Oh wow!!

What a country! Where else in the world do you find a place that offers sailing, rock climbing, mountaineering, caving, horse back riding, brilliant shopping, thrill rides, skiing and patchwork within a 3 hours drive? We sure haven't come across that before... Well maybe the french part of Switzerland, but they speak french and we do not (and the patchwork there is not really any thing to talk about...). All in all we LOVE New Zealand!!

Dangerous Danes

The thrill ride began the very first day we arrived. We picked up our home for the next 5 weeks, a van we named Rulle Marie. Martin set out in Auskland's morning traffic. Luckely it was sunday and not many people were up, so Martin's debut driving in the wrong side of the road (the right side being the right side) only called for 5-6 horn honkings. But it only took a couple of days to get used to looking right and not left in the round-abouts, turning on the blinker and not the wipers, and not going too close to the road shoulder. Laerke had a much easier time, not knowing the difference between right and left in the first place...

North Island, part I

Not to waste too much time hanging around, we soon headed south to Waitomo Caves, where a 100 meter abseil awaited. Talk about a long way down! To get our nerves back on track, we took a walk in Tongariro National Park and a quick trip up Mount Ngauruhoe aka Mount Doom.

South Island

In the next couple of days a miracle happened: Laerke rock climbed... and thought it was fun!!! It has only taken Martin 8 years for this to happen, so he was pretty happy with himself. At the climbing crack Paynes Ford we stayed at a cosy campground called Hangdog, where the days were spent climbing and swimming in the rivers, and the evenings playing cards and drinking cold Kiwi beer. Not bad!!

Heading further south along the west coast we were introduced to how much it can rain in NZ. It rained so hard that we stranded in the world famous and totally intriging Haast for a couple of hours, due to a big land slide further south. Eventually, however, we arrived at our destination, the capital og thrills Queenstown. And since we were here and did not have anything better to do, we flew 4000 meters up in a plane and took one crucial step out of the door, which resulted in a 45 second free fall at about 200 km/h before the parachute was unfolded.

Since Tongariro Crossing had help our nerves earlier, a 3-day tramping trip along Kepler Track seem like a perfect choice. Martin, however, got a bit too calm, so after 3 days in the bush we headed back to Queenstown, so he could do a bungy jump.

We then headed east to get a feel of the wild life on the east coast. Here we met seals, sea lions (we think), yellow eyed penguins and albatrosses. All that wild life makes you thirsty, so we also found time for a work related visit to Speights brewery.

And then we were there... In the city of our dreams... Christchurch! The city that has it all:

• skiing
• sailing
• climbing cave with world class routes
• cheap party pills
• shopping, although the shoe shops were a little on the down side
• no sand flies

All in all perfect despite the lack of shoe shops. Martin was especially excited about The Cave, a climbing spot with sport climbing routes just the way he likes them. He was also like a little boy christmas eve, the day we spent in Castle Hill, where he completely riped off the skin on both hands and knees while bouldering.

Being on the east coast gave us a longing for more wild life, and swimming with dolphins in Kaikoura seemed a good ending on the South Island. Unfortunately the trip was cancelled due to too much wind. Bommer!

North Island, part II

When in New Zealand, smell New Zealand, and there is no better place to do so than in Rotorua. On the way here we passed Hidden Valley and were lucky to see a Geyser go off. Rotorua presented us with a swim in a hot spring, boiling mud holes, steaming lakes and a constant smell of rotten eggs.

When our nostrils could take no more, we went back to our favorite campground at the Friendly School, and from there on to Auckland, where a plane heading for Fiji waited for us.