Due to the (military coup) circumstances in Fiji we decided to skip our trip to Fiji. Because of the coup there is a high risk in Suva, the capital of Fiji and an increasing risk in the rest of the country. Off course all the travel agencies said it is so save, they would even send their own mother to Fiji. Perhaps they all got confused and ment their mother-in-law instead ;-)
For more info about the (save) travel conditions in any country you can check www.travelsafe.co.nz or for all the dutchies out there: www.anvr.nl
We will now leave Auckland on the 9th of January to the Cook Islands. We will cross the dateline during our flight. What a big fat jet lag that will be! This means that when we get on the plane in NZ the local time is 12 hours later then in the Netherlands, and when we get of the plane in the Cook it’s 12 hours earlier. So we will relive the 9thof January. But there will be plenty of time to rest, chill and go surfing on the beaches of Rarotonga. Can’t wait…
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Mount Taranaki - New Plymouth (NZ)
Mount Taranaki
After our Wellington adventure we drove to New Plymouth through the Surfers Highway 45, that goes all around the Taranaki Volcano Mountain. It was a bit of a remote road and we drove in very bad weather, so we could see almost nothing. Also the coastal route like you would expect from the name Surfers highway, was far to search. The Highway was situated at least 3 km from the coast, so to check out the surf (in the rain) we had to drive 2 km to the beach and walk for 1 km because the road ended after 2 km. Unfortunately our view at Mount Taranaki was also disappeared due to the bad weather. But the next day when we woke up in New Plymouth, we had an amazing view at Mount Taranaki, where we forgot the bad trip over the Surfers Highway 45 (I’m sure it’s amazingly beautiful when it’s sunny!).
This Mountain has developed a big part of the North Island.
Go to the museum in New Plymouth, every museum is free in New Zealand, which is very good!! In the museum you will see how New Zealand developed itself and that Mount Taranaki is still a danger today, because it is still an active volcano which can erupted at any time now if you look at the history. Overall it was a nice drive over the Surfers Highway 45 - unfortunately we got bad weather - but New Plymouth isn’t too bad at all…
After our Wellington adventure we drove to New Plymouth through the Surfers Highway 45, that goes all around the Taranaki Volcano Mountain. It was a bit of a remote road and we drove in very bad weather, so we could see almost nothing. Also the coastal route like you would expect from the name Surfers highway, was far to search. The Highway was situated at least 3 km from the coast, so to check out the surf (in the rain) we had to drive 2 km to the beach and walk for 1 km because the road ended after 2 km. Unfortunately our view at Mount Taranaki was also disappeared due to the bad weather. But the next day when we woke up in New Plymouth, we had an amazing view at Mount Taranaki, where we forgot the bad trip over the Surfers Highway 45 (I’m sure it’s amazingly beautiful when it’s sunny!).
This Mountain has developed a big part of the North Island.
Go to the museum in New Plymouth, every museum is free in New Zealand, which is very good!! In the museum you will see how New Zealand developed itself and that Mount Taranaki is still a danger today, because it is still an active volcano which can erupted at any time now if you look at the history. Overall it was a nice drive over the Surfers Highway 45 - unfortunately we got bad weather - but New Plymouth isn’t too bad at all…
Wellington - NZ
Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and therefore a visit worth. After our South Island adventure, Wellington was our first stop on the North Island. Unfortunately there was no camp park in the city center, like in every other big city, until now. So we where forced to have a camp park outside Wellington. We had a nice sky line view over the city, but we had to drove for 20 min to go to the center of Wellington, which was a bit of a down side. What makes it less attractive to drive every day to the city again, if you drive already all the time.
Wellington is very small in comparing with other capitals. And it did not had the allure of a world city, like you would (or want to) expect. No trams or metros taking you into the center from outer suburbs, cities or villages. And no clear view of a real city centre , like nice restaurants concentrated around a nice park. It seems like almost everyone is into the Punk/ Babyshambles-scence nowadays. Tight jeans, bad black haircut and black eyeliners for the boys everywhere!! So we felt way out of place.
Apparently Wellington has a great nightlife, but because of our distance from Wellington and no good transportation we did not went out too late in the evenings. We will leave this part for an other time perhaps. So yes, Wellington was a bit of a disappointment. The only thing we really liked about Wellington was it’s museum Te Papa. Look at our photos @ the Flavour section, because this museum is phenomenal!!!!
Wellington is very small in comparing with other capitals. And it did not had the allure of a world city, like you would (or want to) expect. No trams or metros taking you into the center from outer suburbs, cities or villages. And no clear view of a real city centre , like nice restaurants concentrated around a nice park. It seems like almost everyone is into the Punk/ Babyshambles-scence nowadays. Tight jeans, bad black haircut and black eyeliners for the boys everywhere!! So we felt way out of place.
Apparently Wellington has a great nightlife, but because of our distance from Wellington and no good transportation we did not went out too late in the evenings. We will leave this part for an other time perhaps. So yes, Wellington was a bit of a disappointment. The only thing we really liked about Wellington was it’s museum Te Papa. Look at our photos @ the Flavour section, because this museum is phenomenal!!!!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Christmas? Pick your own breakfast!
We celebrated Christmas in Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty! It is a beautiful place and in particular our hotel which we’d especially booked for the Christmas days. We stayed in the Hotel on Devonport (hotelondevonport.co.nz), a luxurious hotel with very spacious rooms and all the facilities you can wish for. We decorated our room with our Christmas lights from the camper and made our own cozy Christmas dinner at the 24th and 25th, because (unfortunately) all the restaurants were closed during Christmas day. So on the way to Tauranga we drove through ceveral fields of blackberry’s and we thought it would be nice to make a special breakfast by picking our own berry’s. This was hilarious! Not only we wanted to pick every good blackberry we could see, but we also became competitive with other berry pickers (in a nice way off course). Especially when they are picking berry’s in just that area where you wanted to pick… But when it started to rain, we finished very quickly, and that was perhaps better, because otherwise we were still picking berry’s (hahaha, or should I say hohoho?!).
We had a great time with Christmas. Finally we could relax in a normal bed instead of the campervan matras, had 24 hours access to the internet, and therefore we were able to call our family through Skype. That’s a real good solution for the very expensive phone cards here in NZ. They’ve got dozens, but all are running out in minutes. Anyway, the best wishes to all of you for 2007…happy new year! Anyway, enjoy the photos…
We had a great time with Christmas. Finally we could relax in a normal bed instead of the campervan matras, had 24 hours access to the internet, and therefore we were able to call our family through Skype. That’s a real good solution for the very expensive phone cards here in NZ. They’ve got dozens, but all are running out in minutes. Anyway, the best wishes to all of you for 2007…happy new year! Anyway, enjoy the photos…
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