Travel Location: Auckland,New-Zealand

Da sass ich dann also im schicken Air New Zealand Flieger und konnte es noch gar nicht fassen: ich war im Landeanflug auf Auckland!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!! Neuseeland, ich komme!

Der Flug von Sydney nach Auckland war leider ziemlich kurz, nur 3 Stunden. Leider, weil ich so komfortabel sass: ganz schicke neue Sitze, mit richtig gutem Entertainment-System und sooooo viel Platz! Von meinen Knien bis zum Vordersitz mind. 30 cm. Ich musste noch nichtmal aufstehen, als mein Sitznachbar zum Klo (oder wo auch immer hin) wollte. Ich werde den Verdacht nicht los, dass die mich “aus Versehen” in die Business Class gesetzt haben…..;-)

In Auckland angekommen habe ich dann erstmal die Stadt besichtigt. Und so viel Stadt gibt es da ehrlich gesagt auch gar nicht zu sehen. Flaechenmaessig ist es, mit allen Vorortenund so, schon recht gross, aber die City an sich ist doch eher …….klein! Aber nun, ich bin jetzt auch ein bisschen verwoehnt nach Sydney und co.

Am naechsten Tag bin ich dann auf eine Faehre (habe mittlerweile rausgefunden, dass ich total gerne Schiff fahre….) gehuepft und nach Devonport ruebergefahren. Ein kleiner, niedlicher Stadtteil von Auckland, ungefaehr das was Manley fuer Sydney ist, halt nur ne Nummer kleiner. Hier kann man also nett am Strand langspazieren, die Shoppingmeile inspizieren oder auf einen der Vulkane klettern. Was ich natuerlich gemacht habe Von dort hat man dann einen seeeeehr schoenen Blick auf Downtown Auckland. Zurueck in der “City” wollte ich dann eigentlich auf den Skytower hochfahren, und noch ein bisschen in der Gegend rumgucken. Aber der stolze Preis von, ich weiss schon gar nicht mehr – 25$ oder so – hat mich dann doch etwas gebremst….Ueberhaupt habe ich den Eindruck, dass hier alles noch teurer ist als es in Australien eh schon war. Und es wimmelt hier nur so von Germanen. Wirklich an jeder Ecke. Ist schon fast laestig,, ueberall wo man mal in Ruhe rumsitzen will, sitzt schon einer und spricht Deutsch. Was die hier bloss alle wollen???

Am naechsten Tag habe ich dann meinen neuen Reisebegleiter in Empfang genommen: er heisst Sirion, ist olive-gruen und winzig! Und soooo suess! Und wie geschaffen fuer die engen neuseelaendischen Strassen! Wir haben einander sofort ins Herz geschlossen und sind dann gleich zum ersten Ausflug aufgebrochen. Ziel war Waitomo. Dorthin ging es ueber eine aeusserst nette kleine Nebenstrasse, mitten durch viele gruene Huegel. Und alle voll von Schafen! Dazu gab es ganz laut cheesy Girl’s Music, ich habe laut mitgesungen und Sirion hat froehlich vor sich hingebrummt…..Und es haette mich nicht gewundert, wenn wir einen Hobbit am Strassenrand gesehen haetten!!!

Der Ort Waitomo Cave ist nun nicht so spektakulaer. Es gibt ein Backpackers, ein Infolaedchen, dass um halb sechs schon geschlossen hatte, eine Bar und einen Campingplatz. Ich wollte um halb acht ins Restaurant des Backpackers (Hunger!), musste aber leider feststellen, dass die Kueche dort schon um sieben schliesst. Um sieben Uhr!!! Bin dann also notgedrungen in die Bar gegangen, da gab’s auch was zu essen. Und zu allem Ueberfluss auch noch die “nette” Gesellschaft einer bereits etwas gereifteren Schweizerin, die mich detaliert darueber aufgeklaert hat, warum die Schweizer die Deutschen so wenig leiden koennen. Wir sind naemlich daran Schuld, dass die Wohnungen in Zuerich so teuer geworden sind, nur damit ihr Bescheid wisst! Und ausserdem sind wir so gut gebildet, wissen das leider auch und tragen daher die Nase ziemlich hoch. Ansonsten hat sie noch an allem rumgenoergelt, was ich sonst noch so zu erzaehlen hatte! Tja, da sag ich nur, “Vielen Dank fuer’s Gespraech”; alte Schabracke!!

Am naechsten Morgen bin ich dann recht frueh aus den Federn gesprungen (hatte nicht so toll geschlafen – meine Mitbewohnerin war auch Schweizerin und ich hatte Angst…..) und zu der Gluehwuermchen Hoehle gefahren. Hier wollte man mal wieder mein Geld: 38 $ fuer 45min Gluehwuermchen angucken. Also, das finde ich schon heftig. War aber nett: man guckt erst ein bisschen Hoehle an, dann steigt man in ein Boot und faehrt ueber einen unterirdischen Fluss. In voelliger Dunkelheit. Und um einen rum leuchten Millionen von Gluehwuermchen…..

Zurueck im Tageslicht sind Sirion und ich dann ins Zentrum der Nordinsel, zum Tongariro National Park gefahren. Die Tour dorthin war wieder sehr schoen, Autofahren in NZ macht einfach Spass! Und dann, hinter eine Kurve: ER! Der Berg! Der “Schicksalsberg” aus “Herr der Ringe”….

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Travel Location: Akaroa,New-Zealand

We took the shuttle bus from Christchurch to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, which was formed following three volcanic eruptions. James Cook discovered the peninsula in 1770, thinking it was an island, and named it after his on-board botanist, Sir Joseph Banks. The name Akaroa means “Long Harbour” in Maori and it is the site of the New Zealand’s first French settlements. It’s a really charming little village which you easily warm to right away. Most of the shops and streets have French names: rue Balgeurie, rue Jolie, rue Pompallier, Chez la Mer, Bon Accord, Ca bouge… First, we visited the Giant’s House, which was a very surreal experience! It was actually named by a small girl who looked up at the house from the valley below and said that it was so big that it must be the house of a giant.

When we arrived, we rang the attention bell and were greeted by a blue haired woman who stuck her head out of the top window and frantically looked around. When she came downstairs, we saw that she was quirkily dressed in stripey tights and stripey shoes – and very colourful! Turns out she was actually Josie Martin, the artist that has lived at the Giant’s House for the last 13 years, creating concrete mosaic sculptures for 9 of those years. Visiting the house felt just like what I imagine Alice felt like when she entered Wonderland. All around the hilly garden, there were bizarre and flamboyant sculptures of characters, animals, plants, arches, fountains, vessels and even a grand piano – all covered in colourful mosaic. All the while, there were old French tunes, such as “Je regrette rien”, playing in the background. The house itself, which wasn’t actually part of the exhibit, was very colourful too. Painted in bright yellow with red door and window frames, you could catch glimpses of the colourful interior with brightly painted fake fruit, pink cushions etc. I joked to Dean that I would most certainly have strange nightmares that night, but I don’t actually remember dreaming anything )

After the Giant’s House, we browsed the shops and galleries of Akaroa. We hired (rickety old!) bikes and cycled along the shore to the historic lighthouse and beyond, before having a yummy lunch at a waterfront cafe. We headed back to Christchurch in the evening and chilled out at our hostel, curled up with what might quite possibly be New Zealand’s friendliest cat, before having (another!) scrumptous Thai meal for dinner.

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Travel Location: tapanui,New-Zealand

I can’t believe it’s only five days to Christmas!!! It iscold and has been mostly drizzly/gray while we’ve been on the South Island, but it’s certainly not wintry as we’re used to around Christmas!

We drove a half hour from Gore to tiny Tapanui where my grandmother’s cousin and her husband live. I hadn’t met Brenda and Les before and it was really nice to see them and catch up. Brenda and my dear grandmother had been more like sisters than cousins so it was lovely to talk to someone who had been so close to her. Brenda and Les are amazing: they are both in their 90s but still going very strong and laid on a scrummy lunch for us.

We had planned to stop in Dunedin that night but it didn’t look very nice at all (and the very rude host at the Ramsay Lodge put us right off (definitely don’t stay there – the guy is crazy and swore at us!) so we headed on to Oamaru and stayed the night there instead. I was feeling rather fragile by the time we got there but we found an amazing restaurant called Filadelfio’s and spent the evening there, scoffing the most delicious pizza and sipping yummy vino.

Before hitting the road in the morning, we went for a stroll around the Victorian sea-side town of Oamaru. It’s a really quaint place with one straight main road and a couple of crooked side street with old Victorian-style shops and a market. Oamaru feels quite bare and unsheltered and I didn’t take to it at all. Dean really liked it though and even said that he could see himself living there.

Our next destination was Lake Tekapo and we drove through lots of flat farming country with freshly snow-dusted mountains as our backdrop. We had planned to stop at Twizel for lunch as it had been recommended to us. We’re not sure why though… it’s entirely residentail and so small that we missed it and had to drive back to find it ) So we ditched the lunch idea and headed on past the mighty Mount Cook, Australiasia’s highest peak at 3755m. Mount Cook was named after James Cook and the Maoris call it Aoraki (Cloud Piercer) after an ancestral deity in Maori mythology.

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Travel Location: Waitomo-Caves,New-Zealand

We arrived in Waitomo Wednesday, December 31st and spent New Years in town.

Early in the day, after arriving, we took a walk through the hills surrounding Waitomo.

For New Years Eve, we went to the local bar, Curlys and enjoyed potato wedges and live music.

New Years morning, we went black water rafting. There were only 2 other people in our group so we were able to do some extra exploring. Including, jumping off water falls, climbing up double waterfalls and exploring other parts of the cave. We even got to see a few eels!

We are now on our way to Wellington, which is about a 6.5 hour drive.

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Travel Location: Whangarei,New-Zealand

Leaving from Tauranga heading up North to nowhere in particular, we stopped for lunch at the roadside cafe and met possibly the most talkative Kiwi ever, she was lovely, really friendly and the food was good too. The journey although long was a good one as the scenery was beautiful and there was lots to look at all the way, not just the map. We needed to stop for the night as it was starting to get dark and we had nothing planned. Stopped in Whangarei for some food (nice pizza). As the I-site (tourist information office) was closed cos it was after 5pm, we did manage to peer through the office window and see some rough directions to a local backpackers lodge, off we went to see if they had space for our little tent. Laura knocked at the door while Anthony parked the car and a strange creepy man answered “hello, and goodbye”. Odd I thought and not very welcoming either considering usually everyone is so friendly, anyway he didn’t want us or our tent and we didn’t want to stay there either after that sort of greeting (thought he was going to killl me in the night or something). So we were now a bit off this town and still nowhere to sleep, by chance after much drivign around we stumbled across a really nice holiday park, first encounter of the Top 10 brand of parks (there are lots all over the country). Stayed there one night as the town felt uncomfortable to us, probably due to the creepy man (first impressions do count), excellent BBQ area and really lovely staff, spotlessly clean (the park, althought the staff were not scruffy either). So our first night in our new bargain tent package deal with sleeping bags included!!!

Lucky find – Top 10

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Travel Location: Auckland,New-Zealand

Hello,

It has been about 3 weeks since i wrote one of these blogs, which is partly due to a lack of time (and effort). The past 3 weeks have flown by and i am obviously not going to mention every place I have been to or explain every activity I have done.

Anyway I last wrote to you all in Queesntown which is one of my favourite places I have visited on this trip. I am now in Auckland which is the largest city in New Zeland (although Wellington is the capital). We handed back the campervan in one piece (with a slight scratch from some dodgy reversing at the Cathedral Cove car park) on Friday. Hiring the van and touring this beautiful country was fantastic although having spent a whole month living in a van we are now glad to have our own room in a hostel!

After Queenstown we visited Wanaka which is a pretty little town on the shores of a pretty big lake. Here the weather was fantastic and we went horse riding in the codorona valley. After Wanaka we headed over to the West Coast of the South Island to the Franz Josef township. Along the west coast of the south island there are 2 massive galciers. The fox galcier and the Franz Josef galcier. We opted to spend half a day taking a guided tour around the glacier which also involved 3 hours of climbing the galcier. This was a really incredible thing to do especially seeing how the ice was blue in some parts as it was so cold, however it was spoilt slightly by the pouring rain which soaked us throughout!

After Franz Josef we headed north and back towards the east coast where we stopped off at Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura. Hanmer is a small town which bases itself around a naturally heated spa and we both enjoyed realaxing in the pools here. Before leaving the South Island we still had time to visit Nelson which is the oldest city in new Zealand and is also meant to be the sunniest palce in NZ…so ofcourse it was raining when we arrived but true to form it did brighten up!

We then left the South Island on Novemeber 30th we left the South Island and headed to Wellignton on a ferry. The ferry journey took around 3 hours across the Cook Straight (everything in Australia and New Zealand seems to have some reference to Captain Cook). When we arrived in Wellington it was pouring with rain again and infact for the first 5 days we spent in the North Island it rained for some part of the day. Wellington seemed a very nice city although we only spent one full day in the capital. In Wellington we visited the Te Papa musuem, which is the national museum of NZ, I didnt expect much from the museum and we only visited it to escape the rain but it had some very good exhibitons and well worth visitng.

After Wellington we visited Taupo. Taupo is set on lake Taupo unsurprsingly, which is the biggest lake in NZ. From Taupo we went to Tongariro National Park, which is the setting fro Mordor and Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. The day we went though it didn’t seem too intimidating, although we couldnt see the top of the Volcano as it was too cloudy. Following Taupo we headed an hour north to Rotorua. We both loved Rotorua! The town does smell of Rotten Eggs slightly due to all the sulphur in the air, but after an hour or 2 you get used to it. The smell is due to all of the sulphur coming our of the ground from the thermal pools and geysers which surrond the town. Even in the city center you can see part of parks sectioned off due to the steam rising straight out of the ground. We visited a couple of the thermal parks around Rotorua which were fascianting. It was great to see pools of boiling mud exposed to the air. Some of the pools we visited had a temperature of over 100 degrees. Whilst here we also went to a Maori cultural evening, we watched a performance of cultural dances including the haka and had some good food which was cooked using the traditional methid of a ‘hangi’. After we sat drinking hot chocolate watching geysers spurt water high into the air.

The following day was a real highlight as i finally got to do a sky dive! I had tried to do one the previosu couple of days but they had been cancelled due to it being too cloudy. The instructor who would be diving with me was from Bolton so we had quite a bit to chat about already. Anyway doing a skydive was fantastic!! I jumped from 15,000ft which is the highest you do a tandem skydive from in the world. The free fall lasted around 60 seconds before we opened the parachute, the scary moment was when the parachute opened and it was slightly tangled, but luckily the instructor managed to sort it out and we floated to the groudn safely. Below are a couple of photos which show me doing the dive.

After Rotorua we visited Commendel Peninsula and Cathedral Cove which was a lovely beach. However we then returned to Rotorua as Libby now wanted to do a sky dive as well…partly due to me not being able to shut up about it. After Libbys skydive we left Rotorua for the final time and headed to the Bay of Islands which is very near the top of the North Island. The weather here was fantastic and it was a lovely spot to relax on the beach. After 2 days in the Bay of Islands we headed south to Auckland where we returned the campervan. We are currently staying in a hostel in the city center. Today is our final day in New Zealand. The temperature is about 26 degrees and the sun is shining. Tomorrow we fly to San Fransisco where i’m sure it will be alot colder! I dont know if i will be able to write another blog before i return home, so if not i hope you have enjoyed reading them.

See you soon!

Chris x

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Travel Location: Christchurch,New-Zealand

Our first night in New Zealand was spent in the nick – an old jailhouse converted into a hostel, complete with original heavy cell doors, barred windows, and high-ceilinged central atrium. But the beds were amazingly comfy with lovely linen!

Porridge down under

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Travel Location: Hanmer-Springs,New-Zealand

Our home for the next 17 days is this classy set of wheels – James Brown on one side and Ray Charles on the other. There is a whole fleet of these vans painted up by local graffitti artists, each one unique, and we got this baby!

On the road with James and Ray

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Travel Location: Arrowtown,New-Zealand

In Arrowtown hat man früher (1860) nach Gold gesucht und auch welches gefunden. Heute ist es ein nettes kleines Dörfchen mit vielen hübschen alten Häuschen, einem kleinen Fluss, einem Museum und: einer Zweigstelle von “Patagonia Chocolates”! Viel zu erzählen gibt es hier nicht, ausser dass ich im Museum (hier wird einem das neuseeländische leben von damals vorgestellt) auf einen Rentnertrupp gestoßen bin. Und die waren vielleicht lustig…..Da gab es im Museum nämlich ein Klohäuschen, und wenn man dort die Tür aufmachen will, ruft eine Stimme “Go away” und noch etwas, das ich jetzt hier nicht wiederholen will. Nein, was haben wir gelacht…

Ansonsten habe ich dort noch den ultimativen super gesund Trunk getrunken, eine Mischung aus Roter Beete, Möhre, Ingwer und irgendwas war’s noch……und jetzt werde ich 100 Jahre alt….mindestens!

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Travel Location: Tairua,New-Zealand

Headed off to the Coromandel, got stuck in lots of traffic on the way due to a single lane bridge across a huge river, queues both ways for miles. Aiming for Hot Water Beach where if you dig a hole in the sand hot water rises from below. It was packed with tourists and much like Great Yarmouth on a hot Saturday. Seemed as though every visitor to the country was all there at the same time as us!! Laura didn’t get a good vibe from the place so we went off looking for somewhere else to stay. Thats when we found Tairua Beach House by chance, we booked in for one night but ended up staying for three. Spent most of our time relaxing and reading our books, we were recommended a nice walk to try out up a local volcano we could see from the campsite (pics attached). There was a local eatery in town which we tried and found to be much nicer and cheaper than buying food and cooking for ourselves so we ate out most meals, Taste was the name, yum. We really enjoyed our stay here, even the weather didn’t spoil it and boy did it try!!! It rained like a monsoon for two days, the campsite started out like a bogg and swifty turned into a lake, it was so muddy we ended up with mud all up the back of our legs whenever we walked over to the main building for toilets or food. Most peoples tents leaked and there were people complaining about that at the breakfast table, we’re pleased to say that again our cheapy little tent was brilliant and we remained dry.

A great place to stay

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  I can't believe it's only five days to Christmas!!! It iscold and has been mostly drizzly/gray while we've been on the South Island, but it's certainly not wintry as we're used to around Christmas!We...
• Waitomo Walkway & Caving
  We arrived in Waitomo Wednesday, December 31st and spent New Years in town.Early in the day, after arriving, we took a walk through the hills surrounding Waitomo.For New Years Eve, we went to the loc...
• Stop over required…
  Leaving from Tauranga heading up North to nowhere in particular, we stopped for lunch at the roadside cafe and met possibly the most talkative Kiwi ever, she was lovely, really friendly and the food ...