Peru and Peruvian healthcare

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We landed in Lima a few weeks ago and were surprised how damn hot it was! Lima was a bit of a dissapointment to us, miraflores where we stayed is tourist Mecca and the city is hectic and chaotic, at least that is my opinion about the city.

One word of the bus company here in Peru, Cruz del Sur, it is amazing! Food, pillows, blankets and seats you can almost put down to beds. Very nice! So we took the bus from Lima down to Paracas. There we visited the “poor man galapagos” island, Islas ballestas, where we saw thousands of birds, penguins, sea lions, pelicans and more birds…That was wow!!! We also chilled at the beach and seriously that beach was full of garbage and the sea so dirty we did not want to swim in it. Come on Peru a little bit of cleaning would be nice! After Paracas we headed to Huacachina a oasis in the middle of the desert, so damn cool place! And hot as hell! We took a buggride and went sandboarding in the dunes! Eme and I were terrified of the buggyride but Annina was enjoying it to the max! I went snowboarding on the sand and that pretty much sucked! It is called SNOWboarding for a reason! The sunset though was one of the most beautiful we have seen!

We landed in Cusco about 1,5 weeks ago after a quick stop in Arequipa. Cusco is smaller than the other cities we have seen so far and quite cute. But the welcoming to Cusco was horrible. It was carnival day and guess who got a bucket of cold water poured down from a balcony over my head, very funy, NOT. After some chilling days in Cusco it was time for the legendary Inca trail. Four days of trekking, sleeping in tents, ugly toilets, good food, awesome guide Juan, freezing in the cold, cursing every single step on the trail, amazing scenery of the Andes, porters carrying 25 kg on their back from 3200 meter to 4200 meters during a 5 hour hike and then going downhill on huge steps we finally reached Machu Picchu after 3 days of hiking in rain, sun and clouds. By the way dont buy any trekking stuff from the black market, it all sucks! Rain ponchos that dont hold water etc. Well we reached Machu Picchu and the clouds cleared up and it was beautiful, never seen anything like it before! Juan gave a 2 hour tour of the site and told us about the Incas and their lost city! We were so proud of ourselves that we had hiked up there instead of doing it the lazy way and take the train! Pictures see fb! The train bus ride back to Cusco was a nightmare. We were so dead tired and after 8 hours of waiting on the train before we even left Aquas Calientes was horrible. There had been a mudslide and the traintruck was covered by it so we had to wait and wait. And basically zero and wrong information was given by Peru rail and no damn food for 8 hours so least to say we were pissed. We finally arrived in Cusco in the middle of the night and got to our dorm just to find that some ass was sleeping in my bed, way to go.

Lucky you if you reached this far of this marathon post, now you will read about the Peruvian healthcare. Both Emelie and I had had bad stomachs for some time already and on top of it Emelie had a high fever so Emelie was smart enough to say she wants to go to see a doctor. Naturally we all went with her and thank god we did! We took some tests and the result was that E and I had salmonella and a parasit with a wierd name. I had the ++ mark after it and the doctor was surprised that I even could stand on my feet…Well the recommendation was to get an IV with antibiotics straight in the wain so that we did. Two days in a Peruvian hospital. The nurses and the doctors were so nice to us, we even got a laptop to use, tv with satellite, our own room and they even spoke pretty good english! But never never again. Apparently we got the parasite on the inca trail from contaminated water or food so be careful what you eat here. Now we are back in the hostel and will continue to Boliva tonight with backpacks full of antibiotics, jeei! We will only eat pasta bolognese hereafter.

Well that is all for now! We feel ok and will take it easy in Bolivia, apparently the hygien is even worse there and here so wish us luck! And soon we will be home! Five months is almost over, so strange! See you soon! Puss & kram at er alla dar hemma! Vi tanker pa er! :)

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San Francisco baby!

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Hey y’all from San Francisco, “the Paris of the West”!

We’ve had an awesome time in the city, seen the Fisherman’s Wharf and the famous Pier 39, walked all the way from there to the Bay Bridge (freaking cold and windy!)…and yesterday we rented bikes and went biking over the Golden Gate to Sausalito, which proved to be a wonderful little picturesque town with beautiful buildings and cute restaurants. Emelie swears to have eaten the best pizza in her entire life there, so it’s well worth the visit :) and if you like gnocci like me, don’t miss out on Restaurant Poggio by the harbour, yumm..! :)

Being in San Francisco, we of course couldn’t miss trying the world-famous cable cars! So we did that yesterday as well, went from the end of Mason St all the way to the wharf, and it was such a joyous experience. Perfect sunshine, the wind in your hair and the best standing spot on the car, awesome!

In the late afternoon, after we returned to bikes, we went walking to Lombard Street, which is known as the crookiest street in the world. Even though it’s on quite a steep hill and the road actually swirls quite a bit, I wouldn’t exactly mind living in the beautiful victorian houses there…and the view from there was amazing by the way!

Today we’re heading towards Alamo Square and the picture perfect row of Victorian houses with the city in the backdrop. So looking forward to seeing that spot, as it’s been in so many movies and series (e.g. Full House with Bob Saget and John Stamos) :) will be cool seeing it with your own eyes!

But now it’s brekky time, one last time in SFO, before heading towards South America, starting with Peru. Getting a little nervous, but so excited!! :)
But we’ll get back to u from that side of the world a little later, until then take care and enjoy the snow!

Trio kiittää ja kuittaa! Puss!

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Last of Oceania

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Talofa Oa’u Uo! Hi friends :)
Last you heard of us on here we had just gotten back to Windy Welly – that for once showed its good side ;) we had plenty of sunshine and heaps of fun! The last night there we ended up in the coziest bar ever, the Library. Placed on the second floor with the entry right next to Burger King on Courtney Place, you need to know where to look for the place, ’cause there’s no big sign or anything, just a normaldoor. :) There we sat amongst dusty books and leather couches, sipping red wine…a funny twist was when we found out that the bartender girl was a swedish-speaking Finn, and just like us from the Helsinki area…we even had some friends in common! :) the world really is a small place!

After Wellington we headed for Taupo, and this time had wonderful weather there as well, went to the beach for a swim even! And on Thursday we were lucky enough to be able to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing – a 19,4km hike thru the Tongariro National Park. Made even more famous by the Lord of the Ring movies, as Mt. Doom, which rises up right next to the trek, is featured in the films. We started the trek amongst thick mist, so we were worried we wouldn’t get to see the lovely Emerald Lakes or Mt Doom, but the mist thankfully cleared and the day was perfect in the end! We managed the Devil’s Staircase, all the steep hills and stony downhills, and saw the most amazing views :) We’re so glad we did it, even tho’ our feet were aching afterwards, badly. 7 hrs of trekking, 19 or so kilometres and 3 smiling Finns :) And the Emerald Lakes really were as wonderfully beautiful as on the pics on fb!! :) Not difficult to see why they got their name…

Through Rotorua and off to Auckland, that was the following days’ plan. In Auckland we met up with Alex, a.k.a. North Carolina, who we also spent New Years’ with and met up with several times on the South Island. Strolled around in the city, fixed dinner and went to a few bars/clubs. Fun times! The pubcrawl continues in Helsinki in the summer ;) We also met up with M., a fellow Tjätjä-guide who nowadays lives just north of Auckland.

And so people, we get to the Talofa-part, our little mini-vacation from our vacation – a week on Samoa! :) we flew out of Auckland on Wednesday Feb. 1st and arrived in tropical Samoa around 1 a.m. Being backpackers, we thought we’d save some money and stayed at the airport for a few hours before taking a taxi out to Lalomanu early in the morning :) interesting. The airport’s not exactly big, and as soon as we got out from the baggage claim we were out in the open – luckily we found some benches on which we could crash… E & P slept a few minutes here and there, I myself stayed awake the whole time reading Jo Nesbø :) I got harrassed by a local guy, Eme by a cockroach
- can’t really decide who of us were worst off ;)

Anywhoo, then we spent two bumpy hours in a taxi to get down to the southern tip of Upolu (the main island in Samoa, where both the airport Faleolo and the capital Apia are). We had booked ourselves into Taufua Beach Fales, and boy was that the perfect spot or what? :) The best beach in Upolu and the nicest people :) The family who owns and runs the place were so kind and welcoming, and the food, which was included in the price, was amazing! Pancakes, fresh papaya and bananas, toast with scrambled eggs and various other goodies for breakfast, lots of seafood (tuna) and other delicacies for dinner. One night we even had lobster! Yum :)

We slept in an open fale (a fale is like a little minihouse standing on wooden poles right on the beach, an open fale means the fale didn’t have any real walls only raincovers to pull down when needed), which turned out to be amazing (really keen on that word today ey? ;) ). You can imagine how relaxing it was to fall asleep to the sound of the waves and waking up to the birds and the summer breeze… Was a bit scary though when we got some heavy wind and rain one night, thank god there was a night guard who moved us to a closed fale for the night! They take good care of you, that’s for sure!

During the days we really didn’t do that much, laid on the beach and soaked up all the sun we could find, took a few powernaps or walked along the beach, and read heaps of books. A vacation for body and mind :) In the evenings we usually hung out with the others staying at Taufua, or enjoyed a traditional Fiafia, which is an evening with entertaining Samoan dances and songs. We even got to participate ourselves, which was always as embarrassing ;)

On Monday we took the local bus to the capital Apia. That might sound easy enough, but the journey of maybe 45km took about 3 hrs one-way, so it was a long day.. The roads where in quite a bad shape and the bus stopped every so often to pick up more and more people. And the wooden benches weren’t really designed with comfort in mind ;) was an experience though! Apia in itself wasn’t such a thrilling place, a few dirty streets and lots of cars, some nice flea markets and lavalava shops (a lavalava is like a sarong, tied like a skirt around your waist on both men and women). The bus station was quite interesting to see though, and we even got to see the Bon Jovi-bus mentioned in the lonely planet :D Not many sights to see, we ourselves felt more like sights than anything else, being white and blond. We saw about 3 other caucasians while in Apia…

Unfortunately our tropical paradise vacation came to an end, and after spending a day in Auckland, again, we boarded the plane to Los Angeles, California! 12hrs of pure soreness and sleeplessness, but at least the food was good! (surprising I know, airplane food’s supposed to be yucky, right? But Air New Zealand really outdid themselves – on the way to Samoa we got the best salmon ever, followed by white chocolate and raspberry ice-cream (!!), and during the trans-pacific flight we got lamb/chicken, cheese and crackers and kapiti ice-cream + for breakfast white choc pancakes with fresh fruits and yoghurt…om nom nom!) So now we’re in Hollywood since yesterday, and have already seen a lot, e.g. the mansions of Oprah, Bradley Cooper, Simon Cowell, Julia Roberts and Michael Jackson (and Russell Brand in person!), as well as the Hollywood sign, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, the famous Rodeo Drive and Melrose Place. In the evening we joined a pubcrawl and experienced the Hollywood nightlife! Today we went to Venice Beach to pose by the lifeguard huts like in Baywatch, and from there walked to Santa Monica Pier in the sunshine – beautiful! Afterwards found some cheap converse sneakers (I was in heaven!!) and then P&E took off to go to Universal Studios – blaming it on too little sleep and a sore stomage I stayed at the hostel. Lame I know :)

Tomorrow morning the trip continues towards San Francisco baby! And I can’t wait!! :) We’ve also begun the countdown for South America – J-5! My muscles are already cramping just thinking about the long busrides and especially the Machu Picchu hike starting on March 1st. Yikes! …but first let’s enjoy San Fran and all the steep and windy roads :)

Thinking about you guys back home in the cold, especially you V… (Sending you loads of hugs and strength!) life’s just unfair…
Take care and stay warm, we miss you all!

Faafetai & Tofa (thanx and goodbye) :)

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Heading North…

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So, now we’re done with the South Island, and are on our way back north. The South Island was, in one word, AWESOME. Such beautiful sceneries (almost got an overload), snowy mountains, crystal blue lakes, green hills and sheep-filled fields…the south island really is as beautiful as everyone says. But that doesn’t mean the north island isn’t ;)

Last time we wrote we just got back to Queenstown after our two-day mini trip to Dunedin and our visit to Milford. The last days in Queenstown went by superfast! The day after our Milford trip we rented bikes and did a whole-day biking trip to the other side of the bay. We found lovely spots by the beach, with next to no people, oh the bliss! And the weather was on our side – blue skies and hot sun! Awesome day! In the evening we met up with some of Petra’s friends from the Salzburg times, had a nice barbie with them and then hit the bars downtown, funfun! Thanx M&M! :)

On Thursday we just strolled around the city, met M&M for lunch and icecream, and in the evening treated ourselves to one last Fergie, gonna miss ‘em! :) And so, on Friday we jumped on the KiwiExperience bus that took us to Lake Tekapo – what a beautiful spot! The lake was the bluest we’ve ever seen, looked photoshopped! The glaciers are feeding the lake, so that’s why the colour is what it is – gonna upload pics on fb to show you guys, so check ‘em out :) The village in itself wasn’t anything special, just a few small shops, a supermarket and a few chinese restaurants – which all closed at 8 pm and then the village was d.e.a.d. A cute little church on primespot was pretty much the only touristy thing to see. We did however find the cutest hostel ever, it’s called tailor-made-tekapo backpackers and it felt like being at grandma’s :) and for the first time in ages, NO bunkbeds! *joy*

From Lake Tekapo we continued to Kaikoura, just barely stopping in Christchurch on the way to pick-up and drop-off people. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we didn’t see any of the damages of the earthquake, just passed by just west of the city. It was still sad to hear about the tragedies and misfortunes of people, for example the driver told us that all houses and buildings get colour-tagged according to the risk zone they’re in. Green for the houses that are safe and can stand where they are, orange for the uncertain areas (worst sticker to get, as they’re living with the unknown of stay or go) and red for the houses that are in a danger zone and are going to be torn down or moved. Hard to believe that their lives depend on stickers… The driver also told us about the cathedral and how they’re trying to rebuild it around the pieces left of the old cathedral, but pieces still keep coming off making it difficult to rebuild. Plus that insurance companies are being a pain in the ass, surprise surprise. Have heard from quite a few travellers that have stayed a night or two in Christchurch, that the city centre is pretty much behind bars and you’re not allowed to go there, so there’s really nothing much to see or do there :/

Anyhow, so from Lake Tekapo we continued to Kaikoura, THE place for dolphin swimming and whale watching. Or so they tell us. However, we had really bad luck with the weather, it was pouring down the days we were there, so unfortunately that meant no dolphins or whales for us :( Instead we had a chill movie marathon at the hostel, cooked some great food and just got lost in our books. Next time Kaikoura, next time!

Yesterday we jumped on the bus from Kaikoura, arrived in Picton around noon, ate some lunch and got on the Interislander ferry to Wellington. Never in my life have I experienced such humongous waves on such a big vessel, jeez what a bumpy ride! People were throwing up in paperbags in the staircases and bathrooms, and it was real funny watching people trying to walk around the ship. Felt like being drunk really :) But the reward after the bumpy ride was a semi-sunshiney Wellington, so we were quite happy :)

Now we just got back to the hostel after having had a big cultural day out. In the morning we headed up to Kelburn with the cable car, and from there walked around in the Bothanical Garden for a few hours – such a nice place! Lovely flowers and plants, and the rose garden was huuuge. After lunch in the city we decided to do a tour of Te Papa, the probably best museum in Welly. Lots of cool interactive exhibitions to see and experience. And for free! Really recommended! :)

Hope you’re all doing fine back home, and great job guys with the voting! ;) trying to stay on top of things down here, but it’s a bit tough :) Puss o Kram!

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The south of the South

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Kia Ora people! :)

Just wanted to update you guys on what we’ve been up to the last few days, otherwise you’ll have another shitty long post sometime later ;) We’re now back in Queenstown again, after having spent two interesting days in Dunedin on the east coast. The city itself wasn’t really much to brag about, quite an industrial city with many ugly houses and lots of traffic. But, it’s close to the Otago Peninsula, which boasts with brilliant wildlife! The second day we were in Dunedin we hired a tiny car and drove ourselves to Portobello on the Otago Peninsula, and after a morning coffee headed out to the northern tip of the peninsula to see some seals and albatrosses. Later in the day we joined a penguin tour at the penguin sanctuary – we did a 90 min walking tour through the penguin breeding areas near the beach, and saw plenty of cute little yellow-eyed penguin. They’re endangered and therefore almost only possible to see on a tour. We saw about 6 furry baby ones, two adults (of which one was a scandalous one, a 5-year-old female penguin who’s together with a 16-year-old badass) and one typical teenage penguin, Monty, who just like normal teenagers walked wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted and did exactly what he wanted. Cool to hear that the penguin colony has similarities to the human ones ;)

On the day we left Dunedin we managed to squeeze in a visit to the world’s steepest street, Baldwin Street. Quite nice to see, but a long walk away :) Been there, done that. Check! Then we headed back to Queenstown, a journey that became real interesting when the bus got a flat tyre ;) In the evening we had a “healthy” feast, a FergBurger! Yum! The best place to get a great hamburger here in Queenstown! The queues are really long, you always need to wait to order and then need to wait about 30-40 mins for your yummy burger, your HUGE yummy burger :) Sat on the beach in the evening sun and ate them and later went for a little stroll along the beach, cozy :)

Today, Tuesday, Petra and me had scheduled a trip to Milford Sound, so we jumped on the JucyCruize bus around 8 am and sat on a bus for maaany long hours, drove through the most beautiful sceneries I’ve ever seen. Deep valleys surrounded by high snowcapped mountains and green high hills, several small and bigger waterfalls, beautiful ice cold lakes… it’s impossible to explain in words, you just need to check out the pics on fb! :) Milford Sound itself wasn’t honestly that amazing – it was beautiful alright, don’t get me wrong, but after hearing loads of people boast about how amazing it was, I was a little bit disappointed. Might’ve had something to do with the heavy clouds that hung around the Sound…? Still, we had an awesome (and LONG) day, just got home about half an hour ago (13h day, wohoo.). Emelie had a wonderful day in Queenstown by the looks of it, she got some colour during a little bike trip by the lake – I quite envy her :) Tomorrow I think it’s time for a longer bike ride for all of us! :) …and I plan to get some colour too! ;)

How you doing back in the cold? We’re really missing the news from you guys, let us hear some! :) Lots of huggies from the other side of the world, hope you’re all fine <3 Puss!

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The South Island!

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Hey guys and girls! Its time for updating the blog! We have been exploring the south island, and we have to admit we love it! After an awesome New year in Wellington we took the ferry ower to Picton, where our Kiwi bus took us down to Nelson. Nelson is a beautiful small town in the north of the south island, with lots of wineyards around and a lot of beautiful mountains. So in Nelson we had a chill night, we actually needed some sleep after new years eve, or at least I still felt tired from that party… So the next day I went jogging and at twelve we went for winetasting! It was fun, and we tasted 28 different wines so yes we did get a bit tipsy in the end :) We wisited four different wineyards, and the wines was very good, yumm… Nelson have a lot of nice small cafes, we actually found a swedish cafe, awesome, Petra had gingerbread! After Nelson the bus took us down to Kaiteriteri. This time we took an other bus so we met a lot of new people, and some old ones also… The group seemed really nice so we went for a beer with them in the evening, some sang karaoke as well :) In Kaiteriteri we took a boat down to Abeltasman nationalpark, so beautiful! After this we had a busride down to Westport. Westport is a quite rough town with a lot of professional fishermen and miners who work tehere. The busdriver told us not to go to the other bars because these people dont like foreigners… Scary! Well the next day we headed for Lake Mahina, a place in the middle of nowhere. Here we had a costume party, the theme was black trash plastic bag! Everyone was really creative so it turned out to be a great party! I was a nun, you can find picture evidence on fb… So then we came to Franz Joseph. This is where the great glacier or the Fox Glacier is. We decided we wanted to walk on the glacier so we went early to bed, had a nice breakfast and felt really good for hiking that day. They gave us crampons, spikes that we had on our hiking boots that made it possible to walk on the ice. Wow what a feeling, and the wiews, my god! Look at the pictures on facebook, they tell better the feeling on the glacier, it was something really special. It was so warm also, you could have hiked in a bikini, but the sun was really strong that day so covering up was wiser. After 8 hours hike we finally got down, my legs are still sore from that hike! The next day we headed down to Wanaka. A beatufyl city in the middle of the mountains and with lake Wanaka next to it. I actually swimmed in that lake, fantastic clear water! That night it was karaoke night, I actually sang a few songs, not alone tough, thank god! It was a nother late night, but a good one for sure! The next day we went to Puzzle world, a funpark full of illusions and a mase, quite funny actually :D On the way to Queenstown we jumped of the bus to take some pics from Lake Matheson, the pictureperfect scienery was amazing! Totally breathtaking! Right now we are in Queenstown, a like it a lot! It feels like being in a little Swiss town in the middle of the beautiful mountains, it is amazing! And the parties here are not like the parties in other towns, because the bars are really nice and the drinks really cheap and of course the people. Here we met a lot of old travelbuddyies that also made it all the way down to Queenstown, Petra also met her Austrian friends, really nice guys! So last but not least I have to tell you about the Giant Swing! Omg! We did it! Shit! 70m freefall and 300m swing over Nevis canyon cliffs, shit! This was absolutely the most extreme I ever made! The adrenalinkick I got from that was amazing, and the feeling when you do the freefall, it is something everyone should do once in a lifetime! Well I guess I stop writing now and maybe, but just maybe, we go out for one beer, but I promise Just One beer!!!!

 

Cheers!

/Emelie

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Kia Ora!

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Hey yous and sorry for the looong writing break :) We’ve been too busy enjoying the beautiful New Zealand to actually sit down in front of the computer for a longer time. But that’s all about to change now!

So, where to start? The first few days in NZ we spent in Auckland, in my opinion quite a nice city. As mentioned before, we stayed in Ponsonby, which is a really cozy area in Auckland – gotta love it! From Auckland we continued up to Paihia in Bay of Islands, such a nice place! Really small (about 1700 inhabitants), but so worth the trip! From Paihia it’s easy to head out to Cape Reinga, which is the northern most point of New Zealand, the place where the Pacific and the Tasman Sea collide. And honestly that was so cool to see, you could actually see the two oceans colliding! :) During that same trip to Cape Reinga, we also got to do some sandboarding on these huuuge sanddunes, so cool! Paihia also offered us some adrenalin kicks, as we decided to do our skydive there – and we had the most amazing weather ever :) Full sun, blue skies and a few small clouds to give us the sense of how high we actually were – 16 000 ft, which is about 4,8 km. AMAZING! Petra and me left Emelie on the ground with the cameras, and got into this tiiiiny little plane, that took us up on a lovely scenic flight before we were pushed out of it high above the ground. 65 seconds of freefall was amazing, but time litterally flew by :)

The last day in Paihia we also had time to give ourselves a little christmas present, plus another little adrenalin kick. All three of us got tattooed in Russell, an even smaller town over the bay from Paihia. Pictures will be posted soon so you’ll all get to see them! :)

Christmas was totally different this year, we had no Christmas spirit whatsoever… but still we managed to make it work. Christmas Eve was spent at the hostel together with some friends we met there, great gang of people! Ate the most Finnish food we could find – “rye” bread with coldsmoked salmon and something that resembles rice porridge :) Christmas Day was AWESOME, thanks to lovely Zoe and her amazing family! We were invited to the traditional Christmas lunch at Zoe’s mom’s house, where we met most of her lovely half-greek family. What an awesome apartment that was! And what an amazing family! They were so friendly and embraced us with open arms, and we really enjoyed our time spent with them :) Great food, great company and even some Christmas presents, Christmas day couldn’t have been better!

Then it was time to leave Auckland, vielen Dank und auf Wiedersehen! We jumped on the KiwiExperience bus to Coromandel and Hot Water Beach, where we spent the afternoon digging holes in the ground. Yup, funny business indeed :) Hot Water Beach is known for its hot water streams at low tide, hundreds of people rush out to start digging their own little spa pools. We tried our best, dug out a few holes but in the end only found cold water :/ Some other pools around were litterally boiling!

After Hot Water Beach we traveled to the west to Waitomo, where Emelie went adventurous and did black water rafting in the Glowworm Caves – seemed really cool, and we’re looking forward to seeing the pictures! Petra and me were boring and stayed in, took a stroll around the tiniest of villages and grabbed a coffee by the hostel. The hostel, Kiwi Paka, itself was actually really nice, no bunk beds! :) Felt like luxury after having spent two months in normal dorms. The next day we contiuned to Rotorua, NZ’s cultural capital. The city’s known for its geothermal activity, all over the city there were hot mud pools bubbling, and the smell was accordingly. The city itself was actually bigger than we thought, and quite a nice city as well. Lots of restaurants and cafes, we even found a starbucks (and I was in heaven!). In the evening we took part in a Maori cultural evening at the Tamaki village. Such a great experience, we got to see and hear about the Maori people and traditions, and taste their yummy food. Great night, highly recommended!

Did a quick stop-over in Taupo on the way from Rotorua to Wellington, ate and drank, met up with a nice Irish bloke we met in Ponsonby, slept a short night and headed for the local bus that took us to Wellington. The journey, that should’ve taken a little over 6 hrs, took us 10+ hrs, yaaawn. There was a big accident some 50 kms outside of Wellington, and we were stuck in a traffic jam for 2,5hrs…not fun. And when we arrived in Welly it was windy (it’s not called Windy Wellington for nothing…) and it poured down! Spent New Year’s Eve here, went out to dinner with a big gang of people, then ended up at the bar next to the hostel for a while before we went to explore Courteney Place with its many bars. Quite a normal new year’s in other words :)

How’s everyone back home? Heard and read all about the lovely storm which had many withour electricity for aaages. Didn’t sound fun at all… but anywhoo, hope Christmas went well (did the cards arrive already??), and new year’s too, we’re thinking about you down here – all the time :) Take care and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!! :)

Lotsa love, the trio :)

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KiwiExperience

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Hey dudes and dudettes!

Just a little short note to say that we’ve arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. :) For you who know me, you know it’s been a dream of mine for such a long time to see NZ, so I can’t really believe I’m finally here! And let me tell you, I LOVE the city already! People are really helpful and nice, everyone’s smiling all the time and life’s just plain sunny (tho’ the weather doesn’t agree, it’s raining…blah.)! We’re staying at a BBH hostel (chain of independent hostels) called Pononsby Packpackers in Pononsby, about 15 mins walk from the city centre and SkyTower. Such a lovely neighborhood, the street next to us is a popular party/fine dine street, so entertainment’s not far off! :) The hostel’s really nice, feels very homey with big couches, a lovely bbq area outside, fresh kitchen and comfy rooms. Warmly recommended! And the street outside just happens to be the christmas street – the whole neighborhood has decorated all the houses along the street, lots of christmas lights in different colours and shapes! During the evenings people gather on the street to watch the christmas lights, seems to be a big sight here :)

We still haven’t seen so much of the city, yesterday we took a stroll together with James the BirminghamBoy to the marina (beautiful!!) and checked out the shopping street, before eating a fabulous sushi lunch, and in the evening we had a long-awaited calm movie night at the hostel. Today it’s raining again, so after saying byebye to James for a few days, we went downtown real quickly, tried to find a warm hoodie ’cause we were freezing to death (seems impossible to find one tho’, so layers is the word.) but gave up and just went for some Malaysian food before returning to the hostel. Tonight we’re meeting up with Zoe, Petra’s friend from the Salzburg times, for a bbq at her dad’s house :) So looking forward to it!!

Now, I better hit the shower while the girls are still napping, so talk to yous later! We miss you all over here, especially as christmas is only a week away….where the **** did december go?? Drank a gingerbread latte today at starbucks to get into christmas spirits, but still waiting for it to kick in… ;) until next time…

Link to the origin of the posting´s header drawing.

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