Bueno Aires,Argentina

Well, I´ve settled in quite well here, I´m not really doing much travelling, as I´ve signed up for 10 hours worth of Spanish lessons, and so I've planned lots of day trips. I'm having the lessons on my own, which makes it quite an intense experience, although I´m not quite sure how good a teacher she is, it may also be it´s quite hard, and a large bit may be the way Cubans and many Spanish speakers pronounce the ll in Calle is a y sound in English, but here they prounounce it sh, which is a huge challenge before you even start, if you've learnt it the other way, so yo(i) becomes sho, ayah. I did a really nice day trip to Tigre, a little place in the suburbs which has many water ways and so you have to take water taxis to get anywhere, I enjoyed the peace and quiet, and really noticed the smog when I got back.
I´ve met some great people here, and chatted, at the latest, to 6 in the morning, which doesn´t seem to be that odd here with many people not going to bed until the morning. The beef is really good here, and you don´t need to ask for it to be medium. Their are some really good art galleries here, displaying art from a good variety of artists, one of the local ones I quite like is Xol Solar.
There seem to be quite a lot of protests out here, and seen more riot police here than I have ever seen before in my life!!!!, I´ve seen tyres being burnt as well, and the sounds of something like bullets being fired.
Tomorrow I´m off to Uraguay for the day to Colonia, which should be good fun, as get another stamp in the passport, play with another exchange rate, but don´t have to carry my bag which is a huge bonus!!!!!
I´m ready to come home now, I feel it´s been an absolutely fantastic adventure, meeting lots of great people, some who I hope I´ll manage to keep in contact with. Seen suberb scenery, and with South America got a taste of the place, to give me enough motivation to continue with learning Spanish so I can come back and visit rural places with confidence that I can handle most situations. I could also easily write off the top of my head a plan for another month in South Africa. It´s been great meeting lots of my family who are spread across the world, and seeing the countries where my family comes from. It´s going to be quite odd being back at home, having my own space, not having to share my space with lots of strangers, and having some routine. It´s also going to be great having a kitchen with everything I need and want, especially spices. I´m also looking forward to catching up with everyone back at home, preferably with a nice pint of English Bitter, and back when people are starting to have parties after hibernating for winter!

Adios New Zealand, buenos dias Chile

The last days of NZ were spent meeting a bit more family, saying goodbye to other bits of family, watching a rowing regatta and being fed well.
Chile was fantastic, I didn{t speak to an Native English speaker all the time I was there(5 days) and loved the atmosphere of the place and all the street performers from the comedian transvestite and the "Candid Camera" mad mime artist to the street musicians. I was staying a great little place, a room to myself, wow, and Pancho the owner was great and met lots of Chileans, Rata Nui people, and Brazilians, and will definitely go back to Chile at some point, also good fun trying to communicate with broken Spanish, with a dictionary to hand.

NZ Mostly the South Island

Wellington, the Capital, was great lots of events going on from people doing chalk scrawls on the pavement, to loads of racing boats in port, to a free Latin American festival, also went and jived for one evening.
Next up was The South Island.
Picton first with great walks and mountain bike ride, meeting friends of friends, and almost going kayaking.
Off to walk the Abel Tasman, a lovely walk, with friends from Ceroc carrying a bit of my stuff for the first day, it was weird meeting up with people from home over here, but almost expect it!
Next up was a 2 day adventure hitching a lift for those days, meeting a huge spectrum of different people, luckly none of the serial killer variety!
Franz Joseph was walking though worm holes and using an ice pic to explore the glacier there, in glorious sun!
The last week has been pure walking doing the Kepler track in a day( well the core 45km of it), then the Milford track(53.9km) and finally the Routeburn(39km), with amazing 'magical forest', lots of moss covering everything and dense undergrowth. Also snow capped mountains and the crunch of snow underfoot, later on walking though gentle snow falling, walking through the bases of waterfalls, getting totally soaked. Eating far too many instant meal, ahhh. I may have forgotten the clear blue skies and superb mountain ranges!!!!
I'm now back in Auckland, for meeting some other relatives, fabric shopping( have to keep mum happy), and a rowing regatta( watching only :-( )
Last night after getting back going out to get some mint to make tea with, I finally saw a preying mantis in nature, it was awesome, it was such a curious little creature following my finger a bit, and waving its mandibles in the air. Also its funny little head. I got scared at one stage it tried to make a getaway into the house, and after it having entertained me for at least 10 minutes I wanted it to have a good life, even if it was going to be 24hrs.
Oh on a related note also saw a Kea,a native New Zealand bird, which like to pick at anything with its beak, from walking shoes left out, to sheeps' kidneys, nice. It was flying towards me on the top of Kepler, and you could see the reddish underside of the bird, and the tallons and did a large loop around my head(2m off?), lots of NZ birds are curious soles, some seem to follow you leaping from branch to branch reminding me of Narnia.
Sorry about the lack of picutres, finding cheap broadband is a challenge!