NZ part 7 - back to the tour

9/2:
The tour started on Mount Helen which is one of the ~30 volcanos around Auckland across to Coromandel Pennisula.

After that we got the chance to hug twin Kauri trees,

digging holes at Hot Water beach,

to do the 2h Cathedral Cove walk,

and have BBQ whilst having a "Hank Marvin" (engl. slang for almost starving to death)

10/2:
An easy going, humid day with lots of drizzle. Final destination: a small surf town Raglau, bar for lunch and drinks, stay in the beatiful tropical Karioi lodge (link) where we would have loved to stick around a bit longer...

11/2:
Drive to Waitoma. Unfortunately the spellbound cave boat tour was fully booked so we saved some money in going to the Otavanga??? Kiwi house and see the night active Kiwi alive (as well as some other birds)...quite boring though.

At least our tour guide Thumper/Thumpy got the chance to meet up with his kids...
and we spent the remaining time (waiting for the others to return from dark water sledging, etc.) with eating ice cream. uuuups:

In the evening we got the cultural experience ahead and even slept all together in one of the "Maori family houses". Before that we received the typical Maori welcome

and had an nice dinner. Thereafter the boys got a lesson for the haka (link) which is performed by the NZ national rugby team before each game and girls in the traditional dance.

Both performed the dance afterwards

another nice sunset finished up the day.

12/2:
Rotorua (link). Famous for its geothermal area sulfur steam. I bought a Maori mask as a souvenir in an original Maori village.

Then a funny thing happened. We were waiting for Thumper while Lena wanted to grab a cappuchino and jumped on the bus at another pick up point in town. So did another very familiar person...and sat right in front...when I got in guess who I saw? Our former Westcoast travelmate Kati!!! What a freaking coincident!

Being reunited again we went to the mud pools,

had a bath in a nice hot water pool (similar to Douglas hot water springs)

and beacsue we were already wet we did a ~10m bridge jump.

Being dry again we closed this water & steam day with a closer look on the Huka falls (link)

to find our bed in Taupo (link) next to lake Taupo (link) to recover for next days's 18,5km Tongariro crossing walk (link).

NZ part 6 - trip to Cape Reinga

6/2:
we got picked up by the business owner at 9am to hit the road at 10am.
First stop: The Kawiti glowworm and limestone cave. We pull off the "highway" (which is more related to a "Landstrasse" rather than an "Autobahn")

little birds that were always jumping across the highway (i guess to pick up some roadkills or whatever but worth a shot)



tiny compared to the Albatros which can also been seen at Kaikura

and followed the signs but it's been really good value for a 15$ guided tour. Amazing little creatures that make u wonder when we're able to copy cut their glow effect...

thereafter we reached Pahia (link).

We already noticed in the morning that the 6th February is a public holiday in NZ. In Pahia respectively in Waitangi there is the Waitangi treaty ground /house and we found out that this is the place where "the treaty of Waitangi" (link) was signed in 1840 and thus became the "birthplace of NZ" that we know today.

Due to the upcoming dawn we decided to keep on going north to find a place to watch the sunset. By accident we ended up in Whangaroa where a beautiful scenery showed up. Again we accidently took the "wrong" road and folowed the scenic drive that led us south but turned out to be truly worth it.


We spent the night in the car next to the beach of Te Ngaere where I'm writing this down on paper...had a nice sunset dinner before I said good night to the waves, stars islands and Lena!

7/2:
We started the day quite early in the morning at around 6:30am. "Sleeping" in this tiny car's been astonishingly comfortable albeit it cooled down a lot during night what disturbed our night's sleep and kept us shivering and thus awake...anyway we followed the highway and got to the most northern point of NZ, Cape Reinga, at noon to soak up the landscape and take a couple of nice shots.



Shortly after we hired a bodyboard to go sand dune surfing respectively sliding.



As a result we were looking forward to the ocean at the ninety mile beach (link - it's actually only 55 miles long but who cares) to wash off the sand and look for nice shells. We (I) did an awefull lot of driving this day mostly on beautiful but narrow, twisted roads (shame that it probably won't match our budget to rent a motor bike). We passed a toilet house designed by Hundertwasser!

We saw the biggest existing Kauri tree called Tane Mahuta (link) which is estimated to be between 1250 and 2500 years old!

This particulary tree was also the ressource for the famous Maori canoes and the burned bark was used for tatoos (from the Polynesian word tatau which is supposed to be derived from the sound that was made while doing it traditionally --> ta tau, ta tau, ta tau). This day we slept at Pakiri beach (link).

8/2:
Thanks to the cold (hey we're having summer, haven't we?!?) early again. Good thing about it: we had the chance to watch the sunrise and this is just a totally different thing...

also we witnessed a Mini Cooper advertisment film shot right next to us before we drove a couple k's to Leigh (link), have a breakie and hired a snorkeling gea plus a little oxygen tank to have a look at Goat island's marine life and relax on the beach.



Therafter we went back to Auckland for a nearly cold but nice shower , a proper bed, another Wendy's dinner and a bunch of nice roomates.