Day 52 - Auckland, New Zealand to Santiago, Chile

Today was one crazy long day. We have a few hours left in Auckland before we need to head to the airport. We make use of our kitchen facilities before heading out. 

Another lovely day in Auckland (view from our balcony). 

We then have a wander around town after face timing Hayley and Jacob. We really need to find some warmer clothes for upcoming colder stints up high in South America. We don't find anything though. NZ certainly is not a top shopping destination!

We then head to the airport. We are going to miss Auckland. Although we have spent very little time in the city the surrounding areas are truley fantastic. One hell of a beautiful place. We definitely need to come back as see more of New Zealand, particularly the South Island. 

Our flight is 11hr 30 mins, taking off at 4.15pm on 7th Jan and landing at 11:00am on the 7th Jan having crossed the international date line (this time we manage to get our hotel booking right!) The flight is pretty tiring as we land at what would be 3am New Zealand time so don't actually get any sleep as we are not that tired until the flight is about to land. What's also confusing is that we leave New Zealand 13 hours ahead of the UK and land only three hours behind. Had no idea Santiago was so close in terms of time difference.

We have also never flown for so long over sea. Makes you appreciate how big the Pacific Ocean is. Doesn't make for very interesting map monitoring on along the way though.  

Weird new type of plane that is slightly oblong for more space (not a great picture of it!)

We have a good flight. Nat literally spends the whole flight watching series four of Mad Men. I watch Wolverine and a film about Steve Jobs called 'Jobs' with Ashton Kutcher. Pretty good film. The guy was a genius but a real ass hole! The flight seemed to go pretty quick although just as we get really tired and ready to sleep we land in Santiago. 

Not for the first time in this trip we are very pleased we are not American. They charge the Americans US$160 each for a Visa! Luckily we get in for free. 

Also massively random moment in the queue for customs. I get a tap on my shoulder and asked if I work for EY (as well as kind if recognising me my EY rucksack gave me away apparently!). It turns out to be James Bertioli, one of the guys from our office. It really is a small world. He is away travelling with his girl friend and was on the same flight (although he got on at Sydney). We share a taxi with them into town and arrange to meet them for a few beers tomorrow. Crazy. 

So we arrive in Santiago time for 7th Jan part two. It is really hot in Santiago (low 30s) and a nice city. We are staying in a nice area called Bellavista at a little boutique hotel called Hotel Loreto. 

http://www.loretohotel.cl

We are too early for check in so we drag ourselves out to find a bar to collapse into. We cross the very fast flowing and murky river. Especially for the middle of summer. 

Santiago is pretty cool. It has a very European feel to it and there is cool street art everywhere. Most of the buildings have some cool sort of picture on them. 

We walk up to the Cathedral which looks pretty impressive and sit in a cafe for a diet coke. 

One thing we have experienced already are language differences. Need to seriously brush up on my sketchy Spanish. No one speaks English. Even little things like them telling us how much something is generates blank faces from us as we don't know our Spanish numbers for thousands and tens of thousands. 

We thought we'd tick off the next one then head back to the hotel for a well needed nap. Hard Rock glass number eight in the bag. We have been up 24 hours now and dizzy with tiredness. 

We wake up to what could be sunrise but is one of the most orange sunsets I have ever seen. Gorgeous. The temperature has also dropped to a lovely level too which is great. 

Our little balcony and front of our hotel. 

That evening we head a few streets down from the hotel into the main area of Bellavista which is kind of like Soho. Full of little bars and restaurants. It is heaving for a Tuesday night. Everyone is sat on the street drinking litre bottles of beer. Great atmosphere. Everyone is out really late too. We only get out at 10.30pm and it's still bustling. 

We eat at a place called Venezia restaurant on Pio Nono. We sample the Santiago speciality which is basically fries topped with eggs, onions and lots of meat. Pretty hearty stuff and great value. A huge steak for £7 and a litre of Austral beer (only choice on the menu) for £2. Loving cheap food and beer again. 

Adios Amigos!