Kia ora!! So, here we are again - reached the end of another leg of the journey and the end of a crazy old time in New Zealand! We flew from Buenos Aires into Auckland and believe it or not, got a big culture shock - everything was clean and modern, we could understand everything/be understood and they even drove on the left hand side of the road..how strange!!

We spent a few lovely days in Auckland before we started the Kiwi Experience. It turned out we were in luck because we were there for the end of the Auckland Festival so there were lots of things going on, including Polyfest - a Polynesian islands festival of song and dance. It was like a proper festival - lots of different stages (Tongan, Samoan, Maori etc), lots of food stalls and everyone sat around on the grass enjoying the nearly-sunny day! The festival was actually a huge competition between the secondary schools from the different countries, ad they were all dressed in traditional outfits. Also in Auckland we took a trip up the SkyTower to take in a few 360 degree views of the city!

We then started the Kiwi Experience, and set off in our big green bus from Auckland stopping at Mount Eden as we left. Our first big stop was in Rotarua which is well known for it's traditional Maori culture. So, that evening we went to a 'traditional Maori cultural evening', taken there by a mini bus which was actually a 'waka' (canoe) and we were in fact the oars...! After nominating our chief for the evening we had our 'welcoming ceremony' into their village for them to determine whether we came as friend or foe - it consisted of the warriors pulling very funny faces, making odd noises and threatening the chiefs with spears! Once we passed that test we were allowed into their village and have a look around before the 'gong' sounded and we went inside to watch them perform a play and various dances, including the haka. Afterwards came the best bit...the feast!! It was lovely food - all of it had been cooked underground in the 'hangi' - the sticky toffee pudding was definately a favourite! Rotarua is also home to one of the few geysers in the world that goes off constantly so we went to Te Puia geothermal park to see that, and also very excitingly saw a kiwi bird!! We also did a day trip out to Hamilton to visit some of Katie's long lost family!

Another big stop in the North Island was Taupo - and it was hard to miss the largest lake in Australasia there: lake Taupo! After a couple of good nights out here, we had to drag ourselves out of bed at 6am on the day we did the mighty Tongariro Alpine Crossing - a 19.4km hike across an active volcano!! It's rated one of the best day walks to do in the world so we thought we should give it a whirl! The mountain we were climbing was right next to Mount Ngauruhoe...apparently better known as Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings (having never seen or read LOTR this was all new for me!!) There was a good group of us doing it and we finished it in about 7 and a half hours. The trickiest part was the very appropriately named 'Devils Staircase' which was a constant uphill struggle lasting about an hour...but it was definately well worth it when you got a glimpse of the views from the top - the scenery was breath-taking and really not like anything I've ever seen before - I think the photos do it more justice than any description I'd be able to give so if you can..have a loook!!

The final major stop we had in the North Island was Wellington, but on the way we had a night at a place called River Valley - a beautiful spot in the middle of absolutely nowhere!! It was a nice place to 'chill' for the night, in between games of giant jenga and NZ's version of Junior Trivial Pursuit of course! The sleeping arrangements were also interesting - about 20 people in 1 bunk bed...work that one out!! We managed to pack a lot into our 1 day in Wellington; a tour of Parliament, watched a Parliament sitting in action, a trip to the botanical gardens and the a visit to the Te Papa museum - a huge interactive science/history museum! I think we could well and truly tick 'culture' off the list for that day!!

That was the North Island done and duster so we then took a ferry over the Cook Strait - more beautiful scenery as we entered the Marlborough Sounds. We worked our way down the west coast of the South Island with one of the more notable stops being at a tiny place called Lake Mahinapua. This is where we met 84 year old Les - New Zealand's oldest publican, and we stayed at his quirky little pub - The Poo Pub!! Earlier in the day we'd had an hour in a town called Greymouth to run around and try to put together a fancy dress costume which fitted with the theme "Moviestars and Superheroes" - my purchases were a red poncho and some gold crepe paper..later transformed into a Wonder-woman costume!! At the pub we had a lovely BBQ with some of Les' special venison steak, and then the fancy dress party got under way! It was a great evening and that night I shared my cabin with the likes of Pocahontas, SuperTed, Venom and Rambo!!

The next stop down the coast was at Franz Josef where I did a full day glacier hike. We got all kitted out with waterproofs etc, learnt to walk with 'crampons' attached to our feet and then had about 5 hours up on the ice! We had a really good time, squeezing through the tiniest of crevasses, crawling through 'ice holes' and we also had a go at carving some steps with an ice axe...but didn't get too far - we'll leave that one to the professionals!! We had spectacular views all day - with rainforest on either side of the glacier (only 3 in the world are like this, I'll have you know!!) We soaked our sore feet in the hostels hot tub that evening which was pretty exciting!!

The next big stop was the 'adventure capital of the southern hemisphere' Queenstown!! So it seemed fitting that the first thing we did when we got there was the highest bungy in Australasia (3rd? highest in the world)..yes, all 134m of the Nevis Highwire over the Kawarau Gorge. I'm not sure if it was the adrenalin or the high-level of excitement taking over but I wasn't as scared as I feel I should have been!! Before I knew it I was stood on a tiny ledge jutting out the side of the cable car..and it went 1..2..3..SCREEEEAAMM!!!! Oh..and JUMP!! The 8 second freefalling was over before you could start to worry and the only remaining challenge was to pull a cord that released your feet and turned you up the right way! This wasn't as easy as it looked and although I managed it, some didn't meaning they got winched back up feet first - just made their dvd all the more entertaining!! It was immense fun and we were all very excitable afterwards - the huge adrenalin rush took a couple of days to wear off!! SO, we were well and truely up for our "Big Night Out' in Queenstown that evening - we finished up in a bar called the World Bar where it was perfectly normal to be drinking cocktails out of teapots!! We had a great 4/5 days in Queenstown: a lot of partying, ate a Fergburger (it was a must-do apparently!), walked up to the top of where the cable car goes for some beautiful views out over the lake...and (as if bungy jumping wasn't enough) spent an afternoon in the park watching a bowls tournament...!!

We also did a day trip out to Milford Sounds in the wilderness of Fiordland. Some described the weather as mysterious, magical, eerie, mystical, atmospheric...others described it as raining and very cloudy!! But even though we didn't have the best weather, and all my photos look like they were taken in black and white, you could still get a sense of how beautiful it was! It also pleased us a tiny bit when we spoke to some people who had gone on clear day and they told us that they hadn't seen any of the impressive waterfalls that we did!!

Our final stop in New Zealand was Christchurch, a very 'English' city. We didn't do too much here - washing, photo-uploading, journal writing, Queenstown recovering(!) - all exciting stuff! And then our time in this beautiful country came to an end..and we flew to Nadi, Fiji where we were greeted with shell necklaces and warmth!! But that's another story...! Sorry this has been a while coming - lets hope I have slightly more motivation for this whole writing malarkey by the time I get to uni!! Fiji news will be coming soon..ish!!

Hope all things are well back at home, and thank you to everyone for all my lovely birthday messages, it was really nice to hear from you all!!

XXXX.

Party party party party is pretty much what we did for Carnival weekend - the best weekend of my life?!?!?! It all kicked off on the Friday night when we went up to Santa Teresa for what was apparently the 'official' start of the carnival. There was a huge bloco going on through all the streets which in other words meant one big fancy dress party!! It was really good fun! Then Saturday was 'The Big Day'! - the day that we got to parade, in full costume, down the Sambodrome with our school 'Imperial de Tijuca'!! We all got ready together at the house in high spirits and had lots of fun trying the costumes on! We then had to get the metro to the Sambodrome so for ease, and in fear of looking silly we carried most of our costumes - but oh no! Pretty much everyone on the metro was either in carnival costumes, struggling to carry carnival costumes or in some form of fancy dress -it was very surreal! We finally paraded at about 12.30am (still 33°C) in rows of 10, mixed up with some Brazilians - who actually knew the words to the song whereas we just did a lot of enthusiastic mouthing! We danced all the way down the Sambodrome and had so much fun although it all felt so unreal! After about 40 minutes 'in the spotlight' we got to the end and everyone was on such a buzz!! Definitely an experience that we won't forget!! On the Sunday we went to what was meant to be the biggest and the best bloco of the Carnival in Ipanema which was packed (not too sure if we got to the actual bloco or not!) and then another party in the evening near the Sambodrome with live music and lots of bars!! We had a relaxing day round the pool on the Monday but lots more fun that evening: the evening when the schools we'd all worked for were parading!! So, we'd got tickets for the Sambodrome and were able to watch Salgueiro, Mangueira and two other schools parade. The atmosphere was amazing, all singing and flag-waving, and it was so so so exciting to watch 'our schools' and to be able to point and say 'I did that'!! All the floats and costumes were so impressive and looked really quite different to how they'd looked in the warehouse with all the lights and finishing touches on them!!



So! That was Carnival!! We found out the results a few days later, which brought even more excitement into our lives....because Salgueiro (Katie's school) WON!!! Mangueira who I was working for came 6th....but 10 out of 10 for the costumes I hasten to add!!!haha! The school we paraded with came 8th out of 12...at least it wasn't last!



A few days after carnival, our 6 weeks in Rio was up and everyone we'd been living with were going separate ways - for Katie and I it was a very luxurious 22 hour bus journey over to the Iguacu Falls. We went to the Argentinian side first and got incredible views of all the waterfalls from pretty much 'on top' of them! The most impressive waterfall was the 'Devil's Throat' and the amount and power of the water that cascaded over the top is indescribable. We got absolutely soaked from the spray because we were standing so close - possibly the most amazing thing we've seen so far! The following day we went to the Brazilian side where you are able to see more 'overall' panoramic views of the waterfalls...cue another 100 photos!!



Since we were flying out of Rio we had to make our way back over again, but we broke the journey up a bit this time. We went via Sao Paulo which is a huuuge city with lots of high-rise very important looking buildings and people everywhere - nothing like Rio!! Only had a couple of days here, but met up with a friend and went to a really good food market at the Mercado Municipal, where we had a highly recommended Mortadela sandwich - the biggest sandwich I've ever eaten!! We also went to a small, pretty colonial town called Paraty, on the Costa Verde which is the coast in Rio State. We had a lovely few days here lying on the beach, and also took a trip to a place called Penha - had lots of fun here sliding down waterfalls and swimming in natural pools!

Our final stop before heading to New Zealand was a 24 hour stopover in Buenos Aires. When we asked a few people what they thought we should do with our one day in BA, most people said "go to the cemetery". Sounds morbid, I know! So, intrigued, we went and had a look and it was certainly different - more like a small village with mostly what looked like small individual churches instead of a gravestone; this is also where 'Evita' is buried. It was a bit strange it being such a tourist attraction but glad we went! Had a bit more of a 'light-hearted' afternoon with a friend from Rio which was really nice!

And now here we are in New Zealand! We arrived into Auckland after a spot of time travelling and, although there's no cake for breakfast like there was in Brazil, so far so good!! We're now in Taupo, and tomorrow there's a group of us embarking on the Tongariro Crossing - an 18.5km trek over an (active) volcano - if I survive it, I'll write another blog soon!!

Hope everyone is well, XXXX.

OI!! (After a few days of thinking the Brazilians were a bit rude, we found out that this actually means 'hi'!!)

So! I've here in Rio for just over a month now and I think this is what they call 'living the high life'!

Everything here at the moment seems to be revolving around Carnaval which is next weekend! For the last 5 weeks we've been working 3 days a week in the Samba City helping to make the costumes. I'm working for a samba school called Mangueira, apparently one of the most famous (although worryingly we seem to be quite a bit behind schedule!), whose colours are pink and green (not actually as bad as it sounds) and the theme this year is 'Our People' - exploring the roots of Brazilian people. The costumes are INCREDIBLE!! - so colourful, very flamboyant and elaborate and full of such intricate detail, I can imagine they'd be alot of fun to design! We're given various jobs, some more interesting than others, mostly involving a lot of hot-glue-gunning and cutting out. Also, pretty much everything is edged with sequins, beads, lace or quite often all 3 and everything is done by hand..so it takes a while! After working there for a few days it really did make us appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into every single part of every single costume - especially when we've been told the costumes are made to last for just 90 minutes, the amount of time they have to parade down the sambodrome!! Although the work can sometimes be a little bit tedious, everyone who works there is a lot of fun - very happy to try and talk to you despite the language barrier, there is always someone singing and dancing around, lots of gay men, and the best days are when they bring in cake!!!

Then we come to the floats! My first impressions: WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW! Imagine bigger than big and more impressive than impressive!! There are 8 main floats, which fill the space of the entire ground floor of the warehouse, and built up, some so high they are level with the 3rd floor! It's very hard to describe but the skeletons are made mostly out of metal frames and then they 'fill it out' with thin wood. There are then huge sculptures (some of which move!) that are fixed to the floats, which are actually made mostly out of polystyrene, but you would never be able to tell!! Everything is painted and decorated in just as much detail as the costumes, and even the float that we thought was finished 5 weeks ago is still having bits and pieces added to it! We've taken lots of photos of all the floats and costumes at various stages but we've been told we're not allowed to put them up on the internet until after carnival....so you'll just have to wait!!

There are 12 'special schools' altogether which parade over the Sunday and Monday; each school has about 4000-5000 participants (12 x 5000 = 60,000) and each school has 8 floats each (12 x 8 = 96) - i guess we'll have to see it to believe it!! We were also told some very exciting news the day after we arrived: that we get to PARADE IN THE CARNIVAL!!! Took a while to get over the excitement! We'll be parading on the Saturday with a school in group B called 'Imperio de Tijuca'. Due to various reasons we've actually only had one rehearsal but that was so much fun - everyone had to wear green and white and we were organised (i use this term very loosely) into horizontal lines of 8 (within seconds of being counted and told exactly where to stand it was chaos again with everyone just dancing around!). We danced our way all the way down the sambodrome with the song being played over and over again. The atmosphere was fantastic and all the stands were packed even though this was only a rehearsal!! Since then, we've been desparately trying to learn how to samba (properly), trying to learn the words to the song and trying to think of a way of making our costumes look flattering - we've seen a sketch of them...a tiny bit 'clown/jester-like'?! Not quite the 'bra-thong-and-very-little-else' combo that some people had in mind!! I'm sure you'll all see a photo at some point!

We've been making the most of our days off, spending a bit of time at the beach (we've decided we definately prefer Ipanema to Copacabana), been a couple of times to an amazing hippie market in Ipanema which is huge, and last week we went up to see the big man himself - Christ the Redeemer! The views were lovely, all the way across the city and the statue itself - humongous!! Since being here I have also been to my first and second ever football matches!! The second was a derby between Botafogo and Flamengo held in the Maracana! Our co-ordinator lives and breathes Botafogo so we didn't have a choice as to who we supported! The stadium was very impressive (i'm keeping it quiet here that I'd never actually heard of it before I arrived here) and the atmosphere at both matches was amazing - very very passionate fans who like to jump up and down, wave flags and sing songs for the entire match! Because of this i didn't actually see a couple of the goals - I knew there was a reason I preferred Match of the Day!!

Along with the football matches, we've been able to do a few other things that we probably wouldn't have done had we not been doing the project. We have been up to the favelas twice, the first time we went with some of the volunteers who are doing a community up there, so we spent the day painting houses (/getting covered in paint) to try and brighten it up a bit - it is obviously a completely different lifestyle up there compared to most of the other places we've been to in Rio. Everyone was very friendly though and all seemed really pleased and grateful for the work we were doing! We have also been to a couple of Capoeira 'sessions' - it's a form of non-contact marshal arts - I think it's like a cross between karate and gymnastics but it was really good fun, and made us feel good for doing some exercise!!! Everyone there made us feel really welcomed, let us 'join the circle' and asked when we'll next be going! Since my legs ached for about a week afterwards, I don't think I could do the 4 nights a week training like most of them!

A group of 5 of us went on 'a holiday' a couple of weekends ago (working 3 days a week, 10-4 isn't easy you know!). We went to an island called Ilha Grande, which was a 2 and a half hour (fairly scary) bus journey and a 1 and a half hour boat ride away from Rio. We went very early on the Friday morning and came back late Sunday but it really did feel like a proper little holiday - everything was even more laid back than Rio, the sun shone the whole time for us and the island itself was beautiful! On the Saturday we did a whole day boat trip to Lagoa Azul (Blue Lagoon), stopping off at a couple of other beaches along the way - it was a matter of jumping off the boat, swimming/snorkelling/floating in the very warm, very clear and very blue sea at each of the stops and then hopping back on the boat and sunbathing whilst eating fresh fruit that they brought round until the next stop! It was a tough day to say the least!!

What else?! The volunteer guest house is lovely, the only downside being that it is at the top of a rather large, steep hill - i hope we're be getting fitter! The best thing about the hill though is that there is a very small, 'cute' local bar at the bottom of it - makes a good meeting point and sells good cheap beer - 600ml bottle is about a £1!! There are about 15 volunteers staying at our house and there's some more up the road, everyone is really nice and we all get along well!
After hearing all about the snow in England (I've got to admit that I was a tiny bit jealous!), I feel I should add that most days here it's anywhere between 30-37°C!! We have had a couple of big storms followed by a couple of cooler days where it's rained in the evening but generally it's been hot hot hot!!

Well, I think that is pretty much everything to report for now! We have about 3 more weeks in Brazil - straight after Carnival we are taking on a 22 hour bus journey over to the Iguacu Falls, staying on both the Argentinian side and the Brazilian, and then making our way back over to Rio via Sao Paulo and Paraty before flying out to New Zealand on the 16th of March!! And then let the journey continue!


I'm sorry this has been a long time coming and has ended up quite lengthy - I do plan to write shorter ones, more often from here on in! Hope everyone is well, wherever you are and whatever you are doing! Keep me updated on any exciting news!



Tchau for now XXXXX.