less than one week to go and still so much to see!!!

Just one more update from New Zealand.

Here is a map with my route.

I only travelled in the South Island and thought that one month is plenty of time – but it isnt! So I changed my flight for two weeks later that I have 6 weeks in New Zealand but I realized that it is still not enough to see the things that I wanted to see. Of course I havent seen everything but I have been some of the most popular spots like Queenstown, I did my Bungyjump, saw wild seals, penguins, sealions and albatrosses. I saw some nice lakes and walked some very special tracks like the Routeburn or Copland Track.

The Milford Sound Boatcruise was the last thing that I posted on my site. Since then I have done so many things that I just don’t know where to begin….lets start with the Copland Track…oh no, before that Track I went to Fox Glacier.

From Fox Glacier I got a lift to the start of the Copland Track. It took about a day to walk up through rainforest and some creeks until I got to the Welcome Flat Hut. Just next to the Hut there are some natural hotpools. Hot water comes out of the earth and remains in these pools, each with a different temperature. Some of them are red and others are green.

On the pictures the pools look all red but you cannot see all the pools on the photos. There were two pools with the perfect temperature- around 40 degrees warm and neighter red nor green:)…so we relaxed in these hotpools after the walk and when it was raining in the evening it was even better.

On the next day I joined two americans and we walked up to the next hut.

After the second night I walked down again with some New Zealanders and two Germans.

A telephone, after 5 hours walking….it’s a joke, of course, but a good one!

The next day I left Fox Glacier and tried to get to Takaka(see map) on the toptip of the South Island. Like all the time here in New Zealand I travelled by hitch-hiking. My plan did not work out and so I had to spend one night in Westport. But my lift, a Kiwi (New Zealander) showed me a nice seal-colony and I went for a walk there while he went for a surf and so it was getting dark and the next day I got to Takaka in the evening. With another lift, a young couple from Melbourne, still on the way to Takaka we stopped at the “Pancake Rocks”

Here you can see why they are called”Pancake Rocks”

WOW!!!

 

 Thats me when I am travelling with all my gear. Its too much I know, but theres not always a supermarket and if you know me, you know that I don’t like to starve – so I take my food with me:)

Ok, so now I am in Takaka. That is a nice little town and it even has a supermarket! Thats very unusual for a town in New Zealand :)

This hostel in Takaka was one of the best backpackers where I have been so far. Nice, comfy mattresses, videos and every morning fresh homemade bread with honey for breakfast, yummi!  From there I went to Wharaiki Beach, it was just a short stroll from the carpark to the beach

On this beach there were little baby-seals. It was low tide and they were swimming in a little pool, playing and jumping.

I had my swimmers on so I went for a swim with them, they were quite happy and curious to see such a big seal:)  Fortunately their mum was not around. I reckon she would not have been very happy to see me. But apparently she was out fishing.

My next trip lead me to Pupu-Springs.

All Australians: please skip the next part:)

They are natural springs near Takaka and discharge about 14 000 liter water per second (!!!) and thats not enough: At the same time this is the source of the world’s clearest freshwater.

However I don’t know why it’s called “PuPu-Springs”. It’s named by the crazy maori.

From Takaka I went to Nelson, still on the northern side of the South Island. Its nothing special here, nice city and a nice beach. Thats what I cooked for dinner today:

-mashed potatoes/carrots  with korma-chicken- together with good Kiwi-beer of course. cheers!

Puh, now I spent ages on updating my page. The good thing is that the internet is free in this hostel- so I updated as many pics as I could.

Slowly my time here in New Zealand runs out, I have less than a week to go before I will return to Australia again.

I am happy to see my friends there again and to get back to the warm sunny land downunder.

But I still haven’t seen many spots in New Zealand, 6 weeks are just not enough. And the North Island is still on my list- for my next trip:)