Still keeping left

Now we are as far from home as we will go on this trip = Quenstown. We arrived on Friday afternoon with a Bluebridge ferry to Pickton from where we got our golden Toyota and continued driving to Nelson. It took us like two hours to drive 100km since the road was like a noodle and there were beautiful beaches were we just had to stop and take pictures and dip our feet in the water. We stayed two nights in Nelson and visited Abel Tasman National Park on Saturday. It was a bit rainy, but we waited half an hour in the car for the sun to arrive, and then walked for three hours in the park. There were also beutiful beaches and we had our lunch in Appletree bay.

We had a nice drive from Nelson to Franz Josef glacier on Sunday. The guide said that it would take approximately ten hours but it took only 6h even without speeding. Sunday the 22nd seems to be my unlucky day since on the way to Franz Josef I lost my dear silver ring. Piritta said that I should have dropped into Mt. Doom (as we are in the country of Lord of the Rings), but it wasn't anything that exciting. On the same day I also managed to forget my book in the hostel in Nelson and loose our car keys in the sofa. Anyway things are not so bad. I have educated myself by watching the two first movies of Lord of the Rings and I am actually waiting to see the third.

In Franz Josef we went for a day tour to the glaciers. The weather was great and it was absolutely amazing to be for a day on a sunny glacier. Funny that you have to come to the other side of the world to enjoy some ice and snow =)

Yesterday we drove from Franz Josef down to Quenstown. That trip took a long time since we stopped probably ten times to take pictures. The nature here is so beautiful that I just can't believe it, I can truly recommend this country to everyone. We also drove from Wanaka to Quenstown on a small mountain road, which actually was scary. It had a couple of signs that said test your brakes now! The road was so steep.

Today we have been walking around in Quenstown and have bought some touristic things. Piritta was also brave enough to do a bungy jump while I was videotaping it. Quenstown is actually famous for all the exiting things that you can do here. It is possible to fly a plane here, which sounds like fun (but very expensive).

Tomorrow we will continue to Christchurch and we will hopefully go whalewatching on Saturday to Kaikoura (it always depends on the weather here).

Btw if you check Piritta's blog you can see some pictures from our trip. There is a link to it on the right side.

Kia Ora

Hello from New Zealand. We arrived here last weeks Tuesday and have now been driving for 5 days around the North Island and are now in Wellington. The custom was very nice in Auckland since they washed our shoes. Well that was only due to the fact that they do not want any diseases to be brought to their beutiful country. The first day in Auckland we were both so tired that we slept for almost 22 hours. Well I woke up in the evening to prepare some delicious noodles and almost set the whole kitchen on fire..

It is still spring here in New Zealand so I had to do some shopping, well I bought a jacket, gloves and a hat (pipo). I also saw a t-shirt that said "if you buy me chocolate, I'll be nicer" that actually sounds like something I could say, but I did not buy the t-shirt. On Friday the 13th we started our adventure. Now after 5 days and 1000km's I can say that I am used to the left-sided traffic, but the beginning was not so easy. It probably looked dangerous when we left the car rental and also found out that the brakes worked very well =)

On Friday we went to Waitomo caves to look at glow-worms. It might sound strange, but it actually was quite a beautiful view and our guide Pete was brilliant. On Saturday we went to Rotorua where we saw a Maori-show and had a traditional dinner. Maoris' are the people who first arrived to New Zealand or in the Maori language Aotearoa. The show was good and we had fun but I would liked to have some more facts about the Maoris'. On Sunday we went to see a buried village in Tarawera. Since there is still volcanic activity in Rotorua the whole town smelled quite bad (like rotten eggs).

On Monday we went to Wai-O-Tapu where we saw a geysir and walked for an hour in a volcanic park. The volcanic park was very colorful and we took a lot of nice pictures. On our way to Tongariro National Park we saw Huka falls with clear blue water. On Tuesday we did a 17km long walk in the National park. We walked up to 1400 m where it was very, very windy. Actually a woman told us that if you weigh under 60kg you could blow away. Luckily I am a big girl. I also managed to burn my face since the wheater prognis said that it would be cloudy or rainy on Tuesday so naturally I didn't put any sunblock on.. Well now we are in Wellington and my face looks like a tomato.

I must say that this is a very beautiful country and that if you like outdoor activity there is a lot to do. Next we will move on to the south and we'll take the ferry on Friday to Pickton. We bought a lotto coupon today so if we are lucky we might fly to Fiji tomorrow ;) Bye.

Party, party in Sydney

Now we have been two days in Sydney and it started with Octoberfest on Saturday evening. I was actually supposed to write a bit moore in Hong Kong, but since my chinese skills are not that good I posted my blog accidentially. . well anyway. We live here in a room with six other girls who are from all around the world. The hostel were we live is very good, it has everything what a backpacker needs.

It is quite cold still in Australia even though it is spring. Sydney feels like a small town after Hong Kong. We had a laugh when we noticed a warning here in Sydney about high pedestrian activity on a street where there were like 4 persons ;) Yesterday we just walked around in the city and saw the Opera building , which is quite famous. Today we went to a Wildlife World where we saw koalas, kangaroos and dangerous snakes among other interesting animals.

Tomorrow we are flying in the morning to New Zealand, where we will be spending three weeks driving around. We are actually renting a car on Friday the 13th so I just hope that our trip will be a success. Now I have to go and pack my things again. You who read this, please write to me as well. C U

Ni hau from Hong Kong

Now we have been 3 days in Hong Kong and it has been great so far. We arrived on Tuesday evening a bit tired after 15 hours of flying. The flight went very well to Hong Kong since we had 18 tv channels to choose from and many new movies to see. =) When we arrived to our Metro Station in Kowloon it first felt like I would have been in a movie scene. The city was so crowded with people that I could never have imagined to see so many persons in one place.

On Wednesday we started to check out our neighbourhood. First we went to the local park After that we went to three different museums' since it is free of charge on Wednesdays. Hong Kong museum of natural history was great. In the evening we went to a night market were I started shopping (5 watches).

On Thursday we went to the Hong Kong island. There we took a tram up to a mountain and had a look at the great view. We went to a temple, took a lot of pictures of the great buildings and funny trams in the business district and used the worlds longest escalators. In the evening we went to the mid-autumn festival where we saw a fire dragon and many other beutiful chinese things.

Today we have been walking around in Kowloon (were we live) and have been planning to go to see a movie in the evening. Tomorrow we have a short flight of only 9 hours down to Sydney.

All in all I can definitively recommend Hong Kong. The people are very, very friendly (although it is a bit crowded), it is quite easy for a tourist to survive with English and it is quite safe as well. Here is still quite warm (25-30C) in October, but I think that I have to leave this Internet place soon since I'm freezing due to effective air-conditioning. That's all for now I will write more next week when we are in New Zealand.