New Zealand - touring around the North Island

When I arrived in Auckland I had no real plan what I was going to do or how I was going to get to Christchurch by April 22nd. Upon leaving the airport I boarded a bus bound for the city centre and the driver dropped me off at Auckland Backpacker Central, the largest hostel in the city.

I checked in and went to the dorm where I met Paul and Jonny (both from Germany). They had also just arrived in Auckland a few hours prior to me and had no real plan. We went for a few beers and by the time we were finished we had decided to rent a camper van and travel down south together. We set about organising everything - a real adventure was about to begin.

Firstly we headed up north to the Bay of Islands and Paihia and KeriKeri. This is where the treaty was signed between representatives of Queen Victoria nad the Maori people in 1840....essentially the birthplace of New Zealand. It started raining very heavy, so were were unable to go out to the islands, but we did check out the treaty house and grounds to gain an insight into Maori history and culture. It was still raining, so we stopped of at the Cottle Hill Winery to sample the local Merlot. Not bad!

We then drove back down to Auckland and on to Hamilton, where we stoped off at a waterworld complex for some water activities. We drive further on to Rotarua, where there are natural thermal springs and geysers. We stay overnight at a campsite and enjoy the hot springs. The next day our trip takes us to one called Hell's Gate, named due to the high geothermic activity in the area - explosive pools of mud, boiling pools of water with steam evaporating across the landscape, and a mini volcano spouting hot mud... Very impressive, but it still hadn't stopped raining.

Fiji - Mana island

Landed in Nadi and stepped off the plane into an incredibly hot and humid climate, with happy Fijians singing to us as we disembarked and entered the airport building. I decided to go straight to the remote resort of Mana island in the Mamanucas, about 1.5hrs off the coast by hydrofoil. I just wanted to spend 5 days there on the beach and relax on "Fiji time"...something that had been lacking the past few weeks. The first few days the weather was great and I was snorkelling and kayaking and lying in the sun. Then the weather turned and the island got slammed by a cyclone with the heaviest downpours I have seen in a while...

Fiji is not the cheapest place and represents little value for money, so I was not that keen to stay too long anyway. Some locals stole a few of my T-shirts from the washing line, which was quite annoying considering I hadn't brought that many with me...what was worse for me though was that among them were two really nice ones that Nuria had bought me before I left. Now Fiji was starting to get on my nerves, so I was not too sad about getting the boat back to Nadi to fly out and get back to Auckland.

NZ - arriving in Auckland

After a very very long journey I arrive in Auckland. For my body it is lunchtime on Monday, but as I flew over the international dateline it is actually 4am the following day (Tuesday). I clear customs, but have to get my hiking boots disinfected due to NZ's tight biodiversity laws. What to do in Auckland at 4.30am? I organise a pick up from thr airport to take me to a nearby motel so I can sleep for a few hours, knowing that I obly have about 24 hours before i have to be back at the sirport to fly to Fiji. After some well needed sleep, I gather the motivation to go sightseeing around Auckland for the afternoon. An early night is in order and after sleeping off some of the jet lag, I get up and head back to the airport...

Bolivia - La Paz

Spent the last 3 days in La Paz and was there to celebrate St Patrick's Day with all the other gringos. There was a huge party at one of the hostels so we did it in style :)

La Paz wasn't as bad as everyone makes out, but I definitely felt more unsafe there than in any other place in South America. A young girl tried to steal my camera and I stopped her, but that was the only thing that happened. However, the way people look at you and especially after dark it just feels dodgy in the streets...

Getting out...
Anyway, it was time to leave Bolivia and get the plane down to Santaigo de Chile, where I had a 6 hour wait for the trans-pacific flight to Auckland. At 13.5 hours I reckon it's the longest flight on this trip and the longest one I have ever taken. I watch a few movies and fall asleep, so it goes by quite quickly.

Boliva - the Death Road

Mountain biking down the "World's Most Dangerous Road"


The road from La Paz to Coroico is known as the most dangerous in the world, aka Death Road. This is beacuse annually about 26 vehicles go over the edge and an accident here will end fatally, as the cliff drops over 500m into the abyss. One of the biggest attractions outside La Paz is to cycle down this road on a mountain bike, and survive to tell the tale.

We organise a tour with Gravity Assisted mountain biking, http://www.gravitybolivia.com/
one of the most reputable tour operators in La Paz. They pick us up at 7.30am and we drive up to La Cumbre (4750m) to start the ride. The road will take us a distance of 75km and we will descend a total of 3650m by the time we reach Coroico.

It rains heavily the entire day, the road is wet and muddy and waterfalls pour over parts of it. At it's widest the death road is about 3m across and we have to cycle in the left tyre track (the one closest to the edge), in case we encounter any vehicles coming up. Due to the fog and bad weather it is impossible to see the bottom of the cliff, which is a good thing. All I can concentrate on anyway is the few metres beyond my front wheel. The goggles fog up quickly in the rain and are of no use, forcing me to remove them and subject my eyes to the mud and water which pelts me in the face.

After about 4 hours we reach the bottom and everyone is (more or less) in one piece. One of the guides was slightly banged up as he fell off on the way down. Another tour member was slightly shaken, as he also fell off and his bike dissappeared over the edge, luckily without him on it...

The adrenalin was still pumping as we sat down for lunch after the warm showers, and even well into the evening on the way back to La Paz...

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Bolivia - Salar de Uyuni

The Uyuni Salt Flats

The slat flats are an expanse of salt desert in the south of Boliva and covers an area of approx 12000km2. It is easy to organise a 2 day tour of the salt flats, as that is all there is to see in Uyuni. For the overnight stay we book a room in the Playa Blanca "hotel", which is actually made out of salt, but has no running water or electricty. A 4x4 jeep picks us up and we drive into the desert with some Israelis and a German, listening to Bob Marley blasting out from the sound system.












At this time of year it is the wet season and (although it didn't rain when I was there), a large part of the flats are covered in about 10cm of water. This makes for a very eerie experience as the clouds and mountains are reflected in the water and it is impossible to make out the horizon. We drive for several hours through the water and I am amazed that our guide knows which direction to drive, as orientation is virtually impossible in the glaring white landscape which seemingly goes on forever... We eventually reach Isla de Pescador, a lump of rock covered in 3m high cactus. Here we stop for lunch and pile on the suncream as the sun is blazing down on us. After eating we take a series of comic pictures, using the flat perspective to our advantage.

In the evening we head back to the salt hotel for a simple dinner, using candles to see what we were eating. The next day is relaxing and we stay near the hotel, taking in the awesome scenery and realxing in the sun.

Bolivia - Copacabana to Uyuni

Leaving on the 13.30h bus from Copacabana to La Paz, we also purchase onward tickets to Uyuni and are told we will have 3hrs to wait in La Paz. No problem, enough time to have dinner and get supplies for the journey. We pay extra for a tourist bus which is more comfortable than the local Bolivian buses and has an on board toilet. However, upon arrival in La Paz we are told that the bus we should get is not leaving because of the rain (even though it was not raining). We have 5 minutes to board a local bus to Uyuni, or else spend the night in La Paz. Deciding to get the local bus, we are assured by the bus company that the driver makes adequate bathroom stops en route an that the journey will take 12hrs. In Bolivia you just have to believe what you are told, beacuse disputing it will get you nowhere... A lesson quickly learned.

What really happened: the bus breaks down 4 times during the journey and at one point we are stuck for almost 5 hours in the desert. Of course no one bothers to inform the passengers what is happening (about 30 people, primarily foreigners). At one point I am even assisting the the mechanic to hold parts of the engine, while he bangs away at it furiously. Eventually we reach Uyuni after a mammoth 25 hour journey along unpaved roads, completely destroyed and realising the way Bolivia functions (or not).

We check in to a hostel and go looking for a 2 day tour into the salt flats.

Bolivia - Copacabana

We get the early bus at 7.30am from Puno to Copacabana, after paying the obligatory departure tax at the bus station (another scam I think). After a couple of hours we arrive at the Peru-Bolivia border crossing. We have to leave the bus to queue and get our exit stamps and are then told to walk 300m across ¨no man´s land¨ to enter Bolivia and go through immigration there. Getting back on the bus we drive the remaining 8km into Copacabana, a laid back village on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We find a cheap and chearful hostel near the main square and head out.


The town thrives on tourism, so before long myself and Al have 2 boat tickets to Isla del Sol, the ancient island of the Incas. Really beautiful place, but we spend more time getting there than we do on the island, which was slightly dissapointing. Still feeling out of breath though, as on the island we are at 4000m above sea level, and walking up Inca stairs to get a better view doesn't help... Still, Isla del Sol is beautiful and well worth the trip.

Lake Titicaca - Puno

Friday 9th March

Leave Cusco on the early morning bus for Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world at 3800m. Travelling with Al from the UK, who I met in Cusco. We take a boat trip out to the floating reed islands of the Uros Indians, of whom 1000 live on these islands made out of reeds. Incredibly interesting and quite primitive.

Peru - Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Monday 5th March

Day 1
Our group is picked up from the Loki Hostel in Cusco at 5.30 am to drive 2.5 hours to Ollantaytambo, from where we will start the hike to the sacred Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. The group is made up of 13 English speaking travellers. Myself, Anthony and Richie from Ireland, Katie and Claudia from the UK, Mike, Callie and Lauren from Canada, Steve, Liz, Alberto and Jo from Australia and Max from the USA. We will be led by two guides, Marcelo and Caesar, who employ 17 porters to assist with the equipment and food. After breakfast we enter the park and trek 12 km through the sacred valley, up to our camp site at Wallyabamba, about 3300m above sea level.

Day 2
We are woken at 5.30am for breakfast in order to make an early start on the hardest day of the trek. We hike up to Tres Pedres and cross over the Huayruro river. After around 4 hours hard ascent we reach Dead Woman's pass at 4200m. Every step at this altitude requires remarkable physical exertion and there is not enough oxygen to function properly, making the ascent very difficult indeed. After a steep descent we reach Camp 2 at Pacamayo, 3600m and 12km further down the Inca trail. Aussie Liz has her 30th birthday and the porters whip up a tasty cake.






















Day 3
Another early start as we leave the camp around 6.45am and climb steeply up to the Inca ruins of Runkuracay overlooking the valley. A further steep climb brings us to the 2nd pass at 4000m. The descent from the pass is in the form of steep Inca steps carved into the mountainside, which are trecherous in the heavy morning rain. We descend and ascend again up and down Inca staircases and through tunnels until we arrive at the 3rd pass (3700m). The mist and cloud is thick and obscures the views as we rest in our soaked clothes. In a desperate attempt to change the weather conditions for the better, Aussie Steve comes up with an idea. We need to show our belive in the Inca gods by making a sacrifice. So Steve builds a small stone shrine and burns some Coca leaves as an offering. Hey presto! A few minutes later the sun streams through the clouds just long enough for us to feel its heat and dry off a bit. We then complete this 15km leg of the hike by arriving at the final camp of Wiñay Wayna.


Day 4

We get up at 4am in order to trek the remaining 5km to the Sun Gate and then on to the ruins of Machu Picchu. The weather is dreadful and when we arrive visibility is zero. How dissapointing after 4 days hiking through the mud and rain at that altitude. Anyway, we have all day to wait for better weather, and it improves around lunchtime after we take a tour of the ruins. We hike up to one of the peaks surrounding the ruins for a better view and it is stunning. Returning back down to the ruins we go up the other side to take the classic Machu Picchu picture. Bus loads of American and Japanese tourists arrive by bus. We feel much more priviliged though, as we got here the hard way on our on two feet. The group heads down on the bus to Aigua Calientes, where we have a late lunch and beer whilst waiting for the train back to Cusco. We get another few beers for the train ride in order to celebrate our achievement.

From Chile to Peru...

On Tuesday Morning I took the bus 3 hours to Punta Arenas in the south of Chile. Markus, Erez and myself parted ways there and all headed in different directions. Stayed in Punta Arenas overnight and caught a flight up to Santiago, via Puerto Montt (about 3000km). Spent a couple of days sightseeing in Santiago, a really nice city with a very European flair.

On Friday it was time to move on up to Peru. So I boarded another plane to take me to Lima, with a connection to Cusco (another 4000km in total). Arriving in Cusco took my breath away literally, due to the elevation of the town. Have now just spent the weekend acclimatising and drinking Mate de Coca(Coca tea)... which supposedly is the best cure for altitude sickness. Feeling a lot better now!

Tomorrow will be the start of my 4 day trek along the Inca trail up to the ruins of Machu Picchu. It's been raining a lot, but hopefully that will clear up as sonn as we start the trek ;)