MY FLYING KIWI TRIP, Part I, North Island

Hey again!

So, as I have been to so many places all around New Zealand, I'll just give you one picture per location. I am sorry but I can't publish all 1,300 photos I took on this trip!


Auckland

Coromandel Peninsula

Hot Water Beach

Cathedral Cove

Rotorua

Wai-O-Tapu

Huka Falls

Taupo

Tongariro National Park

Wellington

Well, that was Part I, the North Island. I'll do the South Island in another post!

Till then,

Chris...tian

Golden Bay with Matthew and his parents

Heyho!

How's it going?

I am very very good and after I had visited my penfriend in Dannevirke, I was just back in Nelson, when I got Matt's invitation to come to Takaka and Collingwood (Golden Bay) with him and his parents.

As you know, my schedule was quite full for these holidays but it just fitted in - between my visit in Dannevirke and my Flying Kiwi trip around New Zealand. =P

From my point of view now, I am more than glad that I did this because I saw so many new things that I had only heard and read about before! But also, this trip was made so agreeable for me by Matt and his parents Jeremy and Leonie who are such a great family to spend time with!!

Matthew, Jeremy and Leonie - and of course Zac, their dog! =)

On the 13th April, I came back from Palmerston North at about 6.30 pm. Matt asked me if I wanted to sleep at their house for we would have to leave early in the morning to be able to use the day to travel around in Golden Bay. So I got a few things ready and then, they picked me up. I can tell you, guys: New Zealand's people are likely to be the most spontaneous and flexible people in the world - and if you just admit to it, you can be sure that your life is going to be an adventure!

And so was our trip: on our way to Takaka, we stopped at a carpark and went for a little walk to a lookout. And this is the view from there:

It was quite windy up there - Matt almost lost his cap!

On our way, we also saw a sign "Ngarua Caves" and once we were there, we went into the Caves.

And this was the scenery waiting for us at the other end of the caves when we came back up:

Have you ever heard of the "Pu Pu Springs"? Probably not, but they're said to be the purest waters of the world. Every day, some 2,160,000,000 litres of water come out of this rather small lake in the area of Golden Bay and flow towards the sea in a big river. Because of avoiding the spread of Didymo, a plant, people are neither allowed to swim in nor to drink the water anymore! Here are some pictures:

The water doesn't seem as deep as it actually is: you can see the ground clearly, as in a tropical reef. Guess how deep it is!

Around 2-3 metres?

Wrong!

These waters are approximately 7 metres deep, the temperature is always around 11 degrees.

After this, we went straight to our campsite in Collingwood which is directly at the beach. In the afternoon, the light was just right to take a nice picture:

This is a huge river-mouth, therefore the water is quite fast-flowing! We saw a lot of birds and even a seal!

Farewell Spit, where we went the next day, is a long dune which is located in the north-west of New Zealand's South Island. It is about 30km long and from above, it looks like the head of a kiwi-bird:

We couldn't go right to the end and $80 for a bus ride there would have been very expensive. We "just" went over to the west side of the spit which offers a great view and the most lovely beaches you can imagine!

The Wild, Wild West... eh, Coast!

And here, you can see why Golden Bay is called Golden Bay. A stop on our way back to Nelson:

I had the most wonderful time with you guys and if you ever want to come over to Germany, you're invited to do so! Thank you so much!

Right, guys, that's my post about Golden Bay and there's still much much more to come!

Talk to you later,

Chris...tian

My stay in Dannevirke! =D

Hey guys!

Well, since my last post, there was soooo much that happened and I am sorry that I only tell you about it now. But I had to get the pictures burnt onto CD first which took a while so finally, here are some more posts about... well, you'll see!

The first thing after Kaiteriteri was my visit in Dannevirke, North Island, where I visited my penfriend George. I took the plane to Palmy (Palmerston North) where we spent the day having a look around and watching a movie... =)

We went over to Dannevirke in the late afternoon and during the next days, we also visited dairy farms that are quite common in the area around Dannevirke. On George's grandpa's sheep farm, I saw palm trees on farmland which looks quite strange:

The rest of the farmland were rolling hills as the pictures below show:

On another day, we went for a walk along a stream - somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs as we arrived. Well, in fact, in rained all the time when I was there... =/

These are (from left to right): me, my penfriend George and his brother Nathanael.

Later, we visited George's uncle's farm:

All in all, I enjoyed my stay with the Frame family very very much and it was sooo nice to eventually meet George! If you read this sometime: thank you so much! I had a lovely time and I would have stayed longer if it had been possible!!! =) I hope, I'll meet you again sometime and if you come to Germany someday, you're invited to come over to my house so that we can spend some more time together!! =)

Greetz,

Chris =)

Activities around Kaiteriteri & Abel Tasman NP

Sooo, here is some information about our activities... =P

We went down to the beach every day of course and went for a swim or lay down in the warm sun - I knew that the sun in New Zealand is very strong and after my bad sunburn used heaps of sunblock... Therefore, I didn't get burnt!

This is pure sun & fun!!! ^^ Warm sand, waves rolling ashore and slightly cooler wind. Paradise!

Some people of us also went for a walk at the beach. The weather was almost perfect every day so we had plenty of oppourtunities to choose from.

At the beach in front of the small island near the coast: Ian and his wife Marleen

Also, we went out fishing in the boat we found in the garage! I had a wonderful time and caught my first fish ever... It was a small Spotty that was smoked later. I didn't eat it though ^^

We got up very very early that morning and we were lucky! "My" fish on the fishing rod after coming back to the shore!

Somebody mixed up the fairy tales I think. It was a frog that had to be kissed to become a prince!

In the evening, we went out to the rocks at the end of "our" beach and looked for crabs, mussels and an octopus! Finally, we succeeded and caught a big crab and a starfish. =) We didn't cook them though ...

Later, on our last day, we went out with the boat again to see "Split Apple Rock" which is very famous here and one symbol of the Abel Tasman National Park that begins right after Kaiteriteri, in Marahau!

But we also went for a walk on the Abel Tasman Coast Track! We went all the way up to Stillwell Bay which is about 2 hours away from Marahau. After a short break, we went all the way back to the car we had left in Marahau!

Ji and me in front of the sign at the Entrance to Abel Tasman National Park!

The track went through dense bush and partly through rainforest!

The stunning view back to Marahau

Kayakers down at the beach...

... and huge ferns right beside the track!

Every now and then there were bridges over creeks flowing down the mountains

Finally, we had a stunning view on Stillwell Bay - our destination!

James' partner's family lives in this nice house in Stillwell Bay [James is a son of Manatsu's hostparents']!

On our way back: sunset over Tasman Bay!

This was a unique experience really and I don't know what would have happened or wouldn't have happended if I hadn't taken this chance to visit Abel Tasman and Kaiteriteri! It was a very positive contribution to a unique exchange year in New Zealand!

If you should read this sometime: Thank you so much Helen, Rex & Dyneta, I had tons of fun and I enjoyed this Easter weekend very very much! This was my best Easter ever!!!!

So, there you go - tons of pictures as well! I hope you like them but I guess it's better having seen that in reality!

See you later then!

Chris...tian =) =) =) =)

Introduction to Kaiteriteri

Hello, here we go again!

So, as probably everbody knows [because I tell everybody no matter whether they wanna hear it or not], I was in Kaiteriteri over the Easter weekend with a friend's family!

This weekend was probably the best Easter weekend I have ever had!!! And it was / is one of the major things that contribute to my unique exchange year down here in New Zealand!

Well, but I don't wanna talk too much - here are some pictures!!! =P

This is the superb house we stayed at! 3 bathrooms, 6 bedrooms, pool table upstairs, kitchen and lounge, garage and garden (you couldn't exactly tell where it ended and where the estuary began!).

The view out of our room's window - we were in the Middle of Nowhere!!!

The way down to the beach - our private beach, just for ourselves!!!

A beach just for ourselves...

... and sooooo beautiful!!!! =)

Well, ehem... that's very stunning already but I'll write another post about activities because it is just soo much we did over there and I'd rather post two entries than one big one... ^^

So, look forward to another post!!! =P

Chris...tian

Pictures from Race Unity Day

Hi there!

Finally, I got all my recent pictures burnt onto CD and therefore I can now publish some of them on my blog. Here are some from Race Unity Day:

Scottish Dances

The Candle Dance performed by a Philippino Dance Group

Arabian Belly Dance

It was quite a cool atmosphere and I liked the Easter Island Dances best - as I already mentioned before - but I didn't take any pictures of them. =( Just videos... ^^

Right, then I took some pictures of the Nelson SBL Buses:

So this is the normal buses I usually go to town with! They're quite cool...

Guess what I saw... A REAL London doubledecker bus! Sightseeing in Nelson - the British way!

Okay, so that's all for this topic! I'll send some more pictures about Kaiteriteri Beach and my Easter Weekend over there but this belongs to another topic that's why I send two separate posts!

Righteo, have a great time everybody!

Greetz,

Chris...tian ;-)