My New Favourite Food
Panettone - a cross between a croissant and christmas cake. In this case it is filled with chocolate chips rather than fruit. DELICIOUS!
Stolen Panties
Going through the Argentinian Airport we knew that the baggage handlers are notorious for opening peoples bags and stealing things so we were sure to put anything valuable in our carry-on bags.
When we got into Brazil and I opened my bag, they had stolen a necklace (that I had wrapped as a gift) but left the wrapping paper in my bag, and they stole my underwear! Only the clean stuff.
I Love Buenos Aires
It is hot, humid, and there are little bins by the toilets for used toilet paper, but I love Buenos Aires!
Despite my lack of Spanish vocabulary, and the fact that I butcher the language every time I make an effort, the people are understanding and friendly. I am picking up the language faster than I thought I would, but I can understand more than I can speak. I admit I do get a little thrill when I find someone who speaks some English so I don’t have to use hand signals to communicate.
The food here is awesome. Pizza, pasta and meat is plentiful. I love the empanadas (meat pie type things) and alfajores (big biscuits that are delicious). There are fruit stalls on most corners, and cute little bakeries every two or three blocks selling amazing little pastries.
And of course, the shopping here is amazing. Even with the weak kiwi dollar at the moment, there are many great buys to be found.
A Kiwi Girl’s Impressions of Santiago de Chile
Spending two days in Santiago was not enough, but from such a short amount of time here are my impressions of this amazing place.
Flying in after 11 hours on a plane, Chile felt strangely familiar. It reminded me a lot of flying down the east coast the South Island of New Zealand. Lots of green land and glorious mountains. Then we saw Santiago, kind of. You cant really see it much from that height, just the smog that covers it! Welcome to a big city.
It was really warm and sunny and we were there on a weekend, so the people were very relaxed. Our first venture out of the hostel we passed a number of bars playing typical 80’s music, the sound of Madonna blaring from a bar made me feel like I was walking down Courtenay Place, not on the other side of the world. We stayed in Bella Vista - party central, and Saturday night the music went until well into Sunday morning (7am we still could hear the drums!)
The people there were amazing, really friendly and patient with me and my lack of Spanish. It was a lot safer than I thought it would be (although in our short time we didn’t really venture out of main areas). And, like many big city’s there was a lot of stray dogs. These were friendly but the travel doctor in Welly had me so scared of rabies that I kept my distance!
Overall I was very impressed with this warm friendly place. At the airport on the way out a tourist officer asked us a bunch of questions about our stay, I guess they are trying hard to become a popular destination.
Now I am continuing my crash course in Spanish in Argentina 
UPDATE: you can view a few of our photos from Chile here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=51636&l=90340&id=553261784
My Experiences Planning Our BIG ADVENTURE!!!
I am about to embark on my greatest adventure! In just over three weeks John and I head to South America. We are spending a couple of days in Santiago, a couple of days in Buenos Aires (BA), then up to Sao Paulo to hang with Johns brother for a bit. Next year off to the UK or the States to pay off our credit cards
My experiences so far include:
Applying for UK Tier 1 Visa: Much more difficult than I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, the actual visa process was great, but arranging all our supporting documentation took a lot of work!
Booking Flights: I looked into it online (I spent a whole day checking out different sites) then I went to adventure travel (a branch of House of Travel) and not only were they super helpful, but they got flights much cheaper than I could find! Would highly recommend checking with a travel agent before booking flights, especially if you have an unusual itinerary – Jodi at Wellington Adventure Travel is really great.
Booking Accommodation in Santiago and BA: Was made very easy to make an informed decision using this site: http://www.hostelworld.com/ I cannot recommend it highly enough! Will update you once we actually turn up because there is still a lot in the process that could go wrong
Getting vaccines: We got these yesterday. I was a little anxious before we went in (I hate needles!). The doctor at “the Travel Doctor” was very informative, and the nurse who did the shots was really nice. It was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be but I have had a mild dead arm for the last 24 hours.
Selling our life on TradeMe: once again TradeMe have done very well out of us. I sold our whole life and am arranging all the pick ups at the moment – takes all the project management skills I learned at Provoke!
Getting over material things: I admit I was a little freaked out that all we will have in the world will fit in two packs. I have since gotten over that – my new mantra is “I am not attached to material things. It is kind of liberating not having any stuff. Saying that I am looking forward to shopping in BA 
So far so good. Getting super excited!
The Perfect Chocolate Brownie….
I love baking, but baking a wonderful chocolate brownie is something I have always struggled with. It always tastes delicious, but looks really average. Now I think I have figured it out! So for all of you out there who want to cook the perfect chocolate brownie - its as easy as this:
Follow the recipe and cooking times (let me know if you want my recipe, it is super easy).
Leave in the tin until it is cooled (do not put on rack to early!)
That is it Happy baking!
Customer Service: The good, the bad and the ugly….
Being in sales means that customer service is something near and dear to my heart. I really appreciate good customer service, and bad customer service makes me want to scream.
Because I am off work, and we are gearing up to go overseas, I am interacting with customer services representatives more than I have in a long time. I will continue to post any notable exceptions, but below are this weeks good, bad and ugly:
The good: The award for the most pleasant suprise for good customer service would have to go to the Passports people at DIA. I took in John and My applications all filled out and not only was I quick to get service, but the guy on the other side of the counter was helpful, friendly and well informed!
The bad: The University of Otago. I needed to call them to get my student ID number last week. I spent (literally) 6 hours trying to call them before I got through (they were engaged that entire time!) To be fair, once I got through, the guy on the end of the phone did his best to be helpful, but I got the feeling he didn’t really know what he was doing, and it took a very long time for him to find the right information.
The ugly: Last night I bought a new blogging machine(aka tiny little laptop) from Dell. The online ordering experience was ok - nothing major to complain about there. Then today I got a voicemail from them - “they hope I am having a super day, could I call them back and quote this number…”. So, I called them back. The first woman I talked to couldn’t understand a word I said so I was put through to someone else. “Hi, my name is Sarah Lewis, I ordered a laptop from you last night and I am returning a call that I just received today, the number is this”. First she spent a good couple of minutes explaining to me (in broken English) that I couldn’t track my delivery for another 48 hours, once I explained that I was returning their call (which took far too long) she put me through to someone else. I repeated this, then they put me on hold for 10 minutes until I was cut off. I called back, went through this at least 3 more times before someone told me everyone is busy so they will have to call me back. That was two hours ago and so far no call - not surprising considering the last person I talked to took none of my information! Dell is going to have to go above and beyond to turn this experience around, what are the chances of that happening do you think?
John got all his wisdom teeth out - does that make me the wise one now?
Today John stay’s home with me - yippee. But at 2pm we had to take him to get all his wisdom teeth out so not much fun for him.
He didn’t go under general (was going to cost another over a thousand dollars more!) but had some other fancy drug that means he wasn’t all there for the procedure. He couldn’t eat after 10am so we got up this morning and made him a big greasy breakfast, then he stuffed a banana, a chocolate yogurt and lollies into his gob before his time was up.
We had a relaxing afternoon on the couch watching movies to keep his mind off things before we had to go.
Only took 20 minutes and he was out. The dentist said it was the easiest one he has done. John has no recollection of the procedure. I hate to say it but he was oh so funny - high as a kite! He sat for about half an hour to make sure he didn’t bleed and kept asking me what was happening. The walk to the car was interesting - he was more interested in staring at passers by and cars than walking.
We are home now, and so far so good. I am happy to say that it seems to be much less of a drama than we were expecting (touch wood).
Update (next day): For any of you that are interested John is doing much better now. Very little pain but he is throwing up. I rung the dentist after the third time and it turns out a large part of the population have that reaction to codeine. So we have stopped that - hopefully it works!
I have been filling my time watching the Olympics
Sunday was a great day - the closing ceremony of the Olympic games meant that I could finally peel myself off the couch and explore the outside world again!
But seriously though, one good thing about taking time off during the NZ winter was that I got to watch all of the excitement of the Olympics. Key highlights for me:
Mahe Drysdale: my vote is that he is our most heroic participant - the Kiwi’s first medal winner despite being very unwell with a tummy bug!
Valerie Vili: in my opinion our best overall athlete, a legend - she sure knew that winning was more then just throwing that heavy ball. She was an absolute joy to watch and I admit I did cry when she got her medal
Usain Bolt: he was wonderful to watch! His first medal had my heart racing and he just achieved it with such ease! I vote him the best personality at the Olympics and look forward to watching him in the future.
Michael Phelps: what a machine! I watched with excitement as he proclaimed he would win 8 gold medals - and he did it! And (a little bit of trivia) he has ADHD which just makes him so much cooler
Over all I was very proud of all of the Kiwi’s - we did an awesome job!
There was some garbage about whether Phelps or Bolt was “the greatest athlete” at the Olympics - they are both amazing. I say lets have two “greatest” this time round
Road Trip Around the South Island BRRRRRRRRRRR
I have spent the last three weeks touring around the South Island - it was so much fun
Started in Christchurch - staying at Purau Bay Holiday Park which John’s Mum owns…. I stayed in a cabin and it felt like I was an intrepid camper (although I did have two hotties and flannelette sheets).
John caught up with us and we drove (through the storm and the snow) to Alexandra. Check out our photos here. We had an awesome time ice skating, walking to the clock, watching the Rugby and finding out how John’s Nan met his Grandad.
On the way back to Christchurch, we spent a night in Dunedin and Becks and I broke off for our own fun road-trip - we had an awesome time - you can find more photos here. We spent a couple more nights in the cabin, then headed to Dunedin where it was freezing cold and sleeting. Despite that we did manage to make it to the new Chinese Gardens and had heaps of fun.
Back in Welly now, but off to the Naki on Friday FUN FUN FUN Not working!