Brisbane May 2010

In May John and Liz went to Brisbane for a few days. John was attending the Australian Petroleum industry conference. We spent the time staying first at the Treasury Hotel, and then with friends Davor and Vesna. On the Sunday we hired bikes in the botanic gardens and went for a 30 kilomter ride up the river trail.

We all went south to Mount Tamborine for lunch on the Saturday. Beautiful views over the Gold Coast from the top, walks on the tree top walk and lunch at a local cafe. The weather played it's part and an enjoyable break was had by all.

Ben Pfahlert's Wedding

The whole Pfahlert clan gathered in Oxford, Canterbury, on 6 March to celebrate John's nephew Ben marriage to Tammy Shaskey. John's twin brother Patrick and his wife Hannah and son Oliver came over from Shanghai.

It was the first time in over 10 years that older the five Pfahlert grandchildren were all together at the same time, and a few years since John, Patrick and Mark Pfahlert and their parents got together.

Lots of other relatives and friends from both sides also in attendance. The wedding was in the St John of God Chapel in Halswell, then we went to the Shaskey's home for afternoon tea, before going on to to the Old Flaxmill outside Oxford for the "do".

Great weather and fine dining at Cafe 51 in Oxford, and also brunch at Jo Seager's restaurant. Both a surprise when one was expecting steak and chips....

Liz , John and children all stayed at the West Oxford Hotel. It was clean and tidy and quite reasonably priced.

Visit to Jerusalem February 2010

On the weekend of 20 February Liz and John organised a family gathering in Jerusalem, up the Whanganui River, to celebrate John's aunty's 93rd birthday. Sr Anna Maria Shortall is a Sister in the Home of Compassion and has lived in the community at Jerusalem for nearly 20 years.

Sr Anna Maria's sisters, Jane (Hokitika), Shelia (Napier) and Mary Jo (Blenheim) were all there. Also in attendance were Denis Pfahlert, Sue and Stuart Longly and their grandson, Linda Wealleans and friends of John and Liz's, Therese and Richard McTague of Lower Hutt.

It was a stunning weekend in terms of weather. We all stayed in the old convent. There was plenty of good food, company and swapping stories of days gone by.

Some of the Shortall clan from Feilding also visited for the day - Perry and Margaret Shortall, and Tom Shortall, and another whose name I've forgotten......

On the Saturday morning John & Liz walked "to the orchard" with Richard & Therese. It was a long walk uphill for about 1 & 1/2 hours uphill on a gravel road, and 3/4 hour back down, only to find that the orchard was about 500 metres from the convent!

Last days in BA

On Thursday 28th we went to Tigre. We caught the underground to the Retiro train station, from where we caught a train to Tigre station, about 50 minutes from BA. There were houses/apartments all along the way.

Tigre is a town near the mouth of the River Plate. The area is a large delta (estuary) with lots of islands joined by navigable waterways. All the islands are covered with houses, in varying states of repair. All services and materials have to be brought in by boat. We saw supermarket boats and the police and construction boats, as well as taxi boats.

We took a one hour boat trip around the delta. It was interesting to see all the people on holiday, some swimming in the brown water. The water is full of sediment, so it is supposedly safe to swim in....

We wandered around the local market and had lunch at the end of one of the piers. It was too hot to be out for too long in the sun, so we headed back on the train about 3pm. When we got back to the main train station the subway line was closed - of course we didn´t know why - and there was chaos outside as it is the subway line which crosses the city and links to all the other lines. Therefore we took a taxi back to the hotel and had a shower and cooled off in our airconditioned room. We have enjoyed having the aircon over the past few nights!!

We walked to a local restaurant, Gigon, at the intersection of San Jose and Chile streets, took a few extra blocks to get there so we were a bit hot and sticky by the time we arrived. Our city tour guide had recommended it, as it is a true local eatery, not where tourists go. So we celebrated the end of our tour with fine Argentinian steaks (no need to have red meat for ages, as we must have stored lots of iron while here) accompanied by local champagne. In keeping with local custom, we arrived about 8.30pm and left about 10.30 - more locals were just arriving.

One of the less pleasant sights we saw on returning to the hotel was people scavenging through other people´s rubbish, looking for recycalabes and even eating some of the food. There was even a mother with her baby in a pushchair. The rubbish is pulled out of the plastic bags and strewn around the footpath... There were plenty of police around, one on every block, so it felt safe.

It is now 9.45am on Friday morning and we are about to take a taxi to La Boca to do some last minute shopping. We are returning about 2pm to freshen up and finish packing, then head to the airport. We will miss out on Saturday 30th, and arrive in Auckland at 4am on Sunday 31st. Fog permitting we will be back in Wellington at 8am, and home soon after.

This has been a tour of contrasts, lots of kilometers (about 8000) with lots of steppe country to cover, and few towns and cities. Chile and Argentina have lovely mountains, and the desert, although sometime monotonous, has a beauty of its own. Despite the roughness of the road we enjoyed travelling up Route 40, and some of the allure of that route will be lost when it is all completely sealed.

Till next time, signing off -

Liz & John

27th January Buenos Aires

Yesterday was spent wandering the shops, not very successfully. Lots of toursit shops and far to hot to be very focussed on the task. We joined a colleague Steve from the UK at 5pm and had a cold beer together before retiring to our room for a cold shower and rest before the Tango evening.

This was just a walk down the road and was very enjoyable - a 2 hour show where the whole group attended. The place we went to is the oldest Tango show in BA, opened in 1858. Then on to a famous steak house for dinner, starting at about 11.30pm - we finally got to bed at 2.00am. The steaks were delicious but far too large for one. Liz and I shared one which must have weighed 500g.

Today we farewelled colleages on Cindy the truck as they headed north to Rio. We then changed to an airconditioned room, lovely. This afternoon we wandered the streets and then took the tube out to Palermo Soho to look at clothes and have dinner. It´s now 10.30 at night and the hotel is next door. Just returned on the the underground.

Dinner was nice, and we got to eat vegetables, the 1st time in South America.

26th in Buenos Aires

Yesterday we had a relaxing start to the day organising our laundry and updating the blog site. Then off to see how the underground works and a trip out to the botanical gardens. It looked like a storm had been through recently with many trees down. It was a bit neglected but a very interesting collection of plants.

Then on to the adjacent zoo where John managed to get photos of some of the birds and animals that had eluded him in the wild. It even had a tuatara with chicks hatching out of eggs. We got ripped off buying lunch at a Macdonalds type place, the only place to eat, at 25 pesos each for a buger, fries and a cold drink = no other choice of food. Very hot at about 36 degrees, so we had to keep buying bottled water.

Then on to the Japanese Gardens for a stroll before meeting two people off the other Dragoman truck and a taxi back to town.

We went for a cold beer at a cafe on the corner down from the hotel a 6.00pm and had a snack, then back to the room for a cold shower and a freshen up before joining the rest of our team for a drumming show across town at about 8.30. The group were a bunch of Brazillians who do a show every Monday, about 12 of them on bongo and kettle drums etc. They are supposed to be one of the best groups in South America. It was very hot, but they sold ice cold beer in one litre cups!

The show was loud and very fast paced. I reckon there were 2000 young people there, mostly foreign tourists by the look of them - as well as a few oldies like us. Then a taxi back to town for dinner starting at 11.30pm - looks like we are catching on to the Argentinian habit of eating late. In bed by 12.30 this morning for a well earned sleep.

25 January 2010 Buenos Aires

Since our last post we have travelled 1500ks to BA.
On 22nd we packed up camp and left at 6.30am. We stopped on Puerto Madryn to drop off 8 of our colleagues as they were catching a plane to BA so they could attrend a concert by Metallica that night.
There were 11 of us left, and so we had 2 seats each on the truck. We had breakfast on the road - meusli bars, yoghurt and banana. So we drove 750ks that day, with a short stop to have a picnic lunch, and a couple of stops at petrol stations. Only hiccup was when part of the exhaust fell off the truck. Riki repaired it that night, until then we sounded a bit like a steam train.
As the day went on it got warmer and warmer. Sights along the way - we started to see the first agriculture, around Viedma. Until then it had all been desert steppe country. Still very few houses and nothing in between.

Camp that night was on the coast at a large camping ground, in the middle of nowhere. Lovely spot, with a much appreciated swimming pool. People from Argentine, Chile and Brazil all seem to go camping for their holidays, in very small tents with all the family in together. They are all up till late at night, South American fashion.

Next morning (23rd) we had breakfast and left at 7am. 550ks to go! It was a scorcher of a day (nearly 40 degrees, the hotteswt on BA on record). It was now through agricultural land, evidence of a higher rainfall environment. Mostly flat all the way.

The road finally became 2 lanes each way, there were lots of trucks on the road and overtaking was necessary as they travel at 80 or 90ks, so when it became 2 lanes that was much easier. Then we hit 4 lanes, and heading into BA 6 lanes.
The houses (apartments) began about 25ks out. We arrived at 4pm. Our hotel is in the centre of the city, John and I have them penthouse suite....well, we have a large (for here) room at the top of the hotel. It is hot, as only has a fan, no aircon.

That night we went with a large group of us to a restaurant on the Docks, a big steakhouse. The Docks were the original port buildings and have all been beautifully refurbished as restautants and offices and apartments.

The city is surprisingly attractive, many old European style buildings. Lots iof Plazas and trees on the streets.

Yesterday, 24th, we wandered around the central city in the morning, and went to a large market. Being Sunday all the shops were shut and it was fairly quiet. In the afternoon we went on a tour of the city highlights. First to La Boca, where the area is fanous for its coloured buildings made from surplus port materials 120 years ago by the new immigrants. They used iron and timber, and painted the houses with leftover boat paint.

We also went to see Evita´s tomb in the famous Recolleta cemetery. This cemetery was full of amazing mausoleums, all laid out like in a city on little streets.
The guide explained the history of the city, and talked about the many statues and monuments. We caught the underground back for the last 1.5ks, the original carriges (refurbished) on what was the first underground in the Southern Hemisphere.

On the evening we took a taxi with Charles and Pat to La Boca for dinner in a local restaurant. Lovely meal. Finally got to bed about 1am.