Monday, January 31, 2011

Australia

We left Queenstown (dubbed adventure capital of the world) and some pretty cool experiences behind (like skydiving and rafting - pictures to come) and made our way to Sydney (and Bondi Beach). It's a truly amazing city. Now we travelled to the north of the country, to a small town called Townsville (strangely named after Mr R. Towns). It's a hot, humid and ugly town, and we're expecting a cyclone to hit in the next day or two... But hopefully we'll soon be scubadiving in the Great Barrier Reef.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Milford Sound

It was raining, and there were waterfalls everywhere. Amazing place on earth.



gigantic waterfall under me...

the boat got very close to that one, as if we weren't soaked already...
We were surrounded by mountains and waterfalls. 


with our new friend, Jin

Queenstown

After we climbed all the way up for a great view of Queenstown.





Comforting...

Jumping from the sky tower in Auckland





It takes a lot of courage to jump, but once in the air it's a lot of fun! :)


From the sky tower in Auckland

Its over 250 meters tall ...

the view from up there was amazing. 

it was hilarious to see the old Chinese women slowly waking through the 38mm thick glass floor  :)



at the centre is the Auckland Memorial Museum

'Spaghetti Junction'

En route to Taupo


New Zealanders have special signs for cows...

                                                                    Taupo


At the center of a volcano was a lake. The lake is of this beautiful blue only a couple of days each month.




Roturoa and the volcanoes


We visited Te Po, a volcanic site at Rotorua.Unfortunately, we missed out on the Maowi dancing because we decided to actually swim in one later on.


                          The geysers in full eruption. Quite a sight! The stench of sulfur finally got to us at the end.





Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Before Rotorua, the Shire!

                                               Two hobbits



                     The bridge next to the tavern from the beginning of the first movie and the end of the last.

                                              27 Main Road, Shire, NZ



2nd Stop: Hamilton

                  Marc felt that it was necessary to look Maowi to understand the culture.


                          The Gardens of Hamilton featured many different styles, including the indian Mughal style.

                                            A typical Maowi tanning...

Coromandel to Hamilton



First Stop: Coromandel

                      Marc and I did a walk in the forest, in the wild, alone, and we had forgotten our phones. Thanks to Marc's incredible sense of direction though, we did not get lost. 

                        This is where we had set up the van to spend the night.... :D


                  We saw a waterfall, and I had the urge of putting my swim trunks on and swim in it. I had no idea those were the famous Waiau falls.

                 Marc and I chatted for half an hour with Stuart and his ~50 pigs. He learnt that pigs were smarter animals than dogs.