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NüfNüf Go Round

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    Mt. Ruapehu

    February 16 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    A 2.5 hour drive later, we arrived at Lake Taupo where we were kindly invited to stay with Colin and Elizabeth who both made us feel incredibly welcome. Elizabeth was our tour guide for the day and let us see the Tongariro National Park Visitor Centre with a geological display (if you like rocks (and I do), check it out if you happen to be in the area). We drove on to Mt. Ruapehu - a desolate, rocky ski area (not so much of that going on in the summer, but there‘s also rock climbing). In spite of the barren terrain, it was cool to look at all of that rock. Oh yeah, we couldn‘t actually see the mountain because the clouds were hanging too low…Read more

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    National Kiwi Hatchery Rotorua

    February 16 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    I kept insisting long enough and convinced Maddie that a trip to the Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua was a grand idea. I mean, baby kiwis! What‘s not to love? Unfortunately, we weren‘t allowed to take pictures of any live animals. Only the stuffed ones. Enjoy.
    Our tour guide in training was a bit thrown off when he asked us what we knew about kiwis and I said, “They‘re pretty tasty.“ (Cheap joke, I know. :D) At least I followed it up by mentioning they‘re nocturnal. We learned about kiwi eggs being taken from the wilderness (because there they only have a 5% chance of survival) and brought to the hatchery (95% chance of survival). We saw eggs in the incubator and two newly hatched kiwis (Adorable! They even fit in my car! What? Nothing…). Also, there was a baby kiwi feeding in progress which we got to watch. Kiwis usually eat live insects but the hatchery doesn‘t have enough access to provide the kiwis with proper food, so they try to wiggle a special mixture of food purée in front of the little birdies. In our case, that didn‘t work. They just opened its beak and stuffed it in there. Put a cookie in front of me and it basically flies into my mouth. Kinda like what happens if you get too close to a black hole. The cookie gets spaghettified. But I digress.
    While I enjoyed looking at stuff in the gift store, I unfortunately didn‘t have access to my spare 1000 dollars (must have left them in my other pants), so I only got a tasty steak and cheese pie for brunch. That alone was expensive enough. ^^    Read more

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    White Water Rafting 2 - Tutea Falls

    February 15 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    We wanted to do do something physical, enjoy nature and see the Okere Falls. So, White Water Rafting it was. This time, however, in comparison to Bali, the difficulty was a solid 5 out of 5. Tutea falls in the Kaituna River is - apparently - the highest commercially rafted waterfall worldwide with a difficulty grading of 5 out of 5. Had I known that little fact beforehand - I*m not sure I would have done it. Ok, maybe I would have. All I knew was that there was gonna be a 7m waterfall drop almost completely straight down. There was quite the extensive instruction about how strong the waterfall is in that spot, how to be careful, what to do if it goes wrong (in case the raft tilts over, stay beneath it in the air pockets for oxygen until it is turned over again. In case you fall out, get rid of your paddle, curl up and “go to your happy place“…). I will admit to being slightly worried, but honestly, I thought it would be much worse. I mean, I‘ve browsed through the pictures we were sent and I look decent in about 3 out of 77, in the other pictures - let‘s put it this way - my survival instinct was going haywire and it didn‘t know at the time that I could have relaxed a bit more. :D The other people in the boat (apart from Maddie and I and, of course, the instructor) were 4 men who are in a band together. Not sure if their genre was rock or some kind of metal (they certainly look the part), but they definitely had a cool vibe and great personalities.
    Rafting was a ton of fun - though the experience in Bali had more of a social component to it - whereas this one was more of a physical challenge (as my face wasn‘t shy of showing although I really wish it would have…).
    As for the pictures, the last two show the 7 meter drop waterfall. There‘s a tiny bit of paddle peeking through the white of the water on the last pic. Our raft was completely submerged for a bit.

    After the rafting we hiked, explored the river from dry land and we even discovered some caves around there. Another contrast to the experience in Bali was the lack of pollution here. So far, this applies to all of New Zealand. I thoroughly enjoy how they handle this around here.

    In the late evening, upon arriving at our new campsite next to Rotorua Lake, we tried to waterproof our tent by covering it with our newly acquired tarp. The campsite, though, was mainly gravel with a thin layer of grass on top, so all the pegs we tried to put in not only got badly bent, but also we didn‘t have nearly enough pegs to secure the tarp. Our plan was: Maddie makes dinner and I head to The Warehouse to get a few pegs. I only had 20 minutes until the shop would close and a 15 minute drive. I drove off with a terrible sense of geolocation and a navigation system on my phone that spontaneously decided not to be able to connect to GPS. I swore a decent amount. It was dark, I only had a rough idea of the general direction - but somehow I did make it to The Warehouse. I got the pegs and went back. At least I tried. This time I got lost on a deserted road in the darkness, no one else around to ask for direction. I think at this point I tried yelling at Google Maps. But that only encouraged its pouting. I figured, I‘d simply try all of the directions of the roundabout where I went wrong until something looked familiar. Luckily, the first choice was the correct one and I arrived back at the camptsite only 15 minutes later than my original ETA. I feel like I shouldn‘t have. But I made it. :D
    With a bit of pent up aggression, I jammed the pegs into the ground. I really tried. But even these sturdier ones got bent and wouldn’t go in. We had a second idea: The two pegs that had actually made it in were supposed to hold the tarp on one side and the other side would be secured by my car’s doors. I loved the simultaneously unconventional but efficient nature of that idea. Credit where credit is due, it was Maddie‘s. Only problem: Way too loud! It was extraordinarily windy! So we took down the tarp and settled for duct-taping all the seams in the hopes of it keeping the rain out. Spoiler alert: apparently it did (it also didn‘t rain too much after that…).    Read more

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    Redwood Forest

    February 14 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Next stop: Redwood Forest. A quick hike (for free (of course there‘s a paid option)) let us enjoy a bit of green for 3.5 km. I would have loved to stay there longer, but we had also booked a session in the Polynesian Springs - a spa with both acidic and alkaline pools with lots of minerals from the geothermal vents nearby. The pools have a range of about 38°C to 41°C. Turns out, it was way too hot for me. While I tried almost all of the pools, it wasn‘t only the heat that wasn‘t for me, but also the water felt incredibly heavy - like I was getting squashed by it. While I fled after a few minutes, Maddie certainly experienced the advertised positive impacts on her body and mind of the waters there. Though I had a similar experience after a glass of rosé later on.Read more

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    Kuirau Park

    February 14 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We left our last Coromandel campsite (Opoutere) rather late in the day. It was such a cool, relaxed location and with the people there it almost felt like a hostel. We met two very kind German girls and a Dutch girl - it was a shame to leave after only one night and not to get to do anything together. There was also an elderly woman wo seemed to be travelling on her own - maybe she was in her 70s. Wow, she had such a great vibe about her. Chatty, easy-going, active and just camping all over NZ. She was so positive and humorous in her overall demeanour. I would be lucky to be in such a great spirit when I reach that age.

    We left for Rotorua in the late afternoon and arrived at our new lake-side campsite. The rain throughout the night and a wet tent (inside and outside) didn‘t exactly help with getting a good night‘s sleep. But the ducks I saw in the morning kinda made up for it. I had a little photoshoot with one of them. She really was a natural in front of the camera. I wanted to keep it but Maddie said no. :(
    With our semi-dry stuff in the boot, we set off for Kuirau Park in Rotorua - a park with geothermal activity. This seems to be a good time to mention that in most parts of Rotorua, your olfactory senses are treated to varying degrees of the refreshing smell of rotten eggs.
    We met a really nice lady from Sydney in the park and chatted away for a bit and kept on admiring the steaming pools of acidic water.    Read more

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    Hot Water Beach

    February 12 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Back to Hot Water Beach! This time not for surfing, but the activity the beach is famous for: digging your own spa. The hot water from the underground hot springs that bubbles up when you dig your hole can get incredibly hot - apparently up to 64°C, but it felt a lot hotter at times. The best time to dig is when it’s two hours either side of the low tide. When we arrived, a lot of people were already there, waiting. And then the digging commenced. Funny enough, because it got so hot - too hot in some pools, people couldn‘t actually make full use of their pools but did they leave them behind? Absolutely not. People seemed quite protective of their own work. ^^ We had brought two tiny shovels (you can always rent a shovel for 10 bucks) and shovelled away. What a nice workout. My arms were still hurting from trying to get up from the surfboard the previous day. ^^
    After a little sandy spa time, we jumped into the ocean (strong current!!) to cool off. I swear, I put on a lot of sunscreen. Still got a bit of a sunburn… I think Maddie got it a wee bit worse. The midday sun is rather unforgiving, even with SPF 50 everywhere. At least - so far - no sunstroke symptoms (admittedly, in comparison to last time, this one is mild).    Read more

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    Cathedral Cove

    February 12 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Fun fact: Our tent is NOT waterproof. The fabric itself is waterproof. But someone thought they‘d have to cheap out on the zipper areas when designing the tent and make them let in all the water. We rolled out toilet paper to cover the edges of the tent, slept in the middle of it and we were hoping for the best. Luckily, it soon stopped raining. We should probably get another tarp.

    The early birds within made us rise at 5am after a late night to hike to Cathedral Cove in time for the sunrise there. A hike we managed in about 1 hour instead of 1.5+ hours it was supposed to take. The track we used was officially closed - danger of landslides. Taking a safe route with my travel companion is not an option, I‘m afraid. In all fairness, we saw quite a few people on that very track. Still. It actually didn‘t look all that safe in some places with the cracks and the brittle rocks. Anyway, we made it safely and enjoyed the sunrise - together with about 15 other people. We had hoped we‘d be alone or at least with fewer people at this time of day. No such luck. It‘s supposed to be a lot more crowded at other times, though, so we were better off.
    On the walk back, now in daylight, we saw cute little birds with a little thingy on top of their heads. Adorable. :D
    We strolled along Hahei Beach again and left for our next destination.    Read more

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    First Surfing Lesson

    February 11 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    We were looking forward to going kayaking today. We made the booking and arrived in time to collect our kayaks at the rental place when the shop owner asked us: “Did you look at the waves?“ We had not. Apparently, the waves were high - way too high for kayaking. There were a few rocky areas around Hahei Beach in the kayaking area and with such strong waves, it was gonna be quite dangerous. That didn‘t stop Maddie, however. She kept insisting that we for sure knew what we‘re doing on a kayak and both have quite the experience to look back on. I was a bit puzzled because I was certain I mentioned that my kayaking experience was limited to one time about 15 years ago, in a calm lake, not an angry sea. What do you do when the waves are too high for kayaking? You go surfing. Maybe that prospect let Maddie agree to let go of the kayaking dream. It was pretty lucky that it worked out with our private surfing lesson. They had just packed up for the day when we expressed our interest. Our coach, Lydia, gave us the equipment, a lovely wetsuit that would protect us from both cold temperatures and “sea lice“ which are nasty little jellyfish that sting you just a wee bit but enough to get irritated. (That had happened to me before, I just assumed I was paranoid. :D)
    Lydia was very patient and a great instructor. I actually managed to stand up on my third wave and a few times more (maybe 3 or 4). But wow, it was a lot harder than I thought just to push yourself off the board, to maintain your balance etc. And I was pushed off the board by waves quite a few times. There was water running out of my nose for hours to come… Being pushed off is no fun, I will say that. But, on the whole, the surfing lesson was great fun and I‘m grateful for the experience. And for not colliding with my surfboard.

    In the evening, we took a stroll along the Hahei beach and enjoyed the scenery.    Read more

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    Fletcher Bay

    February 10 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Before we left our beautiful campsite at the beach in Port Jackson, we went for an extended swim. At one point, however, we had to pack up and move on to Fletcher Bay, where we had a little stop. It‘s a rocky, rough beach and well worth the stop. Since we had to charge a few devices, we then went to a sports bar of all places. We had our first taste - at least for me it was a first - of oysters there. They‘re pretty salty! But together with a yummy dressing of vinegar and onions it was a magical moment for my taste buds. At night, instead of another camping food experience, we enjoyed a pizza (I enjoyed Maddie‘s more than mine (food envy is a terrible thing :D)) at Luke‘s Kitchen where we had a beautiful post-sunset view and went on to set our tent up at a campsite that would have excited us if it had been our first stop, but after the amazing ones we‘ve been to, it was rather boring. But! No children there. Maybe it wasn’t that bad after all!Read more

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    Port Jackson

    February 9 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Later, we arrived with plenty of time to spare in Port Jackson. Another beach-side campsite and this times unlike last night: no children who wake you up at 7am and no parents who are incapable of telling them to be quiet. In all fairness, after I kindly complained (they were unbelievably loud and there were quite a few people at the campsite to consider - not asleep anymore, I reckon), the parents almost managed to keep their kids quiet for the better part of 3 minutes.
    As we hadn’t enjoyed a swim at the other beach, we did this time. To our surprise, we saw either a dolphin or a whale in the distance, jumping out of the water twice. What a sight!
    We were having our first camping dinner in daylight and caught an amazing sunset over the beach and the green hills surrounding it - a sight that reminded us very much of Scotland.
    I had quickly set down my dinner tray to take a picture of the sunset and then continued eating what I thought to be pepper, but a lot of the “pepper“ was actually more than a dozen of tiny bugs. So. More protein again?

    We had very loyal ducks around us at all times. Needless to say I didn't leave the place willingly. I also spent some time collecting seashells and a cool fish skeleton. Don't ask how heavy my backpack is. Though, I didn't take the skeleton. I might have put it in Maddie's backpack. But shush, don't tell her. I'll wait for her to find out if this is true. ^^    Read more

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    Big Kauri Tree and Waiau Falls

    February 9 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Close to our campsite, there was a quick 30 min hike to a few Kauri trees, especially one huge individual with at least 3m in diameter. A bit further south, we saw my favourite waterfall yet, Waiau Falls with a little natural pool.
    We drove on and saw a sign on the side of the road saying to watch out for penguins. We had a litte stop in a slow vehicle bay to climb a cool tree when we spotted them. I ran to fetch my camera, got into position, zoomed in and saw: It wasn‘t penguins. It was shags, probably. Though, I maintain. They look like a penguin and a seagull had a lovechild.    Read more

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    The Pinnacles

    February 8 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    A relatively early morning for us - The Pinnacles are not an easy hike and a bit of a longer one: 16 km in total (8 km each way), and we didn’t want the burning midday sun to be an obstacle. The path there is simply stunning. Quite a few streams of water (as one ranger said, it’s not drinking water, but he’s been drinking it for as long as he’s been working as a ranger—let’s hope that wasn’t his first day), a very lush forest, and many, many stairs.
    At one point—one hour from the summit (I think we took about six hours for the whole hike)—there were no more stairs, only rocks and your potentially questionable ability to climb them safely. Maddie’s ability was well-founded in her extensive rock-climbing career, and she moved about the Pinnacles with an ease that would have put any alpine goat to shame. I didn’t do badly myself, though the heavy backpack was an unwelcome hindrance.
    The view from the summit was breathtaking and, I think, worth the effort. I’m almost certain.
    It was one of the few days during which I burned more than 3,000 calories—at least according to my watch. ^^
    In the evening, we arrived at our new campsite in Long Bay, overlooking the ocean.
    We had a bunch of fresh mussels for dinner with garlic bread and some corn on the cob—one of the best meals since I came to NZ. I was wondering, though, why my mussels were so crunchy. It couldn’t have been the barnacles. Soon after this question arose, Maddie found two tiny crabs inside her mussels. I then found three in my remaining ones. I had already eaten two crunchy ones. So, a wee bit more protein.
    We even got some fish from a family there who bonded with Maddie over Scottish ancestry. They also gave us a homegrown avocado from their orchard. Apparently, every second person here has some Scottish ancestry (I’m basing that purely on the fact that people are a lot more engaged in conversations with a Scot than a German, and because we’ve met quite a few people who mentioned some connection to Scotland).

    BTW. Isn‘t the second to last picture the coolest moss you‘ve ever seen?

    The last picture shows the view from our campsite. :)    Read more

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    Edward‘s Lookout and Hoffmans Pool

    February 7 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    We left our cool river-side campsite in the morning and went to the Visitor‘s Center across the street to charge all our appliances - we were there for quite a while. We noticed a few minutes past 4 pm that the place was supposed to close down at 4 sharp. And close down it did. All our devices were still charging in there while we were having lunch just two meters further away, sitting outside. Luckily, someone was still within reach and opened up again so we could collect our stuff. We drove a short time to our next river-side campsite. From there we went on a quick 1-hour hike to Edward‘s Lookout, enjoyed the view and took another hike to go swimming in a natural pool, called Hoffmans Pool. And wow, the pool was cool! When you go in there, the water gets deep rather quickly. It‘s not at all a wide river. One moment, the water reaches up to your knees, the next it‘s 7m deep. That‘s why we took a chance with jumping off the maybe 4m high cliff into the refreshing, slightly freezing water.
    Contrary to our plans to make it back to the campsite in daylight, we had another night in which we prepared dinner in the dark. It‘s not as fancy as it might sound, although the salad was delicious.
    The last picture shows our view from the tent.    Read more

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    Mount Eden

    February 6 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Our last stop of the day, before driving on to the campsite at the Coromandels, was Mount Eden in Auckland, as we were looking for a spot to enjoy a little bit of dinner. We climbed up the mountain - or rather hill, it‘s really not that high - just in time for the sunset. Beautiful view. Even though it is Auckland. ^^
    While I was sitting on the bench, unpacking my peanut butter, apricot jam, a muffin split and cutlery, a French guy sat down next to me and commented my spread with a delightfully thick accent: “Oh, how nice! I, however, prefer this,“ and he pulled out a bottle of white wine he was about to enjoy with his girlfriend. :-D
    He didn‘t seem open to exchanging our respective culinary choices, upon inquiry. At least he was laughing. In French.
    We had to leave anyway and do the last few hours of driving to our new campsite.    Read more

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    Glowworm Cave

    February 6 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    This is a post you would have read about on Feb 3, but let‘s discuss why you couldn‘t. We went to Waipu Caves that day and had a fantastic time exploring everything. It was free (most of the caves here demand you buy a ticket) and most importantly, perhaps, you could touch everything (yes, also, unfotunately, the spiders…) - unlike caves I had been to in Europe where you simply cannot put a foot or finger out of line). I had brought my camera, but not the SD-card. I went back and after a solid 15 minutes of tearing the car apart, I found it! Unfortunately, the SD-card was almost full - despite having deleted everything - so I could take a very limited amount of pictures. After our expedition, I found the problem: I‘d have to format the SD. Finally. And format it, I did. That also meant, my not yet transferred cave pictures were gone. ^^ Therefore, we went there again to rectify that mistake. I even bought festive aqua socks because entering the cave means you get wet. You have to wade through water that reaches up to your hip at times. All good fun and I didn‘t mind doing it again. In fact, I loved it. And I felt so well-equipped with my fancy headlights that can either be red or white (in case you were wondering what the red light in one picture was). You cannot see anything if you think you can make it without a light source in there. Cool, huh?
    I finally also managed to take pics of the glowworms which hadn‘t worked previously because my SD card was full by then.
    Fun fact! Stalactites are hard and slightly sharp. Yes, I have proof. A little bloody cut on my head. I mean, I‘ve tried red hair before. But that‘s in the past! All good, though.    Read more

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    Waitangi Festival

    February 6 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    The reason we never got to see the camping site in daylight was the necessity to rise at 4 am to arrive just in time for the festival in Waitangi, set to begin at 5 am, where the Treaty of Waitangi - New Zealand‘s founding document - was first signed in 1840. There was a loooong traffic jam, as a lot of people wanted to be there in time for the first ceremony. A lot of people weren‘t. Like us. But there was still enough going on at 6.30 am.
    Feb. 6 is the first day of the celebrations and also the day where entry is free, so we thought, why not have a look? My highlight of the festival was the sunrise and listening to the bagpipes when the flags were raised, and also seeing a Haka (which are performed throughout the day). The rest of the festival was way too crowded and noisy, so I‘m sorry to say I did not have a good time there in spite of the historical significance (also political…), unlike Maddie, who seemed to have a ball. I had an ice-cream. So I guess, the day wasn‘t so bad after all.    Read more

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    Mt. Manaia

    February 5 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    As we had even more time after the Quarry Gardens (and going shopping for camping equipment!), we drove to Mount Manaia and walked 2 km to reach the summit (it‘s “only“ 420 m high). The total 4 km hike that was supposed to take at least two hours, was conquered by Maddie and I in 1:25 minutes. I can‘t say I enjoyed carrying my backpack all the way, though. ^^
    It was a bit of a rushed hike to be back at Al‘s and Sue‘s in time for a delicious last dinner in Whangarei, but the view from the mountain was awesome.
    After our dinner, we set off for our campsite near the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. The campsite was a beautiful place, at least I think so, we never actually got to see it in daylight. However, we did have a breathtaking view of the stars while we were putting up our tent.    Read more

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    Quarry Gardens

    February 5 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Do you like plants? Never mind, I‘ll decide for you. You love them! How convenient that I‘ve got just what you were looking for: plant pictures. The Quarry Gardens in Whangarei are amazingly beautiful, one of the best gardens I‘ve ever been to, with little streams, a quarry pond, and a waterfall. Feel free to identify all of the the plants I took pictures of. If I do it, I‘d only take the same (for some people infuriating) approach as when identifying cars: a red one.Read more

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    Canopy Walk

    February 5 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    I left my AirBnB (can‘t say the same thing about the mouse that was roaming free in there) and went to join Maddie and Al, her cousin, to do the Canopy Walk in the A H Reed Memorial Park. Before and after going into the park (like in many other places, you ought to properly disinfect your footwear so as not to harm the precious Kauri tree, of which only very few remain. The second picture shows the impressive Kauri tree, the third its bark. We still had a lot of time in the day, so after a little snack, on we went.Read more

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    Matapouri

    February 4 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    After a huge portion of lunch (ever since I got here, I‘ve never eaten as much) and a great view of the marina, we drove to Matapouri Bay. What a fantastic beach! A few decent waves but nothing extreme (unlike Piha). There was more planned for the day, but fatigue took its toll on us and we decided to call it a night. More to explore tomorrow. :)Read more

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    Whangarei

    February 4 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    My Scottish friend - Maddie - has got distant relatives in Whangarei, so we decided to go there together. Even though I just wanted to drop her off and go to my AirBnB, I was immediately invited to dinner and to join in the activities planned for the next day. So off we went. First, we had a ride through Whangarei and ended up at a looking point which gave us a great view of the town and its surroundings. We drove on to check out Whangarei Falls. It was stunning. Both the nature and the fact that people right out ignored the multiple signs saying that they cannot swim there. Thanks to Lightroom, let‘s pretend they weren‘t. ^^Read more

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    Piha Beach

    February 2 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Together with two girls from the hostel, I took my car out for a stroll to Piha Beach. Once we got out of Auckland, the drive was so scenic. For the other two girls in the car, that is. My eyes were firmly attached to the road - but not to all the speed bumps. I‘d still give myself a pass. I did see the vast majority of them. ^^
    Piha Beach is a black sand beach. The sand was so beautiful! But also incredibly hot to walk on. I did try. At one point, I ran. Not for the sake of exercise, but to ensure my feet wouldn‘t look like the lower end of a marshmallow on a stick that has been in the fire for too long.
    First, we went for a short hike up the large hill that separated the two beaches. Unfortunately, most of the trail had been closed down for repairs. We took it under advisement. For a few meters, at least. The second time, the obstacle wasn‘t an inviting hole in a fence but a solid wooden obstruction.
    We decided to go for a dip in the sea after a yummy ice-cream. And boy! What had looked like calm waves one moment, suddenly turned to huge waves and currents ready to have their way with you the next moment. It was good fun although you really had to be alert at all times not to be swept too far away and to stay within the flags. After an hour or so of swimming (rather fighting the waves, there was no way to be able to swim properly), they did close the beach down since the waves were too strong and too frequent. Still, we had a blast while it lasted.
    I almost forgot the most important bit: There were purple seashells on that beach. Purple! Isn't that awesome?    Read more

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    Rotoroa Island

    February 1 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Formerly used as a rehabilitation facility for alcoholics by the Salvation Army, Rotoroa is conveniently located just next to Waiheke island - an island famous for its dozens of vinyards and wineries. Do you love the irony of that? I certainly do! ^^ Rotoroa has a great size, you can easily explore the whole island within one day. A Scottish girl and I certainly took our time with the south track and decided to go faster to have enough time to check out the north track. That was BEFORE we discovered areas of black sand on Men‘s Bay. We just had to take a whole hour to play with it and build a family of snowmen - made of sand. Sandmen?
    There are lots of birds to discover on the island! For example, the famous kiwi. Which is nocturnal. So we didn’t see it. What we did see, however, was a Weka (woodhen (the brown feathered guy)). Lots of them, in fact. Also, we saw Takahe (the two fat birdies). Takahe are an endangered species with only 500 birds remaining worldwide. Around 6 of them on Rotoroa island. Unfortunately, a bird couple broke up and are in the process of getting a divorce, as we were told. They have to be parent-trapped, though, to procreate and ensure the survival of the species. Fascinating, isn‘t it?
    Late in the day, we took the ferry back to Auckland and had a good look at the volcanic island Rangitoto - an island that just appeared one day about 600 years ago. Man, I wish I had been there… So cool!
    In other news, I am now a car owner. My white Toyota IST from 2002 is ready to go exploring with me. Only problem, the car isn‘t blue. I‘m still processing. ^^    Read more

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    Kelly Tarlton‘s Underwater World

    January 29 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    After having run a few errands and thanks to a tip as to where to go here in Auckland, I took a scooter and sped down the scenic bike lane next to the water at 25 km/h to get to the aquarium. Yes, I wore a helmet. Though, it was such a bad fit, I would have been safer without one. I was absolutely strangled by that thing every time I moved forward because it kept sliding down my head. ^^
    The underground aquarium - while more targeted towards kids - is amazing for anyone. I mean, just look at the pictures! My absolute favourite animal there: jellyfish. With the lighting they were uniquely mysterious to marvel at. There even were seahorses, sharks and manta rays! I was also surprised just how large the whole thing was, especially some of the single aquariums. At one point, there was a conveyor belt to stand on that circled around a spacious overhead aquarium with truly cool fish. The manta rays were huge!
    All in all, the aquarium is a great place for kids and anyone who marvels at marine life with childlike wonder (guilty as charged, but then again, I also like rocks and outer space…). ^^    Read more

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    Auckland Zoo

    January 28 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    I finally felt better today and - dressed in good habits and copious amounts of sun screen - went to the zoo. It’s a cute place with country-specific areas and their respective animals. A lot of the animals were masters in hiding, though, and remained unseen. Like the redback spider. Though the saying “ The only thing worse than a spider is a spider that isn’t there anymore“ comes to mind…
    While the zoo itself was really nice, all the children/students there weren’t. Their screaming was uncomfortable for everyone, let alone the animals. There even was a group of students who thought it was funny to spray deodorant directly at the animals. The nonchalant reaction of their teachers left me speechless.
    On the whole, however, walking through the zoo interspersed with beautiful little waterfalls and lots of nature, was a relaxing activity.
    Directly next to the zoo, there is a park with a lake that I went to next. I was surprised to see so many birds, especially roosters, ducks and pigeons.
    The guy on the bench certainly figured out how to make friends: food. It’s all about the food.
    Being a fan of kombucha, I had a great time at a kombucha bar here in Auckland. 5 flavours to taste, all of them delicious. Especially the blue one.
    All in all, it was a productive day and I sincerely hope that the sun screen paid off… ^^    Read more

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