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Published: February 9th 2015
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Isn't it funny how dreams sometimes become reality? Unfortunately in my case it was a nightmare. I dreamed that I found my car keys pierced through my wonderful new toy, a polarising filter. As you can cleverly combine, my polarising filter broke. My car keys weren't part of it, I just found the poor filter broken in the camera bag. But still! On the day we started on the Routeburn! Could that have been any worse? So that certainly did bother me during the first few steps on the Routeburn, but since New Zealand's landscape fascinates me over and over again, I quite quickly forgot about the horrific nightmare that came true. This time we decided to camp, because the huts on the Routeburn are just way too expensive and fully booked anyway. So that was going to be a bit harder, but the weather did a great job in keeping us dry (not a single drop of rain over 3 days!) and the alpine region in Mt. Aspiring National Park is breathtaking. Even the couscous tasted quite delicious after 8 hours of hiking!
Personally I preferred the landscape you get to see on the Routeburn to the Heaphy. They're both
amazing, but with the alpine views Routeburn is just that little bit more beautiful.
Quite soon after the Routeburn, Tim and myself decided to split up since he wanted to do the Kepler too and I slowly had to move on northwards. But obviously not without having seen the ever so popular Milford Sound. That was my next destination. I booked a kayak tour on the sounds. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. Of what I'd heard Milford Sound was supposed to be one of the most wonderful sights you can get in New Zealand. I have to say that the kayak tour was indeed a very memorable experience in both a positive (the calm, pitch black water and stunning surrounding scenery) and negative (sandflies, sandflies, sandflies) way.
After that short stop-over in Milford Paradise I moved on to Adventure Paradise: Queenstown! This city is known for action, ferg burgers and nightlife. Mature and responsible as I am I didn't find interest in any of these things.
Just kidding, skydive was wiiiiiiiicked!!! Never have I ever been so excited in my entire life! Simply mind-blowing.. And the beer tasted so good after that, let alone
the ferg burger! As you can see I ended up having a mental time in Queenstown, I'm not going to go further into the details.
After what I think of the highlight of my travels so far I went up north on the West coast. Not alone though; the unique and wonderful Austrian & Dutch duo Julie and Lara joined Moana and myself to form the Moana gang. We ended up traveling together for just a bit over a week. It was lovely to have them as travelmates, especially since I was beginning to miss my familiar surroundings more and more.
Speaking of familiar surroundings: I was super happy to meet Flu, a good friend who lives in the village next to mine. After the girls and I split up I went to the north island and met him. It felt really good to see someone I've known for more than a couple of hours or days, we spent most of the time together laughing..
At the moment I am trying to sell my good old and lovely companion, Moana. It is in 8 days I leave this wonderful country already! Can't believe how quickly time passed over
here. I will most certainly post my last entry by the end of my journey.
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