Sweet as bro!

Commin' to Auckland 'Lord of the Rings' already awaits me at the airport!

After a day in Auckland my Kiwi Experience starts! So let's go!

Auckland, much bigger than expected but quite nice.

Our stop for the day was Hot Water Beach but we first went to Cathedral Cove which is just next to it.

Really nice there but that's not even the highlight.

After a great dinner cooked together with my new friends we headed to the Hot Water Beach at around 9pm to catch the low tide and dig our own hot pools.
At first I was really sceptical...digging in the sand...wow... But! It was awesome and the water was burning hot and came out of the sand when you dig a hole! Ridiculous!
That really amazed me and I had some beers with me so a great evening!



The next morning we headed to Waitomo where we where going to do Black Water Rafting! On the way there we stopped at some point and made an early morning walk to wake up - good idea!

There we were going through an old mine that wasn't in use anymore and when Jo and I found a pitch black side way that was obviously not part of the way we couldn't help it but let the little child in us out and walk that way - without a torch of course cause that would have been boring! Cloe also went with us to share the adventure and have a good story if we survive the mines! Anyway we seemed to be walking for hours when we remembered we have to be back in time to catch the coach and when we made our way back - now with torches - it took us not even five minutes...

Anyway we got to Waitomo and started the Black Water Rafting. Getting the wet wetsuits on it was pretty cold and then going into the ice cold water didn't make it better but that day I really valued a wet suit because after some minutes you were warm and even the cold water couldn't bother me!

The next morning we made our way to Rotorua, the cultural capital of New Zealand and that evening we got introduced into the Maori culture which is still quite vivid in New Zealand and the Maori are really proud of their culture. For instance we learned to dance the Haka, the Maori war dance.

We visited a Maori village and got told and shown about the crafts of the Maori and their warfare. Later on we had a typical Maori dinner. Delicious!

Rotorua itself is definitely not one of my favourite cities because of a lot of termic activity there are a lot of boiling hot mud pools and they smell very badly.

Source of the smell here we go!

Me and Craig and a mighty geyser !

After another night out in Rotorua and with only little sleep we headed for Taupō the next early morning. There I lost my luck with the weather because it was very cloudy and I could not climb Mount Doom...
So the next morning the only thing we could do after a long sleep after a good night out was to go to hot springs to courier our hangover.
Unfortunately we had to walk an hour to get there which is not quite that nice with a hangover - but hey! We made it!

Stunning landscapes!

Next stop with the coach is River Valley and as the name already says the next activity involves water! Yeah guessed right it's White Water Rafting! Arriving a little bit late we just could leave the coach and went straight for the wetsuits and other equipment to put everything on and then mad our way upstream the river since we were going to finish at our lodge.
White Water Rafting is sick! We went in groups of 5 in the boats and had each a guide on board and it was very very helpful.
Because of a lot of rain in the past days the river was at its maximum and the current was stronger than usual. After a couple of minutes when we went for the first little waterfall we lost the first person. And the water is bitter cold. That day I again really valued my wetsuit. Anyway after maybe half of the way we came to one of the bigger waterfalls and when we approached it our guide just started saying 'Fuck!Fuck!Shit!Fuck!' and a couple of seconds later in the waterfall we tipped over and everyone could enjoy the nice ice cold water.
We passed a lot of small waterfalls and rapids. Really good fun! Almost at the end of the trip we came to a about 6 metre high boulder so everyone who dared could jump into the river. That evening we discovered the nice little bar we had in our lodge and again we were going to have a long night!

Getting up early after a long night sucks! - But what can you do so down in the bus in which we were going to spend most of the day since it was a really fckn long ride to Wellington.

Wellington is small! But here is probably the best museum I've ever been in : The Papa. I'm not really the guy for most the museums but this one was pretty good explaining the history of New Zealand, its marine and forest animals and of course the Maori culture! Since I always take my time I spent a long couple of hours there.

Wellington!

Later that evening we went out for some free curry and pre-pre-drinks before we started with pre-drinks in our hostel which was ment to be alcohol free and it was a pretty funny thing to get it - in a very obvious way - past the reception in our rooms. When me and my mate tried it we just heard the reception laugh and saying 'This was the shittiest attempt I've ever seen!' But we got in so all good!
After the pre-drinks we went down to the bar and damn I was really wasted...
The day in Wellington was used with sightseeing at the waterfront and finally doing my laundry. The evening was also quite similar to the first one and I woke up at 6:40 am the next morning - 20 mins before my bus and the ferry departed! After waking all my roommates up I had to be quick but hey - no worries! So it was time to leave the beautiful North Island and go to the cold south!