Merry Christmas! (and a happy new year)

Merry christmas to everyone! I'm having a bit of difficulty getting into the right mood, but i try my best :)

I'm currently in Melbourne with my old violin teacher and her family - it's nice being able to calm down again and stay in the same place for several days in a row! I arrived late on the 24th, and then christmas day was just spent lazying around (and eating a lot!), swimming in the pool and resting. Yesterday (26th) we had a trip into Melbourne, which i really like - it's quite small but really arty and pretty. We went up this 280m tower to get a 360 degree view of the city - it doesn't look all that nice frmo above but it was still quite cool.

I've been back in Australia since the evening of the 23rd. I was very sad to leave New Zealand.

Lake Taupo wasn't a veyr exciting day for me as it was raining almost solidly the whole day. I did a tiny bit of walking but spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the hostel watching movies!
I caught my own bus the next day to Rotorua because there was no magic bus service that route that day. There's a lot to do there, especially as it's the Maori cultural capital, and also because it's a center of geothermal activity, but as a result it tends to smell a bit. I went to this really cool maori thermal village in the afternoon, and we had a hilarious guide. It's really interesting to see how they used the water and mud pools for their benefit - they have this cooking pool which is naturally at a constant temperature of around 100 degrees (it's not known how deep it is), and they have these natural ovens in the ground where they can steam meat and make deserts, and they also have a constant supply of hot water for baths! Pretty cool - you can see some of it on pictures.
The next day i went to the Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland. The first bit was a bit disappointing because they have this geyser that 'goes off' at 10.15 every day, but basically they make it go off by adding soap to dissolve the barrier between the 2 pools of different temperature. The rest was cool though, seeing all these natural different colors of yellow (sulphur) and orange and red (iron-oxide) etc.

Then i went to Mt. Maunganui for the afternoon which is a beachside town further north. It's a really popular place with kiwis to go for christmas and new years so it's not always that nice, but after having been to glaciers and rainforests i was really happy to get to a beach again for a bit. It also had prtty good surf!
And the last day i popped into Auckland for like 2 hours before having to rush to get my plane. And that was the end of New Zealand! New Zealand's been really good to travel around, especially because it has these isites (information sites) at almost every town that has some sort of tourist attraction, so there's a ton of information where-ever you go, almost meaning you don't need a guide of any sort! Plus it's reasonably cheap and they speak english - one of my favorites so far!

So the current plans are to go to Sydney for new years and then Asia on the 5ht of january! Pictures are up as well by the way...

4 days of NZ left...

Queenstown was really small for what i thought it would be, seeing as it's pretty much the adventure capital of new zealand, and definitely the party capital! People pretty much go there to party every night.

The bungy was good, not as exciting as the first one, i have to say, maybe because i was used to it, or maybe because it was gentler... But i'm glad i did it anyway! boughyt a dvd of it...
Milford sounds was pretty cool too, the boat itself through the sounds not as much but the scenery on the way was stunning!!! All these snow-capped mountains and glaciers, it's so beautiful! Not much in terms of a decent town there but then again that might be part of the attraction.
In Queenstown i got to know some aussies of the bus better, as well as this german and finnish girl, and i decided to go to dunedin with the former 2.

Dunedin was way bigger than i thought! I think it's the 2nd biggest city in the south, mainly because of its prestigious university. It's ok, and we went to the beach which was still cold but it definitely had some good surf. I reckon in summer the town's not so bad! Winter may be slightly more depressing though.
Then onto my new favorite place in the world: Lake Tekapo. The lake is the most beautiful greeny-blue surrounded by hills and a snow-capped mountain in the back. STUNNING! a week there doing nothing, biking here and there, maybe one or two hikes would've been ideal. We (i.e. me, the german girl anna and the 4 aussies) rented some bikes for an hour and then soaked in the hot pools - not too shabby!
Then the next day off to christchurch and a goodbye to the aussies. Christchurch is really nice (i thought!) it has a nice big park and some nice pedestrian-ised streets, and clearly is o9lder. It also has some punting too - which adds to the romantic feel of the city! However, i didn't have much time there, and to make it through the circuit in time for my flight means one stop at each place.

Alone off to Kaikoura was slightly more depressing. The only real reason to go to kaikoura is to see the dolphins or whales, but as money is currently in short supply i skipped it. To be honest, i needed the rest.
Then a short stopover in wellington and i am currently in Napier, which is north-east of wellington. it's known for its art deco (built up after all destroyed by 1931 earthquake) and there's lots of wineries but i didn't have any chance to visit any of them.

Next stop: Lake Taupo!

Queenstown

So this past week has been pretty exciting to say the least!
Wellington is pretty cool, really hilly though, so after walking around for 4 days i could feel my leg muscles getting considerably stronger. It's a really pretty city, nicer than most others that i've seen so far, not just high risers. It has a beautiful botanic garden, and has a lot of cool random art scattered around the place as a result of an art festival held in 2002.

One thing that is nice about New Zealand is that it really embraces it's Maori heritage, in contrast to the aboriginals in Australia. They still have the language written in most places and the main thing is that it's not just a tourist attraction, which i feel is the case with the Aboriginals. Might have to do with the fact that New Zealand was a real colony whereas Australia was used as a place to ship the prisoners off to... But it's definitely a different approach! And much more pleasant.

After hanging out with Ian and his lab mates for a few days we went to this wine festival called a day on the green, where we saw john mellencamp and sheryl crow perform, which was pretty cool, but also saw slightly too much wine consumption and resulted in me having to trek out on monday to retreive my camera. But after a lot of stressing out, i made my way over to the South Island and went straight to Nelson.

I realized that i'm pretty short on time and skipped Abel Tasman, which i'll do next time because i'm pretty sure i'll be coming back here! Went straight down on the magic bus to Greymouth. Our driver is really cool, he likes to organize social things for the evenings, and it's all pretty relaxed, i'm definitely glad to be doing it. Met some cool people as well, including some nice germans (they're EVERYWHERE! no offence), fins and some Belgians and spent some time, funnily enough, speaking dutch again! Didn't think i'd be doing that too soon!
Greymouth isn't very nice, and the weather was pretty rainy all day. The day after, however, we went to Franz Josef, which is where one of the 3 (also one at Fox Glacier slightly further south) only glaciers in tropical climates are - the 3rd being in chile.

We were going to do a heli-hike up there, which is going up in a helicopter and walking and coming back on the helicopter, but the clouds were far too low so it got cancelled. Possibly considering spending another night there, i decided to do a 4 hour hike instead, where i saw some blue ice (pretty cool if i may say so!) and was walking with crampons. How sporty am I! Will put some pictures up soon...
I was going to do a skydive the next morning (this morning) and head further south, but the clouds had hung around from yesterday so it got cancelled (just my luck!) However, i did one at lake wanaka on the way to queenstown from 12,000 ft (3500km) - it was AMAZING! couldn't afford any pictures or anything but the one thing you never see on those is the speed that you get when falling - i screamed a little and it made my eyes water! But it was sweet, and the guy i jumped with was hilarious!

In queenstown today and tomorrow i'll be bungy jumping again, off the 2nd-highest jump in the world - Ben Nevis at 134m, and the day after i'm visiting milford sounds - one of the top 10 places to visit in the world apparently! So i couldn't say no...

In New Zealand

The Barossa valley was great!! Though i felt really handicapped without a car.
I stayed in a village called Angaston, which was nice and small, and the night i arrived they had this christmas parade, whcih was fun, all the people from the village joined in, kids were dressed up as presents, santa drove on a car with a pumpkin next to him (as you do!)...
then i went to the farmer's market, but because it was a weekday the only type of public transport (a dial-a-ride service) wasn't operating, so i had to get a taxi which left me $30 out of pocket... but i got my bike and went driving around.
The first place i went to was turkey flats, nice and small (maybe because it was morning!) and i had my first sparkling red wine - something invented by the aussies as they don't want a heavy red on their hot christmases with the turkey dinner! it wasn't too bad though, i quite enjoyed them. also loved the desert wine, and they had a nice red. Much of their whites here are rieslings, which i've not tried before - all new experiences!
then off to peter lehmans, but that was too big, and then to this other one called richmond grove - and after this i really needed some food to be able to bike straight! Seriously, they give big glasses here!
Cockatoo ridge next, not very impressed, and then penfolds (again really commercial) and then back to rest! Actually, i was so unfit that i spent the rest of the evening watching movies in bed because my legs were hurting.
The next day i went to jacob's creek which, despite it being huge, i really enjoyed. they had a really nice shiraz, as well as an excellent sparkling red and desert wine - the latter was more fresh than sweet so i'm presuming quite a lot of people would like it!

I was going to go biking the next day, but after two days' heavy biking around the barossa on a rental bike my ass hurt too much! So i went to a place called mount lofty - the second highest point in south australia next to wilpena pound in the flinders range apparently! And then relaxed and used the state library's free internet!

For those who didn't know yet - my plans changed! I decided to go to new zealand early as my friend cancelled on my, so i'd be with people i know for christmas and new years in australia! I got here 2 days ago (into Auckland and then a bus down to wellington) and will be here till the 23rd. Scenery looked really good - lots of green rollling hills and lake taupo looks amazing! I'm really looking forward to the 134m bungy jump in queenstown, no matter how expensive!
I'm staying with a friend that i met at Imperial (Ian) and will be in wellington till probably monday when i go to south island.