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.