Anyway, I moved on nonetheless, I bought myself a car from a German couple and headed South East, down the North island. I came across the Coromandel peninsula where in some places you could just dig a hole in the beach sand and you get yourself a hot water pool, even more funny when it is in the middle of the night and some other travelers are moving around with their shovels, sometimes jumping because the water was just too hot under their feet.
Further south I visited Hobbiton where many film scenes of the Shire were taken, quite nice how everything was made up.
On to Rotorua, where the sulfur smells are omnipresent and sometimes a little disturbing, but visiting the thermal wonderlands, where geysers erupt in regular intervals, watching a traditional Maori cultural performance with singing and dancing, and walking down a crater valley that just blew up until not too long ago, this all was definitely a memorable experience.
Napier on the East coast again was a bit like the Italian Riviera, a cosy little town with lots of sunshine and a few nice bike trails. Hard to believe, that this beautiful town was once completely flattened by a devastating earthquake in 1931 and that a huge part of the harbor has been lost because the whole sea ground lifted up a couple of meters.
In Whanganui I then went on the Mail Tour with Alois, a Swiss emigrant who's been living in New Zealand since about 15 years. He was kind of a brave guy, leaving his farm back home and moving to the Southern Island town of Invercargill, not speaking a single word of English. Now that he knows the language it was kinda funny that he somehow wouldn't want to talk in Swiss German to me, which was alright of course and so we moved on talking in English with a more or less bigger Swiss accent ;-) Alois started to work in a farm too when getting to NZ, but he didn't like it that much so he moved and eventually found this Tour Service which he could take over from the previous owner who got retired. In addition to this he also has a little tobacco shop and, as mentioned, he's the postman of the Whanganui River valley, a quite remote place with a great history of steamboats, hard working farmers, bridge builders who build bridges to nowhere, and (maybe) famous movie sets. Alois also told me that he eventually found a girlfriend and with her, I believe she's an emigrant from Canada, it worked out much better as his previous attempts with Kiwi women, who according to him apparently are somewhat different and not always easy to get along with ;-).
Moving up again to New Plymouth I approached the majestic Mount Taranaki, which you can already see from afar with its peculiar conic volcano shape. You also see it on the map how this mountain has shaped the landscape and made the people settle in a circle all around it. And hiking up on it was even more fun, going up through rocks and sand, through the clouds that'd nearly make you getting lost, crossing the summit crater that's filled with snow & ice and then eventually reaching the summit, where I would meet half of Europe, a couple from Austria & Slovenia, one Czech guy, and one from Italy (who climbed the mountain even twice that day as on his first attempt he had to turn back because of bad weather).
Driving in my car and listening to the radio I heard this advertisement of the owner of the Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge. I found the radio commercial quite funny, if you'd like to visit the place you should give the owner a yodel on his phone number. So I yodeled him, made a reservation for the night and that's how I met Markus & Sera. They made a gorgeous chalet style home up there, almost felt a bit home, and the three course dinner was just delicious. Their story was interesting too, Seras family moved to NZ quite a while ago, and Markus from St. Gallen moved over there too after he and Sera came together. They first started a butchery business even though neither of them had any experience with it, they hired a Dutch butcher and learned the job by doing it. The initial plan was to produce Bündnerfleisch, a Swiss specialty meat, but after putting off this plan several times (apparently there is no big market for dried mead in New Zealand) they decided to sell the butchery and went into the hospitality business. I think they are happy now with their lodge, even though it meant (and still means) putting a lot of hard work into it. And it was nice to watch the family with their two daughters and a friend sitting & laughing together for dinner and I wouldn't have minded joining them instead of waiting for the dinner for the house guests.
Going south again I ended up in the capital Wellington where I spent a few days and nearly got blown into the sea by the wind. Apparently it is the windiest town in New Zealand, "blame it on the Cook Strait" they say. In Welly I also visited the absolutely awesome national museum Te Papa. You could spend days there and experience endless facets of New Zealand's history, Maori & Western culture, social life and art. And best of all, it's all free :-) What I noticed anew there was the fact, that many New Zealanders with roots in the Western world are really proud of the Maori history and culture of their country too, and so was our guide, who greeted us with a couple of Maori sentences (and he's going to language school to learn it properly). I reckon this is something unique to have happened to a colonized country. Of course not all in the relationship between the cultures is flawless, still I found it quite impressive, especially when you think of how most other countries dealt with the indigenous people and still do.
So I knew I was going to be in Welly when the next day I had to be back in Auckland for the Paolo Nutini concert. Not very well planned but how should I have known when I bought the concert tickets in December in Cambodia :-) Anyway, driving back up there I couldn't really fancy, but no worries, there was also a scenic rail trip going to Auckland in one day so I figured that's gonna be really cool as I wanted to ride the trains anyway some time in New Zealand. So I had a wonderful journey in a very comfortable train coach that was moreover equipped with audio guides that would explain all the things outside passing by. They made that really nicely. I got back to Auckland in time and enjoyed an awesome show of Paulo who seemed to be in an excellent mood. And live he's even better than ever. I stayed for the night in town and took the flight back to Welly the next day, not to mention that flying is half the price compared to taking the train ;-)
Hey as I've mentioned above, my trash band on mi upper level kept on bothering me quite a bit, and when I was just about to loose myself in a backpackers in Wellington this chap named Craig would enter my room and talk about his journey into Buddhism and his spiritual journey to himself. He talked about meditation, about a guy named Stuart Wilde, and he mentioned that Buddhist Meditation Center down in Nelson on the South Island. That's exactly what I need now I thought, so I wrote them if they could use a volunteer for a while and they could! I was so grateful that I've met this guy and that I would be able to have a break from travelling and hopefully from my trash band. I eventually spent an exceptionally awesome time in this Chandrakirti Meditation Center, I had my (slightly smelly) camper bus to sleep in, I had my work for half a day (doing landscaping and building stuff) and then I would have time to read and meditate in the beautiful meditation hall, we had yummi & healthy vegetarian food and I met an awful lot of amazingly funny and interesting people down there, fellow travelers that were volunteering too, Billy, Regina, Eimar, Thomas, Mica, Pia & Hendrik, then Yüdon the nun, and Geshe-La the resident Lama and his translator Tenzin. We not only worked hard ;-) we also had heaps of interesting discussions and not too little fun around the place and when going to the town pub, especially when the crazy Irish girl Eimar made us wear her onezies she, for some reason, kept carrying with her while travelling. And we made a lot of good music too, as everyone seemed to bring along some musical talent, I loved it! Thanks a bunch to everyone there who made in an unforgettable experience <3
Close to the end of my stay at Chandrakirti there was also Linda coming to volunteer but since she was travelling on her own and since I would be heading down south with my car, she decided to join me, so together we drove down to Hokitika and enjoyed a good time down there.
She eventually wanted to go a little up North again whereas myself I would head down further South to see the glaciers and do the Copland Track. New Zealand is such an amazing country and the more I stayed the the more I loved it. You have so much of variety close together, the coast, the beaches, the glaciers, forests, mountains, fjords, dry highlands, smaller islands and peninsulas and so on, it would just not stop. And after my time at the Meditation Center I started to really enjoy every bit of travelling again. I also visited some of my friends relatives near Christchurch, John & Claire, and even they did not know me at all they were very welcoming to me, inviting me for coffee and lunch an sharing a whole bunch of funny stories with me. I then went to see whales, dolphins and seals in Kaikoura (stunning) and to walk on the Abel Tasman. Since I didn't have too much left I was kind racing through the country with my car, and even though I usually don't like it too much this way, it felt kinda right to see as much as possible.
I sadly had to leave the South Island soon so I headed back up North again. When I stopped for a female hitchhiker a little North of Welly, it was like in a movie, where she would shout back to her hidden friends, "hey, he's driving to New Plymouth, exactly where we wanted to go to!". Smiling I had all of them pack their gear in my car and so we were 5 people with all the luggage who made it up to our destination. And this trip was definitely worth the fuel, different from when I would be driving just on my own. I then was so happy to see Craig again (the guy who led me to the Meditation Center) and Billy (the guy who I've met there) and we had a great night out at Peggy O'Reilly's Pub with a couple of good dark pints. So the next day it would be my last day on the road and I drove back to Auckland, where I, and I couldn't believe my luck, was able to sell my car again for a price that was not too bad.
I had only three days left and this short time I drove a rental car up to the very top of the North Island, Cape Reinga, a definitely magic place. On the way I saw huge ancient trees too, big sand dunes, the lovely sea town Paihia and the historical place Waitangi, where, as mentioned unique in history, Maori and Western people would sign a contract about how the would live with each other while respecting each others rights and welfare, and thereby creating the founding document of the New Zealand nation. And in Opononi I was even lucky enough to have a chat with a Maori woman, who was also getting some fish & chips, and she talked about her family, her ancestors, the wars between the tribes, the places she grew up, and this all was pretty interesting to hear and it was one of these rare moments where I as a tourist could naturally interact with one of this interesting people, I wish there would have been more opportunities.
So that was it with my two months in this beautiful country, and even though my initial feeling or dream that I might stay there even longer didn't come true, I had an amazing time and I reckon I will just have to go back some time. From this area of Polynesian culture I would fly to a different but still similar part of Polynesian background, to the islands of Hawaii, where indigenous people would share a strong bond in terms of traditions, language and values with their Maori relatives. I'm quite curious how I'm gonna like, especially since once more I have absolutely no plan what to do there. But since I'm in Oahu for a few days already I can already tell you so much: I do quite like it here so far :-)
