By Eva

More than a month ago we arrived in New Zealand. The other side of the world from our home. It feels kind of ridiculous to be a 12-hour time-difference away from my lovely friends and family in the Netherlands, but even more ridiculous to be an almost 24-hour time-difference away from my lovely friends living in Vancouver, BC (Canada) and San Francisco, CA (USA). Luckily only a 2 hours time difference from Sydney, so the Jetlag was not too bad. However a thing my mind and body did need to process was the summer. I was again in summer. While my body and mind felt like it was time for hibernation – time to relax, settle down, and drink a cup of tea on the couch with a blanket, time for reflection, and time for looking inwards – my whole environment told me it was time to celebrate the light, and to be active. My body and mind were experiencing a hemisphere-lag, and I never imagined that it would be a thing. 

We landed in Auckland on the 18th of December, and we were both kind of nervous for the whole process of going through the boarder patrol. Were our Indian spices and tea allowed in the country? Were our boots clean enough to go through? Now a month later we actually learned why this border patrol is so important on an island like New Zealand. Plants and animals easily become weeds and pests respectively, and take over native species and  inhabitants of the country and easily driving them to extinction. 

Before the Māori arrived in New Zealand (Māori: Atorearoa) around 1700/1800 bats were the only mammals here. The Māori brought rats and dogs for a source of meat. Later when James Cook and his team arrived more animals arrived, partly stow-away (rats) but also for fur (stoats), meat/hunt (deer), to make the country sound like home (birds), and for pollination (bumblebees). Later additionally animals were brought here to get rid of animals that now became a pest (e.g. possums to get rid of rabbits, birds to get rid of insects, foxes to get rid of stoats and possums) too all become a pest themselves. There are many research projects now going on to see which plants, animals could be safely introduced to get rid of these pests. A concern of the kiwi’s (New Zealanders) is the Kiwi, because all these mammals are driving this national animal to extinction. 

Anyway, after correctly declaring all the goods that we brought into the country, we finally set foot in the New Zealand. Our home for the coming 6 months. After getting ourselves a New Zealand simcard and telephone number, and some discussion about which method of transport we should take to the city, we arrived in the hostel (Frienz Backpackers). Very tired after some very social days in Sydney, we were happy that we booked ourselves a private room. After some little time of relaxing, we decided to search for food, but (unfortunately for Jelle) I immediately got distracted by a beautiful small parc: Albert Parc. This parc might be small but the trees are huge, and I could stay there forever, even forgetting that I was hungry. I guess Jelle had to pull me out to get to the restaurant That’s Amore. A bit tired of Asian food, we found ourselves this very small and delicious Italian restaurant. After Jelle walked back to the hostel, while I walked to another bar Father Teds Original Pub to meet up with another friend that I knew from a Summerschool I did about 6 years ago in Shanghai. Wallace lives in Melbourne but happened to be in Auckland for 5 days. Wow. Life sometimes seems to have too many coincidences don’t you think? We spent the evening to talk about the Australian health system and Dutch system and discuss reasons why in both systems many medical doctor’s make a career change. Wallace himself is a medical doctor who worked in a hospital for a year or so, and now works in consultancy. 

The next day was going to be another very busy day, but we knew that we would go to a very peaceful place (we thought at least) for the coming 3 weeks, which made it somewhat more bearable. First, we went to the ANZ bank to get ourselves an account. Which turned out to be very stressful. Still eating our breakfast while we waited in the lounge for our appointment, we learned that we did not need to bring proof of our Dutch address, but of our New Zealand address. New Zealand address wait what? We just got here, how could we have an address? In the end this was easily solved by Jelle running back to Frienz Backpackers where they had a stack of preformulated “proof of address” forms and only our names and the date needed to be filled in. This turned out to be enough for the bureaucracy, and we opened our bank accounts. Back in the hostel we applied online for an IRD number (Personal Tax number, needed if you want to work here), and we transferred some money from our Dutch accounts to our new New Zealand accounts. This turned out to be again a very stressful event, because of a series of events: 

1. Jelle could not transfer any money because he forgot his Rabo-Reader,
2. Easily fixed we tought by Eva transferring the money, and Jelle could transfer Eva the money without reader to her Dutch account. 
3. Unfortunately ABN-AMRO thought this was very suspicious (I indeed do not normally transfer thousands of money on one day), and blocked my Dutch bank account, and did not put the transfers through. 
4. Easily fixed we thought by calling the ABN-amro emergency number. But this number does not exist.. and because of the 12 hour time difference we could not reach out to normal customer service it being the middle of the night in the Netherlands. 
5. After a few hours of stress, and even calling my father for help, everything was solved when I checked my account a few hours later, and it turned out that ABN-AMRO already automatically deblocked my account, and transferred the money to our NZ accounts. 

Well yeah. That was not really a nice series of events for the tired mind. Luckily we had more things to do this afternoon, so we gathered our heavy backpacks and daypacks – filled with climbing gear, some cooking-camping gear, sleeping bags + mattresses, and more – and moved our way in the hot weather to Daryosh Marjomakl. Jamie and Floortje, two friends of mine from High School, happen to be traveling in New Zealand too and bought a self-contained car from Daryosh. They love their car, and strongly recommended the guy. Jelle and I, tired of the nomad life with our backpacks, decided that we wanted to buy ourselves a home. A home with wheels. Daryosh was a lovely guy, and showed us a few cars and vans. He told us about a thousand times that he really made a fair price for the cars and that anywhere else we would go we would pay more. 

When he introduced us to a converted van with license plate LUL104 we were sold (Note for the non-Dutch readers: lul means dick in Dutch). Daryosh and his team convert cars and vans to meet the self-contained requirements of New Zealand. Here you can find a lot of parking spots/camping spots where you can stay the night for free or for a small fee (less than 10 euros) if you meet these requirements. You need to have a tap and a container with fresh water, a container for disposed water, and a toilet (however most places do have toilets, so the toilet is basically there for show). Our van has a table and benches that you can turn into a bed, and Daryosh even provided a duvet and pillows, and a stove. Jelle and I are no car experts, but were still pretty content with our deal. Daryosh was going to make some final additions to the van like putting some curtains on, and we paid a deposit. We were going to pick up Tula (our van) in a week (Tula is a female, see pictures to understand why. Tula is short for Mentula (penis in Latin). 

We booked an uber to bring us to our home for the next three weeks: Sacred earth. The uber driver was not so happy with us, because Sacred earth is located in Karekare, an area 45 minutes of driving from Auckland on the West Coast of the North Island in the middle of the Jungle and close to the beach with barely any reception. For the Uber driver it would be very difficult to get a new customer after dropping us of. Fast enough I did realize the guy was from India (because he had a Shiva statue on his dashboard), and we spent the drive talking about India. Soon he forgot the issue. However, Jelle (lovely person as he is) decided he wanted to pay to compensate a bit for the hassle anyway and gave him a very, very generous tip.  

Sacred Earth

We arrived at Sacred earth around dinner time. Sacred earth is a community spread out over 3 pieces of land in Karekare, in the middle of the forest and with beautiful views over the ocean. The land is owned by Savitri (spiritual name, original name is Jennifer) and Phil. The couple spent a lot of their time in India and got a prophecy once from their spiritual teacher that they would open this place. They opened it about 30 years ago. Now it is a place with multiple buildings (e.g. Satyavan, the Annex, Tapovan) where people are living (residents and volunteers), but also rooms are rented out via Airbnb. The main attraction of the land is a temple (the Savitri temple…), a beautiful light space that can be used by the community for private use (yoga, meditation, retreats), and sometimes people organize classes or workshops in exchange for Koha (donation). 

We, Jelle and I, were going to spend 3 weeks here as volunteers. Which meant that we got to work 3 days (Wednesday – Friday) in exchange for free accommodation. Before I dive more into the three weeks that we spent here, I would like to introduce you to a few new main characters in our story. 

Savitri: The owner and manager of the place. Mostly she is not the one that manages the place but she finds someone to do it for free (in exchange for accommodation). While we were there, she managed(?) though, because no one was there to do it. She is a wandering tornado. When you see her she is already passing by you, cleaning up or gathering things around you, and back in the car before you notice she was there. When you try to reach out to her, when she said to do so, she already forgot by the time you do, and she probably does not reply. She drives like an Indian. Most of the time when she is picking us up for work, she is driving reverse on the hill back to the main road in high speed, head out of the window looking backwards, calling, and she might as well eat a sandwich at the same time (or anything else you can think of). But the few moments when she takes time to listen to your questions, she will talk endlessly about her experiences in India or about the things she learned from her spiritual teachings.

Alejandra: One of the volunteers that arrived the day after us. A Spanish girl with Columbian origins, with a warm heart. She is funny, loves to talk, wants to do everything that comes on her path (painting, hiking, climbing, surfing), and doubts decisions for days-weeks before eventually taking them (going to a festival, buying a car). Has a bunch of energy to do everything she likes, but takes a Siesta when she feels like it. 

Wout – One of the volunteers that arrived the same day as Alejandra. A Dutch guy that might seem like the typical sober Amsterdam hipster that likes a beer and a techno-party, but soon enough you discover that he has the dream to make documentaries, studied criminology and is a very open-minded fella that loves to try out yoga classes, meditation, and a deep conversation. 

Lea – One of the volunteers that arrived the same day as us. A warm-hearted German girl that will always be there to drive you around, make you some (read: many) cookies for Christmas, bring you a bunch of snacks on movie night, or organize water-coloring night when she feels like it. A caring, charming girl that is also pretty badass, because she just left her boyfriend at home to go to New Zealand, and left her job. Now she bought a car for herself and is traveling around the island. She knows what she wants, but at the same time is figuring out what she wants. 

The first week in Sacred earth was a lot of grounding. There were a lot of people coming and going into the house, who were ecstatic about the place. Jelle and I did not feel it at that point. The management was chaotic and a bit anti-feministic. Jelle mostly had to work with machines (mowing, waterblasting, chainsawing), barely (or not) with proper instruction or proper safety precautions. I basically had to clean, iron, or do some endless weeding in the gardens with the other ladies. It was nice to have some work apart, and soon enough I found my place in community. I meditated in the temple every other day, did some yoga with the girls (only once Jelle joined) in the temple, once I went to an ecstatic dance event with Lea and Emma (a long-term volunteer that manages the volunteer administration) in Auckland. 

For Jelle it was not that easy to find his way around. It was nice to have some time off, and some laydown time, but soon enough he got bored of it. 

Christmas and New-year’s eve we spent with Alejandra, Wout, Lea, and Flakrona (a girl who stayed in one of the airbnbs and just did her yoga teaching training in Bali). We thought we would spend Christmas and New years on the beach this year in summer vibes, but it was raining. And in a tropical rain forest environment like where we stayed: when it rains it pours. 

Still Jelle and I decided to go on a hike on the 24^th of December. First we went to a sacred waterfall. A 20 minute hike through the Jungle and over some rocks with some ropes attached to trees to help you get through). The water here is sacred for the Māori and you are not supposed to eat or urinate/defecate here (we learned later). Māori used to give birth in the pools below the waterfall. In the peak of the rainstorm Jelle and I decided to go for a skinny dip, because we would get wet anyway. After that we ate a bar (oops.) and made our way back up to Sacred Earth. We actually wanted to go to the beach and not to the sacred waterfall. The rain stopped and we decided to walk to the beach. Later we learned that the trail to the beach was actually closed, which explained the amount of overgrown (wet) plants. We made our way down, and soon enough it started too rain again. We were soaked. My waterproof hiking boots were filled with water because my not waterproof drained pants were leaking into my shoes. Almost all the way down we found shelter under a tree with a view over another waterfall (Karekare waterfall). After a lunch break, Jelle wanted to go up again, but I was stubborn. We were supposed to be almost there anyway. So yes, we made it. We had a swim, we saw our friends (that were the smarter ones of the group and took the car), and decided to not take a ride back up, but walk up (I don’t fully understand why I made that decision now). Christmas day was a cozy day indoors with delicious food (everyone made a course), and lovely people. A Christmas like we know it from home. 

Jelle and I stayed in Satyavan. After Christmas the residents of the house came back and became also main characters in our lives during our stay in Sacred earth. 

Satyananda – A very spiritual guy that turned his whole life upside down by following his path. Now he lives in the moment (tries to not plan more than 20 minutes ahead), does a fair amount of yoga, and always seems pretty relaxed, and thoughtful in his reactions. Somehow, he works in marketing and he has ADHD, which both not really fits the image I sketched above but somehow still is the truth. 

Sophia – A beautiful, warm woman who teaches/organizes writing workshops, and grieving retreats which I was lucky enough to attend both during my stay there. And she is also a Doula (holistic/spiritual birth-coach). She dives deep and is not afraid to show all colors of herself. She lives with her daughter, Ayla. 

Ayla – A 17-year-old free spirit. Pretty wise for age, but also as giggly as you expect a girl her age to be.  

During our stay in Sacred Earth we managed to climb three times in Auckland. Two times in a little gym in Auckland with the two of us (Vertical Adventures). Where we discovered they use the same system as in Australia here: the belay device is attached to the ground and already attached to the rope, you use a snapper to attach yourself to the rope. In our opinion a very annoying way of doing, because the belayer is not able to walk around to make space for the climber. However, turns out it is because climbers do not get a 4-day course to learn how to climb with different devices, learn how to fall and how to unclip quickdraws in overhang, but only a 15 minute instruction. Only when you want to learn how to lead climb, you get a proper course. The third time we went to a boulder gym (Boulder and co.) with our crew (Wout, Alejandra, Lea), which was a lot of fun. (Yes, I thought bouldering was fun, and I even bought a hat in the boulder gym after Lea and Alejandra convinced me). After the climb we had some lovely Asian food (Cinta Malaysian Westgate). By this time a new volunteer joined as well (Nate), an art-teacher from the USA who just finished a yoga teacher trainer in Bali. 

After some struggles with opening times of AA (for registration of our car during Christmas holidays), and some days of a very annoyed Eva when Google did not turn out to be right, we finally were able to pick up Tula right before new year’s, and spend some days in shopping malls in Henderson and West-Gate (Auckland) spending a lot of our money for some decorations (fairy lights and anti-mosquito lanterns), bed sheets, organizing boxes, anti-slip mats for those boxes, and more small things that are not expensive by themselves but are expensive if you want to buy them all. We also bought a new tramping tent because we already planned a 4-day hike in mid-January. After that we felt so broke that we immediately bought our ferry ticket for the 21^st of January to the Southern Island where we plan to find work. 

Driving in the van was something to get used to… For me especially: I never drove in a van before. But we both managed to almost hit a car coming from right on a roundabout because we were very convincedly looking to the left side, first time driving it. Also, we both managed more than a few times to start the window wiper instead of turning on the direction indicator. The first time I drove the van back to Sacred Earth and had to stop for a traffic light on a hill, I stressed when I did not manage very well to do the “hellingproef” (Tula is a manual). Finally Jelle used the hand break for me, and as a team we managed to drive forward instead of backward. I must say at this moment I am still not very confident, but I improved pretty well and do not need Jelle’s actual help anymore (Just his mental support… This is how far the strong independent woman vibes go).  

New year’s we spend with the same crew. Eating. Dancing. Talking. Making music. It was another rainy day. Luckily the first of January was a very sunny day, which made it easy for us to do a polar swim (new-years-dive). This time we drove to Piha beach. Proudly I shared my picture after the dive with my Dutch friend (who was just yet celebrating the 12 o’clock moment), while she was planning to do the same in the Dutch winter water. I thought my dad was planning to do so though (he said last year), however I did not see any picture proofing this… Here you have only certain areas where you are allowed to swim. A small 50meter area where lifeguards pay close attention. Getting into the water you soon enough understand why. The waves here are very strong and big. And when you are swimming out of the area they use their whistle to make sure you understand that you are leaving considerably safe territories. On the other hand, the other day when we were at Karekare beach (a more quiet beach, closer to sacred earth) we got there after work and the life-guards were already leaving. They just told us to pay attention to the current and don’t go too deep.  

After the dive at the first of January we relaxed on the beach, played some volleyball, and discovered some impressive rock-formations around the beach. We ended our day with some tacos and fries at a local shop. 

The surroundings of sacred earth are beautiful, always a surprise and never getting boring.  The sand is black-ish because of the volcanic activity around here, the rock formations at the beach are empowering, the forest contains massive trees that make you feel very small, one look in the forests contains a million plants that make you see such an endless amount of types of green, and the waterfalls are just magical. 

Sadly, soon enough our time in Sacred earth was ending (I thought). On the other hand, Jelle almost screamed in relief that we were leaving during our goodbye dinner, which almost ended up in some couple-therapy, being surrounded by all spiritual people all working on themselves and all basically being their own therapist. Our last night was very lovely though. I felt very blessed again to be able to celebrate the holidays in an environment that felt so much like a home and people that easily became my friends. 

The morning we left I had a last yoga session with the crew, this time not self-taught but taught by Flakrona. After that Satyananda all dressed up in white, armed with some incense from South America and some positive intentions, walked with us to Tula to do a proper cleansing before our trip. Jelle and I made our intentions for our trip, while Satyanada chanted Indian prayers to Ganesh. (The god with the elephant head who helps overcome obstacles). After some prober hugs from Satyananda where he could not thank us enough for being so neat and clean (the poor guy must have been through a lot with previous volunteers) we decided it was really time to go now. The crew came up to the van to wave us some proper goodbye, and that was the beginning of our next step in our adventure. 

Our first stop was not a very known tourist spot, but Bryce’s Rockclimbing Shop. After asking around in Auckland and visiting multiple outdoor stores (e.g. Torpedo7, Katmhandu) we did not find a climbing rope. And of course, we needed one. The road brought us from the Karekare jungle through Auckland, to a hilly grassy landscape with some rock formations here and there. It was only a few hours away and what a hidden gem. A nice guy who if you do not pay attention keeps you in the store for hours, talking about climbing, climbing gear, climbing areas and whatsoever climbing. We bought a rope. We wanted to buy a double rope, but it was not there. Then we wanted to buy a 70 meter rope, but I did not like the color (and yes it is very important what color your rope is (for the not climbers: no it is not)). Thus, we ended up with a blue 80 meter rope and a kind of matching blue rope bag, and both are very pretty. Jelle was okay with everything and paid half. Lucky me. 

That night we spent our first night sleeping on a self-contained camping spot Arapuni Landing. We had a dive in the lake and spent the evening watching Kiwi’s spending their evening drinking beers on boats, listening to loud music, and waterskiing. So far, we thought we were going to sleep in the wilderness. Luckily, they all left around sunset. We had a peaceful evening and morning. 

The next day it was time to use our new rope! Unfortunately, it was a very hot day, and because of a lazy morning we only made it to the crag (Wharepapa rock, Castle rock) around 11-12AM. Bryce called this a commercial crag, because you had to pay a 10 dollar entry for maintenance. In my opinion there were a few too many thistles for this amount of money, but the rock was beautiful, sharp, and hot. In the beginning we still had some shade which we enjoyed. Funny enough this rock was made very beginner friendly, with little ropes attached to the anchor, which made it possible to pull your own rope through the anchor without leading it! Jelle, always down for a lead, decided to lead anyway. Me always down for top-rope, just followed him and cleaned the anchor. After a few climbs we realized we got a bit tired and annoyed by each-other. The shift from relatively structured home-base in sacred earth, still needed to time to adjust. After talking it out, we decided to call it a day and drive in the direction of our next adventure. We stayed the night at Lake Okaro Campsite just outside the sulfur smell cloud surrounding Rotorua, reminding us of the volcanic activity in the area.  

Lake Waikaremoana

By Jelle

One of the Great Walks of New Zealand goes halfway around lake Waikaremoana, in the Eastern half of the north island. We spotted this hike in a book that we bought back in Auckland, and made our reservations for the campsites along the trail weeks ago, so we were pretty excited. Yes, campsites. The trail is called great for a reason, it takes four days to complete.

The day before our planned departure, we had stocked up on lightweight food for four days, and took the highway / mountain gravel road towards the starting point. The road was rough. Half an hour before we reached the campsite where we would spend a last night in comfort, we picked up a Dutch hitchhiker (Fokke) who had just completed the same walk. We dropped off Fokke, scoped out the carpark where we would be leaving Tula for four days, and spent a lovely evening by the lake.

The following day, the car felt a bit weird when we took off. At the carpark, it turned out we had busted a tire on the gravel road. No time to do anything about it now, we parked the car for the time being, hoisted our heavy packs, and started walking. 

The first day would also be the longest. We had decided to go camping instead of sleeping in the huts (cheaper and more availability), and the first campsite was quite a ways away. The trail starts with a 500-meter climb along a wooded ridge, 9km from the carpark to the first hut. We had our lunch here, but soon continued to walk the same 500 meters down again on the other side of the hill to reach our campsite. We were welcomed very warmly by the hut warden, who warmed the evening with stories of his people by the campfire. Being of Māori origin, he told a tale of him and his brothers visiting an uncle, who had served them rat stew without telling them, a traditional delicacy.

The next day we got to walking quite early. We would have to do twelve kilometers that day, and after the harrowing hill of the first day we were looking forward to some flats. We were sorely disappointed. The track was hill after hill, up and down with no end. The track was much shorter, but we ended up taking nearly as long as the first day. The campsites became more remote after the first day, since these were without a neighboring hut. Having the campsite to yourself does have its charm.

The last two days were not very exciting. Our packs became lighter, the distances we had to walk were shorter, and we were only slightly tired of walking. The bugs hadn’t been that bad, and our new tent was holding up splendidly. We really had nothing to worry about with the track anymore, simply to enjoy the sunny days and the breathtaking stars at night. The last real hurdle that we would have to clear was to get back to the van and out of the area again.

Remember how we left the van with a flat tire? Yeah, we would have liked to forget too. Our plan was to start the last day in the early morning, to hopefully reach the end of the track around noon. There we would try get a lift, reach the van, change the tire, and then drive a good while to the next grocery store and then campsite. 

First part went off without a hitch, we were routine with packing our tent and packs at this point, so we started bright and early. The last day of the hike was only seven kilometers, and we reached the last bridge around 11am. A last kilometer up to the road had us in our hitchhiking positions. We saw a horrifying 2 cars per hour come by in our direction, and after the first few rejections we were struggling to keep the hope alive, discussing when we would start walking and what scraps of food we had left to improvise a dinner that night.

It is at the darkest hour that the stars shine brightest. Two heroes, a Māori couple (Tbone Solomon, director of TurangaMaiNema, and Tony) in a massive truck stopped to come to our aid. Not only did they drive us all the way to the parking lot, when they heard about our flat and that we had never changed a tire before they offered to show us how to do it. It was amazing. We were laughed at at first, it is inconceivable how an adult can not know how to change a tire, especially a man. But soon after the ridicule they explained that it would take them 15 minutes and us probably an hour and a half, if we managed at all.

After having changed the tire, and showering our saviors with gratitude, we stowed our packs in the back of Tula, and very carefully drove down the gravel road. What an amazing thing it was to sit in our home again, instead of on a grassy floor. Exhausted but proud of our overcoming of these obstacles, we left Waikaremoana behind us.

Tongariro National Park 

By Eva

We made it all the way to Lake Tutira campsite. After convincing Jelle that it would be best to clean our backpacks and order our groceries in our tiny cabinets straight away, we sat down to have our dinner. Tired of the long day we almost forgot our lukewarm local IPAs that we bought to celebrate finishing the hike. 

The next day we drove all the way to Taupō. A little town next to the biggest lake in the middle of the Northen Island (Guess what? It’s named Lake Taupō). Basically, the lake is the crater of an enormous caldera. (Of the… Guess what? The Taupō Volcano). The last eruption (26.500 years ago) is known to be the world’s largest eruption in the past 70.000 years. 

Our main mission of the day was to find ourselves a new spare tire, and the lovely Māori couple told us that our tire still looked great so it might be possible for a garage to fix it. We left Tula and the tire at Bridgestone Tyre Centre – Terry’s Tyres, and went for a lovely lunch and coffee in The Storehouse next door. Soon enough we got a phone call that the tire could not be fixed and they had to order a new one… We could not be bothered too much at that point. We walked around the town a bit. Made a copy of our car-key at the local locksmith. Did a little bit of shopping (e.g. the towel hooks that we bought in a cheap Asian store in Auckland, already fell off, so we bought new ones). I had another cappuccino at another nice café (so many nice cafes there). Then when I wanted to start writing my blog while drinking my coffee, my laptop turned black. This happened before in Sacred Earth, so at first I was not that worried, but everything that I tried before did not help. We went to Tech Central and  they were going to have a look. Finally, we left Taupō, without my laptop and without a spare tire. We were heading to Tongariro national Park. 

After hearing some Kiwis and some friends talk about the Tongariro Crossing – a very famous hike 19.4km through an active volcanic landscape with beautiful views of Mount Ngāuruhoe (Better known as mount Doom) – I really wanted to do this hike. Jelle did not really feel like it, but I knew a friend from high school (Lisa) was planning to do the hike the next day. Although I was not totally certain and I could not connect with her (phone connection in NZ is not everywhere that great..), I decided to count on it anyway, thus we were driving towards a parking lot (and camping spot for self-contained vans) right next to the park. Also because there were some facilities there (like a shower and a washing machine), and after realizing that we did not take a shower since leaving Sacred Earth (at this point that was a week ago), we decided it was time. (Note: We did swim in a lake everyday) The parking space (Kiwi Camp National Park) was something you could not find in Europe. It was filled with converted cars, converted vans, and campervans. People were sitting in chairs on the parking lot having their dinner. Children were playing around. People walked to the showers in their underwear like it was a camping (while it definitely was just a parking lot). However, it was very cozy. We only needed to collect a Kiwi-cash key at the local bar (Schnaps!), and for a few NZD we could take a shower. Soon enough Lisa replied to all my texts, and now it was for sure: I was going to do the crossing with her the next day! 

While Lisa was brought to the start of the hike with a (in my opinion very expensive) shuttle service, Jelle was my (free <3) chauffeur that day. He dropped me of at the start. Such a sweetheart. Lisa is doing a big trip by herself through New Zealand and Australia, and some parts she booked a tour. Now she was with a group of 7 other people doing this trek. We did talk with the others quite a bit, but most of the time we were walking in our own space, and we had a lot of catching up to do. You see in the Netherlands we barely see each other (mostly only a few times a year), so it was extra special to do such a beautiful hike together. While the hike is considered hard, and even a part is called the devils climb, in my opinion it was a very doable hike. (Although that might have been because I was used to my heavy backpack of the 4-day hike, and now only carrying a daypack). The views were incredible, and the weather was amazing. I cannot describe in words how magical the landscape was, and how much it changed through the hike (volcanic, grasslands, forest). It was very special.

In the afternoon we arrived at the end, where Jelle was already waiting. Lisa and I gave each other a goodbye-hug not sure when we were going to see each other next, and went our separate ways. 

To celebrate yet another hike (that at least one of us did), Jelle and I decided to have a beer at the Schnapps bar to celebrate, before making our dinner at Kiwi Camp. The next day we drove back all the way to Taupō to get my laptop. The guy in the store told me that he had no clue what was wrong, but he did some inner cleaning and afterwards she was bright and shining. She was apparently not the only one who needed to do some inner work. 

Now able to actually use my laptop we waited again in the Storehouse for Bridgestone Tyre Centre to set up our new tire. However, somehow they were not able to reattach our spare tire to the bottom of Tula, and they just put the tire in our boot without asking us. Now the wooden floor is marked with the mark of our tire. To fix the attachment of our spare (that was apparently in very bad condition) the nice lady behind the reception desk sent us to another garage (Engine and Spares). All there it was a very easy fix, and they were not sure why Bridgestone was not able to fix it.. Also, they did have a new spare tire for us in stock for even a cheaper price! 

Next, we went to the Pack ’n save for some groceries. The cheapest (but I mean we are on an island, so it is not really cheap) grocery store, and also my favorite. It is an experience like walking in the last part of Ikea with giant racks ranging up to the ceiling and a ceiling high enough to fill multiple stacked trucks. They do not have a back it seems, but just put all the stock above the sold products in the racks. They even have an international section with “Hagelslag”, “Stroopwafels”, “Ontbijtkoek”, “Beschuit”, “Boterkoek”, “Rodekool uit een pot”, and “Appelmoes”. Note: we were not tempted to buy any of these products yet.  

Last, we went to a small outdoor climbing rock only a 20 minutes drive away from town. The rock (Kinloch Crag K1) was in the middle of a little forest, but when climbing high enough you had a view over the trees over lake Taupō. We managed to climb 2 routs before heading back all the way to Tongariro NP. 

The next day we wanted to get some climbing done at Mead’s wall: a climbing area recommended by Bryce. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible. Stubborn as Jelle and I are, we decided to drive up the mountain anyway. On our way up we picked up some drained hikers that were hitchhiking to get some hiking done higher up the mountain, and were probably as stubborn as we are. The weather was even worse up the mountain. Now we were driving in the clouds. Disappointed we drove back down, and even took one of the hitchhikers back down with us. The rest of the morning we spent in the visitor center, learning about the volcanic surroundings and animals in the area. When the weather cleared a bit, we went to a little hike to Taranaki falls. Disappointed and annoyed with the weather I decided to meditate right in front of the waterfall. During my meditation I had a vision of sitting in line with all versions of me that were meditating before, and ahead of me I saw all the versions of me sitting and meditating in the future. An infinite mirror. It was a very special experience. 

After the hike we decided to escape the weather and start our drive south to Wellington. Jelle was getting really excited for some time in the city. 

Wellington

By Eva

We found a campsite (Scotts Ferry Camping Ground) mid-way in a small farm town close by the beach (1km). It was a simple campsite, but there were picknick tables where we could drink our red Kiwi wine from plastic wine glasses – we bought in thrift shop a few weeks before (essential glamping gear) – flat grass where I could do some yoga, showers, and toilets. We arrived in the early evening, after driving all the way to the beach to discover that the campsite was not there, and our new neighbors told us we could just stand there and the owner would pass by the next morning to collect the money (15 NZD). Indeed he did driving in his big 4WD pick-up truck, stepping out of the car in his rainboots. A small guy with a big accent came to ask us for the money. 

The next day we drove to Wellington, where we found ourselves again a place on a parking-space between at least 20 other converted vans/campervans. The side was only a 50 minute hike from the city-center. And the weather was great. Again, I needed some time to get myself together, because I was in one of the most beautiful countries on earth on a beautiful day and I was going to spend it in a city instead of nature. After a very grumpy 30 minutes and some lunch, I convinced Jelle to go for a swim. Only 12 minutes walk away from our new campsite was a small beach, with even a changing room and cold showers. To make it even more fun, there was a pier where you could jump from into the water. Which was actually a lot of fun. After swimming and freshing up I felt bright and shining again. Jelle found two places he wanted to go to in the city. First was a lovely bookstore (Undercurrent). Here we both found ourselves a new (secondhand) book while browsing around the store with some bluegrass music on the background. Me a book about Māori philosophy, and Jelle a new fantasy novel. After strolling around the city a bit and walking around the famous Cuba street, we found our way to the second place Jelle wanted to visit: The Rogue and Vagabond. A very nice place where they sell nice snacks (tofu bites and fries), and many local beers. Because of the weather, most people were sitting outside on the grass, there were even a few beanbags available and little tables. However, it was a Friday afternoon so there were not enough options for everyone. So many people just didn’t bother and sat on the grass. That evening there was a gig from a local reggae band (Ras Judah and Culture Embassy). We relaxed, we listened, we got a bit tipsy (after only 2 IPAs), we danced a bit, and ordered an uber to get back to our home: Tula. 

The next day we walked back to the city again, we had breakfast at Mystic Kitchen, and made our way to the National Museum: Te Papa Tongarewa. This museum is the source of the most information about New Zealand that you read in this blog. Most impressive were the two large panels showing some parts of the Treaty of Waitangi. This treaty was first signed in 1840 by Captain William Hobson as consul for the British Crown and some Māori chiefs. The treaty was created to establish a British governor and to consider Māori ownership over the lands and other properties. More than 500 Māori chiefs signed the translated version of the treaty in the hope for new relationship that would protect Māori rights. On a protest action on December 2011 the panel with the English version of the treaty was defaced. The “original” English version of the treaty is not an accurate translation of the Māori version of the treaty, and protesters want the museum to take this English version down. The Māori version is the only right version. For example, the English version refers to absolute sovereignty – supreme rule over the entire country, while in the Māori version this is translated in government. Furthermore, in the Māori version “tino rangatiratanga” (chiefly authority) is promised, while not in the English. 

We had lunch in another nice café Squirrel NZ, and went for a climb in the local (very small) climbing gym at the waterside (Fergs). We ended the day at Aunty Mena’s Vegetarian Restaurant and Café with absolutely amazing Malaysian Vegan food, before walking back to Tula. 

The next day was our last day at the Northern Island, for now. I did some yoga in a small park next to the pier, we went for a swim and a shower, and then we made our way to the Interislander ferry. Both feeling a bit weird for leaving the Northern Island, especially because we liked Wellington a lot, but also very excited for what is waiting for us at the South island. 

Disclaimer: Most of the information written here is what I memorized from museum visits and eventually some extra added knowledge from a quick google search. Therefore historic information might be simplified or incomplete.