Auckland to Santiago

Tuesday 5 June
I arrived in Auckland on Friday and after returning the camper van to the hire company I checked into a very nice city centre boutique (a much over used adjective in NZ and OZ) budget hotel. After a little exploration of the city I went to a boutique restuarant for a boutique meal and retired to a decent bed for the first time in 3 weeks.

The good news about my visit to Auckland was it coincided with a All Blacks playing France at Eden Park. So the priority for Saturday morning was to get a ticket which was remarkably easy. The French have been criticised for fielding a ´C´team while their top players are still committed to club rugby in Europe. This seems to have reduced the demand for tickets and I was able to obtain a ticket within half of an hour for a mere $42Nz (16 pounds) from a ticket agency.
After sorting this out I continued with the sight seeing, travelling up the ubiquitous communications tower. I think every city of any note has one now. The views were slightly marred by the cloud but it still gave a great sense of the shape and size of Auckland. This was followed a short bus trip around the city centre and a trip out to the boutique suburb of Parnell.

After a rest back at the hotel I took a train from the central Britomart station (where did they get that name I wonder) to Eden Park and found my seat in a nearly capacity crowd. The seats are very squashed together and had no back rest. The atmosphere was subdued compared to any Twickenham game and the game itself didn´t do too much to raise the excitement. As expected, after a fairly slow start , with the French throwing all they had into the game at the beginning, the ABs gradually got on top and were scoring freely later in the second half. Some where over to my left some people did get over excited and had fight but I couldn´t see what was happening because of the standing spectators. But generally the atmosphere was good and quite a few people dressed up to make party of it including a flock of NZ sheep seen on the train on the way home.


On Sunday after spot more site seeing I went to the airport to catch my plane to Chile. The plane was delayed by 3-4 hours but I spent the extra time chatting to fellow travelers and eating in the cafes with the voucher I was given.

The flight took about 12 hours and incredibly, because of the international date line, the plane lands before it takes off if you know what I mean. I took off at 9pm on Sunday 3 June and 12 hours landed in Santiago at 5pm 3 June. After landing and a worryingly long wait for my luggage to appear I went through immigration and into the arrivals hall. I´ve booked my self onto a one week Spanish course and the school administrator, Juan, was there to meet me and deliver me to my Chilean homestay family, Jorge and Patricia.

Monday morning Jorge took me to the school where I met my teacher , Erika, and it turns out I´m the only pupil for the week. The format is lessons with Erika each morning and then trips out around the city with Juan in the afternoon. See my pìcture outside the presidential palace.

Its been a cultural bungee jump from my time in NZ and Australia to Chile, but I couldn´t have hoped for a more welcoming experience.

Last night I lay awake worrying about my travel plans and the difficulty of travelling alone with such poor Spanish and made increasingly anxious by all the personal safety warnings in Lonely Planet. It may have also been jet lag. I really don´t know what time it is now in New Zealand but my body took 4-5 days to adjust in Thailand, so its likely to take a while now I´ve moved back 18 hours in time.

This morning I set off to school by myself. After 10 minutes I realised I´d been walking in the entirely wrong direction, so I was half hour late for class. My teacher, Erika, was patiently waiting for me.

This afternoon I went into the city centre and bought the bus ticket for my departure from Santiago and a jazz concert for tomorrow night. I´ve decided to travel further north asap as its pretty cold down here at the moment. I´m now feeling much more positive than I was this morning. What a difference a day makes. Perhaps it was jet lag after all. Better get on with my homework now as its school tomorrow. Hasta la vista!