Bye bye awesome New Zealand
Our last night in New Zealand arrived crazy fast. Feels like it was yesterday we wrote the post on Schiphol. But tomorrow its time to go home. Christchurch --> Auckland --> Beijing --> Amsterdam (--> Göteborg) is gonna be a 30 hour travel. Hope they have good movies on the flights!!! Jorien just mostly hopes that she will arrive safely in Amsterdam. We spend our last week at a really nice farm with a Dutch! family, we sold our car, got rid of all our shit (the little boys were really happy with our campinggear) and almost packed our bags! We are kind of ready. We had amazing experiences, saw beautiful stuff, met interesting people, bought a lot of clothes, drove a lot of kilometers (12000), took care of a lot of plums, pulled a lot of weeds, got over our dogfear, cleaned a lot of toilets, ate a lot of noodles and much more! Thank you New Zealand and everybody we met, it was wonderful! Like the Kiwi's say, we had heaps of fun!
An awesome jump with an awesome view!
Road from Wanaka to Queenstown
Camping New Zealand style
Handsome boy with sausage legs and nice hair
One of our 2000 jumping pictures in awesome surroundings
The end of the big highway 1
Pontus as murare (metselaar). The result turned out to be exactly as expected...
That's how it goes when you let everything becomes privaticed
Our fellow 'travellers'
The end of the world
Lake Pukaki, crazy blue
Awesome hike, again (hmpf)
Heaven
Picking beans
An awesome jump with an awesome view!
Road from Wanaka to Queenstown
Camping New Zealand style
Handsome boy with sausage legs and nice hair
One of our 2000 jumping pictures in awesome surroundings
The end of the big highway 1
Pontus as murare (metselaar). The result turned out to be exactly as expected...
That's how it goes when you let everything becomes privaticed
Our fellow 'travellers'
The end of the world
Lake Pukaki, crazy blue
Awesome hike, again (hmpf)
Heaven
Picking beans
Birdiebirds
So far we haven't been really interested in the birds of New Zealand, but that all changed a couple of days ago when we went on penguinhunt!
Our first ... was the yellow-eyed penguin (the world rarest penguin). They were supposed to come ashore after 4 pm at Sandfly Bay. After a 40 minute walk (fly) down sanddunes we arrived at a kind of wooden bunker where we had to hide. The penguins are really shy and if they see you they won't come out of the water. After half an hour we started to get really cold. It was cold, rainy and windy, like usual actually. But we held on! Finally I (Jorien) spotted something in the water 'I see one!'. Ofcourse nobody believed me, 'No that is just a normal bird', but after a long struggle the bird finally managed to get out of the water and everybody could see that that was a penguin for sure! We were super excited, it was really cool to see a penguin in the wild! Unfortunately we couldn't stay long, because we had some other birds on the program. So we ran (yeah ran, we had to get of the beach as soon as possible otherwise other penguins didn't dare to come ashore) over the beach, back up the dunes to the trail. And that all bare feet in the rain! We were crazy cold when we finally came back to the car. We turned on the (warm) airco and made our way to the Albatross Centre. There they do 45dollar tours to see albatrosses, they have the world's only mainland southern royal albatross, but if you are lucky you can just see them flying over the carpark as well. And lucky we were! We weren't really sure it were albatrosses, because they didn't look as big as we expected. But when we looked better and compared them with the boring seaguls, we could see they were enormous! We looked at them for a while and then continued to our final stop, the blue penguin. We knew we were a little bit to early to see them, they come ashore just before dusk (it was 6:30 pm then), but we gave it a try anyway. We were really lucky that there were some other french guys who managed to spot a bird in his hole. It was probably a young one, waiting for his parents to come back with food, but still cool. We had a wonderful, succesful afternoon and were really excited despite the rain, wind and cold. So excited that we tried to see penguins yesterday again! One yellow-eyed penguin and a couple of actually walking blue penguins were the result of the evening. It was a little bit less badass this time (without rain, cold and wind but with 100s of other people) but still really cool!!
We know you wanna see pictures and we tried to upload pictures now, but it really isn't working! sorry!
Our first ... was the yellow-eyed penguin (the world rarest penguin). They were supposed to come ashore after 4 pm at Sandfly Bay. After a 40 minute walk (fly) down sanddunes we arrived at a kind of wooden bunker where we had to hide. The penguins are really shy and if they see you they won't come out of the water. After half an hour we started to get really cold. It was cold, rainy and windy, like usual actually. But we held on! Finally I (Jorien) spotted something in the water 'I see one!'. Ofcourse nobody believed me, 'No that is just a normal bird', but after a long struggle the bird finally managed to get out of the water and everybody could see that that was a penguin for sure! We were super excited, it was really cool to see a penguin in the wild! Unfortunately we couldn't stay long, because we had some other birds on the program. So we ran (yeah ran, we had to get of the beach as soon as possible otherwise other penguins didn't dare to come ashore) over the beach, back up the dunes to the trail. And that all bare feet in the rain! We were crazy cold when we finally came back to the car. We turned on the (warm) airco and made our way to the Albatross Centre. There they do 45dollar tours to see albatrosses, they have the world's only mainland southern royal albatross, but if you are lucky you can just see them flying over the carpark as well. And lucky we were! We weren't really sure it were albatrosses, because they didn't look as big as we expected. But when we looked better and compared them with the boring seaguls, we could see they were enormous! We looked at them for a while and then continued to our final stop, the blue penguin. We knew we were a little bit to early to see them, they come ashore just before dusk (it was 6:30 pm then), but we gave it a try anyway. We were really lucky that there were some other french guys who managed to spot a bird in his hole. It was probably a young one, waiting for his parents to come back with food, but still cool. We had a wonderful, succesful afternoon and were really excited despite the rain, wind and cold. So excited that we tried to see penguins yesterday again! One yellow-eyed penguin and a couple of actually walking blue penguins were the result of the evening. It was a little bit less badass this time (without rain, cold and wind but with 100s of other people) but still really cool!!
We know you wanna see pictures and we tried to upload pictures now, but it really isn't working! sorry!
Bungy jump, Fiordland, Farmer-life, BBQ
We know we are awfully bad at updating this blog. We are sorry about that, but we do our best with the amount of Internet we find. Since last post some interesting stuff has happened. First of all i did what i had hoped to have the courage to do: Bungy jumping! It was AWESOME!!! Diving off a 43 m high bridge with nothing but a piece of rubber string between you and death is a thrill i doubt you will find in many other ways. Unfortunately my jump didnt look as cool as those pictures you see. My arms were waving uncontrolably everywhere and i growled like a caveman. But it was fun anyway.
After that we went to Fiordland for some more of what we are best at: Sleeping in tent, getting eaten by sandflies and hiking. But it was great! We did some really cool hikes with breathtaking views over glaciers, mountains, fiords, snow and awesome stuff like that. Unfortunately the best hike got a bit disturbed by a group of Israelian guys screaming in Hebrew at each other.
Now we are at our second last wwoof-place outside a farmers town called Gore in the very south of the country. Here we were supposed to help a family with some gardening. But since they run a big ass farm (800 dairy cows) we have ended up spending half of our time babysitting the 15 months old son in the family. Pretty nice doing that instead of weeding!!! Wednesday- friday there was a crazy big farmers market here. 10000 people per day visited this market full of farmer stuff like tractors, milking robots, rubber boots and all the stuff you might want if you are a farmer. But since we are no farmers, we just enjoyed looking around, watching people and tasting stuff. Fonterra was there, which i think is kind of Arla in Sweden. They had a huge tent where you got to taste many of their products. We spent like half an hour in there, eating cheese, dips, yoghurts etc. Actually i was the only one eating. Pretty sure Jorien thought it was a bit embarrassing, but i tried not to care. Gratis ar ju trots allt gott! Thursday the family had invited some friends to a bbq. Guess if we got surprised when the mother in the family told us she had to leave in the afternoon and that the dad had to work. That meant we ended up taking care of the boy while preparing all the food for the bbq! But we pulled it off and even got some complements from the guests, so it was fun.
As i wrote earlier, this is our second last wwoof. On wed-thurs we leave this farm and head east to an area called The Catlins. There we hope to finally see some penguins! Thats the last animal we wish to see before we go home. After that we are gonna make our way up to Rangiora, which is a town just outside Christchurch. There we are gonna do our last wwoof. At a dutch family, actually. There we are gonna spend our last week in NZ. Hopefully we succeed in selling our car there as well! After that its time to go back to Europe. Less than 3 weeks left now!
After that we went to Fiordland for some more of what we are best at: Sleeping in tent, getting eaten by sandflies and hiking. But it was great! We did some really cool hikes with breathtaking views over glaciers, mountains, fiords, snow and awesome stuff like that. Unfortunately the best hike got a bit disturbed by a group of Israelian guys screaming in Hebrew at each other.
Now we are at our second last wwoof-place outside a farmers town called Gore in the very south of the country. Here we were supposed to help a family with some gardening. But since they run a big ass farm (800 dairy cows) we have ended up spending half of our time babysitting the 15 months old son in the family. Pretty nice doing that instead of weeding!!! Wednesday- friday there was a crazy big farmers market here. 10000 people per day visited this market full of farmer stuff like tractors, milking robots, rubber boots and all the stuff you might want if you are a farmer. But since we are no farmers, we just enjoyed looking around, watching people and tasting stuff. Fonterra was there, which i think is kind of Arla in Sweden. They had a huge tent where you got to taste many of their products. We spent like half an hour in there, eating cheese, dips, yoghurts etc. Actually i was the only one eating. Pretty sure Jorien thought it was a bit embarrassing, but i tried not to care. Gratis ar ju trots allt gott! Thursday the family had invited some friends to a bbq. Guess if we got surprised when the mother in the family told us she had to leave in the afternoon and that the dad had to work. That meant we ended up taking care of the boy while preparing all the food for the bbq! But we pulled it off and even got some complements from the guests, so it was fun.
As i wrote earlier, this is our second last wwoof. On wed-thurs we leave this farm and head east to an area called The Catlins. There we hope to finally see some penguins! Thats the last animal we wish to see before we go home. After that we are gonna make our way up to Rangiora, which is a town just outside Christchurch. There we are gonna do our last wwoof. At a dutch family, actually. There we are gonna spend our last week in NZ. Hopefully we succeed in selling our car there as well! After that its time to go back to Europe. Less than 3 weeks left now!
Sunny, exciting Queenstown
Hiya!
Just a short blog from a chair outside in the sun! At this moment Pontus is doing a big ass hike up a 1700m mountain! I should have been with him, but stupid annoying blisters on my feet made me go back to Queenstown. It is really nice here, so I will enjoy myself. Before Queenstown we were in Wanaka. We finally solved the mistery of the absense of cool people in New Zealand. They are all in Wanaka! OMG it was pretty afwul. We almost drowned in cool people in their cool cars going to cool places. But there was a nice beach at a beautiful lake, so we went swimming a lot! Finally! We also did a hike up to Roy's Peak which was pretty damn awesome!! Great 360degree views! After the hike we decided to spoil ourselves a bit, so we went to the cinema! Really cool one with coughes and fresh baked cookies in the break. We went to The girl with the dragon tattoo! Was pretty good, we just had no idea if it was the first or the second movie haha. And Pontus had a lot of fun with the swedish backgrounds and wrong pronounciations! Tomorrow we will drive down to Fiordland! We heard it is really pretty there, so we hope for the best! It is supposed to be really rainy there, so hålla tumma for good weather! Now I am off to the park to lie in the sun and read a book!
Just a short blog from a chair outside in the sun! At this moment Pontus is doing a big ass hike up a 1700m mountain! I should have been with him, but stupid annoying blisters on my feet made me go back to Queenstown. It is really nice here, so I will enjoy myself. Before Queenstown we were in Wanaka. We finally solved the mistery of the absense of cool people in New Zealand. They are all in Wanaka! OMG it was pretty afwul. We almost drowned in cool people in their cool cars going to cool places. But there was a nice beach at a beautiful lake, so we went swimming a lot! Finally! We also did a hike up to Roy's Peak which was pretty damn awesome!! Great 360degree views! After the hike we decided to spoil ourselves a bit, so we went to the cinema! Really cool one with coughes and fresh baked cookies in the break. We went to The girl with the dragon tattoo! Was pretty good, we just had no idea if it was the first or the second movie haha. And Pontus had a lot of fun with the swedish backgrounds and wrong pronounciations! Tomorrow we will drive down to Fiordland! We heard it is really pretty there, so we hope for the best! It is supposed to be really rainy there, so hålla tumma for good weather! Now I am off to the park to lie in the sun and read a book!
Things we DONT like about NZ
Sandflies:
Almost getting chicken bumps only from writing about these creatures from hell! Comparing sandflies to mosquitos is like comparing White Shark to shrimp. Mosquitos are usually where its a bit wet and dark. Usually you can brush them off the skin pretty easily. Sandflies come hoovering around you in hundreds wherever you are and whatever time of the day it is. When they land on you you really have to brush hard to get rid of them. When a mosquito bite itches for a couple days, a sandfly bite lasts for weeks. According to a Maori legend, NZ got sandflies to compensate for not having any other dangerous animals. They are filling that hole pretty well!
The roads:
We dont know who the smart guy who planned NZs roads and traffic system was, but he must have had some problems. First of all the quality of the roads is similar to what I guess the roads in Sudan are like. Big holes everywhere. The amount of sealed roads are probably the same as Sudan as well. As soon as you get off the bigger "highways" you dont have to go far until you reach a shitty gravel road. We have found out that Corollas from 1989 dont like driving on gravel. Even if you drive in 30 km/h it feels like being in a rollercoaster.
Traffic planning and traffic signs:
I dont know how many times I have wondered 'What is this!?' when approaching a traffic sign. Its not uncommon that round-abouts are located on railways. Neither is it uncommon that two round-abouts are located kind of in each other making totally crazy traffic signs. Signs to smaller places are usually only located where you have to turn, making it almost impossible to get it right the first time. Have had to turn around so many times because of that.
Duvets and bed sheets in general:
In Europe and everywhere else we have been it is quite easy to know which blanket you are supposed to lay under and which one you are supposed to lay on top of, in bed. Thats not how it is in NZ. Everytime we have gotten to new beds we have had to really think and discuss what all the blankets and duvets and sheets are meant to be used for. Are you supposed to lay under it? On it? Maybe its something you should remove from the bed before you sleep in it? You never know! Guessing is the only way.
Things we like about NZ
- The Warehouse: Kind of Walmart. All kind of cheap shit you know you need and dont know you need. We have bought all of our camping equipment there including tent. Some of our work clothes are bought there too. Among those our work t-shirts, which we bought for $5. Probably not highest quality, but everything is still alive. Even our tent which probably has gotten as much water as there is in Vänern. Amazing!
- Pak 'n Save: By far the cheapest supermarket in NZ. Huge buildings where you can spend hours strolling around looking at everything you wish you had the money/enery need to buy. Unfortunately for us Pak 'n Save have most of our their stores at the north island. They also have their own brand, Budget, which is awesome! Kind of the same thing as Euroshopper.
- Weet-Bix: The beeeeeeeeest breakfast cereal ever! Some kind of wheatflakes shaped as biscuits. You just put these heavenly biscuits in a bowl and add milk. Then the Weet-Bix mix with the milk creating kind of a dough reminding a bit of cold porridge. Maybe it doesnt sound that awesome, but its really tasty and really filling!
- Not many "cool" people: Since neither of us like people who think they are cool and badass we really like the fact that NZ doesnt seem to attract this kind of people. We suspect Australia absorbs most of the surfers and other cool people. NZ isnt really a party place, so you dont see many "beautiful" people with make-up and fancy clothes, walking around in high heels and complaining about bad weather and stuff like that. You mostly see people in hiking boots, Fjällräven type of pants/afritsbroek, Deuter backpacks and unwashed hair.
- Second hand book shops: We still dont really understand why these great shops dont exist at home (We havent seen many of them atleast). You simply trade the books you have already read for other books. Ofcourse your books loose some value, but its still really good. If you dont have any books to trade in you can still buy books for around $4-8. Goedkoop! You see this kind of shops in almost every town. Even the smallest.
- Cheaper than NL and SWE: Many complain about how expensive NZ has become. Since food, gas and clothes are still cheaper here than back home, it must have been a paradise here before.
- Public toilets: Many of them, free and clean. Here thats not a dream.
- The money: Compared to the Euros craaaazy many, useless, coins, the NZ dollar makes sense in that way. Not many coins and all the prices are rounded to the closest 10 cents. No more trashbags full of coins!
- Fastfood: Many different restaurants to really good prices. At McDonalds you can get one big ass meal for $10 (55 kr). Apparently normal restaurants are pretty cheap here aswell. But our budgets dont really allow us to try that. Now it sounds like we eat fastfood everyday. Thats definitely not the truth! Think you can count the times we have eaten fastfood on the fingers of one hand.
Next time there will be a list with things we dont like here...
Update in a hurry!!!
Hi there!
Sorry for our lack of updates, but we have been busy lately! We left our wifi-wwoof-place at 28 december. Then spent two days drowning in Nelson Lakes National Park. We celebrated New Year's in Nelson, without firework shame. After that we went back to Nelson Lakes, because there was a cool hike we wanted to do. The hike turned out to be really cool and we finally got some sunshine pictures! After that we headed to the West Coast, but there wasn't much to do there. We saw a seal colony :D and went to the really famous, popular pancake rocks which turned out to be pretty boring. Then we went to glacier park! That was pretty damn awesome. There are two big glaciers, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier in the Southern Alpes. We got some amazing views, did a hard hike and we went up the glaciers! The best part of it all was that the town Franz Josef turned out of water exactly at the day we wanted to take a shower (after an 8 hour steep, hard hike). Now the town runs on lake water and you have to boil it everytime you want to use it for drinking, brushing teeth, doing dishes ect. Now we are at Hokitika at the WWOOF-place. There is another couple as well so that is fun and our room is a really fancy guestroom.
Sorry for this fast and furious update, but the library closes in 20 minutes! But we will be back here pretty soon and give you a more proper update! Will try to upload a couple of pictures, but next time will be more!
Sorry for our lack of updates, but we have been busy lately! We left our wifi-wwoof-place at 28 december. Then spent two days drowning in Nelson Lakes National Park. We celebrated New Year's in Nelson, without firework shame. After that we went back to Nelson Lakes, because there was a cool hike we wanted to do. The hike turned out to be really cool and we finally got some sunshine pictures! After that we headed to the West Coast, but there wasn't much to do there. We saw a seal colony :D and went to the really famous, popular pancake rocks which turned out to be pretty boring. Then we went to glacier park! That was pretty damn awesome. There are two big glaciers, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier in the Southern Alpes. We got some amazing views, did a hard hike and we went up the glaciers! The best part of it all was that the town Franz Josef turned out of water exactly at the day we wanted to take a shower (after an 8 hour steep, hard hike). Now the town runs on lake water and you have to boil it everytime you want to use it for drinking, brushing teeth, doing dishes ect. Now we are at Hokitika at the WWOOF-place. There is another couple as well so that is fun and our room is a really fancy guestroom.
Sorry for this fast and furious update, but the library closes in 20 minutes! But we will be back here pretty soon and give you a more proper update! Will try to upload a couple of pictures, but next time will be more!
An unusual Christmas
Maybe a little bit to late but Merry Christmas/God Jul/Vrolijk Kerstfeest!
We hope you had a good time with lots of food and candy :D
Our Christmas was a little bit different from what we are used to. It started on Friday the 23rd. Actually not really Christmas yet, but it was an interesting evening. Our wwoof-hosts (who spent 15 years living in Zimbabwe) asked us if we wanted to go with them to Mussel Inn, which is the local pub where the local hillbillies spend their evenings. This night it was African theme with Zimbabwean (is that what you call something from Zimbabwe? Probably not, but whatever) music. Since we didnt really have anything else to do that evening we accepted the invitation. It turned out to be more Hippie theme than African theme. We were all quite astonished about the amount of hippies living here! But the was a fun night. It got even funnier when out wwoof-host, after a few beers, said he thought i (Pontus) looked like Ali G. That might be the most outrageous look-alike i have ever heard!
Christmas Eve we were left alone in the house. So we spend most of the evening in the bathtub in the garden drinking wine and watching the awesome view. After that we cooked noodles and vegetables. As desert we had Kladdkaka. How un-christmasy can it be?! After that we watched Love Actually to get atleast some Christmas feeling.
The 25th we went swimming in a crystal clear river not far away from here. Since everyone else was at home celebrating Christmas, we were all alone there. Despite the fact that i burned me feet pretty badly (random place, i know) it was a pretty awesome day! In the evening our wwoof-hosts invited us to a BBQ at a hostel at Farewell Spit. Was not the funniest evening ever. We felt a bit lost among everyone, who apparently knew each other from before. But was nice food. Jorien ate all the deserts.
Yesterday me and one of the hosts worked on our car. Everyone who knows me knows im not the guy who does stuff with cars. So evidently it was not my initative, but it turned out pretty well. He had a bottle of crazy strong chemical paste, which made even our superdirty car sparkling clean. Although I dont think im gonna use anything like that again. There was a pretty scary label on the bottle with a lot of discouraging warnings.
That was kind of our Christmas. Tomorrow we are leaving this wwoof-place and start heading back to Nelson, where we hopefully are gonna celebrate New Years.
Christmas Eve with the weirdest Christmastree ever!
Swimming at Christmas Day
View from the bathtube
We hope you had a good time with lots of food and candy :D
Our Christmas was a little bit different from what we are used to. It started on Friday the 23rd. Actually not really Christmas yet, but it was an interesting evening. Our wwoof-hosts (who spent 15 years living in Zimbabwe) asked us if we wanted to go with them to Mussel Inn, which is the local pub where the local hillbillies spend their evenings. This night it was African theme with Zimbabwean (is that what you call something from Zimbabwe? Probably not, but whatever) music. Since we didnt really have anything else to do that evening we accepted the invitation. It turned out to be more Hippie theme than African theme. We were all quite astonished about the amount of hippies living here! But the was a fun night. It got even funnier when out wwoof-host, after a few beers, said he thought i (Pontus) looked like Ali G. That might be the most outrageous look-alike i have ever heard!
Christmas Eve we were left alone in the house. So we spend most of the evening in the bathtub in the garden drinking wine and watching the awesome view. After that we cooked noodles and vegetables. As desert we had Kladdkaka. How un-christmasy can it be?! After that we watched Love Actually to get atleast some Christmas feeling.
The 25th we went swimming in a crystal clear river not far away from here. Since everyone else was at home celebrating Christmas, we were all alone there. Despite the fact that i burned me feet pretty badly (random place, i know) it was a pretty awesome day! In the evening our wwoof-hosts invited us to a BBQ at a hostel at Farewell Spit. Was not the funniest evening ever. We felt a bit lost among everyone, who apparently knew each other from before. But was nice food. Jorien ate all the deserts.
Yesterday me and one of the hosts worked on our car. Everyone who knows me knows im not the guy who does stuff with cars. So evidently it was not my initative, but it turned out pretty well. He had a bottle of crazy strong chemical paste, which made even our superdirty car sparkling clean. Although I dont think im gonna use anything like that again. There was a pretty scary label on the bottle with a lot of discouraging warnings.
That was kind of our Christmas. Tomorrow we are leaving this wwoof-place and start heading back to Nelson, where we hopefully are gonna celebrate New Years.
Christmas Eve with the weirdest Christmastree ever!
Swimming at Christmas Day
View from the bathtube
Homemade Tattoo
Homemade Tattoo
1 winterpale European back (kept out of sun untill now)
1 sun (make sure its taken from an area where the ozon layer is really thin)
1 piece of clothing
Cover the part of the European back where you want the tattoo, with the piece of clothing. Bake in the sun while weeding for 1,5 h. Serve with body lotion.
Enjoy your pink and white tattoo!
Farewell Spit
Today the two other wwoofers finally managed to leave. They were supposed to leave yesterday, the road was fixed again, but their car broke down. Almost felt like their was a curse on them. We were not to happy about them leaving, just got addicted to plump. The other highlight of the day is that we finally cleaned our car! She is beautiful now!
Yesterday we had a really good day. It was sunday, so we had the day off and decided to go to Farewell Spit. There we went to Cape Farewell and Wharariki Beach, both really nice places. And the best part was that we saw seals on both places! We were excited like little children haha. If everything goes as planned, the weather is gonna be better from tomorrow, so we can see some more places around here!
At Cape Farewell, most nothern point of the southern island
Big ass seal
At Wharariki Beach
Cutieputiepie seal
Yesterday we had a really good day. It was sunday, so we had the day off and decided to go to Farewell Spit. There we went to Cape Farewell and Wharariki Beach, both really nice places. And the best part was that we saw seals on both places! We were excited like little children haha. If everything goes as planned, the weather is gonna be better from tomorrow, so we can see some more places around here!
At Cape Farewell, most nothern point of the southern island
Big ass seal
At Wharariki Beach
Cutieputiepie seal
Nature porn!
Here is a little collection of all the beautiful places we have been so far
Beautiful sea at the Bay of Islands
Cape Reigna, one of the most nothern points of New Zealand
Thermal/mud pools in Rotorura, shame that we can't upload smell!
Waterfall durinig Tama Lakes Hike in Tongariro NP
Tongariro NP
Mount Maunganui
Redwood Forest near Rotorura lake
View over Tongariro NP
Mount Doom
View over the other side of Tongariro NP
View on the way to Wellington
View on the way to Nelson
Abel Tasman NP
Kayakers in Abel Tasman, two out of 2 million
View on the way (the one that is closed now) to Golden Bay, Takaka Hill
Beautiful sea at the Bay of Islands
Cape Reigna, one of the most nothern points of New Zealand
Thermal/mud pools in Rotorura, shame that we can't upload smell!
Waterfall durinig Tama Lakes Hike in Tongariro NP
Tongariro NP
Mount Maunganui
Redwood Forest near Rotorura lake
View over Tongariro NP
Mount Doom
View over the other side of Tongariro NP
View on the way to Wellington
View on the way to Nelson
Abel Tasman NP
Kayakers in Abel Tasman, two out of 2 million
View on the way (the one that is closed now) to Golden Bay, Takaka Hill
Isolation!
Since a couple of days ago we are now at a WWOOF-place in Golden Bay, which is in the northeastern corner of the South Island. This area is known for its beautiful nature and low population density. The only way from Nelson, which is the closest "big" city, to this region is State Highway 60. I guess we could have gotten a better start here. Just a couple of hours after our arrival the worst rain in 50 years hit this region. So after a couple of days of craaaaaaazy rain we heard this morning State Highway 60 has been wrecked at several locations due to landslips. According to the news it will take 3-5 days to repair the damages. Naturally this made people in the area go crazy, so all milk, bread and stuff like that has been sold out in the only food store on this side of the landslips. Luckily the freezer here is full of food, so we will be fine. We are just happy we dont have to sleep in our tent in this weather! But there are two other wwoofers here, who were supposed to leave today. Now they have to stay until the roads have been repaired. We think that is great, since they are really nice people and we like hanging out with them. I have taught them Plump, so we play that like all the time!
Ex-State Highway 60
Ex-State Highway 60
WWOOF, Wellington, Birthday, Danish Ferry
We have made it to the south island! But we bet you are all super excited about what we have been up to since last. As you already know, we spent almost two weeks wwoofing in Tauranaga (yes, the place where we were kind of sick). That place was pretty awesome! The family we stayed with lived totally Off Grid, which means you provide all the electricity, water and stuff like that yourself. Really impressive! But we realized you have to work really hard to make it work, with solar panels, batteries, rain water filtering and hundreds of other things. But it was really cool to see people you actually made it work.
After that we went to Tongariro (Mt Doom) again. This time we were able to do the Crossing, which is supposed to be the best one day hike in NZ. It was quite awesome!!! Hopefully we will be able to upload som pictures from that. But at the library in Picton, where we are now, that is not possible.
Then we went to Wellington. A nice city with a horrible weather. Apparently its called Windy Welly. Now we know why! The last day it was absolutely gushing down, but we survived. But I dont think the weather is what we are gonna remember the most from Wellington, but how insanely frustrated we were after spending hours and hours in the car trying to find the camp site we were looking for! So now we have kind of seen all of Wellington including surroundings.
Jorien had her birthday in Wellington aswell. It was a really weird birthday. Usually it is not 20 degrees outside and in the stores they sell winterclothes instead of summer. At least we managed to have the most awesome birthday dinner ever, cake, chocolat, cookies and jelly beans! jammiee! Now we are on diet.
Yesterday we crossed the sound to the souther island. Imagine if we were surprised when we realized it was a Danish ferry!!! All of the signs were in Danish and English! There was even Danish poetry on the walls! If you wanted to rent a box to but your luggage in you had to pay "20 kr i leje". Superweird! So if anyone has any knowledge about why it is like this, please let us know.
The Grin och allt liknande forbjods for bara ett par manader sedan!
After that we went to Tongariro (Mt Doom) again. This time we were able to do the Crossing, which is supposed to be the best one day hike in NZ. It was quite awesome!!! Hopefully we will be able to upload som pictures from that. But at the library in Picton, where we are now, that is not possible.
Then we went to Wellington. A nice city with a horrible weather. Apparently its called Windy Welly. Now we know why! The last day it was absolutely gushing down, but we survived. But I dont think the weather is what we are gonna remember the most from Wellington, but how insanely frustrated we were after spending hours and hours in the car trying to find the camp site we were looking for! So now we have kind of seen all of Wellington including surroundings.
Jorien had her birthday in Wellington aswell. It was a really weird birthday. Usually it is not 20 degrees outside and in the stores they sell winterclothes instead of summer. At least we managed to have the most awesome birthday dinner ever, cake, chocolat, cookies and jelly beans! jammiee! Now we are on diet.
Yesterday we crossed the sound to the souther island. Imagine if we were surprised when we realized it was a Danish ferry!!! All of the signs were in Danish and English! There was even Danish poetry on the walls! If you wanted to rent a box to but your luggage in you had to pay "20 kr i leje". Superweird! So if anyone has any knowledge about why it is like this, please let us know.
The Grin och allt liknande forbjods for bara ett par manader sedan!
Cool stuff we did since last post
- Getting a cow named after yourself (Pontus), two weeks later it dies (RIP)
- Moving cattle, including a big, scary, horny bull (Jorien stepped in a stream, trying to save a cow)
- Tackle a goat rugby-style (Pontus)
- Playing and being nice with dogs!!!
- Surviving two weeks with Jehovas Witnesses
- Causing AND stopping a forest fire
- Having fucked up stomachs/bellys after eating old food from supermarket leftovers
- Getting sick from old food from supermarket leftovers
- Going to the hospital caused by eating supermarket leftovers (Jorien)
- Getting on a infuus (dropp) for the first time in your life (Jorien)
- Getting discharged from the hospital after two scary hours
- Mowing lawns for hours while Jorien was sitting on her sick ass (literally and figuratively)
- Walking with a goat on a leash (Pontus)
Pretty clear that it has been two crazy, intersting weeks! Right now we are at an amazing family and we are really enjoying it here!
By the way, please post more comments, we are desperate for some attention!!!
- Moving cattle, including a big, scary, horny bull (Jorien stepped in a stream, trying to save a cow)
- Tackle a goat rugby-style (Pontus)
- Playing and being nice with dogs!!!
- Surviving two weeks with Jehovas Witnesses
- Causing AND stopping a forest fire
- Having fucked up stomachs/bellys after eating old food from supermarket leftovers
- Getting sick from old food from supermarket leftovers
- Going to the hospital caused by eating supermarket leftovers (Jorien)
- Getting on a infuus (dropp) for the first time in your life (Jorien)
- Getting discharged from the hospital after two scary hours
- Mowing lawns for hours while Jorien was sitting on her sick ass (literally and figuratively)
- Walking with a goat on a leash (Pontus)
Pretty clear that it has been two crazy, intersting weeks! Right now we are at an amazing family and we are really enjoying it here!
By the way, please post more comments, we are desperate for some attention!!!
Eld, Overall, Bordsbon och Sushi
Tjatjatjatja
Sedan i mandags har vi wwoofat pa en ny farm. Den har gangen pa vastkusten (nara Raglan, om det ar nagon som ar surfintresserad). Pa farmen jobbar vi typ 12 timmar en dag, ar lediga den nasta, osv. Pa farmen har vi mest eldat sa har langt! Runt farmen vaxer det namligen hiskeligt mycket ogras som vi rojer och eldar. Eftersom det inte har var supertorrt pa sistone ryker det nat sa infernaliskt! Lützen ganger 50! Men eftersom vi tycker att det ar kul att leka med eld later vi oss inte nedslas av det. Dessutom jobbar vi i grymmaste overallerna! Jorien har en bla, sa hon ser ruggigt bondig ut. Jag har en gra, sa jag ar mer at mekanikerhallet. Vara vardar ar snalla, men lite specialla. Bordsbon och lite sant, men det behover vi inte ga narmare in pa. Men idag ar vi lediga, sa vi har pallrat oss in till Raglan for att slappa i solen med lite sushi. Olyckligtvis blaser det sa klockerna stannar, sa det ar lite trakigt. Har kommer lite bilder fran den senaste tiden. Enjoy!
Allmant manlig i elden och ROKEN
Jorien med en av gardens hundar. Eftersom dom ar relativt stora hade vi vissa problem med att hitta mod att ta oss ur bilen nar vi kom dit forsta gangen. Men dom visade sig vara snalla.
Bonden Jorien
Mekanikern Pontus
Jorien fepplandes med pinnarna och sushin
Sedan i mandags har vi wwoofat pa en ny farm. Den har gangen pa vastkusten (nara Raglan, om det ar nagon som ar surfintresserad). Pa farmen jobbar vi typ 12 timmar en dag, ar lediga den nasta, osv. Pa farmen har vi mest eldat sa har langt! Runt farmen vaxer det namligen hiskeligt mycket ogras som vi rojer och eldar. Eftersom det inte har var supertorrt pa sistone ryker det nat sa infernaliskt! Lützen ganger 50! Men eftersom vi tycker att det ar kul att leka med eld later vi oss inte nedslas av det. Dessutom jobbar vi i grymmaste overallerna! Jorien har en bla, sa hon ser ruggigt bondig ut. Jag har en gra, sa jag ar mer at mekanikerhallet. Vara vardar ar snalla, men lite specialla. Bordsbon och lite sant, men det behover vi inte ga narmare in pa. Men idag ar vi lediga, sa vi har pallrat oss in till Raglan for att slappa i solen med lite sushi. Olyckligtvis blaser det sa klockerna stannar, sa det ar lite trakigt. Har kommer lite bilder fran den senaste tiden. Enjoy!
Allmant manlig i elden och ROKEN
Jorien med en av gardens hundar. Eftersom dom ar relativt stora hade vi vissa problem med att hitta mod att ta oss ur bilen nar vi kom dit forsta gangen. Men dom visade sig vara snalla.
Bonden Jorien
Mekanikern Pontus
Jorien fepplandes med pinnarna och sushin
