New Zealand in 4500km!

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Auckland
I arrived in Auckland airport after 13h flight over the Pacific Ocean and completely jetlagged. Time difference was around 16hours and I missed an entire day of my life! It was 4am, I have to say I had trouble to 'land' properly. Such a big culture shock after 6 months in South America! Only spanish words were coming to my mind and I took me a while to accept how organised, clean and new everything was around me. I was definitely not in South America anymore. I saw loads of Maoris at the airport, something very new for me. But soon, I had the feeling to be back in the UK. People speak the same language (even if they say they don't), chains of stores and restaurants are the same, product & food too. It feels like a modern and laid back version of the UK, compared to the rest of the world of course! I had to wait in the aiport until 6am for the bus to go to town, it gave me the time to get a lonely planet and start planning my next 3weeks. When I first thought of stopping in NZ, I was meant to share this part of the trip with someone who did not make it. Therefore, I had not given much thoughts thinking I would rent a campervan, as everyone does, and it would be easy. But it was not the case and I did not know what to do. I had a few options but all quite expensive or constraining me on my freedom (touristic bus, public bus, camper van, car, hitchiking...) I finally decided to go with a good compromise: renting a car on my own but doing couch surfing to balance the cost and not feel too lonely. That was the best decision ever! Freedom does not have a price! I enjoyed it so much! When I arrived in town, I was still spaced out, wallked 2 hours around to find accomodation, as I was not keen on the big centers of backbackers in town but the ones outside were full and far (found out only when I got there) So I ended up in a central one, reassuring myself that it was not too bad as I might find someone to travel with, but never managed to. Spent the day messing around, organising couch surfing in the different places I was going to, visiting the town but for some reason got to the rental place too late. The following day, I left early to visit the volcanic island oposite Auckland, Rangitoto. I had a nice trek there to the top, which offers an amazing view over the bay. Back in town, there was a the christmas parade, but I gave it a miss as I had to organise myself for the car. It was getting more complicated that I thought, the agency did not have a car for me before a few days and I had to pay more that I thought as I had to pay for the expensive ferry between the 2 islands. By chance, I walked in another rental place and they had a car right now, cheap and I could change cars between the 2 islands so I did not have to pay for the ferry. That was the only agency doing it and I found it completely randomly! Is it chance? Destiny? Call it how you want, that worked perfectly for me! An hour hour later, I was then on the road heading north towards Bay of Islands. I was a bit surprised at the beginning because all the cars are automatic but I got used to it pretty quickly and even though I miss a good manual car, I still enjoyed the drive.

Paiha, Bay of Islands
Around 3 hours and 250km later, I arrived at Nico's place. He's french, has been living here for a while and was very nice to have me at his place, we spent the whole night talking and sharing our experience. He s a chef and was getting up at 4am to work in the bakery. Not much sleep then! He leaves alone in a 3 bedroom house, it made me feel so jaleous to be able to have so much space, quite different from sharing a flat between 4 people! Quality of life is so much higher out there, it s incredible! In the morning, I went to visitt around a bit, waterfall, point of view, but the weather was not very good so I was not too impressed. In the afternoon, Nico showed me around, in the rain! We went to see old bristish house, beautiful rainforst, Kauri trees, amazing giant trees! But then we went back home as we were getting cold and wet! Later the weather got better so I went back to the view point and there it was breathtaking with the light of the sunset! We met some friends of his at the pub later, and this confirmed the similarities with the UK and the beer culture.

Coromandel Peninsula
I left early the following morning as I was going back down and then up pto see the Coromandel Peninsula, east of Auckland. I did not expect it but drove 600km that day! Such a beautiful drive around the peninsula, I felt like I was a rallye driver and was happy to be alone in the car to enjoy it! Could listen whatever I wanted, stop whenever I wanted and drive however I wanted! Luckily I had been given music by Fanny and Nico and I bought an adapter to listen to my mp3 otherwise I would have never been able to drive that much, music is my fuel! I made it to hot water beach at the end of the afternoon, just on time for the low tide. It was only there that you could dig a whole in the sand to get a bath of hot water coming from the volcanic activity. At some places, it was surprisingly very hot I could actually not stand on the sand. It was a very weird sensation with the cold water of the waves coming up sometimes. I then left to cathedral cove, very close but there was a little walk so I had to run, competing the sun to get there before it was gone. When I got there, I was then alone, quite rare as it is very touristic and I was astonished with the beauty of the scene. I had had such a beautiful day, driving there and enjoying the sunset gave me the feeling that this trip in NZ was very promising, and I was not wrong! I left Cathedral Cove around 8.30pm and I had 1h30 drive to get to Waihi where Stuart, an english guy who grew up in NZ was waiting for me for dinner. I was slightly surprised when I got there as he lives in a home truck, but then I was fascinating. He was exciting because I was his first couch surfer, not a lot of people usually stops in Waihi as it is not so touristic. The following day, he took a day off and showed me around, it was a town where they were looking for gold, therefore there was a big open mine there, then it took me for lunch to Waihi beach, very different from Waihi town, and gave me a history and geography lesson. He was so interesting. Unfortunately I could not stay long as I only had 3 weeks, I had to move on and I drove to Rotorua.

Rotorua
A lot of people had warned me, but I was quite surprised by the smell of the town, rotten eggs smell due to the volcanic activity. We have the same smell in Reunion when the volcano is in eruption, but never in town! It was so fascinating to see steam coming out of the water drain in the streets. I was staying in a home farm with Lauraine and her husband. She is 63 years old kiwi, not that much into couch surfing but find it stupid to have vacant rooms when travellers could actually use them. I was shocked when I got there, it was almost like a hotel room, I had my own double room in a separate building, with my own shower and TV and even towel and soap! I could not believe it either when she was disappointed as I did not have any washing to do because she loves doing laundry!! Never heard that in my life before! She was so kind and so helpful. There was another couch surfeur staying there too, Maria, from Barcelona in Spain. I went to met her in town and together we went to the park. There, we could see steaming mud pools, it was so nice (even though very smelly and warm). It was good for me to have met Maria because as she did not speak good english I could practice my spanish. That s when I realised that this trip to South America actually made a difference. I used to live close-ish to Barcelona, when I was studying in Toulouse, went there many times but never been able to handle a conversation in spanish with anyone but now I can!! So as we were conversing in spanish, a kiwi jogging in the park, joined to the conversation as hee was speaking spanish too (quite rare for a kiwi) and less that half an hour later Maria and him was swimming in the hot spring/pool of the place where he was staying (did not have my bikini unfortunately). The following day, Maria and I picked up a french hitchiker on the way to Waitopu, Pierre and we spent the whole day together visiting the place full of geothermic activities: geysers, steaming and colouful pools. Later we got to swim in a bath recommended by Lauraine where only locals go as it is know as the “secret bath”, not touristic at all! at the junction of 2 small rivers (a hot one and a cooler one). It was so nice! Just one thing I forgot, never bath with jeweleries as it gets black! (but luckily it gets off with a bit of toothpaste). We then drove back to Rotorua and went to the Redwood, a forest of sequoias. After a long moment of hesitation (as it s always longer and more difficult to take decision when there is 2 of us), Maria and I drove the same night to Taupo, we had left Pierre in Waitopu though.

Taupo
There, we were staying in the country side at Dylan at his parents' house as he was still leaving with them. He had just finished university. The night we got there, he took us to see glow worms and then to town to have a drink. The following day was actually very full even though I thought before getting there that there was nothing to do in Taupo apart from skydiving. The weather was not really good for it in the morning, but as it was getting better in the afternoon I did not feel like doing it there anymore, I could wait until Queenstown in the south island. The first thing we did in the morning was then to see the Hawkes falls. Luckily we were with the kiwi as he took us on a secret path which leads right underneath the falls, quite breathtaking! We had lunch on a very nice point of view overlooking the lake Taupo. Then we went to watch people doing bungy jumping, pretty amusing, in such a beautiful place. Later we went to have a bath in the hot river, again, so relaxing. When we got home, I did some horseriding as they had many horses, it felt so good, just my dreams to have horses at home and being able to ride anytime and for free!! So we had a pretty long and busy day! The following day was even “fuller”, we got up very early in the morning and drove to Togariro National Park, an hour away from Taupo, that's one of the place where they shot Lord of the Ring. There we did the “great walk” called the Tongariro crossing. It was such a beautiful walk, very busy but so nice. It took me 5hours when it was supposed to take something between 6 and 8 hours. It is usually very conservative in terms of time here. But it is true that we were running on the way down too, but it was so much fun. Different sort of landscape, volcanos, turquoise lakes, but also different sort of vegetation, rainforest, waterfall... On the path, we met Pierre, going on the other direction, we agreed that I will come to pick him up when we get to the end. And so did I and again, the 3 of us we were travelling together but this time, after a whole day walk, we were heading to Wellington, the capital, 4hours away.

Wellington
We got there around 9pm, very tired, cranky and stinking! We had to wait for our couchsurfer Joel to come to town and then we met him in a bar where there was a venue with others couchsurfers. I felt like I imposed him the 2 other people with me but it was not a problem for him at all so we all stayed with him and slept wherever we could find a comfortable cushion. I really like the spirit of couchsurfing! Don't you worry! The following day, I was meant to cross to the south island to get a car on the other side but there were some problems. There was no records of me so no car for me before a week and I was meant to pay again as they did not have any proof!! Could not belive it, as it was sunday, I had better wait until monday to get in touch with the Auckland office. I then had a social time in Wellington, met up with more couchsurfers for lunch, had a walk around time together, stopped many times to get some re-fuel of coffee. Wellington is a very pleasant city with loads of cafes and restaurants with terrace, it really feels like it has a heart, compared to any other city I had seen in NZ so far. Later we went to the BBQ of some friends of couchsurfers, had a really nice time there, met a lot of people too. On the monday, everything was finally solved (or almost). After a phone called when I was told there was a car waiting for me, I booked my ticket on the ferry and then left home long enough to be able to give back the car before getting to the ferry. But we had little troubles there again... It took us ages to find the address indicated on the paper for the rental place, so we were running late and Maria was getting stressed as we were far out of town and she would never be able to get back there on her own (as we were splitting in Wellington) but when we finally got there, it turns out that it was an old address and there were now located on the other side of town. I felt like in a bad joke, where absolutely everything goes wrong! But luckily It got better, easier to find the place, Maria was happy as I drove her back into town and I was just on time for the ferry. As I checked in, the hostess started to chat with me, so friendly! She offers me to stay at hers anytime I came back to Wellington. Then on the ferry, the guy working at the bar chatted to me for a while too and when he got back to work it is another kiwi, much older this time, a retired pilot, who started the conversation with me. I am still very surprised how friendly and open people are here. I often feels like I'm in the UK but random people had never talk to me like that when I was living there. When I got on the south island, the guy from the rental place came to pick me up and then I head off to Nelson via Charlotte Queen drive, the scenic road where I could admire the Malborough sounds. So far, I had already driven 1800km, only on the north island!

Nelson
This trip was taking me from surprises to surprises. When I got to Nelson, it was a different sort of surprise waiting for me there. I don't know how I got to Matt's place in Richmond without a map, but I did. Just by the name of the neighbourhood, It could have given me a hint if I was in London, but I had no idea that I will stay in such an amazing place when I got there. Matt was just coming back from travelling in the Middle East with his girlfriend Tash and was now staying in the guest house that his parents has on their property. The land was giant with a pond, beautiful garden/park, with horses and sheep of course! They had a separate cottage overlooking the lake used as a lounge but especially as a cinema with its video projector. Matt used to be a cook in France so he prepared a very nice meals for dinner and I enjoyed watching Butch Casidy after all as I wanted to see it since I was in Bolivia. I was meant to go and visit Abel Tasman National Park but as it was raining I decided to stay a day longer to wait for the good weather. I was really getting on with them, definitely sharing something special with them. At their place, there was two israelis girls, friends of them who had just arrived too and were staying with them for a little while. I took the girls with me during the day and we went to the Nelson lakes even tough it was raining. Unfortunately, even if the mist gave a special atmosphere to the landscape, we could not see much. On the way back, we missed the turn for the shortest way and we end up driving 2hours more than on the way down. But the drive was very nice amongst farms and vineyard and we picked up 2 hitchikers from Canada on the way. In the evening, we were invited for dinner at Tash's parents. We had a lovely roast, they were so nice, very curious about each of us and so friendly. The following day I went on my own to Abel Tasman National Park, the weather was incredibly beautiful. I took a boat to the top and walked 3 hours back before getting another boat which brought me back to my car. They had told me this would take me 5hours but again a bit too conservative! So I could have gone picked up further down if I had known!! But anyway, the boat ride as well as the walk were absolutely stunning. We saw fury sea-lions on the way. The turquoise of the sea, the gold of the sand, the green of the vegetation, the blue of the sky and all the other colours made the whole scenery absolutely breathtaking. Back “at home”, there was only me and Matt and we were invited to his parents' for dinner (when I thought it was just for a drink). They are part of the higher class but they are still so friendly and simple. I was a bit impressed at first as I had been living a rough/travelling lifestyle lately but they were so nice and so interesting people to talk to that soon I was at ease. I really wish I could have stayed longer with Matt and Tash as I really liked them but I had to move on. So the following morning, I left early for the long drive to Franz Joseph.

Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier.
It took me between 5 and 6 hours to get there, straight, without any touristic stop. The weather was not fantastic and the drive had nothing special. I got there in the rain and the fog so there was no point to go to see the glacier. So I gave a miss to Franz Joseph Glacier and drove to Fox (20min away) where I was supposed to meet up with a guy to stay with. There was something that I did not quite understand that happened there. When I turned up at the place he works, he had prepared a map to leave for me but what he was telling me was quite different, that he just had a new flat mate so he would not be able to look after me today and his flatmate would not understand so if I could sleep in my car then it would make everything easier for him!! I did not even consider it and looked for a hostel there, crappy and expensive one but at least I was alone. I spent sometime on internet where I found out that he had sent me an email 20min before we met saying that everything was fine and would be waiting for me at his place!! So probably when he saw me, there was something which made him run away!! Anyway, at the internet place, I met 3 spanish people, from Barcelona too who were travelling by car like me. Went to talkk to them as I saw they were couch surfers too because their were browsing the coursurfing website. What a coincidence? So at 5h45 the following morning we met up in front of their hostel and drove in one car to lake Matheson to see the reflection of Mount Cook in the lake for sunrise. But unfortunately the weather was still misty and we did not see it. We had a great walk in the bush though, we went to see the glacier from a view point after that. We could not access it too close as the road was closed so I did not get to see the glacier very close in NZ but nevermind as I saw plenty in South America. Then later in the day, both cars were driving together towards Wanaka (around 4hours). The drive was incredibly beautiful so we stopped many times and I got different copilots as they were taking the driving of their car in turns. They were really good fun. We grab some food together in Wanaka and I was ready to go trekking around 3pm when they deciding to give it a miss. It took me an hour to get to the beginning of the path but the drive in the Valley was absolutely beautiful. It was a bit late to start a walk which last around 3 to 4 hours, but I was used to it now, and I knew it would take me less. I made it in 2 hours! On my way up, everyone was coming down and probably thought I was a freak to go up so late. But I could enjoy the glacier with amazing colours. I walked up to the view point and enjoyed the view over the Rob Roy Glacier. The walk was very nice, crossed a hanging bridge, sheep farms and a nice forest. On my way down, I found my new hobby, I realised that I found different kind of models to play with in NZ. I was not doing any mathematics anymore but I was enjoying taking pictures of sheeps! They were so many there, 10 times more than the people (40 millions sheeps for 4 millions inhabitants) that I had plenty to take pictures of; especially lambs, they are so sweet, amusing and funny! Back in Wanaka, I met Elia and his friend in a bar and we drove back to his house, where he cooked for us. Elia is italian, usually travelling but had arrived in the country a month ago and was planning to settle down a wee bit there in Wanaka. I did not mean to stay so little time in Wanaka but the weather forecast made me change my plans. It was about to be an amazing beautiful daay the following day and then days of rain. Therefore I woke up very early the following morning and drove to Queenstown (1hour).

Queenstown
When I got there, I directly went to book myself a jump for skydiving. An hour later I was in the minivan towards the airfield. I can t really explained the way I felt. I would say a bit anxious but without realising exactly what I was doing. But surprisingly as it got closer to the time to jump I was getting more and more confident. It was not exactly the case of the 2 guys I shared the pplane with, very cool at the beginning and more anxious towards the end. I met Rick my master and straight away, he put me at ease. Then we were the last ones to board the plane, it did not took us long to get to 12000feet, then the door opened, an independent guy jumped alone. That s probably when I realised what I was doing there, then I was the first one of the 3 of us to jump! Rick had explained to me everything on the plane so I did not have time to realise I was hanging in the void, when we got ready to jump. After the 3rd rock, there we were, flying in the sky. The first 3 seconds were absolutely incredible, it was litteraly breathtaking. I think I stop breathing for a while, my mind struggled to realise what was happening and even a while after we landed I struggled. It was such an amazing experience, never ever felt anything like that before. I did have trouble to breath after I realised I was not breathing anymore, I tried to get my hands together but it was so hard and everything was so fast. I think the fall was around 40seconds, the Rick opened the parachute and then when it hits me. I had blocked nose so the pressure gave me a sudden strong headache. After we landed, I just felt like all that was just a dream and did not really happen, I felt really strange and weak until I got some lunch later on. I had not find any couchsurfers in Queenstown to stay with. It was an amazing day and I wanting to make the best of it so I thought of driving to Milford Sound as the drive was meant to be beautiful but I had arranged to go with the spanish the following day to share the cost (especially for me) and I could not get in touch with them. I finally decided to go there anyway on my own. It was a quite long drive (4hours) but I had decided I would spent the night there.

Milford Sound
The drive was absolutely beautiful. It was nothing like I expected but the colors of the flowers and the fiords more and more present made the whole scenery so nice. I did not stop much on the way though, it was getting late and I wanted to get there to enjoy the light before the sunset. There was absolutely nothing there, just beautiful landscape, a restaurant/resort, a pier for boats to start their cruise to the fiords and a hostel where I spent the night. Luckily I had bought some dried chicken soup and some porridge so that s what I had for dinner. Did not really talk to anyone, so it was nice to have some time totally on my own. I shared the dorms with girls from switzerland though but as they were going kayaking the following day we did not spend much time together. The following day, I went on a boat cruise before the peak of tourists. We went through the fiords and to the see, unfortunately the weather was not as good as the day before so you ll have to apologise me because the pictures are not too great. I then drove back to Queenstown and stopped at many places to enjoy the surroundings even more. I saw beautiful vegetation, waterfalls, perrots called keas which are evil. I was afraid of them as they are not afraid of you and would do anything to get some food. They jumped on my car and ate the plastic of the door!

Queenstown
In Queenstown, I was not hosted by a couchsurfer, Julio from Brazil. I slept on the floor of his flat that he shared with 3 others braziliens. It was very interesting to meet braziliens outside of brazil and discuss their culture, especially as they were more educated that most of braziliens that I had met there and they were from the south, which is totally different from the culture off the north. Still those people were doing sort of hand-work in Queenstown. They have a special visa which allow them to work only in Queenstown, as it is very touristic and they need people to work there. The following day was a rainy day, so I slept in, did a bit of christmas shopping and rest, as I needed it. I enjoyed the brazilien meal in the evening and I got the opportunity to get some brazilien musicc as I forgot to get some when I was there. I ended up staying 2 nights there and the following day I drove to Christchuch. I had the option between the coast road and the inland road. I took the one less travelled and went inland through the McKenzie country, I did not regret it at all!! Landscape was once more so different and so beautiful, dryer with turquoise lakes, I drove through sheep farms, saw the home of my Icebreaker (thank you Niki&co). I stopped so many times to watch sheeps, there are all different, some have horns, some are brown, but they all yell the same way and it s made me laugh so much. I love them, there were everywhere!

Christchurch
I finally reached Christchurch at the end of the day, it was my final destination in New Zealand, almost the end of my stay there. I stayed with Matt and Kim there and met a german girl, Julia who was also couch surfing. It was the house of cats, they had 5 of them. I had spent 3 weeks in New Zealand constantly crying, hitchy eyes and blocked nose. Indeed, there was something in New Zealand I was very allergic too so I spent the whole time with hay fever!! So when I arrived in Christchurch in the house of cats, it did not help, even though I m not allergic to cats usually, I could not recognise myself in a mirror with my swollen eyes! I had to stay there 2 nights though. The following day, I was meant to give back the car in the evening but I thought I may as well make the best of it and I drove to the bank peninsula. I lost myself on purpose in the small roads and really enjoyed the drive, the view... it was becoming common now but still breath taking each time. That day something different happened, I broke down!!! In a way I should have stayed in Christchurch to avoid it but at the same time, it was worse going throught the hassle. I had a puncture in the middle of nowhere! As I was about to fix it myself, a farmer came, without asking anything fixed it straight away and went back to work! Could not believe it, it was like an angel coming from nowhere to help me. I drove back to christchurch, went to the garage, had it fixed for free!! and then I drove back the car to the agency to make sure nothing else would happen to me. I took the bus back home, cooked dinner for myself, went to bed, woke up the following morning, got ready and left for the airport. After 3 weeks in such a beautiful country, it was time for me to leave. I had had such a good experience, met so many beautiful people, seen so breathtaking places, I would not forget New Zealand overnight...

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