Another whole day in the bus , as we cross almost the entire Northern Island. Luckily the scenery is still enjoyable, as we see a couple of impressive mountains situated near lake Taupo: Mt. Ranpehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe. This last mountain featured in the Lord of the Rings movies as Mt. Doom. This region is well known for the vulcanic activity, and these mountains are in fact still considered to be active vulcanoes. Also the stories of Wes and Paul make sur...

07:30 in the bus... Everyone is really tired, so we can't wait to sleep some more in the bus. At 10:30 we arrive at the ferry to Wellington, which takes approximately 2,5 hours to bring us to the North Island. Luckily the boat arrives in Wellington, so the travelling is limited to the morning. Wellington looks like a nice city, so instead of directly heading to the museum of New Zealand "Te papa" I decide to go on a little walking tour through the city...

Today = Kayak-day! We are going on a kayak-trip through the Abel Tasman national park! Named after the Dutch guy thay "discovered" New Zealand and was responsible for naming it after the province where he was from in The Netherlands. In pictures this park is alway sunny and nice; in reality (or at least today) it was cold and rainy . A bit disappointed we start our tour, and once we are in the kayak it is not that bad afterall, especially when we nea...

Today we have an early rise to go to Nelson. This tour often starts very early!! After spending the morning in the bus, we stop at Kaikoura for lunch and seal watching; they like to relax on the rock close to the beach. It is really cool to see seals, and the scenery is very nice as well. After this we go on a nice walk along the coast which really treats us to a superb view. Near the end of the trip we see that our path has disappeared due to a landslide, somet...

Flockhill is actually not only a holiday accommodation; it is a 14000 hectare working station, where shepp, cattle and deer are farmed. This morning we got a short demonstration of a sheep farmer with two of his sheep-dog. He told us all about the different types of sheep they have and how the dogs control a flock of sheep, followed by a short explication of the sheering of the sheep. We also got the chance to see some sheep up close and especially the lambs we...