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Ian, his travelling buddy, Becky and I walked up to the Glacier that shadows Ushuaia this morning in the time before I boat sets sail. There are some great views from near the top and a coffee shop near the bottom that serves the biggest cake I´ve ever had. Close your eyes and picture this... Solid chocolate bottom, thin layer of caramel, moist chocolate sponge, thick chocolate gooey butter-icing type stuff, more sponge, more goo, more sponge and topped off with brittle chocolate icing.
The slice was huge and I managed about a third of it before feeling quite stuffed. The remainder now sits besides me waiting for my stomach to forgive the chocolate overdose and start again

In just three hours we set sail for the white continent. Last night we stayed in a hotel and shared a room with the same people that will be in our cabin on the boat. I´m sharing with a Ian from Nottingham and about 28ish (I will amend when I know his age) and a Japanise guy who´s name, even when repeted three times, I could not say!
Both are really nice guys. There was someone who is onboard, but not yet identified to me, who was in the next room in the hotel. He talked and talked and talked until 1:30am and I could hear every bloody word through the paper-thin walls. Then at 6am he gets a phone call and then continues chatting to his roomies after he puts the phone down.
So you can imagine how socialable I am after five hours sleep!

Although I have only been here for a few days I have not once come across anything that would constitute a hostile attitude towards the British because of the Falklands war. In fact, the people I have meet have shown nothing but the utmost hospitality and friendliness and I have been made to feel welcome everywhere I have been.
It will be very interesting to see if this is different in more rual areas off of the tourist trail.
I am hoping that when I stay with the Argentinian family, it may come up in conversation one day (I will not bring it up, but hopefully they might) so I can find out what they think.
Another topic I would love to discuss with an Argie is Eva Peron. I have watched an Argentinian made film of her life, and as expected, it was quite different to the Andrew lloyd Webber version!

Today I have walked, walked and walked some more!
17km in total on and around the coast of the Beagle Channel in the The National Park of Tierra del Fuego. The coastal walk is meant to be one of the top ten in Argentina, and it was very good. I started walking at 10am and I knew the bus back to Ushuaia was dur at 5pm
With half an hour to go and all the signs pointing to the end of the path saying it was a 30 minute walk, I though I would get a wiggle-on to make sure I wasn´t left behind.
Trouble was, half way along the last section I stumbled across a beaver dam and there, swimming about was a beaver. A day time sighting is quite unusual as they are creatures of the night. I watched for a short while but frightend him off trying to get the canera back out of the bag (bloody velcro). I sat for ten minutes to see if I could see beaver again, but no, twas not to be.
This made me late for the bus, but as I stumbled out of the bushes, it sailed right past.
Luckily the driver was the same guy that had dropped us off and 15 minutes late! He must have noticed me because I heard the bus break on the gravel road and then reverse at speeds scotty would be proud of. The reverse speed was an indication of the forward speed, we hit 95km on GRAVEL roads, going around corners that two cars could pass if the drivers breathed in.
I am waiting now for Alba´s lovely dinner, she cooks each night, and I think, if my hinting has paid off, we have sea-food on the menu.
Please Note: To all those with gutter-minds, the beavers of which I write are the aquatic kind

I have arrived in Ushuaia and landed yesterday to the most beautiful sunset I´ve seen in a long time. The airport straddles the Beagle Channel which is lined with snow capped mountains and tundra-like plains, studded with pockets of water, grasses and scree.
Shafts of hazy sunlight reflected in the sea between the peaks and the clouds and the sky was a fluffy pallet of yellows and oranges.
A little man with a big sign met me at the airport. I have always wanted to see my name on one of those bits of paper!
The home-stay is great (but a tad expensive) Alba our host, though slightly mad, is fantastic. She can not do enough for you. If you want to do any trips ect, she will arrange it, get you picked up and droped off at the door and the price is included in your bill, so you pay once at the end, which makes it a lot easier.
I got up very late and one breakfast was left at the table for me (bless). She has a sign on the wall regarding dinner... "If you would like dinner please let me know at breakfast. You will not know what you have or how much it cost until you eat, will you dare to eat here!"
I have a few days before the boat so I hope to take a trip to the National Park and see a few of the other attractions in that time, but Ushuaia is an international destination because of the Antarctic connections and the town is heavily geared towards the American tourist market ergo prices are high.

The Spanish keyboard is slightly different to our version and some of the characters will not display correctly. It´s all to do with uni codes for the geeks out there.

When I get to England I will ´re-publish´ the sight, which will get rid of all the funny stuff, but in the mean time, please forgive the characters.

I would also like to blame all the bad spelling on the Spanish keyboard, but I can´t as that is down to me!

The hostel is still full, the owner has insisted I stay on in my private room with bathroom at the same price as a dorm room for another night ... well, it would be rude not to eh!

I fly to Ushuaia tomorrow - The most southerly town in the world which has average summer temps of 10c and is where I catch my boat to Antarctica. I can´t wait to get back to Buenos Aires though. I will be returning at the end of my trip, as I fly home from here. I am going to make sure I return a few days early so I can have some time here.

I am going to have a walk around the city now, and hopefully try and work out how the subway works, so I can see Eva Peron´s palaces and the other famous bits from the Evita film.

I have just made my first phone call in Spanish to the airline agent to reconfirm my booking...

Agent: ¡Hola!
Adam: ¡Hola! Buenos Dias, ¿Habla inglés?
Agent: un momento por favor...
Another agent : Hello...

I will translate for all those who are not as edu-me-cated as me in Spanish...

Agent: Wassup?
Adam: Hello me babbers, does ´e speak English?
Agent: Ah bugger, no, let me pass you on, hang about a minite...
Another agent: ´er me babbers wassup?

I can do all that and I haven´t even started my lessons yet!!!!

Just before I go to bed for the second time for the 15th february I would just like to say that Buenos Aires is absolutly ALIVE with a spirit, even on a Sunday night. The tree lined streets half hide crumbling balconies that look like they are going to collapes under the weight of the pot plants entagngled on them. Latin American music does actually drift down on to the street from the odd house (but so does Kylie and Madonna). There are so many beautiful people dressed in beautiful clothes it´s hard to remember you´re not in Paris.
I have been twice mistaken for a local this afternoon, which just shows the tan has paid off! Armed with this boost of confidence I decided to by-pass McDonalds (as I´m a local) and go to a very local restaurant. I walked through the carefully disguised whole in the wall at the front of the building and made my way up to the strip-lighted formyca table and pointed and grunted and nodded till I got something that resembled a meal. I have no idea what it was, but it was lovely. The drink I didn´t think I ordered, but came with it, slightly resembled a urine coloured lemonade which tasted quite bitter.
At about five I was trying to think about how I was going to stay awake till a decent hour to get my body clock back in sinc.
Didn´t have to worry, the buzz from the city kept me awake and when I got back to my hostel about 2 hours ago, the people of Buenos Aires decided to put on a welcome carnival IN MY STREET. That made time fly and about 10,000 lined our road - Did they all come out to see me - I like to think so!!!

You can get special cans of foam here that shoot about 10 feet in the air (or as all the kids were doing, 10 feet right into the face) Everyone was covered. I got a few squirts but escaped narrowly. It was very funny to see the faces of mothers and grandmothers as they got a blast in the face, Thunder doesn´t quite cover it, they were so not happy!!!

The hostel/hotel had lost my reservation from HostelWorld.com so the owner, instead of a three bed dorm, upgraded me to a double with private bathroom. Trouble is that tomorrow I have to move rooms.

Anyway, the jet lag has REALLY started to kick in and I can hardly see the screen, I´ll correct the mistakes and hopefully it will make sence.

I have travelled back in time and I have landed on my sixth continent (eat your heart out Dr Who!)

About 9 hours ago I crossed the International Date Line and went back a day (That caught out Phillias Fogg to make an interesting plot point twist at the end of the story - sorry if you are on the last chapter of ´Around the World in 80 Days´)

Then about 3 hours ago I landed at Beunos Aires Airport and managed to get to my hotel without speaking a word of Spanish. I can wait to do my course (but first I have to visit my seventh continent!!! - did I mention I was going to Antarctica?)

On the way over, we directly flew over the town where I am going to have Spanish lessons (two weeks lessons and staying with an Argentinian family for that time) and it looks STUNNING. There are high volcanic and glacier covered mountains all around and loads of lakes. The lake next to the town has at least three islands which each contain their own lakes! I can see why it´s called the lake district!

A lot of the low snow has been covered in what looks like dust and dirt, so although it still is snow like, it´s a deep grey. I believe its what´s know around here is ´black snow´

Anyway, bit jet lagged, need bed.

PS - I take it as I´ve had no email, Hayley still hasn´t had her baby yet. I´m think about you, best of luck. (it was due three or four days ago, so should be any ... minute .... NOW

Last night (as I am in another time zone and went back a day, ít´s two nights a go for me, but as it´s still the 15th here, offically it´s still ´last night´) ... anyway, last night, I had the best send off I could ever hope for. 200,000 people came to see the concert which was held in the park just across the road from our house.
The 1812 with fireworks and The NZ Navy´s cannons, ´time to say goodbye´, Éverybody, needs somebody to love´done on car horns (I´m sure you wouldn´t get the The Blues Brothers at the ´Last night of the Proms´!)
It was a great concert, shared with my closest friends in Auckland. It´s starting to get very sad

Kirsty, my lovely Scottish travel buddy, and I shared ´last night´drinks in Auckland last night, and I think the result was messy, but we got Kirst to the Airport on time (I, being greedy, am having two ´last nights´!). It was a cool evening, thanks for all those who come along.

Well, chickens counted and they didn´t hatch. The girl sent me a text this morning saying she didn´t want my beautiful blue bus after all, she used the excuse that it was too small.
When I arrived back at the car market, some of the other drivers who had witnessed the one minute sale came over to me because they were curious as to why Hatty was still for sale. I explained and they were puzzled because a couple of them had a van that was too big for the same girl, but their van was only a little bigger than mine. It looks like she messed quite a few people around and pulled out at the last minute.
Anyway, a few hours had passed, a young french guy takes Hatty for a test drive. It was SOOOOO scarey. The motorway was packed, but he wanted to take her up to 100kph. He was excellerating and breaking at brake-neck speeds and after 20 minutes of weaving in and out of traffic I was quite convinced I wasn´t going to let him buy my beautiful blue bus. I needed a buyer that would love and look after her as well as she is used to.
When we got back he looked at a few other vans and then returned to me with an offer of $2800.
Well, it is only a bloody van for goodness sake, and I only paid $1900 for it when I bought it, so I took his money and now Hatty is to be known as La autobus joli blu (please correct mah French if thats incorrect)

The lovely Collette from the Flight Centre gave me my tickets today. NOW I am really excited! There is a whole pack of information to read, early night for me!

I don't want to count my chickens, but.... it looks like I managed to sell my beautiful blue bus in less than one minute.
I arrived at a special city carpark that has been turned into a car market. You pay $55 to leave your car there for five days. They have independant inspectors on hand, plus advice about buying and selling cars.
I had had my bus valeted that morning, so I pull up in this shiny gleaming van and a girl makes her way over. She asks how much and I say "twenty-eight" She shakes her head and said "You do realise this is for backpackers don't you?" and walks off shaking her head.
Before I got to the front desk to register she came running back up to me and explained that her friends had corrected her, she thought I meant $28,000! She was interested, she took it for a test drive and loved it and pending an inspection tomorrow morining, she will give me the offer price minus one hundred to cover the inspection. $2700 - SOLD!
WOW

Let me set the scene. I am travelling in 'Hattie' the beautiful blue bus, up the east coast of the North Island with two eqaully beautiful girls, Vicky and Kirsty. In the pub the other night, we three were dancing and I could see two blokes kind of looking and I overheard someone saying "he's with both of them". Then as we were leaving he said to his mate "Quick, look, I told you, he's leaving with both of them"!!!
Then the next day we stopped by a river to take some photo's and the three of us ducked in to the bushes to get to the stream. Some bloke said to his misses, "look at him with two girls, lucky sod" (I must admit, that did look a bit dodgy)
Just to make sure the stories don't spread I'M NOT THAT LUCKY!

Was quite funny though!

I've just done my third sky-dive. Kirsty (Vicky's friend from home) who I've been travelling with for the last few days was doing hers and I decided to endulge!
It was brilliant as usual, another great set of photo's and another video for those rainy gray days when I get back home.
We had travelled up from Wellington, and most the way up we had very wet roads, but only once had a few spots of rain. From all accounts we kept just missing really heavy downpours. With this in mind and some very heavey greay clouds Kirsty never expected to do her sky-dive on arrival in Taupo, and the next morning looked a bit doubtful as well, but as we arrived the clouds parted and the most brilliant sunshine came from no-where. We wew on flight one of the day, and as we were there at about 4:15pm, it just prooves how bad the weather had been.
At 12,000ft three sky-divers plummited to earth, but Kirst and I had another 3,000 ft to climb before we took the dive. The free fall is a sensation that I don't have the ability to explain, if you ever get a chance to do it, grab it with both hands.
Once the shute opened, the instructer gave me the harnes to 'drive' for a wee while, we did turns and jumps and stuff, before he took back over and landed us in a very windy feild

I'm waiting for the late ferry back to Wellington on the North Island. I should be going tomorrow, but last night I was eaten alive in the hostel by BED BUGS. I awoke at 3:30am to see them crawling over my pillow, there were spots of blood all over the sheets. I spent the rest of the night in the van, about an hour later they started to itch for England.
I asked for a refund of tonights accommodation from the owner (as you have to pay in advance) and he not only gave me a refund of tonight, but also last night without hesitation.
My arms and back are covered in spots, and they have had a fair go at my legs also. It's SOOOOOO itchy!

Many Merci's to Hamish who will not only put me up over the weekend in Wellington, but has also said it's okay to turn up a day early!

Vicky and Annie should be on their way as I type this, from Auckland. They should arrive at 1am. Kirsty is already on a ferry to Wellington having spent a few days in the beautiful blue bus. The week end should be a good one. If Hamish can get the tickets, I have agreed to go to the rugby - yes me, RUGBY! - must be mad!

Okay, the real trip is in three weeks time, but I did go to the Antarctic Experience in Christchurch, where they have a big 'tank' that recreates an Antarctic storm. The room gets to -25c and gusts of 45km buffer you for 5 minutes. I was chattering by the end of it. The rest of the displays and some of the photographs did get my heart racing a bit with excitment. Until now, although I KNOW I'm going to Antarctica, it's not really sunk in, and I kind of mention it like I'm popping down to Asda! Hopefully it will seem real when I finally get my hands on the tickets on my return to Auckland.

I've been staying at smaller towns and villages rather than the cities over the last week. You don't get to meet many people, but a few nights ago, I not only go a room to myself, but a whole house! Saying that, I have booked into Christchurch for another night as it's such a nice city. It's not stunningly pretty, or sophisticated, it's just compact and really nice.

I have gone mad with the picture taking, it's going to take hours sorting it all out, but around every corner here is a picture.

Sunday morning was a bit of a nightmare, after playing the circle of death on Saturday night with Alex (bloke from my dorm) and Lucy and Karin (from the next room), half a litre of Southern Comfort, Cider and about five glasses of free champagne because the hostle owners had reached their first year of opening, the head and the humour was not working for most the next day.