Paul's Tour

Lima was a bustling city, crammed with people and busy. It reminded me of the big cities of Vietnam. The center of the city was stunning and outside the city was the ruins of Pachakaimak. Surrounded by desert it was  good introduction to the Inca and pre Inca civilisations of Peru. The next destination was Cusco the old Inca capital of the empire. It was a real challenge to adapt to the height of the 3000m + altitude. From here we left for the start of the inca trail, passing through the sacred valley. The 4 day trek to Machu Pichu was spectacular, truely the hardest physical thing ive had to do in a long time. The reward of seeing Machu Picchu was worth it, words cannot do it justice, the photos help but only a little.

Just arrived in Lima and i can imeadiatly see the difference from Santiago. Its less developed but a busier more exciting looking city. Im looking forward to exploring it. Ive finally got the last of the New Zealand photos up and also the amazing photos of my skydive. They turned out really well. You can clearly see on my face im having the time of my life hehe.

 

After a 11 hour flight from Auckland i arrived in Chile. I could straight away see the andes dominating the skyline as the plane came into land. I had done a bit of time travel to get to Santiago, arriving h4 hours before I left Auckland. The city itself is really beautiful, every street is lined with trees and gardens and there is a real mix of old and new architecture. Feeling really jetlagged I got to the hotel and passed out for a bit before going into town to find some food. This was quite an experiance as my spanish is non existant and the locals English seams to be as well. Luckily i have a pocket phrase book so each sentance or word i said was followed by 5 minutes of flicking through the book to find the next thing to say! I got there in the end and had a decent steak. Being Halloween last night all the bars, restaurants and clubs were decorated in a spooky theme and promoters were in fancy dress. If I had the energy I would have stayed out to enjoy a Chilian halloween. Today i went on a tour of the city which was bilingual (Thank God) taking in the main architectual sites of the city. It's all saints day today so pretty much everything is closed. So far a really cool, relaxed city nestled between the Andes and the pacific ocean.

The journey from the south island to the north island was a memorable one. Gale force winds made the ferry crossing a complete nightmare. The 3 hour journey took more like four and a half. We were lucky though, the ferry after took something like ten hours to make the crossing. Wellington was very, very windy. We only had a night here before the journey north to lake Taupo. This place was great, mainly because i finally got to do a skydive. The whole experiance was spectacular, ive never been so scared and excited at the same time. Photos to be added later for this one. Rotorua was the next destination, main things that i did here was a tour of the Hobbiton set from the LOTR, which was very cool. In the afternoon of that day i went mountain biking in the Redwood forest  near Rotorua. There was also a visit to a Mauri village which was good fun. The bay of islands was pretty much a wash out as the weather went shit again.

 

Rest of the photos to be added in November as its saying ive reached my monthly limit to upload.

the journey from Bangkok was a nightmare, over a day in travelling and my luggage was lost along the way. I arrived in christchurch last Sunday and the tour began on the monday. Its a much bigger group than ive had so far, something like 30. We headed south from Christchurch towards Mt Cook spotting some fantastic scenery. Crystal clear water in lakes and snow capped mountains. Some of the photos just dont do it any justice. We stayed the first night at lake Ohau. A very remote ski lodge. The following day we marched on down towards Queenstown. Again fantastic scenery all along the way. The emptyness is amazing. Apart from the road there was often no other sign of human influence for hours. We skirted around Queenstown and headed for Milford Sound which was just spectacular. We had an overnight cruise around the area and managed to spot some seals fishing around the boat at night and some penguins the following morning. The following day we headed to Queenstown arriving in the afternoon. I had plaaned to try a handglide but the weather meant it was cancelled, what was good was my bag finally arrived. That night we sampled the Queenstown nightlife. There was an ice bar, and a bar/club that sold cocktails in teapots... 

 

The follwing day was to be the day where all the extreme sports I could do were to be done. In the morning was my Bunjy Jump. Not just any old jump but the worlds second highest at 142M! It was an amazing experiance, a real headrush and I felt pretty exhausted after. In the afternoon I was meant to do a tandem skydive but the wind was to strong and it was cancelled. The following day we left Queenstown for Fox Glacier, we arrived in the early afternoon. After the disapointment of missing out on the skydive and handglide in Queenstown i went all out here and did a heli hike. This was increadible, a short flight in a helicopter and landing half way up the glacier. I then had the chance to explore the glacier at its best. There were crevases huge pools of trapped water and beautiful ice caves which were shiny and blue on the inside. Stunning. The next day we travelled north back to Christchurch, were now heading further north towards the north island.