On the way to Rotorua

After saying goodbye to Myriam and Bryan for the last time, Dana and I got a quick lift from the guesthouse to the nearest crossroad. From there, we litteraly waited 2 minutes before a nice man picked us up and our countless bags. He was driving towards a city about an hour further, so we got very lucky very fast. He stopped on the way to show us a pretty view of Lake Taupo and told us a bit about the area. The vegetation was particular and you could tell that there was some sort of a micro-climate over there. Cold weather but jungle like forrests and trees.

We had to wait a bit longer for the next ride, about 20 minutes, but it's still not much when you think about it. The young man was very kind and told us a little bit about his family and past trips he had made. He had been to Scotland for work in his twentys and had travelled all over Europe. He was used to pick up hitch hikers like us, but more in the summer time, not the winter. He left us off in Taupo, a touristy town but the spot was not hte best for other cars to stop and pick us up after. We were forced to walk up a hill with all our luggage and tried desperately to get yet another ride. Finally, after we had started to think it was the worst and most dangerous curve to lift our thumbs, somebody was kind enough to stop and bring us 10 minutes from there, at a nice crossroad. There, another very generous and helpful man, Bill, picked us up and drove the last stretch all the way to Rotorua. He stopped to show us some places where we could see the volcanic activity of the area. The smell of sulfure was everywhere and we got to see some steamy mud puddles, with bubbles bursting constantly. It was a strange sight as it makes you wonder when will lava start coming out for good and swallow the surroundings.

We arrived at the Bed and Breakfast of John and Virginia in the afternoon and got a nice room to stay in for the 5 days we stayed there. They were pretty nice but asked us to work 5 hours a day, which was not the usual way to operate with the HelpX program. We didn't have much to argue but were a bit disappointed we couldn't use more time every day to visit the surroundings. We started by scraping paint off the walls of a a bedroom, which needed some fresh coating after years of service. It took Dana and I the first three days to work on 2 walls and all the tiny windows. The house was one of the oldest in Rotorua and it was actually part of the heritage of the town. Old style windows, very high ceilings, it looked really good I must say.
We then cleaned some fans and a bathroom, and I helped John go get a matress from a neirby warehouse. In our free time, we managed to go walk along the river, and take a good look (and smells!) at the numerous bubbly mud pools. Man the smell of sulfure was strong! Some rich people used to go take a bath in those "pools" back in the days and it must've been dangerous with the very high temperatures and boiling water.

We also took a gondola to take an overview of the city and its surroundings, and decided to treat ouslves by paying 35$ for 5 runs of downhill luge. I have to admit, the speed we reached at times was awesome and the 2 different courses were nice. I only had Dana to race against, but we made it fun for both of us. I managed to frighten a lady by passing her Dale Earnhardt style, but I had to entertain myself a bit too!!

Finally, we wanted to do another activity pretty famous in Rotorua, called the Zorg, but the disappointment was total; a 15 second roll inside a giant air cushioned ball, for 35$!! We thought that for that price, we could have a few runs and a longer track, but the thing is a real joke and we mutually agreed on the futility of doing it. We walked through the town a few times and realized our time in New Zealand was coming to an end...
We bought one last bus ticket for Auckland and said goodbye to our hosts. 4 hours later, we were taking our lasts pictures of the Sky tower and the rest of Auckland, a bit sad to leave the country we had been in for the last 3 months and a half, but happy to go back home see our family and friends.


Thank you to all the great people we met during our lovely time spent all over New Zealand, and to all of you who took the time to read my blog at least once in a while ;)
It has been a great adventure me and Dana will never forget.


photo section:

a view of Lake Taupo, on the way to Rotorua
gigantic mud puddle in the volcanic region of Rotorua

steam coming out of the mud holes
popular activity in Rotorua, calle the Zorg
Auckland during the day
the Sky Tower

Retour dans le Nord pour faire du ski

A 7:15 le matin le 14 Juillet, Dana et moi étions dans l'autobus qui nous amenait jusqu'à la pointe nord de l'île, dans la ville de Picton. Nouveau mode de vie, on se promenait maintenant avec nos gros sacs sur le dos, et nos petits sacs sur notre ventre.... On a pu observer une partie de la côte que nous n'avions pas eu l'occasion de voir lors de notre premier passage dans l'île sud. L'autobus s'est arrêté à Kaikoura, lieu par excellence pour aller voir les baleines et dauphins au large des côtes, et nous avons vu plus d'une cinquantaine de phoques en reprenant la route environ une heure après. Ce fut assez incroyable de les voir tous se dorer au soleil au milieu de rochers, et ce à même pas 100 mètres de la route par moments. Je ne pensais pas que ces bêtes apprécieraient le climat doux du moment mais c'est la coutume qu'ils nagent jusqu'aux côtes en provenance de l'antartique.

Arrivés à Picton, nous n'avons eu que quelques minutes pour manger un sandwich et hop, on embarquait déjà sur le traversier en direction de la capitale, Wellington. Prenant le temps de souffler, je me suis assis avec Dana à une des rares tables disponibles et ne suis même pas allé observer les beaux paysages en sortant de l'île sud. La traversée s'est bien passée, si on pense que pas plus tard que la semaine d'avant, des vagues turbulentes avaient forcé l'annulation des activités pour une journée. On a trouvé une guesthouse pour 20$ la nuit chacun mais n'avons pas eu le temps de visiter la ville un peu plus. Dès le lendemain matin, on ramassait nos affaires et attrapait un train pour sortir de Wellington. L'idée était de faire du pouce pour se rendre au ski lodge de Bryan et Myriam, le couple sympathique avec qui on était resté quelques semaines plus tôt. Je n'avais jamais fait ça dans ma vie auparavant mais on savait que c'était assez courant et plutôt facile en Nouvelle-Zélande. Nous avons donc marché un bon km de plus avant de tenter notre chance sur le bord de la route. Après 15 minutes infructueuses, un bon samaritain s'est arrêté et nous a amené à 10 minutes de là. Puis, un autre nous a fait un lift pendant une bonne heure, s'arrêtant même chez lui et nous invitant à prendre le thé et manger quelques biscuits!! Qui a dit que c'était dangereux de faire du pouce? D'un lift à l'autre, nous sommes tranquillement arrivés à notre destination, en milieu d'après-midi un Lundi. Ce fut beaucoup plus facile qu'escompté et ma foi, une autre belle expérience.

Nous avons repris là où nous avions laissé avec Bryan et Myriam, c'est-à-dire dans une atmosphère décontractée et agréable. Seule différence, il y avait plus de monde (d'autres helpers comme nous et quelques clients) et plus de boulot. La température était pas mal similaire à notre première visite et nous avons retrouvé les animaux tels qu'ils étaient. Au menu, du nettoyage, changer les draps sur les lits, passer l'aspirateur, couper du bois pour le feu, faire la vaisselle à presque tous les jours, etc. Dana a profité de notre passage pour aller faire du ski une journée avec Renee, une gentille helper pour la saison. Malheureusement, j'ai attrapé un mystérieux virus la nuit précédente qui m'a fait aller à la toilette de façon inquiétante et même vomir en une occasion. Un peu comme la gastro-entérite, mais ça a seulement duré 24 heures, même pas. J'étais de retour sur pieds le lendemain et trois jours plus tard, c'était au tour de Dana d'y goûter..... Pas le fun, elle l'a eu plus dur, vomissant à 13 reprises et ne pouvant fonctionner pendant 2 jours. On a trouvé du temps une journée pour aller skier ensemble mais je fus confiné à LA piste de débutants tout l'après-midi, ce qui m'a un peu déçu. Néanmoins, je m'améliore et fus content de faire plaisir à ma copine. Elle et Renee ont acheté la passe pour le haut de la montagne, si bien qu'elles ont pu bénéficier de plus de pistes. Avoir su, j'aurais fait de même mais n'ayant pas compris les délimitations de la montagne, ce ne fut pas possible. Il faisait doux et et le site alpin, avec tous ses rochers jonchant les pistes skiables, fut un beau spectacle à voir à notre arrivée. J'ai conclu mon séjour au ski lodge en vendant mon laptop déficiant, avec l'aide de Mike, l'associé de Bryan. Il a mis son disque dur dans mon ordinateur et je lui ai remis 20% de la vente. Je n'ai pas eu un gros montant, mais c'est mieux que rien et sûrement plus que ce que j'aurais eu au Québec.
Dernier arrêt, la ville de Rotorua, en se rapprochant d'Auckland et de notre avion à prendre sous peu...

section photo:

lever de soleil sur Wellington

route sur l'ile Nord
traversee de moutons sur la route

"Mt. Doom" enneige

la gang au ski lodge

Goodbye blue van!

We found another place where to stay in Christchurch for our second stop over there. We had planned on going back to visit a bit more this beautiful city and try to sell our van as our time in New Zealand is winding down. During our stay at David and Yvonne's house, we managed to finally bring our van to a garage and get it checked out. We were fearing a pretty salty bill but once again, nothing major was to be done and we got out of the Toyota dealership with a tune-up worth 75$. The noise persisted but we did improve the general running of the van.

In Christchurch, we slept for the last time in our blue van, on a residential street. We were glad to wake up in warmer conditions than Queenstown or Wanaka and met up with Blossom and Danielle at night. Danielle is a french canadian from Manitoba and I enjoyed talking and learning about the big french community where she's from. I didn't know much about it and it was good to have another perspective of french spoken in Canada outside of Quebec. Blossom was also nice and introduced us to some yoga sessions. The two ladies both had a few tasks to assign to us, like repairing the edging in the front yard, water blasting the outside walls and entrance of the house, weeding and most importantly, painting the whole laundry room. We first had to remove the wallpaper and scrape the walls, then do all the painting. We did a pretty good job and could finally see clearly how helpful our work can be. We took some time to post an add to sell our van and were very surprised to get some interest a day later. We were told winter is the off season for selling vans so that's why we decided to start advertising ours in advance. We arranged a meeting with a couple, frenchman Florian and his german girlfriend Beatrice. I couldn't believe how thick his accent was although he had a good vocabulary and grammar. They made a pretty good offer right from the start and I didn't have to work too hard to get the amount I was looking for in the end. Very surprising how easy the whole thing went and Dana and I were sad to part ways with our lovely van but happy to get a worry out of the way. We even managed to sell it 600$ more than we bought it...

On our last night in Christchurch, we hooked up one more time with our german friend Felix, who had come up from Wanaka the previous night. There was an important rugby game in town against South Africa so we decided to go watch it in a giant bar called "The Holy Graal". They have the biggest screen in the southern hemisphere and the place was packed. At least three stories high, everybody was analysing every move of their national heroes. It was also nice that Danielle came with us, as we talked football and sports in general during the game. We said goodbye to Felix after the game and woke up early the next morning to catch a bus at 7:00 a.m.
Our journey in the South island was pretty much done...

photo section:

Me, Dana, Felix, Olga and Mathias

Danielle, Dana and Felix

A trip to Edoras

Before finding a place where to stay in Mount Somers, we stayed one night in Timaru. This coastal town was bigger than expected and very pretty, with a lot of hills. The night in the van was a bit scary though, as we parked in a big public area between overpasses. Young drivers came and went for about 2 hours just after 10:00 p.m., and were either making a lot of noise or parking and staying in their car for long stretches. We thought we wouldn't be bothered with the rain coming down all day and night, but that didn't stop those young fellas from doing their thing. Nobody came close to the van but I was on my guard the whole time... The main reason to stop in Timaru was to find a garage where we could get our van checked. But of course, none were open in the morning since it was saturday and we decided to spend a little time in the local arts museum. After a few hours looking at nice paintings and pictures, we headed to Mount Somers where Yvonne and David welcommed us. They run a holiday park and winter is the big season for them as people come to stay at their place while skiing in the nearby mountains. Our timing was good since 84 college students were coming that week. All the cabins and caravans were packed and we had to make sure they were aired out ot that the heaters were turned off during day time. Among other chores, I swept and mopped floors, trimmed dalias with Dana, did the vaccuming, washed the dishes and played a lot with David and Yvonne's grandson, Sam. Probably one of the biggest 4 y.o. I've ever seen, he talked all the time but was good company. Very smart kid too, and pretty logical for his age. Dana spent most of her time doing some housework. All and all, we didn't work too hard as David and Yvonne were very easy going and didn't count the hours. Every day, we would stop and have morning tea with cheese and crackers. We ate like kings once again and felt privileged to have found such lovely people.


We struggled a little bit to find activities to do in our free times but the best part was definitely when David offered to bring us into the "high country". Some magnificent landscapes are all around the place and David drove us to an important Lord of the Rings site, EDORAS. He was actually an extra in the movie where you can see him for a second and a half in The Two Towers. He showed us where all the scenes were shot, the different camera angles, the time of the day when they would shoot, the small conversations he had with some important actors, etc. Dana was very happy and I felt lucky to have had such a "guided tour". The only downpoint, I didn't have any tape left in my video camera so I couldn't capture anything from the visit...
Though it turned out to be one of the high moments in our trip, so I can't ask for much more!!



photo section:

Edoras, in the middle
getting to Edoras
close-up
Dana and I trying to smile in the sun
lake in a nearby community
picture with little Sam
last picture with Yvonne and David

Finally, Mount Cook

The trip to Wanaka ended up being very short as the weather did not cooperate once again. We stayed one night in a campground and were happy to feel warmth in the kitchen!! Around twenty people were there for dinner time and we enjoyed a nice meal. Shortly after though, it started to feel cold again as everybody left and we went to bed in our van, with another freezing temperature (-8 oc). The bright cloudless sky at night probably had something to do with it but it was a totally different scenario the next morning. We couldn't see the beautiful mountains around the area and were very disappointed. Dana and I had decided to first do a little hike up a path in the mountain, then go to a puzzle museum which had enigmas for adults to solve and then possibly go to a local brewery. The first plan quickly died, the museum had doubled its price in a year and the brewery was only open in the afternoon... That's when we decided to just keep on going and skip Wanaka, similar to Queenstown but less touristy. We drove with the intention of reaching Mount Cook, if mother nature would only let us see it!!!

We crossed the Lindis pass to get there, which is pretty high betwwen the mountains and was closed the first time we drove in the area. It can be very icy and it is recommended to drive with chains on the wheels at times. We finally arrived in the area and caught a glimpse of Mt. Cook. Just behind Lake Pukeki, it was quite a pretty sight. We then drove the last 56 km and arrived on a long patch of ice. It was still early enough to do a little hike and although we didn't have any boots, we walked about 50 minutes in the white snow to reach the moraine of a glacier (just in front of Mt. Cook). We took a few pictures and walked back to our van. We finally enjoyed a night with the temperature over 0 oc and it even started to rain! In the morning, a lot of snow melt, bringing ice to the surface. I managed to get out of my parking space but got caught (once again) a bit further trying to keep the momentum going. The wheels wouldn't stop spinning and it was a mess to try to push the van in the rain. It took more than an hour to find someone willing to help and push us back onto the road. Later on our way out, the van started to lose power and the fuel needle dropped noticeably. We couldn't believe it, everything was going wrong that morning and in that area in general. But once we reached the closest town (Twizel) and brought it to a mechanic, we were told that the bad weather was probably the cause of the problem. Relieved but still skeptical about the van, we headed towards Mount Somers, about an hour and a half before Christchurch.

Photos coming later...

here they are:

just before the Lindis pass

Lake Pukaki with Mount Cook in the background
beautifull chain of mountains
road where we got stuck the first time around
Mount Cook!
Dana and I in front of the glacier and Mt. Cook

Church of the lonely sheppherd, on the way out of Mt. Cook

Queenstown et Glenorchy

En quittant Dunedin, une autre tempete de neige fondante vient nous donner la frousse. Surtout que les cotes a monter avec la van sont longues, Dana et moi nous demandons si nous avons choisi la bonne matinee pour essayer de nous rendre a Queenstown, a l'interieur de l'ile et en altitude. La region avait ete paralysee par une belle tempete de neige dans les jours precedents, et les routes pour y acceder bloquees pendant au moins deux jours. Mais comme nous n'avions entendu que de bonnes choses au sujet de la ville (renommee pour son nightlife), nous etions bien decides a tenter le tout pour le tout.
A mon grand etonnement, les routes sont bien degagees sur le chemin et la glace anticipee n'est presque pas presente. C'est meme difficile de croire que tout etait ferme quelques jours plus tot et les nombreuses recommandations de devoir se procurer des chaines me paraissent un peu extremes... On arrive finalement a Queenstown et je realise alors que je suis en terre connue; reproduction exacte de St-Sauveur et Mont Tremblant!!! Ma balloune bien degonflee, je ne suis pas abattu mais retrouve ce cachet superficiel et les attitudes "cool" qui ne m'ont pas du tout manque dans les deux dernieres annees. Queenstown etant au milieu des montagnes, tout le monde s'y rend pour devaler les pentes et l'argent coule a flot dans cette petite ville. Tous les prix sont exageres et Dana et moi realisons bien vite que nous ne pourrons skier a moins de depenser 300-400$ chacun, pour une seule journee complete. Les "guesthouses" sont pleines ou on demande 30$ juste pour garer notre van et dormir dedans, soit le meme prix qu'une chambre!! On a du mal a trouver du stationnement gratuit dans les rues avant 17:00 mais finalement, on trouve un grand parking public ou il y a plusieurs autres voyageurs comme nous. On cuisine de nouveau dans la van et decidons que nous dormirons la, malgre le -6 oc annonce. Seules aubaines, internet a 3$ de l'heure et le Happy Hour de 22:00 a minuit dans un petit resto-bar. Nous y passons quelques heures afin de nous rechauffer avant la froide nuit et profiter un peu de la ville de party par excellence...

Reveil brutal le lendemain matin quand un homme cogne dans la porte a 8:20 et nous dit que l'on doit quitter dans les cinq prochaines minutes. Il menace de me donner une amende de 400$ si il revoit ma van stationnee la ou dans un rayon de 10 km. Il nous en faut pas plus pour foutre le camp de Queenstown et aller faire un tour a Glenorchy, une heure au nord. Beaucoup de gens ne font pas l'effort d'aller jusque la mais la route est epoustouflante; lacs, montagnes enneigees a moins de deux km et ciel bleu azur defilent pendant une heure sur notre gauche. On prend un paquet de photos et profitons de la belle journee pour aller faire une randonnee entre les montagnes. On passe a travers une foret ou des scenes du film Lord of the Rings ont ete filmees (mort de Boromir) et nous arretons juste un peu plus loin avant de rester pris dans la route enneigee. Finalement, nous trouvons un site de camping raisonnable (10$/pers. la nuit) et nous gelons les fesses comme jamais devant la tele le soir. La cuisine/salon ne sont pas chauffes et l'air ambiant est plus froid que dans le refrigerateur, si bien que meme tout habilles et en-dessous d'une bonne couverture, il fut impossible d'etre confortable.
Le lendemain, la van n'a jamais voulu demarrer dans l'avant-midi tellement il avait fait froid la nuit et nous avons perdu une belle occasion d'explorer un peu plus ce beau coin de pays. Apres avoir ete "booste" par un gentil bonhomme du coin, on a decide de revenir sur Queenstown, puis apres une petite epicerie, de rouler jusqu'a Wanaka avant la tombee de la nuit.

section photo:

en diretion de Queenstown

une petite photo de moi en chemin
les montagnes juste en arriere de Queenstown

montagne sur le chemin en direction de Glenorchy
meme genre de paysage

campground ou l'on est reste une nuit
vue des alentours
moutons et montagnes
Dana et moi geles devant la tele

montagnes en parfaite symetrie dans le lac

en quittant la region de Queenstown

Dunedin

It turned out we only stayed a few hours in Oamaru, spending the night and gathering some information in the morning. We slept in the botanical garden's parking lot and took a little walk just after getting out of the van. The people we talked to at the center were very friendly and helpful, and I wish we could've had more time to visit this lovely little town, famous for its penguin colony on the coast. We drove out hoping to find a hostel where to work and stay a few days, about 40 km from Oamaru. But it was closed and we then decided it was time to go visit Dunedin.
We stopped two more times on the way, as there were boulders to look at the first place. We didn't get too close though as an obnoxious lady pissed Dana off trying to get 2$ to go down a stairway. On the second stop, we attempted to see penguins and seals in Shag point. I know, the name is weird but it is possible to see those polar animals on certain days. We got lucky and observed four or five wild seals resting on rocks or coming out of the water. The penguins never showed up as they usually appear later in the afternoon, when the sun goes down. A storm came very quickly from the ocean and we barely had time to jump in the van before the melting snow poured in.
We arrived in Dunedin just before 5:00 p.m. and went straight to the information center once again. A chinese girl was doing a survey for her MBA and her target was tourists travelling around New Zealand. We accepted to fill the 8(!) pages for her and talked a bit. As the office was closing, she asked us where we were going and spontaneously offered us to follow her at the University campus if we wanted to take a shower. After what we went through in Shangai just months previously with the tea ceremony scam, I was a bit sceptical about the offer but she kept on gently insisting and even offered a T.V. room as a place where we could sleep. Dana felt she was genuine and I got convinced to try, not knowing where to go anyway in that brand new city. It turned out she was really trying to help us and we stayed three nights on the Otago University campus!! It was so nice of her we had trouble understanding why at times. But it must be in her nature as Xiaoling even pushed it and gave us her username and password to access the internet from the University!!
We were really thankful and spent some nice time visiting Dunedin, even with the bad weather. We went to the arts museum, inside an old church and the most photogenic building of all New Zealand, the railway station. We skipped one main atraction over there, the Cadbury chocolate factory, as it cost 17$ to visit. We can buy a big 750g bar for 3$, so why bother...

photo section:

a church in Oamaru

our van in front of the city hall (between rain showers)

a beach with boulders we never got to see...

the few seals we got to see on the way to Dunedin

an old church in Dunedin
the big train station next to an old prison

the Dunedin train station

Missed attempt at Mount Cook

We left Christchurch on June 20th and headed towards Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. Still very flat on the way out of town, we stopped a few times on the way to try to find some other place to stay and work. It didn't work out that time but we still had some nice scenery on the way. It got colder and colder, especially where we decided to stop, in Lake Tekapo. The fog settled all around the area and we didn't even get a chance to take a look at the beautiful spot. We parked the van in a big parking, next to a bar and a few shops. Surprisingly, we found a nice piece of lamb for 5$ and cooked a good meal inside the van.

After a relatively decent night of sleep, we woke up with frost on the ground and trees. The van almost didn't start but we managed to get out of there after a few tries. Still foggy, we stopped many times to take unusual pictures of the frosted landscapes. We drove next to a giant turquoise lake (Lake Pukaki). The minerals released by a melted glacier are the reason for thsi particular color and it turned out to be really special. Even with the bad weather, we took the road heading all the way to the village of Mount Cook but got some snow half way up. We stopped at an information center to get the latest weather update but by the time we got out, there was almost 10 cm on the ground. It suddenly really looked like home and I had to quickly get back my winter reflexes. We never made it to the top as it became more and more dangerous to keep the van on the snowy road. I even got stuck trying to make a u-turn but got some help from a bus driver and his assistant moments later. Very disappointed, we safely made it back to the highway. We then tried to get out of the area as fast as possible as we heard we might be stuck in a small town (Twizel) for the next two days. A bit nerve wracking, I drove very slowly out of there and was lucky to find rain about 50 km later. Some people had put chains (!!) already and they were selling them for over a 100$ for two!?! At that time, we had decided to head down to Oamaru, before Dunedin, on the east coast.

photo section:

a mountain peaking out of the clouds

a view of the intense fog

frosted tree in front of a barn

close-up of the frost

view of lake Pukaki

people taking pictures

Christchurch

We arrived pretty early on June 15th, after sleeping in Springfield and spent the day visiting Christchurch a bit. We had previously booked another place to stay at in exchange for work, but we had to arrive around 6:00 p.m. The city is very pretty, with a lot of history about the birth of the region (Canterbury) around 1850 and the Maori people living there prior to the settlement. Many, many churches are visible on every main artery, most of them made of stone, and the most famous is the one in "cathedral square", as seen on the picture. At night, we met Patricia and David White around a nice dinner and started to work for them the next day. I helped him in the garage for about 2 hours, and I had never seen a filled garage liked that before in my life. They had moved back in the house a few weeks before our arrival, so that explains all the boxes and stuff David and I had to sort out or rearrange. We then went on the road to run other errands. Dana was assigned on the computer once again, doing data entry this time. On the other days, she cleaned up the bathroom, hung the clothes outside where it really started to be cold (3-4 oc in the morning, frost a few times), and we both cooked and did some gardening twice. I vaccumed the whole house, cleaned the floor in the kitchen, cleaned the greasey stove and hung some clothes as well.

We decided to do a recommended walk one afternoon downtown, and it was pretty nice to stop here and there and read about the history of the buidings or parks. We visited the Canterbury museum for about 2 hours, which was lovely. Lots of information about Maori people and the settling of the first Englishmen in town. Queen Victoria is mentionned a few times for sponsoring some of the operation, which surprised me a bit. She has an important part for Montreal's history as well....
Finally, we climbed the big hill that runs between Christchurch and the harbour (with the van), and took a nicve look at the whole plain where the city sits. A bit hazy, but some good footage nonetheless. We kept some stuff for later, as we will probably go through Christchurch on our way back from the "deep" south. As the second biggest city in New Zealand and its definite english style, Christchurch is a must for anybody visiting the country. Big but not overwhelming, it is hard not to like it and there are plenty of places to go out at night and during the day. Different from Wellington, the bus is also a good way of travelling, unless you want to try the tramway, only there to catch tourists though...

photo section:

the view when we woke up one morning

a familiar name...

an english phone booth

an old government building

from a park in Christchurch
a picture of Christ college

an overview of Christchurch

view of the port, Lyttleton

On the way to Christchurch

After finishing our stay with Rory, we had decided to take the road leading on the west coast, where the scenery was said to be very pretty. Two relatively big towns were on the way, Westport and Greymouth, and we chose the first one as the place to stay one night. On the way, we stopped for a quick hike. we paid 5$ to walk over the Buller river on a long swing bridge, which was 18 meters above the water. We learned some interesting facts about the region, and some major earthquakes that have happened there before. The water level went up so high after those events, it is almost unbelivable; more than 10 meters!!!
We then arrived in Westport where I must say, there wasn't much to see or do. Probably the biggest surprise so far, nothing to really write about. The next morning, we headed straight for Greymouth and the scenery was worth stopping for; the beautiful coastline and the blue sky made for nice pictures. Some areas were very humid and it flet like a tropical climate at times.
Definitely one of the prettiest roads so far, I stopped more than 5 times to look or film. It was nice to get some warm weather for a few minutes. We tried to go see the pancake rocks, famous for the way they look and the water erupting out when the tide is coming in.
We then stopped in Greymouth, and the city opening after the mountains was a particular site. We checked at the local city centre what were the activities in the area, but they all cost a lot of money (white water rafting, kayaking, caving, jumpimg from a plane) and the weather was cold, and it was a bit too late..... so we decided to start crossing the land again towards Christchurch, on the east coast.
We took a less crowded road to again enjoy the scenery and we were once again served with beauty. Mountains with snow on top, green plains, animals and really open spaces, you have to come to New Zealand to really get how pretty it is. Arthur's pass ended up being the most difficult part of that drive, as it is pretty high between the mountains, on a very steep road. I had the van struggling to go up at 20km/hour, I was going slower than 18 wheel trucks!!!
Finally we got through and slept in our van in a city called Springfield (about an hour away from Christchurch). We cooked a nice spaghetti and woke up the next morning with ice on the ground and fresh snow on the mountains...

photo section:

new zealand's longest swing bridge

watch out for the penguins' crossing
the beach on the way to Greymouth

close-up of the west coast

Greymouth's history (mural)

approaching Arthur's pass
Arthur's pass

Nelson region

Rory is a nice man we stayed with for 5 days. After our brief stay in Blenheim, we decided to do the HelpX experience another time to save up a bit of money and try to do some kayaking in the area. Rory was a good fit for us, having hosted a few people before us and knowing the drill. The only down point was that we had to sleep outside again and not in a comfortable bed as is usually the custom. He had his own van to offer as a shelter and we experienced the arrival of winter big time!! The temperature went pretty close to 0 oc a couple of nights but we sucked it up with lots of blankets and got a nice preview of what it will be further south. Good sign though, we realized our van is better insulated than we thought at first with all the carpet on the inside walls.

We had some nice conversations with Rory, who was born in Sri Lanka from English parents. His family had gone there during the colonial period and his dad owned a tea plantation. They had to move when times changed over there and British settlers were not welcome anymore. He then travelled a lot, going to over 30 countries in a span of a few years. He now runs a transport business, driving hikers to the foot of mountains and trails and picking them up at the end of their journey. He was laid back with us and made us do all sorts of chores during our stay. Dana sat in front of the computer most of the time, helping him update his website with abundant information on each trail. She did have time to help me with reorganizing the compost section the first day and move some stuff from behind the house to the new shed Rory put up. I dug a ditch (a meter or two every day) so he can bury some electrical wires, washed his little boat and a big work table in the shed, screwed a long shelf to a wall and helped him move around a wrecked van. I did manage to put that damn van right in the ditch I had just dug up a bit, but more scare than harm. We laughed about it later, especially after Rory got out of his van a bit confused about what I had just done and then had to run to stop his vehicule slowly going down the hill…
That Saturday night, we all went to the local pub to watch the “rematch” of the All Blacks vs France rugby match. Of course, as a french speaker, they all associated me to the French squad, but nobody gave me a hard time inside the place. Luckily for me because Les Bleus managed to do worst than the previous week and got a severe beating, 61-11 the final score…… The worse loss in France’s history, I was very quiet for a while… Doesn’t matter, All Blacks against CANADA next week!!! I couldn’t believe it.In our spare time, Dana and I went to the beach one morning to grab some mussels we could eat that evening. We checked out the best time to go, and the low tide was right around 10:30 a.m. We parked where Rory had told us and wandered a bit on the beach before finding the perfect spot. We found so many big mussels, I was so happy; we ended up with 99 in the bucket, not even knowing that the limit is 50 per person!!!. We looked up on the internet for a mussel chowder recipe and Dana cooked the best Boston style chowder (tomato creamy sauce instead of white creamy). I thoroughly enjoyed that meal and we popped up the bottle of Chardonnay we had bought in Renwick. Delicioussss, we watched movies with Rory that night, and almost every night we spent there as a matter of fact. The weather ended up being a bit too cold for kayaking, but we still had a good time in the Nelson area. The last day before we left, we visited the city in the afternoon and parked the van in front of the park where the first Rugby match was ever played in New Zealand, in 1870. We walked a little bit through some streets and stopped in a few stores in town. The sunset was pinkish on the horizon, and we drove back along the coastal town.

photo section:

behind Rory's house

on the beach

me looking for mussels

me finding some big ones!!
view from the mountains
nearby a Lord of the Rings location
at the park where the first rugby match was played

The wine trail

We left Wellington before 8:00 a.m., sailing for three hours towards Picton, first town in the south island. We had a good last look of the city aboard the ferry, and enjoyed some free toast along the way. Jumped back in the van a few hours later and started the new adventure by trying to find a place to stay and maybe work (pruning some trees). It was a bit difficult to find the good combination, so in the end we skipped Picton and headed down directly to Blenheim. After a few tries and many inquiries about the work available in the area, Dana and I decided we wouldn’t work more because you need about a week of training to learn how to prune correctly and all the places weren’t very keen to hire us for only a week. Instead, we decided to stay one night at a Backpacker’s guesthouse (still sleeping in the van though), and do the famous wine trail the next day. Renwick, a small town about 15 minutes away from Blenheim, is the host of more than 25 wineries, 20 of them are in a 5 km range. The idea was to rent a bicycle for the day at the guesthouse, and hopefully enjoy a nice day to pedal around from one to the other. We were lucky and it turned out to be a splendid sunny day, a bit windy but nice anyways. We managed to stop at only five wineries, but there were at least seven different types of wine to try at each place, sometimes even more. I must say I had no expectations at all, but some of the wines (90% white wine) were surprisingly good and tastier than one could think. The wineries were pretty small, but most of them sell their wine commercially abroad, sometimes not to the local market at all. The wind really slowed us down in our attempt to visit as many wineries as possible, but it still was a nice experience and good day. We bought one bottle of Chardonnay at the end of the trip, in a really good place called Huia. All their wines were excellent, and by far the best quality in taste. Lots of flavour, even a little touch of vanilla for one wine in particular, truly amazing.
We slept in a parking lot that night and didn’t visit much of Blenheim, which looks like a nice place to live but not too different from any other “large” town visited previously. We called another guy we could go stay with for a few days in exchange of 4 hours a day of work and drove to his place the next day.

photo section:

the mountains and the grapevines in Renwick

Dana ready to cycle

Me on my bike looking really confident

Wellington

C'est avec un pincement au coeur que nous avons quitte Bryan et sa famille le samedi 2 juin pour nous rendre a notre derniere destination avant le South island, Wellington. Le trajet, d'une duree d'environ 4 heures, s'est bien deroule, avec moins de montees et de collines. Nous avons pris notre temps pour arriver en fin d'apres-midi dans la capitale neo-zelandaise. A premiere vue, les flancs de montagnes en arriere-plan donnent un look particulier a la ville, specialement avec toutes les maisons de style victorien. Elles sont bien entretenues et la majorite ont du etre construites a la fin du 19e siecle ou au debut du 20e. Tout a fait de mon gout, certaines sont plus colorees que d'autres et ce doit etre encore plus beau en ete. Le centre-ville est joli, moderne, vivant et pas trop gros. Un peu comme Montreal, il y a plein de restaurants de plusieurs pays differents, plein de bars ou clubs pour passer de bons moments en soiree, et des endroits ou amener sa famille. Par chance, nous sommes arrives en soiree samedi et avons pu stationner notre van gratuitement en toute quietude pour la nuit. Le lendemain etant dimanche, meme chose, gratuit pour la journee et la nuit. Et le Lundi, fete de la reine d'Angleterre, et oui vous l'avez devine, gratos. Donc on a pu dormir dans notre van au centre-ville gratuitement pour les 3 soirees ou nous y etions. Le premier soir, nous avons mange dans une pizzeria et sommes restes pour voir le match de Rugby entre les celebres All Blacks et la France. C'etait d'ailleurs mon but d'arriver cette soiree-la, je tenais a vivre l'excitation d'un match des All Blacks entoures de fervents supporters "kiwis". Malchance pour moi, comme prevu par 95% de la population ici, les All Blacks ont ecrase les Bleus quelque chose comme 47-11... Revanche la semaine prochaine, a Wellington de surcroit.

Le jour suivant, nous sommes alles visiter le musee national Te Papa, s'etalant sur six etages et impossible a tout voir en une visite. Nous avons jete un coup d'oeil a l'etage "sciences et evenements naturels" ayant touche la Nouvelle-Zelande au fil de l'histoire (volcans, tremblements de terre, evolution d'especes, formation des iles, etc.), ce qui fut bien interessant, puis nous avons ensuite ete observe les evenements culturels qui ont caracterise l'histoire du pays. En soiree, bon repas dans un resto coreen et petite marche de retour a la van. Pas tres vivant un dimanche soir, on a du se coucher assez tot.
Le lendemain, nous avons pris le cable car menant au haut d'une colline surplombant la ville. C'est la qu'a ete prise la photo au haut de l'article. Belle vue sur la mer, le port et les montagnes environnantes, il faisait assez froid malgre le soleil. Nous avons parcouru les sentiers et un joli jardin rempli de differentes sortes de roses, tout en redescendant vers le centre-ville. Le reste de la journee, nous nous sommes promenes dans la ville et sommes arretes ecrire sur nos blogs respectifs pendant quelques heures. Rien de special en soiree, mais bien content d'avoir pu passer deux jours dans la capitale. Nous aurons probablement l'occasion d'y revenir apres notre sejour dans le sud.
Le matin suivant, reveil a 6:00 pour prendre le traversier......


section photo:

le musee Te Papa et quelques residences en arriere-plan
en face du musee, dans le port de Wellington
jolie vue du port
jardin visite au centre-ville
rose

vue du centre-ville de Wellington

Tongariro crossing

Suite a notre passage au Mont Taranaki, nous nous sommes diriges vers le milieu du North island, juste en dessous du grand lac Taupo. Nous avons contacte une autre personne afin d'etre heberge et nourri en echange de 4 heures de travail, et nous sommes tombes sur les meilleurs gens possibles. Bryan, sa copine Meriam, et les parents de Bryan, Morris et Mary. Tout a fait aimables, ce fut 4 jours fort agreables apres la semaine bizarre juste avant. Bryan est un gars dans la fin trentaine et il a achete un ski lodge il y a 3 ans. Beaucoup de renovations a faire sur le complexe, nous etions ses seuls invites (avec se parents) et il avait quelques besognes a nous assigner. Pas de stress, des pauses cafes a profusion, Dana et moi avons peint, sable, fait la vaisselle et aide a de multiples taches pendant 4 jours. On avait meme pas besoin de compter les heures ou se soucier de quoi que ce soit, les grands-parents nous jasait tout le temps, bref une belle atmosphere de famille. Bryan m'a meme fait faire un petit tour de go-kart (250cc), le vent bien dans le nez. Il y avait egalement une chevre, un mouton, deux chiens, un cochon et un cheval qui se promenaient sur les terrains en tout temps, et c'etait bien comique de voir les deux premiers courrir ensemble et se frotter amicalement. La chevre se croyait etre un chien, ce qui etait bien particulier. Le cochon se petait des sprints sans raison en grognant, desopilant...
La deuxieme journee, nous avons fait une grande randonnee connue a travers la Nouvelle-Zelande; le Tongariro crossing. 17 km de long, ca prend une journee pour la completer et c'est assez ardu par moments. Montees en flanc de montagnes, le long du volcan Ruapehu (qui a explose en 1995 la derniere fois), passages entre des lacs verts de sulfure et des lac bleus, descente en fin de parcours qui ont teste nos mollets endormis. Il faisait assez frais, manteau, tuque, gants requis en debut de parcours, puis le soleil s'est pointe pour nous offrir une journee splendide et des moments plus doux. Nous etions si haut en milieu de randonnee que nous pouvions clairement voir le Mont Taranaki, partiellement grimpe la semaine precedente. Un chalet est situe aux trois quarts du parcours, et c'est apres de longues marches que nous y sommes arrives. La derniere portion est pratiquement de la descente, et c'est plus difficile qu'escompte car les jambes sont un peu fatiguees suite a la montee.
Une fois termine, nous etions bien content et un brouillard tres epais est apparu au pied des montagnes, si bien que la van nous ramenant au ski lodge fut obligee de ralentir et faire attention aux automobilistes environnants. Je ne regrette pas une seconde etre alle faire un tour par la-bas, apres avoir ete un peu sceptique aux prealables....

Section photo:

vue de la region volcanique

le volcan Ngauruhoe
Dana et moi devant le volcan
Differentes couleurs
le lac bleu

en milieu de passage (crossing), l'horizon s'ouvre

New Plymouth et Mont Taranaki

C'est le temps d'ecrire en francais.
Apres une semaine tres fructueuse a Kerikeri, la deuxieme s'est termine sur une note bizarre. Le fermier pour lequel on travaillait a commence a nous trouver des bibittes, pretextant que l'on cueillait trop de fruits pas murs (verts). On sentait deja dans les jours precedent que quelque chose clochait puis apres de nouvelles reprimandes et des accusations de gaspillage, il nous a remercie sur le champs. Incroyable, premiere fois de ma vie que je me fais "congedier". Je crois qu'il ne m'aimait pas trop la face pour etre franc, il a dit au gars qui m'avait engage que je posais trop de questions, haha, beau pretexte....Bref, apres une nouvelle tentative de cueillir des kiwis dans des conditions peu optimales, Dana et moi nous sommes diriges vers New Plymouth, ville assez grande a l'ouest du North island. On a alors decide de faire le WOOF, un programme qui permet a des voyageurs de demeurer chez quelqu'un et travailler 4 heures par jour pour lui en echange de 3 repas et un bon lit. Nous sommes tombes sur Jenny et Jon, qui possedent quelques vaches, des potagers et des vergers. Jon, un homme de 54 ans, fut un plaisir a cotoyer. Crack d'ordinateurs, il a meme jette un coup d'oeil a mon laptop brise mais sans veine. Bon sens de l'humour, je crois qu'il se serait entendu a merveille avec mon parrain Jean-Edouard ;) Sa femme par-contre, ouh la, sale caractere et bossy quand venait le temps de travailler, j'ai eu l'impression de marcher sur des oeufs pendant les six jours ou on est reste. Elle a fait preuve de beaucoup d'arrogance par moments, ce qui nous a fait reflechir serieusement a quitter les lieux plus d'une fois. Mais elle a fini par se calmer un peu et on a termine notre sejour sur une bonne note. Elle nous a meme emmene faire un tour dans son patelin, la ou elle a grandi, a environ une quarantaine de minutes de sa maison actuelle. Le trajet fut juste trop beau, bleu, vert, bleu, vert, moutons, vaches, collines par ici, par la, memorable. On s'est arrete en chemin pour prendre quelques photos, on en revenait pas a quel point son caractere pouvait etre different par moments... Dans les taches que nous avons eu a faire, laver le plafond et les murs de la grande cuisine, ramasser des tomates, des branches d'arbres coupes sur plus de 100 metres, des fruits appelles feijoas, des fruits de la passion, laver avec un puissant jet d'eau les facades de deux maisons et passer l'aspirateur. Ce ne fut pas trop penible mais pas tres excitant non plus.
Dans nos temps libres, nous avons ete faire un tour en ville, le long de la cote, et aussi au Mont Taranaki, situe sur les terres d'ou a ete filme The Last Samurai. Tres joli paysage, Taranaki est un volcan endormi en fait et nous avons grimpe une partie de son pied. Le temps change rapidement par la-bas et nous avons choisi un chemin qui nous ramenerait a temps avant la nuit. La neige n'est pas tout a fait arrivee au sommet de la montagne, mais ca ne saurait tarder.
Pendant notre sejour la-bas, j'ai appris la triste nouvelle du deces de mon grand-pere maternel. Ce fut dur de devoir accepter ce fait a distance, mais impossible pour moi de revenir a temps pour les obseques. Mes pensees sont avec lui et je tiens a remercier tous les gens pour leur support envers moi et ma famille.
J'aurais aime dire au revoir a Pepe mais je sais qu'il est plus heureux la ou il est maintenant.


Section photo:

en train de ramasser des feijoas
la route menant au Mont Taranaki
Belle vue du Mont
comme une carte postale
en s'arretant sur le chemin avec Jenny
paysage typique en Nouvelle-Zelande
autre vue de la montagne
vieille baraque
Renault 5, version europeenne

Cape Reinga

While we were in Kerikeri trying to make some money, we decided to go to the most northern part of New Zealand, a place called Cape Reinga. We left a saturday morning and drove for about 4 hours. We could have driven on the beach for 80 km, but a BMW before us got caught in the sand, which made me backoff and take the safe highway. We arrived just before the sunset and took a look at the lighthouse on the tip of the cape. Right in front of us was the meeting of the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean. We then decided to camp in our van somewhere safe, and found a secluded jeep track, hidden by bushes. No sound at all and pitch black, we slept farely well and went on a hike the next day. The landscapes were once again gorgeous and we walked all the way to another beach. On the way back, I met a beautiful green lizard. Then, we went on the other side of the cape to try to surf on the sand dunes. I had never seen that much sand in my life, it looked a lot like when Luke Skywalker saved the day for Han Solo and Princess Lea in the desert!!!
Dana and I reached some pretty high speeds and had a good time. Couldn't take any pictures though, a bit too dangerous for the camera.....


Photo section:

The Beemer stuck in the sand, on 90 mile beach
View from the Cape
Stopping to take pictures
Dana in front of the lighthouse
Some direction please...
Nice green lizard met on the way

New Zealand, Oceania

Finally I have found some time to write about the new land we are discovering, New Zealand. Things have unfolded pretty fast since our arrival here a month ago and connecting to the internet has been more difficult than expected. Nevertheless, we first arrived in Auckland on April 11th and stayed at a backpackers guesthouse. We flew from Tokyo (had a layover in Christ-Church for an hour and a half) and landed in Auckland 14 hours later. The city is nice, lots of restaurants with a variety of food from all over the world. It’s easy to tell the city is not that old and not that big, but pretty expensive. We decided not to lose any time and on the second day here, on Dana’s birthday, we bought a van to facilitate our travelling. Attachez vos tuques, it is sky blue with a red flower on the right side. 1990 Toyota Lite Ace, manual on the left side of the wheel, 4 speed of lightning power, it has a convertible bed that allows us to sleep in every night.
The Dream, the French dude who owned it a while ago did a tremendous job arranging the space inside, and we have shelves to put our clothes in and useful pockets on each side for utensils, wires, soap, personal stuff, etc. We bought it from a Swiss couple for a really good price and so far so good, we haven’t had any problems with it.
The following day, we called some places to find a job and headed to a little town called Katikati, about two hours south east of Auckland. We wanted to pick fruits first, and it turned out to be kiwis, thanks to a German contractor. He offered us to sleep in our van in front of a house, for 10$ a night each. We accepted but quickly, we realized that the man wasn’t doing things properly on the field, taking many pickers under his wing but not giving work for everybody. His reputation was also not too flattering in the area, not to mention some people hating him in the house. I quickly changed tactics and switched to another place and another contractor. We ended up in the local backpackers’s guesthouse, recommended by a few and a bit cheaper too.

The vibe was really good over there, amazingly nice lady at the front office, Carole, and many friendly people from France, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Czech Republic, Germany, Canada, America, Korea, etc. We stayed there for two weeks and had some good and bad days picking kiwis. The weather was not cooperative, it would rain for ten minutes and stop for fifteen, on and on and on, I had never experienced something like that before. So many rainbows were popping everyday. The season was also just starting, which made it a bit chaotic for contractors to guarantee anything daily. One day we would start at 8:30 if the kiwis were dry enough, the next we had to wait until 10:00 or 11:00 for the dew to dry up, the next some inspectors would be checking the sugar level of the fruits, it was not fun to see our chances to make some money slip away for a new reason everyday.
We then shifted to a packhouse when it was announced that It would rain for the next four days, didn’t really like it but we earned a little something. Dana would put kiwis in boxes or stack up some palettes with those same boxes, and I was putting plastic bags in the boxes like a mechanical robot, for eight hours. Then we went back to picking kiwis for a few days for the same contractor, but the situation wouldn’t change. I liked the man, an old guy who had made a fortune in insurance and bought some orchards to make even more money. But Dana and I need to work every day we can in order to save enough money to travel all around New Zealand.

So one morning, about two weeks ago, we moved from Katikati along with Felix, a German guy at the guesthouse, and headed north of Auckland, to a city called Kerikeri. I know, it looks a bit funny the redundant name, but this is where we have been since. We first started picking mandarins, thinking we could make more money quicker, little did we know we kind of sucked at picking mandarins L L. Guess what, yep, we changed again after three days. We were working very hard filling gigantic bins, but only managed to make around 75$ each s day (before tax). You get paid 53$ per bin filled, but couldn’t fill more than 3 a day together. This is when the LUCKY break happened, I met Darcy, a crazy 56 year old Maori who was referred to me through an informal conversation. He needed some people to pick kiwis (again!!) the next day, which was perfect for us. We decided to go with him even though we had to prove ourselves on the field the next day. Turned out Dana and I were faster than the guys he had already and we had a super week of work, finally. In five days, we made 637$ each before tax! Let’s hope the same will happen this week.
Between all those turns of events, we managed to see a bit of what New Zealand has to offer and everything is just gorgeous. It is as pretty as said. The green landscape is everywhere, with cows and sheep scattered over endless hills, the bright blue skies make it just perfect. Some coasts are 200m from really high green hills, so the contrast is very nice.
Much more to come, I want to wish all the best to Éric and Monique on their wedding, and hope to write more soon.
Love you all,

Michel


Photo section:

Waterfalls in Katikati
Nice view going to the Kauri forrest
Michelle, Jorge and Felix, at the backpackers guesthouse
The famous blue van
On the way to Kerikeri
View from the Puketi forrest
Me trying to hug a Kauri tree
Dana, me and Felix in the forrest
In Kerikeri inlet, a hilly road
Me and Dana in front of the lake
Matauri Bay, gorgeous
The beach at Matauri