Monday, April 24, 2006
Queenstown, New Zealand
It's a common rumour that in New Zealand there are more sheep than people. I can confirm that this is true, but the whole truth is even more incredible. There are TEN TIMES more sheep than people. Imagine what would happen if they rebelled against human rule...
In Picton, on my first day on the South Island, the first thing I did was get my hair cut. It had been in a terrible state. Then I went to catch the Stray bus.
I decided to go around the South Island with a company called Stray, which does the same thing as the more famous Kiwi Experience. It's basically a glorified, very expensive bus pass. Their buses travel on a set route, you can get off at any of the stops, stay as long as you want and get back on next time a bus passes through. In addition, they can arrange accomodation and book activities for everyone, which leads to everyone on the bus staying in the same place and doing the same things. Hence, it's a good way to meet people and make friends. That was the idea anyway, and was the main reason I chose to travel like this...I was getting a bit bored of travelling on my own.
On the first day we travelled to the Abel Tasmin national park, in the north-west corner of the island. The highlight of the journey was when the bus broke down - a great omen on my first day with Stray. We needed to get the engine turning over, or something, so we had to get out and push. This didn't achieve much, but luckily, a tractor appeared from somewhere and gave us a few pulls, and the engine started again. This was all quite hilarious. The next day I booked myself a half-day sail. Abel Tasmin national park is a beautiful stretch of coastline with forested slopes rising behind pristene, golden beaches. We sailed up the coast, then I got dropped off and spent the rest of the day walking back to the hostel. This was a great day: the weather was perfect, the beaches were beautiful and it was the first time I'd been sailing, so I enjoyed that.
We then headed out to the West Coast and stayed in a pub in a tiny place called Barrytown. Barrytown is tiny - just a handful of houses. The only businesses are the pub, and a cafe about 1km away along the main road. I really enjoyed staying there. It felt very remote, middle-of-nowhere feel, but the pub was busy and lively and had the feeling of being the social hub of the community. I can imagine people coming in in winter to take refuge from the storm beating the coast, and huddling in front of the fire. The bar was packed both evenings we stayed there: there were hundreds of people from Stray and plenty of locals, so it was fun hanging out there. When we arrived on the first evening we had a roast dinner which tasted indescribably good to me. It was the first proper meal I'd had in New Zealand. Things were so expensive (relative to South America) here that to stay on budget, I had no choice but to self-cater. Because I was moving about so much, I was unable to buy lots of ingredients and store them, so the meals had been pretty basic. Instant macaroni cheese was a popular option. Occasionally I'd treated myself to fish and chips, a Burger King or a Subway. So yeah, the roast was good.
We had a full day in Barrytown the next day. It was the 15th April, so it was the exact half-way point of my trip! I told this to several people and received various degrees of enthusiasm. I had a relaxing day not doing much. In the afternoon I went for a walk along the beach with a German girl called Silke. There's meant to be lots of greenstone, or jade, to be found on the beach. Apparantly someone travelling with Stray found a piece worth $500! We had to walk down a long road to get to the beach - at the end of this was a campervan, and outside of it was a big cockatoo sitting on a cage. Naturally this attracted our attention, and the man from the campervan came to chat to us. Here's the crazy guy
He told us exactly where we should look to find the jade, so I was quite confident of finding some. An hour or so later we were back, empty-handed. So he gave up a small piece each (come to think of it, Silke got two pieces). I was overwhelmed and was under the impression that my piece was worth $100 or something. In a shop I visited later, I saw similar pieces selling for a few dollars...but still, it was a very kind gesture.
It's a common rumour that in New Zealand there are more sheep than people. I can confirm that this is true, but the whole truth is even more incredible. There are TEN TIMES more sheep than people. Imagine what would happen if they rebelled against human rule...
In Picton, on my first day on the South Island, the first thing I did was get my hair cut. It had been in a terrible state. Then I went to catch the Stray bus.
I decided to go around the South Island with a company called Stray, which does the same thing as the more famous Kiwi Experience. It's basically a glorified, very expensive bus pass. Their buses travel on a set route, you can get off at any of the stops, stay as long as you want and get back on next time a bus passes through. In addition, they can arrange accomodation and book activities for everyone, which leads to everyone on the bus staying in the same place and doing the same things. Hence, it's a good way to meet people and make friends. That was the idea anyway, and was the main reason I chose to travel like this...I was getting a bit bored of travelling on my own.
On the first day we travelled to the Abel Tasmin national park, in the north-west corner of the island. The highlight of the journey was when the bus broke down - a great omen on my first day with Stray. We needed to get the engine turning over, or something, so we had to get out and push. This didn't achieve much, but luckily, a tractor appeared from somewhere and gave us a few pulls, and the engine started again. This was all quite hilarious. The next day I booked myself a half-day sail. Abel Tasmin national park is a beautiful stretch of coastline with forested slopes rising behind pristene, golden beaches. We sailed up the coast, then I got dropped off and spent the rest of the day walking back to the hostel. This was a great day: the weather was perfect, the beaches were beautiful and it was the first time I'd been sailing, so I enjoyed that.We then headed out to the West Coast and stayed in a pub in a tiny place called Barrytown. Barrytown is tiny - just a handful of houses. The only businesses are the pub, and a cafe about 1km away along the main road. I really enjoyed staying there. It felt very remote, middle-of-nowhere feel, but the pub was busy and lively and had the feeling of being the social hub of the community. I can imagine people coming in in winter to take refuge from the storm beating the coast, and huddling in front of the fire. The bar was packed both evenings we stayed there: there were hundreds of people from Stray and plenty of locals, so it was fun hanging out there. When we arrived on the first evening we had a roast dinner which tasted indescribably good to me. It was the first proper meal I'd had in New Zealand. Things were so expensive (relative to South America) here that to stay on budget, I had no choice but to self-cater. Because I was moving about so much, I was unable to buy lots of ingredients and store them, so the meals had been pretty basic. Instant macaroni cheese was a popular option. Occasionally I'd treated myself to fish and chips, a Burger King or a Subway. So yeah, the roast was good.
We had a full day in Barrytown the next day. It was the 15th April, so it was the exact half-way point of my trip! I told this to several people and received various degrees of enthusiasm. I had a relaxing day not doing much. In the afternoon I went for a walk along the beach with a German girl called Silke. There's meant to be lots of greenstone, or jade, to be found on the beach. Apparantly someone travelling with Stray found a piece worth $500! We had to walk down a long road to get to the beach - at the end of this was a campervan, and outside of it was a big cockatoo sitting on a cage. Naturally this attracted our attention, and the man from the campervan came to chat to us. Here's the crazy guy
He told us exactly where we should look to find the jade, so I was quite confident of finding some. An hour or so later we were back, empty-handed. So he gave up a small piece each (come to think of it, Silke got two pieces). I was overwhelmed and was under the impression that my piece was worth $100 or something. In a shop I visited later, I saw similar pieces selling for a few dollars...but still, it was a very kind gesture.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Wanaka, New Zealand
I went to collect the car in the morning, sometime about 3 weeks ago. The guy at the office wondered if I wanted to get windscreen insurance. If I didn't, there would be quite a large excess to pay if the windscreen got a chip or something. it was only about 2 pounds per day, but I didn't bother...I mean come on, I've been driving for years and when was the last time I chippped my windscreen? (It's never.)
I had the car for 3 days. On the first, I drove from Auckland to a village in the middle of the North Island called National Park. It was a great day. In a car, I had the freedom to go and stop
wherever I wanted. And apart from anything else, I just enjoying the driving. I stopped off at a very good bird house with a huge variery of ducks, birds of prey, um...small birds, etc. The highlight was seeing the kiwis which are kept in a room with day and night reversed so the public can view them during the day. Kiwis are only found in New Zealand and are close to extinction. Mammals never reached New Zealand, so kiwis evolved to fill the role of forest-floor forager, like mice in the UK I guess. They're really weird looking - not at all like birds. Their feathers look totally like the fur of a mammal and it looks like they don't have wings (they do have tiny wing remnants). They were bigger than I expected, about the size of a large cat.
Later in the day I stopped off a visited this cool...I don't know what it would be called, but a river gushes through a very steep, narrow channel for about 100m. Then I had a walk around amongst some steam vents and bubbling mud pools.
At some stage during the day, some chips of gravel unexpectedly flew up at my windscreen, and one left a small mark. I checked later and it didn't disappear when I rubbed it: it was a chip. Late on in the day, after dark, I saw a pair of red dots in the road - an amimal. I didn't break or swerve wildly because I knew this was dangerous, but forced myslef to keep going and trusted that the thing would get out of the way. It didn't move. Splat. I felt really guilty - from the brief glimpse I'd got, it didn't look like anything I'd seen before. I thought it might be something really rare. Now, I think that it was only a possum, which apparantly New Zealanders swerve to hit. Everyone hates them here: they're an introduced species from Australia and have devistated the populations of native plants and animals. The collision had bent the numberplate. I was worried about how much I'd have to pay when I returned the car.
Next day, I did a one day walk called 'The Tongariro crossing', which is thought of as the best one day walk in New Zealand. It certainly didn't disappoint. It excited me because it goes through the Tongariro national park, which stands in for Mordor in the Lord of the Rings films. You could also see 'Mount Doom' from the walk. The terrain started off very alien and Mordor-like: barren and rocky. At the highest point, there were great panoramic views, and you could see some very pretty lakes (below). Up here, I sat down, but to my dismay found my bottom was getting wet! Steam was seeping out of the ground! The area is still pretty volcanically active.
On my third day with the car, I drove to Wellington, the capital city, which is at the southern tip of the island. I'd planned to find somewhere interesting to visit on the way, but didn't really find anything. I spent three days in Wellington and highly enjoyed it. On the first morning I had use of the car until 11, so I drove up a mountain and got a great view of the city and surrounding area. I took this photo
I cleaned the car pretty well before returning it. But cunningly, I didn't clean the windscreen. Instead, I'd done that the previous night. That way, the windscreen wouldn't be too dirty, but dirty enough to camoflage the chip. (You can tell I'd been worrying about this quite a lot). I mentioned the bent numberplate to the man at the car rental office, but he didn't mind. He gave the car a cursory glace over, but didn't notice the chip. I'd got away with it! I felt kind of guilty, he was such a nice man.
On the way back from the car office, I walked through a cricket ground and noticed a cricket museum, so I had to go in there. I loved it, especially the cricket history section: the black and white footage, old fashioned quotes and underarm bowling were hilarious.
I got talking to a couple of girls in my dorm, and discovered they were from Trowbridge! (That's the town next to Bradford on Avon). We were all quite surprised by this and went out for a drink in the evening.
I was keen to watch some of the Lord of the Rings films whilst in New Zealand. I would be able to spot Mount Doom and think 'I was there', and also to see if I recognised any other locations. So when I found out that The Return of the King was showing, I jumped at the chance. It was in the cinema that had hosted the world premiere, and the cinema had the largest screen in the southern hemisphere at some stage (but I don't think it does now). That was great. However, Mount Doom didn't look anything like the mountain I'd seen - I guess they must have used a few special effects in the film.
I spent much of the rest of the time at the museum. It was free entry and a brilliant, huge, interesting, modern museum. I think I visited twice and got nowhere near seeing everything. I felt like I should make a donation, rather than just take advantage of how good it was that they didn't charge. I decided to donate by buying tea and cake at their cafe, which I think worked out as a good deal for everyone. Apart from that in Wellington, I went up a cable car, went into a gallery to see a crazy modern art display, and just generally enjoyed strolling around, taking in all the funky new buildings along the waterfront. I took the ferry across to Picton on the South Island on 11th April.
I went to collect the car in the morning, sometime about 3 weeks ago. The guy at the office wondered if I wanted to get windscreen insurance. If I didn't, there would be quite a large excess to pay if the windscreen got a chip or something. it was only about 2 pounds per day, but I didn't bother...I mean come on, I've been driving for years and when was the last time I chippped my windscreen? (It's never.)
I had the car for 3 days. On the first, I drove from Auckland to a village in the middle of the North Island called National Park. It was a great day. In a car, I had the freedom to go and stop
wherever I wanted. And apart from anything else, I just enjoying the driving. I stopped off at a very good bird house with a huge variery of ducks, birds of prey, um...small birds, etc. The highlight was seeing the kiwis which are kept in a room with day and night reversed so the public can view them during the day. Kiwis are only found in New Zealand and are close to extinction. Mammals never reached New Zealand, so kiwis evolved to fill the role of forest-floor forager, like mice in the UK I guess. They're really weird looking - not at all like birds. Their feathers look totally like the fur of a mammal and it looks like they don't have wings (they do have tiny wing remnants). They were bigger than I expected, about the size of a large cat.Later in the day I stopped off a visited this cool...I don't know what it would be called, but a river gushes through a very steep, narrow channel for about 100m. Then I had a walk around amongst some steam vents and bubbling mud pools.
At some stage during the day, some chips of gravel unexpectedly flew up at my windscreen, and one left a small mark. I checked later and it didn't disappear when I rubbed it: it was a chip. Late on in the day, after dark, I saw a pair of red dots in the road - an amimal. I didn't break or swerve wildly because I knew this was dangerous, but forced myslef to keep going and trusted that the thing would get out of the way. It didn't move. Splat. I felt really guilty - from the brief glimpse I'd got, it didn't look like anything I'd seen before. I thought it might be something really rare. Now, I think that it was only a possum, which apparantly New Zealanders swerve to hit. Everyone hates them here: they're an introduced species from Australia and have devistated the populations of native plants and animals. The collision had bent the numberplate. I was worried about how much I'd have to pay when I returned the car.Next day, I did a one day walk called 'The Tongariro crossing', which is thought of as the best one day walk in New Zealand. It certainly didn't disappoint. It excited me because it goes through the Tongariro national park, which stands in for Mordor in the Lord of the Rings films. You could also see 'Mount Doom' from the walk. The terrain started off very alien and Mordor-like: barren and rocky. At the highest point, there were great panoramic views, and you could see some very pretty lakes (below). Up here, I sat down, but to my dismay found my bottom was getting wet! Steam was seeping out of the ground! The area is still pretty volcanically active.
On my third day with the car, I drove to Wellington, the capital city, which is at the southern tip of the island. I'd planned to find somewhere interesting to visit on the way, but didn't really find anything. I spent three days in Wellington and highly enjoyed it. On the first morning I had use of the car until 11, so I drove up a mountain and got a great view of the city and surrounding area. I took this photoI cleaned the car pretty well before returning it. But cunningly, I didn't clean the windscreen. Instead, I'd done that the previous night. That way, the windscreen wouldn't be too dirty, but dirty enough to camoflage the chip. (You can tell I'd been worrying about this quite a lot). I mentioned the bent numberplate to the man at the car rental office, but he didn't mind. He gave the car a cursory glace over, but didn't notice the chip. I'd got away with it! I felt kind of guilty, he was such a nice man.On the way back from the car office, I walked through a cricket ground and noticed a cricket museum, so I had to go in there. I loved it, especially the cricket history section: the black and white footage, old fashioned quotes and underarm bowling were hilarious.
I got talking to a couple of girls in my dorm, and discovered they were from Trowbridge! (That's the town next to Bradford on Avon). We were all quite surprised by this and went out for a drink in the evening.
I was keen to watch some of the Lord of the Rings films whilst in New Zealand. I would be able to spot Mount Doom and think 'I was there', and also to see if I recognised any other locations. So when I found out that The Return of the King was showing, I jumped at the chance. It was in the cinema that had hosted the world premiere, and the cinema had the largest screen in the southern hemisphere at some stage (but I don't think it does now). That was great. However, Mount Doom didn't look anything like the mountain I'd seen - I guess they must have used a few special effects in the film.
I spent much of the rest of the time at the museum. It was free entry and a brilliant, huge, interesting, modern museum. I think I visited twice and got nowhere near seeing everything. I felt like I should make a donation, rather than just take advantage of how good it was that they didn't charge. I decided to donate by buying tea and cake at their cafe, which I think worked out as a good deal for everyone. Apart from that in Wellington, I went up a cable car, went into a gallery to see a crazy modern art display, and just generally enjoyed strolling around, taking in all the funky new buildings along the waterfront. I took the ferry across to Picton on the South Island on 11th April.
Monday, April 10, 2006
The coolest internet cafe I've ever been in, inside a converted red bus, Franz Joseph, New Zealand
The flight to Auckland left at about 11 in the evening, and I managed to get some sleep. But we were flying away from the sunrise so it was a weird experience. I kept waking up and feeling that it should be light, but outside of the windows it remained resolutely dark. I forced myself to keep trying to sleep - I knew I'd be glad of it the next day. At some stage we crossed the international date line and my 26th March came to a premature end.
The plane arrived in Auckland on 27th March at about 3.45am, disconcertingly early. I couldn't do much in the middle of the night, so I just sat in the airport for a couple of hours, waiting for it to get light. I picked up a New Zealand paper. Coincidently (sort of) the top story was the visit of Tony Blair, who was also in Auckland that day. I thought I might be able to follow the sound of anti-war protesters and find him, but I didn't find any. The first thing I did when I got into the city was to buy a Lonely Planet. I can't cope without them! Now I was able to choose a hostel and get started. Whilst sitting in the hostel, someone I recognised walked into the room...it was Ben who had been volunteering at Jatun Sacha with me! Ridiculous: I wouldn't have been surprised to meet anyone in South America, but on another continent, I thought I'd well and truely left them behind.
In the afternoon we went to a great aquarium. There was a penguin enclosure kept at sub-zero temperatures, which you could ride through in a little car. There was also a huge tank full of these massive stingray, and many other weird and ugly looking fish. From outside we got this fantastic view of the Auckland skyline:
Ben had to get a flight the next day so I was on my own. I did a 'coast to coast walk' between the 2 harbours that surround Auckland. It was a 4 hour walk, which would have been easy if I'd managed to find the starting point. I didn't have a good map, and eventually realised that I should be on the OTHER side of the motorway. That faff added about an hour to the walk. Apart from that it was very plesant. Auckland is dotted with extinct volcanos, most of which are now parks, and the walk mainly went through those. By the time I reached my hostel, I needed to go about 2 more blocks to the waterfront to have made it 'coast to coast'. But I didn't bother, I was so exhausted.
On my third day in Auckland I visited the museum. I was very impressed by all the Maori art. I had been under the impression that the Maori were a primitive tribe before Europeans arrived...this clearly wasn't true. On the top floor was a war memorial section. I had no idea what a huge contribution New Zealand made to the world wars. I can't remember the exact statistics, but they were something like: at the time of World War I the population was 1 million. They sent 100 thousand to the war, of which 60 thousand were killed. In the afternoon I took the ferry across the harbour to a little village called Devonport. I walked up a couple more extinct volcanos, but the highlight was having fish and chips.
Goodness knows what date we're on, but next I headed into the far northland and stayed at the Bay of Islands for a couple of nights. The highlight was going on a boat trip and seeing dolphins. I'm ashamed to say that it felt like a slight anticlimax. This is because the trip was advertised as 'swimming with dolphins', but we weren't allowed to do this because the dolphins were rearing their cubs. But it was still amazing.
I headed back to Auckland next and didn't quite know what to do, so I sort of wasted a day. I did take the ferry and walk around a nearby island, which was nice. The little forray up north had made me realised how expensive travelling around was going to be. I got very lucky, however, and found out about a car-hire company that needed cars relocating from Auckland to Wellington, which was where I wanted to go. So I hired a car, got 2 days for free and paid about 9 pounds for the third day. For the next three days I worked my way down the North Island, to Wellington at its southern tip.
The flight to Auckland left at about 11 in the evening, and I managed to get some sleep. But we were flying away from the sunrise so it was a weird experience. I kept waking up and feeling that it should be light, but outside of the windows it remained resolutely dark. I forced myself to keep trying to sleep - I knew I'd be glad of it the next day. At some stage we crossed the international date line and my 26th March came to a premature end.
The plane arrived in Auckland on 27th March at about 3.45am, disconcertingly early. I couldn't do much in the middle of the night, so I just sat in the airport for a couple of hours, waiting for it to get light. I picked up a New Zealand paper. Coincidently (sort of) the top story was the visit of Tony Blair, who was also in Auckland that day. I thought I might be able to follow the sound of anti-war protesters and find him, but I didn't find any. The first thing I did when I got into the city was to buy a Lonely Planet. I can't cope without them! Now I was able to choose a hostel and get started. Whilst sitting in the hostel, someone I recognised walked into the room...it was Ben who had been volunteering at Jatun Sacha with me! Ridiculous: I wouldn't have been surprised to meet anyone in South America, but on another continent, I thought I'd well and truely left them behind.
In the afternoon we went to a great aquarium. There was a penguin enclosure kept at sub-zero temperatures, which you could ride through in a little car. There was also a huge tank full of these massive stingray, and many other weird and ugly looking fish. From outside we got this fantastic view of the Auckland skyline:
Ben had to get a flight the next day so I was on my own. I did a 'coast to coast walk' between the 2 harbours that surround Auckland. It was a 4 hour walk, which would have been easy if I'd managed to find the starting point. I didn't have a good map, and eventually realised that I should be on the OTHER side of the motorway. That faff added about an hour to the walk. Apart from that it was very plesant. Auckland is dotted with extinct volcanos, most of which are now parks, and the walk mainly went through those. By the time I reached my hostel, I needed to go about 2 more blocks to the waterfront to have made it 'coast to coast'. But I didn't bother, I was so exhausted.On my third day in Auckland I visited the museum. I was very impressed by all the Maori art. I had been under the impression that the Maori were a primitive tribe before Europeans arrived...this clearly wasn't true. On the top floor was a war memorial section. I had no idea what a huge contribution New Zealand made to the world wars. I can't remember the exact statistics, but they were something like: at the time of World War I the population was 1 million. They sent 100 thousand to the war, of which 60 thousand were killed. In the afternoon I took the ferry across the harbour to a little village called Devonport. I walked up a couple more extinct volcanos, but the highlight was having fish and chips.
Goodness knows what date we're on, but next I headed into the far northland and stayed at the Bay of Islands for a couple of nights. The highlight was going on a boat trip and seeing dolphins. I'm ashamed to say that it felt like a slight anticlimax. This is because the trip was advertised as 'swimming with dolphins', but we weren't allowed to do this because the dolphins were rearing their cubs. But it was still amazing.
I headed back to Auckland next and didn't quite know what to do, so I sort of wasted a day. I did take the ferry and walk around a nearby island, which was nice. The little forray up north had made me realised how expensive travelling around was going to be. I got very lucky, however, and found out about a car-hire company that needed cars relocating from Auckland to Wellington, which was where I wanted to go. So I hired a car, got 2 days for free and paid about 9 pounds for the third day. For the next three days I worked my way down the North Island, to Wellington at its southern tip.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Wellington, New Zealand
I flew to Santiago on 22nd March. Upon arriving, I felt like I was on a different continent. The bus from the airport was modern, and it travelled to the city along what can only be described as a motorway. There was even an underground system. I stayed for 3 nights before flying off to Easter Island. There's not much of interest to report about my time there (or if there is I can't remember it, it's so long ago.) On the first day I had an enjoyable walk round the city. This confirmed my first impression: it felt very prosperous and European, at least compared with the other places I'd visited. There were government posters up saying "Chile needs the power of women" which I expect would have been a totally alien idea in the other countries I'd been to. On the second day I took a funicular railway up this little mountain in the city, then took a cable car along the park up there. That was fun. I also spent much time searching for a New Zealand Lonely Planet, but the only copies I could find were ridiculously expensive. That evening I actually went out, which is a rare thing indeed. Some friendly Irish people were going to try and get into a Manu Chow concert, so I went along with them. I've no idea how to spell Manu Chow, nor do I really know anything about him. I'd never heard of him before leaving home, but since then I've heard loads of people raving about him. Needless to say, there were hundreds of other people trying to get it, and there was no chance. So we went for a drink instead.
I flew to Easter Island on the 25th March. When I stepped out of the plane, a gust of warm, humid air hit me and I could see palm trees growing. It immediately gave me the impression of being on a desert island. Irritatingly, Lonely Planet didn't have a map of the main town, and without that, I was lost. I warily took a taxi to a recommended guesthouse. It drove out of the airport, went for a couple of minutes along country lanes, then pulled into a house. But the guesthouse was supposed to be in the town on the main street, and we still seemed to be in the country. I totally thought that the taxi driver had just taken me to the house of someone she knew, and they were just pretending to be this recommended guesthouse so that I'd want to stay there. Well, I reasoned that I could just leave if I found I'd been tricked, so I suspiciously went in. I hope I didn't appear too rude. It soon became apparent that everything was ok, and we WERE in the town and were on the main street. Here's a picture of the main street - you can understand my confusion:
I flew to Santiago on 22nd March. Upon arriving, I felt like I was on a different continent. The bus from the airport was modern, and it travelled to the city along what can only be described as a motorway. There was even an underground system. I stayed for 3 nights before flying off to Easter Island. There's not much of interest to report about my time there (or if there is I can't remember it, it's so long ago.) On the first day I had an enjoyable walk round the city. This confirmed my first impression: it felt very prosperous and European, at least compared with the other places I'd visited. There were government posters up saying "Chile needs the power of women" which I expect would have been a totally alien idea in the other countries I'd been to. On the second day I took a funicular railway up this little mountain in the city, then took a cable car along the park up there. That was fun. I also spent much time searching for a New Zealand Lonely Planet, but the only copies I could find were ridiculously expensive. That evening I actually went out, which is a rare thing indeed. Some friendly Irish people were going to try and get into a Manu Chow concert, so I went along with them. I've no idea how to spell Manu Chow, nor do I really know anything about him. I'd never heard of him before leaving home, but since then I've heard loads of people raving about him. Needless to say, there were hundreds of other people trying to get it, and there was no chance. So we went for a drink instead.
I flew to Easter Island on the 25th March. When I stepped out of the plane, a gust of warm, humid air hit me and I could see palm trees growing. It immediately gave me the impression of being on a desert island. Irritatingly, Lonely Planet didn't have a map of the main town, and without that, I was lost. I warily took a taxi to a recommended guesthouse. It drove out of the airport, went for a couple of minutes along country lanes, then pulled into a house. But the guesthouse was supposed to be in the town on the main street, and we still seemed to be in the country. I totally thought that the taxi driver had just taken me to the house of someone she knew, and they were just pretending to be this recommended guesthouse so that I'd want to stay there. Well, I reasoned that I could just leave if I found I'd been tricked, so I suspiciously went in. I hope I didn't appear too rude. It soon became apparent that everything was ok, and we WERE in the town and were on the main street. Here's a picture of the main street - you can understand my confusion:
The owner, Janet, was a legend: really friendly and chatty. In the course of converation it cropped up that a few days ago, she'd been to a party in the town and didn't get back until 9am. She wanted to know what I was doing when I got home, so I had to explain what an actuary is (I'm beginning to hate doing this already)...when I did she looked totally confused. I figured she didn't know the word 'pension' or something, and asked if she understood. She had understood, but her confusion came from another source: "Yes," she said, "but that's really boring!" Here's a picture of her, her son and me. I'm on the left - you can see I've picked up quite a tan.
After settling in, I was so excited about being on the island that I had to get out and explore it. Besides, I only had the rest of that day, and one more full day on the island. So I hired a bike and cycled off to see some heads.
On my full day I took a tour. This was a great day and we managed to get round all the main sights. The big attraction is of course the stone heads, but there are some other beautiful bits: for example we went up a couple of extinct volcanoes, which had perfect round craters filled with lakes. Seeing the stone heads was really special. Here are the best ones.
All of the standing up ones like that have been restored: either just stood up, or in some cases stuck back together. When European settlers arrived, all the heads had been pushed over and were face down. A few were still in that condition. I found it quite moving seeing them like this, because they did exude a certain power and aura. It also seemed very symbolic, as the toppling of the heads conincided with the downfall of their civilisation. There was a civil war, which was when the heads got pushed over. When European settlers arrived, this advanced civiliastion had been destroyed and there were only a few hundred islanders left.
The highlight of the day was seeing one of the volcanos. All the heads were made here, then they were left lying around here until they were needed on one of the formal platforms. There were loads lying about, all different shapes and sizes. There were even some that hadn't been finished and were still just a vague shape cut into the rock face.
Later, I talked to Janet. She'd been out the previous night, and didn't get back until 8.30am.
I left on the 27th. It was the end of my South America experience. With regret, I left my South America guidebook and Spanish dictionary at the house, and headed for the airport. Using this airport was a unique experience: it must be the first time I've walked to an airport straight from my accomodation. Also, after going through check in you can go and lie around in a garden. Lovely! I wish all airports were like that. I had to do a lot of flying: first I went back to Santiago. I had about 4 hours between flights and I had to mission it into Santiago to collect a notebook I'd left at my hostel. There were a number of problems, but I managed it, and amazingly they still had the notebook. I went back to the airport, and caught my flight to Aukland.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Auckland, New Zealand
As you can see, I'm in New Zealand now, but the way things are going it will be a while before I write anything about it here! I've been concentrating on getting my travel journel up to date and today, after being behind for about 2 months, I finally managed it! So I'll turn my attention to the blog now.
So, back on the 14th March I left Copacabana and travelled to La Paz. The La Paz fact you need to know is that it's the highest capital city in the world. It's spread out across a huge bowl shaped valley, high in the Andes. The first time I set eyes on it, coming over the rim of the valley, was one of those moments when I gasped in amazment. It was beautiful.
Once you get into the city however, I'm afraid you can't describe it as beautiful. It was interesting to walk around though. The weirdest thing about it is the shoe-shine boys. They're not so much boys as adolescents, and they wear bomber jackets, baseball caps and baloclavas, so all you can see of their face is a slit where their eyes are. They all wear this, it's like a unniform (and there are hundreds of them). They look pretty intimidating. You shit yourself if you saw them hanging around a city in Britain late at night. Lonely Planet says they cover up their faces to avoid the shame the job brings on them, but I think they do it to look cool.
I spent that day and one more in La Paz, then caught a night bus to a town called Uyuni in south-west Bolivia. There's nothing to do or see in Uyuni, but the reason people go there is to get on a tour of the far south-west of Bolivia. I met up with Tim and Sonja again. We booked a tour and set off the next day.
The tour lasted 3 days. It consisted of driving around in a jeep looking at the various sights. We had some pretty good meals cooked for us and slept in very basic accommodation. The top sight is the salt plain - it's amazing. It's a huge expanse of perfectly flat, perfectly white salt, stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction. There can't be anywhere else like it on Earth. Hopefully this photo gives some idea of what it was like
You could also do exciting perspective-bending photoography, like this
That was the main attraction and we spent the first day exploring it. But we saw loads of other really good stuff on days 2 and 3. The good thing about the tour wasn't so much the individual sights we saw, but rather the number and variety of the sights. We saw lots of flamingos (random), some weird rock formations, the red lake pictured below, a green(ish) lake and some bubbling mud pools and geysers. It was a great tour - one of the highlights of the trip so far.
We arrived back in Uyuni in the evening and I intended to catch the night bus straight back to La Paz. Unfortunately it was full. So I had to stay the night and kill a day in Uyuni - not an easy task in a town where the only sight is a museum which is always shut. However, I managed it without a problem - I think I'm quite good at killing days.
I just had one more day in La Paz before my flight to Santiago. In the evening I heard some gunshots/explosions, but I didn't think anything of it. I'd heard a few such noises in La Paz and was really scared at first, but the locals didn't flinch, so I guessed there was nothing to worry about. In the morning I checked the internet and notieced a story on BBC News about Bolivia. I guess it never really hit the headlines in the UK. A bomb had gone off in La Paz the previous night at a hotel, and killed two people. Travellers I think: an American and a Ukranian? On the taxi ride to the airport we drove past the hotel and I saw a huge portion of first floor wall had been blown away. This brought home the reality of how close it had been to me, and made think that maybe Bolivia was less safe than I'd thought. I'd loved Bolivia, but on that day I was quite happy to be leaving.
As you can see, I'm in New Zealand now, but the way things are going it will be a while before I write anything about it here! I've been concentrating on getting my travel journel up to date and today, after being behind for about 2 months, I finally managed it! So I'll turn my attention to the blog now.
So, back on the 14th March I left Copacabana and travelled to La Paz. The La Paz fact you need to know is that it's the highest capital city in the world. It's spread out across a huge bowl shaped valley, high in the Andes. The first time I set eyes on it, coming over the rim of the valley, was one of those moments when I gasped in amazment. It was beautiful.
Once you get into the city however, I'm afraid you can't describe it as beautiful. It was interesting to walk around though. The weirdest thing about it is the shoe-shine boys. They're not so much boys as adolescents, and they wear bomber jackets, baseball caps and baloclavas, so all you can see of their face is a slit where their eyes are. They all wear this, it's like a unniform (and there are hundreds of them). They look pretty intimidating. You shit yourself if you saw them hanging around a city in Britain late at night. Lonely Planet says they cover up their faces to avoid the shame the job brings on them, but I think they do it to look cool.
I spent that day and one more in La Paz, then caught a night bus to a town called Uyuni in south-west Bolivia. There's nothing to do or see in Uyuni, but the reason people go there is to get on a tour of the far south-west of Bolivia. I met up with Tim and Sonja again. We booked a tour and set off the next day.
The tour lasted 3 days. It consisted of driving around in a jeep looking at the various sights. We had some pretty good meals cooked for us and slept in very basic accommodation. The top sight is the salt plain - it's amazing. It's a huge expanse of perfectly flat, perfectly white salt, stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction. There can't be anywhere else like it on Earth. Hopefully this photo gives some idea of what it was like
You could also do exciting perspective-bending photoography, like thisThat was the main attraction and we spent the first day exploring it. But we saw loads of other really good stuff on days 2 and 3. The good thing about the tour wasn't so much the individual sights we saw, but rather the number and variety of the sights. We saw lots of flamingos (random), some weird rock formations, the red lake pictured below, a green(ish) lake and some bubbling mud pools and geysers. It was a great tour - one of the highlights of the trip so far.
We arrived back in Uyuni in the evening and I intended to catch the night bus straight back to La Paz. Unfortunately it was full. So I had to stay the night and kill a day in Uyuni - not an easy task in a town where the only sight is a museum which is always shut. However, I managed it without a problem - I think I'm quite good at killing days.I just had one more day in La Paz before my flight to Santiago. In the evening I heard some gunshots/explosions, but I didn't think anything of it. I'd heard a few such noises in La Paz and was really scared at first, but the locals didn't flinch, so I guessed there was nothing to worry about. In the morning I checked the internet and notieced a story on BBC News about Bolivia. I guess it never really hit the headlines in the UK. A bomb had gone off in La Paz the previous night at a hotel, and killed two people. Travellers I think: an American and a Ukranian? On the taxi ride to the airport we drove past the hotel and I saw a huge portion of first floor wall had been blown away. This brought home the reality of how close it had been to me, and made think that maybe Bolivia was less safe than I'd thought. I'd loved Bolivia, but on that day I was quite happy to be leaving.
