Surfer-city, here we come!

I have to admit that I'm getting a little bit lazy at writing about everything that I do.. but I try!
Well Bert and Petra took us with them.. first to Mt. Maunganui where we went surfing and then stayed the night at a campsite (in a caravan). Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the surfing.. simply forgot about it. I was just too busy relaxing in the sun.. and Miri and I got really sunburned.. ahhhh

But the next day we went to Raglan which is on the west coast of New Zealand.

Petra in the car

Bert taking the perfect picture
(bc Petra told him that on the other ones you could only see trees.. true^^)

Finally we made it to Raglan and checked out the bedrooms..

Pretty big, hm? Finally a bed where Miri AND I can fit into.. she just always takes way too much space for herself! Of course a lot of other people were really jeallous..

Nice view from the room!

Ahh kite surfing!
I guess that was the reason why Miri decided to take kite surfing lessons herself. Yap, I'm not making this up! She had 1,5 hours on the beach with this guy called Jon who does all the lessons in Raglan. But she didn't even get to go into the wather. First she had to fly the kite properly.. I have to say she looked.. sometimes not quite in control of that thing.. and it must have had a lot of power because in the end he let her sit on the beach with the kite still up and she had to fly it from one side to the other. You want to know what happened? Well she slid down the whole beach pretty much! Man, i was jeallous.. it really looked like a lot of fun! But Jon said that the weather was not supposed to be good for the next days so we decided to go to Taupo as we had planned and I think Miri has enough other possiblilties to take some other lessons.

The next day we went out kayaking with Alex (England):

Miri (I know.. pretty obvious with all the curly hair)

..and Alex
..and beautiful background!

and that was our really healthy dinner! Yammi!

Back to the roots!

So first of all this is Bert and Petra: (Say hi!)


What can I say.. we went Rafting! and we don't have any pictures of that.. aaahhh.. but don't worry, we met a german couple there and so we decided to buy one of those CDs (for 35$!!!) together.. but still.. that't quite expensive. well they promised me to send it to me as soon as they're back in Germany.. so hopefully i'll get to see them.. Miri's just way too trusting!

Well the next day Miri and I went to the Luge! A fun place to go! They have 3 different courses that you can go on so we decided to take 3 rides.. one for each course.. smart, hm? So look at the pics:

Miri with her nice helmet

some people on the course

When we came back into town we just walked around for a little bit and looked at the beautiful Government Gardens.. lovely and then went grocery shopping!

At night we had booked a tour to the Maori village Mitai where they first had a concert with a lot of Maori singing, dancing and instruments.. it was great! and we even met Alex, a guy from Argentina.. and guess what: he lives in.. tadaaaaa Buenos Aires! cool!!!!! well I guess we know where we're going when we're there ;-)

our entertainer on the left.. he was sooo funny!!! and next to him the food that was cooked underneath the earth. very traditional!

The wariors of the tribe in their canoe

At the consert: Maori village set up

warior!

showing us some fighting moves

foood! man, I was hungry!

that was in the (themed!) Backpacker.. it was called the Cactus Jack's

Ahh.. it smells like rotten eggs!

Well as we planned we're in Rotorua. And seriously.. it smells bad! But the backpacker is quite nice (not very clean though) and we met some really nice people! Petra and Bert from the Netherlands. And.. what can I say.. I arranged for us that they take us with them to the "Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland", a volcanic area where a lot of hot springs and mud pools are. And some of the little pools even have really cool colors.. check it out:

Miri and me in front of the Lady-Knox-Geysir..

not so exciting though bc they pour soap in it to make it errupt

cheaters!

mud pools

uhh it steamed so bad.. but the colors were cool!

green lake! uuuhhhh!

the best!

look at all the steam.. ahhhh

Miri in the little Maori hut

"..she doesn't belong to me.. noooo.."

We walked around in the park for about 2 hours and then went back to the backpacker. So there is really not a lot more to tell. Well at night we ended up going to some pubs. That was quite fun. And we met some more people.. again ;-)

..I really don't know why...

janina (Germany) and uh sh**.. I forgot her name.. (Sweden)

.., Aron (Sweden) and Miri

Uhh.. that's hot!

Yesterday we went to the Hot water beach with two girls from the backpacker, Adel and Anna. You can only go there between 2 hours before low tide and 2 hours after low tide. So we had to go at 9 in the morning. As soon as we got there we could see tons of people at one spot of the beach.. digging holes in the sand. It was quite funny watching them but we wanted to have a hot water bath as well so we started digging. and digging. and the water stayed cold in every spot that we tried. Finally we gave up and asked some people if they had some space left for us. It was really really hot in there! And I'm not so sure if that was the healthiest thing we could do but oh well.. occasionally a wave came and brought a little bit of cold water into the hot tub.. very refreshing!

Tons of people!

Miri, Anna and Adel

Well the tide started to rise and we went back to Anna and Adels van to go to Cathedral Cove. We had to walk about 30 minutes to get there but really.. a pretty nice beach with a hole in the rock.. looks cool! So we had a nice swim in the sea and sunbathed for a little bit before we went back to the van.

Miri and Anna in front of the hole


Seagull and nice background

And Miri got a nice sunburn.. told her!

Anna and Adel brought me back to the backpacker where we still had our stuff. We had something to eat and suddenly the owner came in and told us that we were not supposed to be there after checkout time.. well they hadn't cleaned yet so it was kind of okay but still.. we just looked at each other and said nothing.. after we had finished eating the two girls took off and miri and I got all our things together. But still Miri had to get showered somehow and the only way to do that was in the outdoor shower. luckily she was still wearing her bikini... weird experience, I have to say! And then we left this place and waited for someone to give us a lift to.. well wherever..

And so we met James, a mid 30s delivery guy, who was on his way to Mt Maunganui. Miri and I thought well it's close to Russel where we wanted to go to anyway and in the end we could even stay the night at his house.. don't worry.. I have it all under control! Miri's safe here! ;-)

Well today it has been raining pretty much the whole time so I took the chance to tell you a bit about our last week (so much happens and I rarely have the time to tell you everything) while Miri is laying on the couch doing.. nothing! (as always..it's always me who does the work..)

Coromandel Peninsula

In Auckland we stayed 2 days with Jule (Nothdurft). It was cool to hang out with her and we even did a harbour cruise.. Well unfortunately she has all the pictures.. here's one:

Juleee

On Tuesday we took a bus to Thames, had to walk 2km to the hostel and then went straight to the goldmine there. We got a nice tour from an old guy who has worked in a mine himself.. but not that long. We even could walk sround the Mine a little bit. Here are the pics:

Goldmine worker

The next day we took the bus up to Coromandel town.. The View on the way up was just great!

In Coromandel Town we took a tour with the Driving Creek Railway. It drove through the woods and on the top part there was a building called the "eye full tower" (related to the Eiffel tower)and you could almost see Auckland from up there.

Miri in the railway

Nice view!

In the railway we met two old ladies from Manchester, Penny and Danny. They were really nice. Later we saw them again in the town and we started talking for a little bit. Miri told them that we had to hitch hike to the westcoast. Luckily they had to drive through that place that we wanted to stay at and so they took us with them. I just don't have any pictures of them :-(

Later at the backpacker we did some laundry and that was it.

Look at the weird coin..

It's Magic!

Miri and I wanted to book a Magic bus tour to Auckland when we came back from the Cape Reinga tour but the Magic bus office had just closed and we couldn’t get a hold of them. So all we could do was have a try and just go to the bus the next morning and hope that they have some space left. So we did. It was a huge forth and back but we finally could get onto the bus and took off. First stop: Hokianga, the area around the Waipoua Kauri Forest. Miri and I decided to spend the night there and take the footprints tour through the forest. We have heard a lot about it and it was supposed to be amazing!

We didn’t really have anything to do until the tour started so we just wandered around the beach a little bit and went to the iSite where they also had a little museum about the town and showed a short movie of “Opo” the dolphin who became a tourist attraction to the town in 1955. Quite a cool story!

Miri and I messing around^^

Footprints tour: We were guided by a Maori called Bill (We’re guessing that it’s not his Maori name). It started at 6 and when we got picked up the weather was just fune and sunny but as soon as we got to the forest it started to rain and all I thought was: oh man, this is not gonna be fun.. but actually it wasn’t too bad. We got umbrellas and then the tour began. Bill taught us a lot about the nature, the different creatures that live in the woods and about the Maoris and their relation to the forest. It was really interesting! We hugged trees, saw an owl, saw “Te Matua Ngahere” (Father of the Forest) and then finally “Tane Mahuta” (Lord of the Forest). Believe it or not.. this tree is about 2000 years old, 51m high and 14m in perimeter. Bill sang a song in Maori and then he told us about the Maori culture and it was just a very special moment because it was just us (the group) and the Kauri tree.

Miri hugging one of these huge trees!

Bill lighting Kauri tree gum

The next day we got picked up by the Magic bus again and had another look at Tane Mahuta.. well it really seemed bigger the night before but now we have some good pictures of the tree ;-)

Sam, Charlie and Miri in front of Tane Mahuta

The next stop was the Kauri Museum but we didn’t go inside because we only had 20 Minutes (what are they thinking??) So we just looked at the old church, the school and the post office that were near the Museum.

Miri at the old post office

Off to Auckland!

Cape Reinga!

Miri and I got picked up by a bus at 7.50 am to go on the Cape Reinga tour. In the bus there were a lot of old people and at first I thought we’re gonna be stuck with them the whole day but when we arrived at our first stop (the Puketi Kauri Forest.. big Kauri trees!) the bus driver asked Miri and me if we want to go onto another bus that takes us right to Paihia after the tour (bc that’s where we wanted to spend the night). So we jumped onto the other bus.. full of backpackers, YEAH! And we even met Verena and Denise on that bus!

Miri and the "new" busdriver

Taking a few stops to get something to eat and some post cards, the bus made his way up to Cape Reinga. And what can I say.. the closer we got to the cape the nicer was the weather and when we finally got there we had a blue sky! Gorgeous! Well I have to explain that thing with the postcards: Everything that departs Cape Reinga is supposed to bring luck. So the bus driver told us to write some postcards to the people we wanted to wish luck and send them from Cape Reinga. Miri actually wanted to write one to all of you but that would have just been way too much for us! SoI told her that she couldn’t do it and instead we thought of everyone when we were up there and hoped that the thoughts also bring luck (So please don’t be upset if you didn’t get one)

Well I have to tell you Cape Reinga is very beautiful! It’s the (al)most northern part of New Zealand and the place where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea collide. You can really tell the difference between them!

Miri holding me AND the light house!!!

Beautiful! (I mean the background^^)

Cute! (that's us!)

Me and the lighthouse.. only 18029km to London!

Uiiii

(lighter part (left) = Tasman Sea, darker part (right, back) = Pacific Ocean)

Like on every tour you never have enough time to enjoy what you see and have a relaxed look around so we finally had to go back to the bus which would take us to the next stop, Taputaputa Bay. There we had lunch and could also swim a little bit in the sea but it was very wavy.. and soon we hopped on the bus again.

Verena, Sivan (fron Israel), Miri and Denise

But the next stop was fun! The drive there was.. let’s say different;-) To get there we had to drive through a little river.. it wasn’t deep. But what a crazy experience!

jap, that's it!

We went sand boarding! Everyone got a board and then we had to walk up the sand dunes. Wow.. what a walk! But it was worth it.. all you had to do was lay on the board, take off .. and NOT let go of the board! I think Miri and I did pretty good on that ;-)

Sand dune! And us comming down..

Like the wind!

And then we finally went onto the 90 Mile beach! It’s an official Highway with a speed limit of 100 km/h.. our driver drove 105 km/h.. tststs.. well, it was fun and it took quite a while until we went off the beach and onto the normal road again. As a final stop we got fish ‘n chips at Mangonui. Delicious!