently Wh is pronounced as an F – so not Whakaata but Fakaata – fak being a phrase I used more times than the number of scooters in the centre of Hanoi after reaching the Ketetahi Shelter 6km from the end. Here my knee decided to not play the descent game and having been told no one would rescue someone with a bad knee only a broken leg, I seriously hobbled my way down in excruciating pain saying “fak fak fak fak fak” whilst Dani kindly told me some stories to try and take my mind off it. As soon as the terrain became straight again at approx. 10cm away from the car park I became a little ray of sunshine again – a cable car down would’ve been greatly appreciated – however it was not to be – but what was to be as another eventful day full of stunning scenery and amazing, magnificent views – just fantastic!!

After Matamata which is where Hobbiton was, we travelled to Rotorura – a hot spring park, wonderful lake and great village were the main features.

On our way to Lake Taupo we stopped at Waiotapu – a sheer amazing thermal spring park. I have never seen anything like this – a natural volcanic reserve.

Lake Taupo

It is getting difficult to find new words to describe the views in NZ – it’s simply sheer beauty.

“Oh misty eye of the Mountain
below….”

so the song goes by the great Ed Sheeran…so setting the scene for the epic films…Lord of the rings and the Hobbit – and for all fans out there in the World, there can’t be a better place to come than good old middle Earth in NZ

Now here’s a fact I’d be surprised if you know – the sheep used on set were imported from England – the NZ sheep were too modern and old fashioned sheep with black feet were required…..

This is one of the events I was really looking forward too – the only problem is, I now know it’s all not real and I find that quite disturbing as I really wanted a cup of tea with Bilbo Baggins and to walk through the Shire with Sam and Frodo – alas it was not to be.
Maybe I’ll forget and it’ll all become real again 😃

The beast!

Our home for the next 19 days 😊

First stop Coromandel

Cathedral Cove

Hot water beach

At the end of a long day!!
There’s still work to be done 😬