Links to New Zealand

New Zealand

HAKA Rugby

Glacier Country

New Zealand – „Haere Mai“ means „Welcome“

When god created the world he discovered a spare amount of space in the infinite amplitudes of the Pacific for two big islands. He took a bit of beauty and the most interesting things of each part of the word and coined his masterpiece- NEW ZEALAND!

New Zealand

So...next station: New Zealand! Here we are. New Zealand, one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen! I arrived in Auckland, located on the North Island and the first trip was northward. On the way to Cape Reinga we stopped at the “90 Mile Beach” where it is officially allowed to drive with a car along the beach. It’s  prohibited for rental cars, but no risk no fun, right? Of course we tried it, and after 5min we turned around because the smell of rubber occurred, hmm…and we got almost stuck in the sand; lucky! At Cape Reinga we saw the Tasman Sea and the Pacific colliding. It was an amazing view!!

Rotorua is the only city you will recognize with your sense of smell. You don’t need to see anything nor hear anything. You have to get used to the permanent smell of sulphur in the beginning. The city is located in the middle of a very active volcanic area. On all rough edges you see ascending fumes staying in the air and its always foggy. There are lots of simmering mud pools and boiling lakes. Very famous is the ‘Sulphur Bay’ close to Rotorua lake where we saw all the sulphur springs. If you don’t remain on the track you can easily fall into one. Another phenomenon is the geyser. Up to 30m (Pohutu- Geyser) high it rockets upwards.

I talked about the Maoris before. This time we visited them in their own village. They use the water of the springs to prepare their meals and also taking a bath in sulphur is supposed to be healthy. They add additional cold water if they use it otherwise it is way to hot. The highlights of the visit are dances and chants of the Maoris. It is very interesting. We went back to the city after the nice buffet and sang along with other tourists in the bus ;-))

Wellington radiates lots of warmth and coziness. You can walk from one sight to the next one while you feel the cosmopolitan breathe which gives Wellington the loveliness and sophistication of great cities. Wellington has lots of national treasures, artistic charme and excellent culinary food. After walking through the city and having a coffee it was time to make our way to the ferry terminal. A last view back to the beautiful houses built on a hill before the ferry took its turn to the sea.

New Zealand - Franz-Josef-Glacier

Here you can see many pictures of the Franz-Josef-Glacier. With a guide we went up the glacier, mostly climbing because it was so steep. It was very hard because it is not an easy track. It was a very narrow path and you had to watch your steps. We also sneaked through some glacial caves; sometimes it was pretty tight as you see on the pictures. It took us around eight hours and on the way back we were climbing over a waterfall as you can see. Very nice experience!

New Zealand - Queenstown

On the way to Queenstown we discovered so many beautiful nature sceneries. Amazing. The first built bungee jumping bridge was in Queenstown where we saw some people jumping. Afterwards we made our way to the only castle in New Zealand, Castle Larnach. Located on a mountain over viewing the whole coast. Further on we also saw some nice rocks in the middle of the sea. I forgot their names… On the last picture you can see the emblem of Christchurch.

New Zealand - Rafting

Let’s go to the next adventure... I was pretty scared in the beginning knowing that we will be at the mercy of the white water of the Rangitata River. In the beginning we had to practice the commands of our team leader. And I had to sit in the back with him. He kept me twice in the boat when my strength was not enough to hold on. If you are looking for me on the pictures, I am wearing a light blue helmet ;-))

A jump of a cliff which was 10m high was also included in the price ;-)

It was very scary and the supervisor had to jump with me together at the end. We were also floating down the river by ourselves hoping to rely on our swim vests.

This adventure was very interesting; we had some ‘barbie’ in the evening and went home the next day.

New Zealand was adventurous and very interesting. I loved it. Anyhow, I was happy to jump under my hot shower at home and covered myself with a nice doona when I returned to Australia.