WWOOFing at Awarua (Two Rivers)

Hello and here we go again! I know you have just had our last post but we are still soooo far behind with our stories (about three weeks!) that'll you have to live with the "information overload". ;)

As promised, you'll get a new story about us exploring farm life - this time in THE SHEEP country and luckily, we chose exactly the right place to have the most intense SHEEP experience ever! We are SHEEP experts now, I'd say. But let's start with first things first: Awarua is about an hour North of Wellington, situated in a typically New Zealand landscape with green, green, green rolling hills, a little creek, and, of course, lots of rain. Yep, we only had one day without rain but hey, who complains about that when you have a roof, a bed, work outside all the time, and the sweatest family to keep you company?

The Palmer family, that's everbusy, energetic and lovely Julia, fun and laid-back Brett (who, unfortunately is not on the picture because he was at work at that time), Jordan (13) who couldn't beat David in playing 4x4 and almost cut his hand off while we were there!, Theo (10) the living answering machine of the family ("Hi, Theo speaking... no she's not, sorry... yes, see ya!") who won David's heart in an instant with his computer game Diabolo and mine with his beautiful blue eyes, and Lily (8), the strongest little personality I have ever met with her wonderful energy for life and her cute "s'il vous plait" when she wanted something from David. Do I have to say anything else or can you imagine the awesome time we spent with them?!

Ah ja, as the place was not lively enough yet, there were also some 97 SHEEP, a couple of cows, two horses and a pony, two dogs, several chicken, a regular cat and a cat with only three legs. I guess we can say that Awarua kept us very busy! Regarding the work, we once more learnt heaps and enjoyed most of it. First, we had to repair the 1km gravel road leading to the farm, which meant loading the quad trailer with heavy gravel, driving to the huge holes in the road, and filling those up. I can tell you, it was hard work. Then we attacked a huge hedge in the garden but even after two days we had not quite gotten through the thing! Notice our fashionable clothing on the pictures - the only way not to get soaking wet most of the time!

Of course, besides those and numerous other tasks, our most interesting work concerned the SHEEP. Have you any idea how extremely stupid those animals are?? Well, if you have some idea, tripple the amount and you might get close to their true stupidity! No, seriously, you know that I love SHEEP but they are truely the most stupid animals I have ever met! We had to drive them from a paddock high up in the hills down to one near the farm in order to be able to count them and prepare their shearing. Well, SHEEP apparently don't like to walk downhill but the gate through which we had to get them was at the bottom of the hill - we ran quite a bit and I can tell you, SHEEP are a lot faster in climbing and running on those hills! However, finally we had them all in the wooden enclosure in order to count them. You cannot imagine how stupid they behaved! They actually ran against the wooden fence, they jumped on each other, they ran in circles, in short, they did everything in order for us not to be able to count them! (Maybe they knew that based on this numbers the little lambs would be sold to the butcher???)

The next day, we had to drive them along the gravel road to the shearing shed and luckily we had Julie on the horse and Theo on the quad, otherwise we would have lost half of them on the way. Of course, they didn't want to go into the shearing shed and we actually had to grab them by the neck and push and pull them in there! We ended up with all their kaka and pipi on us, but we succeeded. Then, it was shearing time. Very, very interesting, the guy (shearer) really knows how to handle those SHEEP! (Pictures in David's post because of his SHEEP photo story) David's job was to always drive a couple of sheep from the flock into a small inclosure where the shearer could grab them easier and I guess he gained about 1 kg of muscles during the day! I had to take care of the wool, collect it, spread it on a huge table, take of any very disgusting parts like mud and kaka and then roll it up and put it into bags. On the picture, the wool is to dirty because the SHEEP spent one night in the shed and as they were soaking wet due to the rain and they slept on the ground, they had lots of dirt and pipi in the wool. So our work was really clean!

At the end of the day we could say that we are SHEEP experts now. We have guarded them, we have driven them over the hills, we have shorn them (yes, I also had my go but the picture is very blurry), we have taken care of their wool, and we have had a hearty laugh at how ridiculous they look once they are shorn. I still love them but the next time I'll buy a wool-sweater, I'll think of the poor persons who have to take care of those SHEEP!

Overall, our stay at Awarua was truely special and wonderful. We learnt heaps, we had lots of fun even though we couldn't really go out in our free time, and we met a very, very warm, welcoming, fun, lively, amiable, and admirable family. We'll never forget how good the diner tasted after that bottle of wine (Cheers, Brett), how loud Lily can scream, and what a wonderful mess there was every morning before the kids went off to school and every evening when they had to go to bed. I guess, we can only say: Thank you all very much for the wonderful opportunity to become part of your family!

Wwoofing en Nouvelle-Zélande : première !!

Moins d'une semaine que nous sommes arrivés sur l'île du nord, et nous attaquons déjà les choses sérieuses : une semaine de wwoofing ! originalement, cette semaine de wwoofing était prévue pour laisser le temps à nos visas pour la Thaillande d'être préparé (ce qui devait normalement prendre environ une semaine mais qui finalement n'a pris qu'une journée), c'est la raison pour laquelle nous avons fait ce Wwoofing non loin de Wellington, juste au nord, dans une ville joliment appelée Reikorangi. Nous sommes donc débarqués pour une semaine chez les Palmer (Brett et July, avec leurs 3 enfants Jordan (13 ans), Théo (11 ans) et Lily (8 ans)), dans leur très jolie ferme du nom de Awarua (traduit du maori : "deux rivières"). La ferme est immense, et le terrain paradisiaque, comme en témoigne la photo ci-contre : une rivière avec gorge et chute d'eau, des colines de prairies pour pouvoir faire du Quad en admirant le paysage, et des forêts de pins.

Nous avons passé une semaine géniale, à travailler dehors avec les moutons (je me suis même fait un copain du nom de Lamy, cf photo ci-contre), à nous promener sur le Quad et à jouer avec les enfants. La pluie nous a encore une fois gâché un peu la partie, mais au final on s'en est pas trop mal sortis, l'équipement que July nous avait prêté aidant pour beaucoup. On a pu travailler sous la pluie sans trop s'en soucier, et on a profité des quelques jours de beau temps pour nous promener sur la propriété. Côté vie de famille, c'était assez génial, avec trois enfants absolument adorables, et jamais en manque d'idées... Pour finir, la cuisine de July était assez sensationnelle ! tout était donc réuni pour une superbe semaine.

Ce qui a toutefois été le plus intéressant a été le travail, contre toute attente. La ferme est en effet principalement une ferme à moutons, et devinez quoi, on est arrivé juste au moment de la tonte !!! ça a été l'occasion d'une matinée complètement folle, au milieu de ces crétins de moutons (ah si ! c'est très con un mouton !!!), et même un essai de tondage pôur nous. Je ne résiste pas, voici 3 photos qui résument assez bien l'ambiance pour cette expérience unique :





et pour finir, la preuve que j'ai bien tondu un mouton : photo ci contre. A noter que pour ceux qui pensent que c'était uniquement une partie de plaisir, faut pas exagérer quand même... Essayez de choper à la main 44 mountons adultes et 53 petits, je peux vous dire que ça vous fait les bras... et c'était exactement mon boulot : choper les moutons dans l'enclos pour les passer au mec qui les tondait. Maintenant, j'ai la technique, mais j'en ai sué avant de les maîtriser ces salles bêtes... c' est que c'est vraiment con un mouton, pis quand ça a peur, ça se débat bien... Bref, au final tous les moutons ont été bien tondus et tout le monde a été content... sauf peut-être les moutons, parce que autant des moutons c'est assez joli comme animal quand ça a de la laine, autant quand c'est tondu c'est très moche !

From Christchurch to Wellington - Welcome to the North Island

Hello again to our story time from the other side of the world! As most of you reading this blog will know me well enough to be able to judge the importance friendship has to me, you won't be surprised if after so much time I'll dedicate one post here to the subject of meeting friends. Well, all right, it was not exactly my choice, we just happened to meet a lot of "old" friends in Christchurch and Wellington, but still, it's a nice topic for a post, isn't it?! About a month and a half ago, we welcomed you to Christchurch and we ourselves were welcomed by the wonderful Pankhursts, Diane and Brian. Now, after having finished our tour through the South Island, we were their guests once more. Unfortunately only for one night because they left the city to travel themselves but nevertheless we spent a wonderful evening laughing and conversing with them. It's great to meet such open-minded and life-embracing people! And of course, I should not forget to mention David rejoicing in meeting his old friend Casper the cat again!

However, our return to Christchurch also offered us the opportunity to meet with the Bates, Dianne and Mitch, (our wonderful hosts in the Marlborough Sounds and in Wanaka) again. They were so nice as to invite us to stay at their home for a couple of days and of course, we could not refuse that. We spent a great time together getting to know each other even better and we enjoyed their beautiful house and all the luxury that came with it! Dianne's fabulous cooking and baking (Thank you very much for the cake, the muffins, the cookies, Dianne!!!), the comfortable bed, the internet access, the home cinema, and... the pool!!! Yes, you may believe it or not, but they have their own pool and we actually set the whole surrounding under water playing water-polo in it! ;)

Other than meeting friends, we also did something for our general education and went to the national museum, the Museum of Canterbury and learnt heaps in this really great place. If anyone gets the chance to go there, it is really worthwhile. However, even more convincing for us was the visit to the Fudge Factory - as you may imagine! It's a cozy and cute little place where they still do everything by hand and we were able to follow the whole production process from the mixing and heating of the ingredients, to the pourring of the fudge, the cutting up, the wrapping of packages, ... . While doing so, we were allowed to taste all different sorts of fudge and I have to admit, it was soooo good that I was really, really sick by the time we left...

So, after some last relaxing days, it was finally time to say goodbye to the South Island. And on we went to Wellington. We thought we might trick the rain and travel faster than the bad weather, especially when taking the ferry but the first view of the city convinced us of the contrary. Apparently, there is some kind of transmitter placed somewhere amongst our belongings in order to make sure that the rain clouds won't lose us. It is hopeless!

Nevertheless, we had an awesome time in Wellington. One the one hand, this was due to the fact that the city is definitely very, very beautiful and interesting, situated amongst rolling hills and alongside beautiful beaches, with great "old" buildings and a very young and lively population (unfortunately, we do not have any pictures at present...). On the other hand, our visit was very special because I surprisingly met a very good old friend of mine again. Some of you will probably be looking at the picture now asking yourselves if it is possible. And yes, after years, Nadi and I finally met again and it was simply great! We had so much to talk about, so many stories to share, and, like in the good old days :) we completely forgot the time over our talk and went to bed late, late, late at night. At this point, thank you very, very much for your hospitality, Nadi and Robert! For those of you who know her, Nadi is doing her legal clerkship (Referendariat) here and spending three months in Wellington. She found our blog over the Internet, contacted me via email a couple of days ago, and so we met again! We spent some wonderful time exploring the city (parliament building, university, German bakery), the cable car, the views, cafes at the beach,..., etc. Another fabulous thing for all of you tea lovers, our tea network still works! Nadi introduced me to a wonderful tea shop in Wellington and now I do not have to suffer from black tea in teabags anymore but can savor fresh loose tea! Hmmmmmm!

Overall, Wellington almost felt like home: meeting old friends, strolling through a tea shop and bookstores, spending hours sitting in cafes, going out for a drink at night, playing some billard. It did me some good to feel all of this again and David and I both were rather reluctant when we had to move on. This is definitely the first city we would love to live in without hesitation! But, our next WWOOFing experience was calling and so we had to get on the route again!


PS. Some more good news was that we got our visa for Thailand in Wellington, so our travels will continue in January!

Chritchurch > Wellington

Bonjour tout le monde, nous voici donc de retour pour vous parler un peu d'un grand changement dans notre voyage : le passage de l'île du sud à l'île du nord. Mais pour commencer, commençons par le commencement : Christchurch. Nous y sommes arrivés au terme de notre long périple le long de la côte. Et donc comment vous expliquer notre joie d'arriver à Christchurch ? ça se résume en gros en un mot :
Youpiiiiiiiiie !!!!! bin oui parce que pour nous, Christchurch, ça représente en particulier et surtout : un toît et un LIT !!! raaaaaaaaaaaaah c'est bonheur. On squatte la première soirée chez Diane et Brian, et toutes celles d'après chez Dianne et Mitch (photo), mais sans Mitch qui est parti passer le w-e dans les sounds. on s'éclate dans la piscine à l'intérieur de la maison, on regarde des trops bon films sur le home cinema avec Dianne, on mange trop bien (MERCI DIANNE pour les muffins, les coockies, les quiches, le trop bon gâteau à la banane et au chocolat, j'en ai encore l'eau à la bouche...) Bref, on se ressource vraiment bien !

On profite de cette escale à Christchurch pour visiter ce qu'on n'avait pas pu voir la première fois par manque de temps, comme par exemple le Canterbury Museum (sympa mais sans plus), et surtout la cuisine de Fudge dans le centre des arts (photo). Alors là, c'était génial. J'explique pour ceux qui, comme moi avant d'arriver la première fois à Christchurch, ne savent pas ce qu'est le Fudge. C'est un truc qui ressemble vaguement à du caramel, mais qui a un goût beaucoup plus sucré que j'aime beaucoup. Donc là pendant la visite, on a assisté à une "coulée" de fudge (ils mettent ça sur des grandes tables et ils découpent en plus petits carrés une fois que le fudge a refroidi), et on a eu droit à un max d'échantillons. On s'est comme qui dirait fait péter le bide, au point qu'Angi en a été malade (bon faut dire, le truc est assez écoeurant à forte dose).

On a aussi pris le temps d'aller se promener un peu à la faveur du beau temps (une anomalie :-p ) sur la plage. On s'est même brûlé les pieds tellement le sable était chaud. C'est dire !!! Une petite annecdote au passage : la photo ci-contre a une histoire : j'avais pris mon sac à dos avec moi, entre autres pour mettre les papiers et l'appareil photo, et je voulais prendre cette photo devant le rocher. Du coup j'ai posé mon sac par terre sur le sable, a bonne distance de l'eau (dans les 2m) juste le temps de marcher un peu vers le rocher et pour Angi de prendre la photo. Le tout n'aura duré que 5min, mais ça a été suffisant à la mer pour monter les 2m qui lui manquaient pour atteindre mon sac et mes chassures, que j'ai retrouvés en train de flotter gaiement -_- du coup ça nous a fait perdre 10 min à tout mettre à sécher et ça a faillit nous faire ratter le fudge ces conneries là...

Mais comme toutes les bonnes choses ont une fin, nous avons fini par dire au revoir à Dianne, à Christchurch et nous avons mis les voiles vers Picton où nous avons carrément dit au revoir à l'île du sud depuis le ferry qui nous a emmené jusqu'à Wellington (photo ci-contre). Nous avons globalement et malgré le mauvais temps chronique adoré l'île du sud, nous espérons maintenant que l'île du nord sera tout aussi belle. Ca commence ni vraiment bien (le mauvais temps nous a retrouvé ce con là !), ni vraiment mal (bin oui parce qu'on a la chance d'être hébergés chez Nadine, une amie d'Angi en stage à Wellington, du coup on fait un pied de nez au mauvais temps.)

Par contre, un bon point pour Wellington, la ville est très agréable, et on aime beaucoup. La seule chose que je trouve dommage, c'est que la partie en bord de mer est principalement occupée par le port de commerce, et ça gâche un peu la vue depuis le centre ville, mais d'après ce qu'on a vu, les autorités locales se sont aussi apperçues de ça et essaye de corriger progressivement le tir en faisant un joli bord de mer dans les endroits de plus en plus nombreux qui sont arrachés du port. A part ça, les bâtiments sont jolis, la ville est très bien agencée, avec un super centre ville piéton et des quartiers très pittoresques (il y en a un nommé "Cuba" par exemple), une performance pour une ville de cette taille. La vue depuis la colline qui sépare la ville en deux est aussi très belle, et en ce qui me concerne, je n'aurais aucun mal à m'installer ici. (oui je sais, j'avais déjà dit pareil de Sydney et Christchurch, mais j'y peux rien s'il y a des belles villes ici !!!)

On a par ailleurs profité de notre étape à Wellington pour faire nos visas pour la Thailande, qu'on a obtenus en une journée, notre voyage va donc pouvoir continuer au moins un peu : youpi !! pour finir, on a dit "à bientôt" à Nadine (on prévoit de repasser dans une semaine) et on est parti pour notre 3ème expérience de Wwoofing, la première en Nouvelle Zélande.

Southern Scenic Route

A big hello to everyone around the globe! A couple of days before the first advent (does time really pass that fast??) we are back in civilization and have Internet access again. Time to continue our story about us fighting against the forces of nature! How do they describe New Zealand in the National Museum Te Papa? "In New Zealand it rains, and rains, and rains." We can definitely and unfortunately prove that.

The last time I left you we were heading out of the Milford region, still hoping to do part of the famous alpine Kepler track, when we were hit by hail, snow and really, really cold temperatures. Once we got to Lake Manapouri in the Fiordland National Park, it was evident that we could neither do the track nor rent a kayak. Our solution: rent a rowboat, cross the river flowing into the lake and do a short 3 hour hike up the other side of the valley in order to get some good views. Of course, I know that rowing is not difficult, I have been kayaking and canoeing so many times in Canada that I was sure there was not going to be any problems doing it with two paddles and it was going to be a lot of fun. Well, I guess, for the people on the boatramp it turned out to be a lot of fun watching me going in circles on the river and not getting one cm closer to the other shore. ;) David also enjoyed my talent immensly, and, after hours, I also could say proudly - we did arrive at the other side! And had a lot of fun and some hearty laughs.

However, as you might have guessed, some wet stuff out of the sky soon caught up with us and we decided to finally quit the region and get to the Southern Coast. I actually wanted to skip telling you about our rather unsuccessful travels on the Southern Scenic Route because most of the things we wanted to do were closed due to rain but then I thought about all those tiny but special moments and I guess some of them are worth sharing. First, let me give you an impression of what the region is like in beautiful weather and what we would have liked to see every day: our typical New Zealand green, the mountains, the sheep - little paradise.

Then, I need to introduce our fun encounter with .... "the door" to you. We were actually stopping in order to visit some underground lime caves. It was one of our particularly good ideas because we were especially well equipped for the cave climbing. It said: at least two torches for each person" and we had one almost dead torch for each of us. So after a couple of rather dark and frightinging minutes in the caves, we decided to use the first exit and end this adventure. However, we encountered this fabulous door in the middle of the field next to the cave. Doesn't it just seduce you to knock? Needless to say we waited in vain for anybody to show up in need of a good pad!

The third little story needs to be put in here so you don't get the idea we actually had good weather and it is also a special tribute to you, Greg, because I wouldn't want you to go without your regular good laugh while reading this post. So as you said you just love seeing David and me in our stylish ponchos, here comes our visit to some of the waterfalls along the route. We stopped to see a couple of them, and as they all were a couple of minutes away from the main route, we decided to show off with our beautiful and sexy clothing. The waterfalls themselves were very beautiful and the rainy weather actually added a tough of mythtical atmosphere to the whole landscape. However, we were glad to get back into our little Caspar every single time.

So, then, I would also like to share with you some insights into our way of life on DOC (Department of Conservation) Campgrounds. As you may perceive on the pictures, these campgrounds are particularly well equipped with luxurious toiletts, showers, picnic tables, barbecues, garbage bins, etc. They are a good place to be in the rain because there is so much shelter and they are not only off the paved routes for at least 15kms but also very well developed and it is easy to put up a tent on an even ground. There are also a lot of other campers around so you can exchange travel stories and make new friends. :) Well, maybe that description is a little too positive but we like our new spirit: Back to nature and primitive life!

You wonder how we survive? Well, as you may have read in previous posts, we jump into cold lakes to wash ourselves (and our dishes) and we are experts in camping cooking now. The best of the best: cooking in the tent because it is so very spacious and you don't have to panic at all to set the whole thing on fire. But, the result was a warm meal after a cold day in a cosy surrounding. Nothing more to wish for (we are getting very modest). Our spare time we spent - no, not exploring the region because we would never be able to dry our clothes again - but comfortably installed in our dear tent. Luckily, candles have been invented and so we can enjoy good books, newspapers, a game of cards or two, and the sound of the raindrops pourring down on our home.

However, we also spend some time in civilization - in this case, we fled to Dunedin, New Zealand's true Scottish city and enjoyed not only the beautiful architecture (the building on the picture in the train station) but also a very interesting visit to Cadbury's chocolate factory (yummie, free chocolate), and the discovery of New Zealand's only castle: Larnach, built by a very successful private business man and politician at the end of the 19th century. The picture here only shows me in the gardens (fuer dich Mama, in Erinnerung an Versailles) but there'll be a picture of the cute, beautiful and very interesting castle in David's post.

Of course, we couldn't get too involved in culture and had to do some crazy stuff as well. So here goes Angi taking up some wired position in order to be the most ridiculous possible. No, seriously, the explanation for this picture: we visited the world's steepest street (in Dunedin) and David just played around with the camera and different perspectives for a bit. The street actually is very amazing, we didn't dare drive our little Casper up there because we were afraid he wouldn't be able to make it and I almost lost my balance a couple of times while walking up and down and we were truely out of breath when getting to the top! (yeah, yeah, we should do more sports...)

So, I guess for today this will be it, otherwise I'll get beaten for writing too much again. But I guess, you've got quite a good idea of how life is going for us here down South now! The last picture I have for you shows Moreaki Bolders, on our way back North to Christchurch. Those round rocks lay right on the beach and people do wonder who they got there. We wondered only a little bit, had some fun climbing them, and then fled into the car because some more rain came up. A couple days earlier than expected we arrived back at our starting point - but that story will be for another day! For now, cheers to everyone and I hope you are all doing great and enjoying life.

Route scénique SUD

et devinez qui c'est qui rame pour rattraper sa copine dans le postage sur le blog hein ??

Ah bah oui, c'est moi. Ayé, je suis encore à la rue... je sais pas où elle trouve le temps de coller toutes ces tartines :-/. Vous remarquerez que j'ai fait ça bien le "kikirame" avec la photo hein :-D je suis assez fier. En plus ça me fait une intro d'enfer, parce que la photo en question vous montre le dernier endroit où nous sommes allés dans les fiordlands : une petite promenade en barque qui a vu Angi faire ses débuts avec des rames (pas triste :-D), pour aller nous promener de l'autre côté de la rivière.

Une fois cette petite rando effectuée (pas bien transcendante, mais je vous ai quand même pris une 'belle' photo : ci-contre), nous avons donc mis les voiles direction : LE SUD. Certains malins vont se dire : ah bah oui, pas con du tout, après toute cette pluie, il était un peu temps de se rapprocher du soleil; sauf que non, je me permets de rappeler à ces boubourses que la nouvelle Zélande, c'est dans l'hémisphère sud, et que du coup le sud là bas, c'est un peu comme le nord chez nous : c'est tout gris, y a du vent et de la pluie, c'est moche et ça pue... nan je déconne Greg, reviens !! ch'est joli comme tout pis mijot' j'avo bien aimé c'que j'avo vu :-)

Bon quand même, pour commencer, c'était franchement gris et moche, en témoigne la photo ci-contre : bien que je trouve la photo très jolie (le brouillard sur les montagnes dans le fond m'a donné une âme d'artiste); je vous avouerais que le ciel gris et la brouillasse, on a avait un peu plus qu'assez, et on aurait bien aimé un ciel un peu plus bleu. Sans compter le vent qu'on a eu tout le long de la côte sud. Mais même avec les misères de la météo, on a décidé de prendre norte temps pour rejoindre Christchurch en prenant la Southern Scenic Route. Alors que je vous explique... La southern scenic route (traduire : route "touristique du sud"), c'est globalement nul... C'est une bête route, aui longe la côte sud, mais où tu peux rien voire 300 jours par an parce qu'il pleut et que du coup le paysage est tout naze.

Et devinez quoi, bien sûr qu'on est tombés dans un de ces 300 jours :-p sinon ça aurait pas été drôle... Donc on n'a pas vraiment profité des paysages de bord de mer, et du coup on s'est rabattu sur les attractions annexes, c'est à dire tout un tas de trucs les plus magnifiques les uns que les autres, en général pas trop loin de la route, et accessibles soit par une piste en voiture, soit à pied. Bon, la plupart de ces attractions, c'est des chutes d'eau, mais personnellement, je les ai toutes bien aimé, elles avaient chacune leur personnalité et de la plus petite à la plus grande, elle nous ont toutes offerte un magnifique spectacle. Et en plus, pour faire plaisir à Greg, on a sorti les poncho pour aller en voir la plupart ;-)

En dehors des chutes d'eau, il n'y avait pas grand chose à voir, l'autre attraction principale (en l'occurence des grottes cathédrales dans la falaise) étant fermée pour cause de chute de terrain. Par contre, on a vraiment été impresionnés par la manière dont le vent a façonné le payage par là bas. Les arbres poussent pratiquement à l'horizontale, et les fleurs ne poussent qu'à l'abri derrière les colines. C'est vraiment remarquable, ça m'a même rappelé un peu la bretagne : même genre de paysage, même genre de temps de merde :-p ...

On a même dû se faire à manger sous la tente une fois, tellement il pleuvait tout le temps. Je vous rassure, on n'a pas foutu le feu et on a fait ça comme des chefs. En plus, le Hachi parmentier qu'on s'est préparé ce soir là était même bon, alors finalement, on n'est pas les plus à plaindre... Sans compter que la vue depuis la tente était magnifique ! je vous laisse seuls juges :

Là encore, la nature nous en a mis plein la vue. Bon d'un autre côté, ça nous a aussi rendu encore un peu plus frustrés de ne pas pouvoir vraiment en profiter à cause du temps, mais les quelques éclaircies qu'on a eues le matin au réveil et les quelques photos que j'ai pu prendre nous ont remis de bonne humeur. Et on a du coup repris la route vers Christchurch, ou plutôt dans un premier temps vers Dunedin :

Cette charmante ville de la côte est de l'île du sud nous a permis de faire une halte bien méritée dans notre route vers Christhurch (photo ci-contre : la ville vue depuis le chateau Larnach, cf plus bas). Au programme, des sorties plutôt divertissantes, avec pour commencer la visite de la chocolaterie Cadburry. Alors pour ceux aui diraient : "p'tain la vache les salauds !" (hein papa !), je précise tout de suite : rien a voir avec la chocolaterie Poulain toute sympa et presque "familiale" de Blois, celle là était beaucoup plus industrielle et beaucoup moins sympa; et le chocolat beaucoup moins bon : ils savent pas faire, vraiment, c'est tout fade leur truc. (juste pour l'annecdote, pour ceux qui se diraient : "ouais mais nous en France, on sait vachement mieux faire, je dirai que Poulain a été racheté par Cadburry il y a quelques années maintenant...")

Sinon, on a aussi été faire un tour sur la rue Baldwin aui s'avère être la rue la plus pentue du monde. Et pour être pentue, elle est pentue... On en a chié pour arriver en haut, et pour le coups, on a préféré laisser Casper en bas :-p . La photo ci-contre vous donne un aperçu de comment on s'est amusés comme des petits fous. Et on n'a pas trop traîné dans la ville à part ça. On a préféré aller faire un petit tour dans la région...

Et il y a de auoi faire un petit tour... Le paysage côtier est ici encore superbe, et contrairement à ce à quoi on s'attendait, la mer est turquoise façon tropiques, et la plage blanche, façon tropiques aussi. Comme en plus, pour une fois, il a fait beau, bin on en a profité pour se prommener jusqu'à plus soif. Par contre, l'autre intérêt de la côte, c'est normalement les animaux sauvages qui s'y prommènent régulièrement, mais de ce côté là, on a fait chou-blanc : rien vu du tout, pas un pingouin, pas une otarie, rien... On a voulu se faire rembourser, mais comme on n'avait rien payé... Bref !

Pour finir notre périple touristique dans la région, nous sommes allés visiter Larnach Castle. En guise de château, c'est plutôt un manoir, de par la petite taille du truc (rien à voir avec Chambord ou Versailles), mais comme c'est le seul truc à ressembler de loin à un château en Nouvelle Zélande, bin les kiwis sont très fier de leur unique "chateau". Bon, mis à part ça, c'est très chouette, et j'avoue que j'aurais bien habité ici. La propriété a été imaginée avec beaucoup de goût, et rien que la vue depuis le haut du donjon... Ca tape !! (cf photo plus haut, sauf que là on avait - encore - un te,ps de merde, du coup on voyait pas super loin, mais on a bien pu imaginer la vue...)

Cette visite a donc terminé notre périple le long de la Southern Scenic Route, et nous sommes maintenant à Christchurch...

Milford Sound and Fiordland

So here we continue with our story about Angela and David fighting against New Zealand's worst spring ever! From Queenstown we continued our road further South and ended up in Te Anau and on the road to famous Milford Sound. This sound is part of the forteen sounds formed by glaciers very, very long ago and which are part of the Fiordland National Park. Every tourist who comes to New Zealand usually has to come to Milford and go on a boat cruise. Thus, we got up really early to be on the first boat when there are the least tourists and out we went, into the cloudy and grey sound.

However, the landscape was just fabulous! Steep rough cliffs dropping off into the water, some like vertical walls, dense green vegetation in other places, hundreds of waterfalls (there are only four permanent waterfalls in Milford Sound, all others just spring up and die again with the rain), snow-coverd mountain peaks whenever the clouds allow a view of them, penguins playing in the water and on the rocky shores, seals bathing in the... well, I guess in the rain! It was truly a miraculous place, something I have never seen before and something I won't forget. We enjoyed every second of it and when finally, the sun broke through the clouds (picture in David's text) we were completely enraptured!

Of course, we couldn't let the chance of a hike in good weather go by and so, after the boat cruise, we decided that we would do a part of the first-day Routeburn track and hike up to a place called Key Summit. What can I tell you?! This short three hour hike gave us an impression of what the region here is truly like - a litte paradise on earth and we really, really enjoyed every second of it (of course it also gave us an impression of what we were missing out on because of this prolonged winter...). But we were not thinking of that - we were just grateful to be able to see such a place in reality, to actually be there and to be ravished by it.

We also took a look from above at the destination of our hike planned for the next day, a beautiful mirror lake situated inbetween the most majestic mountains. However, the next morning greeted us with the, by now, well-know plop, plop on our tent and our first thought was: oh no, not again! Nevertheless, we got up, packed our tent and wanted have a look at what the weather was like a little further up in the mountains where our hike was to start. This was a particularly good idea because after about three minutes in the car we were no longer whipping off rain with our windsheeld whipers, it was snow. Yeah, you may believe me (and you'll see it on the picture) it was actually snowing. But that time I knew why I had been so cold all night long and we very quickly decided that this was maybe not the right weather to go hiking. Our conclusion was to head back to Te Anau and try our luck there.

Result: we got stuck in hail. Another nice experience and at this point I would like to tell Gerrit and Enric that you have chosen a very, very good tent: it survives in the fiercest storms and rain, snow and hail and the only problem you might encounter is frozen inhabitants! Oh, and I would also like to thank Bina for the wonderful idea of giving me my red Canada-sweater because it is saving my life over here!!! Other than that we decided that we had definitely had enough and that is was time to move further South (yes, we keep having that idea in mind that it might get warmer and nicer when heading South, I guess that is because we are used to living in the Northern hemisphere). So the next time you'll here from us, you'll get some news from Lake Manapouri and the Southern Scenic Route along the South coast of New Zealand's South Island.