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