Hi Steve and Graham - hope you've arrived safely in NZ and I really hope Rob will be joining you very soon. Please see the email I have sent you regarding our phone call from Pete Johnson in New Zealand this morning.

steve i hope u get everything sorted, i spoke to dad and i know he's doing everything he can to help, let me know as soon as u can, if there's anything i can do let me know please coz i'm worried

YA CANT GIVE A BABY BOOOOZE!!!! Hey peeps. Well weve finally arrived in santiago, our last stop in south america. Our tour has ended so robbie and i are pretty much on our lonesome again! Well.....nearly....weve still got those sneaky, sneaky girls Francesca and Louise (dave) following us about, hehehe. Were all cramned into a hostel together now for 2 nights before they go off to do the inca trail in peru (and then go home, hehehe) and we meet up with Gray in NZ at last. Have to say its gone sooooo quick though....seems like only yesterday we landed in sunny rio de janeiro and were at the top of a mountain looking at the christ redemer or at the maracana stadium...mental! Had a fabulous time so far but cant wait to get crackin in the camper van...marvelous!!! Gray, glad to hear you`ve landed safe and sound. You started wearing elastic waist bands and saying duuuuude alot yet?? Hehehe!! I didnt get your email matey cos were on hotmail, thats a bit weird tho!!! Hope youre having an ace time so far, get some pics on the site if you get chance. We know youve probably taken about a million already. Our cameras are gonna be pretty much redundant when you join up with us!!! Anyway, last night we were out till about 3am having our final group meal and a few drinks....oh and me and lee got up and sang "easy" by lionel richie at this crazy karaoke (thats how it`s spelt robbie ;-) ) type doo. Was a bit mental, just a couple of dudes with bongos and backing tracks....nice. Not really much else to say to be fair, were just gonna chill out in Santiago for a couple of days...maybe go to the cinema and were gonna put a couple more postcards on soon so keep an eye out for them!. Peace!

Hello! just to let everyone no i have emailed everyone but if you are with hotmail its not looking like you are recieving them so iam going to swap accounts and try again! so dont think iam ignoring you! its my last day in s.f today have got an 8 hour coach drive down to LA tomorrow! marvelous. there are alot of crazys here! saw a man taking his chicken for a walk today!
anyway will try and sort my email out and keep in touch! byeeee
gray

Hey steve, hows it all going i got your email good to hear from you!! i thought i would come and check out your website, looked at your pics and been reading your messages sounds like your having a wicked time!! well speak to you soon missing you loads (oh and i did love the stories ya mum left about ya when you was a wee lad.....mind you, you aint really grown much have ya ha ) take care, cant wait till ya back love gem x

Well howdy from the states! just to let everyone no i have arrived safe and well! have seen one to many ymca moustaches allready! hostles good was good to get to bed after a 23 hour day yesterday! i decided to stay up when i arrived to avoid jetlag!! steve of rob can you let me no your flight number for your nz flight! will cu in the first cafe in the terminal! will email everyone properly a bit later must get some food now!!!!
gray!

Oh and p.s. there are even more pics under argentina and chile now (were getting good at this internet lark). Loads from the volcano and choco land bariloche. Check them out!!!

YA CAN`T GIVE A BABY BOOZE!!!! Oh my God Rob that is the biggest message ever....and that was just for one day...its a keeper that one!!!! Yeah it was a good day but by far the most tiring thing i have ever done IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!! 5 hours up 2 hours down....thoroughly knackered to the max. I thought climbing Torres Del Paine mountain the other day was bad but this Volcano took the piss!!! It didnt look that bad from the bottom but my word it killed me. Plus i tore me bloody jeans and was drenched from head to foot by the end!! Just to re-iterate, those hot spring baths afterwards were AMAZING! Big bottle of vodka and pineapple, few beers and a bit of a dip in gorgeous hot water....what more could ya want!!! SORTED!! So yeah were coming to the end of our tour of south america, just a couple of days to go now. Had an absolute whale of a time and im really gonna miss everyone from the tour although we have already made arrangements to meet up with people. Danny boy see ya in Brisbane for a barbie and a few tinnies round yours in a couple of months!!! Hilghlight so far?? Still has to be the boat trip around Paraty in Brazil....the most amazing day, snorkeling in the turquoise waters and generally larking about around all the little beaches and island. Brilliant!!! Just wish we had got a few more pics there cos from the ones weve put on, ya cant really appreciate how amazing it was!!! Still, onwards and upwards. New Zealand next and we finally meet up with Gray in a few days...no doubt were gonna have some very amusing stories to tell with the 3 of us wreaking havoc in the camper van!!! Think he flies out to San Francisco tonight (watch out for the batty boys mate, hehehe), youre gonna have a wicked time!! Thanks for sorting all me stuff out with my dad, much appreciated matey! Cant wait to wear me Liverpool champions league shirt that i hope you havent forgotten (yes i know were out of the champ league but its a special addition shirt for winning it 5 TIMES!!)!!! Jim, thanks for leaving a message at last mate, great to hear from ya dude. It was wicked chatting to ya on the web cam the other week, hopefully be able to do that again soon. Referee though, i miss FM loads...quite sad really but still!!! Say sorry to ya sis for me cos i cant be out for her doo but say happy birthday from me!!! Ok peeps im just about done here, big 12 hour drive to santiago 2moz where we can finally chill out and have a couple of lie-ins before our 14 hour flight to NZ. MARVELOUS!!

Weve never been so shatterd in my life!!!!!, but I can now say, ive climbed to the sumit of a live volcano!!, So here is the story!.

Crawled out of bed at some ridiculas hour, befor we headed into town (Pucon), to collect our full mountaineering gear! Now from the town you can see the perfectly cone shaped smoking volcano, coverd in a layer of snow. It does look huge, but not that hard to climb from ground level, so we didnt in all honestly think it would take 5 hours, as we were being tolf by our guides!

At base camp we discoverd that the chair lift to cut an hour off or climb wasnt working! b*****! so we set off up the step rockey slope clambering over rocks before we reached a height where the ground turned to snow, this was why we need so much kit (i.e, water proofs, ice picks, crampons, ice boots, crash helmet etc..)

So for a further 3 hours we zig zaged up the snow paths, in single file, along the narrows of paths being made by the person in front of you. basically you needed your ice pick in one hand, high side of the mountain, to stedy yourself, whislt you aimed to dig you feet into the snow and balence yourself for the next step. The higher you got up the further it was too fall

As you finally reached the sumit, the snow melted around the rim, and you hauled yourself up on the resently solidifyed lava trails, into the steamy, stinking sulpur, that came out of the rim. Unfortunatly due to the amount of steam, we couldnt see along way down into the creater, to see the red liquid lava. And to be honests you couldnt hang around for to long, because it was hard to breath.

So what comes up must come down, but how, well the first bit was easyish, climbing down the bolders trying not to dislodge too many rocks. But then you came to the snow. Now the mountain side was extremely steep, meaning if you started to slide down it was pretty imposible to stop, you had to have a tight grip on your pick axe. We methodically worked our way down around 100meter. Now as you know I dont speak a hell of alot of spanish, but we quickly learnt a new word ¨Rocko!¨ pretty simply really.....¨ROCK!¨ So as your clinging on to the side of the mountain, and you hear, the chilian guides blowing frantically on there whistles and screaming Rocko!, you now to look up into the mist, to look out for bolders coming crashing down the mountain at absolutly ridiculas speeds, dislodged from the unstable ground around the summit. ready to dogde out of the way!

Finally we got to a safe bit of snow, where it was posible to slide down the previously made bobslegh style tracks, at great speeds. We had to be shown how to stop ourselve when falling or sliding, basically jaming the pick axe into the ground, and not letting go of it. One of the hairest moment was hurterling down the first slide, (The cloud cover was really thick at this stage, making visiblity hard) when out of cloud was a stationary Louise and Liz, time to put the pick axe break into action! so as to avoid a human avelanche! First attemt, didnt go in!, had to get it right second time, fortunatly it worked and I came to an amediat stop, nearly pulling my shoulder out of its socket (My god its sore today!)

Other than that, it was so much fun sliding down on your backside! We got about halfway down the snow level. When it became to dangerous to slide again, plus viserbilty was very pour, and it was seriously step. Some of the girls less steady were hanging on to the few guides for dear life. It was inevitable that you would slip, you just had to be able to save yourself, by whilst falliing holding onto your axe, trying to roll onto your back and digging that axe into the snow. At one stage, I did a forward roll, bit disoriantated and fell 5 meters or so down the mountain side, before stoping myself with the axe, looking over my sholder, there was 60m drop over the cliff side. Steve thought, had a much more spectacular fall, going a good 20meters down the mountain side, unable to stop himself building up momentame, before finally digging his axe in, saving himself.

But most scary of all, was what happen to our pal pete, as with many of us, he lost his footing in the particularly akward part of the decent, unfortunatly in losing his footing he also lost his pick axe, and prodceded to tumble down the mountain headfirst unable to stop himself. Over the cliff face he went, and out of sight of the rest of us!! Sh1t!!! what have we just witnessed! is he dead! Theres nothing we can do about it! were holding on to the mountain side for dear life ourselves!

Fortunatly, to put your minds at rest, he only fell a couple more feet before, coming to rest on some rocks, sufuring a few bruises and being a bit shaken up!

After that, we only needed to negotian a few more bobslegh slides, frozen backsides etc.. before getting to the rocks and gravel at a lower level, a much easier decent.

Phew! that was a bit wordey!, an sbsolutly suuperb day though, fun had by all!!

And to top it off, we spent that everning in a thermally heated, volcanic pool, with a few tinnys to sooth away thoose aces and pains!

A lazy day today though, recovering and writting mass emails!, next stop Santiago, when our tour of south america finishes in 2 days time

Iam leaving on a jet plane!!!!! Well good bye everyone iam of to the land of elastic waistbands and sun visors! then of to meet steve and rob next wednesday, will keep everyone posted of my progress and to let you no if i have started shouting alot and calling everyone dude! byeeeeeeee!

Ello staj, hope ur all good matey? It's only been a few months hope u weren't getting worried that i may never post a message?! hehe. I'm going 2 pick mate up from norwich next week and he's down 4 a few days of hardcore FM and then my sisters bday which she's most upset u won't be coming 2 this year. Not much 2 report from keats matey, ive been working long hours 2 get some £s. Our old school friends find it very very strange that we are so far apart steve i think they thought we would end up getting married u know! Neway mate i'm not gonna go on so i'll hopefully speak 2 u on the webcam again v soon. Laterz Jim

I hate packing i hate packing i hate packing and i hate to pack!!!! AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH its never all going to fit in. cheers for messaging lil john will keep you informed see you in a few months good luck with hove girl!!