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hi again
so, started in wellington on friday the 1st of june ... arrived there at 9 pm at the port and drove to our hostel ... it was the WORST hostel i have ever been and moreover it was very expensive ... had a double room which was very small, paid 79 bucks, had only cold water, no heating, the wind came through the closed window ... it was simply horrible, the first time i have ever complained about a room ... and the bed was much too soft, the matresse must have been used for hundred years at least (no wonder, this was a hotel in earlier ages - i think, the just put a "s" in the word hotel and didn't do any modernizing - except of internet ;) )
so this was a bad start to the capital of nz, and we were happy to leave the next day ... before we left wellington we visited the cable car there to go to the viewing point and have some breakfast in the sun and then visited the Te Papa, new zealand's national musuem ... was quite interesting, they even have a house where earthquakes are simulated ;) ... learnt a lot about new zealand but don't want to bore you ... left in the afternoon to go to national park in the north ... arrived there in the late evening, got a room and wanted to do the Tangariro crossing the next day - this is a 8-hour walk through the national park (one way) but should only be done at nice weather ... our hostlady told us the weatherforecast is not good enough, so we might have to change our plans ... but the next day the weather was much better, the sun shined and it was not windy ... so we first went to a skiing area there, which is built on vulcanic rocks ;) it has already snowed a little on the peak ... then we started our walk ... we only wanted to see the southern crater lake but after 2,5 hours we had to return as we started a little too late and the weather was getting worse ... i asked a returning couple if we should go there and they answered it's nice but the weather is too cloudy to have the perfect view there ... moreover it was really steep to go there, we climbed over rocks and we didn't make any big rest on the way and we still had to 2,5 hours back - so for safety reasons we decided to return ... all in all, we went about 5 hours on vulcanic tracks, and the walk was really beautiful and tough ... and moreover, i had to drive to rotorua this day so i shouldn't be too tired ...
after the return (it was already after 4pm) we headed to rotorua ... arriving there we saw a strange traffic sign: beware of the steam ... and the steam is everywhere in this city ... and a strange sulfur smell ... checked in in a motel but the room wasn't made ... only the third room we tried was made up and so we got a big studio ... after dinner in the "stinky" ;) city we went to bed and unfortunately the heater didn't work ... so i complained the next morning (as the office was already closed) and as a consumption of all the troubles we got free passes for the buried village (worth 50 bucks) and a 10 % discount for the maori village around the corner ... so we first visited the village (sorry, don't know how to write the name of the village) and there were a lot of bubbling mud pools, steaming holes and 2 geysires ... one interesting thing was the thermal bath there, the water which comes out of the earth is so hot, that you can sit on the ground and after some minutes it might be to hot ... we also saw the 2 geysires, which can throw up water up to 30 metres ... then we joined a maori culture show which was very interesting and i joined the maori war dance (only men are allowed to do this dance) ... after the little exercise we had a "hangi meal" ... this is a maori way of cooking, they cook their meals in a hot mineral pool for several hours ... all in all, it was very interesting there .. one more thing: the bury the dead people not under the earth but above in white boxes ... this is because of all that thermal activities under the earth ...
our next stop was the buried village ... on 10.06.1886 there had been a big eruption of a mountain (forgot the name, sorry) ... after this eruption and earthquake (not only the mountain exploded also the lake there threw fireballs through the air) the white and pink terraces were destroyed ... they were at this time the 8th worldwunder and many tourists (yes, at this time there had been already tourism in this area - also from europe) went there, as they could heal their bodies in this thermal water there ... the buried village was one of 8 villages which were destroyed, and in the 1930s the Smith family started to recover the village (or at least what was left) ... there had been about 1.5 metres of mud in the village, there have been also 2 hotels and lots of british people ... all in all, i was quite surprised about the fact that there were already tourits there and that at this time black/white photography already existed so there are some photos of the desaster there ...
after this cultural day, we left to go further north to wahei beach (this was recommended to me by a german in singapore) ... but we arrived to late there, only searched for a motel and left the next morning after a short walk on the beach ... we headed to coromandel island (in fact, it's a half island) and landed in Hahei
guys, this village is the absolute paradise ... found a superb motel for 100 bucks (incl. breakfast) with a real beautiful garden ... arrived there in the afternoon, short before low tide ... this is important, as we wanted to go to hot water beach ... there you can dig a hole on the beach and from the ground hot water is coming out ... so, equipped with a shovel each, we went there to start digging ... but you have to find the right place on the beach, i only found cold water, my babe found a place with hot water so we digged a little pool, but it was much too hot ... i put my watch inside and after some minutes it showed 57 degrees ... but only a few centimetre(!!) next to our pool the peolple were lying in their pools ... ater some other tries we found an empty pool which had been left by their 'diggers' so we occupied this one and i just improved the sandwall against the sea ... this pool was perfect, between 35-40 degrees, we spent about 20 minutes inside ... an awesome feeling, sitting in a self made (ok, only self improved *g*) hot pool direct on the sea, watching the sunset and it's almost winter ... i think, this only exists in new zealand ... after this once in a lifetime experience we had dinner in whitianga, where we only went, as we didn't found a open restaurant in our village (except of our onsite restaurant but this was too expensive) ...
so the next day we got our first served breakfast ;) was really beautiful there, waking up by the birds (by the way: the motel was named The Church) ... the weather was sunny and rainy at the same time so we decided to spent some time on the room and just do nothing, the last 2,5 weeks were quite busy ... after midday the sun came out clearly and so we went to the beach ... babe was really looking forward to spend some time on the beach ... and this was an absolute dream ... there were nearly no people, the sun shined and it was quite warm but the sea was too cold there to take a swim ... we just enjoyed ourselves on the beach and then had the choice of either going to the hot water beach again or go to the cathredal cove ... we did the second and after a 40 minute walk we were on the next wonderful beach (after going through rainforest again) ... cathedrale cove is a rock arche which only can be passed at low tide ... after coming back to our hotel we dressed up for our last dinner and decided to have dinner in our onsite restaurant ... we enjoyed a first class 3-course dinner, had a bottle of new zealand red wine and had really fun ... for some moments we forgot that this will be the last evening for the next 2 months together ... of course, this dinner was expensive but it was worth every single dollar ...
the last day was tough, had to drive back to auckland (on the way to auckland the car made the first time some problems, it seemed that the car also didn't want to leave us *g*) ... stopped about 30 kms outside auckland (as the airport is there), got our things sorted and at about 8pm i brought my babe to the airport ... after check in we had 2 hours left for good bye, and you can imagine that this wasn't easy for both of us ...
so, i'm now back in auckland, have an other week here and will leave in 9 days to south america ... time is passing by so quickly ...
i wish everybody a nice weekend, photos will be uploaded the next time
cu soon
christoph (alone again)
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