To go or not to go - we could not make up our minds for ages. Until, after a few pints at the Duke, we spontaneously decided that New Zealand could not be left out. After all we would never be so close again in the foreseeable future. It also had the positive side effect that a) we would miss out the hottest month in Thailand b) we could counteract the the ever looming danger of overplanitis (a virus against which no real cure exists) and c) the burden of our massive budget would become a bit lighter...:)
We landed in Auckland on the 25th of April, cruised through immigration, bumped straight into the driver of our shuttle, chose a great hostel and, by mere coincidence, found ourselves in the only vegan restaurant in the city. Nothing ever went so smooth in Australia. After we picked up the campervan without any unpleasant surprises I had the creeping suspicion that this was all too good to be true. 50 km on gravel road (20 so gruelling that they don't even deserve that term) to our first camp site and back? Absolutely no issues (worth mentioning that rental 2WDs are not supposed to be taken off sealed roads).
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Stoney Beach campground where we spent our first night having fun on the rope swing. Although NZ was fantastic the dent in my trousers (bottom right) is not due to high blood levels in a specific body part...:)
It was the second night on the Coromandel peninsula, after visiting Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach, when the bomb exploded. Biosecurity at AKL forgot to pack the rain fly into my tent bag after inspecting its contents! Wow! Our home for the southeast Asian rainy season in the next six months was suddely as functional as chopsticks for spooning soup. I had no clue what to think or make of this so I decided to laugh - mainly because it is much healthier than hyperventilating. 24 hours and a phone call later we could arrange for a pickup on the return flight and were back on lucky avenue - paved, not cobbled.
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Top and bottom left: Cathedral Cove and the way to it, bottom right Hot Water Beach
Still riding on what had now transformed into a tent high we decided to heed the advice of some locals and visited a gully after dawn right next to the camp site. What we experienced there is anything but describable. Galaxies of glowworms left, right, top and bottom surrounded us. We had to sit down in awe next to a waterfall and could not quite grasp what we were seeing. Of course, scientifically speaking, we knew that this emission of light would be connected to some sort of electronically excited states, most likely driven by ATP. But why something, to our senses, so spectacular would evolve was beyond us and we felt utterly small and unimportant. The cold and dampness rudely awoke us from our trance-like state and sadly we had to say goodbye to this most magical of places.
Our budget (maybe not so large as initially stated) dictated only short stops in Rotorua (massively overpriced) and Taupo, en route to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. According to the DOC (Dept. of Conservation) a "serious 6 - 8 hour hike" which turned out to be a harmless 4.5 hour walk through a surreal but fabulous volcanic moonscape. LOTR fans may be familiar with parts of it (Mount Doom).
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Moonscape of the Tongariro alpine crossing. Clouds and blue sky were taking turns very rapidly which added to the tour in our eyes.
A very warm welcome at the house of Elvira's relatives and their neighbours in Hawera designated the penultimate stop before hitting Wellington and setting sails for the South Island.
Hawera's volcano as the sun sets...
Read this blog in German: http://ueberlandindieschweiz.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/willkommen-in-neuseeland.html
