Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

Marc writes>

Ok this was the NZ we (or at least I) had been looking for. The drab, dead and of course rainy landscape gave way to hills then the craggy mountains of the Alps appeared before us. Beautiful!! As you approach Mt. Cook (Aoraki) you get a beautiful view of the Alpine range over the lake Pukaki. These glacial lakes have amazing colours due to minerals trapped in the water giving them an almost opaque blue or green appearance.

After a coffee in the only café in mount cook 'town' we decided take trek along one of the valley trails named hooker valley interestingly enough! Suprisingly there were no ladies of the night plying their trade along the way but there was nevertheless some fantastic views and after about 1hr30mins you arrive at what I can only assume was the 'hooker' glacier with little mini iceburgs breaking off and floating down through the river towards the lake. Another 1hr 30min walk back was rewarded back in Mount Cook 'town' with a few beers next to an open log fire being annoyed by the know it all but clearly doesn't have a clue Brasilien barman. After we had told him about our forthcoming South America trip he told us that it is MADNESS to travel from Buenos Aires to Rio by bus...it takes 30 days! Telling him that we heard that it is a 2day journey did not convince him: it takes 30 days!!!

Whatever! hope not all brazilians are like him!

One more cold night in the car later and we were up and on the road heading back to the east coast and the Scottish settlement of Dunedin.