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Journey Santiago to FijiI got to the bus station in plenty of time for my coach to Santiago. It was full this time and annoyingly the majority of the passengers seemed to be made up of some sort of school trip. So I spent 8 hours trapped in a confined space with thirty odd excitable children, not my idea of fun. I was puzzled as to why the return journey was two hours longer than when I went from Santiago to Mendoza but I soon realized why once we got to the Chilean border. To my horror I had flashbacks and realized this was the same border as the papaya incident and the queues indicated why we needed two extra hours. After a long wait to get the exit and entry stamps we had to have our bags searched. This time they had sniffer dogs which took a particular interest in one little boy. The dog had obviously smelt something on him and was chasing the poor soul around who was screaming with delight as he thought it was a game. I was thinking, oh god someone's planted drugs on the boy, this is terrible! But then the policeman checked his pockets and pulled out a load of orange peel! They're really keen on this fruit and veg amnesty, I mean seriously - a sniffer dog for fruit?!Anyway, I got to Santiago fine and had to get a bus straight to the airport as I didn't have much time so I missed it out altogether. Most people hadn't been too impressed with it as a city so I didn't feel too disappointed. The airport was really nice and clean and the toilets had paper, soap and a hand dryer, absolutely luxury compared to some of the places we'd been to in South America! Whilst waiting for my flight I bumped into a guy called Dan I'd met in Florianopolis and who was going back home to Oz. It made me feel a tiny bit jealous that he was going home to see his family and friends -I'd love to fly back for just a weekend to see everyone and then come back again. If only I had infinite supplies of money! Anyway, he'd just been to Machu Picchu - nice to see I wasn't the only one adored by the mosquitoes and sand flies - his legs were absolutely covered in bites.The flight to Auckland was thirteen hours in total - a breeze compared to some of the bs journeys we'd been doing. We had a good choice of films and proper metal knives and forks for meals I was surprised to see. I bought some sexy flight socks for this flight so that I wouldn't get swollen granny ankles again. We arrived into a wet rainy Auckland at 4am local time although my body thought it was the afternoon. I then had a nine hour wait in the airport before my flight to Fiji. Marvelling at the airport cleanliness and the fact that everyone speaks English only takes so long so that didn't eat too much into my time. Luckily there was internet and a big duty free so I could spend time researching every single camera model available in the airport before purchasing a new one. I had finally decided that I could no longer put up with my temperamental camera and invested in a lovely Lumix one -but not without trying to haggle with the price first Peruvian stylee. It worked though and I got some money off and a free memory stick so it was worth it but not sure how far it'd get me in Dixon's!
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