The East Coast

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Hello Menen, Gent, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerpen, Leuven, Kaapstad, Cordoba (argentinie of toch bijna 😉, Malaga, Roma, Barcelona, Innsbruck (mils),....and all the other I forgot! I wish you all a very happy New year!

So..what happened after Auckland? On the 26th of december i left Auckland with the Straybus, wich was a relief again (because I hate Auckland). From there we left to Hahei. On my bus, we were only five people: two german girls, Marian from holland, Steph from USA and me.. and off course our very entertaining busdriver 'baggins'. Hahei is situated in the Cormandal region and has a really beautiful coastline with rocks shaped by the wind. We did a Sea-kayaking tour together with some people from Austria, we saw a mini-pinguin and our guide made coffee for us on the beach. At dinner, we met four more people from holland, who would go with us the day after to Raglan!
So next day seven people in the bus (we dropped of the germans) and went on to Raglan! Surferparadise of all surferparadises!!! (It is also the place where Ben Harper and Jack Johnson spend christmas! Jack Johnson bought a house here!!)
And I have to admit, I am little by little losing my windsurfing roots. So me and Steph and Ferdy (guy from holland) hired a board and wetsuit on the beach.. And of we went! Again a great experience. We stayed at the Kaori lodge wich was the best backpackers I stayed at, uptill then.
Next day, we drove to Maketu again with some new people on the bus Victor (Canada) and Tom (England). On the way we stopped at the Waitomo Caves. While the others decided to spend loads of money sliding around in some caves I saved money by going in the meanwhile to some Angora-shearing show wich was awfull but for free...After that we left to Maketu where we would stay for the night.
To get a genuine 'Maori-experience'. I'm personally very fond of everything that starts with genuinde and ands with experience..but..
it was ok! We were welcomed by 'uncle boy' who is the grandfather of the tribe in Maketu. He wanted us to learn about his culture in low-profile way and without making big money. We learned some things, we saw a Maori dancing show, the guys learned the Haka (wich the National rugby team (all Blacks) always does before the game starts to frighten the other team), the girls learnt the poi and we had great great food and slept all together in Uncle boy's big house!
The day after that, I had to say goodbye to Victor and Tom and the others, and I carried on my trip to the East coast together with Didi (from Holland). Jason (the busdriver for the east coast) came to pick us up with his orange van, and I immideatly knew, this was going to be a great trip! The other people in the van where: Rose (n-z, girlfriend from Jason), Claire (UK), Gavin and Garry (UK), Chandra, Christel and Kyle (Canada), Bill (UK), Didi (Holland), me (Belgium).

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