I think this airport is the only one where I have been with free WiFi! That's a good point.
C u soon!
Juanma.
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Thursday, June 30, 2011
International transit
Hi everybody, looks like our trip is almost ar its end. We are sitting in Dubai waiting for our next flight towards Düsseldorf. The most of our flight back km are already done, only some 7hours left and we are there.
I think this airport is the only one where I have been with free WiFi! That's a good point.
C u soon!
Juanma.
I think this airport is the only one where I have been with free WiFi! That's a good point.
C u soon!
Juanma.
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Fijian Bible...
Hey people,
We got some spare computer around, so I can use it to write some quick post.
We arrived to Nadi (where the main international airport from Fiji is) about two weeks ago, sorry for the delay writing, but internet here is like punctuality...
We stayed one night in a hostel near the airport (Bamboo) to decide what we wanted to do and see in Fiji. The beach in Nadi is nothing special and we quickly asked the staff what our possibilities were. Among the people working there, they have a couple of "travel consultants", who try to sell you this and that trip. We have read already about the different Islands and we had a brief idea of what we could expect.
We were a bit uncertain about our decision, since they were insisting that we should go to a place called "Maqai beach", that was sharing management with them and so on, they really looked like wanting us badly to go there, but we could not decide on the contrary after seeing a picture of the Island. Luckily we did what they told us...
From Nadi it was a bit far away, we had to take a bus to Suva (the capital of Fiji), which took 4 hours to ride maybe 150 km... We stayed one day and one night in Suva, visited the "only" Fiji museum, and bought some food and a SIM card. We had a typical tourist "experience" there:
When we were in Bamboo, Daniela asked how much we should expect to pay for a Taxi from the bus station in Suva, to our hotel (South Pacific, or something like that). They said that around 3F$ (fiji dollars). Well, when we got into the taxi, the driver said that no way it was 3$, but 6$. We discussed a bit, until he said he'd do it for five dollars. Then we remembered that we were told to ask the driver to use the Taxi-meter, and we did so. The taxi driver was not happy at all with that, and assured us that if he was to use the taxi-meter, the ride would definitely cost more than 5$. We said OK, we would pay whatever the taxi meter marked. He started to drive, and in the middle of the ride I turned ON the GPS on my mobile phone and clearly saw that even though we were almost there, he continued driving. I asked him if he really knew the address we told him, and he assured he did. He drove in a big circle and managed to stop in the Hotel when the Taxi-meter was showing 5F$. I was pissed off and I told him that I have seen how he took a big round to bring us there, he was a bit surprised and reacted saying that there was traffic jam there and it would have taking us much more time, I said that that was bullshit because I saw exactly where we were, and there was no traffic at all. He wouldn't accept what I was saying, at continued asking for 5F$. Daniela gave him 4F$ and told him that we did not have more. I wanted to bring the hotel staff to the street and ask them wether he wanted to fool us. He ended up getting 4F$ (which by the way, it is only 1.6eur) but I wanted him to see that he could not fool tourists so easily. I gess next time he will reconsider to drive a round...
Anyway, the next morning we took a Ferry to Taveuni Island, which is probably 150 km from Suva, and took an amazing record time of 19 hours! At least it was cheap, it costed 24 Eur per person. Once in Taveuni, a minibus was awaiting for us (we were a group of 9), and drove us to a shore opposite to Qamea Island, where Mangai beach is located. We took a small boat and in 30 minutes we were in one of the nicest beaches of the planet! We booked two nights there, and ending being nine days! It had plenty of palm trees, whith one of them going over the ocean. There is no other resort in that beach and the Island has no roads or cars on it, even though it has four villages. The Maqai beach place is a backpackers style one, with no bar to buy beer from (we had to bring ourselves some from the Supermarket). But they have plenty of papaya trees, pineapples and an ocean full of fish. The food was superb, and the Fijian guys would go fishing and bring some big fish to "feed" us. One day they cooked with an "earth owen" by making a huge fire with plenty of stones on top, and later cooking above the stones, isolating the top with banana tree leaves and other big tropical leaves. After two hours there was still plenty of heat there!
The water was really transparent, and the sand very white. It is made of tiny dead coral and small shells. Even from the boat going to the beach we could see plenty of big blue starfish on the bottom.
We could have slept on a Dorm or in a Double, but since we had brought our tent from New Zealand, we wanted to give it a try. In such a warm climate, you normally do not stay in the room anyway, but just to sleep at night. So we stayed the 9 days in our little but good yellow tent.
The photo of the Island that I have uploaded in the previous post is from Nanuku Island, which also belongs to the same tribe chief as Maquai Beach. We went there for three days, and we now wish we would have been there for longer! That was a dream Island like the type of you normally think it has been photoshoped or something. Unreal!
It was 1.5hours bout from Maqai. The best of all was that it was not a kind of resort, but everything and everyone were very easy going. The staff would play the gitar and sing until late at night, while making a big fire for us in the beach. There was also a lovely Fijian woman cooking for all of us, who would call "childer, dinner is ready" when she was done with the food...really cool atmosphere.
The Island is surrounded by Nanuku reef (google maps for it), and you could swim there with the snorkel gear and see plenty of reef sharks and dozens of different fish and corals. Very cool and with very good water visibility.
If you ever have time and want to see a paradise beach Island, Nanuku is THE PLACE to go. Airpacific flies from Frankfurt to Hong-Kong, and from there to Nadi. Maybe there are some cheap flights?? Only drawback is the very long flight time.
Fijians are, as I already said, very very friendly. And the best of all, they almost all speak English !! That is a huge advantage over other touristic destinations, like let's say, Thailand. Here almost everybody talks to you, and if you show interest, they tell you their whole life!
Accomodation in the Island was also not only inexpensive but rather a joke. We were paying 15 F$ for tent, and 30F$ for the three meals. That makes an amazing 18Eur per day!
We went back to Maqai and after a couple of days more, we went back to Taveuni Island and took a "regular" bus to Lavena. There we would stay three days (two of them alone in the Lodge), and do the coastal walk and go to the Tavoro waterfalls.
The Lavena lodge is very basic accomodation, but nice and in the middle of two empty beaches. It is right inside the settlement of Lavena, which has around 400 people. They do not have electricity, but the Lodge has a generator which is turned on from dusk to sometime midnight.
There, while relaxing in our hammock on the beach, some kids would come and start chatting with Daniela. They were three out of nine sisters. Friendly children here.
The food (at the end a bit boring) was however good, everyday a different woman from the village will cook for us, either breakfast/lunch/dinner and bring it to the lodge. Some fish, meat, octupus, mango, papayas and other strange stuff that we do not have around.
Well, since the post is starting to grow too big, I will just say that we decided to fly back instead of taking again the speed-ferry of 19 hours, and we went to Nadi in 1.15 hours. Before fliying however, we had some spare time and visited the 180 degree meridian. We have a picture in which Daniela is next to me, but in a different day than myself! Interesting. That's were the GMT+12 and GMT-12 meet, in this Island (Taveuni).
People, that's all for this time,I hope it wasn't too much! I have forgotten plenty of interesting stuff, but it is too hard to write everything at once!
Cheers and see you soon,
Juanma.
We got some spare computer around, so I can use it to write some quick post.
We arrived to Nadi (where the main international airport from Fiji is) about two weeks ago, sorry for the delay writing, but internet here is like punctuality...
We stayed one night in a hostel near the airport (Bamboo) to decide what we wanted to do and see in Fiji. The beach in Nadi is nothing special and we quickly asked the staff what our possibilities were. Among the people working there, they have a couple of "travel consultants", who try to sell you this and that trip. We have read already about the different Islands and we had a brief idea of what we could expect.
We were a bit uncertain about our decision, since they were insisting that we should go to a place called "Maqai beach", that was sharing management with them and so on, they really looked like wanting us badly to go there, but we could not decide on the contrary after seeing a picture of the Island. Luckily we did what they told us...
From Nadi it was a bit far away, we had to take a bus to Suva (the capital of Fiji), which took 4 hours to ride maybe 150 km... We stayed one day and one night in Suva, visited the "only" Fiji museum, and bought some food and a SIM card. We had a typical tourist "experience" there:
When we were in Bamboo, Daniela asked how much we should expect to pay for a Taxi from the bus station in Suva, to our hotel (South Pacific, or something like that). They said that around 3F$ (fiji dollars). Well, when we got into the taxi, the driver said that no way it was 3$, but 6$. We discussed a bit, until he said he'd do it for five dollars. Then we remembered that we were told to ask the driver to use the Taxi-meter, and we did so. The taxi driver was not happy at all with that, and assured us that if he was to use the taxi-meter, the ride would definitely cost more than 5$. We said OK, we would pay whatever the taxi meter marked. He started to drive, and in the middle of the ride I turned ON the GPS on my mobile phone and clearly saw that even though we were almost there, he continued driving. I asked him if he really knew the address we told him, and he assured he did. He drove in a big circle and managed to stop in the Hotel when the Taxi-meter was showing 5F$. I was pissed off and I told him that I have seen how he took a big round to bring us there, he was a bit surprised and reacted saying that there was traffic jam there and it would have taking us much more time, I said that that was bullshit because I saw exactly where we were, and there was no traffic at all. He wouldn't accept what I was saying, at continued asking for 5F$. Daniela gave him 4F$ and told him that we did not have more. I wanted to bring the hotel staff to the street and ask them wether he wanted to fool us. He ended up getting 4F$ (which by the way, it is only 1.6eur) but I wanted him to see that he could not fool tourists so easily. I gess next time he will reconsider to drive a round...
Anyway, the next morning we took a Ferry to Taveuni Island, which is probably 150 km from Suva, and took an amazing record time of 19 hours! At least it was cheap, it costed 24 Eur per person. Once in Taveuni, a minibus was awaiting for us (we were a group of 9), and drove us to a shore opposite to Qamea Island, where Mangai beach is located. We took a small boat and in 30 minutes we were in one of the nicest beaches of the planet! We booked two nights there, and ending being nine days! It had plenty of palm trees, whith one of them going over the ocean. There is no other resort in that beach and the Island has no roads or cars on it, even though it has four villages. The Maqai beach place is a backpackers style one, with no bar to buy beer from (we had to bring ourselves some from the Supermarket). But they have plenty of papaya trees, pineapples and an ocean full of fish. The food was superb, and the Fijian guys would go fishing and bring some big fish to "feed" us. One day they cooked with an "earth owen" by making a huge fire with plenty of stones on top, and later cooking above the stones, isolating the top with banana tree leaves and other big tropical leaves. After two hours there was still plenty of heat there!
The water was really transparent, and the sand very white. It is made of tiny dead coral and small shells. Even from the boat going to the beach we could see plenty of big blue starfish on the bottom.
We could have slept on a Dorm or in a Double, but since we had brought our tent from New Zealand, we wanted to give it a try. In such a warm climate, you normally do not stay in the room anyway, but just to sleep at night. So we stayed the 9 days in our little but good yellow tent.
The photo of the Island that I have uploaded in the previous post is from Nanuku Island, which also belongs to the same tribe chief as Maquai Beach. We went there for three days, and we now wish we would have been there for longer! That was a dream Island like the type of you normally think it has been photoshoped or something. Unreal!
It was 1.5hours bout from Maqai. The best of all was that it was not a kind of resort, but everything and everyone were very easy going. The staff would play the gitar and sing until late at night, while making a big fire for us in the beach. There was also a lovely Fijian woman cooking for all of us, who would call "childer, dinner is ready" when she was done with the food...really cool atmosphere.
The Island is surrounded by Nanuku reef (google maps for it), and you could swim there with the snorkel gear and see plenty of reef sharks and dozens of different fish and corals. Very cool and with very good water visibility.
If you ever have time and want to see a paradise beach Island, Nanuku is THE PLACE to go. Airpacific flies from Frankfurt to Hong-Kong, and from there to Nadi. Maybe there are some cheap flights?? Only drawback is the very long flight time.
Fijians are, as I already said, very very friendly. And the best of all, they almost all speak English !! That is a huge advantage over other touristic destinations, like let's say, Thailand. Here almost everybody talks to you, and if you show interest, they tell you their whole life!
Accomodation in the Island was also not only inexpensive but rather a joke. We were paying 15 F$ for tent, and 30F$ for the three meals. That makes an amazing 18Eur per day!
We went back to Maqai and after a couple of days more, we went back to Taveuni Island and took a "regular" bus to Lavena. There we would stay three days (two of them alone in the Lodge), and do the coastal walk and go to the Tavoro waterfalls.
The Lavena lodge is very basic accomodation, but nice and in the middle of two empty beaches. It is right inside the settlement of Lavena, which has around 400 people. They do not have electricity, but the Lodge has a generator which is turned on from dusk to sometime midnight.
There, while relaxing in our hammock on the beach, some kids would come and start chatting with Daniela. They were three out of nine sisters. Friendly children here.
The food (at the end a bit boring) was however good, everyday a different woman from the village will cook for us, either breakfast/lunch/dinner and bring it to the lodge. Some fish, meat, octupus, mango, papayas and other strange stuff that we do not have around.
Well, since the post is starting to grow too big, I will just say that we decided to fly back instead of taking again the speed-ferry of 19 hours, and we went to Nadi in 1.15 hours. Before fliying however, we had some spare time and visited the 180 degree meridian. We have a picture in which Daniela is next to me, but in a different day than myself! Interesting. That's were the GMT+12 and GMT-12 meet, in this Island (Taveuni).
People, that's all for this time,I hope it wasn't too much! I have forgotten plenty of interesting stuff, but it is too hard to write everything at once!
Cheers and see you soon,
Juanma.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
More pics from Nanuku
Swimming and snorkeling in its reef together with plenty of reef sharks! That's a nice end of a vacation!
And, the Fiji locals are very very nice and friendly people!
We take tomorrow another ferry and go to visit for four days the Mamanuka islands, then back to Auckland and the 30 back home...
Cheers,
D & Jm
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Sunday, June 12, 2011
Fiji, paradise?
Just a short communication, that we are alive, but lost in white sand, coral reefs and palm trees. No network coverage here.
Everybody should be here at least once in your life...my god, the beaches are insane!
Wait for the pics...
Cheers,
Juanma.
Everybody should be here at least once in your life...my god, the beaches are insane!
Wait for the pics...
Cheers,
Juanma.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
happy with...
Hi People! We are in the airport in Auckland, waiting for our flight to Fiji. I thought we could write a little list which you may find, at least funny, if not interesting.
In total we have slept over 100 nights in our ex-campervan. We also travelled with backpacks for several days in National Parks across both islands. At some point you start realizing that you feel happy about finding very little things, which you give as granted in our normal life:
- a rubish bin
- a shower, if hot, even better
- a sealed road
- a "two lanes" bridge
- mobile coverage
- a fridge
- a flushing toilet
- filtered (drinkable) water
- a washing machine
Cheers!
D & JM
In total we have slept over 100 nights in our ex-campervan. We also travelled with backpacks for several days in National Parks across both islands. At some point you start realizing that you feel happy about finding very little things, which you give as granted in our normal life:
- a rubish bin
- a shower, if hot, even better
- a sealed road
- a "two lanes" bridge
- mobile coverage
- a fridge
- a flushing toilet
- filtered (drinkable) water
- a washing machine
Cheers!
D & JM
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Sunday, June 5, 2011
Auckland, Thomas and the end of Kea Kauri
From Piha we drove to visit Thomas, a German in the fourties who we met at our first track in NZ. Back then he told us he was living in Auckland and invited us to come for a coffee or something.
He lives in Torbay, a suburb near the beach. He has been here already for 20 years, and he bought the house were he lives 11 years ago. It is a very nice one, 160 sq meters big and 10 min walk from the beach. Pretty cool place considering that is 20 min from the center of Auckland.
We went for a walk and crossed 3-4 beaches and little cliffs. Later he invited us for selfmade pizza and because it turned late, we slept also in his place.
Next day we drove to Takapuna, a well know surfing beach closer to town, and we stayed in the camping there. That point would be were we sold our van to a couple from Catalunya.
Jordi and Lydia drove all the way from Christchurch just to see our van. The same morning a Guy from Canada (Kostya) wanted to have it already!
After some negotiations they decided they wanted it, but not without having a weird discussion. They thought the van was going for 2300$ but it was actually 2300€. I knew, units are everything :)
Anyway, after visiting Devonport and mount Victoria, from which you can see Auckland from a very nice far bird view, we sold the van. Exactly for the same amount as we paid for it! That was cool.
Later, when we got to Auckland city (already homeless), we found out that some other travellers are struggling to get rid of their car/vans. Now is low season (winter), so the demand is pretty low. We were lucky (or smart), that our van was rather special. There are very few of them being 4WD,diesel, long wheel base and having not over 300 thousand km.
So, now we are sitting in the terrace of our hostel, and hoping that tomorrow won't rain, because then we could catch a ferry and do a all-day walking in the Rangitoto island. A only 600 years old volcanic island 20 minutes boat away from Auckland's harbour.
We are already looking forward for Fiji (Wednesday)...there we go!
Cheers,
Juanma.
He lives in Torbay, a suburb near the beach. He has been here already for 20 years, and he bought the house were he lives 11 years ago. It is a very nice one, 160 sq meters big and 10 min walk from the beach. Pretty cool place considering that is 20 min from the center of Auckland.
We went for a walk and crossed 3-4 beaches and little cliffs. Later he invited us for selfmade pizza and because it turned late, we slept also in his place.
Next day we drove to Takapuna, a well know surfing beach closer to town, and we stayed in the camping there. That point would be were we sold our van to a couple from Catalunya.
Jordi and Lydia drove all the way from Christchurch just to see our van. The same morning a Guy from Canada (Kostya) wanted to have it already!
After some negotiations they decided they wanted it, but not without having a weird discussion. They thought the van was going for 2300$ but it was actually 2300€. I knew, units are everything :)
Anyway, after visiting Devonport and mount Victoria, from which you can see Auckland from a very nice far bird view, we sold the van. Exactly for the same amount as we paid for it! That was cool.
Later, when we got to Auckland city (already homeless), we found out that some other travellers are struggling to get rid of their car/vans. Now is low season (winter), so the demand is pretty low. We were lucky (or smart), that our van was rather special. There are very few of them being 4WD,diesel, long wheel base and having not over 300 thousand km.
So, now we are sitting in the terrace of our hostel, and hoping that tomorrow won't rain, because then we could catch a ferry and do a all-day walking in the Rangitoto island. A only 600 years old volcanic island 20 minutes boat away from Auckland's harbour.
We are already looking forward for Fiji (Wednesday)...there we go!
Cheers,
Juanma.
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Thursday, June 2, 2011
Back to Warkworth
We stayed there two days, from which one of them, it bucketed down nonstop. But the next morning we were woken up by the sun rising out of the Pacific ocean and the paradise-like singing of the Tuis. We went for a walk to Mullet Point, in our 'tennis' shoes, since we thought a walk on grass should be easy. Wronnng! It was muddy as I never saw before, and our shoes were soon to be seen only brown. Happy us...
In Martins bay, we took a picture of that car on the beach. That easy you can bring your kayak to the sand, not bad eh?
Later we drive to Henk and Jeanette, they invited us to stay a couple of days at their home. It was Friday so we could spend some time together in the weekend. Their grandson Luca was also with them, he is only five years old but was really funny.
Saturday we went to the market at Matakana, really small but nice, and full of young people. Later we went for a walk to Tawaranui, again a "predator-proff" fenced peninsula, in which plenty of native fauna can live without the threat of introduced predators. The park has a 2.5 km long fence, and the two beaches are a surfers paradise, as well as having nice native bush walks. Lovely!
Later we ate some pie in a pottery cafe, and headed back home. At night we cooked a powerful tortilla de patatas to refuel.
Sunday was gonna be a clean and tidy up day, it was still sunny and we had to prepare and repack our accumulated stuff and clean the car. That took us the whole day. In the evening Henk coocked a really tasteful dinner and we played Rummykub and laughed with the stories that the couple were sharing with us. Was Fun!
Monday we drove to Piha beach, in the Waitakere Ranges. A nice surfing beach with a huge rock between both beaches, Lion's rock. A sacred Maōri place.
Plenty of the big starfish there, I went too close to take a picture, and the result was having to change my trousers, shoes and socks. The waves were massive.
The blue car in the picture is a very common car type in New Zealand. It is something between a pickup and an sports car. They call them Utes, and are, according to me, pretty ugly. Massive 5 liter V8 engines, what a waste of petrol.
On the way down we drove through the motorway, what a shock. We are not used to masses... coming back to Europe will be hard...
That was our last, out of the city experience in NZ.
Later more to come!
Cheers!
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relaxing and waiting for the sun to come....
We slept in Rarawa beach, in a DoC camping ground and the next day we drove down to Cable bay. Suddenly the weather was almost perfect and we took our camping chairs and colonized the beach for several ours. Daniela wrote tagebuch and I blogged until my battery was gone.
Later we drove further south looking for a camping to stay overnight. In the south island you can virtually stay almost everywhere, but this time in the north island we were told that it was not safe to do so, so we slept only in "authorized" places where you are normally never alone. We slept in Kerikeri, and played again pingpong to fight against the coldness, works pretty good!
Next day the weather was still lovely and we drove to Pahia, in the Bay of Islands. Finally we were again wearing swimming shorts!
I bought an Autocar magazine and read it all, with some nostalgia the article about the Ferrari FF. The "Adenauer" series production that we were working for in GETRAG.
We visited the famous public toilets from Kawakawa, designed by the Austrian artist Hundertwasser. Some pictures in the previous post...
Sometimes these things show how easy it is to make common things look nice or even art pieces.
Cheers!
Later we drove further south looking for a camping to stay overnight. In the south island you can virtually stay almost everywhere, but this time in the north island we were told that it was not safe to do so, so we slept only in "authorized" places where you are normally never alone. We slept in Kerikeri, and played again pingpong to fight against the coldness, works pretty good!
Next day the weather was still lovely and we drove to Pahia, in the Bay of Islands. Finally we were again wearing swimming shorts!
I bought an Autocar magazine and read it all, with some nostalgia the article about the Ferrari FF. The "Adenauer" series production that we were working for in GETRAG.
We visited the famous public toilets from Kawakawa, designed by the Austrian artist Hundertwasser. Some pictures in the previous post...
Sometimes these things show how easy it is to make common things look nice or even art pieces.
Cheers!
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Sunday, May 29, 2011
Whananaki and Uretiki
After a bit more driving, we endedu up in the DoC camp ground from Whananaki, right on a beautiful beach. We liked it so we stayed two nights there.
We saw how our neighbours went fishing with a Kajak, and surprisingly for us, gave us some fresh snapper fish for dinner! Mmm
Kiwis (the people) love to do things related with the sea. A lot of them have boats and almost all drive Pickups. We observed an ingenious way of fishing: with a long line being taken in deep sea just with a Kajak. Layer we heard they even send the fishing line to the sea with help of a Kite! Still waiting to see this...
We used again our tarp, which I think we have used it not a single time for the reason that we bought it for(shade).
In between, we drove by Whangarei to buy some food and later we drove to Uretiki, another DoC camp ground. There we saw again another Possum, this time a fat one. ahhh, are they ugly...
We saw how our neighbours went fishing with a Kajak, and surprisingly for us, gave us some fresh snapper fish for dinner! Mmm
Kiwis (the people) love to do things related with the sea. A lot of them have boats and almost all drive Pickups. We observed an ingenious way of fishing: with a long line being taken in deep sea just with a Kajak. Layer we heard they even send the fishing line to the sea with help of a Kite! Still waiting to see this...
We used again our tarp, which I think we have used it not a single time for the reason that we bought it for(shade).
In between, we drove by Whangarei to buy some food and later we drove to Uretiki, another DoC camp ground. There we saw again another Possum, this time a fat one. ahhh, are they ugly...
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Hi there!
Normally I only upload pictures made with the mobile phone, but the quality is far away from our "normal" digital camera, and also we can not make panorama pics with it. So have a look at the last set of pics:
CLICK TO OPEN THE PICASA GALLERY
Probably I had uploaded some similar ones before, but I have now some 30 min of free internet in the library and wanted to upload some quality pics.
Cheers!
Normally I only upload pictures made with the mobile phone, but the quality is far away from our "normal" digital camera, and also we can not make panorama pics with it. So have a look at the last set of pics:
CLICK TO OPEN THE PICASA GALLERY
Probably I had uploaded some similar ones before, but I have now some 30 min of free internet in the library and wanted to upload some quality pics.
Cheers!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
ahipara... blokart!
From Trounson we drove to Ahipara, where the 90 miles beach starts. Guess why this beach is called like this?
I wanted to drive on that beach with our van, but some locals told us it wasn't a good idea because of the late rain and some quick sand areas. So we rented a quad an drove on it and around the dunes. But the coolest was that the guy from who we rented the quads had also blokarts to rent, and in such a long beach that is a lot of fun.
It is a pity that my grandfather does not live any longer, he would have loved this invention...
Anyway, after the fun, the man told us that if we had allwheeldrive it shouldn't be a problem to drive on the beach with the van, so... we did.
That was adrenalin, because you can drive on the beach with low tide, in high tide the sea comes almost to the dunes. That means if you get stucked and your mobile does not work, you can not get help and the car just sinks on the sand and under water...
But nothing happened, after driving more than 40 km we had enough and we took an 'exit' to a small town. That was cooool!
Salut!
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Kauri trees and ...
We drove norther towards Trounson forests, famous for their big Kauri trees and being one of the first mainland island...
Mainland island means that even not being an island (although New Zealand is an island), they have been using extensive predator control in the area, so big that the native birdlife has almost been restored to that of completely predator free islands.
That means, they have Kiwi birds there! And guess who was lucky enough to see one? We walked at around 8pm, provided with poweful headlamps with red light filters, after half an hour we stopped in the track and listened quietly. I saw on our right hand side a Kiwi in the bush, picking food with its beak. Diffcult to see but Daniela also managed to see it. After about half a minute he was gone, but we were really happy! We have just seen one in the wilderness, without doing any night guided walk or anything like that. Really cool!
Next day we visited the biggest and oldest Kauri tree living in New Zealand. Older than 2000 years and above 50 meter high! We're such a fly shit...
Tomorrow more, my mobile is running out of juice. The display needs a lot of power to shine above the beach strong sun.
Cheers.
Jm
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Above Auckland!
Jeanette coocked for us a delicious dinner and we talked and talked about almost everything. They have travelled quite around the world and Henke is originally Dutch, but left Holland when he was 17.
The next morning the weather was easying, and we jumped in the back of Henke's Quad bike and drove to the river and a "secret" survival Kauri tree which still stands in the farm of Jeanette's father.
Later on we drove towards Northlands...
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Waitomo caves and the hobbits
Going north (in search of warm), we visited the world know Waitomo Caves. Limestone formations which are amazing nature spectacles. There are three cave systems but we saw only the glowworm cave and the long one. You walk for about 1:45 inside the earth, seing some glowworms and hearing a subterranean river which flows inside the cave. It even has a small waterfall that is very load when being inside. Some meters you have to walk them in completely pitch dark black. You see absolutely nothing and it is not allowed to lit anything because it disturbs the glowworms. Pictures were done all with the camera, so none this time. The glowworm cave har probably thousands of them, looking up was like seeing stars in a clear night. Very nice and romantic,since you see them while on a boat and in the most absolute silence. Something similar to "las cuevas del drac" en Mallorca o "Les coves de Sant Joan" de Vall d'uxo.
In the night that we spend in Waitomo we heard our first Kiwi bird, pretty load! We even took our lamos and went for a walk in the dark forest, withouht luck. Seems that to see a Kiwi in the wild is pretty dificult!
Next day, with a lot of rain, we drove again north towards Auckland, but we deviated a bit east and had a wonderful look at the hobbiton movie set of yhe Lord of the Rings. Really cool what we saw there, but they made us sign some papers that we could not say anything to anyone and we were also of course not allowed to post pics on the net. So wait for us to come...
Because the land were the hobbits 'lived' was a sheep farm, in the price if the ticket there was included a sheep shed show. Also not bad to see how, just a man, shed the whool of the whole sheep in less than 2 minutes... Curiosity: the world record hold of sheep shedding in one day is 800 !!
Count them all and for sure you get asleep!
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Taranaki
From Wellington we headed directly to Taranaki, north west of it. It is an impressive volcano (2500m) which can be seen from the beach. You have to be lucky for it however, in three days we could not see it because of continuis clouths.
While in New Plymouth, we learned that in Taranaki it rains even more than in Milford Sound. That and the weather conditions made us decline the 2 day walk track that we planned. A pity...
But luckily for us, the van did super passing the WoF (Warranty of Fitness), which is the New Zealand equivalent of TüV or ITV. It had no issues, and the guys fom Nissan did the job quick and cheap. Now we can try to sell the van! If you are interested in coming here, have a look at it on : http://nissan-awd.blogspot.com
We slept in total three nights in there and then headed north. The pictures on the beach are in the three sisters.
I have just realised that I did not write much about what we did in Wellington in the last post, well we went for a beer, to the cinema (source code), to a tattoo museum and not much more this time.
salut!
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Pics from Wellington
The pics are from a -the way they call it- predator free sanctuary. Some years ago volunteers near Wellington started a project which consisted closing 1square mile of forest near the capital, using an advanced fence. Such a fence is able to stop most of the introduced predators to the New Zealand native birdlife. It is tall enough that no cats can jump over it, and so dense that rats, rabbits, possum and stoats can not enter it.
Inside you can have a better idea of how New Zealand looked (and sounded) before humans arrived. There are so many birds! We saw Tui, bellbirds, kaka, saddleback (picture),takahe(picture), hihi and even a Tuatara. They have some kiwi birds too, but since they are nocturnal we saw none. Weta, which is something like a giant grasshopper, was also to be seen.
Well, I have to catch up with two delayed weeks of blog. So I better hurry up and comment only on the nicest!
Cheers!
Jm
Cheers
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Thursday, May 19, 2011
Picton, start and end of the south island
Picton is where you take the Ferry that links both Islands. On our way up, we passed through Blenheim and decided to take the curved gravel coastal road to Picton. It would offer nice views and at the end we picked the Tumbstone hostel to spend he night there, and watch the heavy rain while we were playing pool. The hostel was really nice and the staff (owners) really friendly. We played until late at night, since our ferry wouldn't depart until 11:30 am.
In the boat we met a couple of Kiwis from Gisborne, they were pretty nice and we exchanged our impressions and different ways of living in Europe and in here. The work market is not at its best in New Zealand, plenty of people go to Australia to work because the salaries are higher. Both daughters of this couple were working now in Australia. But they said they worked three days a week, and they were happy with it, not getting rich but with enough to live.
Well, 3 hours later we arrived to Wellington! But that will be the next post.
Cheers!
Jm
In the boat we met a couple of Kiwis from Gisborne, they were pretty nice and we exchanged our impressions and different ways of living in Europe and in here. The work market is not at its best in New Zealand, plenty of people go to Australia to work because the salaries are higher. Both daughters of this couple were working now in Australia. But they said they worked three days a week, and they were happy with it, not getting rich but with enough to live.
Well, 3 hours later we arrived to Wellington! But that will be the next post.
Cheers!
Jm
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