The great New Zealand

(for english scroll down, please)

Egy ideje mar utrakeltunk Atival, es bar igertem, hamar ra kellett ebrednem, hogy a video vagas nem fog menni utazgatas kozben, egyszeruen tul sok az informacio. Igy hat megint itt vagyok es gepelek. Megprobalom behozni a lemaradast es par bejegyzest irok a kovetkezo par napban. Van mit, hiszen rengeteg minden tortent.

Na de menjunk csak vissza kicsit a multba.

Miutan hazaertem Brisbanebol, egy kellemes repteri alvas utan hazahajtottam, Raf baratomnak koszonhetoen eleg hamar felkaptam a cuccaim es mar indultam is felvenni Atit. Rovidke kitero utan a helyi boltban, maris nekivagtunk a fergetese NZ tripnek.

Elso nagyobb allomasunk Hamilton Gardens volt, amit bar mar legalabb hatszor lattam, igy hetedjere is, igazan pompas erzes volt vegignezni. Kinai, japan, angol, diszkerteken es rozsakerteken keresztul egeszen a tipikus haszonkertigik, mindenfele finomsag lathato itt.

Az utat kis koltsegvetesre terveztuk, ennek erdekeben ingyenes kempingeben es kanapeszorffel szalltunk meg eddig. Elso ejszakan ennek fenyeben egy nem csunya folyoparton tortent.

A reggeli joga probalkozast kovetoen, fekete taltosunkat meglovagolva elhajtottunk a hobbitkakhoz. Amiota szkeptikussagomat lekozdve bevittem szuleimet ide, teljesen beleszerettem a hely hangulataba, igy ez mostmar a kotelezok koze kerult. Hobbitfalva, nagyon erdekesen bemutato megszervezett turistalatvanyossag/filmforgatasi helyszin, ahol finom ingyen kezmuves saorrel ajandekozzak meg a megfaradt latogatokat a tura vegen.

Persze, ahogy ezt mar nehany ittjart becsi baratom tudja, sietni kellett, igy a hobbitkak utan meg leugrottunk Rotoruaba is, ahol a szokasos uti hagyomanyt megtorve, nem a gejzirparkba mentunk, hanem Ati javaslatara a red woodsba, ami kb a kistesoja a Californiai valtozatnak, amit meg eztan fogunk meglesni. Persze nehany gozolgo bugyrot es megviziteltunk, hiszen a kenes termal szag beszippantasa nelkul csak nem allhat tovabb az ember.

Mire a varosbol kiertunk mar kezdett sotetedni, de azert megceloztunk egy kis kempinet a dzsungelben, ami meg kb 2 oranyira volt. Nem bantuk meg hiszen sikerult elso stopposainkat felvenni. Ja igen, celom az uj-zelandi ut soran, hogy minel tobb stoppost felszedjunk, es ezzel hozzasegitsuk oket elmenyeik befogadasahoz. 

A japan hazasparocska naszutjat tolti itt. De nem akarhogyan, epp a Te Araroa utat csinaljak, ami Kiwifolde eszaki csucskebol delicsucskebe valo lesetalast jelenti. Na, nem rossz naszut. :).

Miutan stopposainkat leraktuk, elhajtottunk szallasunkig, amit persze egy darabig keresgeltunk a sotetben. Vegul sikererrel jartunk es satorveres utan megkezdtuk a hosszu nap kipiheneset.

Petty

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We have already started our NZ trip with Ati… actually a while ago and I promised I will do some video footages. “Unfortunately”, I had to realise, that this is impossible. There is simplly too much happening. So here I am, typing again like in the old times.

I will try to write a few post in the next few days to catch up with the happenings, since there are A LOT.

But now let’s get back in the past a bit.

After I arrived home from Brisbane I took a short sleep on the airport and then went home to pick up my stuff, thanks to Raf, I managed to get home fast. I chucked in the gears and then immediately went to the meeting point to pick up Ati. We did a short stopby at a grocery shop to fill up aour food storage and then we started our great NZ trip etape.

Our first significant station was the Hamilton Gardens. Although, I have been here about six times, the seventh tiime gave me the same vibe and amazement. We can see there a wide variety gardens, from Japanese, chinese, english gardens to the conventional horticultural gardens.

The trip ment to be low budget. In order to keep it like that we only stayed so far in freedom campsites and couchsurf places. According to this our first overnight happened on a pleasant riverbank.

The next day, after an attempt of doing morning yoga, we put together our stuff and rode down with our balck stallion to the Shire of the hobbits. After I managed to fight my scepticism about Hobbiton during the visit of my parents last year, I realised, that this is actually an awesome tourist destination, so now it is on my favorites list. It is a well organised, interesting moviescene, which rewards the tired tourist/traveller with a free craftbeer at the end of the tour.

As a few of my friend from Vienna already knows, we did not stay in one place for long, because we have to hurry… to see the next things, so after the hobbits we continued our trip to Rotorua. Here, after the suggestion from Ati we broke the traditional geyser park route and went to Redwoods instead. It is quite spectacular. It looks like the little brother of the californian Redwoods, which is of course is on the table once we arrive in the U.S.. Of course we checked out a few holes with hot boiling water, since we can’t leave the city without smelling the typical sulfur scent of the place.

By the time we left Rotorua it was already getting dark, but we still aimed for a camping further south, about 2 hours away. It was worth, since we picked up our first hitchhikers. Oh yes, one of my goals in NZ is to pick up as many hitchhikers as possible, in order to support them in taking in the experience of the country. 

So this japanese couple is spending their honey moon here. They are doing the Te Araroa wlak which is basically from the very north to the very south of the country on foot. Not bad for a honey moon. J

After leaving the couple in the last town before our destination, we tried to spot the camp ground. After doing some circles in the dark, we managed to anchor down and take a rest after the long day.

Peter