Category: New Zealand 2013
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The stars in your eyes
Auckland – The fellowship is broken. Dave has taken Chris II overland to Auckland, while Demetre and I have chosen to attack it from the sea, which worked so well for us in Wellington. The ferry runs from Coromandel to Auckland in the evenings, a barnstorming run across the strait under a waxing moon that…
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Cathedral cove
Coromandel – As we moved through the North Island we found a more and more commercialized, tourist-ized New Zealand; I must admit that this did not leave me in any great hope for the remainder of our last week here, as we approached the Mecca of all Lord of the Rings tourism – Hobbiton –…
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Running with blood on our knees
Rotorua – We’re clattering down towards the end of the road, and every cell in my body can feel it; that juuuuuust-pre-exhaustion of a well timed marathon. We’re ticking the last of the boxes in the North Island, but nowadays when we make friends with other tourists, we’re the ones giving advice rather than taking…
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In a hole in the ground
Napier – We have found ourselves in a bizarre town (to be fair, on a Sunday afternoon) which seems to shut down completely a couple of hours before sunset. Napier is all decorated in an Art Deco style which only amplifies the 28 Days Later vibe of wandering around the downtown core as the sun…
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The way is shut
Lake Ferry – Our Mount Doom hike has been scuttled, because the Tongariro crossing is in permanent nastiness, weather-wise, for the next several days. This has left a rather gaping crater in our final week in New Zealand. We’ve ended up in Lake Ferry – a bleak stretch of sand out near the pinnacles, where…
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Entr’acte – The Story of Demetre and the Angry Seal
Wellington, on a 2-day furlough from the Larger Adventure As A Whole – Once upon a time, there was a man named Demetre, who wanted to punch a seal in the face. I do not know why this obscene lust dwelled in him, but to look in Demetre’s eyes was to know the True Terror.…
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Paradise Island
Kaikoura – Was this the day we all made silent promises to move down here? We were about halfway between Christchurch and Kaikoura, on the highway, passing through wide golden pasture lands and arriving at nearly the exact middle of nowhere, when we decided to stop at the next roadside restaurant for a snack… and…
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Home of the Horse Lords
Christchurch – Screaming out of Aoraki yesterday morning with a wet sky behind us and the buzz of the helicopter flight still on our mind lead to a quick chat about the quest for the Perfect Life, which, if it can be found anywhere, can probably be found here; we were thinking of the helicopter…
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Paradiso
Aoraki – It’s at the point now where we’re becoming playfully annoyed with the whole thing, coming around yet another corner to see yet another vista that must be witnessed and photographed and enthused over. Enough already, New Zealand – WE GET IT. Rocketing up from Wanaka through Twizel (Pelennor Fields – rah!), we arrived…
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Southern Cross
Wanaka – Every couple of days our landscape completely changes, though even by that notion I have to admit I never expected to come upon a friendly little beach community when arriving at Wanaka. All of a sudden the desire to keep pushing forward, forward, forward has been melted out of me – I could…