New Zealand at it's best!
Hey our friends all over the world!
Cause we were very lazy the last four weeks, we thought, that it's now at the time again to make the people back home a bit jealous! It's not that we were lazy actually or that we forgot our lovely friends back home, starving already after new messages from the other side of the world; we just didn't have the time, always being busy with travelling (and another issue is the amazing big amount of money the internet cafes charge - not combinable with a backpacker's wallet)!
The last time that we updated our website was in Dunedin around Easter, from there on, our travels had a lot of highlights and there was no day, that we didn't have heaps of fun. From Dunedin, our baby MaJu drove us like a champion all the way up north, until we took the ferry to the North Island.
The South Island still had a lot more to offer than what you saw on the last pics: except for a lot of beautiful drives through stunning countryside, we did a guided walk on Franz Josef Glacier ( fully equipped with spikes, jackets and all you nead for a day in the amazing world of ice), we visited some nice lakes, surrounded from high mountains in the Queenstown region; did some nice hikes in the alpine areas of the National Parks over there; went by water-taxi around the wonderful Abel Tasman National Park (a hidden paradise with its golden beaches and its jade-green water)!
From Picton, we took the ferry to Wellington on the North Island ( seasickness came over both of us, but god chose me, to empty my stomach from our nice breakfast - why are it always the good and innocent ones, who have to suffer? That can't be fair!)
Arrived in Wellington, we soon went out of the big city, back into the calm and peaceful nature - stress and busyness we'll soon have enough back home! MaJu, our travel-companion, went with us over the whole northern part of "the land of the long white cloud", also called Kiwiland, and explored the vulcanical areas of the Rotorua district and the Taupo area (where we did the most dangerous, weared and frightening thing we ever did in our lives: a skydive from about 12000 feet=4km high, what means 40 seconds freefall with about 200km/h and then later on a 5 minutes parachute-fly back down to the ground.
For ous parents: no worries, we're still alive and not gonna do it again, although it was great fun! For our friends: Martijn actually was the one with the idea, but in the end, he was even more afraid than me and realised first after the jump, that he could have died - better later than never!
But friends, if you should have the chance to do a skydive, use it - it's an experience for its own, what you have to do once in your live (ne, Oli ?). Other things we did were watching some big and still active vulcanoes close to Tongariro National Park, walking on the traces of the Lord of the Rings and its settings (the Mordor part), and, not to forget, selling our baby in Auckland on a carmarket.
It took us about 5 days until we found the right caretakers to hand our Baby over, but we finally found some new parents with the necessary amount of money (we sold our child for $1800 (still too less if you ask me, but alright for this time of the year, when there are almost no travellers coming cause of the winter - so we travelled in it for free). The new owners are two german guys - so guess, to whom the business was left - sure to the woman again!!!).
But our days of worries and waiting in Auckland for potential buyers are now over and were actually not too bad, cause of our adopted family over here: a couple and three lovely girls between 8 and 12 years, who just called us in from the sreet where we were parking to sleep for a beer and dinner in the evening and for a shower and a coffee in the morning - really lovely the Kiwis!
Tomorrow, we gonna do hitchhiking up north to the Bay of Islands to enjoy our last week in the Kiwiland - lets see how its going on, the report follows later! Next saturday means big changes again: Martijn is going to fly to Thailand to meet up with his Daddy, whilst I go back to Australia and catch up with him in Bangkok in about two weeks later, so that we can spend the last two weeks of our travels together on the beach to improve our suntan a little bit before we come home to make you all jealous! So, that's enough for today, we hope that you enjoy reading the story and watching the pics - and don't forget this time to put a reaction, so that we also know, how you back home are doing!
Greetz, hugs or kisses (you have to choose for yourself, what you want or would get from us).
