Peru and Bolivia were tasty appetizers, and certainly strengthened our wanderlust. Bali charged the batteries, we are ready for New Zealand!

But not really. We have 2 nights booked in Auckland and have no idea where we will be going in the next 6 weeks. The only certainty we have is that those 6 weeks won't be nearly enough to see it all.

New Zealand is a set of remote islands with funny animals and peculiar plants. All of them need to be treated extra careful, because they were never forced to develop self defense mechanisms. That means that our hiking boots need to be inspected for dangerous dirt upon arrival at the airport, we even feared we would have to say goodbye to alpaca wool Fons. Nope! No worries, we are good to go.

Our trusty companion on 4 wheels is a Mazda Demio. We christen it 'Teun', and so he shall be named. Only 500€ for 40 days, that is dirt cheap. We start at 34570 kilometers on the odometer, but who knows where we will end up? More than anything else, Teun gives us freedom to go where ever whenever. But our first meeting was difficult. Driving on the left, automatic shift, steering wheel on wrong side of the car: too much information to process at once. Result: a couple of very hard breaks, and the windshield wipers used as indicators. I'll get the hang of this in a couple of days.

Tired from traveling overnight, we drop our bags at the hostel and venture into Auckland in search for a piece of Belgium, at The Occidental Belgian Beer Cafe. We grossly underestimated the amount of sheer happiness you can fit inside a Leffe or La Chouffe, and a pot of well-cooked mussels. Pray you may experience this joy yourself one day. Our dinner was a great reminder that although we've been to some amazing places, we do miss some of the little and some of the big things from Belgium. West-Vleteren is also on the menu, and will set you back 106 NZD. That is just under €70. Apparently they have to go through the US to get it, for those rare occasions that they can.

New Zealand is supposed to be a fairly expensive country, so on our first full day we drive around to the supermarket to be able to cook our own food, and pick up some essential camping gear. Extra freedom again, and it will help keep accommodation costs down. We did all of this within 24 hours of arriving in NZ. Efficient.

After Auckland, we head north to the aptly named 'Northland'. It's a rainy drive, but we arrive in Paihia (not even trying anymore to pronounce these names correctly) in time to catch a ferry over to Russell to watch the sunset. Russell used to be the nastiest place on earth, base for the South Pacific whaling fleet, pirates and escaped convicts from the prison colony in Australia. Lots of violence, lots of brothels. Now it has the prettiest, quaintest beachfront we've ever seen. White picket fence houses with old, climable trees, right on the beach. Paihia and Russell are now the bases to explore the Bay of Islands.

Cruising between the islands on the 'Dolphin Seeker', there are even some islands on which you can camp, very idyllic. Is the grass really greener on the other side (of the world)? Yes. Yes it is. The hills and islands are a beautiful shade of green, the water a contrasting deep dark blue. At the end of the bay stands a single lighthouse. Lighthouses must be the loneliest buildings in the world, being built on the most remote sections of land. And to think that these had to be manned by lighthouse keepers until recent times. Anyway, the postman used to row out from Russell to the lighthouse every day to deliver the mail. His successor was not as committed to the job though, only going out once a week on a motorized boat. That guy later started the company we're cruising with. No sign of dolphins unfortunately.

All the way at the end of Highway 1 lies Ninety Mile Beach, which of course is only 90 kilometers long. Still impressive as a continuous stretch of beach though. The thing to do is take a 4WD bus onto the beach, which is classified as a highway, so the speed limit is 100 km/h. But such a long monotonous beach quickly becomes boring and half the bus was asleep by the time we ventured off of the beach in between large sand dunes, which you can 'toboggan' down from. Several face plants later (none by yours truly!), we continued our trip to Cape Reinga, where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. Maori believe this is where the spirits of the dead go to the underworld. True or not, the views are amazing, and there is another one of those lonely buildings here as well.

Back to the South after 2 days in Northland, the drive from Thames to Coromandel is supposedly very scenic. Supposedly, because we couldn't see anything because of all the rain. The peninsula also has some beautiful beaches but NOPE! Heavy rain and mist as far as the eye can see, which was not very far. First day that our plans were foiled by the weather. Luckily it's a one day thing, and we were able to see Cathedral Cove (big hole in the rock that connects two beaches) in all its glory in the sun the day after. We did think that the other coves in that national park deserve to be the stars of the show though. Gem Bay even has an underwater snorkel trail!

This puts us on the road from the Coromandel Peninsula towards Rotorua, and the end of an action packed first week. Our second week takes us to Middle Earth, in search of small people with big hairy feet.

This is a big update, but as you can see, we didn't muck around. We're racing through the North Island of New Zealand, because we want to spend more time on the South Island.

Geschreven door BigTrip