Kristy's big adventure

Day 32 - Ushuaia

After finishing washing the guano smell out of our clothes yesterday and just relaxing we had planned on doing a hike today up to the glacier but having seen so many glaciers recently we decided on another relaxing day. Our boat is still docked in the harbour and it's going to be sad when it goes but the show must go on.

The weather is warmer than last time we were here. I only had one jumper on today! We headed out to the Ushuaia rugby stadium this eveningso Heath could get a jersey of the "most southern rugby team".

Day33 - Ushuaia

Today is our last day in Ushuaia. We watched our boat pull out of the harbour last night so the antarctic adventure is really over. I'm sad But excited to be moving on.

We finally mad it into Tierra del Fuego To do some hiking today. It was nothing
I've the other hikes we had done. This was more like a lovely stroll around the bay. It was very beautiful, although the cold left over spaghetti from last night wasn't great. We didn't get to see any beavers, which I really wanted to since I never have before but it was good all the same.

Made it back to the hote
In time for UVE (law and order special victims unit is called UVE here). It's in English so good to watch, I'm becoming obsessed with it!,,

Day 34 - Buenos Aires

We finally made it to BA. Our flIght was delayed but that's south America for you.

I have gotten so used to being I the wilderness that it is very disconcerting being in a big city, it seems so dirty and loud. The hostel we are staying I. Is nice and the people are helpful. The room has a fridge which is super exciting g so we can have cold milk and water.

We hit the Palermo district for dinner and ate my first Llama. It was dry. the Pa.ermo district was ok but I much prefer the San Telmo district where we are staying.

Day 35 - Buenos Aires

The road that runs adjacent to ours turns into a street market on Sundays (today is Sunday) so we spent the day walking around the markets. It is super hot here, I'm not used to it.

Tia afternoon we got picked up to go to the first match for the
Cal football teams of the season. We headed into Racing stadium and sat with the home fans. The opposition, Tigre, had a small section on the other side. I have to say I have never seen a crowd like it. Tires fans piss all over the manchester united fans when they sing. The ticker tape and the banners were something else. The stadium shook with the drums and the stamping.

The game was ok, the score was 0-0 and it wasn't great football but the atmosphere certainly made up for it. We had to wait in the stadium for around 45 minutes until the Tigre fans had been escorted out so there were no riots! It was a heat evening.

Day 36 - Buenos Aires

It is ridiculously hot here, I am melting!

We spent the day walking the streets and seeing the sites of BA. It is very muggy and I sweated like a pig, have never drunk so much water in my life. The streets are cobblestones and e cobblestones are full of glass which isn't great walking around in thongs.

In the morning we saw the presidential palace which is pink because it's made with animal fat and blood. Ok not made with, but plastered with. We then headed to the obelisk and on the main street for lunch, which was an al, you can eat " Parrilla" BBQ. The meat was amazing and the salad was great but we ate too much. It was super cheap too.

In the afternoon we headed to the cemetery where Eva Peron is entombed. It is an amazing cemetery with loads of tombs, some old, some new and some in great states of disrepair. It was fascinating to see so many people of note buried ere. Lots of past presidents, a nobel prize winner and of course Eva.

I am starting to understand the concept of siesta now, you need to get out of the heat during the day. After a siesta we had a few beers but were still too full to have dinner.

Day 37 - Buenos Aires

spent another day walking this massive city. we tried to if d Che Gueveras house but a aged to get lost so headed to the Eva Peron museum. I didn't go in as it cost too much money on my budget but I sat outside and watched the world go by.

We headed to the park to spend the day relaxing but we both managed to Get pooed on by what must have been massive birds. We managed to eventually get cleaned up and into the park but you can't sit on the grass or under the trees, only on the seats which are all in the sun so we gave up on that idea pretty quickly and just wandered.

We headed to a steak restaurant up the road for dinner and had ribs. It was seriously amazing food. I did t k ow meat could taste so good.

Day 38 - Buenos Aires

Our last day in BA, I am ready to move on now.

We had a relaxing day today, spending the morning in the hostel catching up on the diary etc and then headed out for a walk before spending the afternoon walking back to the hostel, weaving in and it of the shops for the air conditioning. It is so hot and muggy here and it makes you sleepy.

After a final Quilmes down the road we headed back to the hostel for an early night as we have an early boat ride tomorrow.

Day 39 - Buenos Aires / Montevideo

A taxi picked us up at 6am to take us to the Buquebus terminal to get the ferry to Uruguay. It was the easiest border crossing I have ever had, the two counterespionage desks are right next to each other in the ferry terminal, awesome.

It is a 3 hour journey, ad not. Very interesting on the brown water of the river plate. Arriving in Montevideo I swear it is hotter than in BA.

The hotel is a rundown old building on the main street which at one time may have been grand. But that describes everything on Montevideo.

We spent the whole afternoon trying to organise pur trip into Brasil. The problem with travelling in peak season is the cost and the limited availability of everything. We finally worked ourselves out and have now got passage intoBrasil in a couple of days.

We had dinner while trying to sort things out and I'm glad to say it is a lot cheaper here than in BA.

Day 40 - Montevideo

It is way too hot here. Our hotel room doesn't have air conditioning but it does have a death fan that I swear is going to fall off the ceiling and tear my head off. Ent the morning walking around the bay, which is brown, and walked through the town. There was an afternoon shower that did nothing for the heat

After a siesta (which I am loving) we headed out for a few beers and watched the sunset over the bay.

Day 41 - Montevideo

This. Ring was spent walking around the markets, which were full of antiques - Heath was in his element. Slowly walked towards the Puero Mercardo, market port for lunch. The port building has been turned into a huge BBQ place with loads of different BBQ houses. It is super hot but so much fun. We picked our place and sat down to eat. Heath ate arse, I mean tripe and then seafood for mains. I had mor ribs and salad, it was awesome.

We were too full in the afternoon to Dom anything.

Day 42 - Montevideo to Florianopolis

It was pissing down this morning when I woke up. It's the first time it had rained In a long time.

This morning we headed to the stadia centurio which was the stadium of the first ever football world cup and had a quick look around before heading to Tres Cruces bus terminal for our 16 your bus journey to Florianopolos in Brasil.

The is an annoying family on the bus who keep running up and down the aisle and talking, I hope they go to sleep soon.

Day 20 - Ushuaia, Argentina

Final day in Ushuaia before our trip starts. Looking forward to it starting now!

Day 21 - Ushuaia, Argentina

We moved into our hotel for the start of our Antarctica trip, which officially starts tomorrow. We are currently in a suite! We have a chaise lounge, a kitchen and living room to go with our bedroom. We also have a view of the port and our ship, which has just arrived on the dock. There is a massive cruise liner in the dock, the Sea Princess. Our boat is a tiny thing in comparison to that but it looks ok, it's a pretty red.
Since we have such a nice place we decided to stay in with a bottle of wine and chill for the evening.

Day 22 - Ushuaia, Argentina

Happy birthday Heath! We enjoyed a lunch of calamari and pizza for Heaths birthday after checking out of our "suite" and leaving our bags to be placed in our cabin on board the MS Expedition. We boarded at 4pm and found our cabin, which is a lot more spacious than I thought it was going to be. We have wardrobes and our own bathroom and a desk. I am really looking forward to unpacking for a while and not living out of my backpack.
It took us approximately 20 minutes to look around the whole ship. There is a lounge, the polar bear bar and a library. It's small but the point is to be on deck to watch out for sea and bird life and ice bergs so it's ok. After an amazing 4 course dinner + champagne and cake for heaths birthday we had our safety lecture before heading off at about 9pm.

We met the expedition team, who all seem great and a couple of other passengers. I am so bad with names but a couple of nice guys from Northern Ireland, Emma from Perth and Kevin who is from England and lives in San francisco and has an odd accent and ADD!

A couple of hours heading through the beagle channel before we hit the drake passage, which is supposed to be quite rough. Let's hope there's no sea sickness.

Day 23 - Drake Passage

It's a very strange sensation to have your bed rolling and then quite severally rocking. We hit the Drake some time after midnight and the boat started rocking. Breakfast was interesting with the plates rolling around. The food on this trip is out of this world. Everything you can think of for breakfast and as much as you want. I will be very fat at the end of this. According to Frank Todd, one of the expedition experts, this rocking is a 0/10.

After breakfast we had the first of our lectures. The plan is, when we are sailing the team will give lectures on various things in and about the Antarctic to break up the time. Today Frank spoke about penguins. What this guy doesn't know about penguins isn't worth knowing. He set up the first ever penguin habitat at sea world USA as well as inventing the glass aquarium, before then it was all concrete. I slept through the second lecture but caught the third on sea birds.

So far we have seen albatross and petrels which is cool. Considering there is no land about, this birds are very hardy.

Day 24 - South Shetland islands

WE SAW WHALES! WE SAW PENGUINS AND SEALS AND LAND AND ICEBERGS!

After two days travelling the first land came into view as well as the first iceberg. It was so huge and white and so so cool (no pun intended).

Our first view of marine life was just after breakfast when a crab eater seal popped its head up next to the boat. We all ran up on deck to see it. Little did we know that within a few days we would head outside for nothing less than an orca! Soon after the best sight so far happened. Just in front of the bow three humpback whales started showing up. They were close enough to see the barnacles and a couple of times they did the tail thing. No breaches but they hung around for a while so it was awesome. There were Gentoo penguins porpoising around the boat all this time, it wa surreal and brilliant.

The afternoon saw us land on Aitcho Island, so named after the phonetic pronunciation of h and o. We had to don pur wet weather gear and head out on the zodiac speed boat. It was so amazing. This is one of the South Shetland islands in Antarctica not Scotland. It smelt really bad. We had been warned about the elephant seals which are the only animal to smell better dead than alive. They are called OBS - odours blubber slugs. The smell we had however, was guano, penguin poo. It was a smell we would very quickly get used to but that first time was almost overwhelming.

We landed by a gentoo penguin rookery and there were still some chicks even though it's quite late in the season. They are so cute, I'm in love already. There were also a few chinstrap penguins which were amazing but it's too late in the season for them. We headed over the hill to where the OBS elephant seals were. The wind was going the right way so we didn't smell them thank goodness but all the day is lay and burp and fart so funny and gross. we were also lucky enough to see two fur seal and a leopard seal which are apparently not too common in this area.

We headed back to the penguins, if you stand still long enough one will come close and you really want to pick up the chicks they are so cute and fluffy but you can't. Loads of photos though.

After heading back to the boat and yet another outstanding dinner we headed to the polar bear bar for a drink. Jeff the resident musician was playing and he really was Phenominal. An early night tonight as its been too exciting.

Day 25 - Antarctica

It was so funny to wake up this morning and see ice bergs floating past the window. It really made me aware of where we are.

After an early wake up call we hit the zodiac boats for our first trip out. We didn't land but we drove through the most amazing ice fields. It was spectacular to see the ice fields up close. Some of the ice bergs are so old the are the most stunning blue. I think it was the most beautiful place I have ever been. We had a couple of leopard seals lounging around on the ice and some penguins playing and jumping in it also.

Moving on from the ice fields we saw some whales in the distance.

After a ginormous lunch we headed back out in the zodiacs to Denko Island. A walk up a very steep (read vertical) hill and we were at another gentoo rookery with a fantastic view of the harbour and the icebergs. I can't get over the beauty of this place. A fun slide down on our butts to get back down the hill and we were ready to get back on the boat.

After arriving at the boat I noticed some nut cases wearing their swimming costumes. Once I enquirer about what they were doing I had to have a piece of the action myself. WE DID A POLAR ICE PLUNGE! That's right, Heath and I went swimming in the Southern ocean. By swimming I mean we jumped in with a buoy attached to a rope tied around our waist, we then jumped in, lost all coordination and got hauled out. It was freezing cold (duh), it physically took my breath away. I couldn't believe it but I'm so glad I did it.

A lecture on lichens followed although I must admit after the day we've had I wasn't really paying attention.

Day 26 - Antarctica

I couldn't seem to warm up after the polar plunge last night so I had to get my sleeping bag liner out. It's the first time I've used it all trip.

We had an early morning landing in paradise harbour today. No guesses for why it's called that. It was majestic, even with the cloud and fog. I can only imagine what it looks like in brilliant sunshine.

From Paradise (no need to add harbour, it was just paradise) we headed through the Lymere channel. This is an extremely narrow channel that is full of sea ice. It was uncertain whether we would make it through as the ice was so thick. It was uncertain whether we would make it through but we finally did. We were the first ship to make it through this season!

Having made it through the channel we reached our most southerly point of the trip. From here on in we are heading back. We reached Petermann Island - 64 degrees 10s. Petermann is an Adellie penguin rookery. It was a nice change from the Gentoos and the chicks were cute but the adult addellies have nothing on the Gentoos.

This evening saw some girls come on board from an English heritage station to give us a talk on some of the things they do in antarctica. I don't think I could live her , way too cold? They stamped our passports with the (unofficial) antarctica stamp and gave us the opportunity to send post cards from Antarctica. If only I knew people's address.

Day 27 - Antarctica

We finally landed on the continent today at Neko harbour. I have officially been to all the continents now. It was so beautiful with the glacier to the side and the ice bergs and bergy bits.

Our second landing was on Cuverville island where there were some amazing rock formations. It's true! The island was mainly granite but the was a couple of slate like rocks sticking out which were stunning. I am definitely not sick of penguins, I don't think you can ever get sick of penguins but I am starting to look at other things now.

Day 28 - Antartica

We had our final landing today, it was really sad, confirming that the trip is almost over.the final landing was at the Polish research station Artowski. This is the first time since we left that we saw things growing. There was some stubby grass growing on this island which just goes to chow how close we are to reality.

Our morning landing was at deception island, so called because its horse shoe shape makes it very difficult for ships to navigate into its harbour. There is no wildlife on deception island, which is an active underwater volcano. The island is an old whaling station which was washed away in the nineties when there was a volcanic mud slide. There are still some small buildings that are abandoned. The whole island looks like something out of an end of the world movie. With no life, abandoned buildings and whale bones it is desolate but strangely beautiful. We headed to Neptunes window to look out at the open ocean and some of the more crazy among us went swimming in the "thermal" water. By thermal they mean 0.0 degrees. While we were on the island the weather changed and we had a snap snow storm. It was so strange and awesome.

We are on our way back to the Drake passage soon, I hope it's as calm as last time.

Day 29 - Antarctica

We started back across the drake last night and it is no where near as calm as last time, there is a severe rock. The crew say its still only a 3/10! I didn't feel well after our curry buffet last night, due to sea sickness, not the copious amounts of curry, but I am fine now. Heath is quite crook.looking out the window there is no land around us which makes it worse.

We had a lecture fro Frank in the morning about his time at sea world setting up the worlds first penguin exhibition, it was very interesting.

I had to take heaths dinner to him this evening as he is too crook to get up. Poor mite. Still one to eat though!

Day 30 - Antarctica

Our last day - boo......

We survived the drake passage to get into the Beagle channel and docked in Ushuaia just before dinner. I am so sad to be finishing the tour but I am looking forward to not being on a boat any more.

Before dinner we had a final run down by the crew and an auction for save the albatross. The first item was the chefs secret recipe for his amazing chocolate pudding. If I hadn't stuffed myself to sickness at lunch I may have bid. The next items went quickly and then we were on to the last item, the captains map, decorated by Marie Innes, one of the expedition crew. Bidding started at us$100 and quickly went up into the thousands. At $1700 there were only two people left bidding and the room was going mental. The bidding was slowing but the last two kept creeping higher. Finally the older gent couldn't take the heat and the winning bid was $2150 it went to Heath!!! Now everyone thinks we are secretly rich. It is lovely and a great addition to his art collection.

After a final, delicious dinner we headed to the polar bear for a few farewell drinks. A few for me meant almost a whole bottle of vodka and I have to say I was worse for wear by the end of the evening.

Day 31 - we had a last breakfast, which I really needed to deal with my hangover this morning. I have a mystery sore knee and ankle?

After breakfast we were herded on to our respective buses and sent on our way, for us that meant to Ushuaia for a couple of days for some hiking in Tierra del Fuego.

When we started on the trip Osi said that by the end of the trip we will have run out of adjectives to describe how amazing, wonderful, beautiful, desolate, stunning, isolating, majestic etc Antarctica is. I didn't believe her but she was absolutely right. I have never experienced anything like it. I hope to get back there one day. I can't stop thinking of ice and penguins.

I will leave you with some wise words from expedition man Frank Todd "ice is nice but it ain't squat unless it's got penguins on it".

Next up back to the big smoke in Buenos Aires and beyond.

The day I thought would never arrived has finally come and gone. We have officially started our trip. This blog will be brief and rubbish but will give the highlights of where we have been and what we have been up to.

Day 1, Santiago: An 11 hour flight, three movies (the blind side, one day, he's just not that into you), 10 episodes of the Simpsons and 45 minutes of sleep later we arrive in Santiago 4.5 hours before we left Auckland. We managed to navigate ourselves from the airport via bus to Los Heroes (pronounced he-ro-wes not heroes, to my embarrassment) where our hostel, happy house hostel is located. This is the flashiest hostel I have ever stayed in.

Santiago is hot hot hot. Have booked our bus out of Santiago in three days time. A couple of beers up to road. 1 litre of beer for about £1. Met a nice Swiss man who helped us with our planning. I need to sleep now!!!

Day 2, Santiago: Managed to get ourselves out of bed and onto the free walking tour that takes place everyday from the main square, Plaza de Armas. Franco, the tour guide was very good. started towards the presidential palace towards the Bella vista area, finishing at Pablo Nerudas local residence. learnt about some local delicacies - chorrelios: a student meal of shredded beef topped with onion topped with egg topped with tomatoes and ketchup and mustard all on top of fries. This and a few more 1 litre beers and off to bed.

Day 3, Santiago: Walked to park hill via Plaza de Armas and took the scary funicular to the giant statue of Mary on the top of the hill. Spent two hours walking around in circles as we got lost! Just a 12 hour bus ride left to look forward to today.

Day 4, Pucon: arrived in Pucon after a long overnight bus (which was cheap AND saves on a nights accommodation). An amazing view of volcan Villaricca which we will be climbing tomorrow. I'm not sure how, it looks so steep! The tow is very Swiss chalet looking, all wood and clean. It's very pretty but quite touristy. The lake is beautiful.

Day 5, Pucon: today we were picked up at 6:30 am for our transfer to volcan Villaricca. I didn't realise we would be taking all the climbing gear with us. On my back I have a helmet, ice pick, waterproof jacket, gloves and pants and a slide to get back zdown the mountain.

We began the ascent at 1400m and we have to climb another 1400m, which doesn't sound like a lot but it is practically vertical. We began with the hardest art, which is an hour scrabbling over rocks in the heat to get to the actual climb. A short rest and I am recuperated it is here that we get out the ice pick and out on the helmets.

The next four hours are spent zig zagging across the top of the volcano, it's very hard work. There was a small part where I thought I wasn't going to make it but, while I didn't get a second wind I did manage to get enough energy to make it to the top. It was a great achievement. We spent about 30 minutes up the top until the sulphur smell got too much.

Now the best bit. To get down the volcano you slide down on your bum. It's like a waterside and roller coaster all in one. I have never had so much fun on snow! It almost made up for the pain of the walk. it took us 5 hours 20 minutes to get up the mountain and only 1.30 to get back down.

It was truly awesome but i am now knackered. A couple of burritos for dinner and I am off to bed.

Day 6, Pucon - St Martin de Los Andes: today we took a trip from Pucon, through the lake district in to the Argentinian town of St Martin De Los Andes. We took in five of the lakes in the district starting with lago Villarica which was stunning, then to lago Calafquen and lago Panguipulli before jumping on a boat to lago pirihueico and finally another boat on Lago Lacar in Argentina.

The last lake was definitely the best. It was beautiful scenery with a nice stop on a little islands and finally reaching the shores of St Martin de Los Andes, where we headed to the hotel to clean up before heading out for Argentinian beef.

Another quaint town. We had our first taste of Argentinian beef, it is all its made out to be!

Day 7, bariloche: a short bus journey from St Martin to the Swiss inspired town of Barriloche. On the bus ride in it became clear that there was a fire or something. When we got to the hostel and asked, we found out that the smog is from a volcano in Chile that erupted six months ago and is still spewing ash over the area. It is very smoggy and the is a fine layer of ash over everything making the town look a little run down.

We had a walk around town, where every second shop is a chocolate shop. The hostel has dinner provided free as well as breakfast so we headed back to the hostel for dinner and a bottle of wine (from the supermarket). Pasta with meat and veg, not too bad for free.

Day 8, Barriloche: today we hired bikes to ride around the Cirquito Chico route and the lake . I haven't ridden a bike for a very long time and it took some getting used to. The volcanic ash really makes a difference to view here and you constantly feel grotty.

The views from the bike ride were amazing. Views of the lake and Llao Llao, the massive hotel built to satisfy the rich a while ago.

Dinner in the hostel was semolina in tomato sauce. We have been having trouble booking travel to El Chalten so we are in Barriloche for two more days. We have booked in a hotel that is a lot cheapere than this one, even with the free dinner.

Day 9, Barriloche: we moved in to a cheaper hotel today. This one is right on the lake with a lovely view, even though it is a little breezy down here. We finally booked our bus to Chalten, although we have to stop in Perito Merino for the night but it was the only way we could do it.

Had another couple of cheap 1l beers and a bottle of red wine over some pasta we cooked for ourselves to save money. Looking forward to moving on now. I'm bored of chocolate shops (who would have thought I would ever say that)?

Day 10, Barriloche: had the best lunch so far. A steak sandwich from a little man with a BBQ in the main square for around £2 with all the trimmings and salad!

Wandered round town again and headed back to the hotel as we have a very early start tomorrow. Looking forward to leaving Barriloche now. I'm sure this town is the crappy car capital of south America.

Day 11, Perito Merino: we had a 6:30am pick up to get to Perito Merino. The view and landscape was amazing for a while and then just flat nothingness. We arrived in Perito Merino 12 hours later. This is a nothing town, with nothing here. But it is only a stop gap to get us to El Chalten to do some hiking. We found a little bakery which did some amazing little empanadas with corn (empanadas con choclo por favor). A couple of them for dinner, two cost about 50p and a couple to take on the bus tomorrow. Lovely.

Day 12, El Chalten: another 12 hour bus ride with complete flatness to look at only this one was on a gravel road. The annoying part is pretty much the whole time we drove alongside the brand new paved road but we couldn't drive on it. I'm surprised that we still have our teeth left it was so bumpy. We finally made it to Chalten at 8:45pm. It's a very small and absolutely stunning town that caters for trekkers. The small town is surrounded by snow capped mountains.

Have been dropped off at the Rancho Grande hostel, which has massive rooms and are looking forward to an early night as we have planned a big hike tomorrow.

Day 13, El Chalten: today we did 8 hours of hiking. It was 24k up a mountain, over pebbles and boulders and through scrub to get to the Piedras Blancas glacier. It was absolutely beautiful. We spent about an hour at the glacier having lunch and just staring at the scenery before heading back. Hiking over boulders was hard and heading down the scrabble rocks was hard. My legs are sore now. Abt hat was definitely the hardest trekk I have ever done. I am way too unfit.

Back at the hostel we treated ourselves to steak and chips and eggs with beer and (bad) red wine as a reward for doing so well on the trekk.

Day 14, El Chalten: another day another 8 hour hike, this time 28k. As soon as we started walking I knew I was going to be in pain at the end. This walk was no where near as nice as the one yesterday I'm so glad we did it second. This trekk was all out in the open so you are stuck on the side of the mountain with the wind and the sun. It's relentless.

The view of Lago Torre and the glacier were nothing compared to yesterday.

The return trekk was painful. Considering I have never done any real trekking before, two days of it was way too much. I ache all over. The last hour of the walk was very painful and it was so good to see the town coming to view. I now have blisters all over and my legs ache like they have never ached before but it feels really good to do some proper walking. Tomorrow is a bus journey to Calafate which will be a nice break I just hope my legs can get me down the stairs.

Day 15, Calafate: picked up at 7am to get the bus to Calafate. My legs were no where near as sore as I thought they would be thank goodness. Having been travelling for two weeks I finally got a dodgy stomach. I have a feeling it's because I over did it for the last two days. After arriving at the hostel in Calafate, Hopsedaje Lautaro, which is run by the most lovely couple ever, we headed back out to go to the Perito Merino glacier. I was feeling quite I'll by this time and two hours on a bus on a windy, bumpy road really did nothing to help. It's a good thing the glacier was so stunning, this is the fourth glacier we have now seen and the biggest by a long way. It is massive. The walk way to look at the glacier gives an amazing view and the cracking noise of bits of the glacier breaking off is like thunder. It was truly amazing. I am definitely glad I went.

Straight home to bed though as I am feeling rather terrible.

Day 16, Puerto Natales: am still feeling really crook but had to get the bus back over in to chile to Puerto Natales which is at the head of the Torres del Paine national park which was recently severely burned down by a stupid Israeli. Heading in to the national park tomorrow.

As we had to spend two extra nights in Barriloche we don't have as much time here as I hoped so we won't get to do any trekking.

Day 17, Puerto Natales: an early morning pick up to go into Torres del Paine national park. It is so beautiful. There are little rivers running everywhere and the snow capped mountains are backed by super dark thunder clouds and it's so lovely. We make our way to our zodiac speed boat and got trussed up in our sleeping bag jackets and out we went to the serendo glacier. A shirt walk got us very close to the glacier and we managed to get there before the hordes. Another trip on the zodiac to see some of the best scenery I have seen all trip. Water falls coming out of nowhere in the lush green forest. Glacier water falls hitting the lake and some lovely forest.

We head off to a little hit for lunch of local salmon potatoes and rice with pisqo sours and local wind. Our first proper meal for a few days and it was amazing.

We headed Back on the zodiac boats before getting the bus back. I'm sure it was only a five minute bus ride as I fell asleep the whole way back.

Day 18, Ushuaia: we finally made it to our penultimate town in Patagonia - Ushuaia. We have been heading down here as this is where our Antarctic trip starts in a couple of days.

It was a 12 hour bus ride but it was the best border crossing (back in to Argentina) so far. We didn't have to line up, the bus driver took our passport and did it all for us. Lunch was also included with the bus fare which was an added bonus that we didn't know about.

You can definitely feel the weather getting colder the further south you go. I hope we have enough warm clothes for our trip.

We made it into town at about 7pm only to find that our hostel isn't actually available. Good news is they have booked us into a posher hotel, bad news is that it's a taxi ride into town. It has a bath, I think I will have to make the most of that.

We had dinner in the hotel tonight, salad and pasta. The first vegetables I have had for a long time.

Day 19, Ushuaia: headed into town to do everything we need for our antarctic trip. Have managed to hire some warm pants and find out where we need to go for our trip rendezvous. Also managed to get Heath a small birthday present as its his birthday the day we board the ship.

A generally relaxing day before our trip starts tomorrow!!!! We actually we don't go on board until the next day but oh well.

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NEXT - Antartica. I am really looking forward to it. I will hopefully not leave it so long between writing as I am already getting hand cramp and I have so much more to write!

Only two sleeps left in NZ before we head on our flight to Santiago. I need to give my poor insides a break from all this drinking!

Sitting in Kihikihi, North Island of New Zealand, with less than a week to go until we head off on our proper adventure.

It has been wonderful spending new year with the Ashcrofts, lazing around, drinking too much, playing cards and just generally being in th noisy hubbub that is Heath's family. However I am really looking forward to getting off my arse and seeing the world.

We have some last minute arrangements to make; booking flights from Ushaia to Buenos Aires, seeing whether it is worth booking extra flights and making sure we have everything we need. We have booked our first couple of nights accomodation in Santiago at the Happy House Hostel - thanks to Megan for the recommendation, let's hope it lives up to it's name!

The most exciting thing that has happened is we managed to book our Antarctica trip, starting on 29 January, which is so far the most exciting thing that we have done so far.

Well that's all so far since we haven't actually started our trip yet. Will update once we have actual,y set off.

I CAN'T WAIT!