New Years Eve and kayaking Abel Tasman

Happy New Year! As we are writing this the new year has come to Sweden as well, twelve hours after us (although we still can not figure out why its twelve hours and not eleven like it is supposed to be). Got back, sore, tired and beaten up, from the kayaking trip (more on that below) of Abel Tasman, and arrived at the hostel only one or so hour before Annica and Erik were gonna pick us up by taxi at our hostel, so it was a bit stressful, but we managed to get done just in time.

The Boatshed Cafe, where we had dinner on New Years Eve

We had made a reservation at a place called The Boatshed Cafe, which was located at the waterfront of Nelson, looking out over the Tasman Bay, and where we had an orgy in lamb consisting of, among other things, the tounge of a (tortured?) lamb. It was delicious, and not just the tounge, but everything, and wonderfully presented as well. The by far strangest dish of the evening was Annica's Ostrich and Chocolate Ice Cream, that she had as an entree. Not just the combination was weird, but ice cream as an entree...?

Eating desserts

The dinner was wonderful, and afterwards, we had gotten word that there would be a free concert in the middle of Nelson (at Trafalgar Sq), where a New Zealand band called The Phoenix Foundation would play and bring in the New Year, so we grabbed a taxi and headed there. First time ever this happened, but as Joakim was paying the cab, the taxi driver lowered his own tip...

Taxi driver: Thats 9.82 dollars
Joakim handing over a 20 dollar bill: Just give me 8 back
Taxi driver: How about I give you 10 dollars back.
Joakim: ... uhmm, yeah ok...

The band put on a good show, and today, if the stores are open, we might even buy a CD. As they brought in the New Year, what we think was supposed to pass for fireworks went off, but what it actually looked like was as if someone threw "tomtebloss" up in the air behind the band. Not very impressive, but funny :) In response to the "magical" fireworks display, we couldn't very well make a new years toast in champagne, so we toasted in this really weird New Zealand Summer Ale, which was spiced with honey. It wasn't bad, it was just different, and just right for the moment.

In front of the stage on the steps of the Cathedral at Trafalgar Sq

The band jammed for some time after ut had turned 2009, and then left the stage. At which point we all headed home to our respective hostels. Now, we hade changed hostel since we stayed in Nelson before the kayaking trip, and this new hostel was located a little bit outside of town... and to be honest, we actually had no clue as to where it was located. We asked for some directions, heard like the first two or three parts of the multipart directions, and then just started walking aimlessly. The weird thing is, despite having no clue as to where the hostel was, despite not knowing if we were going in the right direction, and despite not really having heard the directions, we managed to find our hostel after some time wandering around, and passed out.

Boozing up with honey spiced summer ale... pure class

The "tolvslaget"

So that was our New Years, and a good one it was :)

However, before we celebrated New Years, we were out kayaking in the Abel Tasman National Park for two days, with a guide called Luke, and a group consisting of 5 englishmen, and one norwegian.

Alriiiight girls! Here I am sporting a spray skirt (by Sea Bear NZ $1950), a bouyancy device (by Kiwi Kayaks, $775), hat (by Åhlens, $0), and non fake Brisbane flip flops

Paddling away, heading into Anchorage

The norwegian guy had cycled all the way from the northern most point of the North Island in one month, and was now on his two month cycling of the northern most point of the South Island to the southern most point. And the englishmen were hilarious. Would not shut up for one second, constantly a little bit intoxicated on wine, and just cracking joke after joke the whole time in that dry, funny, intelligent way which only english people can be. It was honestly like being stuck in an english comedy show ala Monthy Python or Fawlty Towers.

The back side of our guide, Luke

We started paddling the first day up the coast, from a place called Marahau and eventually later that day ended up at a place called Anchorage where we set up camp. This part of the kayaking trip was easy and fun, and the weather was great. Once in Anchorage, and once our tent was up, we headed out over a dried up "lake" (due to the tide), for a place called Cleopatras Pool, which was located approx 1 hour inland. It was basically a waterfall, that ended in a pool, where you could go swimming and where mother nature had carved out a natural water slide in the mountain where you could just jump in and get carried by the water into the pool. The water was really cold, but really refreshing after a day of paddling.

Mmmmmmm yummy!

Got back to camp and started preparing for dinner. Since we had the uncatered tour (which apparently did not differ that much from the catered according to Erik and Annica... who told us they got "potato and rice" as their last dinner :) ), we had to bring our own food. So, we joyfully scooped up three cans of "Big Eat Spagehetti Bolognese". When cooking up this delicious meal, half of it accidently got on the table, upon which we just scooped it back in the pan hoping it would add to the flavour. We werent really expecting it to taste good, and true to our expectations it didn't. But it was food nonetheless...

Did you already eat, or are you about to?

Day two, upon heading out into open water, the weather got progressively worse. We managed to paddle out to an island with a seal colony, where a seal swam right by our boat, before heading back to the mainland and realizing that we would not be able to continue further north. So instead, we headed into this sheltered place, and instead paddled up a river, before finally heading into shore again, setting up a temporary tent for lunch.

Temporary lunch camp, and almost all of group

View from lunch camp, before it started raining

Our guide arranged for the boat to pick us up from a different place, closer to where we had lunch, because the wind got stronger, and it started raining. However, we still had to break camp and paddle out in open water for 30-40 minutes to get to our pickup point. The waves were really high, and it rained so much that you almost could not see where you were going. It was also lots of fun, but we're glad we only had to spend a short time doing it because it was exhausting.

But we managed to get ashore, got pickup up by a water taxi, that brought us all the way back to Marahau, where we got coffee/tea and some cookies :)

Today we are just going to hang around and take it easy in Nelson, cooking some food later tonight, and not really do anything. Weather is great, and Nelson is a cozy place. Unfortunately, Joakims "lambocide" will have to take a days rest today, but after devourering what seemed like a whole lamb yesterday, it seems only right.

Tomorrow we'll head for Christchurch, where we only have a Dolphin swimming trip planned. Since we have a couple of days there before heading on, we're just gonna see what there is to do, and see what happens.

Finally, our guide Luke taught us this thing in Maori that you are supposed to say as you are about to leave. It means "The Shags neck is stretched out". The Shag is a common bird here, and when it is stretching out its neck, it means it is getting ready to fly away.

Here it is in Maori (although we are not really sure of the last word :) )Kamoto, te kakei, te ka owakai

And it is pronounced like this... and read it with a rilly hivvy Kiwi iccint to git it right:Car motor, te car key, te car oh wah kay

Cheers, big ears!

A day between islands

This day was spent travelling between the two islands, and sitting on a bus to Nelson, where we are right now. Tomorrow we'll head out for a two day kayaking trip of Abel Tasman National Park. We will bring our own food on the trip, which means we will pig out on canned Spaghetti Bolognese... yums. Too bad we didnt bring a "nyarstallrik"...

Returning in Nelson on the evening of New Years eve, we will celebrate New Years with Annica and Erik, at a restaurant called Boatshed Cafe, by the ocean, with a view of Tasman Bay.

On the deck as we headed into port in Picton

Inlet Picton

Now its time for yet another lamb to be eaten... this time home cooked Lamb Rogan Josh... yums (and this time we mean it).

Tongariro Crossing

After 6 hours spent on the bus from Auckland to National Park, with the driver not stopping at National Park because he didn't know where it was, leading to the bus driving for 30 minutes in the wrong direction, changing driver and then heading back, until we finally arrived.

The hostel we are staying at is a well run, cozy little place, in the shadow of two big volcanic mountains. One, Nt Ruapehu, apparently is a great place to go skiing in the winter, and the other, Mt Ngauruhoe, was Mt Doom in the LotR - movies. There is also a third mountain, not visible from here which is called Mt Tongariro.

Sophie in front of Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom)

The sole reason, at least that we could see, for going to National Park (which is a town), is to do the so called Tongariro Crossing, which is a hike that takes you from the base of the mountians and then up between Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro, and then back down again on the other side.

On the way up the mountain

So, early yesterday morning, we loaded our backpack with the very, very, essential and in many ways lifesaving, G.O.R.P. (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts, with some Smarties added), a lot of water and headed out. The weather as we started was great, with virtually no clouds, but as we got up higher it got colder, the wind got stronger, and visibility became occassionally very poor.

Poor visibility on the ridge leading to the highest point of the hike

Before heading out on the hike, we had been advised against heading out in jeans, and instead buy or rent waterproof and warm pants from a place nearby... yet we really didn't see any need for it, and there really wasn't. We actually saw some people climb in shorts and T-shirts.

First part of the trip was basically a long, gruesome, climb up to the highest point of the hike (approx 2000 meters) that took 3 hours, through a volcanic landscape with old lava flows and volcano vents. From the highest point of the hike, you were overlooking three turcoise lakes below, called the Emerald lakes. The smell of sulphur only got stronger as you headed down towards them.

Emerald lakes

In front of one of the Emerald lakes

From this point on, the hike was basically only downhill for 2.5 hours, and the last one and a half hour was downhill through a regular landscape without that much to look at which made it seem a lot longer.

We had originally 8 or 9 hours to complete the hike before the first and the second pickup truck would arrive at the end of the hike and drive us back. However, we only needed five and a half hours approximately to get us from start to finish, which meant we had to wait for the pickup to arrive, giving us some well needed rest.

Today we are heading for an overnight stay in Wellington, and will be heading out on the Interislander ferry early tomorrow morning, which will take us from the North Island (Wellington) to the South Island (Picton), where we'll board a bus that will take us to Nelson. The odds that both of us will get on the bus and fall asleep instantly are not to great... I wouldn't bet against it.

Oh, and Hobbit sightings so far are still zero... not even as road kill :(

A few pictures from Christmas day

Spent the morning strolling along Tamaki Drive in Auckland and the afternoon sailing one of 2000s Americas Cup boats (Nz40) in the Auckland Harbor. Great fun!

Sophie on the grinder rails on NZ40

Sailing back to Auckland harbour

Not much else to report. The whole city is pretty much closed down for Christmas Day. Only a few souvenir shops are open. The streets are not exactly filled with people, but those few who were on the streets at least seemed to enjoy us wearing our "santa hats" (or whatever you call them) :)

Tamaki Drive

Tomorrow morning we'll get on a bus for a place called Tongariro, which played the part of Mordor in the LoTR - movies, for an 8 - 11 hour hike the following day. The length of the hike depends on if we decide to hike to the top of one of the mountains there or not. 11 hours does seem a bit long to be out hiking, so we'll probably settle for the "shorter" hike.

Hope Santa was nice to you all... we didn't get any presents this year, so apparently we've been bad... boo-fucking-hoo :(

Maori pin-up?

Merry Christmas!

Hope its snowing for Christmas back in Sweden. We are in the middle of a different kind of white here; sand. It is, admittedly, not the same as having snow for christmas, but a pretty sweet substitute nonetheless.

Auckland skyline, on our way to Waiheke Island

Little Oneroa beach

The day before christmas was spent on the island of Waiheke, located 35 minutes by boat outside of Auckland. Spent the better part of the day on the beaches of Waiheke, doing nothing except a short hike to a nearby bay, before heading back to Auckland later in the afternoon.

Oneroa beach

Since it is christmas time, and since it is so hot and sunny here, we thought that for the sake of solidarity we should get a hint of what it is like back home, so we headed for the Minus 5 Bar in Auckland for some drinks later in the evening. It's a bar completely made out of ice, where you drink vodka drinks from a glass made out of ice, and where the temperature is, obviously, 5 degrees below zero. It is also a completely pointless place to visit, which we realized as soon as we entered the place. But we did it for solidarity, so it was ok.

Minus 5 bar

So, instead, in the spirit of solidarity, we instead headed to a bar called Lenin and had some drinks there. It was definatly a cool place, one of the bartenders turned out to be Swedish (and of course got mistaken for being Swiss by another bartender working there), and we also met this little green fella standing outside in the rain, and had to invite him in for a drink. He later joined our little fellowship.

I've always felt like, somebody's watching me

The little green fella

Today was spent exploring the city, since all of the, well, everything, will be closed tomorrow. We also visited Auckland Museum and looked at some local Maori culture and history.
We've only spent roughly two days here in New Zealand and Auckland but we really like it already. A comparison with Australia; everything in Australia wants to kill you... in the air, on land and in the sea. Its just full of things made for, and whos one purpose in life is, killing you in painful ways.

In New Zealand, however, you get the feeling that everything just wants to love you... and not even love you to death, just love you in a cuddly tender way. For instance, in Australia, Joakim almost stepped on a very venomous snake when hiking. A snake that probably deep down inside wanted to kill him. Here, in New Zealand on Waiheke Island, Joakim almost stepped on a tiny, fluffy and extremely cute little rabbit while hiking. Same same, but very different. And Sophie didn't panic this time.

Closest thing we could get to a Christmas tree this year

Tomorrow, on Christmas day, everything will be closed, so we'll wander around town for a bit before heading out for a sail with one of the boats from Americas Cup. Then later at night, since all restaurants will be closed, we'll be cooking up something in our room (yes, we do have a kitchen), and will drink some wine and watch Kalle Ankas - julafton, which Joakim borrowed from his local www library.

... and thats the story of Jesus.

This message was placed here by a Gideon

Drunken idiots are people too...

... and coincidentally still idiots, despite or perhaps thanks to, them being drunk.

Just spent 4 hours sitting next to a half latvian, half finnish, wine connoisseur with a latvian/australian accent and a very well trained liver. He got on the plane, and right away you could see that he was very drunk already.

Of course, he had the seat next to us, and you knew there would be trouble when he could not sit still for a second, but instead went through his hand luggage probably 50 times, wiped his head with a towel that he brought with him onboard, and then proceeded to spray himself obsessively all over with a perfumed moisturizer, including his hair, his face, his arms, his chest and under his arms. Then, just to top things off, he opened his hand luggage once more, and brought out a bottle of pure alcohol and took two deep zips out of it. And the plane hadn't even taken off yet.

At this point in time, we thought for sure he was afraid of flying, but then he started talking to everyone walking by, and seemed calm, so that couldn't have been it either.

When in the air, he proceeded to order wine, drinks and whisky from all of the cabin crew, carefully ordering from the ones he had not ordered from at all, or at least not in a while. When that didn't work, he waited for all the cabin crew to be somewhere other than in the pantry and then simply got up and helped himself to various sorts of alcohol.

Needless to say, after a couple of hours in the air, he was really really drunk. And here's the worst part... he just would not shut up!

Picture yourself sitting on the Stockholm subway, a drunkard spots you (as they invariably always do), sits down next to you and starts talking about how fantastic Bajen is or whatever is on their mind at the moment (it usually is Bajen, but lets not generalize too much). You ignore them completely, yet they just never seem to get the hint and talk to you anyway. Ok... imagine that for 4 hours... it was dreadful.

However. despite this, well, idiot, we actually did make it to Auckland, and after 1.5 hours in customs we are finally at our hotel (which is really nice). We have just booked a sail trip with one of the Americas Cup boats for Christmas Day and are contemplating what to do the other two days in Auckland...

... and we are kind of sleepy.

Encounter with DEATH at Cradle Mt.

Ok, first off, sorry for the dramatic, Aftonbladet style, title of this post. It is however, slightly justified, although nothing really happened and everyone is ok. More on that later.

Headed out of Launceston fairly last morning in order to reach Cradle mountain national park early for some hiking. On our way there we stopped by a small wildlife park, somewhere near Mole Creek, to see if we could spot some Wombats and Tasmanian Devils, and of course Sophie really wanted to see a koala as well, and she was happily surprised to see that they had them here since they are not native to this island.

Tasmanian devil

Koala

Wombats, they're like Koalas, but stay on the ground

After the wildlife park, we got going for Cradle Mountain and arrived in good time. We bought our hiking passes and started hiking a trail, which leads around a lake, all in the vicinity of Cradle Mountain.

Cradle mountain and dove lake

After finishing about 3/4 of the trail, after having seen one snake in the middle of the road and being extra cautious to look out for other snakes lying around, Sophie all of a sudden gets into a high pitch voice mode, screams stop, and Joakim, walking in front, looks down and notices that he has put his left foot no more than 10 cm from a snake head. The snake has his head slightly raised, and lies absolutely still.

Joakim: I hear you play a good game of chess

Snake (aka Death), hissing: Indeed I do... do you play?

Joakim: No, not really... im just gonna back of slowly now, and dont bite me or things are gonna get real ugly... I might break down and cry like a little girl... and you dont want to see that... trust me

Snake: Fair enough

So, one painfully slow step back later, the snake turned the other way (luckily not Sophies way), and just left. Now, here comes challenge number two, because Sophie has broken down and refuses to move. Turns out she is not to fond of snakes... So, after some reassuring words, and some lying ("hey, it probably wasn't venomous anyway"), she got her self togehter and we started hiking back.

Upon arriving back at the trail start, we asked the busdriver who brought us into the park what sort of snake it was, and if it was venomous. Apparently, all snakes in Tasmania are highly venomous, and this particular one was a tiger snake. If not treated with anti-venom, mortality is 45%. However, they seemed to have a stock of anti - venom in the park, so it would probably have been ok, even if Joakim had gotten bitten. Sophie on the other hand swears she would have died, or at least fainted, from the chock of Joakim getting bitten.

Winding down from that, we drove out of the park for Queenstown where we spent the night at a shabby turn of the century luxury hotel. It was not so luxrious anymore, and the down was, well... for lack of better word: quaint. 4000 people living there, basically all working for the mine in the vicinity, and basivally all of them getting piss drunk (probably every night). So that night we got to experience our first authentic aussie small town bar room brawl. Exciting!

"down" "town" Queenstown

Got out of Queenstown a.s.a.p. next morning, and headed for another national park and another hike to some nearby waterfalls... and yes we saw some more snakes and Sophie panicked again (slightly less this time though).

Julius next to a Tall Tree...

Back in Hobart right now, getting ready to eat, and really trying to get into that Christmas feeling. Its almost impossible, since the weather here is... yes you guessed it... hot and sunny... everyday, hot and sunny :) Will head for Auckland and New Zealand tomorrow morning, for the second leg of our trip.

All you can eat buffet?

St Helens to Launceston

Drove out of St Helens for Launceston yesterday afternoon, on some beautiful winding roads. On our way to Launceston we did a quick detour to a lavender farm, looked around and had a coffee break there, eating some lavender spiced muffins and fudges. Quite tasty.

Sophie at the lavender farm

Lavender just starting to bloom

Got to Launceston at around 7 pm, and checked in at the hostel which is "conveniently" located in a bar/restaurant/salsa place/live music room, where no one seemed to know that we were coming, how to check us in, how much it cost, what room we were supposed to have, and so on. And yet, the slogan of the Hostel is "At the Hub, it's all about you!"... well... must be some sort of irony, for sure. Oh, and just to let everyone know... the gideons has NOT found this place yet... which again seems to confirm our theory of the connection between Lonely Planet writers and gideons, since this hostel was not actually in the Lonely Planet books... the plot thickens.

Hostel is located right next door to the Boags brewery

Launceston feels like a much bigger city than Hobart, even though only half as many people live here (approx 80 000). Spent the day walking up a Gorge located near the city, called the Cataract. Quite a nice walk with some nice views.

Beginning of the Cataract Gorge

Rest of the day will be spent in the city trying to find a supermarket to buy some food. Tomorrow morning we'll get up early to head out of town for Cradle Mountain National Park and some hiking, before we head onward to Queenstown, where we'll spend the night.

And last, this is for everyone who used to work at Loneanalyser... as you all know, today is friday, and you know what that means...

Pictures from St.Helens, Wineglass bay

Binalong beach

View from other side of Binalong beach

Sea shells, obviously

Binalong beach, water looks inviting, but was insanely cold

Binalong beach, once again

Wineglass bay, in Freycinet national park

Ok, let's get this straight... Valhalla Ice Cream, in Australia, with Thor the thunder king holding an ice cream cone instead of a hammer, and sporting angel wings and a halo? How the hell did he get all the way down here, and wtf happened on his way here?

Uhmm... how do you order the ice cream in the middle?

- Yes, I would like to have a Golden Gay Time please!

Tasmanian made whisky, tasted it in Hobart