Our early Saturday morning ferry from Wellington to Picton was fairly uneventful. The high winds from the previous day had mostly subsided, but the ride itself was still pretty rocky. When we arrived on the South Island, we headed for Nelson and spent the afternoon at the Founders Brewery. It was an organic brewery (the first in NZ) with a great cafe for lunch so we sat outside on the patio and enjoyed a nice, warm November afternoon. For $10, we sampled 6...

What an awesome week it has been! So far, the north island of New Zealand has not disappointed - we've seen so much beautiful countryside and many beaches, farms (and sheep), and mountains along the way. And it is so great to camp our way around the country. We have rented a Rocket Van - it is a mini-van that has a bed built into the back. You fold out the back hatch and snap on a fabric tarp and it becomes a tent-van. Under the bed, we have storage for ou...

Our last night in South America was awesome! The Estadio Nacional was HUGE, open air, and set with a backdrop of mountains. We got there about a half-hour before the game started and since there was no assigned seating, we had to fight our way to the back of our section and ended up standing against the back wall (always loved the standing-room only!). We definitely got a few looks being foreigners all dressed up as Chile fans - especially Mark with his picked-...

Our Saturday in Santiago was fairly relaxed as well, the 4 of us headed out to do a self-guided walking tour of the city. I'm not sure whose idea it was exactly, but the first stop on our tour was a small, hole in the wall local drinking spot. This place served a famous drink of wine with icecream. It was very tasty and we stayed at our first stop for almost 2 hours. We finally made it back out into the sun and wandered around a nearby fruit marked before h...

When we arrived in Pucon, we had plans to take part in all the outdoor activities the area had to offer; namely, hiking, biking and kayaking. Two solid days of heavy rain prevented us from doing much more than wandering around the city. On Wednesday, Claudio, one of the men that worked at the hostel (and owned the adventure company next door) approached Mark and I and told us that he'd be leading a group up Volcan Villarica, the active volcano that towers ove...