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After Gisborne, I made my way back to Rotorua where I met Adela, who was traveling at that point with her friend Leini. We had booked rafting but not any type of rafting. No, we did rafting at the Kaituna river where you can find the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world! It was a great experience. The day after I headed to the Coromandel Peninsula. At first, I visited the biggest waterfalls on the North Island also known as the Wairere falls. Then I visited the famous Cathedral Cove but I didn‘t like it so much because it was very crowded. All the more I enjoyed the New Chums Beach. I actually thought that it‘s just a normal beach but then I found out that there is a small hike to a lookout point and the view from there was amazing... I stayed there for like 40minutes just enjoying the landscape. Back down I met a local and I asked him if it‘s worth going to the top of the peninsula. He replied that it would be as nice as the view from this lookout point. It was decided and I drove up to the very top of the
Peninsula. Arrived at the Fletcher‘s Bay I did a day hike and I enjoyed it a lot as it wasn‘t busy and I felt like I was still on my beloved South Island. Even more so because that night the sky with it‘s stars was absolutely stunning. After that I was very excited to visit Hobbiton, where you can find the movie set from ‚The Hobbit‘ and ‚Lord of the rings‘. Even though I haven‘t seen the movies it was soo interesting and I’ve started watching the movies because this place knocked my socks off. Mid April I drove to Raglan, which is THE surfer spot. I stayed more or less one week as I obviously wanted to surf there but unfortunately the weather conditions were rough. That‘s probably why I didn‘t enjoy it too much when I surfed the first time. However it was great fun when I tried it a few day later when it was sunny. When I first arrived in New Zealand a girl told me to do Black Water Rafting in the Waitomo Caves. It’s an activity where you have to abseil 30 meters to get into a cave. (Oh and you have to climb
up again as well of course). Arrived there the instructor tells you to walk against a stream to get into the cave where you can then enjoy a beautiful scenario with glowworms. After that you are able to slide down the stream with tubes while staring at the beautiful glowworms, which look like stars in that darkness. It was, as nearly everything here in New Zealand, absolutely worth going there. Thanks to a friend in Luxembourg, who has family here in NZ, I was able to stay with a couple that lives 40 minutes out of Auckland. More specifically in Mahurangi West. I was supposed to stay one night with them. However I ended up staying 3 nights. They showed me their beautiful regional park, an amazing coastal walk in Mangawhai and of course Auckland. We started with the Mt. Eden, which is one out of many craters in Auckland and made our way down to the Museum, the wintergarden, to the harbour and finally to the Mt. Victoria from where we enjoyed Auckland‘s skyline. After that we were ready for a delicious well-deserved ice-cream. Thank you for that lovely day! Finally saying goodbye to them I was ready to
explore Northland. I drove to the Bay of Islands where I did several small hikes. Now I know why they call this area Bay of Islands... Because of all the small Islands lol. There I stayed on a campsite with seafront and of course I had to watch another beautiful sunset out of my boot. At some point I made my way up to the Cape Reinga Lighthouse which is the most northern point from New Zealand. Not far from Cape Reinga you can admire sanddunes, where you can even do sandsurfing with a bodyboard.
After that I decided to work one more time and yeah this time I was keen to try out fruit picking. More specifically mandarin picking in Kaitaia. It was nice to work for these people as it is a small family business and they actually do care about their employees. While working there I got to know Miho, a japanese girl. She became a close friend that I shared a lot of good memories with. It became for example our tradition to go to Pak'n Save (which is a supermarket) every evening after work. Furthermore she showed me a fruit called Kaki and
we both tried a red kiwi fruit for the first time. We also went several times to the beach to enjoy the beautiful sunsets. Oh and I was very excited to learn some Japanese. Thank you so much for this great time Miho! I'll see you in Japan one day.
Unfortunately I was only able to stay for 2 weeks as I‘m leaving New Zealand very soon and I still have to sort out a lot of things. But before I headed to Auckland I visited Tane Mahuta, which is the biggest and oldest (2000 years old) Kauri tree in New Zealand. Impressive! After that I made my way to beautiful Piha. It was my last spot to visit in New Zealand and it was a perfect last spot. I fell in love with Piha and it‘s breathtaking views. Just look at the photos and you‘ll understand what I mean.
After that it was time to make my way to Auckland, where Adela and I went indoor climbing. So much fun! On Friday we went shopping and in the evening we admired a light show. Yesterday, I actually sold my beloved car
and now I'm sorting out some last things as claiming back my taxes, cancelling my car insurance, cutting a video together from my journey here in New Zealand, booking my flights to Fiji and Sydney and so on. Only a few days to go until I‘m leaving this amazing country. Weird feeling of sadness and happiness...
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