Back in Germany..........

Physically, at least. The trip was exhausting, and extremely bumpy on the 2nd leg from Kuala Lumpur to Frankfurt, we had a head wind of 228 km/h at times, so it indeed took almost 13 hours.

Now trying to get back into "normal" life (whatever that means), sorting out luggage, groceries, mail, all that rubbish.

Once the most important stuff is done, I will find time to reflect on a lot of things and write some lists including "10 top things NZ" and "10 Musts for NZ travellers".

For now, this is the last thing we enjoyed in Auckland Airport - our last Flat White :(

18 hours down, another 16 to go

We're in Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia, waiting for our flight to Frankfurt. Currently trying to figure out why this flight supposedly will take 13 hours?! The WiFi here is very slow, so this is all we're gonna say from here.

Tired, exhausted, most of all sad.

Spezieller Post für Taröööö

Hobbiton_The_Shires_001, ursprünglich hochgeladen von dunjachapman

Awwwwwwww :D?

Spezieller Post für Opa Hui!

Hamilton_001, ursprünglich hochgeladen von dunjachapman

1kg Green lipped mussels kosten 3,57 NZD (also so um die 1,85 €)!

Tut mir ja leid, aber wir hatten heute abend jeder 1 kg nochmal in dem belgischen Biercafe :D

Last Check-In From Auckland

We made it back to Auckland safely after staying last night in Hamilton at the Waikato River, where we both liked it much better than we initially thought. It is a vibrant university town with loads of young people = loads of nice pubs and bars, and we actually were able to do a pub crawl just using Irish Pubs (there were 3 of them only on the main Victoria Street!).

Everything was of course influenced by our thoughts about tomorrow, i.e. having to leave here and not knowing if &when we might be able to come back....

We're currently watching one of our favorite TV programmes on Discovery Channel, so bear with me if this is a little bit short.

We're checked in for both flights, and if everything goes to plan, we will back in "good"old Germany on Friday, and post a probably devastated entry from there.

Until then, enjoy yourselves with a truckload of pictures I just uploaded/am uploading to FlickR as we speak.

See you guys.

The Smell Of Rotten Eggs.... (Written offline on November 8th)

…. is the smell I will remember when I am gonna think back to our last weekend in New Zealand.

We're now in Rotorua since yesterday (Sunday 7^th), where we will stay until tomorrow morning before leaving to Hamilton on our way back to Auckland.

When we took off yesterday morning in Turangi/Lake Taupo, we stopped a few times to take some breathtaking pictures of Taupo and its surroundings. Although very tourist-y, it still is an extremely lovely place, and living here must be delightful!

After having a quick snack in one of its cafes, we continued on the Thermal Explorer Highway until we reached the famous Huka Falls just out of Taupo. I can say I was pretty amazed by them! We were even lucky enough to spot one of the Jetboats that take tours right up to the falls. Pictures will be up on FlickR soon. I am writing this offline again, as we could get internet access here, but I really don't feel like spending 10 NZD for only 50 MB traffic, so we will wait until getting to Hamilton tomorrow afternoon.

Anyhoo, after the Huka Falls, we reached our first planned destination for that day: The „Thermal Wonderland“ in Wai-O-Tapu, about 30 km below Rotorua.

Wow. Just wow. We've seen it so many times already on TV on various travelling programmes - but nothing comes close to the real thing. Although I could've done without the unimaginable smell of foul eggs that hits you full stop as soon as you get close to the place. It's the smell of the sulphur, and it is totally overwhelming. Unfortunately, we didn't learn off our White Island experience, obviously, and forgot to take sweets and water to get rid of that smell, so we had to endure about 2,5 hours in the areal without any of them.......... the sights were worth the bouts of sickness that overcome you about every 100 m.

Our planet is a miracle, and Thermal Wonderland is one of the places where you can feel it in every single cell of your body.

A shower was much needed and appreciated once we got to our hotel here in Rotorua!

Later in the evening, we had our much anticipated Maori culture show and Hangi dinner (the food is cooked in a geothermal oven in the ground, and I can tell you guys, it tastes divine).

No. This is not me cheating on Rob :p This is me, getting taught how to properly do the „Hongi“, the traditional Maori greeting. Mind you, it has nothing to do with the apparent nose rubbing the eskimos do. You just shake hands, and press your noses against each other twice. It is meant to be the exchange of breath of life.

We later participated in the cultural show, I did a Poi dance and Rob did the Haka (no there won't be any pics, too embarrassing, and besides, our camera ran out of battery :D

It was a wonderful experience, a night to remember for sure.

Today, after a lie-in, we went to The Thermal Village of Whakarewarewa, a traditional Maori village where the descendants of ancient Maori tribes still live and use the geothermal energy to cook their food, fill their baths, heat their houses. I have no idea how they manage to live in that smell, nor how they manage to let their kids play right next to a spring that contains 138 C degrees hot boiling water.......... but we have seen the kids, and they seem MUCH happier and capable of life than those spoilt kids we know!

It was soooo interesting to walk through that Village, see how the Moari live, what they do, and hear the stories they had to tell.

Unfortunately, the famous Pohutu Geyser which apparently goes off at least once hourly decided to fool us today, as we waited almost 2 hours for it to blow off, but in vain. Oh well, you can't have everything, can you?

After a dinner at a Thai restaurant we're now watching TV in our TV bed before heading over to our sleep bed (yes we have 2 queen beds in the room!) before checking out at 10 tomorrow and head towards Hamilton........... not without taking a look at „The Shires“ in Matamata before!

TheThree Volcanos Or: Mt. Doom & Co.

Isn't this impressive? This is Mt. Ngauruhoe, featured as "Mount Doom" in the LOTR trilogy, and we were - after some waiting around - lucky enough to catch him with his summit almost uncovered, and that doesn't happen very often!

Some more pictures are up on FlickR, also of our lodge room, which Rob took this morning. Don't fret about the unmade bed, I was still in the shower and hadn't done it yet :p

Tomorrow morning we've early off to Rotorua via Lake Taupo, and will take a look at the famous Lady Knox Geyser on the way there. There will be no updates tomorrow at least though, as we will have a long Maori evening with performances, cultural happenings, and a hangi feast.

Nice weekend everybody at home :)

4000 km & Proud Citizens Of The Republic Of Whangamomona

Yep, it finally happened. We've become citizens of the Republic of Whangamomona. We've got passports to prove it, and photos will be up on FlickR in a minute.

After a very short night and a maybe future-wise interesting chat with our lovely host Dion when checking out this morning in Wanganui, we started the most time-consuming part of our whole NZ trip at around10 am, which would take us to the Mt. Egmont (Mt.Taranaki) National Park, and then to Lake Taupo via the Forgotten World Highway #43. This was actually a ridiculous detour, as you can get to Lake Taupo from Wanganui within 1,5 h......................... it took us 10 h in the end, but it was well worth it.

Driving up to the plateau of the active volcano Mt. Egmont (Mt. Taranki in Maori) was something that we will remember for quite a while, the view from up there was absolutely breathtaking and overwhelming. The only downside was that its summit was in the clouds so we couldn't see the crater from anywhere.

As if we hadn't seen already more beauty than we can possibly take in with our irrelevant human eyes, the Forgotten World Highway topped many of those beautiful things in many ways. The landscape was out of this world. There are no words to describe it, take a look at the pictures and judge for yourselves. Rob called it "Teletubby Land", and it indeed looked a bit like an artificial landscape made up for a childrens program.........yet it was all real. The drive took us just about as loooooooooong as I had expected, and because we took a detour over a gravel road to see NZ's highest waterfall, Mt. Damper Falls. It also took a 30 min walk over farmland, uphill and downhill, escaping from lost goats that were running about, and when we finally got to our location for the night in Turangi at the bottom of Lake Taupo, we were so deadly shattered that we decided to skip staying in Taupo tomorrow which would have meant to check out at 10 again, but stay for another night here indeed. The lodge we are in now is also amazing, we have an own little hut-type house with a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and lounge, and are currently enjoying a nice glass of NZ white wine, a glass of Speight's Gold Ale, and watching some Sky TV. Tomorrow we will have a lie-in for a change instead of getting up at 8 like almost all other mornings, and then go for a short drive into Tongariro National Park to see the line of several active vulcanos including Mt. Ngauruhoe (or "Mt. Doom" for the LOTR freaks).

On Sunday, we will totally relaxedly drive up to Rotorua via Taupo, and check out all the unique thermal experiences around those two towns.

For now, we're just gonna watch some more TV and then s-l-e-e-p.

Wanna become a Vegetarian?

Living_Stock_Madness_02, ursprünglich hochgeladen von dunjachapman

Seriously, how fucking ridiculous can it get?! New Zealand has got like 60 Mio sheep, so you can be relatively sure that a few million of them are on the North Island, right? And so I think it is just fair to ask: "Why on earth do a few hundred of them have to be squeezed into 2 trucks together with a few dozens of cows (same question!), and transported from the South to the North Island under totally unacceptable conditions?!"

Although I am a devoted eater of almost everything including meat, I seriously considered to become a vegetarian today when having to watch this on the ferry, because I do not want to be partially responsible for complete madness like this.

As you might have gathered, we are back on the North Island, with a 2h delay due to a fucking machine problem that made us leave Picton 20 mins late, and go so slow that we arrived in Wellington at 7 pm instead of 5, with yet 3 h to go.

As everyone who knows me will have guessed, I was fuming about this, but now comes the great thing: Unlike any German I know, all Kiwi employees on board of the vessel were extremely helpful when we explained them that we had booked a lodge for arrival time 8 pm, and that now those people would have to be contacted, but that we unfortunately had no phone on us. They took our booking details and not only emailed but also phoned our hosts for tonight still from the ship whilst being at sea, the amazing AnnDionLodge in Wanganui, to let them know we would be 2 h late.

When we finally arrived here in Wanganui at 10 pm, we received the warmest welcome ever from our host Dion, and we realized soon this is the most amazing place we've stayed in so far. The pictures on their website don't do it any justice, it is perfect, and feels like home. It really does, hell Rob even went through the place into the huge guest kitchen in his pyjamas to get glasses, and didn't feel uncomfortable at all! When we get back to Aotearoa one day, we will stay here for at least a week, but unfortunately our tight schedule doesn't allow us to stay longer than one night this time.

Tomorrow morning we will be leaving towards Taupo region via the Forgotten World Highway.

Very tired now, so beddybyes. Pictures are up on FlickR.

That's The View Out Of Our Hotel Room Window

Grand_Mercure_Monaco_Nelson_002, ursprünglich hochgeladen von dunjachapman

Well, actually now it's dark because it is almost 10 pm, but this was the view when we came here around 3 pm. The water was at low tide then, but when we came back from the Indian we had dinner at, it had risen.

Off to bed, nighty nighty :-*

Wednesday, November 3rd – just arrived in Nelson/Abel Tasman National Park

Wow. The hotel really keeps the promises it made on their website, it is beautiful. A little river flows directly underneath our window, and it has all facilities you would want and need for a bit longer stay, which we will unfortunately not have, seeing as we will go back to the North Island tomorrow afternoon.

We're just about to freshen up a little bit after the drive from Greymouth which was nothing spectacular, but then we didn't really want to stop anywhere in particular, as wanted to get to Nelson early to rather explore that a bit – which is what we are gonna do right after updating the blog and uploading pictures. Oh there was one thing worth mentioning though – New Zealand's longest swinging bridge! I had one step on it and happily gave it a miss, whilst Rob took the return walk........I admire him for that courage which I couldn't come up with.

So we're still alive, happy and looking forward to the sadly last week of our adventure, which will lead us up the West Coast of the North Island, and then into the Thermal Wonderlands via the Forgotten World Highway this weekend, ending it in Rotorua for a 2 night stint on Sunday.

Pictures of the last 4 days are as usually up on FlickR :)

Greymouth on November 2nd after crossing the Southern Alps

It's now Tuesday the 2^nd, and we've just arrived in Greymouth after an amazing drive over the Southern Alps via the Arthur's Pass. Rob had never seen really big mountains before, so he was all „awww'!“ and „oh!“ when we left Christchurch, whilst I am easily bored by that certain sight. Not bored at all though by the sheer beauty of the landscape, the crystal clear lakes, the trees whose names we probably won't ever know, because almost everything that grows here in NZ only grows here and nowhere else in the world.

At Arthur's Pass Village, we took a break to swap drivers and have a snack, and came across one of NZ's unique birds, the Kea. Looks a bit like a parrot, but with a little different beak, and those creatures are bloody greedy LOL! We and other guests had to guard our food, otherwise they'd steal it right from your plate!

Short before Greymouth, we stopped at Shantytown and had a ride on an ancient steam train, a very informative walk through the remains of a millsaw, and ancient goldrush town, and the rebuilt China Town the set up as a hommage to the Chinese miners who helped building up these enterprises.

We'll upload all the pictures from the last days as soon as we get decent internet and actually some time to do it, which might still take a while, so when you people read all of this, we might already be back on the North Island. We've again got no decent internet here in the Ashley Hotel, but maybe tomorrow in Nelson, which we are particularly looking forward to, as not only the hotel looks marvellous, also the town seems to be worth checking out further. As there is really nothing on the way there that we might want to check out thoroughly, we will hopefully get to Nelson 

relatively early.

So beautiful, it takes your breath away.........

Checking in from Christchurch on the 1st of November on the South Island were we landed after crossing the Cook Strait early this morning.

Getting up at 6 am wasn't exactly my cup of tea, to be honest. I am suffering a bit from insomnia lately, but then so is Rob. Probably due to the bouncy beds that make you jump whenever your spouse is only doing the slightest move, but most definitely also because I just can't put my mind at rest at night. We're experiencing so much, see so many insanely beautiful and exciting things, that it would take a braindead person not to be affected by it.

We're still going strong though, and were able to prove all the oh-so-brainy tourist guides wrong today who claim to know that the Cook Strait is almost always very rough waters and bumpy etc pp blabla................... it was as quiet as a duck pond. Absolutely no waves or anything like that.

However, we drove down Highway #1 after we arrived in Picton, and I can honestly say that this was the most beautiful drive we've done so far. The region around Kaikoura where we had a lunch break is just indescribable........ we took a lot of pictures, but seriously doubt that only one of them will actually be able to show the beauty of this country. I said exactly the same once after I met Michael Stipe, when I realised that no picture could ever mirror the blue of his eyes........ it's the same here. No matter how many pictures we take, none of them will truly mirror how turquoise the water is, how blue the sky, how green the meadows. It's just not possible to put so much beauty into digits or on celluloid. You have to see it with your own eyes.

Who would ever believe that you stop at some random place somewhere along the coast, to take some pictures of a brilliant spot, and suddenly find yourself surrounded by furry seals?! Who just happen to lie around there, not in the zoo, not fenced in, no! Just on the beach, on the rocks, 2 m away from you! And not only in this one particular spot, nope! They're just everywhere, wherever you stop, around Kaikoura! And the worst thing about New Zealand probably is that you at some point can't take all the wonders in anymore....... when we had taken pictures of a few seal colonies, Rob said at some point along the way „oh there is another one [colony]!“ - and I just went „oh yeah, another one.“ You can't help but get used to things you've never ever experienced before in your life, just because there are so many miracles happening here every day, that your brain literally forces you to format it, otherwise you wouldn't be ready for the next wonderous thing to be taken in. I can't explain it any other way.

We're now in Christchurch, only for one evening, because tomorrow we will go over the Arthurs Pass to the West Coast of the South Island. We've taken some pictures of what is left of Christchurch, which is very pittoresque and lovely, and some pictures of the damage that is still visible after the fatal earthquake of 4^th of September. I was kind of resistent to believe that there are still aftershocks now, but when we were having a pre-dinner Kilkenny at an Irish Pub, I was taught otherwise, as the barstools, the table and the building rattled for a few seconds just like when a tram goes by............... just that the tram had stopped going already at 4.40 pm. Yep, a little earthquake. No one else seem to take any notice, they're probably used to it meanwhile.

I can't really complain about food................ Wagamama twice in just 48 h isn't too bad at all, is it :D?

At any rate, I can't be bothered to figure out the internet, so this will have to wait another day, and then you guys get to read and see twice as much as usually!

Wellington on 31st of October

Aaaaaa-ooooo-teeeee-aaaaa-roooo-oooo-aaaaa.

Spent a windy yet brilliant day in Wellington on Sunday, although we couldn't get into the Movietours as it was fully booked (blame me for not prebooking it weeks ago, but then I didn't know that there was something like „LOTR Movie Tours“, did I?!? I still have to watch those movies yet, and I don't know what could happen to make me do that!!).

Which was our luck really, as we decided to just take a bus to the „Weta Caves“, that famous studio were all the animations and artworks for films like LOTR and AVATAR were being produced.

Apart from me just LOVING to explore cities by bus, it turned out that one of the world-wide acclaimed illustrators for LOTR, Mr. John Howe, was doing a book signing at the Weta Cave this afternoon!!

Although I have absolutely no idea who he is, nor did I know anything about anything that was being put on the shelves there, everyone apart from me knew, apparently. There were long queues, with people frantically buying books and stuff, and so we queued up. In the end, Rob got his book signed, I took pictures, but I still don't know who from...... although I thought it was amazing that they had a collection of hairdryers on display!

Anyhow, today really got me into Wellington. I mean, REALLY. I honestly wish we could spend another day here, so I could take in even more of this city, but then in about 8 hours we will get up again to hit the Bluebridge Ferry terminal to get onto our ferry to the South Island.

If it wasn't for this trip, I'd talk Rob into exploring a certain quarter of Wellington which we drove through today by bus, and which I absolutely loved............we'll keep that for next time.

There will be a next time. I don't know when, I just know we will have to come back to Aotearoa, be it for another holiday, or for whatever life might throw at us....

We took the Cable Car today, and had an amazing view of the city and the port, went into some shops (yes!! the NZ shops ARE open on Sundays, no matter what you stupid travel guide writers might say!!), and got some Rugby/All Blacks treasures to take home (did I mention yet that I LOVE Rugby and especially the All Blacks, even though they lost against bleeding Australia last night?!), then we went for dinner into the most acclaimed Chinese restaurant only to realize that the portions were so small we had to go into a Kiwi Pub to get some afters in form of fish guijons and squid bits later. Turns out that place had the first decent cocktails since we arrived in NZ, so we had a Margarita (Rob) and a Mojito (me) before heading back to the hotel were we are now, getting ready for bed and the crossing of the Cook Strait tomorrow morning.

I am writing this offline, can't be bothered to buy another internet ticket, so it might be some time until I can actually post this. But then Dad and Tara phoned last night, which was lovely!!, and everyone else will probably have the patience to wait. ;)

I'll give you guys the chance to waste some time in between: What tattoo shall I get? A proper Moko of some description, or - what I prefer – one verse of the Maori version of NZ's national anthem in spiralform, and where should I get it tattood (if I can work up the courage to do it, that is!!)?

Over and out from the North Island.