Living in NZ is not as simple as it sounds...
after traveling here for quite a while, I got familiar with few kiwi social ground "rules". For example, you should always have small - midsize talk with people you make contact with along your day (cashiers, drivers etc.). It's considered rude if you don't. For a proud rush-all-day israeli guy like me it's difficult to adapt to such customs. Good thing I'm friendly :)
one other thing is working hours. All the stores here closes at 5pm. Even restaurants and coffee shops. The big supermarket chains are open until 8pm but that's it! They got so much free time!

now for the news:
after the lake Waikaremoana track, I traveled to Taupo. Taupo is a small city situated by New Zealand's largest lake. Standing on the other side of the lake, snowy Mt. Tongariro provides a picture-like view.
Taupo considered one of the best places in the world for skydiving. As you've already seen, I took the challenge and jumped from an airplane 15000 meters up in the skies (felt like out of space!). The weird thing was, it wasn't even scary. I was the first one to jump. When they told me, I just walked to the door and jumped!
the free fall lasted 1:05 minutes and felt like nothing I've ever experienced. You see the ground getting closer at unbelievable speed!!
when the guide opened the parachute, I got to see the breathtaking view of the lake, huge mountains and green fields by the city.
this ride was totally awesome.





on the next day I had the Tongariro crossing. Ranked as the most intense one day track in NZ, I can now say it's probably one the best scenery as well.
the Tongariro is 2000m high active volcano located on the southern end of the Taupo lake. The weather over there is crazy!! constant 2-8 degrees wind of 40-80 kilometers per hour!! so you have to keep walking almost constantly to keep your body warmth. In fact, it was so cold that speaking or just breathing through your mouth made your teeth start frosting and you sometimes loose the fealing in your palms!
as always, the girls lagged behind with some israeli people we met on the way. So I joined a group of Dutch people, which where very nice. The wind on the peak was so strong everybody had to lay on the ground so the ground so it won't blow us of the cliff!! The views were astonishing! It was a clear day with the most unusual clouds. There were hot colorful sulfur lakes on top of the mountain, snowy peaks, vast craters and brilliant lookouts.
7 hours later I arrived the parking lot on the other side of this huge rock - tired and full of sand and small stones (which were carried by the wind on the peak).


Mt Tongariro


climbing the mountain




sulfur lakes and crazy clouds!

next stop - Napier. A small harbor city on the east coast. This city has charming relaxed atmosphere but nothing much to do for an on budget traveler. It is located in a district called hawkes bay, which is full of vineyards and host some of New Zealand's best wineries. So we visited one of them for tastings - the wines were splendid. :)

on the way south to Wellington we spent three nights at HIT houses (christian families). One was in woodville. A 80 hackers farm of sweet old couple who adopt many bandoned children. They currently have 8 of them - all polite and charming.
the other house was in Paraparaumu. A fancy beach house of very nice couple. They put alot of effort on making us feel at home and it really felt like it.
it's really hard leaving these amazing people when I go on my way.


the farm in woodville


our hosting family in woodville

Wellington is a pretty cool city. We visited their zoo and museum, been to some impressive buildings and nice viewpoints. Then, we took the ferry to the southern island.


Wellington

3.5 hours on the ferry brought us to Picton. It's a tiny harbor town in the northern side of the southern island (sorry for being complicated :) )
we did some hiking to see the famous sounds and I have to say god was very creative when he made this area! great green hills coming out of the ocean, forming narrow path of water (looks like a calm river), beautiful bays and small islands.
hiking is about all you can do in Picton and we didn't like our hosting family, so left to Kaikoura after two nights.


Picton sounds

Kaikoura looks like a scene from lord of the rings. Huge snowy mountains coming down steep slopes to turquoise water bay. In the middle, they built this town.
this bay is the capital of all the marine life in NZ and host many seals, dolphins, whales, albatrosses and special fishes.
we went on seal colonies hike, which was beautiful, though the seals were pretty far.
now it's raining hard so we stay indoors...

photos taken from the front porch of our hosting family house:




tomorrow I'll be leaving to Nelson (back to the northern shore) and hopefully have christmass eve with a christian family.

happy Hanukkah everyone! :)

New Zealand is by far the most beautiful land I have ever seen. The typical landscape consist of small hills everywhere, covered with green grass and scattered groups of trees of various kinds. You often see huge groups of ships / cows cover those hills. Just eating and chilling. The skies are unusual as well. Multiple layers of spectacular clouds makes the skies look like a 3D picture.



since leaving Auckland, we started using the "HIT" option. HIT is an organization of loving israel christians (mostly senior couples) which are willing to host israeli travelers at their homes. As a traveler, it's a very interesting and cheap accommodation. These people love israel so much! They support every move isreal does and believe with all their hearts that we are the chosen people by god. I always find myself having long and deep conversations with these nice people about religion, politics and society matters - it's just fascinating!
the houses are usually quite comfortable and in one case it was an 8 acres of amazing farm. This couple just finished building and decorating their new house by themselves and I just wish you could be there to see it. Indescribable.


Dorothy and Hans - our second HIT hosts

from Auckland we traveled to the Coromandel peninsula. We had a one day track called pinnacles. It's basically climbing up a 1200m high mountain and get to see the ocean on both sides of the peninsula. There was no one but us on this track and the girls were lagging behind, so I walked by myself and felt so good reaching the top! I even climbed freestyle (with my bare hands) to the pick rock. The view was awesome!!
one other attraction on the Coromandel area is the "hot water beach". It's a beautiful as-seen-in-movies beach where you can dig yourself a hole in the sand and get a spring of boiling hot water!! And it all happens only 2 meters from the freezing ocean water. It's soo cool!! When I finished digging my hole, it started raining - imagine how great that was!


a part of the pinnacles panoramic view


hot water beach!


people digging holes and relaxing

my next destination was Rotorua. Rotorua is a city known for it's seismic activity. The odor of sulfur (= gofrit) is noticeable all over the city - even in my backpacker room!
but the cenery worth it. Gazers, colorful boiling hot springs, steam coming out from holes in the ground and on top of all - the lake.
The Rotoruan lake is about 4 times larger then the kineret. One part of it is stinking yellow sulfur water and the other one is outstanding clear and deep blue water. There is unexplainable thin and clear pattern dividing the two kinds of water, as if they can not mix together from some reason!
thousands of seagulls, ducks and swans swarm the lake. Most of them will come near you if you offer a piece of bread.


Rotrua's lake - kinda' like paradise anit it?




hot spring sulfur pools

next stop - lake Waikaremoana (I will never know how to pronounce this name properly). Along this lake, there's a 4 days track, considered to be among New Zealands top 7 tracks.
since the first km I knew we have two problems:
1. Our bags are way heavier then what they should (mine weighed about 25 kg!)2. one of the girls is in very bad physical shape.
because of these reasons, we were very slow and had too many brakes.
I was very surprised to know most of the trackers were 60+ years old couples. It was even more surprising to see them pass by us as if it's a piece of cake :)
my excuse, which is also my main lesson from this track is that their bags weighed 10 -15 kg (much lighter then ours!)
the track was amazing though. The lake is situated 600m above sea level and the first day was practically climbing a 600m mountain (1200m above sea level overall). On the right side, I had the outstanding lake view and on the left there was the forest I was walking in. The trees were of unformiliar kind with strange huge branches.
by the end of the first day the weather had changed from clear and sunny to thick fog and rain. A cloud covered the whole area. Now I could only see white on the right side and scary ass movie forest on the left.
we arrived the hut 4 hours late, tired and wet. Same thing was the second day. Fortunately, the last two days were shiny ones.


morning view


afternoon view


scarry forest


25 kg of high quailty gear

from lake Waikaremoana we hit Rotorua for one night and then moved to Taupo.
today we had a small walking root by the lake and just chill for a bit.

the food in NZ is expensive (for a long period budget traveler), so you have to fix your own mills to make it cheaper. Since the girls don't know a thing about cooking - I'm also the chef! I can proudly say that up till now, I'm doing a very good gob. Yesterday, for frieday evening, I made fried mushrooms, onion and chicken breast in soy sauce beside baked potatoes with cheese and oregano. It turned out amazing! :)
Thank you mom for all the nonformal cooking lessons!

as for the local people here, the kiwis (New Zealandian people) are inhumanly nice! They always do their best to help and contribute to society. It's like they are living the real life while we are constantly busy with wars, corrupted governments and all that shit. They find time to improve their everyday life, help endangered animals and find remedies for tough diseases.
stupid middle east!! :)

my route up till now