Chiloe - Ancud

Day 1 – More Travelling! – Chiloe- Ancud

Deciding not to take the 37hr bus journey in semi cama (slightly reclined) seats, we opted to re-trace our route back to Punta Arenas where we would catch a flight to Puerto Montt and from there travel to Chiloe. Chiloe was on our list of places to visit given to us by our Chilean friends we met way back in Nepal. Basically, it’s an island not like any other part of Chile. It still has its routes firmly in when they were occupied by Spain, had some cool stilted houses and penguins, at last!

Fully prepared this time, head to toe in thermal underwear and layers for the cold bus journey, we trudged up to the bus station and grabbed a coffee to wait for our 7:15am departure. The bus however turned out to be roasting hot! So we spent the entire 2.5hr journey removing those layers, fanning ourselves and Glenn managed to get a bit of blogging done.

Arriving at the airport, we managed to remove some more layers and pack them in our bags before checking in and catching the flight to Puerto Montt. On arrival, we caught another bus to take us to the city centre where we would pick up a bus to take us to Chiloe.

Chiloe is a big island so we opted to first stop at Ancud, which although didn’t have a brilliant write up, was the place where you could see penguins. We arrived at the bus station where Glenn jumped off and headed to the ticket counter whilst I waited for the luggage. A good move by all accounts as he got two of the last remaining seats for a bus leaving in 15mins!

Our final bus for the day was about 2hrs, which involved a ferry crossing so it wasn’t long before we were soon trudging around town looking for our hostel which turned out not to be too far.

The hostel turned out to be a bright yellow rickety affair but did give you great views of the sea. We had decided to go for shared bathroom options for the majority of the trip in Chile as the luxury of your own loo took us outside our budget. We checked in, secured our belongings and headed to town.

It turns out that there really isn’t much to see and do in Ancud apart from Penguins! We had a bit of a wander, finding the plaza etc and then decided it was beer-o-clock. It also turns out that there aren’t many bars (which are open) in Ancud either. We prefer local rustic bars with stripped lighting, cheap beer and friendly locals that you can get chatting to and soak in the atmosphere. What we found was a spruced up bar, overpriced and quite clinical.

After a very expensive beer, we realised that we hadn’t actually eaten at all today so headed back to a café that looked pretty reasonable. There was Glenn, myself and one other table but it would do. We opted for the local fish, Glenn’s with potato salad and mine with rice. Pretty average, very beige but we had a nice bottle of wine with it and it came to around £15 which was more in keeping with our budget expectations.

Dinner done and after a lot of traveling, we headed to our hostel and bed!

Day 2 – Penguins

It was bloody freezing when we woke up, even with about 5 blankets on your bed which restrict you from moving, pinning you to the bed and cutting off the circulation in your legs! After a bit of coaxing to get out of the warm bed into the cold, and about 5 minutes removing said blankets, I was first to the showers.

The 1^st shower didn’t have a hook to hang the shower head on. The 2^nd, which turned out to be the 2^nd and 3^rd showers were inside the same room. They were unisex and would mean anyone coming in would be able to see your nudie bits through the shower door! I managed to overcome this by lodging stuff against the door and preying the flimsy lock would work. A very quick shower and I headed back to our room to give Glenn the M.O on the bathing situation.

Glenn returned looking a little embarrassed. No, nobody had walked in on him but he had managed to flood downstairs as he couldn’t close the shower door correctly. This resulted in a lot of banging on the door and hastily spoken Spanish by the hostel owner.  

Relaxing showers done, we headed down to b/f which was included in the price. B/f turned out to be two scone-like dense rolls, a slice of ham and cheese and a slice of cake which Glenn mistook as bread and spread butter on it.

Okay not great but it was Penguin time! We booked a trip with the hostel and was introduced to the brother. The brother, it turns out, couldn’t speak a word of English! I clearly need to get a few more lessons in as I could only make about one word in each sentence. Glenn however was brilliant, he recognised enough to be able to decipher what the hell was going on.

The next hour consisted of stopping off at some nice view points, going down to a pretty beach, a bit of a discussion about a house (of which I still have no clue why) all relayed to us in Spanish. It was like a lesson for Glenn.

Finally we had reach the harbour where we would catch the boat to the penguin islands. Whilst we waited, the Oz couple we had met at b/f from our hostel turned up (they sensibly decided to go with an English speaking tour). We were soon donning our life jackets and boarding a platform which was pulled by men and wheeled you out to the boat to save getting your feet wet.

We were so taken with this, it took us a while to realise what was printed on the back of the life vests! I hope we don’t encounter any icebergs!

The trip was around 45 minutes, and whilst there weren’t very many penguins and one very poorly looking one (there were actually vultures standing by) which after realizing, the captain swiftly moved the boat along!

It was pleasant and there was a lot of birdlife including Shags, Pelicans and other types nesting in the rocks.  

Back on land, we then went to a nice café at the corner of the beach where our guide informed Glenn that they did the best Empanadas. We ordered a large Empanada between us which turned out to be filled with Crab and was delicious, before heading back to the hostel.

We quickly sorted out a money transfer (still having card problems) before heading back into town to do some shopping. We purchased a plug to help charge our USB kit and then headed off in search of a snack. We found a little bar which was quite nice and a lot less expensive, although it had building work and drilling going on right next to it but you can’t win them all. Deciding that our scones and Empanada were still digesting we headed back to the Hostel.

It’s still daylight around 8:30pm so after we did some research and booking accommodation and both feeling like a nap, we realised we needed to go and get food as we knew we had a 6hr bus journey the following day. Reluctantly we headed out and found the closest hotel/restaurant to our hostel.

This turned out to be one of those places that put up bus load’s of old people so it wasn’t long before we were joined by a long table of silver nomads tucking into below average food. But we managed to find the same but cheaper bottle of lovely wine we had In Puerto Natales and the sunset was magnificent so things were looking up!

Food done, we headed back to the hostel and spent the next 10 mins peeling back the layers of blankets before finally retiring to bed.

Puerto Natales

Day 1 – Another Travelling Day

Getting up early yet again we went downstairs to breakfast which was quite basic and they don’t have milk for their cornflakes, you have strawberry yogurt to mix into it instead.  So we ended having a bit of toast and a coffee before getting a taxi to the airport.

On another trip we had already been to the Patagonian part of Argentina so we thought we would like to check out the Chile side of it, which meant another flight. Unfortunately the airport in Puerto Natales only opens in high season, which meant we had to get a 3 hour flight to the nearest town which was Punta Arenas.

During the flight we were suddenly passing over snowy mountains, glaciers and what looked like the Arctic, this created great excitement in the cabin with people rushing around the aisles from side to side trying to get photo’s.

Arriving in Punta Arenas we then had to find our way to the coach station for the next leg of the journey.  After trying to find a mini-bus into town and failing we opted to get a taxi to the bus station as we wanted to ensure we caught the earliest one we could.

Along the way the lady taxi driver we had, attempted in broken English, to point out some landmarks around the town (not a lot going on in this town by the look of things!).  We arrived at the coach station and went to get some tickets to Puerto Natales, luckily for us there was one departing in around an a hour.  So we walked down the road and found ourselves a café, which turned out to be pretty much an English tea shop, although they didn’t produce the milk until I requested, which I think they found a bit odd (No milk?, we’re the world’s most famous tea drinkers, WITH MILK!).

We then boarded the coach for a 3 hour journey that would take us to Puerto Natales, although the coach was comfortable the temperature on board was freezing.  Some 11 hours after we left Santiago we eventually found ourselves at the destination bus station.  Another 15 minutes dragging our bags along the freezing cold streets and after a bit of searching we found the hostel we had booked.

On checking in we were told that our room was in their sister hostel a couple of doors down, so we followed the receptionist down the road where he showed us to our room.  It was small but felt quite cosy so we unpacked and then went back to the reception to find out what trips we could do here.

The trips on offer was a day coach tour around Torres del Paine (the national park) and/or a hike up a mountain to get a closer view of the iconic mountain peaks. So not sure whether we wanted to do a full day’s hard hike we booked the coach trip for the next day and told him we would let him know later on whether we wanted to do the hike the following day.

Once this was all sorted we went to the ATM to get some funds out and found that our card still wasn’t working, which meant transferring some money to another bank account so we could draw money out to eat tonight.

It was now early evening so we went looking for a bar, however they were harder to find than you would imagine so we ended up in a nearby hostel that sold beer.  Whilst having a beer we just decided to have food here and we ended up just having homemade hamburgers and crisps, not quite the Chilean fare that we were hoping to get.

The food and drink there turned out to be quite expensive (UK prices) so we thought we would try out a little café/bar right next to our hostel, this turned out to be very popular with the locals and a bit more lively (also cheaper) so we stayed there for a couple of drinks before we returned to our hostel for the night.

Day 2 – Torres Del Paine

Today we were doing a tour of the national park and were told to be ready and outside for 7.30 which again meant another early start, which would have been fine if the coach had been punctual.  We waited until 7.45 before going to the reception to find out what happening, a brief conversation in my broken Spanish then I was put on the phone to the coach operator, she told me that the coach would arrive between 7.30 and 8.00.

So we were still standing outside freezing outside and feeling despondent at 8.15 we sat inside and waited inside the hostel, then around 8.30 we were informed by the receptionist that we had been given the wrong time and the coach was due at 8.30.

It then duly arrived and we boarded a coach full of local tourists, we were the only English people on the bus.  When the tour guide started wobbling on in Spanish we thought that was it and we would just have to appreciate the scenery without the commentary, but then he repeated himself in English (although it appeared to be the abbreviated version), so we were going to be OK.

We drove along for around an hour and then we pulled up at a restaurant for a coffee/toilet break, it was quite interesting as it was right on the Argentinian border, which appeared to be just a gate.  Inside we just about had enough to buy ourselves a coffee (due to card problem), it was very cosy there with all the chairs covered in a sheepskin and a log burner in the middle of the room.

Back on the bus, as we drove along we started to spot Guanacos, a sort of Chilean Lama but part of the camel family.  The Guanacos roam free across the national park and do not belong to anyone When we came to a largish group of them next to the road the driver let us off the coach for a better look.

You could walk fairly close to them and get some nice photo’s with a mountain backdrop, well you could until one of our fellow tourists strode right up to them to get a selfie at which point they scattered (some people!).  We were also lucky to see what I thought was an Artic fox scavenging nearby, it actually turned out on investigation to be a grey fox.

Carrying on for a while we passed plenty of Guanacos and also spotted the Chilean version of Emu’s before we pulled over at the first scenic look-out point.  The view we got off the coach for was a large lake in front of some beautiful mountains, but what was more impressive were the large Condor’s circling overhead.

After a 10 minute stop, it was freezing with a biting wind off the coach, we carried on for a while before stopping once again at a lookout that had a panoramic view over the lake with the iconic mountains that we had come to see in the background.

A little further down the road (or should I say dirt track) and we were stopping again, this time to look at a waterfall with the mountains once again in the background.  The scenery we were looking at was quite breath taking.

We then entered the park proper and had to pay the entrance fee of around £20 each before we could carry on.  Once again we were taken to another viewpoint that was a lot closer to the mountains and again there were Condor’s circling nearby, once again stunning!

Next on the itinerary we got off the coach and had to take a short walk (in the biting cold wind) to a viewpoint where there was another larger waterfall, so we could get yet more photo’s of the vista on offer.

It was now time for a lunch break (that you had to provide yourself) and we were taken to a lovely picnic spot on the shore of a lake with the whole of the mountain range behind it.  Shell and I had manged to get some rolls, ham and butter from a supermarket the day before so we managed, despite the wind, to fashion some sandwiches for our lunch which we ate whilst admiring the view.

After lunch we travelled further into the park and then pulled up and got out to do another longer walk.  Crossing a swaying foot bridge we then walked for about 15 minutes through some woods until we reach the basin of a lake.  From here we could spot icebergs in the distance so we headed across the dry lake bed to get a closer look.

We walked to the edge of the lake and in the distance you could see the Grey Glacier which the icebergs had broke off from, but from this distance we could not see if it was as impressive as the ones we had seen in Argentina a few year previously.

Following the edge of the lake we walked over to where all the icebergs were stacked up close to the shore so we could get some nice close up shots with the mountains as a backdrop.

The icebergs were practically like sculpture and once again they had this fantastic almost electric blue colour to them which made for great pictures, though as usual I don’t think the photo’s do them justice.

Shell and I sat there for a while enjoying the views and then it was time to return to the coach, for what was to be our last stop on the trip.  An hour or so later and we were stopping at a cave where they had found remains of a prehistoric bear.  The entrance fee for this was not included in this trip, so as we had to be careful with our money (due to card problems) and the fact we have seen plenty of caves on this trip we decided to give it a miss.

Twenty minutes later and the rest of the tourists returned to the bus (they didn’t exactly look awe struck) and then we were heading back to Puerto Nateles town.  During the journey back we had time to have one last look at the mountains before getting back to town around 7:30pm, quite a long day!

Back at the hostel, we tried to call the bank to sort out our card (our only one for our main account as mine had been cloned and cancelled in Java), but incredibly they do not have a 24 hour phone support for when you are abroad!!  So, we had to transfer more money to our secondary account so we could draw some money out.

As it was quite by now we just headed to the café next door for a few beers and we did not bother with dinner.  It was pretty full in there as it was a Saturday night and judging by a table full of local girls who were all dolled up for a party, people come here for a few cheap beers and some stodgy food before hitting the clubs (if they have such a thing in this town).  We just enjoyed our drinks and not feeling the need to go out partying headed later on to bed.

Day 3 – Rude Awakening

I forgot to mention although our room was quite cosy it had a very loud heating system (that you could not turn off) that kicked in and woke you up intermittently throughout the night, this combined with the loud Spanish chatter coming from reception (we were at the top of the stairs just above it), meant we got very little sleep here.

Taking the above into account we were not very impressed when the receptionist came banging on our door a 8.00 exclaiming that our coach was here.  It appeared that the guy we had booked the first trip with had decided that he would book us onto the second trip, despite us not asking too and not paying for it.

It took some time to try and explain to her that we hadn’t booked anything as my just awake brain seemed incapable of coming up with the Spanish words and I was just confusing us.  However she did go away after a while, maybe just to escape the sight of me in my stripy long john and hairstyle like Edward Scissor Hands and nothing to do with what I said to her.

After we tried to get a couple more hours sleep we got up but unfortunately Shell wasn’t feeling great so we decided she would stay in the room and either sleep or do some internet research on the next place we were going to, whilst I went to sort out our coach tickets for the next day and have a little stroll around town.

I took the short walk to the coach station where I managed to get us a pair of tickets to Puerto Montt for early the next day.  After this I then headed back to the town where I got us some 3-in-one coffee mixes, because as it turns out they seem adverse to supplying milk with their hot beverages in Chile.

I thought I would let Shell rest/sleep for a while so I had a little wander around the town then tried to see if I could find the tourism office and after getting a few vague directions and going round the block a couple of times I found it on the coast road.  It would have been useful apart from it was closed, undeterred I knocked on the door and after a while someone opened it.  Although he told me the office was closed today I did manage to get a bit of information concerning the connections we needed in Puerto Montt.

Walking slowly back to the hostel I checked out a couple of nice looking restaurants with a view to going out for a nice traditional meal in the evening.  On returning to the hostel Shell still wasn’t feeling 100% so we just chilled out for the rest of the day doing some blogging and research.

In the early evening after discounting one of the restaurants due to bad tripadvisor reviews we headed to the other restaurant I had seen in the nearby square.  On entering the restaurant it was very cosy with quite a few locals in it which was a good sign.  Also there was a lamb being roasted against a fire in the corner which added to the ambience.

Looking at the menu we decided just to go for the main course of the spit roasted lamb with some side dishes and a bottle of the local and highly revered wine.  However on looking around we noticed that a lot of people were drinking the local Pisco Sour, which is the local rum with lemon, so we thought we would have one as an aperitif, a good choice!

When our dinner turned up it was a full plateful of rustic lamb which was delicious and the wine too was excellent, we have now found our drink of choice in Chile!

It was our best meal for quite some time and whilst we would have liked to relax there for the rest of the evening, it was quite expensive so we did not feel we could justify buying another bottle of wine, especially with our cash/card problems at the moment.

We left the restaurant and went to the café/bar next to our hostel for a quick nightcap before heading home as we had yet another early start in the morning.

Getting to Chile

Day 1 – Time Travellers!

It was finally time to leave NZ and fly to a different continent, so after arranging a midday check-out we spent a lazy morning packing and taking a final look at our fantastic view over Queenstown.

We got an airport shuttle to Queenstown airport where we took a two hour flight to Auckland to get our connection to South America.

Once we arrived in Auckland we checked in and had a couple of hours to kill so we grabbed a coffee and ate some of Shell’s now famous pre-prepared filled rolls. 

Passing security we finally managed to get a lonely planet guide for South America, but we had to pay full price for it in a proper book shop.  At 7 in the evening we boarded our flight to Santiago, which was going to be a nice 10 hour flight and we had not been able to blag emergency seats, so this should make for a comfortable few hours!!

On the flight we quickly got settled and were beginning to think we had a spare seat next to us, only to be disappointed when some lady turned up late! We started to watch an in-flight film and then an evening meal was served, which as usual had the cheese of even more cheese option for Shell, she gritted her teeth and went for the cheese option.

I don’t think Shell or I got much sleep on this plane (if any) as we both managed to watch three films and quite a bit of TV and soon we were being served breakfast which actually did not contain any cheese!!

Now this is where the time travel comes in, we left at 7pm but we found ourselves arriving in Chile after a 10 hour flight, 4 ½ hours before we left at 2.30pm the same day!!  We are for once now 4 hours behind you guys in the UK so we will be calling in the morning (our time) so hopefully we will be less inebriated when we speak to you, although I can’t promise that!!

So off the plane we got and it was now time to put some of those Spanish lessons to use.  We found a transfer desk and arranged tickets on a shared bus to take us into town, only to discover that our usual debit card wasn’t working.  A quick panic, emptying my day bag onto the floor (including my undies) to find our US dollar stash and we were then able to pay for the tickets.

The mini-bus journey into Santiago took around ½ hour and luckily we were the first ones to be deposited outside ours (maybe because it was cheap and in the city outskirts!!).  Managing to check in without too much difficulty we were shown to our room and that’s basically what it was a room with a bed in it – no thrills!

After such a long journey and because it was still just late in the afternoon we found something in the bedroom to secure our luggage to in the room and headed out to see what we could find.

As usual our first thought was of a beer to toast being in a new country, also cause for more celebration as we were on a new continent.

Soon we found ourselves sitting outside a bar around the corner from our hostel drink cold local Patagonian beers (Austral). 

We sat there for a few hours just people watching whilst I struggled to get the caps off a number of beer bottles (quite embarrassing when the barmaid can just twist them off without breaking sweat!!).

The very long day was catching up with us and we had to be up early in the morning for another flight so we decided to forego dinner and just go back to the room to crash out and also transfer some money into our emergency account.

Shell's New Zealand Round Up

Home of the Mauri, Middle Earth, adrenaline junkies and jaw dropping scenery. NZ has a lot to offer and certainly lived up to our expectations! The only dampener was that it was indeed damp and cold! We hit NZ at the wrong time of year (you can’t win them all) so we probably sped through a few places faster than we would have if the sun was shining, missing out a few beaches and not indulging in any kayaking, rafting or other cold looking water adventures.

 On the plus side, NZ also appears to be home of the sand flies!  Fortunately I only got bitten a few times due to the colder climate but there seems to be a real problem here so be warned. Bring plenty of repellent! We were also in the shoulder season so the accommodation, though still the most expensive we have paid, will have been slightly cheaper than high season. Every cloud eh?

After a lot of debate, we opted to not get another camper (how could you ever replace Muriel?) as we knew we would be hitting colder weather, a good decision we think. We also decided not to go with the KIWI Experience, a bus you can jump on and off which takes you all around the key tourist areas across both islands. We heard that as it was still out of season, the bus schedules were limited, leaving you stranded in towns you wanted to leave, impromptu stops for food/mini tours you didn’t want, and an average age of 20 something co-passengers put the final nail in the coffin. Instead we opted for the cheapest hire car we could get (£15 per day) which would give us freedom, allow us to carry food and s more easily, plus practice our Spanish whilst traveling. We think it was a good choice. Although I never did manage to persuade Glenn to moonlight in the Nissan Sunny as a cab driver in the evenings.

To sum up NZ, its very different to Oz, much greener, absolutely stunning and no scary critters that can eat, bite, sting you. The volcanic and snow topped landscapes leave you in awe, the sulphur lakes, geysers, hot spring and mud pools leave you amazed, and jumping out of and off things leave you wishing you brought a change of undies!

Top moments include:

·         The bloody bungee swing, I honestly thought we were going to die! But we think we would do it again, minus being filmed (Shel not Glenn)

·         Jumping out of a plane at 1200 feet and floating to earth

·         Cathedral Bay, stunning!

·         Spotting our first snow-capped mountain

·         Smelly, eggy Rotarua and its sulphuric scenery and its Geysers

·         Picnicking by the numerous lakes and rivers

·         Having a bath on the beach at hot water beach

·         The amazing glow worm caves of Waitomo

·         Lazing on our amazing L-Shaped sofa in our even more amazing room in Wanaka (things you miss when you are traveling hey?)

One thing we wished we didn’t bother with though, was traveling to the far North of North Island and doing the peninsular trip and the bay of island boat trips. No doubt it would be much nicer in warmer weather but we found them to be over priced and, well just a bit dull!

Top tips are:

1.       Get a camper van if the weather it good, much more cost effective

2.       Make sure you include Wellington, we think it’s the best of the big cities in NZ!

3.       Bring a change of undies for any adrenalin trips!

Queenstown

Day 1 – Horror House

Waking fairly early because we had to take the hire car back, we had a coffee out on the balcony looking at the wonderful view before dropping into the town.

We dropped the car off at the office that was in the centre of town which was handy and then checked out the mad adrenaline sports you could book with an agency that was next door.  The one thing we wanted to do, which had be recommended to us by Guy and Tyler, a couple we had met in Fiji, was the AJ Hackets Bungy Swing.  Unfortunately there were no discounts and deals on this so we only really could afford swing and nothing else.

Booking sorted for the next day we then walked around town with a vague brief of trying to find Shell some long-johns to replace the ones lost in The Himalaya’s, as we were due to go to the Patagonian part of Chile in a few day time.

After hunting round for a bit and finding the cheapest pair for about £20 we decided we had four more days to see if we could find cheaper and so gave up shopping and headed for a lakeside pub.

The view of the lake and the mountains from the pub was great so we stayed there for an hour or two longer than planned, practicing our Spanish and just chatting.

By the time we both felt the gumption to leave and head for home we were a bit tipsy. As we headed back we passed what was billed as New Zealand’s most scary walk through Horror House that we had looked at earlier.  Normally I really don’t like these things, but with the alcohol in my system and the feeling we had not done much today we decided to give it a whirl.

On entering and paying quite an expensive entrance fee we were then briefed on what to do which was follow the LED lights, don’t punch anything and to shout ‘Chicken’ if you wanted to be pulled out early (we were told quite a few people did this).

When the lights to a nearby door flickered it was our turn to enter, luckily for me Shell was instructed to go in front whilst I followed holding on to her shoulders.  We then found ourselves in pitch darkness with only small glowing lights to follow (and Shell feeling her way along the walls).  It wasn’t too long before some Zombie was suddenly screaming in Shell’s face causing us to jump and scream (well Shell said I screamed??).

As we stumbled around in the dark (apparently with me back seat driving), things were grabbing at us, rattling cage chains and screaming at us and basically doing everything to make us need a change of underwear.  Towards the end we found ourselves in a bit of a dead end when someone hissed at us ‘GO BACK’ which again made us jump.

A couple more spooks later and we found ourselves back in the reception area, pretty pleased that we hadn’t had to shout ‘Chicken’, although it was pretty good and fun it wasn’t worth what we paid for it and no, we didn’t purchase the obligatory photo’s so here’s a homemade snap of our own.

On our way back to our room we stopped by the reception as Shell wanted to complain about the lack of a sofa in our room (as per the picture when we booked).  Although the receptionist could not sort this out she did manage to get us a very large bean-bag from the common room and some extra cushion, which was better than nothing.

Once back at the room I then cooked up my now famous and over-used Chile Con Carne to try and use up the spices we had left in our mobile larder.  Whilst we waiting for the Chile to boil down we relaxed on our new bean-bag.

After having dinner and having a bottle or two of wine we felt too settled to be bothered going out to check out what the nightlife had to offer (plus we had rinsed our budget on the bungee trip), so just spent a quiet night in until we went to bed.

Day 2 – Don’t Look Down!!

Managing to get a bit of a lie-in for a change we had a late breakfast, which was a nice English fry up, care of the electric fryer we had bought (we are finally making use of it after 2 weeks of sitting in the boot of the car).

Heading out a bit later we made our way down to the offices where we were due  to be picked up for the bungy swing.  We were checked in, then weighed and had our hands marked (for identification purposes later???) and then asked to wait on some bean-bags whilst we watched video’s of various bungy activities on the screens.

Soon though we were called to board a coach to take us to the bungy site which was about 40 minutes away.  Along the way we passed the first bungy jump bridge in NZ which had been running now 42 year, however the drop for this was about a third of the height we were heading for!!

At the jump site there was another office where we checked in  and once again were weighed (not sure how much you can put on in a 40 minute bus ride) and another number was scribbled on our hands and then we were told to head over the bridge to the jumping station. The wind was really picking up now so they moved us along quickly before the ride had to be shut.

Due to the wind,  the suspended bridge to the suspended jumping platform was a pretty wobbly but we managed to get across without to many nerves showing.

Once at the jumping platform we had a chance to watch a couple do the tandem drop that we were about to do shortly, suddenly being dropped about 80 metres before turning into a massive rope swing across the valley below.  A big scream and then they were gone!!

We thought we would have to wait for a while whilst we watched some more people who were standing around do it.  However these people were mostly spectators and we were called up to get our harnesses fitted as we were up next!!

After we had been fitted into our harnesses we were then secured by a rope into the jump zone. 

We were then strapped into the bungy harness/seat and winched out over the drop with our body’s dangling above the valley below.  Being honest I was very calm about this after doing our skydive, I was pretty sure Shell wasn’t worried about it either.

The guy running the show told us to look to one side, for the obligatory photo shot and then asked me hold my go-pro out to one side (so it didn’t hit us in the face when we dropped).  Finally he told us to look up for another photo opportunity, during which he caught us by surprise and just hit the red button!!

We dropped like a stone and the feeling was far worse than when we did our sky dive a week earlier, you can see from the photo how much Shell was enjoying it.  Shell let out a big scream, but on playing back my video footage we did detect a little yelp by me followed by an expletive!

Once the drop hit the swing part of the experience I think that Shell finally opened her eyes again and we were both laughing (in relief??) as we could just enjoy the swing over the valley and the river below.

Soon we stopped swinging and then were hoisted back to the jump platform, I think we would both rather jump out of a plane again than do another bungy swing!!

We stuck around for a bit to watch some other people do it so we could appreciate their nerves and drop screams before they had to close the jump due to the wind. We headed back over the bridge to the office. At the office we checked out our photo’s and video footage they took whilst we waited for the bus to take us into town.  After checking what video I took on my go-pro we were amazed to see that it was pretty good, which meant we only bought our photos which saved us money on buying their video.

The coach dropped us back in town and then we walked back up that steep hill to our room, where we once again turned on our Spanish Lesson audio book to try and cram some more vocabulary into us before we hit Chile.

Once again the evening was spent preparing dinner, trying to use up the remaining food we had, having a few drinks and relaxing before bed.

Day 3 – Wash Out!!

Awakening to the sound of hammering on our roof we peered outside and discover that it was actually rain and it was absolutely chucking it down, which put paid to our plan of doing a luge trip down the nearby mountain.

Once we had another nice home-cooked breakfast we realised that the rain was not going to ease up so we settled down to some blogging, research on Chile (it looks like it’s gonna be expensive!) and yet further Spanish lessons.

As it turned out the rain did not let up all day so most of the day was spent as above before we cooked our evening meal, a last chance for our lamb chop & salad special.

The rain did not let up in the evening either so we resigned ourselves to staying in and just had a few drinks, watched TV and went to bed.

Day 4 – Luging and Final Day in NZ

It was a big surprise given the rain the previous day when Shell (getting up first as usual) declared that it was snowing outside.  Once I dragged myself out of the crawl space and down the ladder I then saw for myself that there was an inch or so covering on all the roof’s below and even greater coverage on the surrounding mountains, which made for a pretty photo.

Another home cooked breakfast later and the sun was out and the snow was melting quickly, so we thought we would see if the luge thing was working so we headed down the road to the cable car station.

At the station they had various offers so we decided on the cable car and two luge rides each, we figured a couple of goes would be enough and also cheaper. 

We caught the cable car to the top of the mountain admiring the view along the way and soon we were getting off at the top.  There was quite a large complex at the top and they had a viewing platform/balcony where you had a magnificent view over the whole of Queenstown, the lake below and all the snow-filled mountains in the area.

A few photo’s later we then headed to place for the luge ride and we grabbed a helmet before boarding a chair lift to take us to the top of the mountain where the luge station was.

The luge’s are basically un-motorised go-carts (not the ice toboggan things) and you go on a downhill track that winds you round sharp bends to the bottom where you can pick up the chair lift again.

After Shell and I climbed aboard our mean machines we were given a brief tutorial, push forward on handles = go, pull back on handles = stop, left & Right…Simples.  Soon we were off on the blue run (slow track) and we were getting used to the steering and enjoying the increasing speed as you went down.  Although I nearly lost it on a corner as I found it’s impossible to try and take photo’s on one of these things and steer at the same time! (My excuse anyway).  It was pretty good fun trying to race each other and overtake on the bends.

Once at the bottom we quickly jumped back on the chair-lift to take us back up for our second turn.  On the second run we both agreed to do the Red Run (much steeper & Faster), however as I was trying to get a picture of Shell on the start line she got a head start on me.  In my eagerness to catch her up I got my start & stop muddled so I was well behind her, she was out of sight.  The track was a lot faster and a lot more fun, so I hammered after Shell only to get in touching distance of her as she crossed the finishing line.  Being honest it was a lot of fun and we could have done with another go!!

Before we got the cable-car back down the mountain we had noticed from the viewing platform that there was a bungy jumping centre operating just below, so we thought we would go and watch that for a while.  It was fun watching a couple of guys launch themselves off the platform and hearing their relief as the bungy rope recoiled at the bottom.

Back at the bottom of the mountain we then headed back into town to do some shopping, picking up some essential bathroom stuff before grabbing Shell’s new long-johns.

We then went to the pub by the lake for a couple of beers before going home for the day.  During the late afternoon and evening we tried to finish off all our remaining food and drink as we were saying goodbye to NZ tomorrow and heading for a new continent.