Martijn's Blog

Just south of Rotorua is a Volcanic Valley which was very interesting. The last big erruption was in 1886 and has left a valley of brewing and bubbling lakes and streams. I took a walk there whick was only about 4 kilometers but the scenery was amazing.


'inferno crater lake'


it looks almost like a prehistoric lake here


even the little streams were warm


the water in this lake is blue like a swimming pool but it's 80 C!

From Auckland I drove south to the Coromandel peninsula and went to a hostel that was recommended to me by an English couple that I met in Waipu.

Opoutere was really nice and the beach there was really beautiful too. Just the weather didn't want to play along. The whole Saturday was accompanied by torrential downpours so stayed indoors and played card games and monopoly with a British family.

On Sunday I drove north to Whitianga picked up an American hichhiker on the way. We passed the hot water beach where you only have to make a shallow hole in the sand and you can feel the sand and the water getting hot.





In Whitianga we went to see the new Harry Potter movie in the smallest cinema (7 rows of chairs).

On the way from Whitianga to Coromandel town the road was very windy and suddenly there was a man standing in the corner of the road giving me sign to slow down. Turned out a car had overturned. There was no police or ambulance yet so I got out and asked if I could help. The lady who'd been driving the car was sitting by the side of the road and had a head and arm wound. She told me she just wanted to pick up the phone and before she knew it she had overturned the car. Luckily her little son was not hurt.
After giving her my towel so she could stop the bleeding on her arm a bit the ambulance arrived and I could continue to Coromandel town where I saw a very pretty sunset.

Woensdagmiddag kwam ik bij de familie van Daalen aan. Ze wonen heel mooi half op een heuvel in een suburb van Auckland.


's Avonds lekker spaghetti gegeten en daarna heel lang nog zitten praten met Trudy en Gerard.


De volgende dag terwijl Gerard me zat te vertellen waar ik heen kon gaan en wat de mooie plekken in Nieuw Zeeland zijn, kwamen er 2 journalisten naar de deur om te vragen of ze mochten filmen van het balkon.



Het bleek dat er een gewapende man (uit een 'gang') de buurt was in komen rijden en zich in een huis een paar deuren verder had verschansd.
De Nieuw Zeelandse 'A.T.' kwam in een 4wd voorrijden en probeerden hem uit het huis te praten. Later bleek dat hij helemaal niet in het huis aanwezig was.

After dropping of Holger in Baylys beach I went on to Dargaville and spend the night in a nice backpacker hostel. In Dargaville itself is not that much to do but I saw a Toyota garage and hoped they could fix the airconditioning and the accelarator which was a bit sticky at certain revs.
They fixed the accelerator but they couldn't find exactly what was wrong with the airco. They heard a strange noise in the engine however. The mechanic thought it might be the waterpump...Let's hope it will last the 2 months I'm driving it....

Anyway it survived the 300 km I drove today to Wapui.

I drove past the waterfalls of Piroa, very impressive.

Drove from Pukenui to Dargaville, through the Waipona Kauri forest. The north Island used to be covered with huge Kauri trees but unfortunately most of them have been cut down for timber. In the the forest there are still some left like the Tane Mahuta. This tree is 2000 years old (51 m high, 4.5 m wide)

I hiked with a German backpacker called Holger to a lookout point form where you could see only forest for kilometers in all directions.

I drove up north to see the most northern tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga.

Well anyway the most northern tip where you can reach by car. The drive was beautiful and once you are on the cape you can see the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean come together.


I stayed the night in a small farmstay in Pukenui.

I took the short ferry ride from old Russel to the touristy beachtown of Paihia. There are a lot of things to do in Pahia: kayaking, sailing, boat tours, parasailing etc.
Clearly a whole road full of backpacker hostels was available there.

When I went to the harbour we saw some orca's fool around on the surface. A special occasion because even the locals came running out of the shops etc.


see there in the middle the dorsel fin

I went on the Mack "Attack", a small boat that reaches a speed of more than 55 knots. (100 kmh).

The trip took us out to some islands and throught the "hole in the rock".



just too late for the boat but still a good picture

On Monday I went to the Ngawa hot springs with a Dutch girl and an Australian guy. The springs were very stinky (sulpher) but the lady there convinced us it would be good for the skin. The best thing to do (apparently) was to rub the very fine mud from the edge of the lake on you and then wash it of in the springs.


So we did. They didn't tell us the mud was very difficult to wash off again. After 30 minutes in the springs we were still black and smelly. Unfortunately there were only cold water showers, but it was the best cold water shower I've had.
I threw away my towel and my short.

Bought a car:

and off to the north.

Drove from Auckland to Orewa, where I did some shopping in a Dutch shop. Then on to 'one tree point' where I was enjoying the view for a few minutes when a guy stopped in a car and started talking to me (his name was Bruce :-). He had travelled quite a bit himself, he said and started to explain me where I should go. He invited me to his house for a cup of coffee and he and his son showed me on the map which were the places to visit in New Zealand, very friendly.

Anyway I drove on further north and had lunch in Whangarei, then went on and drove to
Russell, where I stayed in a backpackers cottage with an enormous dorm room consisting of 2 beds, managed by a Kiwi/Pom.

Well this my first single flight ever on which I lost an entire day: I left Thursday, 10 November at 23:25 from Santiago and I arrived in Auckland Saturday, 12, 04:00.

The trip started very good: on both legs I was placed at the emergency exit. Usually I will request it at any possible time but they have always been reserved already. The woman at the counter in Santiago felt sorry for my for being so tall so she gave me a good seat.
Then when I put the headphones on the first song to hit my ears was: "Never gonna give you up" by Rick Astley. I mean, how much better can a trip start ?
Well my entertainment system hung after wathing half a movie but luckily I could sleep a large part of the flight.

Now I have had a shower I feel ready to face the day.


Auckland skyline


immediately in the right atmosphere

After another 10 days enjoying the goos life in Buenos Aires (and actually having caught up with the finnish couple a few times) it is time to say goodbye to the city that has been my home for the last 6 months. I am sure I am really goin to miss this place.
As I am sitting here in the Santiago (yes once again) airport lounge, I already miss Buenos Aires a little. This 12 hour layover at least has given me a chance to catch up on this blog.

Only my email backlog to go!

We went to an argentinian wine expo in the Alvear Palace hotel today. There were more than 150 different wines available for tasting.

After having been to Mendoza we considered ourselves to be worthy of going there. The experience was good: many of the wnies we had tried before were available, but also some of the more exclusive (read expensive) ones.

After having tried about 15 different ones (and no spitting of course) I kept finding the last one the best, as usual.