More beautiful kiwi-hiking and cruising in the van…

… And the winner is Danielle… This has been her favourite expression since Danielle managed to beat Carsten in the infamous luge (small go-cart on a downhill track) competition at the top of the Queenstown mountain.

After the Routeburn track we spend a couple of days in Queenstown and surroundings doing a little wine tasting (again :-)), visiting an old gold mining settlement and of course the luge-ride mentioned above :-). We left New Zealand’s adventure capital and headed northbound towards Kaikura via some very questionable and winding gravel roads. On the way we stopped to take a look at a haunted old gold mining town (no ghosts were however present to haunt two Scandinavians) and the less scary elephant rocks.

Kaikura is known for the abundant marine life, which is present in the surrounding waters. We decided not to spend all our savings on a commercial whale/dolphin cruise and chose instead to hang around with some friendly seals at a nearby colony. The final stop on the South Island before taking the ferry across the strait was in the costal town of Nelson. The town served as a base for exploring the beautiful surrounds areas and the days was spent relaxing on Rabbit Island’s beaches, hiking in the Abel Tasman national park and admiring the stunning views of Marlborough Sounds.

Arriving on the North Island, we headed straight towards Lake Taupo where another hike was planned. The Tongariro Crossing is only 19 km long, but took us across amazing volcanic landscapes at a height of up to 1930 m above sea level. This vast landscape was used as the setting for Mordor in Lord of the Rings (little inside knowledge for the nerds :-)). The hike started out in beautiful sunny weather but turned out to be VERY cloudy towards the end (see photos). In the Lake Taupo region we visited the famous Huka Falls, a little picturesque winery and a warm thermal creek in the forest. In the creek we found a naked German traveller swimming around and the next thing we know, he is in the back of our car. As a thank you for the lift he offered us some oranges :-). There is a lot of strange people out there…

One of the reasons for visiting NZ is that Danielle has a friend who is temporary living down here. We found Kattis yesterday in Mt Maunganui where she spends most of her days on the beach kite-surfing. She will be joining us the last five days in New Zealand on our trip to the northern part of the North Island!