Somewhere in Auckland Airport... mission accomplished

It has been a long time since we wrote something in our beloved blog, the North Island has been keeping us busy, so much to do in so little time! But our adventure through the Commonwealth islands of Australia and New Zealand has now come to an end, a 12,000km journey through hot and cold weather, tsunamis and snow storms, rain and scorching sun, extremes of a beautiful unique landscape which we shall never forget!

Having returned Lucio, our faithful carrier through the New Zealand, it was very nostalgic, but also exciting, to look back at all the places he took us. In the North Island alone, there is much to tell. And very importantly, we have managed to return the ring to Mordor, mission is accomplished. But let us start from the beginning!

Having had some time early on when we were both with a bit of a virus, it was a godsend that we were staying in a lovely hostel in the very North of the South Island, in Picton, where we had free apple pie to help our cure. And it worked!

Taking the 3 hour ferry from the South to the North island takes us to a completely different kind of environment. Not so easy in the North Island to drive for ages without seeing another car. Big towns, many people and certainly more mining for the tourist dollar. But heh, at least we can finally catch some radio stations!

From the lovely and relaxed capital Wellington where we had a view of the democratic institutions and the quality local brew, we moved to our mission, so hard to accomplish, of visiting the Tongariro National Park, a fantastic, otherworld landscape used as the scene for Mordor in the Lord of the Rings film,.. and the film does not even do justice to just how beautiful the whole landscape is, a 17km trek through volcanos, craters, emerald lakes and pristine forest! Thank goodness for the comfortable bed in the evening to recover from the sore feet from all the steep climbing!

Nearby Rotorua, hot streams and geysers reminding us of the Azores on the other side of the world helped further our recovery, if not our body odour! Rotorua was certainly a lovely place, where we were welcomed by a most welcoming kiwi couple, only one needs to get used to the smell of the bubbly mud pools!

On the way to Auckland we still managed a stop at the famous Waitomo Caves, otherwise called the Glow-worm caves for the beautiful little worms who in the dark make us feel like we are looking at a starry sky as we float through the underground streams of these beautiful caves, and another trip to a Kiwi house where hyperactive kiwis were running around... unfortunately these cuddly little birds, the symbol of New Zealand, just love the dark and are pretty fast, so photographying them was close to impossible!

Finally the big city Auckland, where close to a third of the population lives, a huge metropolis with not much history but a nice relaxed vibe to it and a lot of really friendly people - from casino entertainers to city council members to radio new zealand journalists, many people stopped to talk to us for ages in a matter of hours!

And now we are reaching an end, and also a new beginning. The excitement and mystery of China presents ahead of us as we fly to Hong Kong and go to Macau. We look forward to this pearl of the East from the Portuguese Empire (yes, again another one!), and more importantly, to visiting Pedro's uncles who will be our hosts for the next few days! It is just halfway through our travel now, it has been four months now, a little less than that to go! More photos and entries to follow, as access to the internet becomes temporarily easier!

Bye bye Kiwis!