Waiheke Island Easter!

The Norwegian easterbunny leaves the candy in an egg in the kitchen, but the new zealand easterbunny hides them all over the garden. That means easteregghunt! Since I was slow out of bed and had to put my contacts on, I didnt find a single piece of these chocolates! The rest of the kids were too quick for me!

After a good breakfast and checking out the perfect beach, we put on our sneakers and went for a walk! =) Check out lucky Bryony gets some shade from Sarahs hat! View of Palm Beach - heaven in Waiheke! We saw some cool postboxes, houses, and chairs! Even some fancy art! Im a huge fan of winter and snow, and was slightly sad not to be on the normal easter crosscountry trip this year. But if you have too celebrate in a different way - Waiheke easter is GREAT! Specially when it gave us summerweather. April is the second month of autumn - think october in Norway - so walking around in bikini all day isnt a given!

Here is Alexandra eating breakfast on the deck after a morning run and swim in the sea! L O V E L Y Bored? Do something upside down!

Northland

Have to start this blogentry with some serious news. My dear eighties sunglasses - bought at Paddys market in Sydney for 9 dollars - are broken! Finito - kaput - ødelagt! I will surely miss them - I already have many times. Eventhough they were weird in appearance they were some primo sunglasses.

On the upside: I finally got to see a face i knew again.!!!!! Visiting Alexandra in Auckland. First thing to do? Make homemade tortillapizza! Yummy:) Second thing to do? Pick rubbish in Ambury Park! Who can complain when the sun is shining and you get an easteregg when youre done? And they had some animals! Goats, birds and pigs were the ones we saw :) Since Alex is the most serious student in the universe, and I still had some undiscovered territory left in NZ, i left her on Monday and drove up to Whangarei. Whangarei didnt have too many exciting activities or grand sights, but they had some cool stuff to take photos of;) These are actually MUCH bigger than me! Theyre everywhere in NZ, often alongside the road, and someone must have given them a familypack of fertilizer, cause we dont get them this big in Norway! After two days in Whangarei, I drove to Paihia. Nice little beachcity in the Bay of Islands. I was booked onto a dolphintour, where I was gonna swim with dolphins:) But when I got to the wharf the tour was cancelled because of rough sea! Got some of my money back and got booked onto a different tour. Dolphincruise and Hole In The Rock sightseeing:) We set off from the bay, and just as we could start spotting the rock that was supposed to have a hole in it - the skipper turned around. "Sorry folks, the sea is too rough, we wont go out to the Rock today." Talk about bad luck for me! Got to see a cool sailboat though... AND, we found some dolphins on the way back. They were jumping and playing and showing off for all the tourists, but I couldnt get any photos of one in the air.. Thursday was an early start. A bus picked me up at 7:15. Cape Reinga was the target with different stops on the way there and back. First was Puketi Kauri Forest. The threes here can be 2000 year old! They were massive. The one you can see in the photo fell down many many years ago, it was probably 1,5 meter wide! Queen Elizabeth came to visit this forest in 1990 and for that they built a walkway and put red carpets on it. They didnt want the queen to get her shoes dirty of course! After some breakfast at Taipa Beach we set off towards Cape Reinga. The lighthouse is on a cliff right above the ocean, and you can actually see a change where The Tasman Sea collide with The Pacific Ocean! Normally the Pacific Ocean is much calmer than the Tasman. My guide told us it was because the Aussies always kept stirring up trouble.. Høh høh høh. 5700km. . Thats how far Ill fly next Saturday :) In Maori Religion Cape Reinga is where the souls travel to when someone has died. They come to the cliff down there and the old tree hanging off it is where they plunge out to fly home to the Pacific Islands - where the first Maori settlers came from. If they have been good they will get wings and fly back, if not theyll fall into the ocean and get eaten by a seamonster! Next stop was some sanddunes. SANDBOARDING:) I had though it would be like snowboarding - you'd try and stand on a board down the dunes. NOO, youre supposed to land on your stomach down the dunes, and at the bottom lift the board up so that you slide over the shallow waters.. I tried it ones - kind of made it. Second time I tried it from the suicide hill - got soaking wet and sand up my shorts! =) Gave the rest of the group a good laugh! And we got to try and stand on them after some nagging to the busdriver. Much easier. Could jump off the bloody board before i hit the water! View from the top. Just lay down of your stomach and glide down:) The road from here might not look like a road, but it is actually a state Highway. 90 Mile Beach! Just had to drive through a minor river to get to it ;) One hour of driving on a beach and trying to hit the seagulls! Second last stop was Ancient Kauri Kindom. Could see a ancient Gekko caught in Kaurigum and a hollowed out Kauri tree made into a staircase!

After that we had the best Fush'N'Chups Ive had in NZ. The fish was freshly caught that day - perfect end of a cool day! OR, the best part was being able to make someone believe my Aprils Fools Day Joke! You know who you are ;)

North Island

Yay, got up to North Island - Paraparaumu was my first stop. Felt colder than Norway, but it was a really beautiful beach right next to my hostel. Had a walk on the beach and got to see the sunset! Always smart to camp on the Westcoast if youre not one to get early out of bed! After two days in Paraparaumu and one night in Wanganui I sat off too TAUPO! As soon as I got there I understood that this was more my kind of town. Just like Queenstown and Voss. I had heard that they had a really exciting high ropes course, so I thought I'd drive up there and check it out. Only to arrive at the spot and be extremeyl dissappointet at what I saw. Looked like a kiddy one. Would take half an hour to do all the challenges, and that was when you went back to the ground between each of them! BUMMER.. But drove ten minutes up the road and found this sign! Craters of the Moon - it has nothing to do with stuff falling from the sky, they just call it that because it kind of look like it could belong on the moon. Smoke coming up from the ground - a horrible smell all over the place, and mud boiling down in the craters! Next day was a day I had been looking forward too.! It started by this car coming to my hostel and picking me up! After getting the limoride, I signed some papers agreeing my friends wouldnt sue the company if I died, and put on these sexy clothes! And then I climbed into this cool plane, attached a big guy named Peter to my back and jumped up when we got to 15 000 feet! I can highly recommend it to everyone! SOOO much fun! Had 60seconds of freefall - just enjoying the view of Taupo. It was a perfectly clear day - no skies to fall through, so I got to see the town all way down. At 5000 feet, Peter pulled out the parachute and we had 7mins of flying before we were back on the ground. I was kind of dissappointed that it was over that fast! Wanted to go back up straight after!So if anyone is interested in giving me a LOT of many - I'd be happy to get my skydiving lisence! :) Relaxed after the skydive by walking up this mountain. Wasnt very relaxing though - 45 mins of sweating uphill. But well worth in when I got to the top. And could eat a huge dinner afterwards! Even had a drink to celebrate my first ever skydive! View of Taupo Monday was all about driving from Taupo to Raglan, but I decided to make a pitstop in Hobbiton. Hanging out by the partytree! ;) Baggend on top, and some more hobbitholes scattered around. The had originally 37 holes, but only 18 remains now. But, theyve starting rebuilding the others for the filming of "The Hobbit". The guide did not know when the shoots would start, but my best guess would be next summer. Anyone keen to fly to New Zealand, and try to sneak into the area? I know where it is! .... ;) Nice view from Bilbo and Frodo's home! You can see the Partytree and the lake. On the other side of the lake was the pubs and shops of the Hobbiton village. They even had a mill and a bridge made of fake rocks! Tuesday: my birthday! I drove to Waitomo, and decided to treat myself with some blackwater caving. So I got this funny costume on and abseiled down into a cave! The guide kept telling us to squeeze through these cracks. This one was actually the more spacious one. I actually got stuck in one of them. I was sure They'd have to find some dynamite to get me loose, but after some time I was able to wiggle my bum out of there. Not my proudest moment! It was after all a GLOW WORM cave, so we had a good look at all the glowworms! Just like stars. And like our guide told us: "If its raining and you want to camp under the stars, just come down here! You even get shooting stars - glowworms are clumsy sometimes!"

Today, tomorrow, yesterday ? ! ? !

It is REALLY difficault keeping track of which day of the week it is, and what date or month it is when youre just going from place to place. It doesnt make it better that all stores here are open every day! Even Sundays. At least that gives you an idea of where you are in the week in Norway. Cant buy beer cause its 6 o'clock? That means its Saturday. Nothing open, and no people in the street, and all you want is a hamburger after your big nite out? That means its Sunday. More about the reason for my whining later, first Ill tell you what I did yesterday.

I think it was a Tuesday, but cant be too sure about that one. Anyways, after a good breakfast and a walk in town to spend some money, I booked a ferry from Picton to Wellington, and a hostel near Picton for the next night. Didnt want to make the long drive on the morning before catching the ferry. I drove north until I got to a carpark, and I started walking. (see picture above;) After some more walking, I got to a beach! :) Wharariki Beach actually! A very sandy beach, AND extremely windy yesterday. I got sand everywhere, and had some problems standing still. I got a nice couple to take a photo of me, and we all almost fell off our feet in a strong punch from the wind! :) After that, I drove up to see Farewell Spit. Sorry, forgot to take a photo. Can I get one of yours clarky? hehe :P

Since I was pretty tired of wind now, I started driving back, but stopped at a nice quiet beach to relax! Looks tempting? It was when I got back to the hostel that my problems started. I was just doing some laundry, buying some food, writing in my diary, when I realised it was Tuesday, and tomorrow would be Wednesday, the 17th. I had managed to book my ferry for the wrong day! And trying to save money - I had booked the cheapest ticket - with no option to change date or time. If I wanted to avoid paying the 220$ again, I had to be at Picton Ferryterminal at 9o'clock the next morning. WELL DONE NINA!

Everything got a little hectic from that. I had to pack in a rush, find out how long it would take me to drive there, and prepare some lunch for the next day. And go to sleep - wakeuptime next morning: 4:30am! I was in the car by 5 - it was jetblack outside! After some hours driving I started to smell something burnt. I got kind of worried. Could my car be tired of all the uphill? After a while it got really foggy, and then I got to a hill - completely lit up in flames! There was firefighters and helicopters there, and I think they were starting to get it under control, because it had started to piss down with rain as well. Heard later that day that the fire had started last night, and a whole town had been evacuated because they were worried it might spread really quickly. But everything ended well, and soon I was on the ferry! :) Really nice weather, calm sea. Took some photos and then I went inside. Plugged my phone in to charge it up, and fell asleep in a chair. When I woke up, the sea wasnt calm anymore. Cool, Nina thought. I went outside and had a look. The waves were so big that when I walked up the stairs, I didnt have to push myself up - the boat went down, so I just had to hold on to the handrail! Very strange feeling! I ran around for a while, loving the cool rollercoaster ride. I had a look from inside, and stood at the front of the boat and looked at the waves crushing into the boat and splashing the windows with so much water it was impossible to see for a while. Around me, people were getting seasick. Very many were getting seasick. But I wanted to look at the cool waves some more. Holding on to the wall all the time though, the boat were going everywhere! And as I started to go to another end of the boat, I felt like sitting down. So I sat down. And I sat there for the rest of the trip. I didnt get sick, but Im pretty sure that if I had stood up for two more minutes I would have. So I just sat in my seat and watched the waves as the boat went uuuuuup and doooooooown and uuuuuup and dooooown. I was pretty close to throwing up when a lady came walking in zigzag past me, sat down, and filled her seasickbag just two meters behind me.. Nice to be out on the ocean, huh?