New Zealand North Island

How are y ?

I"m on the south Island in the moment, but I started seeing the north Island of New Zealand and I really enjoy my rental car. I can stop whenever I want and I can stop to go to the toilet whenever I want. Within the last 4 month riding busses, this was not possible.

I started 4 days in Aukland and on my first day driving I did go to Rotorua, but did a stop at Matamata on the way. With the exception of the Hobbiton Filmset from Lord of the Rings in Matamata, all filmsets in New Zealand have been removed. Of cause all landscape remains, but no sets from the movie. In Rotorua I did some Kiwi Spotting and went to the Geysers. From there I drove along the East Cape to catch the first Sunrise of every day ! This is the closest point to the international date line, so every day starts right there !

From the East Cape I did go to Taupo and visited the Huka Falls. At the Huka Falls i went onboard a Jetboat and did an excellent trip along the river with 75 km per hour and incl 360 degr. spins, as you can see on the video uploaded.

From Taupo i did go via the Waitomo Caves to New Plymouth and continued on to Wellington.
In Wellington I stayed with Claire and Simon, whom I met during my Galapagos Cruise in November 2007.

So far driving on the "wrong" side of the road is fine and I managed to drive more then 3000 km in New Zealand until today.

Hobbiton near Matamata - North Island New Zealand

Half way around - arrived Aukland

After spending 4 days on Easter Islands and having a really good time, I moved on to Tahiti. Just after arrival I took a 10 minute flight to reach the island Moorea just next to Tahiti. Moorea is like paradies. Beautiful beaches and palm trees all over the island. After 4 days on the island I was sick of the island and I especially hated the prices for everything and the mosquitos just liked me too much.

15 minutes of Internet cost 3 Euro, a bus goes maybe every 2 hours. A bottle of CocaCola is 4 Euro at a supermarket ! Like on Easter Islands I decided to do my own pasta every evening, because everthing is soooo expensive. I took one scubadive of 45 minutes and it was 60 euros. That money was well invested and before jumping from the dive boat you could see 10 little sharks around the boat. 15 Meters deep it got better and bigger and you could meet with Lemon Sharks 4-5 meters long !!!

Due to the high prices and mosquitos, I left Moorea to Tahiti, it gets slightly cheaper and the mosquitos are gone. Thanks to my travelagent I found an earlier flight leaving Tahiti to Aukland on 10.02.2008.

I did suround the world half way, crossed 12 time zones and the international date line !

I arrived Aukland 11.02.2008 and have to start all over new now, because I did only planned my trip in detail up to including South America. For New Zealand I bought a new guide book today and will start to investigate how to travel this island.

Photos from Easter Islands, Tahiti and Moorea under the Pacific Island Section
Also added Diving Photos Pacific Islands