Time to say goodbye!

I am presently in a little internet shop in Auckland and it is pouring rain! I am flying back to Canada tonight and can't wait to get out of Auckland! Snow sounds like a good thing right now after spending the day walking around getting soaked!

Yesterday I spent 7 hours in a bus getting from Whakatane to Auckland after spending an amazing 5 days in Ohope Beach with Freddie, Marcel and Rob (and Takki the cat!). It was the best way I could have imagined finishing off my 3 months trip... great company, good food, lots of sun and tons of swimming and playing in waves at the beach! I even caught a baby shark kayak fishing in the ocean! It scared the hell out of me when it came out of the water (even though it was the smallest fish I've ever caught!).

Dank u zeer en zie u in Canada!!

Genevieve

Tongariro Crossing

The Tongariro Crossing is described in most guidebooks in New Zealand's as the country's best day hike... and I can see why! It is a 7-8 hours hike up a beautiful valley surrounded by active volcanoes! Almost the entire hike is above treeline which means everywhere you look you get a view! Love those hikes! My expectations of this hike was totally off... I thought it was going to be a lot more challenging physically and definetely not as beautiful... works for me!! The coolest thing about that hike is when you get to the top, it is very windy and quite cold, but when you sit down on the rocks, you get your bum warmed up by the heat coming out of the mountain ... a bit freaky to think that the volcano might erupt at any time (it did last time in 1975!).

The only negative thing I can say about it is that there were way too many people blocking the view! I knew it was going to be busy but not that bad! But, seeing the positive side of things, I got to have a few photos of myself for once because of all those people around! Anyways, it was still absolutely worth it! Here's a few photos to prove it! (On the third photo, you can actually see the trail I came down on!)

Strange things happen in Devil's country!

I knew there was something devilish about this place, but this is just plain weird, and very annoying... Last night I did a big load of (much needed) laundry and put it up on the clothes line at the hostel I was staying at... Well, I woke up today to go see if my clothes were dry and, to my surprise, noticed that half of it was gone! I thought to myself that this was pretty weird... but then I started thinking about what was missing, and I realized that all the stuff that was gone was black! So I put the blame on the devil! (or maybe it's just some goth kid in the neighboorhood who gets a kick out of stealing underwear...who does that anyways?!?!). Well, today I get to go shopping! Gotta look at the positive side of things right?!!

Devil's World...

Well, seems like I'm in Devil's country out here! In the last two days, I managed to go into the "Devil's house" and then, I went up the "Devil's Staircase" and then, believe it or not, I saw the "Devil's bath"!! Looks like there is something develish about volcanoes and thermal areas!

Today I went on an incredible hike up a volcano... I will post some photos tomorrow as I'm not allowed to use my USB port here! Sorry!!

See you soon!!

WOMAD 2007 (World of Music, Art & Dance Festival)

Hello all!
After spending 3 rather stressful days trying to find tickets for the WOMAD festival, I finally won at an online auction for the same price as the original tickets went for! Not bad! It seemed expansive at first but when I looked at the line-up of performers, I thought that was a pretty good deal! There were some big names playing that weekend like Gotan Project (Argentina/France band), Femi Kuti (son of Fela Kuti from South Africa), Salif Keita (Mali) and some other cool bands that I didn't know about that turned out to be amazing! My two best being Marissa, a Fado singer from Mozambique and a father and son duo from Iran... those guys were amazing! The venue for the festival was mind blowing! A lot of performers actually said that this was the best place they had ever played at, and I can believe it! I was also lucky not to be alone for the weekend! I hooked up with a fellow traveller (Rob) that I had met 2 months ago while I was cycling. He then introduced me to some of his friends that he knew from Holland (but are now living here). It was great to meet them all and made the festival so much better! We had to brave some insane rain and wind one night and the "music jam under the gazebo" made the rain not so painful!! Here's a few photos...

Chinese Lantern Festival

While I was waiting in Christchurch to fly to Auckland after Marko left, I came across a Chinese Lantern Festival in one of the parks. I took a bunch of photos but only about 1/3 came out decent! Here's a few of my favorite!

A month ago...

Wow! Can't believe it's been a month since my last post!! A lot has happened since and I'm not too sure where to start!

Well, I finished my biking part of the trip 3 weeks ago after biking from Picton to Christchurch... this part was very beautiful and also insanely windy for 2 days (enough that I couldn't ride my bike for a while because the wind gusts kept throwing me off!). But that night I met a very friendly french couple who were also braving the winds on their bikes and it made my next 3 evenings much more fun! We talked in french and shared dinner and wine! There are much more cyclists on the south island then the north, it's great to see and also made me sad that this part was coming to an end! This photo was taken just before Kaikoura on the windiest day of my trip!


After arriving in Christchurch, I found a nice little hostel and setteld for a few days rest while waiting for Marko to arrive... Christchurch is a very pretty town but a bit boring after a while! There is a real "English" feel to the city with the "punting on the Avon" (photo) and the manicured lawns and victorian architecture.


Marko finally made it on the 24th and we headed of North towards the Abel Tasman National Park where we had booked a sea kayaking/hiking trip for 5 days... Everything went well except for a missed drybag that we forgot at the beach and had to go back for (oops!) and the sandflies bitting at our ankles! The Abel Tasman is quite busy in the summer but it is still worth checking out! We could still manage to get away from the crowds and explore on our own! Here's a few photos!

After the Abel, we headed down to the West Coast where we found New Zealand's best hostel! The name was not overly inspiring (The Old Slaughter House) but the place was incredible! We had to hike for 10 minutes up a mountain to get to it and then... the sunset!!

The owners were super friendly and had some interesting stories to share about how the house came to be how it is today! After staying one night (not nearly enough!), we hit the road again for the West Coast. We drove for a few days all the way down to Queenstown, where it was pouring rain and there was nothing to do! So we made the executive decision to drive back to Christchurch and explore the Banks Peninsula for the last few days of Marko's trip. The Bank's Peninsula is about an hour drive from Christchurch and has a very interesting history of french settlements! A lot of the street's names in Akaroa (main town) were in french but we never found anyone who actually spoke it! I think they used that part of the history for tourism purposes!! Anyways, we still had fun there, ate good food and went on a sailing trip around Akaroa harbour. We enjoyed Christchurch for a last night and Marko flew out the next days, nicely agreeing to take my bike along with him!