New Zealand part 2 and the Aussie country life
Door: Rolinda Stienstra
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Rolinda
22 Februari 2015 | Nieuw Zeeland, New Zealand
Dear readers! Fasten your seatbelt because you cannot just skim this blog. You actually need time to get through. And believe me, I am trying my hardest to keep your eyes open but sometimes you have to keep them all up by yourself. I'm sorry. On the other hand, that's what you are used to, right? O oh, we take off, hold on tight!
Wellington to Kaiteriteri
You are now back in time on the 22nd of February, 8 o'clock in the evening, probably watching TV or doing some sports. Here in New Zealand it is 7:15 in the early morning and I am heading off to Picton, crossing the Cook Strait to the South Island by ferry. The ferry is bringing us from the north to the south island. We heard that the south island must be much more beautiful than the north island so we feel pretty tempt to go there! Well, as most of us have been out in Wellington last night we honestly feel pretty sleepy... Lucky us that the ferry trip takes 3,5 hours time and we have found us a comfy seat to spend our time being asleep. Outside it is chilly and windy anyway so we don't mind to experience this trip with our eyes closed.
After 3,5 hours floating we arrived in Picton. We are watching people going downstairs thinking it is probably time to get off. As we don't know where to go to get off the ferry we pretend to be sheep’s by following the crowd. We are going downstairs and end up in a car park. Not the place to be if you don’t have your own car (yet). Hmmm. Okay, let's ask the lady in blue where we need to go now. The lady gave us directions to get back on track and yet we are standing in the baggage hall. She made us being the first ones in wait for their luggage. Good on us! Reunited with our luggage we head out to the bus, which brings us to our first south island destination 'Kaiteritiri'.
Departing Picton we head out via the Marlborough Valley. This region is most famous for its delicious Sauvignon Blanc variety of wines. We had a quick stop over here to do some wine tasting. I did not feel tasting wines in the morning and sat down next to a couple of French people we met on the north island. A new girl (look a like Miranda from the Sex in the city) is walking up to me and asks me if I am OK that she's sitting down. As usual I am saying 'no!' to watch the reaction and then tell it is a joke. The woman is introducing herself as Danguole (from Geneva, Switzerland) and I have to ask for her name three times to make sure I am saying this correctly. Lieselotte is joining us now too. Danguole tells us that she keeps on meeting Dutch people by accident and that life is probably doing it by purpose because after her travelling she is going to move to Holland. She told us for example that she already met a Dutch couple on the same bus. We told her we did not meet them yet. She replied: you will now!! We then passed through a small town called Havelock. This village is known as the 'Greenlip Mussel Capital of the world'. After a brief stop in Nelson we travelled through to Kaiteriteri at the doorstep of the Abel Tasman National Park.
Around 6 o'clock in the evening we arrived in Kaiteriteri. Some people have paid for activities but we decided not to spend any more money first as there were a lot of other excited trips in front of us we already have been paid for. The evening was quiet and chilly. I was having a stomach pain so I decided to go to bed early. Lieselotte stayed outside joining the conversations of our travel mates. The next morning I heard that they discussed the bungee jumping and the canyon swing. One of our new bus drivers (Jared) had done both and made them pretty scared about it, haha. I am curious what they decide to do in the end...
Kaiteriteri to Westport
My alarm rings, it is 9 o'clock in the morning and we need to get up for the checkout at 10am. We put on our bikini to chill out on the Kaiteriteri bay in front of the hostel. Around 12am we were heading off to Westport, our next destination. Before we got on the bus we introduced ourself to the Dutch couple (Yoan and Kelly) and decided to sit in front of them in the bus. The bus driver ("Q") tells we have a stop at the Nelson lakes where we can go for a swim or a relax session. Whatever we might be in for. Arrived at the lake there is a jetty and everybody is looking down in the water pointing to something. Yoan told us in the bus that there might be some huge eels in the water around the jetty. We walked us there and saw some big ones. They made us switching our thoughts about the swim we had planned to take. We sat down with Yoan, Kelly and our other travel mates working on our fabulous tan!
What I want to make clear first is that on the new bus, there are still some people joining us who we have met on our way down. Those people together are a milkshake of English, Swedish, Taiwanese and Dutch flavours: Alex, Jack, Erik, Jozef, Oliver, Mikkel, Mathias, Emil and Julia and three Chi chai ching Taiwanese guys (I'm sorry that I can't keep up your names L) We left Hampus and Mathilda (Swedish couple) behind and will see them again, later on this trip. No tears yet!
In the afternoon we arrived in Westport, a pretty boring city as there is not much to do. You could decide to go surfing in the early morning around 6am, join a bonfire in the evening and/or go for a horse ride in the morning. We joined the bonfire at the beach and signed up for the horse riding. We brought the guitar from the hostel to the bonfire. It was a chilly evening so we needed our jumpers and the fire to stay a bit warm. Music and talks (and some alcohol) with nice people made this an unforgettable evening. At 6 o'clock in the morning we woke up because the guys in our room went surfing. Lucky us, we could stay in bed for an 1,5 hour more before we head out to our horse ride adventure. Some Readers might know that I rode horse for 5 years. At the age of 18 I sold my horse so I felt keen riding a horse again. And so did Lieselotte. Unfortunately the horses were easy to ride (as usual with such activities) and a girl in our group was riding a horse for the second time in her life. We just walked with the horses because of her lack of experience. The nicest thing about this trip was taking the horses through the river at the point they really have to swim. An amazing feeling! Before we head out to the ranch there was time to make a gallop twice. That was good fun, and end. The guy from the ranch took us to the point where we met up with our bus, to our next destination: lake Mahinapua (Maa-he-naa-poo-a)!
Westport to lake Mahinapua
Again, it is a long drive with a few stops in between. This time the drive is a top 10 drive of the most beautiful drives in the world. Sweet as (the words kiwi's (folks of NZ) say on the beginning and/or ending of every sentence)!! Yoan en Kelly reserved seats for us so the bus drive is lots of fun and talks anyway. After an hour the scenery was breathtaking. Mountains, clear blue water (glacier water) and ooosh i just cannot describe it. Everything is just there in the same picture. Punakaiki became our first stop, down to the east coast of New Zealand. We got off the bus for a 15 minutes walk, which gave us a beautiful view of the eastern coastline and made us able to see some blowholes! The next stop is in Greymouth. Here we picked up a girl from the TranzAlpine train and got time to do some grocery- and warehouse shopping as there was a themed party (P-Party) coming up at lake Mahinapua.
Most of the people paid for costumes at the Warehouse, as they knew how they wanted to be dressed. We did not have an idea yet so we decided to not buy anything and think of something cheap and creative (how Dutch!). In the afternoon we arrived in lake Mahinapua. Yoan bought a blank painting and wanted to wear this around his neck. So we decided to give him a hand to make up an idea. In the meantime we walked to the lake where the painting could be started. In the end, the painting showed a naked woman. In front of her genitals she was holding the big green kiwi bus. An amazing creative idea and actually the painting (woman) looked beautiful. Everyone thought Yoan would win this competition. The prize was a free bungee jump (43m) on the way to Queenstown. Lieselotte had the idea to use the paint to draw a piano on her arm and I just had so many ideas but none if them was good enough. So, in the end, as boring as anyone can be, I was dressed as just a person... Meh, meh, meh…Before the party started we had a lovely diner made by the hotel and also in the morning we had a good breakfast with pancakes, muesli, bread, coffee and tea. Luxurious (but of course we had to pay for this all)! After dinner everybody wrapped themselves in their outfit. Some of them were Presents, we had a Pimp, there was somebody who was covered with Porno magazines and poker cards, and there were many other good ideas, which were shown on this evening. The party itself wasn’t a big drunken party, in other words: it wasn’t as good as everybody had imagined. Almost everybody got in bed before 1 o'clock am.
Lake Mahinapua to Frans Jozef
The morning was starting with a lovely breakfast before we head out to Frans Jozef. At this place, the bus stops for 2 nights because of the beautiful surroundings and things to do. We arrived in Frans Jozef by midday and the hostel proprietor was telling us that we were very lucky with the shining weather. Most times it’s rainy and cloudy over there and now the sun was shining all day long! After his introduction I went to the reception to make a call as I bumped into a friend from Holland again: ‘’Daan! What are you doing here?!! I knew you would be in New Zealand but though it’s weird to see you here! As I have just arrived!!’’ Daan told me he has been in Frans Jozef before but didn’t do the Ice Explorer by then. So he came back for this activity. And guess what, we (Lies and me) signed up for this activity too. The Ice Explorer activity is a helicopter flight (5 minutes) up to a glacier. All the equipment you need for walking down there is included, so we were looking forward doing that! J
Anyway, in the afternoon our bus driver was asking us if we were keen to join him to go to a beautiful secret spot, just a 20 minutes walk from here. He tells us there is a waterfall and you can jump from a rock into the water. We walk to our friends and ask them if they are keen to join. Erik, Jack, Alex, Conor, James, Lies and me were all thrilled to go. After 10 minutes walking we noticed that it wasn’t really a normal walk track (as the bus driver warned us). We walked through ice water tunnels and needed to bend over to not bump our head on the ceiling of the tunnel. The first tunnel was a 1km walk through ice water. Believe me, this is so cold at one point it hurts so much you don’t feel your own feet anymore. Next we needed to climb over a fence, which was slippery and wet. This brought us to a tunnel in which we (as tall people) almost needed to crawl. In such occasions you wish you would be a little bit smaller… In the end of the tunnel we had to climb up through a hole and as a reward we arrived at the most beautiful spot on earth. The bus driver took a first jump from the rock in the water and made us believe it wasn’t that cold. But we all new better. I am not sure who had the guts to jump next but in the end everybody was standing on the other side of the water. I jumped at last and the moment I was underneath the water I was not able to realize how cold it was. When my head came out of the water I almost started to hyperventilate. I have never swum so fast for reaching the wall. As we all stood on the wrong side of the water for getting back, we needed to jump again!! Aaaaaaah!!! Which idea was this??? This time I thought, okay, lets get over with it and jumped first. It wasn’t actually that bad anymore. I even had the thought of doing it all over again instead of doing the same walk track back already. But after a moment of consideration we decided to make a couple of pictures of this amazing spot and walked back. The way back wasn’t really easier but our feet were more used to the coldness. Anyway, a warm shower after this track would bring me to heaven! Afterwards, we had dinner with Kelly and Yoan and a couple of drinks in the hostel pub. As we needed to be at the ice explorer company at 9 o'clock in the morning, we called it a day and went to bed for a nice sleep.
The ice explorer was an amazing trip. The helicopter brought us up to the ice glacier with a beautiful (helictoper)view! At the time we landed the guide gave us some more instructions on how we could put on our crampons (the shoes with spikes). And every time he talked about this it was like he said: ‘tampons’. Haha! Good fun! On the glacier we walked around for almost 4 hours. Maybe that sounds exhausting but we just did everything in a very slow tempo to be able making nice pictures and process everything we were seeing. By midday we were back at the hostel. Our ice explorer ticket came with the hot pools so in the afternoon we went over there. Also we paid for a pizza fest in the evening, so all good. No worries for dinner! We didn’t want to eat too much that day so we could eat (too) many pizza slices, as you could eat as much you wanted too. And of course we didn’t disappoint ourself (a). In the evening we had a couple of drinks and didn’t make it too late as the next morning the bus would take us to Wanaka!
Frans Jozef to Wanaka
It was an early ride as one of the places we would stop (lake Matheson) shows a perfect mirror reflection of Mount Cook. Unfortunately the clouds covered Mount Cook and we weren’t able to see the reflection of this mountain in the lake water. First we had a coffee together with Yoan and Kelly. As Kelly and Lies only wanted to walk to the first look out point (which was already disappointing), Yoan and I went for some pictures for the second one. This one was better but not really worth seeing. We walked back to the coffee shop and saw a couple of guys from our group spread out on the grass. They were enjoying their hangover time, haha. After waking these guys up we were heading out to a beach stop where we might be able to spot some dolphins. Sweeeeet as! Everybody got out of the bus and was walking down to the beach. In front of us a couple of people were making weird movements and making weird noises and in a second we knew where they were ‘screaming’ about: SAND FLIES! And a lot!! Our dance video is a part in Shoan’s youtube video of the Kiwi Experience, you can look this one up on Facebook. In a moment everybody wanted to get into the bus but unfortunately, the bus driver has locked this one up. OHMY! Kelly and I walked to the main road so the flies would stick to the other people. And YAY, there weren’t as many flies there were around the bus. Still the flies kept us moving for the passing cars, haha. Now it’s over we can have a laugh about it but by that timeeeeee. Aaaarghhh!!! Craziness!! The moment the bus driver (‘Q’) unlocked the bus everybody was hurrying inside. Q made the bus sand fly clear and brought us to a waterfall next. Here everybody was posing to make some beautiful pictures. Like a picture, which shows you are drinking the water off from the waterfall. Well, I tried this one myself but couldn’t hold my balance. Solution: kneel down a little bit and there we are.... NOT! I am not sure how long I opened my mouth high in the sky before we finally had an OK picture.
We departed in Wanaka by midday and I reckon this is one of my favourite spots in my NZ experience. The weather over there was lovely, we chilled out on the lake with yellow/brown hills on the left side, mountains in front of us and on the right side a green scenery. Everything was there in 1 picture. Unfortunately we only stayed here for 1 night. Would be worth 2! The English guys (Alex and Jack) and the Dutch guy (Erik) we met on our north NZ trip already stayed here for 2 nights. So in the morning we left them behind. But first, in the evening we had dinner with all the Dutchies together. This included Erik, Nienke, Lente, Yoan, Kelly and us. We met Nienke and Lente for the first time in Westport with the bonfire evening. We had a quiet evening as we were heading out to Queenstown the next morning. The place to be for going out and having fun! Yay!
Wanaka to Queenstown
Exactly on the 29th of January we departed in Queenstown. We had a few stops on the road because some of the people had their bungee jump, which we could watch. I decided not to do a bungee jump but I felt tempt doing a skydive over here. In the bus I signed up for the skydive and it appeared I was the only one on the sheet. Most of the guys have had their jump in Taupo already, because this is much cheaper. But I wanted to have the nicest view I could get and went for the most expensive one. I am probably jumping once so this had to be a really good one! Isn’t it? I signed up for the 2nd of February because Erik and I wanted to jump together from the same plane. Though, that days weather was too good to be true for a skydive jump. I discussed with the bus driver the weather forecast. He told me he is going to make a call to the skydive organization so they could give me some advice which day it would be the best to jump. After everybody did their bungee jump the bus driver told me my skydive would be at 3 o'clock today. I looked up the time and saw that it was already 1:30pm! Ohmyyyyy! Well, actually I wasn’t afraid of scared at all about the thought that I had to jump from 16000ft height that day. But, no time for thinking at all! After the bus arrived at our hostel I had 15 minutes left until 3 o’clock. Dutch people are punctual so I couldn’t disappoint them, could I? Relax, I didn’t J. After filling up the safety papers I got in a car which drove me to the skydive airport. It was about a half an hour drive and all people in the car were Asians. On the little airport I got my suit, my jump man and my camera man. My jump man tight me up in my suit and my camera man took me outside to make a short 'before' interview. Everything went so fast, in a second I was sitting in the little plan, ready to take off. I had to wait for two other jumps first as they jumped from 14000 feet height. It was an amazing view and a truly loved that flight. Beautiful scenery! My jump man told me something about the environment and asked me some things about my private life, bastard!! Kidding! He has a girl friend so no fear! No skydive romance for me :). Sitting on the edge of the plane with my feet hanging in the sky still didn’t scare me at all. But as soon as I felt all the pressure on my face during my freefall my brains where communicating: ‘aaaah ohmyy maybe you should be a little bit scared??? I mean, its pretty high???’ The feeling in my stomach was phenomenal. It gives such a kick! My jump man should give me a little tap on my shoulders at the moment I could open my arms but as excited I was I totally forgot what he meant. I’m not sure if I even felt it. So the second time he just slapped me on my shoulders and I knew what he meant to say. Oops!! In the meanwhile my camera man was freefalling in front of me to make some pictures and video shots of my beautiful (ahum) face. At the moment the parachute got out we flew up a little bit and I felt that the pressure on my face was killing me! Lucky me I wasn’t able to pop them. Also my right arm was feeling lame, probably because of the tightness of my suit. I checked this up with my jump man and he replied telling me stuff about the scenery, haha. Great! Then we turned to the right and to the left with the parachute and it made me so sick. I really wanted to enjoy the beautiful scenery but I was a little bit distracted by how I was feeling. I couldn’t wait to be on the ground again. In my skydive video posted on Facebook you see that I am not having any strength in my right arm anymore and that I’m totally feeling dizzy. Probably my body was more in shock than my brains were, haha. When I got back in Queenstown I searched for Lieselotte and the others at the Queenstown’s lake. Lieselotte was running up to me with a happy face, gave me a hug and said: ‘Yeaaah youre still alive!!!!’ Haha, yeah I was J. We sat down a little longer at the lake. It was a lovely atmosphere; chill, relaxed, sunny, people playing some music et cetera.
We stayed in Queenstown for 5 nights and went out almost every night. To bad the weather sucked, we had rain everyday. This is normal for this place because it’s between the mountains.. Though we enjoyed our stay over there and it was very nice to stay a little longer at one spot this time. One of the days Lieselotte did lugeing. You sit in a car riding down the hill in a course. The view from that hill must have been spectacular, as Lieselotte told me afterwards. I spend already so much on the skydive that I decided not to do the lugeing. Lieselotte went there with the guys from our bus. After her luge she brought us a Ferg burger, THE most delicious burger in the world. And it was indeed! Delicious! Incredible the queue in front of this shop everyday! The next day I went to do some mini golfing with the guys. I sucked tremendously by hitting the ball way too hard. At least there was one with a high score in the end! The other days of our stay were mainly to recover from the nights. One night we joined a game in the pub. It was a free sign up in couples and there where 3 couples needed. Lieselotte and Conor signed up for the first couple (and they were a little bit a couple <3). The second couple were Yoan and Kelly. And the last one was James (Conor's friend) and me. We didn’t know what the game would be about but I said to Lies that I was afraid we had to make a long rope with our clothes. At least something what would makes us feeling naked. The prize to win was the Canyon swing. Have a look on Google or Youtube and you know where I’m talking aboutJ. The microphone man gave us instructions which where exactly the same as I mentioned to Lies a couple minutes earlier: 'Arghgh! I told you!!!!' The game was on! In the end, Yoan and Kelly had the longest rope and won. In the meantime everybody could have a look on our well shaped figures xD! Lets leave this one up to an one time experience! :P
Queenstown to Dunedin
It is February the 3rd and Alex, Jack Lies and me were going to take our journey to a lower level; heading out to the deep south. We sat down in a small bus because we were only with a small amount of people. There were some new people on the bus but also people who we already met earlier on our trip. Let me mention them first to you guys, Coco from Germany and Dan from Missouri (North America).
Our way down was a cold (this time not just chilly) and windy trip. I was wearing 2 jumpers and a scarf to hold me warm. Before we drove into Dunedin the bus driver was taking us to a look out point, which shows an overlooking view of Dunedin. It’s a nice view but after a couple of pictures I hurried back in the bus again. Brrrr! Dunedin is known of the student city of New Zealand, the steepest street of the world and his chocolate. A good excuse for some exercise first and chocolate next. It was a hard walk up, which warmed us up easily. That’s good!
After this exercise we were dropped of at our hostel, did some grocery shopping and ready to go the chocolate factory. As it was already 4:30pm the factory was closed already. Beggar! We decided to go back to the hostel to do some passive activities, like reading a book.
Dunedin to Invercargill
Our way down to Invercargill we had a beach stop and walked near sea lions. Awesome! Later on we did a walk track to a light tower where you could spot many seals! There were heaps of them! And at the last stop we spotted a couple of pinguins! In between we had some stupid bush walks as our driver was an old pensioned guy who wanted to stop at every single tree and give some information about it. Yeah interesting when it’s cold and rainy outside. Mejnnnn, move on!!!! Invercargill itself was a dead town, grey and cold. I got to the supermarket with Alex and Jack and went back to the hostel. In the evening I talked to a Dutch guy from Amsterdam so the evening was passing by quickly.
Invercargill to Queenstown, via Milford Sound
Today we are heading out to Queenstown again, via Milford Sound. People who don’t do the deep south trip have a day trip from Queenstown. Our bus meets up with those guys so we could change over. It took about 4hours to get to Milford Sound. The bus driver told us most of the times it’s raining and cloudy over there, sometimes it’s sunny. But in both ways it should be beautiful and in our case, lucky animals we are, it was &)&€@@(,?& snowing!!!! So yeah, I saw and felt some snow this year!
The driver took us to the ferry. On the ferry we spend 1,5 hour eating wraps and drinking tea and coffee to keep ourself warm (those were included). We spotted some seals and saw some nice waterfalls. The ferry took us to one of them very closely. The lady told us to step back because the water would come in the outside area of the boat. Well, don’t ever tell guys not to do something because then they do. When Jack and Alex came in the boat again they were soaking wet! Haha! The way back to Queenstown took 4 hours driving again and it felt like we were on the bus for ages! Finally arrived in Queenstown we checked in at our hostel and didn’t really do anything else that evening. We met up with the Swedish guys, Oliver and Jozef, and laid down in our bed for a good night sleep.
Queenstown to Lake Tekapo
Our way up to Lake Tekapo was an easy drive. In Lake Tekapo our hostel is standing in front of the lake. Before we arrived in Lake Tekapo we had a quick stop at Lake Punakaiki because of a little church where you could get married. Unfortunately, as I don’t have a boyfriend I wasn’t able to get married yet. But no worries, for this little church was I sign up list what made me get married in about 10 years or something. I signed up already to make sure we can marry there, you love of my life! At lake Tekapo we did a walk track up the hill, very steep and exhausting, but it was worth it. It gave us a rewarding view. I have never seen such a beautiful blue lake including the surrounding surface.
Lake Tekapo to Christchurch
In Lake Tekapo everybody has a key of their room and this time there was a rope conducted to the key so you could wear it around the neck. Before everybody got on the bus to Christchurch we had to give the key back to the bus driver. At our first stop I realized that the key was still hanging around my neck… Most of the times I loose my key, this time I kept my key. Right.. In this stop there was a little market and we decided to buy some delicious strawberries. Njam! On our way to Christchurch our bus driver tells us that Christchurch is still recovering from the earthquake in 2011. He was telling us that in the end it will be the most modern city of the world because everything had to be build up from start again. There was almost nothing left. This was a short term solution for the former shopping centre but in the end the folks decided to keep it. By midday we had a look over there with Alex, Jack, Nienke and May (a German girl). It’s a nice and cosy shopping centre with food corners, street musicians and free wifi. Good fun!
Christchurch to Kaikoura
The last destination for the South Island is Kaikoura. Kaikoura is known for its whale- and dolphin watching and its fish food. Some people paid for the dolphin swimming or whale watching but we decided to just chill out on the rocky beach and get in the water time by time, got us an ice cream and made us an easy dinner. We shared a room with Alex and Jack again and had lots of fun talk that evening!
Kaikoura to Wellington
The 9th of February was the day of saying goodbye to the south island and get on the ferry to the north island. Again the ferry took about 3,5 hours but this time the weather was sunny! We spend our time on the deck in the sun, enjoying our time and hoped to get lucky to spot some dolphins. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any. As we arrived in Wellington the weather was chilly. We checked in at the Base hostel, the same we stayed in on our trip down south. We bought us a domino pizza and spend the evening playing pool in the Base pub.
Wellington to Taupo
From Wellington we went up to Taupo again, the place we have been already on our way down. As we have been seeing all the things we wanted to see we decided to travel in a cheaper and thus different way. Taupo became our first couch surfing experience. We stayed for 2 nights in a beautiful house, up a hill, which overlooked the lake of Taupo. Near Taupo there was one activity left to do: the thermal wonderland in Wai-o-Tapu (50km from Taupo). To make this trip more excited we went for our first hitchhike experience. And guess what: in total we only waited for half an hour. That’s pretty good right? At least we were happy :). The couple drove us there decided to go there as well. The stupid thing I did was leaving my phone in their car, oops. We wrote a note and left it on the car in the hope they are nice people and return it at the reception. All good happened. Oeeef! When I told the couch surfing guy about this experience he took my phone downstairs to make a rope attached to my phone. Now I can wear my phone around my neck so I won’t lose it again. Awesome! In the next morning he dropped us at the base hostel where the bus to Auckland would pick us up.
Taupo to Auckland
On the date of 12th of February the bus brought us back to Auckland. The place where also our journey started! We stayed here for 4 nights. The first night we did a pubcrawl and reunited with Conor. A smiling Lieselotte, haha. The next day we just wandered through the city and chilled out in a park. The same we did the other day but this day there were chairs placed in the park and a stage was build up. A cabaret show! We were sitting in the front row and they searched for someone to pull out the audience onto the stage. They asked me first about my fears but I said I didn’t have any so they asked Lieselotte about it. She said she was afraid for spiders and had to go on stage so they could sing songs to make her fear disappear. Haha. They were hilarious! The last day we climbed Mount Eden together with Dan (the American I told you about). We left him behind down in Wellington and bumped into him again in Auckland. Mount Eden gave us a beautiful view over the city Auckland. When we got back to the city Dan invited us for a drink and a snack in a pub. After finishing we said goodbye and hopefully a 'see you again', as tomorrow we would fly back to Sydney, Australia again.
Back to Australia: ‘going home’
Our flight was at 7 o'clock in the evening so we met up with Jack for the very last goodbye. We chilled out in another park and had some food before we left to the airport. Auckland has an airport bus line so it’s pretty easy to go from there to the airport. The bus leaves every 10 or 15 minutes. We took the bus around 4 o'clock. I sat down next to a NZ girl who flew back to Melbourne that day. She told me some weird stories. She would make me want to believe that she did her skydive jumping naked. And that she ended up in the hospital, supercooled!! Yeh, as I look like a buy such a story. Stepping out of the bus we met a Dutch (Frisian, Berber) girl. Together we checked in and got rid of our backpacks. We decided to have a coffee, as it was far too early to go to the gate. The flight was one movie short. In a second we were on Australian grounds again. Home sweet home Sydney!
Also here, in Sydney, we didn’t want to spend any money on hostels so we fixed a couch surfing place for 2 nights (this was already planned in Auckland). A taxi drove us near his place. Everything went well. It was a very nice guy. He also had another couch surfing girl hanging around. So the next day we talked a little bit with her and decided to make him dinner (together with us) for the evening. His place is very creative decorated, he plays guitar, you could make a painting et cetera. A good second couch surfing experience! The next day we tried to meet up with some ex colleagues and reunited with Yoan and Kelly (and their friends) in the evening. They were on a road trip in Aussie and by that time in Sydney as well!
Farm work: ‘Changes in the way of living’
In Sydney we stayed for only 2 nights because these girls were on their way of changing their way of living! Lieselotte knew a place where we might do our farm work. In NZ she had mail contact with the Ballywire farm and as today we are still living in this peaceful place. The Ballywire farm is settled down in Yorketown, South Australia. In the middle of nowhere.
In the morning of the 18th of February our plane took off from Sydney to Adelaide. A bus brought us from the airport to Adelaide centre. We searched for a place where we could have a coffee first. The buses to Yorketown were only leaving once a day at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. So we had to fill up some time. We wandered around the shopping streets and fixed a new plan for our phone. Apparently Vodafone has reception troubles in country places like this. The bus took us down in Yorketown in about 4 hours. Just after sunset we arrived. We were standing in the middle of nowhere with our backpacks hoping somebody would pick us up. After 2 minutes waiting we saw a woman crossing the road, asking our names. She brought us to a huge house where the 2 of us would stay in for (probably) the following 3 months. In this way we can complete our farm work to apply for our 2nd year work- and holiday visa.
The next morning work started immediately. Everyday we start at 9 o'clock in the morning and we finish by midday (1 o'clock). We work for food and accommodation and as far as we are now (3,5 weeks) everything is going very well. Yeah, the first week I broke a glass from a closet in the museum shed, I broke my weeding tool and a Tupperware cup... Luckily, I haven’t had a fight with the owners (Chris and Pete) of this beautiful farm (yet). In this first week we also discovered that the farm relies on rainwater. This means in our case: hand washing and short showers! This gives us a great country ‘way of life’ feeling: back to basic!
Over the weekends Chris and Pete open the farm for visitors. People can buy some food to feed the animals. Furthermore visitors can have a look in the museum sheds, can have a try on the minigolf course and can chill out in the Ballywire tearooms for some food and/or drinks. Pete and Chris own sheep’s (and a blind one, Jacky), cats (one of them without tail), twelve horses, three dogs, chickens and roosters, three donkeys, four pigs, geese, three massive cows and parrots. One of them greets you with: 'Hello Cocky!' Haha.
Some people I already have been telling about my first weeks on this farm. The question I always get is how we fill up time the rest of the day. Well, because there are 12 horses to brush, train and even in a couple of days or a weeks (maybe) to ride, there's lots to do. Furthermore we both try to keep up the running. And guess what: 'during our running sessions the kangaroos like to be our audience!
At least I know how YOU spend your time by the time you are reading this sentence ;) Now shoeef, go back to your own business!
Lots of love,
Miss u guys!
Wellington to Kaiteriteri
You are now back in time on the 22nd of February, 8 o'clock in the evening, probably watching TV or doing some sports. Here in New Zealand it is 7:15 in the early morning and I am heading off to Picton, crossing the Cook Strait to the South Island by ferry. The ferry is bringing us from the north to the south island. We heard that the south island must be much more beautiful than the north island so we feel pretty tempt to go there! Well, as most of us have been out in Wellington last night we honestly feel pretty sleepy... Lucky us that the ferry trip takes 3,5 hours time and we have found us a comfy seat to spend our time being asleep. Outside it is chilly and windy anyway so we don't mind to experience this trip with our eyes closed.
After 3,5 hours floating we arrived in Picton. We are watching people going downstairs thinking it is probably time to get off. As we don't know where to go to get off the ferry we pretend to be sheep’s by following the crowd. We are going downstairs and end up in a car park. Not the place to be if you don’t have your own car (yet). Hmmm. Okay, let's ask the lady in blue where we need to go now. The lady gave us directions to get back on track and yet we are standing in the baggage hall. She made us being the first ones in wait for their luggage. Good on us! Reunited with our luggage we head out to the bus, which brings us to our first south island destination 'Kaiteritiri'.
Departing Picton we head out via the Marlborough Valley. This region is most famous for its delicious Sauvignon Blanc variety of wines. We had a quick stop over here to do some wine tasting. I did not feel tasting wines in the morning and sat down next to a couple of French people we met on the north island. A new girl (look a like Miranda from the Sex in the city) is walking up to me and asks me if I am OK that she's sitting down. As usual I am saying 'no!' to watch the reaction and then tell it is a joke. The woman is introducing herself as Danguole (from Geneva, Switzerland) and I have to ask for her name three times to make sure I am saying this correctly. Lieselotte is joining us now too. Danguole tells us that she keeps on meeting Dutch people by accident and that life is probably doing it by purpose because after her travelling she is going to move to Holland. She told us for example that she already met a Dutch couple on the same bus. We told her we did not meet them yet. She replied: you will now!! We then passed through a small town called Havelock. This village is known as the 'Greenlip Mussel Capital of the world'. After a brief stop in Nelson we travelled through to Kaiteriteri at the doorstep of the Abel Tasman National Park.
Around 6 o'clock in the evening we arrived in Kaiteriteri. Some people have paid for activities but we decided not to spend any more money first as there were a lot of other excited trips in front of us we already have been paid for. The evening was quiet and chilly. I was having a stomach pain so I decided to go to bed early. Lieselotte stayed outside joining the conversations of our travel mates. The next morning I heard that they discussed the bungee jumping and the canyon swing. One of our new bus drivers (Jared) had done both and made them pretty scared about it, haha. I am curious what they decide to do in the end...
Kaiteriteri to Westport
My alarm rings, it is 9 o'clock in the morning and we need to get up for the checkout at 10am. We put on our bikini to chill out on the Kaiteriteri bay in front of the hostel. Around 12am we were heading off to Westport, our next destination. Before we got on the bus we introduced ourself to the Dutch couple (Yoan and Kelly) and decided to sit in front of them in the bus. The bus driver ("Q") tells we have a stop at the Nelson lakes where we can go for a swim or a relax session. Whatever we might be in for. Arrived at the lake there is a jetty and everybody is looking down in the water pointing to something. Yoan told us in the bus that there might be some huge eels in the water around the jetty. We walked us there and saw some big ones. They made us switching our thoughts about the swim we had planned to take. We sat down with Yoan, Kelly and our other travel mates working on our fabulous tan!
What I want to make clear first is that on the new bus, there are still some people joining us who we have met on our way down. Those people together are a milkshake of English, Swedish, Taiwanese and Dutch flavours: Alex, Jack, Erik, Jozef, Oliver, Mikkel, Mathias, Emil and Julia and three Chi chai ching Taiwanese guys (I'm sorry that I can't keep up your names L) We left Hampus and Mathilda (Swedish couple) behind and will see them again, later on this trip. No tears yet!
In the afternoon we arrived in Westport, a pretty boring city as there is not much to do. You could decide to go surfing in the early morning around 6am, join a bonfire in the evening and/or go for a horse ride in the morning. We joined the bonfire at the beach and signed up for the horse riding. We brought the guitar from the hostel to the bonfire. It was a chilly evening so we needed our jumpers and the fire to stay a bit warm. Music and talks (and some alcohol) with nice people made this an unforgettable evening. At 6 o'clock in the morning we woke up because the guys in our room went surfing. Lucky us, we could stay in bed for an 1,5 hour more before we head out to our horse ride adventure. Some Readers might know that I rode horse for 5 years. At the age of 18 I sold my horse so I felt keen riding a horse again. And so did Lieselotte. Unfortunately the horses were easy to ride (as usual with such activities) and a girl in our group was riding a horse for the second time in her life. We just walked with the horses because of her lack of experience. The nicest thing about this trip was taking the horses through the river at the point they really have to swim. An amazing feeling! Before we head out to the ranch there was time to make a gallop twice. That was good fun, and end. The guy from the ranch took us to the point where we met up with our bus, to our next destination: lake Mahinapua (Maa-he-naa-poo-a)!
Westport to lake Mahinapua
Again, it is a long drive with a few stops in between. This time the drive is a top 10 drive of the most beautiful drives in the world. Sweet as (the words kiwi's (folks of NZ) say on the beginning and/or ending of every sentence)!! Yoan en Kelly reserved seats for us so the bus drive is lots of fun and talks anyway. After an hour the scenery was breathtaking. Mountains, clear blue water (glacier water) and ooosh i just cannot describe it. Everything is just there in the same picture. Punakaiki became our first stop, down to the east coast of New Zealand. We got off the bus for a 15 minutes walk, which gave us a beautiful view of the eastern coastline and made us able to see some blowholes! The next stop is in Greymouth. Here we picked up a girl from the TranzAlpine train and got time to do some grocery- and warehouse shopping as there was a themed party (P-Party) coming up at lake Mahinapua.
Most of the people paid for costumes at the Warehouse, as they knew how they wanted to be dressed. We did not have an idea yet so we decided to not buy anything and think of something cheap and creative (how Dutch!). In the afternoon we arrived in lake Mahinapua. Yoan bought a blank painting and wanted to wear this around his neck. So we decided to give him a hand to make up an idea. In the meantime we walked to the lake where the painting could be started. In the end, the painting showed a naked woman. In front of her genitals she was holding the big green kiwi bus. An amazing creative idea and actually the painting (woman) looked beautiful. Everyone thought Yoan would win this competition. The prize was a free bungee jump (43m) on the way to Queenstown. Lieselotte had the idea to use the paint to draw a piano on her arm and I just had so many ideas but none if them was good enough. So, in the end, as boring as anyone can be, I was dressed as just a person... Meh, meh, meh…Before the party started we had a lovely diner made by the hotel and also in the morning we had a good breakfast with pancakes, muesli, bread, coffee and tea. Luxurious (but of course we had to pay for this all)! After dinner everybody wrapped themselves in their outfit. Some of them were Presents, we had a Pimp, there was somebody who was covered with Porno magazines and poker cards, and there were many other good ideas, which were shown on this evening. The party itself wasn’t a big drunken party, in other words: it wasn’t as good as everybody had imagined. Almost everybody got in bed before 1 o'clock am.
Lake Mahinapua to Frans Jozef
The morning was starting with a lovely breakfast before we head out to Frans Jozef. At this place, the bus stops for 2 nights because of the beautiful surroundings and things to do. We arrived in Frans Jozef by midday and the hostel proprietor was telling us that we were very lucky with the shining weather. Most times it’s rainy and cloudy over there and now the sun was shining all day long! After his introduction I went to the reception to make a call as I bumped into a friend from Holland again: ‘’Daan! What are you doing here?!! I knew you would be in New Zealand but though it’s weird to see you here! As I have just arrived!!’’ Daan told me he has been in Frans Jozef before but didn’t do the Ice Explorer by then. So he came back for this activity. And guess what, we (Lies and me) signed up for this activity too. The Ice Explorer activity is a helicopter flight (5 minutes) up to a glacier. All the equipment you need for walking down there is included, so we were looking forward doing that! J
Anyway, in the afternoon our bus driver was asking us if we were keen to join him to go to a beautiful secret spot, just a 20 minutes walk from here. He tells us there is a waterfall and you can jump from a rock into the water. We walk to our friends and ask them if they are keen to join. Erik, Jack, Alex, Conor, James, Lies and me were all thrilled to go. After 10 minutes walking we noticed that it wasn’t really a normal walk track (as the bus driver warned us). We walked through ice water tunnels and needed to bend over to not bump our head on the ceiling of the tunnel. The first tunnel was a 1km walk through ice water. Believe me, this is so cold at one point it hurts so much you don’t feel your own feet anymore. Next we needed to climb over a fence, which was slippery and wet. This brought us to a tunnel in which we (as tall people) almost needed to crawl. In such occasions you wish you would be a little bit smaller… In the end of the tunnel we had to climb up through a hole and as a reward we arrived at the most beautiful spot on earth. The bus driver took a first jump from the rock in the water and made us believe it wasn’t that cold. But we all new better. I am not sure who had the guts to jump next but in the end everybody was standing on the other side of the water. I jumped at last and the moment I was underneath the water I was not able to realize how cold it was. When my head came out of the water I almost started to hyperventilate. I have never swum so fast for reaching the wall. As we all stood on the wrong side of the water for getting back, we needed to jump again!! Aaaaaaah!!! Which idea was this??? This time I thought, okay, lets get over with it and jumped first. It wasn’t actually that bad anymore. I even had the thought of doing it all over again instead of doing the same walk track back already. But after a moment of consideration we decided to make a couple of pictures of this amazing spot and walked back. The way back wasn’t really easier but our feet were more used to the coldness. Anyway, a warm shower after this track would bring me to heaven! Afterwards, we had dinner with Kelly and Yoan and a couple of drinks in the hostel pub. As we needed to be at the ice explorer company at 9 o'clock in the morning, we called it a day and went to bed for a nice sleep.
The ice explorer was an amazing trip. The helicopter brought us up to the ice glacier with a beautiful (helictoper)view! At the time we landed the guide gave us some more instructions on how we could put on our crampons (the shoes with spikes). And every time he talked about this it was like he said: ‘tampons’. Haha! Good fun! On the glacier we walked around for almost 4 hours. Maybe that sounds exhausting but we just did everything in a very slow tempo to be able making nice pictures and process everything we were seeing. By midday we were back at the hostel. Our ice explorer ticket came with the hot pools so in the afternoon we went over there. Also we paid for a pizza fest in the evening, so all good. No worries for dinner! We didn’t want to eat too much that day so we could eat (too) many pizza slices, as you could eat as much you wanted too. And of course we didn’t disappoint ourself (a). In the evening we had a couple of drinks and didn’t make it too late as the next morning the bus would take us to Wanaka!
Frans Jozef to Wanaka
It was an early ride as one of the places we would stop (lake Matheson) shows a perfect mirror reflection of Mount Cook. Unfortunately the clouds covered Mount Cook and we weren’t able to see the reflection of this mountain in the lake water. First we had a coffee together with Yoan and Kelly. As Kelly and Lies only wanted to walk to the first look out point (which was already disappointing), Yoan and I went for some pictures for the second one. This one was better but not really worth seeing. We walked back to the coffee shop and saw a couple of guys from our group spread out on the grass. They were enjoying their hangover time, haha. After waking these guys up we were heading out to a beach stop where we might be able to spot some dolphins. Sweeeeet as! Everybody got out of the bus and was walking down to the beach. In front of us a couple of people were making weird movements and making weird noises and in a second we knew where they were ‘screaming’ about: SAND FLIES! And a lot!! Our dance video is a part in Shoan’s youtube video of the Kiwi Experience, you can look this one up on Facebook. In a moment everybody wanted to get into the bus but unfortunately, the bus driver has locked this one up. OHMY! Kelly and I walked to the main road so the flies would stick to the other people. And YAY, there weren’t as many flies there were around the bus. Still the flies kept us moving for the passing cars, haha. Now it’s over we can have a laugh about it but by that timeeeeee. Aaaarghhh!!! Craziness!! The moment the bus driver (‘Q’) unlocked the bus everybody was hurrying inside. Q made the bus sand fly clear and brought us to a waterfall next. Here everybody was posing to make some beautiful pictures. Like a picture, which shows you are drinking the water off from the waterfall. Well, I tried this one myself but couldn’t hold my balance. Solution: kneel down a little bit and there we are.... NOT! I am not sure how long I opened my mouth high in the sky before we finally had an OK picture.
We departed in Wanaka by midday and I reckon this is one of my favourite spots in my NZ experience. The weather over there was lovely, we chilled out on the lake with yellow/brown hills on the left side, mountains in front of us and on the right side a green scenery. Everything was there in 1 picture. Unfortunately we only stayed here for 1 night. Would be worth 2! The English guys (Alex and Jack) and the Dutch guy (Erik) we met on our north NZ trip already stayed here for 2 nights. So in the morning we left them behind. But first, in the evening we had dinner with all the Dutchies together. This included Erik, Nienke, Lente, Yoan, Kelly and us. We met Nienke and Lente for the first time in Westport with the bonfire evening. We had a quiet evening as we were heading out to Queenstown the next morning. The place to be for going out and having fun! Yay!
Wanaka to Queenstown
Exactly on the 29th of January we departed in Queenstown. We had a few stops on the road because some of the people had their bungee jump, which we could watch. I decided not to do a bungee jump but I felt tempt doing a skydive over here. In the bus I signed up for the skydive and it appeared I was the only one on the sheet. Most of the guys have had their jump in Taupo already, because this is much cheaper. But I wanted to have the nicest view I could get and went for the most expensive one. I am probably jumping once so this had to be a really good one! Isn’t it? I signed up for the 2nd of February because Erik and I wanted to jump together from the same plane. Though, that days weather was too good to be true for a skydive jump. I discussed with the bus driver the weather forecast. He told me he is going to make a call to the skydive organization so they could give me some advice which day it would be the best to jump. After everybody did their bungee jump the bus driver told me my skydive would be at 3 o'clock today. I looked up the time and saw that it was already 1:30pm! Ohmyyyyy! Well, actually I wasn’t afraid of scared at all about the thought that I had to jump from 16000ft height that day. But, no time for thinking at all! After the bus arrived at our hostel I had 15 minutes left until 3 o’clock. Dutch people are punctual so I couldn’t disappoint them, could I? Relax, I didn’t J. After filling up the safety papers I got in a car which drove me to the skydive airport. It was about a half an hour drive and all people in the car were Asians. On the little airport I got my suit, my jump man and my camera man. My jump man tight me up in my suit and my camera man took me outside to make a short 'before' interview. Everything went so fast, in a second I was sitting in the little plan, ready to take off. I had to wait for two other jumps first as they jumped from 14000 feet height. It was an amazing view and a truly loved that flight. Beautiful scenery! My jump man told me something about the environment and asked me some things about my private life, bastard!! Kidding! He has a girl friend so no fear! No skydive romance for me :). Sitting on the edge of the plane with my feet hanging in the sky still didn’t scare me at all. But as soon as I felt all the pressure on my face during my freefall my brains where communicating: ‘aaaah ohmyy maybe you should be a little bit scared??? I mean, its pretty high???’ The feeling in my stomach was phenomenal. It gives such a kick! My jump man should give me a little tap on my shoulders at the moment I could open my arms but as excited I was I totally forgot what he meant. I’m not sure if I even felt it. So the second time he just slapped me on my shoulders and I knew what he meant to say. Oops!! In the meanwhile my camera man was freefalling in front of me to make some pictures and video shots of my beautiful (ahum) face. At the moment the parachute got out we flew up a little bit and I felt that the pressure on my face was killing me! Lucky me I wasn’t able to pop them. Also my right arm was feeling lame, probably because of the tightness of my suit. I checked this up with my jump man and he replied telling me stuff about the scenery, haha. Great! Then we turned to the right and to the left with the parachute and it made me so sick. I really wanted to enjoy the beautiful scenery but I was a little bit distracted by how I was feeling. I couldn’t wait to be on the ground again. In my skydive video posted on Facebook you see that I am not having any strength in my right arm anymore and that I’m totally feeling dizzy. Probably my body was more in shock than my brains were, haha. When I got back in Queenstown I searched for Lieselotte and the others at the Queenstown’s lake. Lieselotte was running up to me with a happy face, gave me a hug and said: ‘Yeaaah youre still alive!!!!’ Haha, yeah I was J. We sat down a little longer at the lake. It was a lovely atmosphere; chill, relaxed, sunny, people playing some music et cetera.
We stayed in Queenstown for 5 nights and went out almost every night. To bad the weather sucked, we had rain everyday. This is normal for this place because it’s between the mountains.. Though we enjoyed our stay over there and it was very nice to stay a little longer at one spot this time. One of the days Lieselotte did lugeing. You sit in a car riding down the hill in a course. The view from that hill must have been spectacular, as Lieselotte told me afterwards. I spend already so much on the skydive that I decided not to do the lugeing. Lieselotte went there with the guys from our bus. After her luge she brought us a Ferg burger, THE most delicious burger in the world. And it was indeed! Delicious! Incredible the queue in front of this shop everyday! The next day I went to do some mini golfing with the guys. I sucked tremendously by hitting the ball way too hard. At least there was one with a high score in the end! The other days of our stay were mainly to recover from the nights. One night we joined a game in the pub. It was a free sign up in couples and there where 3 couples needed. Lieselotte and Conor signed up for the first couple (and they were a little bit a couple <3). The second couple were Yoan and Kelly. And the last one was James (Conor's friend) and me. We didn’t know what the game would be about but I said to Lies that I was afraid we had to make a long rope with our clothes. At least something what would makes us feeling naked. The prize to win was the Canyon swing. Have a look on Google or Youtube and you know where I’m talking aboutJ. The microphone man gave us instructions which where exactly the same as I mentioned to Lies a couple minutes earlier: 'Arghgh! I told you!!!!' The game was on! In the end, Yoan and Kelly had the longest rope and won. In the meantime everybody could have a look on our well shaped figures xD! Lets leave this one up to an one time experience! :P
Queenstown to Dunedin
It is February the 3rd and Alex, Jack Lies and me were going to take our journey to a lower level; heading out to the deep south. We sat down in a small bus because we were only with a small amount of people. There were some new people on the bus but also people who we already met earlier on our trip. Let me mention them first to you guys, Coco from Germany and Dan from Missouri (North America).
Our way down was a cold (this time not just chilly) and windy trip. I was wearing 2 jumpers and a scarf to hold me warm. Before we drove into Dunedin the bus driver was taking us to a look out point, which shows an overlooking view of Dunedin. It’s a nice view but after a couple of pictures I hurried back in the bus again. Brrrr! Dunedin is known of the student city of New Zealand, the steepest street of the world and his chocolate. A good excuse for some exercise first and chocolate next. It was a hard walk up, which warmed us up easily. That’s good!
After this exercise we were dropped of at our hostel, did some grocery shopping and ready to go the chocolate factory. As it was already 4:30pm the factory was closed already. Beggar! We decided to go back to the hostel to do some passive activities, like reading a book.
Dunedin to Invercargill
Our way down to Invercargill we had a beach stop and walked near sea lions. Awesome! Later on we did a walk track to a light tower where you could spot many seals! There were heaps of them! And at the last stop we spotted a couple of pinguins! In between we had some stupid bush walks as our driver was an old pensioned guy who wanted to stop at every single tree and give some information about it. Yeah interesting when it’s cold and rainy outside. Mejnnnn, move on!!!! Invercargill itself was a dead town, grey and cold. I got to the supermarket with Alex and Jack and went back to the hostel. In the evening I talked to a Dutch guy from Amsterdam so the evening was passing by quickly.
Invercargill to Queenstown, via Milford Sound
Today we are heading out to Queenstown again, via Milford Sound. People who don’t do the deep south trip have a day trip from Queenstown. Our bus meets up with those guys so we could change over. It took about 4hours to get to Milford Sound. The bus driver told us most of the times it’s raining and cloudy over there, sometimes it’s sunny. But in both ways it should be beautiful and in our case, lucky animals we are, it was &)&€@@(,?& snowing!!!! So yeah, I saw and felt some snow this year!
The driver took us to the ferry. On the ferry we spend 1,5 hour eating wraps and drinking tea and coffee to keep ourself warm (those were included). We spotted some seals and saw some nice waterfalls. The ferry took us to one of them very closely. The lady told us to step back because the water would come in the outside area of the boat. Well, don’t ever tell guys not to do something because then they do. When Jack and Alex came in the boat again they were soaking wet! Haha! The way back to Queenstown took 4 hours driving again and it felt like we were on the bus for ages! Finally arrived in Queenstown we checked in at our hostel and didn’t really do anything else that evening. We met up with the Swedish guys, Oliver and Jozef, and laid down in our bed for a good night sleep.
Queenstown to Lake Tekapo
Our way up to Lake Tekapo was an easy drive. In Lake Tekapo our hostel is standing in front of the lake. Before we arrived in Lake Tekapo we had a quick stop at Lake Punakaiki because of a little church where you could get married. Unfortunately, as I don’t have a boyfriend I wasn’t able to get married yet. But no worries, for this little church was I sign up list what made me get married in about 10 years or something. I signed up already to make sure we can marry there, you love of my life! At lake Tekapo we did a walk track up the hill, very steep and exhausting, but it was worth it. It gave us a rewarding view. I have never seen such a beautiful blue lake including the surrounding surface.
Lake Tekapo to Christchurch
In Lake Tekapo everybody has a key of their room and this time there was a rope conducted to the key so you could wear it around the neck. Before everybody got on the bus to Christchurch we had to give the key back to the bus driver. At our first stop I realized that the key was still hanging around my neck… Most of the times I loose my key, this time I kept my key. Right.. In this stop there was a little market and we decided to buy some delicious strawberries. Njam! On our way to Christchurch our bus driver tells us that Christchurch is still recovering from the earthquake in 2011. He was telling us that in the end it will be the most modern city of the world because everything had to be build up from start again. There was almost nothing left. This was a short term solution for the former shopping centre but in the end the folks decided to keep it. By midday we had a look over there with Alex, Jack, Nienke and May (a German girl). It’s a nice and cosy shopping centre with food corners, street musicians and free wifi. Good fun!
Christchurch to Kaikoura
The last destination for the South Island is Kaikoura. Kaikoura is known for its whale- and dolphin watching and its fish food. Some people paid for the dolphin swimming or whale watching but we decided to just chill out on the rocky beach and get in the water time by time, got us an ice cream and made us an easy dinner. We shared a room with Alex and Jack again and had lots of fun talk that evening!
Kaikoura to Wellington
The 9th of February was the day of saying goodbye to the south island and get on the ferry to the north island. Again the ferry took about 3,5 hours but this time the weather was sunny! We spend our time on the deck in the sun, enjoying our time and hoped to get lucky to spot some dolphins. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any. As we arrived in Wellington the weather was chilly. We checked in at the Base hostel, the same we stayed in on our trip down south. We bought us a domino pizza and spend the evening playing pool in the Base pub.
Wellington to Taupo
From Wellington we went up to Taupo again, the place we have been already on our way down. As we have been seeing all the things we wanted to see we decided to travel in a cheaper and thus different way. Taupo became our first couch surfing experience. We stayed for 2 nights in a beautiful house, up a hill, which overlooked the lake of Taupo. Near Taupo there was one activity left to do: the thermal wonderland in Wai-o-Tapu (50km from Taupo). To make this trip more excited we went for our first hitchhike experience. And guess what: in total we only waited for half an hour. That’s pretty good right? At least we were happy :). The couple drove us there decided to go there as well. The stupid thing I did was leaving my phone in their car, oops. We wrote a note and left it on the car in the hope they are nice people and return it at the reception. All good happened. Oeeef! When I told the couch surfing guy about this experience he took my phone downstairs to make a rope attached to my phone. Now I can wear my phone around my neck so I won’t lose it again. Awesome! In the next morning he dropped us at the base hostel where the bus to Auckland would pick us up.
Taupo to Auckland
On the date of 12th of February the bus brought us back to Auckland. The place where also our journey started! We stayed here for 4 nights. The first night we did a pubcrawl and reunited with Conor. A smiling Lieselotte, haha. The next day we just wandered through the city and chilled out in a park. The same we did the other day but this day there were chairs placed in the park and a stage was build up. A cabaret show! We were sitting in the front row and they searched for someone to pull out the audience onto the stage. They asked me first about my fears but I said I didn’t have any so they asked Lieselotte about it. She said she was afraid for spiders and had to go on stage so they could sing songs to make her fear disappear. Haha. They were hilarious! The last day we climbed Mount Eden together with Dan (the American I told you about). We left him behind down in Wellington and bumped into him again in Auckland. Mount Eden gave us a beautiful view over the city Auckland. When we got back to the city Dan invited us for a drink and a snack in a pub. After finishing we said goodbye and hopefully a 'see you again', as tomorrow we would fly back to Sydney, Australia again.
Back to Australia: ‘going home’
Our flight was at 7 o'clock in the evening so we met up with Jack for the very last goodbye. We chilled out in another park and had some food before we left to the airport. Auckland has an airport bus line so it’s pretty easy to go from there to the airport. The bus leaves every 10 or 15 minutes. We took the bus around 4 o'clock. I sat down next to a NZ girl who flew back to Melbourne that day. She told me some weird stories. She would make me want to believe that she did her skydive jumping naked. And that she ended up in the hospital, supercooled!! Yeh, as I look like a buy such a story. Stepping out of the bus we met a Dutch (Frisian, Berber) girl. Together we checked in and got rid of our backpacks. We decided to have a coffee, as it was far too early to go to the gate. The flight was one movie short. In a second we were on Australian grounds again. Home sweet home Sydney!
Also here, in Sydney, we didn’t want to spend any money on hostels so we fixed a couch surfing place for 2 nights (this was already planned in Auckland). A taxi drove us near his place. Everything went well. It was a very nice guy. He also had another couch surfing girl hanging around. So the next day we talked a little bit with her and decided to make him dinner (together with us) for the evening. His place is very creative decorated, he plays guitar, you could make a painting et cetera. A good second couch surfing experience! The next day we tried to meet up with some ex colleagues and reunited with Yoan and Kelly (and their friends) in the evening. They were on a road trip in Aussie and by that time in Sydney as well!
Farm work: ‘Changes in the way of living’
In Sydney we stayed for only 2 nights because these girls were on their way of changing their way of living! Lieselotte knew a place where we might do our farm work. In NZ she had mail contact with the Ballywire farm and as today we are still living in this peaceful place. The Ballywire farm is settled down in Yorketown, South Australia. In the middle of nowhere.
In the morning of the 18th of February our plane took off from Sydney to Adelaide. A bus brought us from the airport to Adelaide centre. We searched for a place where we could have a coffee first. The buses to Yorketown were only leaving once a day at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. So we had to fill up some time. We wandered around the shopping streets and fixed a new plan for our phone. Apparently Vodafone has reception troubles in country places like this. The bus took us down in Yorketown in about 4 hours. Just after sunset we arrived. We were standing in the middle of nowhere with our backpacks hoping somebody would pick us up. After 2 minutes waiting we saw a woman crossing the road, asking our names. She brought us to a huge house where the 2 of us would stay in for (probably) the following 3 months. In this way we can complete our farm work to apply for our 2nd year work- and holiday visa.
The next morning work started immediately. Everyday we start at 9 o'clock in the morning and we finish by midday (1 o'clock). We work for food and accommodation and as far as we are now (3,5 weeks) everything is going very well. Yeah, the first week I broke a glass from a closet in the museum shed, I broke my weeding tool and a Tupperware cup... Luckily, I haven’t had a fight with the owners (Chris and Pete) of this beautiful farm (yet). In this first week we also discovered that the farm relies on rainwater. This means in our case: hand washing and short showers! This gives us a great country ‘way of life’ feeling: back to basic!
Over the weekends Chris and Pete open the farm for visitors. People can buy some food to feed the animals. Furthermore visitors can have a look in the museum sheds, can have a try on the minigolf course and can chill out in the Ballywire tearooms for some food and/or drinks. Pete and Chris own sheep’s (and a blind one, Jacky), cats (one of them without tail), twelve horses, three dogs, chickens and roosters, three donkeys, four pigs, geese, three massive cows and parrots. One of them greets you with: 'Hello Cocky!' Haha.
Some people I already have been telling about my first weeks on this farm. The question I always get is how we fill up time the rest of the day. Well, because there are 12 horses to brush, train and even in a couple of days or a weeks (maybe) to ride, there's lots to do. Furthermore we both try to keep up the running. And guess what: 'during our running sessions the kangaroos like to be our audience!
At least I know how YOU spend your time by the time you are reading this sentence ;) Now shoeef, go back to your own business!
Lots of love,
Miss u guys!
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
