Jo Jo's travel round the world

As u can imagine i dont have much to say for these past 5 days as i spent most of my time chilling by the pool and on the beach, having what ever i wanted as it was all inclusive!! ha ha however as you know is was my 25th birthday ere so after a champagne breakfast we headed in to Playa de Carman and mum and pete got me some new linen trousers as mine ripped on my way to them. But everywhere we went mum made sure they knew it was my birthday so i had shots, cakes singing!! It was fun after this mum and i got our nails done before hanging out by the pool for the rest of the day! Unfortunately while in Buenos Aires i had pick up the worst cold, that i believe has been all around the world, and on the day we went to swim with dolphins i had the worst night sleep so ended up passing out in the car there, but luckily i was ok for the swim. I whole experience was amazing we got about an hour to have kisses, hug and playing with the 2 dolphins with us. My favorite was called the foot push where u lay in the water on your front and the 2 dolphins push you along by your feet and you lift your body out of the water! It was amazing i was basically out of the water! When we got back i spent the afternoon in bed while mum and pete where at a wedding. The next day we chilled out by the pool as it was my last day with mum and pete before i had to fly back to Mexico and spend the night in the airport hotel again before my flight to LA. So here are some pictures to show my fun!!

My room with jucuzzi

The beach

view from my window of the lazy river

my kiss from the dolphin

the foot push

me and a baby seacow

So when i arrived n Buenos Aires i was met by my friend Pia who i had met in the Black Howler Monkey Centre, and spent my 6 days staying with her and her family. As Pia was working that day we headed to her mum's shop "Maire Te" and had a walk around the area before i took a nap after my long travel. That evening we met up with another girl who had been at the centre a few months before me and headed into the city to meet up with Alexandra and her family for a fund raising event by an art show. The woman who was running the night and also the artist interview Ali and us girls about the project but as she didnt speak any english Pia had to translate between the two of us. It was so weird listen to everyone else talking to the woman and i had to really think what was being asked and how best to reply so that it was easy for Pia to translate without sounding weird!

The next morning we rented some bikes and took a tour around the newest area of the city and the parklands there that were created by large amounts of concrete dumped into the sea and as the water receded wildlife slowly grew and settled there. We also saw an old ship that Pia's grandad used to travel across the globe in back in the old days :D

Me, bikes and the boat

As we had to have the bikes back by 5pm we then continued the tour on foot, and man did we walk far! once we got back towards the main city area we mad our way to the Government house and took a tour around and saw all the important areas, like where the president makes there vows and even where they have all the important meetings. When we had finished out tour we were in luck as it was the monthly change of guards so we made our way out on to the street and watch the marching band and the salutes between the guards. It was great to see that every month there is always a crowd there singing and cheering for the guards.

Me at the balcony evita used

Guards changing shifts

Government house

From here we walk to the monment "9 de juilo" in the centre of the main road in the city, from here we headed down to see there house of congress. the building wasnt a beautiful as there other buildings but it had lots of character to it. from here we headed back down past "9 de Juilo" to the theater Colon, as it was too late we organised to have a tour around it later in the week. As we started to look for a bus back to Pia's place we found ourselves walking all the way to the law school building where they have this metal flower that has light sensors on it so it opens when the sun comes up and closes as the sun goes down.

House of Congress

9 de Julio

Theater Colon

The next day we had planned to go to the zoo with Pia's sisters and brother-in-law but while we were in the car outside her mum's house waiting for the sister, the car broke down and we ended up pushing the car up and down the street trying to jump start it! It was hilarious it was a 1 way street and had cars trying to pass us while we ran up and down the street!! ha ha ha. So instead we went back into the centre and had a look around some art galleries and then headed over to the metal flower to see it in the day light. From here we headed to La Recoleta Cemetery in the middle of the city surrounded by high apartment buildings. It was amazing it was such a maze of vaults for many important people, Presidents, and many rich families have there family vaults here too. After a walk around the park area next to the cemetery we headed back to the house.

Metal flower

In La Recoleta

Vault covered in plants

The next day was a relaxed day as Pia had to work early in the morning so after she and finished we headed in to San Temo for a look around before getting ready for a night out with one of Pia's friends. Then net morning we got up and headed to the zoo. It was a beautiful zoo all the enclosures where so big with lots to keep the animals entertained! they even had a hospital and nursery area where you could see baby meerkats playing around and there was this gorgeous monkey that can never live with its own kind as it had been a pet for soo long that it doesnt understand that it is a nocturnal animal! it was so sad but he looked happy in his enclosure. When we went in to the bird enclosures there were some people ahead of us feeding some of the birds and when i went over to get a picture with them they either tried to eat my bag or eat my fingers!! ha ha ha.

the Lonely monkey

Bird eating my bag

me and a toucan

on my last day here we headed to the Theater Colon and had our English tour around the inside. It was amazing the inside had so many different ideas thrown together after the first architect died, and it wasnt finished by the 2nd architect. In the end it had a mix of italian, german and french designs to the building but they all mixed very well! in the main theater, which is horse shoe shaped, they have a chandelier in the middle of the ceiling that can hold up to 90 people so if they need to give the idea that music or choirs are singing from the heavens they can be up there. For the rest of the day i got my stuff ready for leaving to head to MEXICO where i will spend 5 days with my mum and pete!! YAY!!

Theater Colon stairs with 3 different colour marbles

Chandelier

View from the important visitors box

View of the theater from the presidents box

As my flight to mexico city got me there the day before my flight to Cancun i stayed in the airport hotel, which was soo posh it was so weird staying there after the places i had stayed in over the past 8 months!! But Yay Mexico!!

xxx

So my journey to Argentina was the longest ever, it took a whole 2 days of flying, from New Zealand to LA, wait for hours, then LA to mexico, Again wait for hours, Mexico to Buenos Aires, wait for hours, and then finally Buenos Aires to Cordoba. When i finally arrived at Cordoba airport it was early evening and i was picked up by my driver who drove to to the centre. The drive took about 2 hours through the mountains. when i finally arrived it was about 8pm. I was meet by Juan who is a long term volunteer whos been there for 10 years!! i was soo tired that the next morning i slept in till about 10am. Once up i met Ali the women whos runs the place and learnt quickly that she speaks no english what so ever and thanks to my spanish lessons that i took before i came travelling i knew very little spanish! Luckly Juan and another volunteer, Franko, knew english so they were able to translate between me and Ali.

Life at the centre is very different to that i experienced in South Africa at C.A.R.E! When they say in the information before you come they are not lying! The house i was living had electricity and i had a bathroom, but no running water. I was lucky the other house that is out in the woods has no electricity and the nearest bathroom is the a 10min walk! Also there was no running hot water so when it came to doing the dishes at night we hd to light a wood fire outside that heats a water tank, this was the same when it came to having a shower so by the time you have set the fire and waited for the water to get to a hot temperature you are looking at 40mins to hour after you started the shower! It was good fun living like this i have to admit but at time when you had, had a long day and where tired and just wanted to shower and sleep it got alittle annoying!

My house

The shower and water tank

Now if im totally honest my first week here was hard! This was the first time i was totally on my own in a country that didnt speak english and as my spanish wasnt very good most of the time i was alone, i couldnt get involved in the conversations going on and it was hard to every start conversations because they didnt feel they had good english! But then one morning we had another volunteer turn up, Pia, who became my best friend at the centre! She had really good english as her grandma is an english teacher. From this point on she made sure i was always included even if it was just explaining what they were talking about. After a while i started to pick up the language, not to the point where i could talk back to them but i could mostly understand what people where saying and if i was asked to do something in spanish by Ali i understood! YAY!

So my main jobs at the centre were to look after the babies and new monkeys brought to the centre, and helping to prepare the food for the other animals at the centre and feeding them. While i was there i also had to feed a baby cow milk 4 times a day and a number of baby llamas that where born at the centre but sadly the mothers where unable to take care of them. Sadly only one of the baby llamas survived, Bambi, who was the worst of all the cases as she was born premature and was found by one of the volunteers still wrapped in the placenta and was cold. But she was a fighter and slowly she grow stronger and could be found following me around the centre. So all in all i was momma monkey, momma llama and momma cow! ha ha

Bambi

Moya

So as for the babies i had 6 babies that i was incharge of, 2 of them live in a cage with 2 males and 2 females, but as the bars are large the babies can come in and out as they please to interact with the other babies and to eat with them, as the babies had to be feed 4 times a day with different meals each time unlike the caged and wild groups that only got feed once a day, unless they where sick or needed to be fattened up for the coming winter (which gets very cold). So every morning i let the babies out of their house and they just hung out around there tree where their is an adult male to protect them from the other groups who live in the trees near by. During the day i would sit with them an play as well as releasing 2 females, Camilla and Dadois, who where pets before they came to the centre so we spent the time with them to try and teach them that they are monkeys and to stay within that area. By the time i left Dadois was free, we didnt let her back into the cage instead she spent her time with the male it was great to be a part of that! However Camilla was more trouble, as she came to the centre at an older age it was much harder for her to understand. But by the time i left she was doing better she didnt always try to run off, but that was because she had me for 2 months watching her and knowing all her tricks, if a new volunteer was left to watch her she would test them! but she was so beautiful and loved to have hugs with you!

My Camilla

Out of the 6 babies that i was looking after i only know the stories for 4 of them, Bridget and freddy where both pets that were brought to the centre but for coranjo and camison it wasnt as simple as that! Coranjo was a wild born baby from of the groups at the centre buy sadly his mum died so he was taken away from that group and was brought up by volunteers, camison was alittle different again he was a wild born baby in another group but the alpha male died while he was still feeding from his mum. However in these situations when a new alpha takes over he kills any new borns still feeding from their mums as they are seen as competition so he was also removed from his group and brought up by volunteers.

Me with some of the babies

But i didnt spend all my time with babies i also had to walk into the forest and feed 8 wild groups and i this was done twice a day. In the morning we had to carry a big bunch of leaves with 5L bottles of water, as they didnt have access to water or different types of leaves, and then in the afternoon we took them plates of food which could have been fruit and vegs, pasta, rice, dry dog food in warm water, or polenta. Other jobs i was involved in were we released 2 new males into a group in the forest and we took it in turns to sit and observe the group to make sure the males were settling in ok and not running off or fighting with any of the groups near by. Also the centre is open to tourists to come and meet some of the wild groups and they cages with capuchin monkeys in and sometime i would show groups to a group that is about a 10min walk from the main centre, however as i didnt speak spanish very well most times they were told about the group before i took them and i just showed them who was who. But sometimes had very nice people who spoke english and would translate for me, and one time i had a group of Americans come so i went round with Franco and helped answer their questions.

Female form group 1

female in the trees

So like i said there were more than just Howler monkeys at the centre we had 3 groups of Capuchin monkeys, 2 of the groups came from a laboratory that was going to kill the monkeys as they couldnt use them any more so Ali told them to bring them to the centre to have a life, and the other group where pets brought to the centre. But not only monleys live here we also had 2 pumas that were confiscated by the police and have a life here, and also there are many llamas, donkeys, cows, goats, one sheep (all the others were sadly killed by wild dogs), geese, 2 horses and 14 dogs.

Toto the capuchin

Toto with my hair band

The 14 dogs were the best fun! most were resuces that Ali had round on the streets in La Cumbra and brought to the centre to have a better life and while i was there we had a gorgeous puppy brought to the centre who soon became my puppy. We called him Simba and he would spend his whole day following me around and even slept in my bed with me!! I loved him soo much that if i could have taken him home with me i would have!! I broke my heart when i left to leave him, him he cried when i locked him in the house! But i know he will have the best life there at the centre as he had all the land he wants to run around and all the dogs he could want to keep him company and play with.

Me and my Simba

My Simba

Simba

So all in all i had a good time at the centre, so good that Ali has asked me to come back and stay for a whole year as i volunteer, but for free so i wont have to pay like this time and she would still provide all the food for me and house me (hopefully in the house with electricity) so it something im going to think long and hard about!!

xx

After an early start to catch the ferry across to the south island, we found our selfs staying in Kaikoui, we decided after organizng our whole south island trip that we would relax by the pool for the after noon before watching Avatior for the 4th time on this trip! the best part was when we went to the local shop later ijn the evening to get a ice cream, i asked for a 2 scoop cone and no joke the size of it would be the same as a 5 scoop in england , IT WAS HUGE!! it took me about 30mins to eat it, but it was amazing!! ha ha. we then headed down to Christchurch, the roads over here are so different from the North Island, its beautiful over here!! We went around the city the damage from the earth quake in september was nothing compaired to what i tought it would be, there were only a few streets where you could see the damage otherwise it looked totally normal. We booked to go punting down the river, luckly we had a guy doing it for us as i think we would have ended up in the river if we had to do it! We got to see the fountain that would be seen on many postcard it was really pretty, and a number of older building that have be adapted for todays market.

Christchurch fountain

Over the next few days here we visted the Cathedral, which was very nice, smaller than i expected, saw some local kids doing a maori experience in the city centre, went to a maize maze, and went up the gondola to see the city from up the mountain. It was beautiful up there it was a perfect day to do it, it almost looked like a poster in front of us it didnt look real!!

View from the gondola

Moari kids

The next stop was Lake Tekapo, it was amazing i have never seen water that colour and i dont think i ever will, unless i came back here of course! we really couldnt get over the colour when the sun was out. we went to a salmon farm that was on the river just past the lake and saw that they were massive, the water here it the best conditions from them and there were even people fishing in the river near by as its a great place to catch fish! in the distance you could see mount cook, which still had snow at the top. altough the weather was stunning and we had eaten dinner out side, by trhe time we went to bed the temperature had dropped dramatically and we ended nup frezzing in the tent and wrapped up in all the layers we could! he he

Lake Tekapo

Salmon farm river

Our next stop was Dunedin, as it was a long drive we didnt do much when we got thre just pitched our tent in the windy wheater and had some dinner. The next day we booked our Speights brewery tour and Cabury's tour, then headed out to Larnach castle, the only castle in New Zealand! It wasnt a very big one but it has been beautifully kept and the gardens are stunning! The views you get of the many harbours around the area is a great indication to why the castle was built here! We climbed up the tower and the views were just as amazing from the gardens, and suprisingly it was warmer up there than down on the ground!

Larnach Castle

Me at the top of the tower

On our brewery tour we learnt how it was all made and the history of speights beer, but at the end we got to try 5 beers and a cider made by them! The cider was really nice, with the beer i tried all of them except one which was a really dark beer with a coffee taste, and i hate coffee so gave it a miss, but they were all really nice! After feeling a little tipsy we headed for some lunch before heading to cabury's. We got taken round the factory and my good did it smell yummy, we got loads for free chocolate and even got a small tub of melted chocolate to eat there and then! yummy! At the end of the tour we went inside one of the old cilo's where we saw a 1 ton of melted chocolate drop into a tub below, it looked lovely but the chocolate was 6 months old and only gets changed once a year, yummy ha ha!

over the next two days we camped in the Catlins, where there are a number of walks, waterfall and coastal things to see. so on the first day we went to nugget point, where there was an old light house and we could seals hanging out, and purakaunui falls, which were very nice.

Nugget point

seals

The next day we headed down to slope point which is the south most point on the south island, here you could see the'wind swept trees' and at the cliff point there wqas a sign post that told you how far it was to the equator and the south pole it was different but cold. After this we headed to Waipohatu and went on a 3 hour rain forest walk to see another waterfall. However after about 20mins into the walk we realised that they walk way was not a very well maintained one! Claire fell over 3 times, one of which was into the river from the water fall, and i manged to slip and hit my head on low branches twice! it was the funniest walks we have done, we were just laughing the whole way round. The most interesting part though was the 'stairs' down to the waterfall base, they were so old and washed away that it was just a muddy slope that we had to make our way down. even though there were planks of wood there if you put any weight on them they just started to move! After this we were going to go to see the cathedral caves but we were socking wet, covered in mud and claire had wet shoes and feet from falling into the river that we decided to head back to camp to change and dry off.

Wind swept trees

Water fall

The famous steps down to the falls

The next stop was Queenstown, which was not how i would expected it! We found out how expensive it was here as the whole town is just based around tourist so i guess they get away with charging more money during the day we decided to go on the Big Adventure scavenger hunt which was basically us running around the whole of Queenstown looking for clues to the next! it was hilarious! but oh my days was i tired after as we had to run up the walkway to the top of the gondola! we didnt win in the end but as they didnt take any money from us for the hunt we weren't to fussed. However claire did win a free pass to go on a 'Big night out' bar crawl as one of the challanges was to find someone who looks like you and get a photo with them. Now Claire is a twin and had a photo of her and laura in her purse so we took a picture of that and she won! ha ha ha. That night we had booked on to the Kiwi bar crawl (before we had won thew voucher for the other one) and dragged on of our room mate with us, Brodie. It was a very different bar crawl to the ones we went on in Australia, but we did get to go to the ice bar which is -5C inside and they dress you in big coats, ugg boots and gloves. It was really cool we had a free shot in a ice shot glass and then had cocktails in big bowl glasses made out of ice!

Me in the ice bar gear

One of the ice figures

on our way up to Fox Glacier we stopped at puzzle world where there was a very confusing maze that took us over an hour to find our way to all 4 coloured huts and then through 4 illusion rooms that were a little confusing. When we got to Fox we had a relaxing afternoon as we were going on the walks the next day, but due to the expensive price of doing the guided walks we decided to just do the free walk that dont take you all the way to the glacier so you could touch it but you could see the same as you would if you did the cheapest walk they offered! it was amazing and i cant not believe how far back it has moved over the years! after we had seen the glacier we went to a lake near by where if you go at the right time you can see the mountains reflected in the water, know as the reflection island, but we went at the wrong time and it was cloudy but all in all it was amazing and we got to see everything we wanted and didnt have to pay for it! yay!!

Fox Glacier

Reflection island

Our next fun adventure was in Greymouth where we went to shanty town, where we learnt about life back in the gold rush and then got a chance to pan for gold!! woo woo i have a small pot of gold now IM RICH!!! not really

The water wheel in Shanty town

over the next few days we travelled up the northern points of the south island, along the way we stopped of in Punakaikito to see the pancake rocks and the blow hole, the sea was too calm to see the blow hole but the rocks were very different from what was expected, i thought big round boulders on top of each other but no its like layers in the rock, i would love to know how that was formed. over the next two days we didnt get up to much as we had long drives and also i have a slight problem. While in Collingwood, up the northern point, and while there a small piece of glass got into my eye during the night and we didnt get it sorted till we were in Nelson at which point i was told to try and keep my eye out of the wind for a day so the stuff she put in it would take effect! It sucked!

Pancake rocks

Pancake rocks with a view

So while we had to wait for my eye to get better we decided to go in a big flying fox (Zip wire) in Nelson it was so much fun!! it drops free falling for 800m! and can get up to 80kmh! but with the wind we only got to 76kmh! it was cool you sit in a giant baby seat, with a big coat on, and a hat (i got the monkey) he he and then off it goes! the guy let us go twice as we were the only people there in the whole day who wanted to go on it!!

Before long we were back on the ferry on our way back up to Auckland to meet up with the guys we met at New Years! What can i say the south island is amazing and its soo hard to try and explain it on here i feel like iv missed out so much but its one of these i think you just need to come and see it for your self to fully understand!

While waiting to board my flight at Cairns down to Sydney i see that one of the passagers on my flight is someone i recognize! However still to this day i have no clue what their name is all i now is that he is a middle aged Scottish guy who films documentary's on TV if anyone might no who im talking about please message me names!! Anyway so after an embarrassing 5 minutes where i found i had been staring at the guy before moving on swiftly i found my self waiting for my flight to Auckland. In the departure lounge i made friends with a Canadian woman who ended up coming to the hostel that i was staying that night as she didnt have anywhere sorted. But before that i got chatting to my neighbour on the flight and his mates on the flight who were all roadie crew for Blondie who was on tour in New Zealand! So all in all the most interesting flights so far! ha ha! After a 4 hour wait for Claire to get to the hostel and a few hours gossiping we went to bed. The next morning we went and collected our car and when shopping for our tent and some food!

We decided that we weren't going to stay in Auckland as we would be returning the car there and we could see it just before we left so we headed off the Rotarua, known for its smells, and had a look round before heading to camp, where the rain descended on us. After a night of rain, but surprising comfortable sleep, with our under floor heating from the natural spring that went under the campsite, we headed into town to get picked up for our white water sledging. Oh my god was it the most fun i have had in a while! Claire was mildly scared that she was going to die but once in the river she soon had fun!! so long story short you got down the rapids on a plastic body board with handles and hope that you dont flip your self over, or get run over by the rafters who are coming down after you! Too funny, defiantly more fun that rafting any day! Also on the last rapid you got the chance to try river surfing where you go back into the rapid and you hold ur self there while the water pushes you from all directions! i didnt do so well and ended up flipping over ha ha

First rapid

River surfing

We survived

Next stop was Lake Taupo, on the way we stopped off at the Wairake terraces where we saw a man made geyser that had water coming out of it at 130C!! you couldnt go into any of the silica pools except for one know as the honeymoon pool where we dipped our feet in. Because of the silica my skin felt so soft! From here we visited Huka Falls which to my surprise passes the equivalent of 2 Olympic swimming pools over the falls every second!!

Wairake Terraces

Huka Falls

The trip up to the Coromandel Peninsula was not as eventful but we stopped off to see an aquarium, and some walks that gave a 360 view, but when we drove into coromandel it was stunning! The sun was shining and the view we got was amazing! Couldnt have picked a better place to spend Christmas! We partied Christmas eve with the people in our hostel and spent xmas recovering! It was weird not being home for Christmas day i missed the family alot, however we had a pool and a spa and sun so i made the most of it!

Coromandel peninsula

Christmas

The next place we headed was up in the Bay of Islands, up the northern part of the North Island, but along the way we stayed in Whangarei where we saw the Whangarei falls. It is one of the most photographed falls and i could see why it was stunning! but the most exciting thing we did here was that we went to Zion Wildlife park! Yes the park where The Lion Man used to work and film, but as we all know he was sacked so i didnt get the pleasure of meeting him however we did do the cheetah experience where we got to go into the enclosure with them and feed them and stroke them! IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! when we first went in there the female was stalking us as she knew we had food then when she charged the main guy ill admit is scared the poop out of me but she didnt do anything except hiss alittle so after that i was fine! Hand feeding the female was insane i loved it she was surprisingly gentle taking it from you!

Whangarei Falls

Stroking the Cheetahs

Hand feeding the female

Walking around the rest of the park was really good too, we got to see all the lions and tigers in the park and even meet Foxy the baboon, sadly she is soo old and has a number of health problems i dont think she will last there much longer Our guide was really good he got some of the lions and one female tiger to stand up on their hind legs to get some food! They were also very open and even spoke about the unfortunate death of one of their guys who worked there, and found out our guide was in the enclosure when it happens and had shot the animal before it came for him! But other than that it was great to see!

Zion Park

Tiger on her hind legs

White lion on hind legs

Finally we arrived in Paihia where we were staying for New Years. We meet our roommates Kristi, Mark and Pete, before Pete gave us a tour of Paihai as he has been there many times for New Years. once back we learnt that Pete was up for partying as he brought into the room his 'chilly bin' full of beers and started to hand them out! As you can all imagine we had a good giggle here over the 3 days but became really good friend with these guys and even organized to meet up again when we get back to Auckland as that is where they are living! Anyway on New Years Eve we all went out of a lovely Thai dinner before partying and watching the Fireworks on the beach! it was an amazing way to spend new years so different to that we would do back home!!

Fireworks on the beach

As we headed down to the south of the island to catch our ferry across to the south island we stopped off in Waitomo to go black water rafting! this is basically going underground with a black rubber ring and following a river through the caves and seeing glow worms along the way, oh and jumping off waterfalls in the dark! It was hilarious our two guides where nutters as the did flips of the waterfalls and all sorts but they were really nice and patient with some of the others in our group!

Our group photo

All of us with our rafts

Along the way!

After this we stayed 2 nights in wellington until our ferry, it was a really nice city. As we didnt have much to do we went to the cinema and saw 'love and other drugs' i suggest that everyone should see this film it is soo funny we could not stop laughing through out the film! So finally on the 6th January we boarded the ferry and made our way to the south island, SOO EXCITED!!!