oh no you didn't thinks so did you....

Soooo.. After the smooth check-in the plane taxed out on the runway right on time and that's when it went wrong. The plane suddenly drove back to the gate again and after some confusion we managed to figure out that another plane from that airline had a problem and needed a spare part. Thing is that the plane with the promlem was in another part of chile and we were selected to be couriers of the part. It took almost two hours to find the part and then we were on the way. because we had purchased a kind of flight shuttle ticket it ended up with four take-offs before finaly arriving to punta arenas.

After some confusion we jumped on a very comfortable bus that drove us the three hours to puerto natales.

We actually managed to find a open sports utility shop at 21:10 on a sunday evening where we could by gas for the kitchen and a compass.

we are currently finishing this longest day at an african restaurant before we will try to find our hostel.

Heading south

We ordered breakfast from the 'restaurant' and it was prepared maniana-style so we had 5min to eat before throwing ourselves into our taxi. Schumacher drove us to the airport this morning and we probably arrived before we left.

Someone apparently thought we spent enough time waiting in line yesterday because check-in was over in 4minutes. The line to LAN next to Skyairlines, that we are travelling with, was covering half the departure hall.

Now we are leaving sunny Santiago for a bit more rugged weather down south. Our flight has two stops on the way and then we have a 3h bus ride ahead of us before reaching Puerto Natales.

Food

Downtown Santiago sure isn't a culinary experience. We had a decent lunch at a very local restaurang. Both of us using dictionaries to figure out what to order.

in the evening we went to a place a couple of km's to the west of the city center and got a more east-berlin-ish feeling with some funky restaurangs. We got some good sushi for supper.

A side note on Santiago airport is that we experienced a passport line that made heathrow feel like an express experience. Hopefully we'll not have the same guys working tomorrow because then we'll miss our morning flight for sure.

Santiago

We have finally arrived. 13.5h in economy is more than one should have to endure. Still it feels great to be here. 25 degrees and blue sky ain't too bad. We have been checking out downtown santiago today and done some shopping for tomorrows trip down to the south. Right now there is only one problem and that is how we will get hold of gas for our kitchen when we arrive tomorrow evening to Puerto Natales. Our planned bus to the mountains leaves at 7.30 monday morning and no stores are openbefore that. We also need to get hold of a southern hemisphere compass. But these are minor issues and all in all we are doing pretty great.

ready for boardning

After the usual behaviour of running around like mindless ants before leaving home it has been smooth sailing. Due to the last couple of days train chaos, we left with pleanty of time to spare. Amazing enough the train was on time and check in was a breeze. First flight is to Madrid where we will have a 5h wait until finally crossing the atlantic on a 13h+ flight. That's a serious trip for sure.

packed

So, it looks like we are finally packed and this time is was actually quite easy. The normal procedure is for Ania to stay up until atleast 1AM trying to figure out what she hasn't packed. We haven't done a final weigh-in but I think we are well within the weight limit as well. Somehow it almost feels too easy, something is bound to go wrong.... But it won't... no really..it won't

Chile

We are off for another adventure. This time we are heading to the Patagonian mountains of Chile.

sunday - summary

Today we are heading back to Malmö again and it's time to sum up the trip. The 110km hiking (-6km boat trip) in the Swedish mountains has been the longest hike we have done so far, averaging about 20km a day. The terrain has been quite easy but it's still though to carry the heavy bags so long. We did tye trip in five days and there was never any stress to make our day tips even though we did them quite a bit longer then "recomended", but concidering Ania's knees suffered the last day we should probably have planned for one more day. The scenery has been fantastic and can easily measure up to both Norway and New zealand. Only one day did we suffer from the mosquitos and we expected it to be a lot worse. Something we probably will try to do for our next trip is to look at the bag situation. To be light on the feet makes you able to enjoy the scenery more then when struggeling with a heavy bag, though you feel better about yourself when reaching your goal with the heavy load.

Btw, sorry for not posting chronologicaly but there was no cell coverage in the trails so nothing got posted until we reached Abisko.

saturday - pine

A few worrying drops of rain woke us up in the morning, but they never stood a chance. We have had supeb weather the entire day. First we hiked the last 4km to Abiskojaure and then 13km through pine forrest down to Abisko. Today we really took our time and had a wonderful lunch by the river. It's probably good this was the last day because Ania's knee has gotten really swollen and she will need a long rest to cure it. We have set our final camp with a view of Torne träsk. Abisko's camp site is though not the best but because this is inside the national park there is not much else to do since camping in the park is not permitted. Now it's time for a blueberry desert.

thursday - grey

We woke up to a really cold day where we had to crack the ice of the water bottles. The day has been mainly grey with quite a lot of rain. We hiked from Sälka for about 20km and have set camp 4km south of Alesjaure mountain cabins. On the way we stoped for lunch at Tjäktja mountain cabin to heat up. The evening has been really nice and hopefully the night will be a bit warmer than yesterday. There i little cell coverage out here so we'll probaby deliver a couple of reports at once.

friday - t-shirt

Today we hiked from Alesjaure for about 20km and have set camp just outside Abisko national park. Today was the first sunny day and we could go short sleeved almost the entire time. In the evening a few drops of rain has fallen but nothing to be concerned about. One thing that though is a bit annoying are that for the first time we can feel the wrath of the northern mosquitos and we have been forced to break out the repellant.
The hike past lake Ahpparjavri is one of the best we have ever done and the scenery was breathtaking. Tomorrow is the last hiking day with a 18km trip to Abisko in easy terrain.

wednesday - mixed weather

The morning was fantastic but when we where about 1h into the trail it started to rain and the wind was horrible. Luckily it wore off after about 1.5h and the rest of the day have been amazing. We hiked from Keb mountain lodge, took a short cut via a beautiful mountain lake and after about 20km we set camp near Sälka mountain lodge. Last night was pretty cold but today feels a tad warmer. So far the mosquitos have been fewer than the rain deers and we are very happy about that. Ania actually came close enough to 'pet' a baby rain deer before it ran off into the sunset. Except that mr Christoffersson seem to have missplaced the compass everything is just dandy. Now it's about 21.30 and it's still quite bright outside. We don't have midnight sun but it never get's completely dark.

The longest day

After plane to sthlm and then on to kiruna we took two busses to get to get to Nikkaluokta. We arrived at four and set of to cover 19km. 6km walking, 6km boat ride ad 7km walking later we sat camp. The day has been really long but fantastic. One minus though is that it's freezing in the evening. Ania decided to check the quality on her i.c berlin glasses by stepping on the with her boot. They sprung apart but could easily be assembled again. Those Germans make some killer glasses. Now we'll hit the sack. Good night

takeoff

As always we were very late out the door but just made the train in time. Easy morning at Kastrup withot lines and in a couple of minutes we are off to stockholm and then further on to kiruna.

prepping

Have spent most day running around getting food and other stuff. Now for a short nights sleep and then off to Kastrup.

Keb

Now We are swiftly approaching our next adventure. This time we'll eplore the most northen parts of Sweden and are heading to the Kebnekaise area outside Kiruna. We still haven't decided if we should actually do the summit because we are a bit short on time and we have plotted quite a long walk. We'll leave Malmö on Tuesday the 18th so that's when we'll start to get active here for real.

Experiences

Let's give it a shot to sum up this marvellous journey.

New Zealand is about the same size of Sweden (less people, lot's more sheep) but because of the terrain it takes longer to drive through. Still all reads where in good condition and compared to eg. Scotland it was a walk in the park. The long country has so much to offer and it's a good idea to have a rough game plan to follow before arriving. Ania had done a lot of research before we left and it was really valuable to know where to go but the many i-site and DOC (department of conservation) offices around the country made micro-planning quite easy. Because of the unstable weather we had to make some quick changes but they where all for the best. We spend a little over two weeks cruising the country and we could easily have spent a few more weeks. It would have been nice to see the Fjordlands and Stewart Island but now we have something to see when we come back, in about 15 years.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and to two nature lovers like us it was pure paradise... Almost. In New Zealand there is a little bugger called the sand fly which is really mean. Especially Ania became a feast for these small creatures and by the time we reached Queenstown she had as many bite marks as there are stars a clear night, and they itch. Our Scandinavian mosquitos are a little more annoying and slightly more thirsty for blood but a mosquito bite only lasts a few days while the sand fly bite increases in pain during several days and takes weeks to disappear completely.

That said, besides the sand flies and being somewhat unlucky with the weather this was a fantastic once in a lifetime holiday we'll never forget. Something we have learned though is we should not be ashamed of our part of the world at all. Some of the most beautiful nature in NZ will have a though match against the fjords of Norway and once we met a German fellow who had spent six months hiking the south island and he said the best nature he'd ever visited was the north of Sweden (a very likely destination for this summer's adventure).

We have uploaded a set of 470shots from Kiwi land that can be viewed here

That's it for this time and looking forward to our next endeavour
Ania & Joakim

Jet-lag

A couple of days after our return and the body is slowly getting back to normal. Ania probably had the worst jet-lag looking like a bit wasted in the evenings. We'll post a new zelaland special with pictures in the weekend.

Home

It's a funny thing leaving Auckland at 23.00 in the evening and arriving to LA after a 12h flight the same day 9h before you left, go figure. Anyway now we are on the train to Malmö after a loooong journey that wasn't as painful as one might expect but it feels good to be back. We'll make a summary of our experiences in a couple of days.

Monday - The island

On our final day we took a ferry to an Island outside Auckland called Waiheke. The sun was strong until we arrived when a few drops of water fell on our heads. Luckily it was over in 10 minutes and then we enjoyed swimming in the pacific on two different beaches. We tied it all up with a nice dinner in the city before heading to the airport.

Now we have 30+ hours of travelling in front of us before again setting foot in good ol' (cold) Sweden.