Hey,
I left NZ and flew off to Santiago. Met a girl called Natasha at the airport so we got seats next to each other ont he plane so we got have a few drinks! Since then we stayed in Santiago for the night and the bus the following day to Mendoza over the mountains and at an altitude of over 4000m! Fantastic views!
Argentina is fantastic. The people are warm and friendly and the mountains cenery is amazing. Spent the last couple days horsetrekking in the Andes - what an experience - and off to Maipu to cycle around the vineyards tomorrow (and obviously a bit of tasting!) and then heading south to La Payunia, while Natasha heads back to Santiago for a flight to Buenes Aires.
After that it´s back off into the Andes to do some trekking and stay in the mountain lodge where we spent last night. Can´t wait!
Will put photos up soon but battery has gone while i uploaded them onot facebook!

Good bye Sydney, hello Auckland!

After 3 amazing weeks in Sydney i've finally left my 'new hometown' for Auckland.
Haven't seen any of Auckland so far though as i fly in late last night and i haven't left the hostel yet!!!
Is strange being back in hostels but way better than i'd thought it was going to be.
In a nice one here with nice people and just using my time in Auckland to plan my adventures in Argentina. Only 3/4 days until i arrive!!!!
The most exciting fo the plans are skydiving and paraglising in Cordoba. can't wait for that!!

Syndey Syndey Sydney still....

Manly with Starski (Ivo) and the opera house!

Sydney!!!

Well a lot has happened since i was on here last (should be on here more often now that stuff is happening!).
Anyway, i'm going solo (well, staying at ivo's) in sydney now and have been here since tuesday.
I can't ever imagine going back to mount isa now i've returned to civilization and the conversations aren't based around how best to kill a pig and the nightlife actually involves people below 40!
Sorry about the lack of photos (will put some up soon hopefully) but since being here i've explored the major sightrs of sydney (opera house, harbour bridge etc) as well as more interesting visits out with Ivo to Manly Island, where we exlored syndey city national park and had great night time views of the syndey.
Crazily enough i missed most of mardi gras but i went out to a bar the first night i got here and have chilled out on the evenings since. will be going out this weekend when aimee gets here with her family!
On Monday 16th I'm due to move on to NZ too which should be interesting and then it's not long until south america! can't wait untile that!
Enjoying my time here for now though!
WIll try to post soon.
hope everyone back in england or wherever is good!
Matt

Hey everyone,
sorry we havent done a post in an eternity. I must admit there hasn't been all that much to be blogging about here apart from the incessent rain. I found out today from the greyhound office that unless there is a period of dry weather (it's forecast to continue raining like it has been until mid february) then the road we need to townsville will remain impassable as it has been for over a week) so we need to find an alternative - either fly out or head sraight down to Brisbane (the likeliest one).
Since Christmas we've managed to find a couple of jobs which has been great. We've been working down at 'The Rish' (The Irsh Club) on Friday and Saturday nights (10pm-4am) which has been good. Australians like they're drink though and seem to trun into a pack of wild anaimals once they've had a few so it can get pretty 'interesting' down there sometimes. Having someone threaten to come over the bar and ''smack your face in'' isn't all that uncommon. That said, they're yet to actually try it yet...!
We've also been working at the Overlander (a bar up the road) in the week as well so we've been doing around 40 plus hours a week recently so the money should be rolling in!
My birthday was good to. Went out for a few drinks with Emily, a candaian guy called steve and a couple of local girls who happened to be drinking up at the Overlander in the daytime! Not an average birthday but a surpisingly good one!
Apart from that there isnt much else to say so we shall try to post again soon when there's a bit more news!
Bye for now!

Christmas Lunch!

Merry Christmas from Isa

Merry Christmas from Mt Isa everyone!

Melaka

We're in the historic town of Melaka at the moment, which is famous for being a town ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch and most recently British as it was a key trading port on the Straits of Melaka, where the trade in spices was a huge earner for the colonizing powers.

There's loads of old architecture here and a lot of museums. Yesterday we went around the Museum of Independence and, more interestingly, a museum which explored the ways in which different cultures have an obssession with beauty which causes them to endure pain in pursuit of it. As well as this there are loads of interesting antique shops selling the most random things, including rusty old hinges amongst other things.

Last night we also ate at Capitol Satay, which always has a HUGE queue outside. It was definately worth the wait though as we chose a huge tray of loads of different meat, tofu, vegetables, seafood and bread, as well as two MASSIVE king prawns. In the middle of the table was a massive vat of bubbling Satay, which was continually topped up with more peanuts and ground chillies, and we cooked our skewered food in it.

And best of all...it only cost the equivalent of 2 pounds each! Bargain!

Today we're going to explore an old Baba Nonya (the name given to the chinese who settled here) house and tomorrow we head down to singapore, where we spend one night before flying to Darwin and it'll be goodbye to South East Asia!!!!

Japanese tourists.....

Is it Matt and Emily?.....or is it two (of the hundreds of) Japanese tourists????

Photos

In need of a haircut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone, thought we should take this time to upload some pictures while we have time spare to wait for the bus back up to Manilla!