Für Papa!

sunny Christchurch

9° C

retreasured

Christine and Rosetta just recently started their own business and are producing beautiful handmade bags. Searching the whole city for interesting farbric is part of the concept of "retreasured". Be it whoolen blankets, curtains or pullovers - they combine them all in their bags and give them a unique style.
This sunday was the first time Christine went to the local arts and crafts market in Sumner to sell their bags and it was quite a success. If anyone is interested in a orginal "retreasured" bag, please contact us!

the end

Getting rid of all the mud and dirt of the gravel roads before returning our faithful home...

Coromandel

After smelly Rotorua we once again went for some nice beaches (and fresh air!) at "Coromandel" where we also met Stuard. Standing at the beach, still dressed in his wetsuite from the last surf, checking out the sea in his home village we started to talk and got invited to his home. Before we went there he took us to his own launderette and while taking the chance to wash all our clothes too he prepared the best flat white and hot chocolate we had so far in his café at the side of the launderette. If anyone happens to come to New Zealand we can strongly recommend to go for a coffee at "Toasted" either in Auckland or Whangamata: www.toased.co.nz
We spent the night talking outside in his garden sitting close to the warm campfire he lit in his garden. We are really impressed how hospitable and open the Kiwis are and we really have a great time here. Thank you so much!

collecting trees

Greeting to Treeson!

Devil's Home

Rotorua is very famous for its thermal area and sulfur lakes. Driving on the highway from Taupo we first thought the forests were burning, because steam was rising everywhere. After we took a closer look during a walk through the volcanic valleys we found out that the steam is produced by hundreds of bubbling craters.

key available in office for experienced pianists only please

In Turengi we stayed at a camping site, which had a great stock of old machines, instruments and furniture in its lounge. Since it is winter we already got used to beeing most of the time the only guests everywhere we go. Sitting admist of this impressive and also a little bit spooky collection we felt more like visiting a museum. Already feeling quite strange we did not wonder much more when we met a snowmaker in there. He was responsible for the snow on Mount Ruapehu the big skiing area at the Tongariro National Park. Not enough he also was a hughe "Werner" fan, a comic character from northern part Germany. In the morning we found this very funny stove with its complicated buttons that looked like a cockpit. At least we managed to prepare the tea and porridge for our daily breakfast.

twodefrost

After beeing stiff frozen we drove a few kilometers up north, to Lake Taupo and went to a thermal spa. Sitting in an open air, hot thermal pool, steam rising all around us and the rain falling was exactly what we needed! By the way this was our first time we saw a warmly dressed up pool supervisor sitting besides under an umbrella.

to collect vulcanos

After so many beautiful beaches we went to see the famous vulcanos at "Tongariro National Park" - or at least we tried to see them... Always lucky with the weather so far we got completely soaked on our walk through the park. There was not a single tree to give us shelter and so we had to find a way of drying our clothes in the bus (conversations are getting really hard once you turned up the aircondition to full power). As we got used to getting up really early in the morning we were rewarded with a beautiful view on the three huge vulcanos of the park ("Mount Ngauruhoe" severd as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings) - but as the weather changed quickly this was the only time we could actually see them. The land surrounding them was quite vast but not less impressive.

Karekare beach

Especially for Christiane: a narrow and steep road took us down to Karekare beach, where the movie "The Piano" was filmed.

mobile home

For ten days we drove with our moving castle around the island and had sometimes (for example in the morning and at night when it was completely dark) big troubles to organize our belongings. In the back of our car we had a few wooden boxes, where we stored everything. On top of them we had comfortable mattresses to sleep on. So imagine the worst case scenario us lying already dressed in pyjamas, welded in our sleeping bags, realizing that there was something very important missing, which was hidden in the depth of the boxes underneath ourselfes. Alltogether it was absolutely cosy, especially at night while it was raining outside. This bus gave us really great freedom to go everywhere we wanted which was just the perfect and most flexible way of travelling.

90 Miles Beach

On our way down south, we stopped at the 90 miles beach - where we were the only persons as far as we could see. Anthony told us that we should drive all the way down directly on the beach, as all the tourist buses do. But we were too afraid, having no idea of the tides, the sand structure... Anyway, the view we had was perfect!

Cape Reinga

Afterwards we headed up to Cape Reinga, on the very top of the north island. Once we came trough the one houre gravel road drive we arrived at the point where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. As we liked it so much, we decided to stay longer and await the sunset, which was really worth it. While waiting for the sun going down we took several walks around the area.

Fish'n Chips at Mangonui

On our way we followed the recommendation of Anthony and stopped at Mangonui, where they're supposed to have the best "fush'n chups". As it was only nine o'clock in the morning we decided to take his words for granted without trying it ourselfes and went for a nice coffee.

Russell

We're back:)
After ten days without any electronic communication we have our computers back and are happy to show you all the great impressions we collected on our way around the north island.
After thinking it over quite a few times we finally decided to rent a camper van and try the left-hand-driving, which turned out to be not as crazy and difficult as we always thought it would be.
So we left Auckland early morning on the 24. of July and headed to our first destination 200 km north of Auckland, the "Bay of Islands".
We had a first breathtaking view, when we just pulled of the main road and arrived shortly afterwards at a beautiful beach to have our lunch break.
One hour later we arrived at Pahia, where spent our first night in our van. During winter time it unfortunately gets dark very early (almost around five o'clock). Not used to camping-live at all, we realised once we were comfortably wrapped in our sleepingbags, that it was only 8 pm... But what would you do in a small village, where it was dark and cold outside, and everything closed down except a chinese takeaway place (who kindly filled up our hotwater bottles).

The next day we got up very early and had breakfeast at the beach with a stunning view onto the bay of Pahia. We took a ferry to Russell, a small town opposite of Pahia, and had a nice long walk through the hills up to a viewing point, where we could see almost the whole "Bay of Islands".

After returning to Pahia we carried on to Kerikeri, where we tried to find a camping place outside of the town. Obviously we must have appeared a little bit lost, because on our way a car stopped us, asking us if we would need any help and what we were looking for. They told us, that there was not such camping place around the area and very openly offered us, to stay at their parking lot during the night. Anthony and Richard had been really kind to us and in the evening we sat together and had a nice little chat, receiving more recommendations for our trip and some stories about New Zealand. Thank you so much for your help!