![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tyresias
A map to reference cities I will mention.
Our 1st quick stop was in Auckland, the largest city. It has ~60 volcanos around it all offering breath taking views. We went to one of the 2 national museum.
A life-size model of a boat Maoris sailed over from Indonesia to Aotearoa (the Maori name for New-Zealand)
A Maori presentation of their traditional stick game. Don't be fooled, it's not as easy as it looks. But I can now do 4 types of movement with the sticks. If my sister ever gets around to videos you'll laugh at footage from our lesson.
The presenters and us at the museum.
The 1st time we went to the top of a volcano it was an overcast day. (we'll come back to Volcanos)
Then we took a flight over to Christchurch, and I posted the picture of the 2 of us there in a previous entry. We had one afternoon to sightsee Christchurch before heading down to Queenstown. We went to a regional museum and learnt a lot about Aotearoa's flightless birds. Our hostel was located in Cathedral Square.
The Cathedral the square is named after in Christchurch
We wanted to rent a small car to drive down to Queenstown. We didn't find one but one company offered us a camper van for dirt cheap (they needed it returned to Queenstown so it was a win-win situation).
A map indicating the road we travelled over the course of 7.5 hours. Keep in mind the total length of the Island is about 400km. Yes, roads are THAT twisty and whiny but the breathe taking views totally make up for it. I haven't had time to upload those yet, but they'll make it soon enough. Just picture the scenery in Lord of the Rings in the meantime :)
Once in Queenstown we went skiing. 1st a local resort. The slopes were short and unimpressive but the backdrop was breathless. I was a Blackcomb rider for 3 years folks, but Whistler doesn't match this type of beauty:
Yup, that was up on the edge of the ridable area trying not to be overwhelmed by such magnificient natural beauty.
After 2 days of that we decided to go Heliskiing/riding (my sister and I respectively).
More amazing views were to be taken in:
*drools* over the powder. That my friends was hands down the nicest powder I've ever had the privilege of riding.
My sister after her fall, enjoying lunch on the mountain while we waited for the helicopter
So we flew back to Auckland and went to Sky tower. It's an attempt at our CN, that is apparently taller than the Ozzies, since they added 20 meters of antenna recently. Anyone can jump from the tower but you only reach speeds of 90km/hour and I was saving my money in hopes of skydiving.
boarded a Stray bus. We were amidst a fun group of folks, a couple German Swiss, Germans, many Ozzies, a Korean fellow and handful of yankees.
1st we went up another volcano on a sunny day. What a difference in view, eh?
Then we went tree hugging (that photo is still up in a previous entry) before arriving in Hahei.
2 different views of Hahei (Hei's nose). We kayak from one spot to the other and then up to the nose.
The 2nd photo was taken from Cathedral Cove. Here's a picture explaining the name of the cove
I believe this is a photo taken in Waikato sight of the biggest left hand side surfing waves (I don't surf just windsurf, but from what I understand most waves start from the right hand side and this is a great place if you prefer your waves to start from the left hand side)
Then we went through part of New-Zealand's extensive caving system where I did my abseilghing while my sister walked atop the caves. The water and crawling prevented me from taking a camera along. Just trust me, magnificient and freezingly cold. There are over 80km of caving area to be done. I barely scratched the surface of it.
The Stray crew enjoying a traditional Hanghi (Maori meal). I can be spotted at the left rear end of the table.
1st the ladies learnt how to dance with a Poi. It's a traditional Maori tradition that used to be done with a rough rock instead of a nice cushiony ball. It was done to toughen up the arms and hands of warriors and mothers. Today it is done largely ceremonially, hence the change to a none harmful object to be thrown and caught. My sister demonstrating a few moves :)
Slim's son who taught me my Haka and how to do the stick game. Only 3 of the guys got to learn a Haka. My sister has promised to figure out a way to send me the video of my rehearsal. Hopefully I can post it soon!
The following morning we went to see the world famous mud pools. I hadn't smelt that much sulfure since leaving the south of Italy.
Then my sister and I had to say goodbye to the Stray crew
After that my sister went back to Auckland to catch her flight out and I went down to Wellington to see 2 special ladies :)
They're beyond cute and hopefully I'm making them blush a few shades of red :p
Sadly I then seem to have forgotten I owned a camera 'cause I didn't take more pictures. umbrainfreeze took pictures of the rubgy game we went to see but I haven't seen them yet. None of the guys in Auckland and I thought to take a picture either. *pout* But it was a blast and hopefully I get to see both the ladies and guys again sooner rather than later!
