ROTORUA, PAHIA AND AUCKLAND / NEW ZEALAND, Day 161:
FART, that is what Rotorua inspired us. Overwhelming fart really. it was everywhere, from the hostal to the park and in the pools. i cannot see how people can choose to live in such a place. ok, thermal springs are nice, but the drawbacks are enormous. imagine drying your washing in the breeze. mind you, the nose hairs of the people out here must be well acustomed to it. Cristian personally thought that it was a great place to have curry and took us to the local Indian restaurant. the benefits were proved the following morning...
Anhow, that was only the first stop on our Palin-like tour of North Island in two days. Fancy driving to Milan then down to Naples and back to Geneva, on the wrong side of the road, in less than 48hrs? We did and it was fun! New Zealand is really the UK, but at the other side of the world. It was green, with sheep scattered on the rolling hills. It drizzled as we passed "Devonshire Teas" signs, the fish and chips were served in huge pieces of paper, even the taps were British, with scalding hot on one side and freezing on the other.
Over to Yorkshire, that's what we say!!
Thankfully, we saw a gum-boot shop, which reminded us about Kiwis and their love for wooly animals, and none of us could understand a word they were saying - a sign that it was not the UK after all.

Maori church we were not allowed to enter.

Smelly Rotorua.

Northland sunset on the way back to Auckland.

MOOREA / FRENCH POLYNESIA, Day 156:
Una notte indescrivibile chez Fifi. Catapultati a Tahiti a mezzanotte ci siamo dovuti accontentare di un ostello vicino all'aereoporto. Io e Olivia dividendo una camera con 4 sconosciuti, Lynda nel corridoio. Tra il caldo, 25 gradi, e le persone che russavano forse era meglio dormire nelle panchine dell'aereoporto. Ma le isole sono stupende, Moorea ha spiagge di sabbia bianca, acqua turchese e barriera corallina. Nella mattinata la francia e' stata eliminata e l'isola e diventata silenziosa, bene per riposare.

Moorea over view.

Pulling girls on the beach.

All of them.

Sunset from the hut.

EASTER ISLAND / CHILE, Day 153:
This is our first flight over the Pacific Ocean. In Lynda's company, we will fly from Santiago to Easter Island, Tahiti, Auckland and finally Sydney in only ten days.
My first impression of Easter Island is very good, the lady of the hostel is the nicest of all the ladies we have met so far and we have certainly met lots and lots of ladies!
We went to check out all these big headed people that are residents here and it felt like France (grande geule) no offence.
The statues "moai" are fab. Check it out yourself.

These people must be very short, check the doors of the houses.

Spot the 2 fake moai (red t-shirt).

This is Cristian after Italy was kicked-out of the Eurocup.

Some tourists looking for moais.

SANTIAGO DE CHILE, Day 150:
We have to celebrate the arrival of Lynda with a good red wine and a nice steak.

Look who's arrived!! Read sign above to know who it is.

World famous.

Two fish at Santiago market.

SANTIAGO DE CHILE / CHILE, WHERE ELSE?
Shower this morning took place without electrocution; a luxury we have been enjoying for the past five days at Camille's flat. The non-electric-powered shower with no wires poking out everywhere and the rest made a very nice change from our usual hostal room. Being in Santiago has also been great, altough most of it was spent within the flat, making the most of little things like the nice sofa, the toaster, the toilet that flushes, the hot water, the tv (essential in euro 2004 mania times) and the views. From up here we can see the andes and the smog over the city. Being on floor 15 probably also saved the population from being wiped out by fondue fumes last night. Don Camillo treated us to an adaptation of the Swiss fondue, with three different types of cheese that Cristian recognised as being emmental, emmental and something else... (mortal offence as it was in fact emmental francais, gruyere hollandais, chilean deretido). A miracle helped the three stay together notwithstanding the generous quantity of wine that went in the pot - a trickle compared to what went via our glasses.
We ended the splendid evening by going to a club, recommended by the two locals, in what they said was a very unsafe area. When asked if they went there often, they simply said no, its too unsafe, people get stabbed here, there is lots of drugs arounds... I am still not sure why they choose to take us there. A post-fondue revenge? Anyhow, we lived and are in a lot better shape that poor Camille who has been surviving on very little sleep all week.

View from the 15th floor.

Don Camillo, the cook.

Fondue guinea pigs.

QUITO / ECUADOR:
We are proud to say that from Ushuaia "The end of the world" we have now reached Quito "The middle of the world", covering one full side of the globe!

The Equator passes only 13 Km for the centre of Quito and there you can have walk on top of line with one foot in the southern hemisphere and one in the north (don't know were the groing was). It was intresting to see the water spinning in the opposite direction at either side - no we dind't go to the toilet on both sides, we just saw it in a museum - and there is no spinning if you are on top of the line.

Quito has really pleasantly suprised us, the old city center has been completely renovated and the colonial buildings are splendid.
Quito counts hundred of churches, most of them unique. The "Compagnia di Gesu" church is completely decorated with gold and I found it really stunning.

We are sleeping in the new part of town were all the "gringos" are concentrated. Many bars and restaurant but some prostitutes and burglars too, so we walk around with our pepper spray at hand. We almost tried it out last night on a drunk guy that wanted "I don't know what" from us.

Now we are going for a pancake at "Crepes and Waffle", Olivia's favorite restaurant. It is also Gabriel's favourite one, his parents told us. Davila's family all congregated especially for us on thursday night at their new flat, where we were treated to a special dinner!

One of Quito's beautiful churches.

Olivia at the middle of the world.

Dinner with Gabriel Davila's nice family.

BANOS, OTAVALO / ECUADOR:
Our most vivid memory of Banos, and even of Otavalo, is rain, drizzle, downpours, the lot... and all that because i mentioned to someone that we had been so lucky so far with lots of sunshine and perfect temperatures. serves me right.
anyhow, being a half brit, water did not stop me from dragging squealing senor Yardini out on several occasions, one of which consisted in a bike ride down the valley from Banos (which means toilets, which might explain the meterological pattern?) to Rio Verde, via a variety of water falls. All the more impressive because of the amount of water around, and all good until half the bank detached and plunged towards me and my puny little mountain bike. Senor Yardini yelled to turn back. I tried to get myself round but found myself stuck, going neither forwards nor backwards. Thankfully the mud and rocks stopped before crashing into me. I tell you, we cannot even ride bikes without something happening! (by the way, i don't think i told the world that even in Galapagos, on day one, our motorboat - used to get to land from the other big boat - got crushed by another vessel, all whilst we were having lunch.)
Another highlight was our walk from Lake San Pablo back to Otavalo which was lovely until it started to bounce down. We walked past lots of groups in traditional dress - gorgeous long black wraps over white skirs, lacy shirts that only the italians would approve of, strings of gold beads round their necks - men wore white short trousers and espadrilles, black felt hats and sometimes ponchos. My favorite was a dog that was also wearing gold beads! No pictures though, sorry.
Guess what? are now off for lunch. who knows what speciality we might get today!! (cheating here as we are now in the Mariscal area of Quito which is primarily where the foreigners congregate in an attempt to reduce the impression that they are going to get mugged, and which is also full of non-exotic restaurants (HURRAY!!!!)

The latest cheap hostal for budget traveller.

Nice catus tree everywere.