4th of August RAIN, AUCKLAND, BORING...

Spending 1 day in Auckland. 3 hours with the bus from Rotorua. Weather can't get any worse. You copuldn't even see the Skytower in Auckland. Good stories about Indonesia in the bus. Lantana Lodge in AUckland is a surprise. Free fast Wifi, fridges on the room, no bunks...No. 3 hostel in NZ, lucky me there was 1 bed left. The Thai boy at the restaurant was enthousiastic when he prepared me a meal; 'This is really spicy hot hot hot hot!' Hmm, what did you use, only pepper? Come on Mr Bangkok, try better next time. Sleeping in Auckland? No way! The rain stopped at sunset time, so a citywalk. With some good friends this city has a lot of nightlife and stuff to offer. But if you're on a diet don't visit Auckland...unlimited places with all sorts of (fast)food. Lonely me ended up in Albert Park with my new collection of muffins. My roomie was a cool dude from England, and always fun to be on the exact same level. So a short night as usual.

5th of August KIWI EXPERIENCE, SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS RIP-OFF AND A FEARLESS MORE THAN 1 MINUTE FREEFALL FROM 16.000FT WHOHOOOOOO!

Something what I always wanted, travel with a big green KIWI EXP-bus UHHH NOT! But what the hell, just try and see if the stories are true about party busses full with young kids having sex with all the young English girls. Only 8 people in this masive bus, rediculous. Not much to talk in the bus, and no interesting stops. The Cape Reinga Tour seems to be done by a different company than KIWI. What's the use of trippin' with KIWI? 11:30 in Paihia, Bay of Islands. Shitty weather turned into a nice sunny winterday. SO jump on a cruise for swimming with dolphins. Enthousiastic as I am I jumped on the bopat with snorkling gear and fins. We sailed through Hole-in-the-Rock which is absolutely freakin amazing...for someone who has never seen water and rocks before. And it was time to spot the dolphins. So many dolphins jumping out of the water! My pants were already half my knees to jump in, but no. No swimming today because there seem to be young dolphins in the water. Uh, there will always be young dolphins I guess? So it's just a marketing trick to attract people for these cruises. Although seeing this creatures from a short distance playing is still cool and the views while sailing through the islands and lagoons wasn't bad at all. 4:15pm back on shore. I was picked up by a laidback Canadian dude called Rick, cool traveller. Picked up for what you might guess? Well, 1.5 years ago I had this thing in my head about skydiving above the Bay of Islands. I found out that recently the highest skydive of NZ is right here. Don't think about the money, just do it. I did, 375 NZD for a jump and 140 NZD for a DVD and pics. The smalles propeller plane. I jumped in with my tandem jumper Tim and there was another jumper from my hostel; Nick (from Vancouver). Here we go! Nothing to hold on in the plane, one side open and the pilots doing some tricks for extra G-Forces...I like it already :-) At some point we had to put our oxygen masks on and it was freezing. But the views man...skydiving with sunset at a hight of 16.000ft OMG! Legs outside and there we go...wwwhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow! What sweet as?! This is fuckin' sick dude! A flip and a freefall for at least 70 seconds with a speed of 200km per hour. 3.8km free fall according to my calculations. My ears were poppin but shit I like this. Feel free, flying over the islands towards the sun A-MA-ZING! Parashute pops open and then you have some time to realise what is happening. For some heavy G-Forces it's time to spin...go on, keep it going. Nice landing and this was it, the most expensive orgasm ever hahaa. The 50 year old owner gave us a few beers and I'm starting to realise what I'm going to do with my life after all the stories tonight. And I wonder what happened with my fear lately, it seems that nothing scares my anymore. Even this jump, I was so relaxed. The thing is; don't think too much and only believe in the fact that it's going to be stunning. Another fact is that you have to trust your instructor with extreme sports. After this wicked adventure it was time for karaoke night at Base Bar...brrr. Happy that I met Nick, the Canadian guy. We kept on talking and went out for the uffy pipes of NZ. At scared Nick after having a police car that turned over to us. Ow the stories about X Base and KIWI-bus? Even though that it's not summer and we have a lot of 'normal' backpackers on the bus...my personal experience is that the stories are true :-)

6th of August SPEEDING ON THE BEACH, HUGGING THE ANCIENT GIANTS, SANDBOPARDING AND FLYING OVER THE CREEKS...AND GETTING ROBBED

Tetetetee Teteteeeeh! It's the A-Team! Oh fuck, it's the huge tourbus of AWESOME. Well, let's find out how 'awesome' this daytrip is. The driver, Barry, like to talk...a lot. Talking about his name for 10 minutes and all sorts of stuff. Shut up! Nick already had is Ipod on after half an hour in the bus. Okay, ancient forest walk at Waipoua Kauri Forest. Huge Kauri-trees, should be a attractive walk. Oops, it's only a 5-minute boardwalk?! What a shame, hugging a tree was the main attraction according to them. In the bus, tourists complaning about the cold, was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. And the bus drives on to the beach. Speedlimit road signs on the beach?? Yes, 100kmph. Driving on 90-mile beach with 120kmph was new for me. It's actually a highway, but be carefull with the tides. Only at the end there is a stop for a few minutes. Carwrecks in the sand, funny. The bus turns right, drives up a river with the bus...towards the high sand dunes...52 meters high. Sandboards ready, climb and go! From above it looks way more exciting. On your belly on the board, up to 80kmph with you face almost in the sand. At the bottom there is a small jump and if your good you just fly over the river. I loved it, went up 6 times before the busdriver said we had to leave. Everyone was waiting for me in the bus. No need to hurry up, guess what happed...the bus broke down! What is wrong with people and thinking about empty batteries nowadays? Luckely we had an couple from Hanmer Springs on board and one of them was a mechanic, after some tricks he started the bus. Up to Cape Reinga and Spirits Bay. This area is sacred and full of spiritual activities. The busdriver starts talking about the death of his son and all sorts depressive stories. At Cape Reinga he starts praying in Maori and singing Maori ritual songs. Ok this surprised me. A 1 hour walk in the most Northern part of NZ, climbing down on a rock and watching the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meeting eachother...this is a special place. But where the fuck is my backpack with camera's, money and everything?! Damn, it is stolen just in a few seconds. Yes, NZ is not as trustfull anymore as I expected. THere is only one option, go out for a run and find out if those thieves are still here. After a while I found them, it were 2 German girls and a guy...completely surprised that I caught them. All sorts of excuses blablaaa. I didn't even get angry, I was only thinking 'It will happen 2 you some day and you will not be that lucky'. The brutal thing was, that they were in the same bus, how stupid could they be?! After a tasty fish and chips meal at Maonui I already forgot the incident. An evening walk along some of the hostels ended in an interesting meeting with Julia, so my opinion about Germans is still good. Sorry guys, I will not generalise ;-) I feel younger and younger these days, even a kid that was half my age refused to sell me a bottle of cider in the supermarket! Hahaaa, if a 30 year old guy is not allowed to buy drinks...so I look like under 18...I was flattered.

7th of August MUD MOUNTAIN BIKING IN THE STORM AND NIGHTWALK ON THE STREETS IN OUR UNDERWEAR

What a waste of time, being in the Bay of Islands and heavy rainfall all day long. Nick and I tried to get the tropical feeling by having a few early Corona's in the warm Beach House (it was around 10AM). Our tropical waitress Verena helped a little bit to get that feeling. After a ot of laughs Nick left and I moved to my new hostel. Hanging around with my new temporary friends Gert (who I met at Queenstown during the worldcupfinal) and Marko. JUlia finished work and nobody had the guts to join me on a mountainbike trip. A wet trip to the top of Mt. Bledisloe and after the Haruru Falls and the mangroves. Muddy tracks, al lot of water and rain, strong winds, a bike way too small for me and a lot of climbing. 2 hours of fun, getting the worst part of the storm today. It's a good way to loose some energy. After a shower we watched the rugby match All Blacks vs. Wallabies, again NZ kicked ass. A very long game of pool, Holland against Germany. Well the worst game ever for us. But like the Dutchies in the worldcup, we played bad and we still won whohoo! So jacuzzi time. Getting our clothes off and jump illegally in the jacuzzi of X Base. It was not allowed but who cares. At some point they kicked us out and they found out that we were not staying at X Base. Angry security and we were walking on the streets in our wet underwear...hahaaaa. The locals said we looked like a few gay guys, uhm there is also a girl here (allthough she was pretty small). Yeah a funny night, this is what we call Kiwi Experience X Base! :D Some issues about where I should sleep tonight, dorm are not always the best room to book hahaaa.

8th of August THE 1ST BORING DAY IN NEW ZEALAND, 17 HOURS OF TRAVELLING

Finally good weather, a beachwalk near Paihia. Trying to make a deal with the dolphin cruises for a swim, uh uh no. So chill out and chat with my Paihia-crew after the filling pancakes that Julia made in the morning. A small cartrip to the waterfall and no ride to the muddy hotpools, the organising Germans think that we didn't had time enough. Well 3PM the first bus trip, a big green KIWI-bus full with young English, a 1.5 hour stopover in Auckland followed by a 12 hour bustrip to Wellington with Intercity Link. Boring and not spending any money, so that's the good thing :-) In Auckland I suddenly got the feeling to walk outside the bus terminal, and who did I meet there? Whaaaaat a surprise, it was Nolwenn. Yeah, she was maybe the highlight of today whahaaa.

9th of August START OF THE NEW ROAD TRIP, FLYING THROUGH THE CANYONS AND WARNING!

7.00AM at the Central Railway Station of Wellington, waiting for my new travelbuddy for the next 10 days, Sandra. I had to wait for 1.5 hour so I spend some time having fun with the local students. Sandra picked me up in her private Spaceship, had a few drinks and snacks in windy Wellington. And the other reason why I was here? My passport and Cuban visa...it is all there. Cuba Cuba Cuba! Oscar seemed to be a funny guy, and surprisingly I had some fun at the Ambassy, completely forgot that there was someone waiting outside. Heading North to Rotorua, with a stop at the Wai.... Canyon for some free activities at Gravity. Well I was standing at the bungy jump platform (80 mtres high) and I found it so boring that I decided to do a tandem jump with Sandra, doing a flying fox. Climbing up 180 metres high and let yourself drop dowm on a zipline with 160km per hour. NZ is way more safe than Laos, completely packed and hardly any space to move. The first few seconds were fun, the following 8 minutes were making me sleepy. Doing so many crazy things makes you spoiled...you want faster and higher every time. The canyon area was beautiful. Driving through the Rotorua National Park area, cold and many dark clouds...a magnificent scenery! During sunset the vulcano's and the clouds in the sky turned pink and purple; it was the exact same scenery as on the Lonely Planet cover. After renting some cramp-ons, ice axes and shoe covers we arrived at National Park Backpackers. 'We wanna do the Tongariro Crossing tomorrow'...Staff; 'Are you experienced mounteniers?' Me; 'Yes and we got all our equiptment'. Alarm fase ORANGE; even well experienced mountainiers are not allowed to do the Tongariro Crossing due to the extremely bad weather conditions. Uhm, the sky turned pink during sunset and at the moment it clear. I don't think any bad weather is coming. But many warnings from several people that there is a lot of ice, water and snow on the track and nobody had been there the last 2 days. 2 days ago an experienced climber died falling 300 metres down. The busses are not doing the shuttle and no guided tours, it's up to us... More thieves! This time it was the Italian Maffia that robbed me of a bottle of wine and some Tim Tam's, luckely I had a good 1st day with my new travel partner.

10th of August TONGARIRO AND CROSSING THE EDGE'S

Ohohooo, I wanna do that Crossing, but no still warnings and rangers that are more than happy to stop you. So only 1 other option, there is a simular track at Tongariro, the Tongariro Traverse. That part goes across a waterfall and up to 1600 metres between 2 vulcanic lakes between Mt Tongariro and Mt Ruapehu. Sandra didn't let me snowboard in the vulcano, while the conditions were ideal. Just like the weather conditions. Piet Paulusma (our Dutch National weatherman who's always right...not!) can easily get a job here. This was the best and most sunny day in NZ so far, Sandra burned here face and I got a good tan today. For the biggest part of the track we were the first ones to walk on the track since days. Incredible, walking in snow above you knees (yeah even my balls were freezing sometimes). Icy parts and getting wet feet in the streams we had to cross. The snow in the forest was still there. The waterfall was one of the best I've seen, although it was not that huge. All because of the brown colored cliffs and the ice at the bottom. Adventurous how I am, I climbed down to the bottom of the waterfall...Winter Wonderland! Walking on and on, noticing that Sandra was not amused today. Miss Munich was a little bit grumpy, complaining about everything. I wanted some fun so a few jokes and throwing snowballs maybe? uh uh, not amused. The walk was at least amusing me :-) Arriving at the highest pint between the Lower and the Upper Lake. A bit windy here but still accesible. I found a teriffic track walking further on a narrow cliff on top, going slightly down to the Lower Lake and crossing the Lower Lake, followed by a steep rocky climb. Sandra started complaining again; 'This is a National Park, if yopu don't stay on the track you destroy the vegitation!'. Hahahaa, uhm we can't even see if we are walking on tracks because of all that snow and making these tracks didn't destroy shitloads of vegitation? The wood that they used, how many trees did they kill for that? Don't tell me something about walking on tracks and destroing nature :-) After a 7 hour walk it was time to leave the National Park, unfortunately Miss Munich didn't wan't to stay another day for some vulcanic snow boarding. So we arrived in Taupo in the evening. Sandra was still grumpy and even making an impressive salad and a nice meal was not good enough; the color of the sauce was not good enough for madame and she didn't even try the salad because she knew that all the salad in NZ is crap. Okay, this is boring and annoying, I'm ending this road trip baby!

11th of August THE UNEXPECTED TWIST, TOO MUCH FUN BUBBLING IN HOT STREAMS

Sandra was testing my nerves again, constantly asking for money and receipts to share the costs. Okay, here is your money and do your thing today! I went on a 3 hour walk to the Huka Falls and the hot stream. No option to go to the Orakei Hidden Valley, the weather is too good today and no busses available. 40km was a little bit to far with a bike in the late afternoon. And just when you think this place is boring...BANG! Clem and Julie (two funny French girls Adrien and I met in Franz Josef) walked in. Introduced me to Tyler (US) and he introduced me to Louise(UK). Yeah this was group of interesting characters together. We bought 6 bottles of red wine and beer, walked to the Huka Falls (for most people the 2nd time today) and after some bridge hanging above the falls we stopped at the natural hot streams. During our walk we met another funny person from Korea. Oh and Clem had to make a pee-stop, people walked passed us and told us she took a nice spot... WHAHA, Clem didn't even go into the bushes, she took her pants down on the middle of the path! The hot streams...our group was so impressive that we scared all the other people who were having their private time between the bushes. The bottles of wine went fast and again French people that know how to smoke weed hahahaaa. Yeah good times, chilling there till far after sunset. At the end everybody was to drunk/stoned to drive the car, so let's walk. The sulfar made the feelings even more intense. Louise and I were the smart asses (we didn't drink that fast) so we didn't get lost like ouir friends. Reunited after a while, time for shopping adventures in Pak'n'Save. Shopping trolley races in the supermarket, a trolley full of wine bottles and pasta sauce, Clem and Julie crashed with their trolley with full speed, fl;ipped over, bottles everywhere but nothing broken. The complete staff wanted to kick us out, but after some cheers from the other customers we were allowed to continue shopping. The other customers found it quite amusing. Yeah we are kids again :-) Epic times at the hostel, Julie was getting a little bit too close for her status hahaaa. Night jogging on the streets of Taupo, lovely beachwalk under the stars, ping pong and all the other things I can't remember.

12th of August MTB, CLIMBING MT RAPAHA, 'TARGET JUJU', HORNY DEER AND MISSING BALLS

Most of the crazy crew experienced a serious hangover, Clem vommiting in front of the reception (hilarious!), big holes in their memory. Me? Too much energy. Renting a descent MTB from Rainbow Lodge for 20 NZD and cycle. Climbing for some excersize. Mt. Rapaha is not known as an official track but recommended by locals. Crossing some Maori property, the way up is a little bit hard to find. Walkinsg between the sheep and in their poo. The track up the mountain surprised me, definately not a standard walk; most parts crawling through the bushes, and squeezing yourself through narrow cliffs and rocks. When you reach the top, don't forget to turn right and walk further through the bushes for a magnificent view over the lake (standing on the rocks). It's a 2 hour return. It was 1:30PM and I had half an hour to go back to the hostel...hmm, how do I shorten 1.5 hour into half an hour? Not possible, but I looked like cycling the Tour de France. And what happens while you're on top of an unknown track? Meeting Dutch people. Tyler, Julie, Clem and I jumped in Tyler's car. We are going to Waitomo! Yeah, yesterday I booked a bus to Waitomo and luckely I dind't gave my Credit Card details. After meeting my new crew I heard they were going the same direction. So I just cancelled my bus, Sweet As! Heavily packed we drove...so much fun. Maori music in the car, singing, dancing, spliffing and a new game on the road; 'Target Juju'. Try to hit someone with objects using warning signs on the road as a katapult...perfect when hitch hiking is getting boring. We found our way to Waitomo easily, the swimming pool at Juno Hall was crap, but we had trampoline, a tennis court and a lot of farmlife. The deer was a little bit horny, first trying to bite my balls and after; climbing on Tyler's back hahahaaa. Playing tennis in the dark was hardcore, maybe we should dip the balls in petrol and set them on fire? Or just use glow worms? After wine and green the trampoline is so cool! Yeah, we're getting younger and younger.

13th of August THRILLSEEKA! ADVENTURE TO THE CORE...ROCK CLIMBING, ABSEILING AND SERIOUS CAVING

Damn, caving adventures are priced over the top here. Rafting, 1 x abseiling, seeing a cave on a boardwalk and some glow worms can cost you between 145 and 395 NZD (pictures excluded). The girls had no time and went to the touristy concrete paths of the Glow worm Caves. Tyler found a bochure of Green Glow for 100 NZD. This was something we both didn't expect; An unbelievable day, we started fitting our clothes and equiptment at 10AM after feeding Paul's funny pigs and goats. Is this a joke' Getting these blue and black sriped strecht pants and a purple vest> I looked like a chick in that outfit. But no, I had to keep them on. Paul is running his own business after his jobs at Rap, Raft and Rock, Spellbound and more of the wellknown companies here. We could decide what to to, the first 1.5 hour we did rock climbing on the lime stone cliffs in this area. Class 13 was easy for me, but class 15 was not to be done by me. I didn't had enough strength in my fingers after a while to pass the 'roof'. I tried so many times...shit. But a cool experience, to be continued. Followed by 5 abseils (from lime stone towers, cliffs and into caves) up to 30 mtres high. Serious caving for 4 times. And you better have some guts cause it's not for pussies. You will get cold and wet till your belly. You can hurt yourself easily and there are no tracks, boardwalks or lights. REAL ADVENTURE! Eels, cave spiders and many many glow worms! So cool, having you lunch in the dark surrounded by thousands of glow worms. Climbing down strong waterfalls in the jungle, climbing down underground waterfalls, crawling through the smallest holes and squeezing yourself through the walls. Big pieces of rock fall down sometimes during the light earthquakes. ARe you claustrofobic or not adventurous? Better stay at home pussies ;-) And it's so much better when the tour is personalised like this. Paul was copmpletely into photography, he had tripods and external flashes with him to make the most amazing pictures in the caves. I learned also something about photography today. After 8 intensive hours it was time to stop, the big storm started outside and it became stronger and stronger. Paul even gave us free dvd's and stuff! What an experience and that just for 100 NZD.

14th of August WHICH DIRECTION? PARTY TIME IN RACIST AUCKLAND...

Wake up, what you gonna do? Bad weather...New Plymouth and visiting Desiree or heading to Coromandel? I got a ride with Tyler to the airport of Auckland. A 2.5 hour ride through rainy NZ. The highlight op the trip, this dumm ass looking black donkey on the middle of the road that didn't want to move... IE AHHHH! Tyler, thanks for the lifst and the food buddy, see you in California. I heard Nick was in Auckland and it's Saturday. TIme for some party! 'Welcome home' said the Fijian Bro at the hostel in Auckland. A warm welcome, maybe NZ will be my 'home' one day... I'm leaving 2 Coromandel tomorrow so free Wifi ayt the Library (you gotto be patient, it takes at least 20 minutes before you have any connection). Hemp Store, oldschool sessions, drinking beers, buying six-packs of my favorite DIESEL. Dumpling at the Food Alley, damn that guy was bad...service in NZ is not always the best thing. Treating us like a bunch of retards and no possibility to pay with any card. The good thing, dumpling is da shit :-) More drinks and sessions, hanging out the window in the hostel, braincrackin Dubstep through the speakers...Auckland we gonna rock! Feeling hungry, Indian Restaurant Ravis was the most expensive dinner in NZ so far, and seriously good stuff over there. Nad now on our way to K Road to find that 24-hour pumping night club. It's cold in NZ, but all girls dress like it's a Playboy contest. Yeah, good times for the senses. TIme for some chill out at Little Turkish Cafe for some sheesha. Thailand memories dude! Only difference? They didn't want us in the cafe. Sheesha not possible, why not? Everybody has one here. Not allopwed to buy alcohol, while all the other tables have beer and bottles of wine on their table. And if you have ordered and payed, you have to ask a couple of times when we gonna get ou sheesha, tea and food. Again zero service and they treated us like shit because we were the only non-Turkish customers. If you emigrate to another country you better enjoy your work...or stop being an asshole :-) After all the pleasures of this evening we were too fuckin tired to look for a good nightclub, the nightlife wasn't that interesting this evening. When I walked my mind walked faster then my body whoosh... Good to meet my Canadian buddy again. Jumping Nick, he just loves doing all the possible base/skydive/bungy jumpes in NZ. See you in Nimbin!

15th of August HITCH HIKING SILENT COROMANDEL, GETTING LOST IN THE JUNGLE

A mistake with the booking system with 360 DISCOVERY, really cheap price with the ferry HALELUJA TECHNOLOGY! No more storm but still grey and windy. 3 hours on the Ocean, Coromandel Town was dead. Lion's Den hostel looked really cool; African hippie styled place but there was nobody. So hitch hiking? Hell yeah. No rain so thumbs up. 10 minutes, Kiwi Micky did the first part and dropped me off at a better location. 10 minutes later, Karen picked me up and showed me Matarangi Beach. She and her husband have their own local Brewery; Coromandel and invited me to take a look at the brewery. From Matarangi it took me 1 minute to get my 3rd lift of today; surfdude Tama (Maori for 'boy') dropped me off at Witianga. THis temporary workless fisherman, contructionworker, snowboarder and surfer just knows how to enjoy life. The hostel was quiet but amazing. Sue showed me around, I'm gonna wake up with a view on Buffalo Beach with the sunrise...and I can just stay in my bed to see it. Free kayaks and stuff. Weather is getting better, so tramping is the activity for today. Mini ferry to the other side of the river, a few slippery walks on cliffs and yeah, it was about to happen some day... I GOT LOST IN THE JUNGLE! Taking a directtion that looked like a sort of track but the forest became denser and denser. Stupid as I am I kept on walking and finding my way through watefalls, river, bushes and rocks. I was lost hahahaaa, took some time but at the end I was back on a track again. Some cool sceneries and Vince be carefull on the rocks at the beach. So slippery, wrong shoes and feld off the rocks some times. Mussels all over the place. After some fresh barbequed fish of the locals it was the end of a relaxing day at Coromandel.

16th of August I'M SO LUCKY IN PARADISE! NEW CHUM'S BEACH, HOT WATER BEACH, TV STAR

7.00AM get ready for the sunrise, it is the best spot to stay here on the beach. Hanging around with some local girls on the beach early in the morning. What's the plan today? A speetboat tour for half the price or renting a bike and cycle the whole day to see everything? Nope, just talk with some people and find out that there are 2 Canadian girls driving around Coromandel today and going to the same places I wanted to go. How does it work? Just ask if you can have a ride with them and smile. A 20 minute drive to Whangapounga, drive all the way to the end of the road. According to some of the locals you have to cross the river. We didn't have a boat so the only way is through the water. Small backpacks above our head and go. Edith and Lisa were adventurous enough and I like that attitude. Not sure if this was the way to New Chum's Beach. A 30 minute walk through the bush and WTF...this is definately one of the top 10 beaches of the world. So lucky that the sun came through and the sky turned blue. It felt like being on the stunning beaches of Thailand again. This beach is the only beach in NZ completely untouched, inaccessible and hidden in the bush. It was worth a cold swim and a slippery walk. Chilling out, enjoying the sea and the white sand, getting a tan, having a few drinks and some fruit, swinging at one of the trees, listen to the sound of the birds. We had to go after a while. On our way back we bumped into the National TV crew of TV NZ. Karen told me yesterday about the plans of building a road and start with building 20 houses on this beautifull piece of untouched NZ. They were shooting a show about this item in 'Close Up'. Ofcourse we don't like these plans so hopefully we helped with supporting the locals and keeping this beach hidden as it is now. And Edith and I are going to be National hero's. A beginning of a TV career? Hahaa. Soaking wet and covered in sand we jumped in their rental car.

A short break at the Deli Bakery in Witianga and getting shocked about shipping costs fore a 5kg package shipping to the Netherlands > damage 109,00 NZD! Getting our free spades from the hostel and woosh here we go to Cathedral Cove. Happy that I didn't rent a bike to do this, there is a lot of climbing on the roads. There we are, heaps of Kiwi Experience kids running around. The sign says 45 minute walk, uhm 20 minutes? Such a shame that they have to put these fences everywhere around the Cove. Again at the right time the sun comes through. Adventurous as we are we walk through Cathedral Cove, climb some rocks, cross some water to go into some small caves and walk back. Edith was on a mission for some wine, we were just 5 minutes late at the wonderfull winery in Hahei.

The last treat of today; Hot Water Beach. You have to know when it's low tide, it was already low tide for an hour so hopefully most of the tourists are gone. 5.30 PM here we are, a pink and purple colored beach with the sunset, bright white foam on the waves from the last bit of sunrays. We runned to the end of the beach where it all happened. STill a bunch of relaxing people hanging around in their holes. We took and borrowed some spades to dig our own hole in the sand. Amazing, you dig a hole and hot water is coming out of the ground. Be carefull, one spot can be cool or warm, other spots can fill up with boiling water. Shit, I forgot my eggs! Finally you can say things like 'Get out of my hole, your hole is hot! would you like to sit in my hole etc.' without having weird looking faces. Time to chill out, bottle of wine, can of Diesel and relax. The feeling is almost spiritual. A clear sky above us, the whole Milky Way above, the moon shining and giving us that mysterious light on the beach. And even shooting stars. Everyone was fun around here. Looking up and thining about how fucking lucky we are with this life. Yeah life is beautifull, this is living the dream. Midwinter and perfect weather in Coromandel today, the only cloud here is the steam of the hot pools that make the view on the stars and the moon even more mysterious. 07:30 PM, we were one of the last ones at the beaches, floating in our pool till the tide came in. So sad we have to leave this place...heaven on earth...

17th of August CURVING AROUND COROMANDEL ON THE 309, WE ARE NATIONAL HERO'S AND HAVING LOADS OF FUN WITH WINE, CHEESE AND DICES

A special sunrise in the morning. Time to leave Witianga, thanks Sue it was fantastic. Edith and Lisa are going to Auckland the end of this day and flying out of the country tomorrow. The same as I do...how perfect can it be? So I joined them in the car. You see, you don't have to travel with busses all over NZ, there are so many other opportunities. The 'famous' and curvy 309 Road from Witianga to Coromandel Town. Whahaaaa, it was the lost world...nobody. Even the Honeyfarm was dead. Self service get your jars of Honey and leave the money in the basket. Our idea; leave a note with 'So funny, we took your honey and your money honey'. No, don't destroy the trustfull Kiwi reputation, so we left the money in a basket full of money. Stopping at the Waiau Falls for a little bushwalk and further on a Kauri Forest with Siamese Kauri trees. Feels like the tropics here with all these wicked colored birds flying around. The plan was to climb Castle Rock today, but despite some blue parts in the sky it was covered in clouds. So after a short pitstop at the waterpark we drove along the sunny Westcoast of the Coromandel. Lunch at the nice beaches, the last time to spot some of the millions of sheep in NZ. And an wonderfull extra lunch break in Thames. Fall asleep in the car and woke up in the traffic jam to dark rainy Auckland...the Kiwi Dream is almost over. Well, one more time a crazy night :-) Edith wanted someone to drink wine with and we had some delicious bread, cheese, dips and wine that night. So the three of us were pretty loud and rowdy in the YHA Hostel, the other (younger) backpackers were a little bit scared and moved a few tables. And we kicked the other backpackers out of the couch in the TV Room because it was time for our NZ TV premiere. Sorry guys, Family Guy is on screen tomorrow again... Loads of fun that night, beating those Canadian girls bigtime with their own dice games hahaaa ;-) Thanks for the lovely days girls! And Nick was still in Auckland, so meet up again at night, see you in Nimbin buddy!

NEW ZEALAND, SWEET AS BRO! INCREDIBLE COUNTRY WITH REAL ADVENTURE AND PEOPLE I WILL NEVER FORGET!

Yes, this country full of sheep and mountains was special. Snowboarding in your t-shirt, the crazy party's, good times with the locals and specially the good times with French and Canadians, stunning days full of tramping, the wildlife...well too much to tell. 6 weeks is nothing, I could stay here for a year travelling around. NZ I will be back!