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Lake Tekapo is a lovely spot in the region of Mount Cook (New Zealand’s highest mountain). It has a cute village and a few nice places to stay. We stayed in the budget part of the Scenic Resort Motels.

That afternoon we drove up to Mount St. John Observatory which Lonely Planet had boasted as being the café with the best views on the planet so we had to try it! Both the 360º view and the coffee and cake did not disappoint – try the chocolate brownie if you get there.

The next morning we got up early to drive to Mount Cook National Park. Unfortunately the heavy cloud stopped us from actually seeing Mount Cook and after a short trail walk by the glaciers we headed back home for a walk by the lake and a relaxing evening.

Pucon is a small town (pop about 20,000) 12 hours south of Santiago. It is a real holiday spot for both Chileans and foreigners with lots of tour operators offering trips to do all types of outdoor activities.

I arrived on my own in the morning, having left the girls to go to Mendoza (blog report to follow once again!) and went to the Tree House Hostel where I had booked a bed. Trying not to wake the sleepers in my room, I went off for breakfast and booked to go zipwiring that afternoon.

Zipwiring or Canopy is a series of platforms set up in the forest that have thick connecting cables from one to another. You are given a harness and helmet so you can attach yourself to the cables and then swing across from tree to tree. Even though it was raining, it was great fun once you got the hang of it.

The main attraction in Pucon is to climb the active volcano  “Vulcan Villarica”. It`s last major eruption was in 1984, the major danger being the resulting avalanches and melting of the snow due to lava rather than the eruption itself. I booked to go the next morning but due to bad weather, it was called off so I spent the day in the Huerquehue National Park with two Swedes I had met at the hostel. We did a 14km circuit of the lakes, again the rain was heavy but it was still enjoyable.

The next morning Maurisio, my guide, collected me at 7.30am to do the volcano hike. He had brought heavy hiking boots for me to wear along with the rest of the equipment, which included crampons, an ice pick, water proof pants and jacket, two pairs of gloves and a fleecy balaclava.

First we got the ski lift up some of the mountain, this cutting off about an hours walk. There, we put on our crampons and water proof gear before starting to walk. Our group was small with only three, in comparison to the other groups of 15 to 20, the large majority being Israelis.

The climb was hard enough, particularly wearing the heavy boots and crampons. As we got higher, I became increasingly aware of how easy it would be to slip and tumble down the side of the mountain. Even during our breaks, I was uneasy as we were never on horizontal ground, always at least 25 degrees slanted upwards.

Ofcourse, when we got to the top about 4 hours later, it was worth it. The views below looking down on top of the clouds were great and on the other side you could see into the smoking volcano crater. Here we stopped for lunch and a well earned rest.

On our descent, half way down, we took out our plastic sliding trays (to use the technical term) and used our ice picks to push us down. This was great fun once I realised how to do it properly and we made it safely back to the bottom by about 4pm.