Back in Town

Now, only a very short entry remains. We're back in Zurich.

After a incredible long journey (40hours of travelling...) we arrived quite exhausted in Kloten, where we were greeted by a big family assembly. Thanks for meeting us out there at the airport.

This six months were really special to us. Not only did we see these exciting countries on the otherside of the globe but we also made new friendships.

At this point we'd also like to thank everybody who read our blog and of course everybody who wrote a commentary. It made us always happy to hear some stories from back home!



To be continued...
;-)

Fiji, Yasawa Islands

We spent our last day in New Zealand in Auckland.

We had a nice stroll through the city centre and rewarded us after some shopping with a delicious dessert.

The next day we had to get up early in order to get our Taxi to the airport which left at 5:00 am.

A few hours later we arrived at Nadi Airport in Fiji.

The greeting with local musicians and a friendly "Bula" made us realise that we are in Paradise. Everything is green and we have good weather despite of the ciclone-season.
Having arrived in our backpacker we relaxed a little at the beach.

While we ate a delicious dinner, we watched this amazing sunset.

Afterwards we watched a traditional firedance.

The next day we took a katamaran that took us to the Yasawa Islands, which is a belt of small and very small islands.

a very small island

The boat took us in 5 hours to the Tavewa Island far up north, where we stayed in the Coral View Resort for two nights. As soon as we set foot on the island we were again welcomed by the locals with music and a loud "Bula".

The water has an amazing colour and it is warm and nice. Most of the day we're lazy and relax. But on our second day we also took a boat trip to blue lagoon, where the water is cristal clear and of a intense blue in the sunlight.  
 

After two nights we took the Yasawa Flyer to Naviti Island where we stayed in the beautiful Korovou Eco-Tours Resort. It had a nice beach on which we enjoyed long strolls and a small reef that invited us to snorkel (after having won in the trivia night we had won a free use of the snorkeling gear).

After two amazing nights we embarked again the Yasawa Flyer towards our last destination: Bounty Island.
  

Bounty Island is one of the very small Island in the Yasawas and offers some comfort. We were lucky to have amazing weather on our last day and were quite sad to take the the boat back to the main island in the afternoon.

Now were sitting in Denarau Port in the Hard Rock Cafe. We've just had a delicious meal (for a very reasonable price) and enjoy now a refreshing drink while watching the sunset.

Tomorrow we have to leave again :-(

We're facing a 40-hour-trip back home. But we are looking forward to seeing you all!

Back in Auckland

From Wanganui we drove further north. We had to reach Auckland on the 7th to return our camper...


Our plan to have a small hike in the Egmont National Park and on the volcano Taranaki were crossed by the dense mist that hung over this area. But at least it was not raining.

Mt. Taranaki

We headed to New Plymouth on the west coast. Having arrived there we took a stroll through a beautiful park and visited the free zoo.

Then we decided to drive a little further up, so our next days drive would be a little shorter. We passed the Three Sisters (only two remain...) and arrived in Mokau.

The next day we continued our way towards Auckland. Our first stop we made in Otorohanga, the capital of the Kiwiana. There is a good Kiwi House and we finally saw our first Kiwi. (We were not allowed to take pictures in the "dark room"...)

We drove on to Matamata, from where we booked a tour to the Hobbiton Movie Set. As there is a new movie (The Hobbit) about to be filmed, we had to sign an agreement of disclosure and can therefore tell you nothing more about that in this blog. But we have heaps of pictures which we can show you, when we get home!

At the end of the tour we watched a shearing demonstration and flo had the chance to feed a 10-week-old lamb.

It looks delicious, doesn't it?

The holiday park in Matamata didn't please us (to many flies..). That's why we quickly drove on up to Miranda Hot Springs, where we stayed before. In the evening we took a relaxing bath in the naturally hot water in the beautiful pool!

Today we drove up to Auckland and we had to say goodbye to our wicked camper! :-(

But now we are looking forward to our stay in paradise! One week Fiji!!!

P.S. We probalbly won't have any internet access on the island. So don't get worried.

Back on the North Island!

From Kaikura we drove to Picton to get to the ferry that should take us back on the North Island. We didn't get a place on the ferry we intended and so we spontanously decided to leave the South Island a day earlier and shorten our stay in beautiful Picton to a few hours.

Back in Wellington we went out for dinner (a delicious pizza! mhhhh!) ...

... and visited again the Te Papa Museum where you can always discover something new!

Today we visited some of the lotr-locations around Wellington. In the morning we went on Mt. Victoria where they shot the famous "Get of the road!"-scene.

View from the top of Mt. Victoria

After that we visited Rivendell, Isengard and the river Anduin. All beautiful locations but sadly there is nothing left of the original set.

Flo in Rivendell...

... and Oli on the banks of river Anduin

We then drove up towards Wanganui. If tomorrow the weather is good we will try and climb the volcano Taranaki near New Plymouth.

The Crossing of the Alps

We spontainiously decided to change our plans and to cross the southern alps after all. The Arthur's Pass is quite famous for its stunning landscape and we didn't want to miss this.
But before driving to the pass we took a road that leaded deap into the alps (the last 40km where only rough gravel road). Our goal was Mt. Sunday aka Edoras. It's a small hill in the middle of a huge flat. For the LoTR-Movie the film-team built the city Edoras on this very hill.

To get to this mountain we had to cross three icecold rivers that were swollen due to rain of the previous day.

But the view from the top was worth taking off our pants... :-D

By crossing Arthur's Pass we passed Castle Hill Rocks. A fascinating place where huge limestone formations stand out and look from the distance like a castle. It is fun to climb up these rocks and enjoy the view from above.

The remoteness of this area is just fascinating!

On the pass itself we saw this Kea, an indigenous mountain parrot.

The weather on the west side was as expected bad, so we took today the Lewis Pass which took us straight back to the east coast where the sun was shining.

In Kikoura we make rest, where we saw a seal colony from close up.