New Zealand Memories 5

Everybody recommend me Wellington so I decided to stay a few days to have a look the place and the party. The capital of New Zealand is a pretty town but with city atmosphear and most of the time horrible crap weather, good vibes for party and a big cultural scene. Met my host on central city, and made them one of the best Tortillas I have never made. I was surprised and my mom would be so proud of me. They loved it. The rest of days were basically standing the crap weather, and meeting a fair amount of csers. Had a city life, meet for coffee, beers, mostly with the boyfriend of my host, movies, and some walking to the Victoria Hill to have a top view of the city. Plus Te Papa Museum, which is pretty cool one about all in New Zealand, but a bit too much orientated to kids for my taste. After a few days of awful weather and windy days, fed up of that, I decided to leave because the "city" did not really offered much after a few days there, However, I met wonderful people there. Took the ferry to the south island. Amazing views. Tons of pics. Stunning coast. Arrived to Picton where there was nothing to do, and went to catch a bus to go to Nelson because it was getting late, and did not want to get stuck in the middle of the way when gets too dark trying to hitch hike. South Island is even greener than north island.

New Zealand Memories 4

Did not want to go to Roturua after because the only things to do there where to see geysers, (I saw them in Bolivia), and mauri culture performances, dances and so on, and I was not really up for it, plus did not want to spend that much money on that, so, hitch hiked until Taupo, traveling between cities is also a cool thing to do in New Zealand, this country is a giant garden, tons of hills, lakes, forest, lagoons, sheeps, and millions of cows. Stunning.

Taupo, city with one of the most gorgeous lakes I have ever seen. And the famous Tongariro crossing. Trek where part of lost of the rings where filmed and where you can walk through volcanoes, inactive of course, amazing views and pictures. Did not get a couch there so took a nice hostel where I met two cool Swedish guys. Did with one of them the whole trek and finished so tired. More than the day at the Pinnacles. Worth the views in between the volcanoes, the view from the top of one of them, and the view on the way back of the lakes and towns on the distance. Great pictures. To go there you have to book a bus that takes you to the entrance of the trek, 50 dollars the ride. Rip off. Pick you up at 5:00 am or 6:00 am. Fucking hell. And if you are late on the way back they dont wait for you, you gotta move the ass baby. Went out with the Swedish guys that day. 30 dollars on a steak that did not worth that money, but some days you gotta waste money, I deserved it though. Plus I was going out with tourists that day. Some beers after but did not get drunk. They had a rental car and invited me to give me a lift to Wellington where they were going to cross the following day to the south island.

New Zealand Memories 3

Next day my plan was to hitch hike again back to Auckland, give it another opportunity and then go to coromandel peninsula, which was meant to be an awesome beautiful place. Looked for couches there, next day made Auckland pretty easy hitch hiking so I though, wtf, im gonna make it till coromandel hitch hiking. On the afternoon I made it to Thames which was the town to enter to the natural paradisiacal place of coromandel beautifulness. Got to my host place where two other young Israelis were coach surfing too. They had a rental car and invited me to go with them to go around the whole national park. First day we got through the beautiful bushes towards a beach where there are hot water springs. Curious. Heaps of people digging on the sand of the beach where out of the deep holes hot water was coming out. The brave ones were getting their bodies inside, wait for the high tide of the cold ocean water to come inside of the hole and create a natural spa!, amazing! Later we went to another beach with huge stones on the edge. One had a huge hole on it product of the erosion of the water. Cathedral cove was the name. Beautiful beach with surprisingly not many people on it. Lovely. The next day we went to the proper national park to get immerse on the beauty of this country. We went hiking up to one of the highest mountains of the area. Pinnacles. So tiring, heaps of beautiful trees, palms and plants in general with and steep end in which the powerful hikers would get the amazing prize of the imponent view of the whole peninsula and park from the really top of the mountain. Worth of 9 hours walking non stop. I was feeling fit. Met some kiwi hikers on the way back that offered me to take me to Thames. We had a beer and some tapas. Then my host came with her partner and we all had dinner.

New Zealand Memories 2

The next day waited for my bus. My mom, grandmother and grandfather were in it, plus a couple of old couples. Cool. Im on the fucking pensioners bus. Not that lucky. Another place im not going to meet people. Went to the beach. Amazing long wide beach! Like in Spain. I was getting used to the Australian beaches which are usually short and pretty narrow so I was quite pleased on this one, at the end of it we went to do the sand boarding on the huge dunes that are there. Dunes of easy 20 or 25 meters high. Went up with the board I could found on the back of the bus. When I finally got up the dune, I could not breath for a while with the horrible shape I was at that time, when I finally could say something without swallowing my lungs, I jumped on the board and slided myself. Got really really fast all the way down there. Fantastic! So cool that I wanted to do it again, but, fuck, I had to go all the way up again if I wanted to go it again. Fuck. I saw a couple of the old guys thinking in going again. I could not be that lazy, so, went up again. Took me like 5 minutes extra to recover of the way up the dune. But it was worth it went I jumped again. Down there I saw heaps of people going up again from another buses. Too many people, too much effort and I had done it twice. Fuck it. Went back to the bus to rest. Went after to see the cape reinga with is almost the most nother point of New Zealand. Supposedly where the souls of the dead maori people leave to get to heaven, to a place with a similar name to Hawaii; maybe to the proper Hawaii to have party and surf forever? and where Tasman ocean and pacific ocean meet. Amazing view from the top of the hill seeing that amount of water all together. I love water places. The power of the ocean just there in front of you. There is a couple of typical touristy pictures on the lighthouse there, and heaps of mythological maori stories related with the place. After that we went to see the kauri trees. Amazing huge trees of 30 meters high and a trunk that 3-4 people holding hands would cover their perimeter. Biggest trees I have ever seen. Protected now, almost about to get extinct thanks to the human beings that used to use the good wood you can get out of them. Got back to paihia and met the girl that offered me a coffee through cs. Had a smoothie and talked about traveling, Africa and New Zealand. My bus was going back to Auckland next day. Nice kiwi transports. Wasting half of my day there without anything else to do. We talked about hitch hiking and she suggested I should give a try, if I don’t get a ride I can always get the bus next day as my original plan was. Why not!, she told me where was the best spot. Sounded good. Went to have a look on internet, I had a couch in Whangerei, town half way back to Auckland from there. Sweet. Texted the guy and arranged the meeting. Gave a try. Got two rides, first of them in 30 seconds of waiting, just raised my arm once, and second in 10 min of waiting. Way too easy. Looked like im not going to catch a bus anymore. Arrived to his house where he was living with his wife. Talked about New Zealand and his trips around the country hitch hiking. More encouragement. Went for a pint with his musician friend, they gave me dinner and slept like a baby. Like kiwi people.