My super skydive - by Frankie

At the bottom, after the photos is the link of my skydive......

We were at a little cabin in Taupo and had just made the best paper plane in the world called the harrier jet and the bulldog dart and they went 20 yards, then the limo came and we jumped in the limo it was very spacious.

We arrived at Skydive Taupo and I met my tandem partner who was call Hans. Then I chose my songs for the handycam video for my skydive. Next we got my gear on and then I stood on the table and Hans interviewed me. I was feeling a bit nervous but anyway we carried on heading towards the plane.  I climbed on with my hands and feet and I waved goodbye in the plane to Mummy, Daddy and Louis and off we went, up, up and away.  After a while, Hans said "We're at 3,000 feet" and we still had 9,000 to go, it felt very high already!

After we reached 12,000 feet, people started shuffling towards the edge of the open door at the back of the plane. When I saw the last person go out he was plummeting down super fast and I felt nervous then. But then I felt myself in the windy air by the door and suddenly I was plummeting too!

We were falling for a while and it felt weird.  When I say plummeting, we were going 200kph and that really is plummetting! Then the parachute opened up and we could see Actionworld below.  My ears were a bit achey for a while. When we were gliding down Hans let me take over the parachute and I did a very very sharp turn, and then he asked me to take my feet up in the air and he landed on his feet.  We got to the bottom and I had a hug and a high five with Hans. 

Then we all had a family hug, and we had all done skydiving.  We watched the video in the cinema room, and I had bobbly cheeks when I was falling but not as bobbly as Louis did!

We went back in the limo and had lunch with Richard.  we made a friend with a guy called Richard when I was skydiving because he skydived too.  Then we went back home and play with our paper airplanes again.

I felt very proud of myself and I hope the rest of my family do to

Waitomo Caves - Our underground adventure - by Louis

A night with the stars

We spent an evening at the Mount John Observatory in Tekapo, South Island. The boys were partly motivated by a chance to see more stars than ever before, partly by the guarantee of a late bedtime and partly by the hot chocolate and brownie they lay on for you. 

Checking out the sunset properly......

We donned the warm jackets provided, which we were later thankful for, Frankie's almost touching the floor.  The bus took us up the mountainside as the driver explained the unique 'dark' environment that the observatory enjoys, being far away from any towns and cities. The small town of Tekapo itself benefits from cleverly constructed lighting that produces virtually no upwardly-directed light pollution.  

Jake, our guide, showed us Australasia's largest telescope, with a 1.8 metre mirror so powerful that it can capture light images a million times fainter than the human eye. On the mountain itself, no white light is allowed after 4pm  - the telescope's sensitivity to light is exemplified by the fact that it can pick up residual light from a fluorescent tube for up to four hours after its been turned off!

Australasia's largest - and most expensive - telescope, with a 1.8m mirror.

The guide amazed us with some facts, which the boys played back to us afterwards "Wow, Daddy, there are 400 billion stars in our galaxy, and twice as many planets!  Plus there are millions of galaxies too!" Like us, they were drawn by the Southern Cross, and the two stars nearby to the left, Alpha and Beta Centauri that help you distinguish the Southern Cross from other would-be crosses. 

Probably something that every schoolchild in the Southern Hemisphere
already knows, but we thought it was clever!.

We learned a useful way of finding your bearings if you are lost at night (providing you are in the Southern Hemisphere, and it's not cloudy, of course!)  You imagine a line from the top to bottom of the Southern cross and then extrapolate this across the sky. Where this is bisected by a perpendicular line rising from the centre of a line connecting Alpha and Beta Centauri, you have found the Southern Celestial Pole.  A plumbline down to the horizon from that point will be South.  Alternatively just don't go out hiking alone at night down here without a compass.

This looks very much like we are standing up in front of a giant TV screen,
but it's truly a real photo with a slow exposure, honest!!!

We looked through some telescopes at the night sky and saw Jupiter's moons, Orion's Belt, found out about dark nebula - starless patches that look even darker than the rest of the night sky due to dust that blocks out the light we would otherwise see - and even enjoyed a flypast from the International Space Station. It was a valuable introduction to astronomy for the boys, and one that has got us looking to the skies more purposefully now than in the past.   

Our Perfect Day cruise - by Louis

One day, while we were in Whangerai on the North Island of New Zealand, we hopped in our Toyota Corolla and zoomed off to our destination Perfect Day Ocean Cruises. When we arrived at our one hull perfect boat from Perfect Day, the minute we stepped into the boat, we were greeted with a great big: “Hi mate, welcome aboard Perfect Day, take your seats and we should be getting going in ten minutes.”  He then said: “Go over there and try your flippers on: make sure they are the right size (wink).” “Wow!” I said “That is a good greeting.” We took our seats and sure enough we were off and away in ten minutes. 

When we were half way there the skipper started to tell us about the Poor Knights Islands. When we arrived, the first thing we did was to go snorkeling and we saw a big shoal of green fish. We were pretty cold when we returned to the boat but nevertheless it was fun and we enjoyed it. After that we had a brilliant buffet, I had honey and chicken sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and beetroot. It was Yum yum yum.  

My lovely lunch!

Then we went sea kayaking all the way past the cave that should not be named (but they named it the "Washing Machine": because as soon as you went in it you got spun around and shot back out the side you came in.) 

A new galaxy........?

This is the life!

We got to another cave called Rikoriko in our awesome kayak which, in fact, is the biggest sea cave in the world.  We were at the entrance and I was a little uncertain about whether I should go in or not.  We could see this big, black hole right in front of us, which looked a little freaky. The water was so clear and blue. Daddy said, "Let’s just go to this rock inside the edge." When we got there, he said "Let’s just go to that rock further in," and then we decided to go a little further still and then even further.  After that we decided to carry on paddling and went on until we touched the back of the cave.  The cave was about 10 metres high from the water to the ceiling, and about the same again beneath the surface. From the entrance of the cave it was about 50 metres to the back. There were some amazing colours like navy blue, black, red, orange and purple striped across the rocks at the back, as if someone had painted them there. The sound of the water dripping from the ceiling echoed around until it found its way back towards the cave entrance, it was really eerie. 

It's really annoying when people put graffiti in such strange places....

Gladiators!

We went back to the boat and had a paddleboard. We tried to knock one another off; it was fun but hard. We paddled back to the boat again and returned to Rikoriko cave in the Perfect Day boat, and managed to get all the way to the back of the cave again.  While we were there, the skipper said "3, 2, 1!" and we didn't know what he was going to do next. Then we suddenly heard the huge blast from the ship's horn, it was deafening, and the echo was like someone repeating the blast right in front of you, getting quieter and quieter each time. I wondered that if noise could shatter glass whether it could shatter rock too!

The light at the end of the tunnel....

After that we had a tour around the islands and sped back to the mainland of New Zealand, it was really wavy and water kept coming in over the front of the boat.

It was a perfect day and I think "Perfect Day" is a good name for the cruise.

Saying Adios to South America

Being on the move quite a bit, you get accustomed to looking forward and not back. But as we pass into New Zealand, and with it, the half way mark of our trip, we found ourselves reflecting fondly on our 6 months in South America and what a rewarding and exciting journey together it has been so far. 

From the absorbing Atlantic Rainforest trails of REGUA, north of Rio, with the lovely people we shared time with - the owners, volunteers and delightful children at the Guiapaçu school - to the amazing, memorable, close-up wildlife experiences of the Pantanal, that we enjoyed on horseback, on foot, by boat and by truck.

Getting to know the sunny South American coastline from Rio in Brazil down through Uruguay to Buenos Aires in Argentina, and the fun we spent at Ilha do Mel, Ubatuba, and the uniquely tranquil, querky and beautiful Cabo Polonio, where we celebrated Louis‘  9th birthday and the boys surfed and sand-boarded for the first time.

Learning about life in the Galapagos, the differences across the various islands and enjoying the unforgettable encounters with wild and playful sea-lions there, (and the not-so-playful huge grumpy one), and paragliding over Lima on the way back.

Enjoying our introduction to Argentina with Spanish lessons in Buenos Aires and the freedom of horse-riding across the wide open plains a few hours south with the impressive and engaging Gauchos at the Estancia La Margarita.

Relaxing and sometimes being restless on the long, very long bus trips across Argentina, and all the amazing wildlife experiences that these journeys afforded us, with penguins, Southern Right Whales, Orcas and other dolphins; with baby fur seals as well as huge elephant seals, not to mention hairy tarantulas and our time with dinosaurs (though the latter is not strictly “wildlife!”)

And in the south of Argentina, where the boys learned all about glaciers, (both advancing and retreating!) whilst finding their trekking feet on the lovely, natural trails of El Chalten against the breathtaking beauty of Patagonia there.

Thinking of home a little, whilst celebrating Christmas in Bariloche with our good friend Jarrod, who came all the way from the UK to see us, ahead of our drive along the best and worst of the famed Ruta 40.

Climbing volcanos in Chile, and the fun and games with borders in between, as well as getting up close to lofty Aconcagua.   

Finishing with one of our favourite places, at San Rafael, in Argentina, so good, we went there twice, with my fathers 80th birthday celebration, to enjoy the tranquility of the place, and the warmth and hospitality of our hosts Mike and Vicki, the volunteers and other guests (and of course the dogs!)

And across all these places, we’ve been struck by the kindness and friendliness of far too many people to name, their patient and welcoming nature, especially with the boys, their interest in our own adventure and openness to share about themselves.  It's helped make the experiences we've shared as a family together, which, after all, was the prime motivation for this trip, that much more memorable. 

So it's not hard to see whey we’ll be wanting to come back to South America someday.  Perhaps the World Cup or the Olympics might afford an opportunity!

My first SKYDIVE! - by Louis

I have done my first Skydive!  I've written all about it below and here is my movie too!

A precarious mountain drive

We had a drive up the precarious road leading to the Cristo Redentor when we were staying in Penitentes, in the shadow of Aconcagua. 

The start point for this 9km drive, during which you ascend 1km, is not far from the Argentinian border, at a small village called Las Cuevas.  It is famous for being the first village you come to over when you arrive from the Los Libertadores border crossing (one of about 15) from Chile to Argentina and infamous for a massive landslide that wiped out much of the original village there several decades ago.  

From the village you progress quite steeply up a small, unmade and unprotected road (preferably in a 4 x 4) to the summit where there is a beautiful statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer), not to be confused with the statue of the same name that watches over Rio de Janeiro. The statue, made of bronze, was built in 1904, to celebrate the successful resolution of a border dispute between Chile and Argentina, and indeed sits astride the border between those two countries. 

"High mountain road - take extreme care"

Let's hope no-one comes around the corner....

Well, we didn’t have a 4 x 4 but our little Chevvy had already coped with some serious off-road challenges on Ruta 40 so we figured we’d give it a go. The road had about 16 switch backs - apparently the old road only had 3, so we could barely imagine how steep they must have been!  

At the top, the wind was unbelievable, you didn’t go anywhere near the edge, because you felt that you might get lifted up at any moment.  We were staying very close to the boys!

Fighting the wind - well you don't think
our hair ALWAYS looks like that do you?

The roads in places were extremely narrow, and driving on the right, at least you hugged the “safe” side on the way up.  When you were descending though, you definitely didn’t feel like getting too close to the edge in case the road fell away beneath you - it didn’t look reinforced in any way - and let’s just say the drops didn’t look very forgiving if you DID go over! 

Thankfully, we managed to stay on course. 

Trekking on the Transandine railway

Balancing isn't that easy

We decided to do a day’s trekking while we were up in the Andes, close to the border between Argentina and Chile. The previous day I’d been speaking to Maurice, who works in the expedition shop next door.  He advised that a trek along the Transandine railway would be really interesting, and the boys would love it.  

He introduced me to his colleague Andre, a man of 80 who is a legend in these parts.  He has worked here in Penitentes for 35 years, guiding expeditions up Aconcagua, and is an avid historian.  Apparently he lives in a modest house with just two rooms, one of which is wall to wall with books!  So with Andre’s help we were able to learn some fascinating background about the railway, which I shared with the boys as we walked along the railway the following day. 

It was ironic that we were starting at over 2,500 metres in Puente del Inca, not far short of the height we’d reached after climbing Volcan Lonquimay a week before! Across the valley, we’d seen Aconcagua in the distance, and we wondered how our friends Amy and Sarah, with whom we’d talked over dinner the previous evening, were getting on as they embarked on their Aconcagua expedition. (We later found they’d got there - very well done both!!)

But the boys got the hang of it
more easily than the adults

The Transandine railway runs for about 230 km from Mendoza on the Argentinian side, to Santa Rosa de Los Andes, and rises from an altitude of about 800 metres at each end to 3,200m, the height of the tunnel at the border.  It provided the vital final link for a 36 hour railway journey between Buenos Aires on the Atlantic, and Valparaiso, Chile, on the Pacific, considerably quicker than the 11 day alternative by boat via Cape Horn.  It was designed by the Chilian Clark brothers - it took over 10 years to design. The Clark brothers ran out of money in the building stage and handed the project over to the British to complete - we even saw the "Wolverhampton Corrugate Iron Co" imprinted on the panels -  and it opened in 1910 after a 30 year overall design and build effort. The locals had hastily constructed a road in the meantime, along a more direct track, impatient at how long the railway was taking. But the road was ill-conceived and poorly made, and in time was abandoned and rebuilt, following the railway thus endorsing the painstaking thought and design that had gone into the route that the railway navigated through this challenging high-altitude pass. 

When the railway was first built, and prior to the Cumbre tunnel being opened, travel companies would sell a 3 day trip from Mendoza to Chile, one day on the railway to Los Cuevas, 1 day on a mule across the very highest part of the crossing, and then one day on a train the other side.  The railway transported people until 1979, at which point the government apparently sold off all the passenger trains. It was used for cargo for a further 5 years. After this the only traffic it saw was a few years ago when descendants of the Clark family undertook a three week expedition to take a small tram, at great expense, across the original route.

So there was a sense of history as we progressed that day, enjoying some wonderful sights along these century-old tracks, and admiring the different types of tunnels and bridges against a backdrop of spectacular mountain views. 

A fine old bridge

.....although walking across it, with all the holes
and gaps, was a different matter

Some spooky tunnels

....and we pretended a landslide was happening

One family had parked an old bus here and
lived in it many years ago.

Not a bad view to wake up to in the morning

As we walked along one tunnel, in almost darkness, save for a few shafts of light creeping in where the corrugated iron walls had occasionally come apart, we saw a large bird flying just ahead, settling at the highest point in the centre.  As we continued our approach, it again flew away and landed 30 metres or so further on.  This repeated until we approached the end of the tunnel.  Then suddenly this huge white owl, who had nowhere else to go, swooped back right over us, retreating to the comforting darkness behind us.  This was the best we could do by way of a photo!

Not a National Geographic standard of photograph,
but it came out of nowhere!

We stopped for a picnic lunch, enjoying views of a little ranch and horses running freely at the foot of the mountains.  

After a while, a gaucho rode past, we'd been watching him round up horses. He pointed to his horse and asked us if the boys wanted a ride.  His name was Camillo Sergio Borque, he had the craggy, deeply-tanned look of a seasoned gaucho. The boys were in no doubt.  Louis shared his horse first of all and then Frankie rode the rest of the way back to Puente del Inca. It rounded off our day perfectly. 

Border trouble - leaving Chile

We decided to go north from Malacahuelo in Chile through Santiago and cross the border to Argentina, about 900km in total, mostly motorway. We’d read about road works on the Los Libertadores border crossing, meaning that it was open for traffic going from Chile to Argentina from 8pm to 8am and then closed after that for the traffic coming the other way!  So we reasoned a mid to late evening arrival would allow for any earlier queues to subside. 

The boys swam and mucked about with water balloons with Diego and Davie, two Chilien boys staying at our cabin park with the owners family.  They said their goodbyes (again - this was our second visit) and we left at 2pm.   This was a little later than we had planned so Phil was on a mission to make up the time and I spent much of the ride with white knuckles.  The boys had taken a travel tablet each which led to them falling asleep for the first nearly 4 hours of the journey!  They were sleeping when we drove over some very large parts of a blown tyre scattered across both lanes of Ruta 5 which was pretty scary.  A lorry was slowing down on the side of the road just ahead so I think it had just happened - fortunately no damage done.

We got past Santiago and stopped at McDonalds around 9pm - not very fast food meant we didn’t leave there until around 9.30pm, and it was now dark.  Only a few minutes on and we were back in the fast lane. Phil noticed that the lorry in front had curiously swerved back into the slower lane after starting to overtake a slower lorry. Moments later we saw an angry looking man walking towards us in the fast lane.  Phil swerved to avoid him, luckily nothing was on the inside lane and as we passed this man, he seemed to throw something at us.  We were in shock and checking the rear view mirror, Phil saw a number of other cars managed to avoid him too but we wondered for how long.  He must have been on some kind of drunken or drug-induced death wish, it was unbelievable.   We had no phone but hopefully someone would call the police very soon.

Minutes later a double lorry pulled out in front of us to join the highway from a side road and again swerve tactics and urgent braking were adopted.  The lorries on our journey towards the border mostly drove as if they were working to a very urgent deadline, they had no problem overtaking us and other cars on blind bends and drove incredibly fast as if they were behind the wheel of a racing car rather than a 30 ton truck!  They have a very poor reputation here and sadly we’d heard that only the month before a lorry trying to overtake in a tunnel in this area had crashed into a coach, causing 10 fatalities.  

The journey up to the border from Los Andes was sadly done in the dark (which we had said we didn’t want to do as the roads were somewhat perilous - also we wanted to enjoy the views).  So we couldn’t really get too much of a sense of the height we were driving at.  Occasionally I got a glimpse in the moonlight, the scale of the mountains was incredible - the Andes at this point are very high, Aconcagua towering above you not far away at nearly 7,000 metres.

The Chilean side of this border crossing is famous for its 27 odd switchbacks and even though it was dark, it was lit up in places with lamps.  When you looked down you could see it snaking into the distance.  We kept thinking any minute we would hit the queue but it was still moving at this point.  We got a piece of paper from a soldier in a cabin which was stamped and were naively hoping that maybe that was it!!  How wrong could we have been, about 10 minutes later we hit the queue from hell, it was approaching midnight at this point.  It moved at a snail’s pace and even when we moved just one car forward, thinking there is no point starting the engine just for that, an officious guard would tap on our window and tell us to move up!  

Phil was knackered at this point and desperately wanted to sleep so he nodded off and I told him whenever the cars moved forward, perhaps at five or ten minute intervals.  Louis was awake too (Frankie slept through most of it)  By the time we got to the actual border control it was about 5am and we were all awake!  They checked passports and then we had a bit of trouble starting the car again as we had worn the battery down with all the stopping and starting. Finally a lady in the very last booth asked us to open the boot.  We had to switch off the engine again as we needed to use the key for the boot.  We were very worried that the car wouldn’t start and only after quite considerable encouragement did it burst into life!!  

So we had made it over the border and we carried on our way at around 5.30.  It was only a few kilometres to get to Hotel Ayelen at Los Penitentes, but we thought we’d save a night’s accommodation cost as it was already morning!  We dozed in the car for a while (the kids didn’t) and eventually after admiring sunrise over Aconcagua, we walked into the hotel at about 6.30, it was such a relief.  Steve, the owner, proved to be a real star, brought us a coffee and hot chocolate and then at 8am we had the best breakfast of cereals, scrambled egg and bacon and toast, cake....... definitely one of the top 5 breakfasts this trip!

Border trouble - leaving Argentina

Whilst we’ve been on quite a few bus trips over the last 6 months, we’ve never managed to command the front row upstairs seats, and the panoramic, widescreen views that these much sought-after seats afford. You have to book well in advance and the nature of our journey has been much more day to day.  

Nevertheless, our precise leaving date from Santiago has been fixed from the start, so this gave us an opportunity to book ahead front row cama seats (wide, reclining and very comfy) on arguably one of the best routes of all - crossing the Andes at Los Libertadores, from Mendoza to Santiago.  This would give us a good view of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas, along the way, and arguably an even better view than the driver over the 27 tight switchbacks as we pass over the border into Chile. 

So it was with some excitement that we turned up on time at the bus terminal in Mendoza on the 8th Feb, only to be told that the bus had been cancelled, and in fact all buses had been cancelled - for three days - as a result of heavy rain, snowfalls and serious landslides on the Argentinian side of the border! Suddenly, our extra day of contingency that we’d allowed ourselves in Santiago ahead of the New Zealand flight, “just in case the bus got a little held up” seemed somewhat inadequate.

We left the melée of the bus terminal and headed over to a cafe with wifi and started looking at options.  Car hire? We’d literally returned our car from a 5 week rental just 30 minutes before. Flights? It’s an expensive route at the best of times, but with the border closed, would be exorbitant.  Extend our stay? There would be costs to changing flights, not to mention whether there would be availability.  

We were very fortunate that our friend Erick, who owns Mendoza Car Rental, came down to the cafe and spent a couple of hours with us going through a series of different options.  In the end he very kindly got the ball rolling on some flights from Mendoza to Santiago through his agent at less cost than we could have done ourselves, and we decided to bite the bullet and fly the following morning, enabling us to catch the New Zealand flights already booked. Changing those would have meant at least a weeks delay, and we’d end up spending as much as the flights to santiago anyway, on food, accommodation and car hire.

The sort of view we were hoping to get a lot more of on the bus......

Trying to get our money back on the bus tickets was an interesting challenge.  The first place I tried, there was a queue of angry looking customers snaking out of the Andesmar office, staffed by just one employee - a very harrassed looking lady, who also happened to be trying to manage two phone calls at the same time.  When I finally got to the front of the queue, the answer was the same - “No hay plata” which felt like it ought to mean “Computer says 'No' ”, but in fact means "There is no money".  There had been so many request for refunds that they had (apparently) run out!  It was the same story at 4 other Andesmar offices in Mendoza. 

So not only had we missed the visual treat of the Andes crossing that we’d hoped for, we’d been hit with the extra flight costs, we couldn’t get our bus money back, and, to add insult to injury, we’re still battling with Booking.com for a refund of the accommodation in Santiago we had booked because we would be couldn’t get there! Not one of our better days.