...I wake up to pouring rain, the first day like this since my arrival...I wish my rental were a diesel. Diesel fuel is just over half the price of gas....I learn another Maori expression: "Auahi kore", meaning "No smoking"...as I entered the Taranaki region I passed big signs, about 100m apart down the road, saying in that sequence: "WAAOOUU!!!" Then "WELCOME TO TARANAKI" and then "HOME TO LEGENDARY LIFESTYLE". As I leave it, the same signs say: "WHY???" and the...

...I find that 13 can sometimes really be unlucky but everything depends on the point of view...I am about to climb the mighty Mount Taranaki, but I wake up to milky fog all around and give up. I decide to tend to laundry and other pressing affairs..,after breakfast it clears up and there's beautiful blue sky all around so I drive half an hour and 1000m up to the trailhead only to find the same milky fog up there, which apparently has no intention of letting ...

...I get up happy, make some more New Years calls and eat the same huge breakfast. I am surprised to find out everyone in town is up and running, all the stores are open, everything works. Wow. And that on a Sunday!...I set out to my next destination: the Taranaki region, famed for Mt Taranaki, hailed as the country's most beautiful mountain...I encounter something truly unexpected - an American flag with a sign congratulating Trump on winning the election. T...

...I notice a lot of road signs raising awareness for safe driving. One of them: "others make mistakes; slow down". Hello? Government of New Zealand? I'd like to order 100,000 of those for my country please....I am amazed by what seems like a unique Kiwi invention: hospice shops. They're second hand stores selling different goods donated by people to raise funds for hospices. True we have such stuff in Belgium too but those are geared specially toward hos...

...I decide to visit the thermal area of Rotorua with the world's tallest jet geyser - the Pohutu, which rises up to 30 m...I enjoy the visit includes a tour of a kiwi bird house - kiwis are nocturnal so to let people see them, the turn off the lights by day and turn them on by night, fooling the kiwi into thinking he's on European time :) - you can't see much in the dark but I did get a glimpse of my first kiwi!!!...I watch the included cultural perf...