Introducing Darlene

Me and Debo (aka the Driver)

Hello everyone, my name is Darlene the camper van. IB and Debo have hired me for 3 months, and we are all going to explore the north and south island of New Zealand together.


I am approx 2.5 metres tall and inside I am 1.8 metres. This means that IB and Debo can stand up inside. I have a 2 hob gas cooker, wee sink, wee fridge, microwave, kettle, pots and pans, cutlery, electric fire, portable dvd player (no dvds, so a bit pointless), snow chains for the south island and my sofas go into a nice comfy double bed.

My new hirer's seem very happy and I promise to behave and keep them safe.

Lots of love
Darlene


PS I only have one driver, Debo, as IB got his licence stolen when their back pack was nicked in Argentina, but to be honest, he does not seem that bothered and always jumps in the passenger seat with a map and a beer in his hand...

Devonport Auckland

Auckland City from Mount Victoria, Devonport.

(This was taken in between rain showers)

We took the ferry from Auckland harbour to Devonport. Once there we climbed to the top of Mount Victoria, or Takarunga in Maori. It erupted some 20,000 years ago, and its lava flows now line much of Devonport's waterfront. An important pa (A Maori defended settlement) once occupied its slopes, and some of the pa's earthworks can still be seen.

The weather here is weird. One minute it can be raining and very windy and the next you have to take your jacket off, as it is so warm. We took shelter in a nice little pub called, The Patriot. The owner was from Edinburgh, so we had a nice time chatting to him and of course drinking some beer.

As we have still not got over our jetlag, we headed back to the mainland on the 5.45pm ferry and were both sleeping by 9pm. Still not feeling a 100%, but it is getting better. We are going to try and stay up until 9.30pm tonight, but we will have to wait and see.

Really like the people of Auckland so far. They all have been really helpful and dont laugh in our faces, when we still say some words in Spanish.

We looked into changing our flight, Auckland to Brisbane, for it to leave from Christchurch instead, but it was going to cost $400(US) to do this, so it looks like we will have to drive back to the North Island since we have a budget. Hopefully we will sort out our transport within the next couple of days and will post a picture of our new wheels as soon as.

In Auckland.....yes already

Well,... we arrived in Auckland on the 23rd June by the skin of our teeth.

Just by chance, on the 21st, we looked at our flight tickets and noticed that our flight was that night. Luckily we had taken the overnight bus the night before from Puerto Varas to Santiago, so we were only 2 hours from Santiago in Valparaiso when we noticed our mistake / stupidity had a quick shower, some lunch and headed to Santiago. We checked in in plenty of time. The flight was a nightmare. Only people under 5 foot, should fly with Lan for 13 hours. We both had cramp in our legs and feet. Food was okay, nothing special. Movies were, Wild hogs, and a Drew Barrymore / Hugh Grant movie about some guy who was in a band in the 80,s (don't rent/or buy it)

We are staying in a hostel in the centre of Auckland. It is nice and we have slept for 13 hours, waking at 2am, 4am, 6am and finally gave in a walked the streets looking for baked beans at 7am. Found them, and some drunks and headed back to heat them up (not the drunks, the baked beans).... Great, we have not had beans on toast since March (it is amazing the things we miss)

Planning on either renting or buying a camper van and today we are heading to Devonport to spend the day there. (it all depends on how long we can keep our eyes open)

Jet lag is weird.....

Back in Chile.....Puerto Varas..

Osorno Volcano

Well..... we have made it back across the border without any problems, or fruit related instances....

We are staying in a beautiful place called Puerto Varas which sits on the LLanquihue Lake with the Osorno Volcano in the background. We are not planning on doing too much, as our bodies wont let us(really sore from snowboarding, or that should be falling on ice, with a snowboard attached to our feet). Heading back to Santiago on the 20th and will explore there more, as we did not really give it a chance the last time we were there.

Beni, Jeni and Pee-sac on the Piste

"We should have taken the chairlift!!!".

Our friends are glad that their good furry coats, served them well!!

Blues on the Piste (or was that last night)

Blues on the Piste

Caterdal ski village, Bariloche

Robina, IB, Debo, Emanuel and Ese (at the front)

We met our friends from El Calfate, who stay in Bariloche on Saturday night for a few beers and they asked if we wanted to go snowboarding the next day. Of course, we jumped at the chance.

We arrived at Catedral mountain and it looked like somewhere in Switzerland, rather than Argentina. All the shops, hotels and even the hospital are all wooden, in a "Swiss style", and the snow and bright sunshine add to the effect. Got our boots and snowboards, for a mere 40 pesos each (which is about 7 quid), and the nursery slopes were free all day, so it only cost 14 quid for the day.....bargain.

Poor Ese was the one who got the short straw, and took us to the nursery slopes to try and learn how to snowboard. After half an hour of continuously falling, his patience paid off and we both managed to stay on our feet (today we have sore joints and sore bottoms). An hour or so later, we could both go down the slope, passing 3 years olds on their sledges (only falling a couple of times on the way) but we made it...HORRAYYYY

It was great fun and we cant thank Ese and Emanuel enough for taking us there. We are now both hooked and hope to do it again, wherever there is snow, although we have to wait for a week or so, to let our bodies recover.

Travelling, Coche Cama

Who needs hostels......(but maybe shades, as the colours are bright)

Incase you are wondering how we manage to survive all the long bus journeys, sometimes you can spend a little bit extra and get reclining seats, blanket, pillow, meal and juice (sometimes, even wine). They also play dvds, but they are all from the 80's and we have a least seen them several times before..

The type of seat above, at least makes the 24hour bus journeys, bareable.

Blues do Curry (for 9)

Starting left and working clockwise around the table.

IB, Alan, Ed, Hugo, Debo, Crazy Horse (Delphine), Rebecca, Chris and Colin.

It is really hard to get a curry in Argentina, so me and Debo decided to make one for ourselves and our friends in the hostel. The girl sitting next to Debo, is Delphine our French friend. This is the lovely (and crazy) person we have been talking about.

We walked around Puerto Madryn and finally found all the ingredients and it all cost a grand total of 14 pounds to feed 9 people (with leftovers, which we took some of for the overnight bus and we left some in the hostel). Everyone was well pleased as most of them had been out seeing the whales all day, and were really hungry when they got back. We had a great time, and around 8.30pm we all had to go our seperate ways (but with full tummys).

Puerto Madryn

The one standing, gives us his "Seal of approval"...

The fashion down here, leaves a lot to be desired!!!!

(but it keeps you alive)

Having a whale of a time..ha ha

Our flight from El Calafate to Puerto Madryn, was only delayed slightly (about 4 hours), so we were in Puerto Madryn for about 23:00ish. Our hostel is pretty cool and only 2 blocks away from the beach. We went to a resturant for lunch yesterday, and we could see some whales about 200 metres from the beach. Today we took a trip out to see some whales, sea lions and seals. It was very, very, cold, but sunny, and we saw plenty of wildlife. Firstly we saw sea lions and then we went around the cove and saw some seals basking on the rocks. There were around 50 of them and only 3 weeks before there was 500. We then went on a boat to see the whales and that was truly a wonderful site. The whales came as close as 5 metres from our boat, but they were too quick to get a good picture(or at least our camera was too slow). We watched them for around an hour and then headed back in land, before we all froze to death.

All in all a great day and well worth the visit. Tomorrow our friend Delphine is joining us, so we are looking forward to seeing her again and maybe on Friday we will go on a bike ride round the beach to see more whales....who knows we have not been to the pub yet!!!!

Perito Moreno

Perito Moreno glacier

Yesterday......after a heavy night on the sauce....it was a beautiful day, so we (and 2 friends we met at the hostel) hired a taxi out to the Perito Moreno glacier. This is an amazing glacier....again the pictures don´t really do it justice. We spent a couple of hours there and saw some huge chunks fall into the water, followed by an thunderous roar.

We have a flight, out of El Calafate, tonight to Puerto Madryn to see the whales...so more piccies to follow soon (hopefully). It´s pretty cold down Patagonia way, and it was snowing today, but the airline seems confident that we will fly today, so finger crossed eh?

Lago Onelli

I spy...with my icey eye !!!

The Blues on Lago Onelli....
...with lots of ice, and a couple of smaller glaciers in the background

Glaciers around El Calafate

What Iceberg ??

In fact some were pretty hard to miss

ahhh....that iceberg

Upsala Glacier

We went out for a tour of some of the glaciers around El Calafate....it was an all day boat trip (great! thought Debo....but it´s better than the 4 days we were looking at in Puerto Montt). First we went to Glacier Spegazzini, which is the tallest in the national park, then on, through the icebergs (loads of them) to Glacier Upsala - the largest glacier in the park. After that we went on to Lago Onelli, which used to have a glacier (about 1000 years ago), but is now covered in more icebergs. The whole trip was amazing, and certainly worth the effort to get down here....and again the pictures don´t do it justice !!

Our furry friends at Glacier Spegazzini

Jeni, Pee-sac and Beni at Glacier Spegazzini

(luckily they all have furry coats....it was a bit on the nippy side)

Another bus journey from hell

The long and (not so) winding road....in Patagonia

OK....we decided to take the plunge and take another bus journey from hell from Bariloche to Rio Gallegos, which is 24ish hours down to the bottom of Argentina. First bus we had was a nice comfy one, overnight, leaving Bariloche at 19:00.....only problem was there were loads of people on it singing and talking......we now know spanish for "shut up", but didn´t at the time.....not much sleep. We changed buses in Comodoro Rivadavia, to a semi-cama (not as comfy), but at least it was quiet(ish)....then had about 12 hours of not much scenery (see picture above). We got into Rio Gallegos at about 19:30....straight to bed for us....becasue the next day we were taking a (wee) 4 hour bus journey to El Calafate

Puerto Montt to Bariloche

Never ask for "Grande" papa fritas in Puerto Montt, unless

you are a family of 8.

We were going on a long bus journey, so decided to go to this cafe for some lunch. As we have not had proper papa fritas for months, we ordered a Grande portion to share....we should have guessed something was up, when it took 4 people to carry them to our table (ok slight exaggeration). And to make it even funnier, we only ate a few as we were stuffed (think our stomachs have shrank, but I am sure the staff ate the leftovers)

As you can see, we are back in Argentina. This time in the south in Bariloche and heading to El Calafate to try and see the glaciers. Some of the roads are already closed with the snow, so we can only try. We could not really do it from Chile as it meant a 4 night boat trip, which Debo said NO to. She does not like boats at the best of times, never mind at night and in the dark. I think the trip in the jungle was the final straw. Anyway Argentina is a hell of a lot cheaper than Chile, so it is good to be back.