Last week in Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Nine wonderful weeks in New Zealand are coming to an end. Coming back up to the north island has been less stunning nature wise. Socially it has been the best.  On a three day tour to East Cape, we were a small group with just Chelle, Paul, me and our guide Leigh (plus an older, rather posh English woman not worth mentioning). One evening we had BBQ, played guitar and piano and the next morning we got up early to greet the sunrise as the first in the world.

The East part of the North Island has the largest population of Mauri, the first people to inhabit New Zealand some 800 years ago. They make beautiful wood carvings as seen here on the portal to a church. Churches often make great pictures on a sunny day so here's another one from Coromandel Town. 

Mauri wood carving

Cathedral Cove in Hahei on the coast of Coromandel Peninsula is an attraction that is beautiful in itself but hard to take a picture of without loads of tourists on it. At the moment however the track down to the beach is closed due to rock fall after heavy rains so only a couple of brave people were spotted in the cove. I went there on a boat on rather rough seas so the pics are all slanted, not worth posting. The scenery was used in the movie 'Chronicles Of Narnia' so if you've seen that you've seen Cathedral Cove.

After the tour out to East Cape I spent a night in the former gold mining and Kauri tree logging town of Thames. Nowadays they advertise the town by ‘having had 100 bars and hotels’ during those golden times but now there are only a few. The sunset was probably as beautiful as in ‘them good ol' times’.

Here at the end of my visit to New Zealand I don’t know what exactly to write about, after all the pace of my adventures have slowed down quite a bit. It just happened naturally and it is a good preparation for the coming month in Bali where I want to stay in one place the entire time. A small bungalow to myself, no squeaking bunk beds or slamming doors. Yeah, kind of like in ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. I am looking forward to new adventures and the smells and sounds of exotic Asia!

Fairy-tale landscape in Tatapouri, East Cape