Denouement Diaries - Week 2

Essentially the ramblings of two adults that probably require adult supervision.

As usual, follow along at:

• @expeditiondenouement
• @lukereynoldsorg
• @casey_palmz

And...here. Anyway let's get into it:

16/2/23 - Day 8: Nelson - Picton

• Up at a reasonable time
• Rolled in to Nelson
• Cappuccinos in a cafe
• Then to the top of the steps to see a very ugly church
• Quickly departed
• Went and found the Centre of New Zealand - was a bit of an uphill walk and I complained like a lil beech (thanks, Casey...)
• Nice views over Nelson
• Then started the drive towards the Marlborough Sounds
• Next stop was Pelorus bridge
• After I took a wrong turn into cow fields
• Went and looked at the river
• Same river the Dwarves escaped in barrels on
• Another cappuccino
• And brownie and carrot cake (9/10)
• Short drive over to Havelock - no boats running
• Pushed on to Picton
• Actually quite a nice little town with a lovely harbour
• And realised that the boat we depart on tomorrow is essentially a boat cruise through nice fjords, so probably no point chasing up an expensive Sound cruise
• Burger and greasy garlic chips for lunch - was excellent
• Then a walk up around the Snout track which was a slippery little thing all the way and idiot wife wore white tennis-shoe style things and nearly went a over t for 2 hrs
• Safely made it to a lookout point that was essentially worse than the one at the start but was just further away and accessibly only through mud - fab
• Drove to Picton caravan park - tidy, clean and great wifi
• Hung around and did washing
• May have driven the van down the road to grab some cheeky subway for dinner...

17/2/23 - Day 9: Picton - Rotorua

• Woke up at the aresecrack of dawn (this is Casey's phrase that she has stolen from Derry Girls) for what we found out was no reason - ferry delayed from 745 until 10am
• Sat in the car and watched Derry girls till battery ran out, then just ambled in a car cue for HOURS
• Onto boat and sat inside - after an hour was outside and boy was unWELL
• No spews though we tough cookies
• Vom-free since '93 (mostly)
• Eventually made it across the Cook Straight
• Did not die
• Started the long drive to Rotorua
• No traffic, fast roads
• And a dirty pile of sausage rolls from a petrol station to fuel the journey
• Listened to Lord Of The Rings soundtrack, again
• Made it to Rotorua
• The place smells like eggs/farts
• Blames the hot springs
• Checked in
• We have a private spa bath
• Derry Girls from the spa bath
• Then slept in a real bed
• Was excellent

18/2/23 - Day 10: Rotorua - Matamata - Auckland - Santiago - Buenos Aires

• Up fairly early
• Maccas takeaway for breakky
• Because we had managed to book an early tour of Hobbiton to fit in with the drive up to Auckland
• Look, it was amazing
• The attention to detail is incredible
• It’s literally the film set
• So cool
• Bunch of random tourists being random tourists - ie. clapping when we hugged for some reason, filming literally everything and then said they had never seen the movie, had no idea where they were or why = perfect
• Then drove up to Auckland - more traffic than we were used to
• Dropped off the car - weird depo area, but easy enough
• Goodbye nugget
• And Ubered to the airport
• Airports are cool, we like airports
• Ok
• So
• We have sort of continued with the same day here
• It’s still the 18th down here in Chile
• We’ve done one international flight
• Was fine
• I think medicine has me well trained to sleeping in chairs
• Casey not so much - Casey felt like a constipated squashed bug
• Now a short transit over to Buenos Aires
• Flight was short and sweet - over the Andes in Chile - stun
• Landed, got taxi to hotel, met lovely hosts and got inside
• Went to shopping centre for burgers and shampoo
• Home, burgers, Derry girls finale (beautiful and lady cry) then sleeps
• Longest. Day. Ever. 40hrs.

19/2/23: Day 11 - Buenos Aires

• Woke up around of 1000
• Stumbled down to Recoleta main st for breakky, eggs, tostadas, coffee, OJ and spreads for what ended up costing about 5$ due to incorrect change returned
• Then walked around Recoleta markets, down to law building and around the Recolets area and then to another coffee shop
• Found out that a cappuccino here is given with a lump of choc syrup down the bottom - sweet
• Back to apartment, chill out time till 530 ish
• Then played a card game that Casey brought - I won
• Then walked to Casey’s next pole dance studio at 'Art Dance Studio Pole y Acro'
• I wandered the streets while Casey was trained by what turned out to be the Argentinian multiple champion queen of pole dancing
• Cheeky massive cakes with some coffees afterwards in the cafe downstairs - La Panera Rosa
• Walked home, dying of sugar
• Began booking for Patagonia -  breakdown ensued, thought I had done a dumb
• Turns out we probably won't be going to Chile - insane entry requirements for Ausralians that we would need to have started sorting ages ago - not really something that can be done on the fly
• I mean, did Australia offend Chile recently?
• After a little planning and changing of things - booked the next week in Argentinian Patagonia and planned for a bit beyond until March
• Ended up finishing all this around 1am, made empanadas and had “dinner”? at 2am
• Bed v late / early
• Maybe jet lag, dunno

20/2/23: Day 12 - Buenos Aires

• Woke up even later - closer to 11
• Made some bacon and eggs after a quick grocery stop yesterday
• Found a French-ish coffee shop
• Cab to Caminito
• Wandered to colourful buildings
• Extremely touristy place - the kind of place that seems a bit fake and tourists only go there because tourists go there - probably not our vibe
• Snacks for lunch
• Cab back towards the Obelisk
• Casey found new pants
• Wandered home via another little cafe
• We still have no idea how ordering, asking for the bill, paying, waiting for change etc works as has been different everywhere
• Home
• Crazy lady who lives in the building seems to have threatened to call the policia on us for who knows why
• Our host assures us that this lady just complains about everything and not to worry
• Cooked up some pasta for dinner
• Chilled did some reading

21/2/23: Day 13 - Buenos Aires - Ushuaia

• Travel day
• Cooked breakfast on our room and cleaned up
• Checked out by 11 and gave the keys back to our host, Maria
• Then basically just wandered up to a nice little cafe in Recoleta and had coffees and pastry for a couple of hours
• While reading a book, doing some planning
• Then a short cab to the airport
• Grabbed lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe they had there - cool music
• Then just chilled waiting for our flight
• Some random Argentinian pop star walked past while we were there - this guy Luck Ra
• Flight was fine, clapping Argentinians at the end which was very sweet, met a lovely guy called Alejandro on the plane
• Landed around 9pm, got to new little house
• Empanadas for dinner from around the corner - easier to find food at 10pm than 6pm in Argentina!
• Then just dins, bed

22/2/23: Day 14 - Ushuaia

• Bit of a sleep in - much harder to get up when it’s <10 degrees
• Eventually rugged up and got moving
• Wandered into the main area of town
• It is cold
• very cold
• Found a coffee shop
• Doble espresso con leche with pastries
• Thankyou
• Wandered along the street fantasising about how mch hiking gear I could purchase to warm up
• Got Casey some ear warmers
• Found a museum in the old Banc de la Nacion - had a look around
• Tried to book a penguin colony visit for tomorrow - booked it, paid for it - only for the company to say sorry the tour was already full
• Very South America
• Refund please
• Wandered down to the harbour for a look around
• Was able to book a penguin tour directly at a kiosk
• Then a cab out to the train at the end of the world - El Tren del fin del Mundo - the old prison train
• The 'one day at a time national park entry permit that was required to ride the train in addition to the train ticket' was an unwelcome surprise
• Took the train ride, was very cool
• It went a little way into Tierra Del Fuego National Park
• Very mountain
• Caught a cab back to town with a lovely French couple - asked them if they had any issues getting into Chile - they had none!! Was it something ScoMo did...!?
• Walked home
• Very cold
• Via a grocery store
• Couldn't find any more Empanadas, though - the Argentinians were mostly in their 4 hour daily nap so the bakeries were shut
• Home
• Dinner
• Bed

Stay tuned for more.