[ by Stian ]
...or for those of you who do not
speak Maori: Goodbye New Zealand. Though I cant claim i speak any
Maori myself – thats been Kenneths thing for a while now – but if
i am to believe the internet then this is the way to say farewell to
«someone» who is staying in the Maori language, and since I am the one leaving then New Zealand is the "one" staying:) This is also my first
post completely in English so to all you Englishspeaking friends of
mine; Please, bare with me any grammarmistakes or misspelling... (did
i at all get THAT word right?) Hmmmm , haha ;)
This entry to my blog is in short a
resumê of my stay in the fantastisk country of New Zealand.
We only got to stay in New Zealand for
16 days all together, which is by far not enough. We were told that
if you are to give the country any justice at all then one has to
stay at least 6 weeks.. that is about 4 more weeks than what we did –
and i have to agree with this comment. So I have to come back, I just
have to!
Auckland
We spent 3 nights in Auckland. Auckland
is the biggest city and a modern one. It is to me not the most
exciting city when it comes to options to do, unless if you love
shopping and so on. So if you ever are to come to Auckland and will
be staying at a hostel then i recommend only a couple of nights. If
you do as we did, couchsurf, then it is all up to how well you and
your host get along really. We were extremely lucky to get to know
Wade who was an EXCELLENT host who took so well care of us, and he
also got us in touch with our next host as well. Of stuff to do in
Auckland i do feel that we got to do the most important things that
were visiting Auckland Museum, «climb» Mount Eden and go to Waiheke
Island.
Hamilton
Our next stop was Hamilton. We only
went to Hamilton because i thought it would be a perfect place to
visit other places from in the area, but everyone thought it was
crazy of us to stop there since there is not so much to to there.
Well Hamilton is the 4th biggest city of New Zealand but
gave me no feeling of being a city at all. It all just seemed like a
huge suburb with no center or a mainstreet at all. We were greeted by
our host Peter, who also was an amazing host and made our stay a
really good one. We got to see the Hamilton Gardens which is pretty
much the only thing you need to see if you ever go to Hamilton. But
really, its not about the places you visit, but the people you hang
out with. And Peter was a joy to get to know and i am glad we got to
know him and that we got to see Hamilton.
Hobbiton
Peter gave us a ride to Matamata, from
where we continued towards Hobbiton which was a wonderful experience.
I just loved the Shire. I only would have wished we had even better
weather (that is blue sky) – then the photos would have turned out
so much better, hehe;) Hobbiton is a touristic magnet become -but its
totally understandable and is definitly a must visit place in New
Zealand.
Rotorua
Rotorua was our next stop – we spent
4 days/nights here in a wonderful hostel, and we could probably have
spent even more days here since there is a LOT to see and to do from
here. We got in touch with wonderful Herbie who showed us around the
area and got us in touch with the local community, which was fun. I
got to party a lot while in Rotorua and my feet went crazy on the
dancefloor. In Rotorua we got to do a Maori-cultural-experience, we
went rafting, cave-exploring in the Waitomo Caves, Luging, Swooping,
latenightswimming in natural hot pools and so on. We could have
gotten to do much more as well, but time wasnt enough
unfortunately... so I definitly have to come back one day:) Though
from here on our budget was blown – cause activities and adventures
do cost a bit eventhough they definitly are worth the cost, hehe;)
Taupo
Then it was Taupos turn to get
explored. Taupo is centrally located on the Northern island, next to
the biggest lake in what i think they said the whole southern
hemisphare? But i might be wrong of course... I had high expectations
for Taupo since this is also a place where you can do a whole deal of
activites. But as it should turn out most of the really fun activites
need great weather to be done, and we did not have great weather. We
didnt have much rain – but most of the days were cloudy. We got to
do Skydiving, which was amazing, the second day we were there – but
it was just barely it happened because of the weather. What i looked
the most forward to was of course the Tangoriro National Park
Crossing, which turned out to be anything but pleasant. It was
postponed for a couple of days and when we finally got to do it it
turned out to be the worst day ever with heavy rain and extreme
winds... so i definitly have to return and do this over again. Other
things we did was sailboattrip, hiking, and swimming in natural hot
springs. We got in touch with lovely Dominic in our hostel and hang
out with him for all of the days. The hostel was not the best though
– so if you are not a YHA member i would probably advice most
people to find another place to stay if they are to go to Taupo ;)
Wellington
Wellington next up. A City i did not
have much expectations to, but turned out to be a lovely lovely city.
Though the weather was not really on our side as it rained heavily
the first day there – but the following day the weather was
wonderful. As I didnt expect much from the city (dont trust
wikitravel always) I only got to spend 2 days here, while Kenneth
spent 3 nights here. The city is extremely charming and had a
European flavour which i loved. There is lot to see around here which
is for free and there were alot of things we did not get to do at all
which i would have liked to have seen... People of importance in
Wellington was Josh who really made a great effort and gave us a
wonderful sightseeing in the short time we spent together – so
thanks to Josh and also to Peter from Hamilton who got us in touch
with Josh:-)
Christchurch
Since we spent more days in Taupo than
what we were supposed to do we started to get short of time and
therefore we took a flight from Wellington to our last stop in New
Zealand, Christchurch. We also shortened down our stay in
Christchurch till only 2 nights since alot of people told us its
become a ghost town because of the eathquakes in 2011. Upon arrival
we were picked up by our host, Ian. Ian was an excellent host and
took really well care of us while we stayed there. He drove us around
the city and showed us all the important spots and could tell us all
about the background of every ruin. This one whole day we got to
spend in Christchurch was really informative, interesting and lovely.
We really got the most out of this short time, thanks to Ian. We even
got to experience an earthquake ourself while we were there – which
was kinda scary but also interesting of course. Lovely Ian then was
so kind that he dropped us off at the airport the next morning as
well so we did not have to struggle with buses and so on. I know, we
have become spoiled;) haha. What a great life:)
THANK YOU NEW ZEALAND
That was all from New Zealand – A
FANTASTIC and beautiful country that i just LOVE of all my heart! The
nature is fantastic, the adventures breathtaking, the culture is
superinteresting, but what is most important is that the people of
New Zealand are just amazing. I dont think i have ever met a more
friendly, helpful and enjoyable kind of people before. They really
are just fantastic and made the whole Kiwi-experience a one of a kind
:) So the rest of the world has a lot to live up to if they are going
to beat the Kiwi-adventure we have had, and if any of our other
visits will be close to the standard of what we have had here in New
Zealand, then this year definitly will be the most amazing ever. Oh
my life is just fantastic:)
I'll upload some best of photos later;)
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