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  Auckland, New Zealand
Monday, February 4, 2008

After leaving Puerto Iguazu and having a respite stop and de ja vu in Rosario (because of the turd landmines on every inch of footpath - it brought back memories of B.A!), we quickly passed through Mendoza finding that apart from the great street theatre, there was nothing in Mendoza to write home about.  So we booked our coach to Santiago in Chile and all was going well til we hit the border crossing on that Saturday afternoon.

We sat around for 3 hours while nothing happened and then finally we were ushered off our coach to go though immigrations and customs. 

Harmeet (who we all know is easily pleased) got very excited when the customs police officer called out our seat numbers.  For some bizarre reason her sausage brain thought we had won a prize

At the border crossing

.  She was still grinning from ear to ear like a hyena until they took us out the back and up some stairs...

It seemed that our prize was interrogation for the drugs they had found under our chair... 

At this point Harmeet thought that the louder she said 'No, no no, Senor!'  would somehow exonerate her from any narcotic substances and she immeadiately broke out into a guilty sweat and a mild panic! When the customs officer took out our rather colourful pack of playing cards covered in illustrations of bongs and spliffs that we had aquired years ago in Amsterdam, we groaned and made a mental note to self to give them away before the next border crossing.

After going through our bags with a fine tooth comb for 30 minutes, even sniffing Harmeet's moisturiser and checking our money belts, they finally let us go.  Then Harmeet ever one to encapsulate a moment with her savvy tongue said 'ciao ciao, Vive la Argentina!' 

''Noooooo!!''  they replied with some spanish expletives - it turned out we were now in Chile!! Ooops!!  Thankfully they didn't mind this blinding faux pas too much and we got back on the bus, to find out they had also questioned an American guy with his Brazilian wife.  He could speak Spanish really well and it turned out that they hadn't found any drugs at all, but that the sniffer dogs had gone beserk around our seats.  We were relieved.  We didn't think they would have let us back on the bus had they found any drugs, of any sort, so as the bus finally continued forth to Santiago, we said a few thanks to the man upstairs..

No gringo in sight here...

.

As we boarded the plane the day after, having succombed to one final curry in Santiago, (mmm!) we sat back in cattle class and reminisced about the comfy 20hr bus journeys we were so fond of.  Yes, our bus trips around South America were way kinda on the knees and our backsides then any plane journey we had ever taken.  The TV screens on the jumbo were a small consolation and made up for the fact that we would've found more comfort in a skoda, but we were too exhausted to take full advantage and fell asleep (without the aid of sleeping pills for once!).

South America had been an incredible start to our trip and we were kinda reluctant to leave.  We had got used to speaking bad spanish and crossing borders and amidst all the unfamiliarity we had got to enjoy the latin american vibe.  The South Americans are sooooo laid back.  Everything is 'manyana, manyana' (thats tomorrow, tomorrow for you gringos) which suited our lazy style of travelling.  We were gonna miss it but we had to move on...

Now for all you peeps planning a trip to SA here's a bit of indispensible travel advice.  

1. Always carry a Swiss Army Knife at all times for those extreme survival scenarios, like slicing open your stale rock hard bun and cutting your 2 day old rubbery cheese.

2. A cheap poncho is a must as the term 'horizontal rain' was coined for SA.  Wherever you are, in whatever season you hit, the rain will get you

Whoopee woo!!

.  (Fear not you sun bunnies as it lasts the best part of 20mins and then the sun comes out).

3.  Always take your sleeping bag on board any overnight buses otherwise you'll get hyperthermia from the air conditioning (they dont always give you blankets).

4.  Buy a travel pillow to stop your head lolling around from side to side and breaking those precious Z's.  Plus if you're travelling alone you're less likely to wake up dribbling on some poor strangers shoulder.

5.  A head light is a great investment for all situations. Reading in your bunk without annoying other peeps and especially handy for those pitch black loos where you just cant balance a torch on your head.

There are countless other pearls of wisdom we could pass on - but then that would make it far too easy and that goes against the spirit of backpacking!

So finally 13hrs later we arrived at the ungodly hour of 3am in Auckland, New Zealand, to find that the lovely Chris & Jane were ready to pick us up

From hellholes to the Hilton (Ta Chris & Jane!!)

.  The kindness of strangers really does exist and it helps when you have a big sis and bro-in-law with ace mates around the globe (thanks Pip!!).

Chris and Jane promptly gave us all the love, indulgence and luxuries that all backpackers believe is an urban myth while travelling; hot showers with water coming out as a spray and not a scalding trickle or even a freezing cold solid block of water that has the power to give you concussion - showers without having to wear flips flops - a warm comfy bed with clean linen, muffins on tap and fabulous company from Chris, Jane and Joan and their 3 fluffy llamas and the 2 lovely cats. 

We were so shocked at their incredible hospitality that we suggested we sleep in their garage as thats what we'd got used to - real basic digs.  But they wouldn't let us sleep in there cos the Harleys took up all the room!  So we spent 3 days recuperating in their company, Stan observing the finer details of their superb view of Auckland  from the hot tub!

They were incredible hosts taking us to the lovely Mission Bay for some beach time, up to Mount Eden for free panoramic views of Auckland unlike the admission price for the Sky Tower which involves selling a kidney

Alpaccas at dawn

.  Next to Bastion Pt were the 1st Labour Prime Minister of NZ is commemorated, then a fabulous barbie with their friends and Chris even took us out for a ride on those incredible Harleys with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers playing in the background while the wind rushed through our hair! (No wind actually thats a lie - we were wearing helmets, but you know what we mean!)

3 days later we left - bewildered at being back in the world of the backpacker after feeling like we were at home.  We were rundown and completely burnt out from SA - our immune systems had taken a severe battering and were about as useful as a pair of rubber chickens.  It was self inflicted of course - thats what you get travelling around 4 big ole countries in 3 months, so we avoided the backpacker circuit and booked into a cheap hotel to hibernate and get well. 

2 days later after guzzling a tanker full of OJ and complete with a spanking set of wheels (a hired station wagon that would be our home for the next 6 weeks, but more about that another time), we left Auckland and headed for the Northland...

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On top of mount eden	Easy rider	harmeet falls in love again	stan tries a new look
S's topographical survey of auckland in a hot tub

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