Dear family, friends, acquittances, colleagues, vague friends, random people, who I do not know, who for no good reason read my blog to stalk or spy on me, and Hessel,

It's been quite a long time ago I wrote something on this blog, about 2 months actually. Originally I planned to be a bit artistic on this blog; write poems, make up stupid top 10 list, write more poems, upload some nice pictures and not talk about my actual journey ;) but unfortunately I did not get to do these things. I absolutely did not write anything since I left Auckland, I did not have any ideas about what to write or to post, nor did I have time and internet at the same time, so nothing happend. Until now. So here it is: two months of Pim travelling in New Zealand, very briefly.

My journey began in Auckland, which is the most mundane city ever. There is very little excitement in Auckland. Other than a few parks and the occasional café's there is no really nice places to relax. Therefore I was quite happy to leave the city. I started travelling with a bus company called Stray Travels, which is supposed to be a hop-on, hop-off bus (more about that later). Stray took me to Hahei, Raglan, Waitomo, Rotorua, Lake Aniwhenua, Taupo, Whakaroa, National Park (yes there is a town called like that), Wellington and Marahau. During this time I met a lot of cool people from different parts of Europe, with whom I had a lot of fun.

We hiked, went swimming, watched stars at the beach and got up early to see sunrises, in Hahei. We saw glowworms in the Waitomo glowworm caves, went to the rotten egg smelling volcanic pools of Wai-o-Tapu (Wai-o-Tapu is Maori for holy springs; literally; springs of holiness), we experience the modern Maori culture in Lake Aniwhenua. We saw blue ducks at the Blue Duck Station (a sanctuary for the almost extinct blue duck (whio in Maori)), walked the Tongariro Crossing and went to the pub in Wellington.

From Wellington we took the ferry to the South Island and headed on to Marahau, Abel Tasman. Here I decided to stay longer and let my friends leave me behind. I wanted to see several cool places around Abel Tasman such as the Split Apple Rock, Te Waikoropupu springs, Farewell Spit, Collingwood and many other things. However unfortunately my only way of transportation was the Stray bus, which only goes one way and not to the places I wanted to go.

This made me realise that I could not decided where I wanted to go if I wanted to go somewhere else. I was stuck in a touristic world, a smartly designed business, where a bus drives you to your next destination everyday and almost forces you to book activities and accommodation with them, so they can make money of of you. You can hop-off, meaning you leave all your friends , you cannot book different accommodation without being a 'lone-wolf' on the bus and because everyone is doing all these 'great' activities for 'exclusive low Stray' prices you book them too (Stray offers you sea-kayaking for 70 dollars in Marahau, where as there is actually a company where you can hire kayaks for 55 dollars).

I was quite bummed I fell into this money trap. In total I spent about 600 euros on the actual bus pass and 200 euros on way to expensive activities (Skippy, if you are reading this; nothing on you. you where an amazing bus driver and I had a hell of good time with you). On hindsight buying the Stray pass was more of a impulsive act of group pressure and fear of buying a car. While we are on the topic:

My next move was to buy a car. I bought my car in Marahau for about 500 euros. It's a nissan bluebird arx from the year 1992 (yes it's 7 years older than me). With this car I drove all the way down the West Coast to Queenstown, where I caught up with my friends from the Stray bus. The West Coast is the most beautiful scenic route I have ever seen. It's a rough drive, with on your left side the Southern Alps and on your right side a wild sea. I stayed in Queenstown for two nights, spending a little time with my friends, however I got sick of the city in less then five hours and after those two nights I left for Te Anau. Unfortunately, in Queenstown, my camera got stolen. Luckily I had most pictures already sent to my phone (don't worry, at one point they will be uploaded, say 8 months?).

When I arrived in Te Anau I went straight to a place called Barnyard Backpackers. Here I have been staying for the last month, doing voluntary work at the property in exchange for accommodation. In this time nothing much happened really. Briefly: went to Milford Sound, on the way my car broke down, went back to Te Anau, got my car fixed, did a few hikes, worked a lot and finally wrote something on my blog.

So now we are up to date, what's next?

Tomorrow I will leave Te Anau and see the South Coast. After that I will go up to Makarora where I will be assisting in building a house and thus making money for a month. After that I do not really know what I am going to do. It's getting quite cold here on the south Island, but going up is quite expensive and the North Island is not as impressive. I might just buy some extra sweaters and enjoy a bit of winter fun in New Zealand. Who know's.

Anyhow long story short: stuff happened.

Greetings from the other side of the world!

P.S. I envy you, dutch peeps, with your nice and warm March...