New Zealand Memories 6

Did not get couch in Nelson but got a couple of contacts from my ex flatmate kiwi and great friend in Berlin, where she used to live. Nelson is a pretty town with a huge cathedral, prettier outside than inside, and nice small shopping streets with a few nice bars and restaurants. "The center of New Zealand" is a nice walk in Nelson called like that because its the geografical center of the country, that its not too steep where you can have a nice view of the whole town and the coast. Not so far they have a nice city beach with a nice green town background. Had a couple of days of party with the friend i was introduced to and we decided to go to visit Abel Tasman together, she loved the camping and treks around there and wanted to go to take some pics with her new camera. She had all the camping gear and a car so was perfect for me too. Thanks to her I could see much more I could have seen on my own and without a car. And don’t think badly with your dirty mind because we agreed we don’t like each other as well as she was 22 and I’m too old now. One of those days of party in Nelson, she went home early with her friends and I stayed on my own on a drunken night talking to a couple of old men that loved South America and could speak some words of Spanish. They invited me some beers, and took me to a striptease club where some monsters were doing pole dancing. Just one had nice tits, the rest where all rubbish. I was surprised because almost there were more women than men among the customers!

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.

New Zealand Memories

Left Australia with pleasure. Too long time in Sydney was too much, plus my pocket was getting too damaged. Arrived in rainy Auckland and met a Columbian guy who gave me more information that I needed about his country. I love South American people.

Obviously I did not arrange my hostel as usual and the couch I had promised stood me up saying that I did not confirmed it, days after we had a argument through messages on cs but her excuses were so stupid and lame that I felt pity and I did not leave her a bad reference. Found a shitty hostel with free dinner and went to sleep early, next morning waited for the rain to stop and went to have some pictures of the city. Felt Auckland a city with a lack of soul, pretty gray and boring. When I was walking past the bus station asked for the ticket prices to get to the north land, according to the advice of the friends that went there before me, it was worth to go. The price was reasonable, and bought it straight away. Went to the streets I hadn't been and went to the hostel to take my bag. Looked for some more couches on cs on the north tows. Left without meeting any person. Boring Auckland.

Arrived to Paihia that day on the evening that is a little town with a beautiful coast view. You can do some sports, kayaking, and above all, heaps of sailing. My idea was from there to book some tour to see the huge Kauri trees, the cape Reinga and the 90 miles beach where you can do the fun sand boarding. I did not find any hostel when i got there, all booked out, and no contacts for cs couches, just a girl for coffee. Found just one tourist agency open at that time that sold me the just exact last seat on the tour for the next day. Lucky?. 100 nz dollars though. Kept walking after around the town and found on the floor a note of 20 dollars and another of 5. Lucky again? A guy on a hostel gave a map with the possible hostels with any bed. Found a bed pretty late. 25 dollars. Lucky number. Went to look for something to eat, fish and chips 6 dollars, bargain!. Feeling being back in England! Saw the end of a crappy movie in the hostel and slept early to not miss my tour the next day.

Impressions about Japan.

I have written this about Japan, Hope you like it.

Japan.

Actually it has been an incredible experience.

A so different country, plenty of people, rushing, transports, food, weird language, and different feelings. I’m having now, a love - hate for this country.

In one hand, I love the futuristic image of the country and its cities, with all those different buildings, never two equal architecture, triple floors highways in the middle of the city, super fast trains going everywhere and by anywhere crossing the country in two hours..., the lights in the cities, especially Tokyo, during the night... the lights are amazing and everywhere, like in a movie, electronic machines for anything, like the amazing toilets!, restaurants and shops on any floor of the skyscrapers, and the best thing for me, that I miss the most, the food. Anything you try is good, amazing for someone with a big stomach like me ;), all menus are in Japanese so, obviously you need menus with pictures or there is usually replicas of the dishes at the main door, but, if you don’t have a picture, you can choose something randomly and I’m sure it will be delicious!

The people are basically weird. But incredible polite and hospitalitary. All of them! They always are up to help you even when they don’t understand you! Sometimes they even don’t hesitate to go with you till the place you are looking for just to help! Plus they are SO honest! If you don’t like the price, they send you where is cheaper!!! If a monument of temple is being refurbished at the moment, they tell you at the door with pictures how it is inside and apologize!!! And do not forget that is the organized, safest and cleanest country I have seen in my life!

And the bad things on the other hand, people with you can’t communicate at all, it’s very difficult to find people that can speak English, they are rushing everywhere, the language is weird, everywhere and uncompressible, which make it exotic, but you get tired of no information in any moment and never understand anything... It’s a country not multicultural at all, you JUST see Japanese people all the time, and millions of them, no matter time or place, always lots, to walk can be sometimes a nightmare. Its super expensive, to get to any club, its minimum 20 Euros entrance plus drinks, hostels minimum 20 Euros a night, restaurants 20-30, you can get by, going to cheaper places that you can start to discover, but, takes time, and you have to walk a lot... there no much nature, with so many people and cars you have no much space, when you travel from one city to another, literally, there is no countryside, you just see houses and buildings all the time.... crazy. Overwhelming country.... They have an incredible organization for anything. I mean anything. There are queues for everything, transports, shops... This country with a size of half Spain and a 90% of mountains in its surface, there are 125 millions of people living, which makes sense why all the technology and organization that they have.

The first week in Japan I was in Tokyo, met my good Spanish friend Pablo there, and Paul from London after Pablo, he was travelling around Japan as well. Found a couch surfing host that, she did not want me to say to anyone, but, what the heck, you are my friend and I can tell you, she is the first geisha non Japanese ever. She is originally from Australia but she has been living all her life in Japan, most of it. One day I could see all the preparation for a geisha performance with the makeup, dress and so on. She wanted me to do things in exchange of the "hospitality", like moving furniture to a new flat, and some translation texts for her website. Was so difficult to find a couchsurfing host, Japanese people are not that "open" and flats are usually very small... so, not easy find couch in Japan. After the first week, of food, descovering walking Tokyo, party, and so on, I used my Japan Rail Pass to explore Japan (when I bought it I thought it was so expensive, but actually I used a lot and I saved lots of money, so if you guys want to come to more than 2 weeks to Japan and plan to see some cities, don’t hesitate in getting one). Close to Tokyo i visited Nakamura, which is a lovely town on the coast where you can see the japanese surfing beaches (not that great) and a big buda and Nikko, beautiful town too with old Japanese temples and feel the vibe of the Japanese little towns.
When i left Japan I just found couch in Osaka, which was kind of luck because it is in central Japan, and with the bullet trains was easy to go from there to everywhere, like if I was going to work every morning. I was going very early to Kobe, nice port, Kyoto, all japan culture with tons of temples, Hiroshima, famous because the first nuclear bomb and its peace museum, Miyayima, beautiful town with the shrine on the water, Nara, small lovely town with university nice lakes and the biggest wooden building inside with a huge Buda, Himeji, with a gorgeous castle micer outside than inside, and so on, many places of which I keep a great memory of the of Japanese culture. The last weekend I went back to Tokyo to meet again the people I meet there and the friends of my friend Pablo for a last weekend party and getting ready for Australia.

That’s briefly my impression about Japan.