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Published: November 9th 2012
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Ok,
what to say about NZ except that it is a pretty unbelievable awesome country!!!
This country is kind of a best of of the best of what you can find on earth, both landscape and people.
You can find mountains (from hills to high mountains, above 3700m), glaciers, rainforest, fiords, splendid beach and ocean, green pastures and sheeps, crazy open spaces, crazy blue lakes, volcanos, hot springs, rivers... All in one country. And with bees as the most dangerous animals (no snakes, no fox, no wolves, no bears...).
So you might think maybe people are not so nice to balance a too much beautiful landscape. But no they are, they actually are the friendliest, nicest, most helpful, welcoming, good mood, all lovely people!
The only “bad thing” I found is that petrol is expensive, and that they eat/produce too much lamb.
Regarding my trip, I landed in Auckland beginning of October. I used couchsurfing for the first nights. There I met a German and Danish girls, really nice, which with I visited a bit Auckland and that I met later on in the south island. Before flying I was contacted
by a German girl who wanted also to travel NZ for 3 weeks, so we decided that we could rent a car together so that it could be cheaper. We also found a 3
rd person but we did not manage to catch up for the north island. So we rented a van and drove around the north island during one week: Coromandel (a kind of a fiord with blue sea water), Rotorua (geothermal area with thermal water, geyser...), Napier (vineyards), Wellington, Tongariro park (really nice hike there with view on volcanos, lakes where I swam😊 ), Cape Reinga (where Pacific ocean and Tasman sea meet). That was a bit the rush to see all that but we got to see a lot and that was already a first really good impression of the country.
We flew then to Christchurch on the south island. The south island is a bit wilder, with more mountains, more nature, a bit less people. South the way I like it :D
So we did the same, rented a car for 10 days and travel around. We tried this time to choose to see a bit less (so that means
drive less) to enjoy more hiking or more time at a same place. We drove through Arthur's pass (mountains area) then the west coast with Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers (the ice ends around 300-400m above the sea level, in the middle of the rainforest which is quite surprising because in less than an hour you can go for a hike on the glacier and continue with a swim in the Tasman sea.). Then Queenstown which is a nice cosy town on the side of a big lake which looks like a fiord. We went after to Te Anau because we wanted to see some fiords of the fiordlands but the road was cut and there was nothing for free to do there so we ended up doing a part of the Kepler track (which does not go to the fiords). We walked through really nice forest and we found a nice place, near a peaceful swamp/lake, where gooses were swimming and the sun was shinning. So we finally stayed there after lunch and had a nap 😊 Then drove to Mt Cook (highest summit of Australasia above 3700m). Went for a hike there. The road to get there follows
an amazing large blue lake. So is the next big lake of our next step, lake Tekapo. It was quite cold and windy there so we went for a quite cheap but worth it sauna. And back to Christchurch to drop off the car. This person left and I started my last 10 days on my own. I hitch-hiked heading south from Christchurch to Nelson because I found an helpX there in an organic farm for 5-6 days. On the road I was picked up by really nice people, especially one guy from Hawaii, with whom we saw seals and the most amazing thing of my trip, seals bathing in a waterfall!!! (watch the video, if I manage to put it).
So I spent 5 days helping a 60 years old guy gardening, weeding, digging, planting trees... He was quite into organic and taking care of what to eat so that was good, I had really good food during these days, and he was living a bit in a remote area, so nobody around, only forest and the view on the ocean.
And I finally ended my trip in Wellington where I stayed 3 days. I took the
ferry from Picton, where I met a really nice, wise, interesting German girl (these Germans are everywhere, that's crazy!!). And I couchsurfed in Wellington, again at a German's. She had lived 1,5 years in Oslo so we spoke Norwegian all the time, that was good to practice a bit 😊 And she was also so friendly, open, easy-going. You know, the type of person you feel really good with, like we know each other since years whereas we just met few hours. She took me to a hike with friends of her. Where I also met really nice and interesting people (but not German this time 😊 ). We were given 2 fishes freshly caught by a family fishing on a beach, simply because we looked at how they did it and started to chat with them. Simply because NZ people are so nice!! And I had a firework for my last night before flying back to Melbourne on the warf of Wellington (because it was a special British day).
To sum up, what a trip!! I saw amazing landscapes, met amazing people, had a really good time... What an awesome country. This short visit has confirmed myself that
the idea of a work or working holidays visa there might be a really nice idea!!! So what else?! 😊
p.s: Just do not say it to too much people because there will be too much tourists there, and that would be a pity!
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Kathrine
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Herlig!
Det høres (og ser) helt herlig ut! Så mye fint du får sett :) Håper du koser deg masse!