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Hola! As you can tell from my location, I am now back home in sunny england, with sub-zero temperatures and endless grey skies. joy of joys. However, it is very nice to see family and hope to be seeing all of you very soon! I have been very lax with my blogging this month - as there hasnt been much time to get to computers. I have a full update now!
From Mendoza, I crossed the border into chile - after waiting at the freezing crossing in the middle of the andes for five hours, whilst chilean officials, in their infinite wisdom, x-rayed all of our bags for illegal vegetables! I was flying out of Santiago de Chile and had a few days to look round, which turned out to be more than enough as there isn't much to see there.
I flew from Santiago to Aukland, New Zealand. Once in NZ, I was booked onto the Kiwi Experience, a hop-on hop-off tour bus that would take me around both North and South Islands. However, I did the tour in just 15 days, as I had pushed back my flight from south america, making it whistle-stop to say the least. New zealand is sort of like england, except very depopulated (only 4m to our 65m). Perhaps this is why there are a staggering number of expats working and living here. You hear almost as many british accents as kiwis!
We started by heading north to Bay of Islands, one of the most beautiful spots in the north island. Endless green seas, white sands and delightful rocky islands surrounded by frollocking dolphins. All in all pretty heavenly. From there we headed further south, past Aukland to Rotarua. Known to the locals as "Rotten Rua" because of the high crime rate and eggy-smelling thermal pools. Once acclimatised to the smell, I found it a pleasant town with lots of geisers and thermal spas to relax in. Next we went to waitomo caves, a labrynth of sub-terranean tunnels occupied by delightful glow worms. Here I went "black water rafting". This involves donning a hilarious outfit (see photos) and entering the freezing caves with a donut shaped tube (like the inner tube of a car tyre). We hiked through some of the pitch black caves until we reached the under-ground river. Then we jumped into the water (or more acurately, jumped backward into the darkeness off the edge of small waterfall) and floated downstream. Once we turned our headlamps off, the ceiling of the cave was lit up like the night-sky by beautifful glow worms. It was fantastic.
Next we reached the rugged beauty of Taupo. The volcanic region centres round the great lake and is surrounded by barren, snow peaked mountains (including "mount doom" from lord of the rings). Also there was an amazing "hot stream", where a boiling, thermally-heated stream met the freezing glacial river. The effect is that one bit of your body can be in scorching water, whilst another is freezing - very strange! After Taupo, we reached the port of Wellington, to catch the ferry to the south Island. It is a pretty harbour town (and capital of NZ), enhanced by the lovely, jade green waters that are found all over the country. This is a result of fine particles of ground-up rock (known as glacial flour), created by the action of the glaciers and washed down stream.
Once on the South Island, we continued our journey along the West coast, past dramatic scenery. The south is more mountainous and covered in dense rainforest. We passed through the small towns of Nelson and Westport. Highlights included visiting the geographical center point of New Zealand (complete with friendly locals giving out free beer) and having a beach bonfire made of driftwood.
Our next big stop was the Franz Joseph Glacier, the first and only place I spent more than one night in NZ. I did a full-day Glacier Hike and it was the most fantastic experience of the whole trip. Firstly we hiked out to the edge of the glacier through 6km of end-morrain (large boulders carried there by the glacier). Next, we donned our trendy cramp-on ice boots and headed out onto the glacier itself. The glacier ice was not smooth, as I had imagined, but highly crevassed, forming cliffs and fissures that had to be navigated. Moreover, we were surrounded on all sides by lush rainforest, flourishing on the valley walls - one of only 3 places in the world that this combination is found. Our guide had a pick-axe and was cutting steps for us in the more difficult bits. Plus the cramp-ons were excellent, providing sturdy grip whilst walking. So we spent the day clambering over and under, through holes, down cracks and up stairs! It was great! (see photos)
The next day we continued south reaching Winaka then Queenstown. This area has some of the most splendid scenery to be found in NZ - turquoise lakes and impressive mountains. It is also the world capital of "extreme sports" - although as I'm sure you all know, this isn't my cup of tea! But there were plenty of nice walks to do for those not interested in throwing/rolling/swinging/diving/jumping/gliding from a great height! Here I finally met up with Sarah and Mike (her boyfriend), and we all travelled together to Christchurch to catch our next flight.
In 3 hours we had touched down in Sydney, Australia. However, for me it was just a stop-over on the way home. I stayed for 4 days in sydney and it was quite an eventful time - fires in Melbourne, floods in Brisbane, 2 shark attacks in as many days on Bondi Beach and torrential rain every day in Sydney. It's not exactly the postcard veiw - the opera house in the rain, and trips to the beach were out, but the Aquarium and museums were good days out. The buildings did'nt really seem designed for so much rain and many of them, including my hostel and ironically enough, the aquarium, had sprung sizable leaks. Anyway it was all good preparation for my return and after a 24hr flight I was back on England's green-and-pleasant land!
On the way back to Liverpool I stopped off at Bristol for a PhD interview there and am flyng to America in 3 days time for interviews there too. I have one in the American Museum (New York) and one in John's Hopkins Med School (Baltimore). Fingers crossed!
Looking forward to seeing everyone soon and will update the blog about America too!
love
trine xxxxxxxxx
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