Last post

Hello followers,

This will be my last post for the trip. Hope you all have enjoyed the (almost) weekly update. I have been here for three months now and so my tour of duty is almost over. We have our last weekend on the town this weekend and then I am home on the 12th of June.

It has been a pretty cool trip and I have experienced the South American culture kind of. Living with 16 other kiwi boys and two maids who speak only Spanish has been an experience on its own. I now have over 700 photos and many stories. I am also fluent in Spanglish too haha

Hope that you have all enjoyed the updates and I will no doubt catch you all up in NZ at some point. I will most likely be moving back to Palmy to be with my girlfriend and if there are no jobs there then Welly or the Hawkes Bay are the next options.

If anyone wants to see my photos I can sort something out like putting them into a zip file. Just email me.

Sweet as,

Matt out

Hey kids,

2months down and only three more weekends left for exploring. We had a 21st here last night (Saturday) which involved a funnel and a massive bonfire which is always guaranteed a good time.

Hope that you all enjoyed grad week and that you all drunk more than enough.

Not much news this last week, it is supposed to rain this week and not get above 8 degrees during the day. The weather is mean as in the weekends but digging in the rain isn't so bad anymore, it just sux being wet all day long only three weeks left though.

Anyway that's all for this week.

Ciao chicos and chicas

7 weeks down 4 to go of living the dream...

Time has certainly flown by and this will be one of the last posts on this blog, hope all you guys have been enjoying the weekly update of my travels. My plans for future travels are non-existent at this point but coming back to South America and doing some actual backpacking is on the list including Canada and Europe.

This country (from the little I have experienced) is quite cool and the people are really relaxed, the toughest thing is the language barrier but I have managed to get by alright. We have one more trip planned and that involves heading further south to the glaciers of the Patagonia region, so there will no doubt be photos and stories from that trip.

Have a mean as time at grad this week kids, don't get into too much mischief.

Matt out...

Five more weeks of work left and then we're heading home, having a mean as time here although the work is getting really monotonous. The trees have just begun changing colour and all the snow has melted now.

We spent all week digging in the rain last week, it gets a bit shit being wet all day. Hopefully we will see some sun this week, makes working outside a bit more enjoyable. We are building some really sick single track at the moment in Beech forest. The coolest part of the property we are working on is that it is a retired farm and the forest we are working in is all native regenerating bush.

Anyway hope you all enjoy grad, really sux not to be there with 'The Planners of 2009.' Skype me if you can too guys :)

That's it for another week kids.

Week four down, seven left. Time flies by here, hitting town again tomorrow night.

Been digging in sideways rain all day, there is heaps more snow on the hills around here. We are expecting to have snow down to where we work in the next month.

I am still applying for jobs back home too so if any of you know or here of any jobs, I am always looking on Seek and Trademe jobs.

Have fun at the Ball and Grad too, I have skype (my username is: matthew.stulen) so someone skype me when you are all in the piss.

Another week down, done some fishing this afternoon and had a mean as fire on the beach. Only hooked up one salmon but didn't land it- fishing fail. A couple of the other boys landed salmon and we cooked them up on the fire. Nothing quite beats smokey, fire cooked fish.

Week three is upon me and we are still digging at about 800m elevation, hopefully this will be the last week digging this high as we had snow showers last week and it was blimin' freezing riding to work and digging.

Went to town on Saturday morning and went to the hardware store (Bunnings/Mitre 10 Mega equivalent) called Sodimac Home Center. Still getting my head around the language and all I can say is about five or six words in Spainish.

Here is this weeks Spainish sentence : "Uno mas cervaza por favor" translates into: "one more beer please"

That is all for this week, will keep you all updated.

Week one down, it's really cool here building tracks in the middle of nowhere. We are hitting the town in Coyhaique on Saturday night, will no doubt cut some shapes on the d floor.

The ride to work isn't so bad now, only takes 40mins, feeling fitter already.

Will keep you all updated :)

Made it to lodge which will be our base for the next three months. Went for a huge ride yesterday and explored the property.

We start work tomorrow so that's going to be a shock to the system especially as we have to climb 400 vertical metres to work on our bikes everyday (1hr of riding) :s

Had the weekend to recover from jetlag etc and been mucking around on the bike. Where we are staying looks like the South Island of NZ would have looked like before it was colonised, it's pretty awesome.

That's all for now, will fill you guys in at the end of the week :)

Made it to santiago safe and sound, been exploring the city this avo, it is only 630pm on thurs the 18th here so we have lost a day so real trippy.

Hope u all are well, i will update this again when i have an internet connection :)

First post

Hi there everyone. This is my blog for my travels for 2010 and beyond.

I am heading to chile for three months, flying out of auckland on the 17th March. I will do my best to keep the blog updated and add photos regularly :)