Kiwi explorers...

Hey, hope you are well!

We are now in New Zealand were we have been for a bit more than two weeks. And what a beautiful country! Wow, nature here is stunning and leaves you with nothing left to ask for! Plus people are super friendly and helpful :) The country is though very touristic compared too many other places that we have been to on our tour. The population here is about 5 million and the visitor number is 2.5 million every year! It also seems as if there are more travelers of older generation here than in South America where most people we met where 20-30 years old.

Well, enough about that. Now, let’s talk about travel adventures ;) As you might remember, last time we wrote here we were in Fiji. So, more or less chronologically, here is what we have been up to since then:

Our week in Fiji was not as the Fiji you see on postcards. When we arrived a hurricane had just passed, so many places were flooded, the water was rather brownish, it was quite windy and we had rain every day... Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay a lot, the Fijians treated us really great and we used the stop there to regain travel-energy, getting ready to a new chapter of our trip here in the Pacific. We went to a tiny island called “Robinson Crusoe” and there we stayed for the last four days of our stopover. This was true relaxation with an absolute minimum of activity mainly due to the rain, but also because the island was so isolated. We did do something though ;) We went snake hunting (and caught a couple of them!), fishing, lying in hammocks reading, making jewelry of coconut shells, playing many silly games (but very funny since we won!), kayaking, watching a little show made by the natives (tune: Kiss me honey honey, kiss me!), and taking showers by filling a bucket with cold water and then pouring it over ourselves :)
So, we arrived to New Zealand which welcomed us heartily. We flew into Auckland with absolutely amazing views of the island and the many beautiful colours in the land and water from the plane, the sky was blue and the weather just great! (Which it seems to be all the time here!) We were picked up in the airport by Kenneth (a friend of Tinna’s parents) and he took us to his place in the country with Icelandic horses! Here we stayed for five days and had a great time; we truly enjoyed to be reunited with the horses and the tölt :) We stayed in a cozy cottage near the house and Kenneth and his wife Snejina gave us a very warm welcome!

Yet, we had to move on on our adventures so we decided to hire a car for the rest of our stay in NZ (cheaper than taking the bus!). Then we headed northward to a small village called Paihia in Bay of Islands. This was such an idyllic spot! The weather was great (25-30 degrees, blue sky) and the village was situated right at the beach looking out to the beautiful bay with islands and crystal blue water! Furthermore, Paihia had a whole street of hostels filled with young backpackers. So we parked the car and went surfing through the hostels till we found the best ;) The following day we enjoyed the beach, went playing tennis, made a nice dinner and shared a bottle of wine, chatting to some fellow travelers. This felt like true vacation and not the stressful, tough backpacking, haha ;) Actually, here in NZ we haven’t eaten out at all – uhm, except a couple of times at Subway… Well, the next day was a beautiful one! We went on a catamaran out in the bay and had a lot of dolphins swimming along all around the boat! They are such wonderful animals, wow... We were actually supposed to swim with them, but because some of them had babies we couldn’t. Still, it was a marvelous experience – they were so close to us! Jumping beautifully two and two together just like in the movies ;) The boat stopped at one of the islands where we walked to the top and enjoyed the stunning view. Then we snorkeled around in the bay and had barbeque at the boat. Nice!

That evening we headed south again. Elka was driving and Tinna had the Lonely Planet guidebook. Tinna was reading about the surrounding and suddenly she read that one of the best diving spots in the world was situated nearby. And the book said it was a great place to learn diving! So we took a quick decision, stopped at the next hostel where the owner called the dive center for us. They agreed to start a four day course the next morning at 7.00! So we got two beds at the hostel and jumped in them :)
The first day of the course was in the classroom learning a lot of theory. It was just the two of us and an instructor, Will. Second day was more theory, exam and then our first dive… in the swimming pool! So we swam around there with all the equipment, learning all the hand signs and safety cautions, getting used to being underwater and controlling our buoyancy. Finally, the third day we went in the boat and out on the open water! The site we were going to dive is called The Poor Knights Islands and is a marine reserve. The trip out there was about 45 min. and both of us were scared to death sitting there in the boat looking at the terrifying, deep, powerful ocean. But we arrived, put on all the equipment and jumped in the water. As soon as we got started it wasn’t as bad as we had imagined, it was actually quite interesting! A whole new world that opens under the surface of the water! We went down to 12 meters and were diving around for 50 minutes! After lunch we did another similar dive, but we moved the boat to a different spot, so the fish and vegetation was different… Simply unbelievable to swim around in the water seemingly weightless and studying all the life. We saw several Sting Rays, Moray Eels and hundreds of different fish. They were all so pretty and very curious, we could nearly pet them and many of them followed us around! On the fourth and last day of our diving course we also went out to the islands, but to two new spots and here we went down to 18 meters and did some absolutely breath-taking dives! It just kept becoming more fun as we became better divers. As we ended we got our certificates and we are now both Open Water Divers and can dive all over the world :) Very proud, hehe… Before this both of us were quite scared of the underwater life and now we agreed that challenging ourselves like this was such a great feeling and a major victory within us. It refreshes your mind and strengthens your confidence to learn completely new things ;)

Well, let’s move on! After the course we headed further south and stayed one night at Kenneth and Snejina’s place where we received a sending of licorice and pålægschokolade from Denmark :) Hereafter we drove to Rotorua, a center of geysers, hot springs and Maori culture (the natives in NZ). All this we visited and it was quite interesting. Then we drove further south to reach Lake Taupo, NZ’s biggest lake. The scenery here was truly beautiful, so we went hiking (or tramping as they call it here) up to the top of Mount Tauhara in the burning sun… Yes, we were rather sweaty after that hike! But the wonderful view of the lake from the top made it worth the effort :) Finished in Taupo we headed towards Wellington and picked up a hitchhiker on the way, a young man from Scotland. He was going to Wellington to find work and was good company in the car.
Since we wanted to go rather quickly to the South Island, Wellington was a short stop for us. We left with the ferry the morning after arrival and came to Picton on the South Island by noon. We soon realized that we had landed in the centre of the wine district on the South Island, so we stopped on a small village called Reinwick. The owner of a gorgeous little hostel gave us a map of the 25 wineries in the area – most within walking distance – and then we decided to be cultural and went on free wine tastings :) Walking from winery to winery. It was so interesting and fun even though everyone was (much!) older than us plus we learned a lot!

So, after digesting the wine stop we headed to the West Coast of the South Island and drove down it, admiring the spectacular scenery in this rather remote area of the country. Stayed one night in a quite sleepy town called Greymouth. The day after we met up with the Swedish girls we traveled with in California, went hiking to the Franz Josef glacier and had some quality time together ;)

Having said goodbye to our Swedish friends (they were going north) we headed further south and ended in Queenstown, which is where we are now. Queenstown is a buzzling small town full of tourist and energy; a mekka for adrenaline-sports and outdoor activities... So you never know what we will do tomorrow! ;)

That was about it for now… We miss you all very much, we really do!

Cheers,
Elka and Tinna