THE NORTH ISLAND

Tongoria Alpine crossing

We spent the last 2 weeks driving through the North Island of NZ and we are happy to have spent more time on the South Island. We liked the South better as it was more wild and remote then here up North. Nevertheless also the last 2 weeks have been filled with highlights. In Wellington we happened to be in the middle of the opening cerimony of the Arts Festival. It was a beautiful concert with percussions and 200 children drumming, a choire and a funk and soul band – emotional and incredibly nice to see!!!

We really enjoyed one of the “Great Walks” called the Tongario Alpine Crossing where we had to climb part of the Tongario volcano also known as MT DOOM of Lord Of The Rings and continued to the wonderful Emirald Lakes.

Last week we were in the volcanic area of Rotorua where all rivers and lakes were perfect thermal baths! We also found a hot waterfall where we spent hours warming up.

A really pleasant surprise to finish our trip in NZ was meeting Sam. We met him for the first time in India 9 month ago and spent around 1 month together in the Himalayas driving our motorcycles there. All 3 of us went to the far north called Cape Reinga where the Tasman see meets the Pacific ocean. It was impressiv to see the waves crashing into each other!

The past 7 weeks we drove 9000km and slept 39 nights in our dear “White House”.

NZ is landscape wise so far the country we like the most together with the Himalayas. Its incredible how such a small place can offer that much! The pictures help you to understand our enthousiasm but you have to come yourself to witness it. For us it was unbelievable and magical.

THANK YOU NEW ZEALAND FOR THIS EMOTIONAL AND WONDERFUL TIME…

We are now in Auckland and our next flight is in 2 days time to…..see you soon again here on our blog.

Emi and Patrick