Dunedin: penguins, seals, beautiful views and Speight's brewery

Since Markus' parents were driving down the West coast and they were about 1,5 weeks ahead of us, we drove down the East coast to meet them somewhere along the way. We had a long (~9 h) drive from Takaka to Christchurch where we overnighted. On our way we saw some beautiful views, such as the one below 😍

Beaches, hills, whales, caves and wine in the North of South, NZ

Then we arrived to South Island and Picton. Markus had checked that there should maybe be wind in Blenheim, a short drive from Picton so we went there to check. Unfortunately the wind wasn’t strong enough for kitesurfing. There was a short walk to Monkey Beach, so we went there. It was a small but nice beach with a cave, or actually a tunnel. The other end was already a bit under water so we couldn’t go through but a bit over half way though. When we returned to the car, Markus wanted to check where a small path in the forest next to a parking lot goes. There was a cave! Markus descended to the cave and it became really quiet there. With the light of the flashlight Markus walked along the bottom of the cave and looked if there would be some interesting stuff. There were few smaller paths in the cave that became a bit too narrow in the end. Markus saw interesting web hanging from the roof and wall and noticed that there is also something like larva hanging in many places. Hmmm… could it be?... Markus turned off his flashlight and yes, there were quite many glow worms! Markus found them also in other parts of the cave. Then it was time to go and ask if Edda wanted to come to see them. Edda took also her flashlight and we headed to the cave. After a while, Edda had seen enough so she left while Markus stayed for a while enjoying the view. After the cave, we had a small typical travel lunch, toast with peanut butter (as we usually have when we are driving) before we continued to Nelson.

 Monkey beach 😂

Beautiful Huka Falls and other interesting places: Taupo, Napier, Wellington

After Rotorua we continued our road trip towards Taupo. We had a few places where we wanted to stop along the way. First one was Huka falls. Oh my! The river and the fall were stunning! The color was mesmerizing and brought tears to Edda’s eyes. 😍 We walked around and just enjoyed the view. We saw also two people going down the fall with kayaks. It was interesting! The river continues towards Taupo and is crystal-clear along the way. We stopped along the way to see the water and there were many ducks that hoped that we would have something to eat with us. Unfortunately, we didn’t. One of the ducks had found an apple and tried to eat it but it is extremely difficult to catch an apple in the water with a beak. Edda took the apple and broke it into parts to make it easier to the ducks. Another place we visited was natural hot springs in Taupo. There were quite many people so we decided first to walk around a bit. We saw some exercising supplies such as different bars. We played around for a while and then Edda stretched a bit while Markus went for a run. After that we went to the hot springs. The water was really hot! But since it then mixed up with cold water from a river, one could choose what temperature one wanted and sit in different areas. It was lovely!

Kia Ora! Thermal activity and Maori culture in Rotorua

After Mt Manganui and the glow worms, we started to drive to Rotorua. It is quite easy to find, just follow your nose... 😂 It is a very smelly city because of the thermal activity. We hadn't found any accommodation for our stay there so the first thing was to find a good and cheap hostel. We had to go to few places before we found one with vacancy. Almost every place was fully booked. Luckily Planet backpacker hostel which we found, was both good and NZ-cheap so we took it. We were a bit early, so we couldn't check in before 2pm. It was a good opportunity to go for a walk to Kuirau park. It is in the center and free. It is full of steaming craters, mud pools and other thermal activity. We dipped our feet to a hot (just warm) pool for a while. Edda didn't like the smell that much, or she hated it so we didn't stay too long in the park.

Smelly mud pools

Coromandel peninsula & Bay of Plenty: Caves, nature, pigs, waterfalls, glow worms and mountains

So, now the time had come to start our road trip in New Zealand. We packed our car and started to drive to Hot Water Beach. We took a bit longer and slower route on the coast. We saw few really nice places and views and said hello to a bunch of cows. The roads were narrow and like serpentine. Our first stop was in a small town, Thames, where we had a small lunch and coffee. Markus wanted to drive on the 309 Road that he found on the first time he was in NZ. The road is (or was) a dirt road with no houses or anything else, except a nice waterfall. Now it was partly concealed and there had popped up hotels, parks and some homes. We found also a strange pig farm. 😂 The pigs were walking freely also on the road. 😆 We stopped to say hello also to them and even petted them a bit.

Our new friends 😊

Auckland, NZ: Things to do, see, eat and drink in five days

After five months of traveling, we left Latin America and headed with an approximately 13-hour flight to New Zealand. We had been waiting for this because it would be refreshing to not have a language barrier everywhere all the time 😜 Our first stop was Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand.

Auckland from the harbor towards city

Surfing, kitesurfing and interesting places in Chile!

During our stay in Valparaiso, Markus, Basti and Basti's friend went to Matanzas for kitesurfing. Edda stayed in Valpo for a relax day with series 😉 The kite spot was close to Matanzas, in Pupuya. There should be big waves and strong but steady wind. Well, as we have heard many times before during our trip, Markus got to hear the same sentence, "this is not the normal weather here". There were just small waves and strong but very gusty wind. Basti lent Markus a 7m kite because Markus had just a 9m and it was way too big 😜 Even the 7m was quite big and Markus just tried to learn a bit of the waves. The water was also freezing! It was only around 14c 😲 The views on the spot were quite nice and also on our way there we stopped on a viewpoint where one can enjoy beautiful views over the sea. On the way back we stopped at a small local hot dog place 😋. 

On our way to kitesurf, we stopped to enjoy some views