So we were suppose to leave Pucon on Friday, but my mate Jo and I decided to stay a bit longer. The town is so beautiful, from every where you can see the snow capped volcano. Pucon is also in Chile´s lake district, and there are something like 10 to 15 large lakes in the area, and tons of other tall volcanos which aren´t active. Did I mention the volcano we were suppose to hike the other day is an active one? From my bedroom window between 5 and 6am I can see the top section of the volcano glowing from the lava, without even getting out of bed . . . how amazing is that?
Yesterday, Phillipe drove Jo and me over to check out another lake, it was so beautiful! Only problem was I lent my camera to Ruben cause he was guiding a group up the volcano, so no photos, but I think Jo got a few good ones which hopefully she´ll share with me!
Weather is still cool, but the clouds are much higher and so if you´re in the sun it doesn´t feel so bad.
Monday, 31 May 2010
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Santiago & Pucon, Chile
Safely arrived into South America (a new continent for me!) a few days ago, after a long 11 hour flight from Auckland to Santiago. Country is beautiful. The first day I went to two coastal villages, names now evade me. Then took a 10 hour night bus from Santiago to Pucon (south) and we were suppose to hike up the 2000m volcano today, but it´s rainy and has lots of strong wind, so it´s postponed till tomorrow.
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Time Zones
So I just had a wee look at the world map and learned that in about 7 hours I will have made it around the world, since I've been to Hawaii before and on my way to Santiago, Chile this afternoon, I will pass that point! I also had a look at the time zone map and realised that when I land at 12.10pm (Chile time) it will actually be 11.10am on the east coast of America and 4.10pm in England.
I had forgotten how much further east South America is when compared to North America. So for the next month I'll be one and two hours ahead of New York and four and three hours behind London.
Okay, that's my fun fact for the day . . .
Auckland, New Zealand
Arrived here a few days ago. First on the agenda was to go to the top of the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, The Auckland Skytower, which is just around the corner from the hostel I'm staying at so I did that in the afternoon, when the weather was pretty good, a few clouds but no rain. The view was very nice and they even have a glass floor in the lift and at different spots around the viewing area, I of course could not walk on them, cause I'm a wimp!
That evening I went to Commerce Street to look for a pizza store, which my dad's mate in NYC's financial adviser's brother owns (did you follow that connection?) The street luckily isn't that long & in amongst lots of Chinese restaurant's is Sal's New York Style Pizza. I walked in & asked for Kieran. "Yes, I'm him" the man said. So I went on with the explanation of how I knew him and that his brother had sent me to say hello. He smiled and said that was a first! I got a slice of pizza, to test out how authentic it really was. Amazingly it was spot on! Come to find out, he imports all of his ingredients from America, WOW!
The next morning I went to Kaiheke Island, which turns out to be the 3rd most populated island in all of New Zealand. It's a 40 minute ferry ride from Auckland. Many people commute to Auckland for work from there. The island also has a lot of artist living on it. The weather was not fantastic, cloud covered and on the ferry back to the city it started to rain.
The following day, I was schedule to go sailing with my dad's mate from university, but the weather here in Auckland has not been working in my favour. It poured with rain and pretty strong winds, so the sailing race I was going to participate in got cancelled.
Yesterday I thought I would spend the morning doing laundry and packing, but the dryer here at the hostel is so bloody old that it took forever to dry my clothes, and it's not like I had that much, but I had my jeans in there and they took a long time to dry! Turns out my laundry wasn't ready till 2.30pm! Then I spent a bit of time on the phone with my parents, since once I leave New Zealand, I'm not sure when I'll have phone access again. Followed by packing up since check out is 10am and I didn't want to do it last minute.
Finished packing and noticed that 3 new girls in the room, but we only had 2 beds free. After dinner I came back in and they were all drinking and eating smelly fishy food in the room. I decided I wouldn't say anything until 10pm, when guests are suppose to leave and I'd have an excuse to kick one of them out. But at 9.30pm, Nicole came into the room and couldn't stand the smell, so she asked them to leave. I realised now that these girls were sooooooo drunk, they could barely stand up! I was glad they were leaving the room and sorta hoped they'd pass out on the couches in the lounge area and never come back :-)
No such luck, at 11.30pm, all three came stumbling back into the room. Two climbed into their beds and passed out, the third sat on a chair and sorta didn't know what to do with herself, she kept falling over and sliding off the chair, so I finally got off my bunk bed and asked her to leave (aka escorted her to the lift). I thought all was fine, Nicole and I were joking about how drunk they were and how badly they would feel in the morning, when all of the sudden the girl on the lower bunk sat up and started to puke all over her bed and down the side by the wall. Nicole and I, grabbed our purses and run to reception. Announced what had happened and they upgraded us to a twin room for the night, so we went back to the smelly room, collected our things and headed to our new room. All I can say is how glad I am that this happened on my last night of my NZ hostel staying or I might be worried about future repeats of this.
I am heading to Santiago, Chile this afternoon, but after last night had to go and get a Dunkin Donuts Coffee Coolatta for breakfast cause we weren't able to get to bed till nearly 1am and then Nicole had to wake up at 6am to catch her bus, so not a lot of sleep was had!
That evening I went to Commerce Street to look for a pizza store, which my dad's mate in NYC's financial adviser's brother owns (did you follow that connection?) The street luckily isn't that long & in amongst lots of Chinese restaurant's is Sal's New York Style Pizza. I walked in & asked for Kieran. "Yes, I'm him" the man said. So I went on with the explanation of how I knew him and that his brother had sent me to say hello. He smiled and said that was a first! I got a slice of pizza, to test out how authentic it really was. Amazingly it was spot on! Come to find out, he imports all of his ingredients from America, WOW!
The next morning I went to Kaiheke Island, which turns out to be the 3rd most populated island in all of New Zealand. It's a 40 minute ferry ride from Auckland. Many people commute to Auckland for work from there. The island also has a lot of artist living on it. The weather was not fantastic, cloud covered and on the ferry back to the city it started to rain.
The following day, I was schedule to go sailing with my dad's mate from university, but the weather here in Auckland has not been working in my favour. It poured with rain and pretty strong winds, so the sailing race I was going to participate in got cancelled.
Yesterday I thought I would spend the morning doing laundry and packing, but the dryer here at the hostel is so bloody old that it took forever to dry my clothes, and it's not like I had that much, but I had my jeans in there and they took a long time to dry! Turns out my laundry wasn't ready till 2.30pm! Then I spent a bit of time on the phone with my parents, since once I leave New Zealand, I'm not sure when I'll have phone access again. Followed by packing up since check out is 10am and I didn't want to do it last minute.
Finished packing and noticed that 3 new girls in the room, but we only had 2 beds free. After dinner I came back in and they were all drinking and eating smelly fishy food in the room. I decided I wouldn't say anything until 10pm, when guests are suppose to leave and I'd have an excuse to kick one of them out. But at 9.30pm, Nicole came into the room and couldn't stand the smell, so she asked them to leave. I realised now that these girls were sooooooo drunk, they could barely stand up! I was glad they were leaving the room and sorta hoped they'd pass out on the couches in the lounge area and never come back :-)
No such luck, at 11.30pm, all three came stumbling back into the room. Two climbed into their beds and passed out, the third sat on a chair and sorta didn't know what to do with herself, she kept falling over and sliding off the chair, so I finally got off my bunk bed and asked her to leave (aka escorted her to the lift). I thought all was fine, Nicole and I were joking about how drunk they were and how badly they would feel in the morning, when all of the sudden the girl on the lower bunk sat up and started to puke all over her bed and down the side by the wall. Nicole and I, grabbed our purses and run to reception. Announced what had happened and they upgraded us to a twin room for the night, so we went back to the smelly room, collected our things and headed to our new room. All I can say is how glad I am that this happened on my last night of my NZ hostel staying or I might be worried about future repeats of this.
I am heading to Santiago, Chile this afternoon, but after last night had to go and get a Dunkin Donuts Coffee Coolatta for breakfast cause we weren't able to get to bed till nearly 1am and then Nicole had to wake up at 6am to catch her bus, so not a lot of sleep was had!
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Rotorura, New Zealand
Well I just officially applied for my job as a Research Associate at University of Massachusetts (I think I spelled that right . . . gonna have to learn that one!) Medical School so I can work with the former director of Trudeau Institute, Dr. Swain. She does flu research, of which I know little to nothing about. On the plus side her 2 post docs, Tara & Kai, whom are mates of mine are moving to Mass with her, so at least I'll have 2 friends :-)
On the leg front it's def getting better, just so freakin slow. Goes to show I should have gotten stitches when it happened, but then again that would have been from unsterilised needles in PNG, and goodness only knows what I would look like now if that'd been the case, maybe getting my leg amputated at this point!
I leave New Zealand on May 23rd for Chile and end up in Brazil on June 20th, then on to JFK :-)
Well I better go get some lunch now and see what Rotorura has to offer which doesn't risk introducing an infection into my leg . . . so far all I've seen are mud baths, thermal spas, etc etc Luckily tomorrow I'm off to Auckland, so I won't be tempted to take a dip in the spas!
On the leg front it's def getting better, just so freakin slow. Goes to show I should have gotten stitches when it happened, but then again that would have been from unsterilised needles in PNG, and goodness only knows what I would look like now if that'd been the case, maybe getting my leg amputated at this point!
I leave New Zealand on May 23rd for Chile and end up in Brazil on June 20th, then on to JFK :-)
Well I better go get some lunch now and see what Rotorura has to offer which doesn't risk introducing an infection into my leg . . . so far all I've seen are mud baths, thermal spas, etc etc Luckily tomorrow I'm off to Auckland, so I won't be tempted to take a dip in the spas!
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Wellington, New Zealand
Arrived safely yesterday after 3 hours on a HUGE ferry, one that's big enough to have 4 levels, level 1 has trains, level 2 trucks & cars, level 3 general public, level 4 special class (you pay $20 extra to go there - I didn't so I can't tell you much about it).
We managed to avoid the bad weather which was arriving in Picton as we were leaving & when we arrived here in Wellington the weather was cloudy but not pouring with rain as it had been earlier in the day.
I'm staying at the Base Backpackers which is very nice, sorta a NYC feel to it with high ceilings and the lift is that old school type like dad's apartment use to have.
Yesterday afternoon I had a bit of a walk around town, down Courtenay Place, through the Courtenay Quarter, which is known for theatres, galleries and hostels. Then down Manners Street, through the Cuba Quarter, known for funky boutiques, art galleries, cafes and the opera house. Then onto Willis Street through the Lambton Quarter which is renown for high end shopping, heritage government buildings and the cable car.
Once I got to the cable car I took that up to see the view of the city from above and then decided to walk back down to to the city via the walk through the Botanical Gardens, which are beautiful even though it's fall here and none of the flowers are out. At the end of the walk I took a mini detour so I could see the Parliament building which is also called the Beehive - you can guess why!
Today I went to see Te papa, the Museum of New Zealand, which was amazing - you can get lost in it's 6 levels with all of it's displays. I also walked along the waterfront area, until it started to rain, then I came back home.
We managed to avoid the bad weather which was arriving in Picton as we were leaving & when we arrived here in Wellington the weather was cloudy but not pouring with rain as it had been earlier in the day.
I'm staying at the Base Backpackers which is very nice, sorta a NYC feel to it with high ceilings and the lift is that old school type like dad's apartment use to have.
Yesterday afternoon I had a bit of a walk around town, down Courtenay Place, through the Courtenay Quarter, which is known for theatres, galleries and hostels. Then down Manners Street, through the Cuba Quarter, known for funky boutiques, art galleries, cafes and the opera house. Then onto Willis Street through the Lambton Quarter which is renown for high end shopping, heritage government buildings and the cable car.
Once I got to the cable car I took that up to see the view of the city from above and then decided to walk back down to to the city via the walk through the Botanical Gardens, which are beautiful even though it's fall here and none of the flowers are out. At the end of the walk I took a mini detour so I could see the Parliament building which is also called the Beehive - you can guess why!
Today I went to see Te papa, the Museum of New Zealand, which was amazing - you can get lost in it's 6 levels with all of it's displays. I also walked along the waterfront area, until it started to rain, then I came back home.
Friday, 14 May 2010
Picton, New Zealand
Since I last wrote, we've been on the move! Left Queenstown early in the morning and took a bus to Fox Glacier. Where the weather did not work in our favour. The recent rains had closed the walking tracks to the glacier and the day's clouds were thick & low, obstructing good views of the glacier and mountains near by.
Sara went to Lake Matherson and walked around it, ever hopeful the clouds would "burn off" as everyone promised they would do in the late afternoon . . . well they didn't but the walk was still beautiful and the reflection photos with the sunset on the clouds was beautiful.
Next morning boarded the bus up to Greymouth, where we boarded the Tranzalpine train to Christchuch. It's a 4.5 hour trip, over 231km, 19 tunnels, a 73m viaduct, and at it's highest point is 737m above sea level! Amazing scenery on this train trip! Spent the night in a hostel in Christchurch, before getting up early to catch the 7am Transcostal train from Christchurch to Kaikoura.
10am, arrived at Kaikoura, all whale watching trips were cancelled due to the high winds (120kph gusts apparently) so we spent the day browsing the shops. Next morning at 10.15am, we boarded the Transcostal train again for a 2 hour trip to Picton.
Picton is the town where the ferry leaves from to go to Wellington. For those of you not familiar with NZ geography (don't be embarrassed, I didn't know until looking at a map once I got here) but there are 16km between the south (which I'm on now) and north island. There isn't a bridge or tunnel, cause the Cook Straight is so deep they can't build one! The straight is also considered one of the 4 most dangerous to cross because the weather can change so fast, one minute it can be as calm as glass and within an hour can have 4m swells - or so they tell me.
Today's adventures included a boat tour of the Queen Charlotte Sound - very beautiful!
Tomorrow is the 3 hour ferry to Wellington.
Sara went to Lake Matherson and walked around it, ever hopeful the clouds would "burn off" as everyone promised they would do in the late afternoon . . . well they didn't but the walk was still beautiful and the reflection photos with the sunset on the clouds was beautiful.
Next morning boarded the bus up to Greymouth, where we boarded the Tranzalpine train to Christchuch. It's a 4.5 hour trip, over 231km, 19 tunnels, a 73m viaduct, and at it's highest point is 737m above sea level! Amazing scenery on this train trip! Spent the night in a hostel in Christchurch, before getting up early to catch the 7am Transcostal train from Christchurch to Kaikoura.
10am, arrived at Kaikoura, all whale watching trips were cancelled due to the high winds (120kph gusts apparently) so we spent the day browsing the shops. Next morning at 10.15am, we boarded the Transcostal train again for a 2 hour trip to Picton.
Picton is the town where the ferry leaves from to go to Wellington. For those of you not familiar with NZ geography (don't be embarrassed, I didn't know until looking at a map once I got here) but there are 16km between the south (which I'm on now) and north island. There isn't a bridge or tunnel, cause the Cook Straight is so deep they can't build one! The straight is also considered one of the 4 most dangerous to cross because the weather can change so fast, one minute it can be as calm as glass and within an hour can have 4m swells - or so they tell me.
Today's adventures included a boat tour of the Queen Charlotte Sound - very beautiful!
Tomorrow is the 3 hour ferry to Wellington.
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