First time in a car, Mordor, Otane and Auckland.

Hello again!

Swedish Citizen?

It's been quite a while since the last update, again... But at least a lot has happened since the last time I posted. We've lived a month at the Coromandel Mansion in Wellington and it's been a blast! The city has been treating us well and we've have had the best company possible. The most amazing girl from Tasmania that I was lucky enough to meet in Queenstown has been staying with me at the Coromandel. I'm not sure if there's anything else in the world that can beat a romance. Love is amazing! Unfortunately duty called and she had to go back to Australia to take care of Greg Barns and some other business. I can't wait to see her again though!

Because of the earthquakes in Christchurch, the Wellington city council has decided that all buildings must be earthquake proof, which the old mansion is not. Our landlord "Jacko" therefore had no choice but to kick us out, which wasn't too bad because we had been planning on leaving either way. However, we wanted to stay for the Wellington sevens this weekend which is one of the worlds greatest rugby events where the best teams in the world play each other with only 7 players. (Apparently this version of rugby is to be a part of the olympics in a few years if everything goes right.) But all accomodation to find in Wellington this weekend was sold out, so our only option was to leave.

Wellington from Mt Victoria

We went to Thrifty car rentals hoping to relocate a car to Auckland, which is for free as long as you get it there in 48 hours! We got ourselves a Toyota RAV4 and burned away towards Otane in Hawkes bay, where we have relatives which neither one of us ever met before. We are both very glad we went there to meet them! They are a friendly and loving family not too different from our own. Hopefully our paths will cross again eventually, maybe in the northern hemisphere!

The Napthens

Hoppa Hulle

After spending the night at the Napthens we decided to head for Tongariro national park to do the Tongariro crossing trek. Tongariro is where they shot all the scnes from Mordor in The Lord of the Rings! Even though we got there at 1 pm and the fog was so thick one could almost cut it with a knife we decided to go for it. We figured we could do it if we walked twice as fast as calculated on the signs. Even though visibility was zero throughout the whole trek we both enjoyed it, especially the mind blowing silence that struck us when we were up on the plateau close to the volcanoes. It felt so good with a proper workout after a month of laziness. We managed to do the 11 hour trek in 5½ hours, which is evidence enough the fitness we built up during our 2000km bike ride is still there!

A crater in Mordor

Having driven some 300km more from Taupo, we are now in Auckland.We are ironically enough staying at base backpackers and have already had one of the famous "button-showers".
It will however only be for a few days because we fly out to Singapore on the sixth to continue our journey. We'll stay about a week in "The City of Lions" and then fly over to Kuching in Malaysian Borneo. From there, find our way through up to Brunei Darussalam and then on towards Palawan in the Philippines. It's going to be a nice change to pick up the backpack again and discover new cultures in SE Asia!

Tutta Fjutt på en vessla!