Big part of our time in New Yealand we spent behind the wheel. We covered a lot of kilometers to get to places we had wanted to see.

NORTH ISLAND

On the North Island we visited few beautiful places. First we paid a visit to old kauri trees in semi-tropical  Waipoua forest in north part of the island. The oldest tree is 2000 years old and is called Tane Mahute (god of the forest). You can find there also Father Of The Forest (a bit younger than Tane), Four Sisters And Yakas, which (we think) is son-in-law-to-be. We could say we visited quite a big and old family. On our way to the forest we stopped in Bay of Islands where we took our first swim in the ocean. Now we are officialy on holidays

Our next stop on the North Island was Coromandel Peninsula. We started to loe the peninsula even before we went there. This is because of its shape – it looks like a side view of a fist with middle finger raised and directed towards Auckland. Coromandel Peninsula was famous for its gold mines in XIX and early XX centuries. We stopped for a while in town of Thames (just because we’ve just started missing London), we visited remote, empty beaches of Otama and a bit crowded Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove is a magical place with golden beaches, sandstone arches and a natural shower flowing down from a forest above the beach. We have spent couple of days in similar, magical and beautiful places like this. Then we changed the scenery… we entered Mordor… Tolkien’s Mordor shown in Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Ring’ is located in Tongariro National Park. We spent there 2 and a half day waiting for good weather. Good weather was needed for a trek we wanted to do – the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It runs for 20 km through stunning alpine scenery, passing active volcanoes… It is regarded as the best one-dayer in NZ. Of course, with this opinion, comes huge popularity. Which means you can find anyone on the track. Which means all information centres are trying to educate people how you should be prepared for the trek. They say you have to have proper walking shoes (surprise surprise), warm layer of clothing (no kidding) and very important – a waterproof shell (really??). It was a bit funny for us, we cannot imagine such billboards and information leaflets in Polish mountains. It is very obvious how you should be prepared for a mountain trek… It turned out not all of the people know it… We stopped laughing when we started the walk – in a mist and rain – and saw people in pullovers and snickers on the way. Tongariro Alpine Crossing winds its way up and ascents 900 meters upwards, then descents to a starting position level. Of course temperature and weather conditions change in minutes. The views are spectacular… They say so… We saw nothing but mist, fog and rain. We started in rain with a hope for imrovement. We still had this hope on the last 1km of the track. We were very unlucky with the weather. To prove it imagine that Witka made just ONE picture. We saw different types of mist and fog (there are millions of types of fog: white-white, white-grey, grey-greyish, etc.). The experience was truly from Mordor – it was easier to imagin an elf behind a stone or a nazgul above our heads. We could smell the active volcanos around us and we walked through volcanic ashes. That’s about it. We didn’t see the volcano craters. We cannot confirm if Tongariro Alpine Crossing is the best one day walk in NZ. But we can confirm that some people have no idea what to wear on a mountain track. Unfortunately, the billboards don’t help everybody.

SOUTH ISLAND

After quick transfer to Wellington we hopped on a ferry to South Island.  Already on the ferry we noticed that South Island is totally different and very beautiful. Stunning, green hills, turquise waters and awfully beautiful bays. We visited the Marlborough wine region and after that we went to Abel Tasman National Park, which turned out to be a paradise… If the North Island beaches are a paradise-like, the south island beaches should be called awlfully paradise-like. We spent one sunny day in Abel Tasman, walking on the famous Coastal Walk and visiting remote beaches (with crystal clear waters) accessible only from water or by foot. After the day on beaches we went to see the glaciers. Quite a change and only couple of hours ride south. At the carpark, by Franz Josef glacier we met our first keas. Kea is a NZ parrot, which lives in alpine region of South Island. It is widely reknown for its intelligence, cleverness and love for complicated items, such as windscreen wipers. And kea seems always to be hungry. For a treat kea will do anything. They were seen openig trash bins, backpacks, trying to find something. Our parking keas looked quite bored, sitting on an information board and trying to find something complicated to play with.

For us, the NZ birdlife is unique and very interesting. All the birdsongs we hear are very original and beautiful. Some of them sound like horns, others like knocking on the door, others sound like a drunk person song. All of them are very cute, though.

Milford Sound – a fiord in Fiordland National Park – was next on our list. This is one of the most famous places in South Island. And another place we saw in rain and mist. The Fiordland National Park receives 7 meters of rain each year… As it was December and the deadline for 2009 was not far off, we thought the nature is trying hard to meet the norm. We spent a day and a night there and it stopped raining for only 2 minutes.

In Dunedin we met pinguins. Yes, the old dream of Risky’s came true. We went on a another paradise-like Sandfly Bay, just before the sunset to hunt them down. After an our we saw two little, funny and very shy yellow-eyed penguins – one of the rarest penguins on earth.

After two nights spent on a hopelessly, awfully paradise-like Okains Bay, we went to Christchurch to catch our plane to Melbourne…

SANTIAGO – NEW ZEALAND. HOW TO LOOSE A DAY.

Santiago gave us a fantastic farewell. The last sunset in South America was one of the best Witka has ever seen. We were watching it from the airport, waiting for our flight to Auckland. At the we spent our last Chilean pesos on a beer.

Our airplane turned out to be a proper entertainment centre. We had 12-hour flight ahead of us and we were wondering how we will manage to see all the movies that caught our eye on the playlist. Witka decided to spend the night with Meryl Streep, while Risky choose a high profile animated movies (cartoons, that is). During our flight over Pacific, while watching genious play by Meryl Streep and colourful images of talking dogs we have lost one day from our lives. 24th of November 2009 will be a lost day for us. We have crossed the international date  line change (or whatever it is called in English…). Nobody can waste a day better than us… Now we are wondering now if we would have to celebrate our birthdays a day earlier…?

AUCKLAND

Auckland - the biggest city in NZ – greeted us with an amazing sunrise. Our tent and shoes were carefully cleaned and our sandwiches with Chilean beef thrown away… A tragedy, but these are the rules in NZ. They are trying hard to stay an isolated, special place in the world.

In Auckland we spend a day and a night. It was pretty intense as we managed to walk the city, find a car for us and meet Witka’s old friends with whom she had worked in London few years ago. We got an amazing BBQ and an insiders’ view of Kiwiland. We hardly slept for over 30 hours…

From first minutes New Zealand stole our hearts. Well organized, young, energetic country with open mind and amazing customer services. Nice, helpful people, free guides and information centres that can build your family tree to a 7th generation if you ask them to… Kidding, but they seem to know everything!!!

We have only 3 weeks in NZ and we know now that it is way to little. We have driven through half of the North Island and Witka already thinks NZ is a paradise. Amazing wildlife, beautiful forests, paradise-like beaches and scenery that can take your breath away.

Greetings from Mordor…