3th of October, Auckland to Hahei
The day started with Kerry (or Possum, as he was called him during our trip) and his two trainees. After a short picture-stop  at Mount Eden  we headed south towards  the Coromandel Peninsula.

Another highlight for the day was  a Stop at Hot Water Beach where everyone could dig a hole in the sand to soak in the hot geothermal water. Once a quiet and secret spot for locals to hang out it has unfortunately (but understandable) become a very crowed place for tourists. I almost burned my feet there!

The evening was crowned with another encounter with the infamous “Kiwi BBQ”, luckily this time there was enough booze at hand to forget about what I was eating.

4th of October, Hahei to Raglan
A three hour walk around Cathedral Cove.  Before we arrived at Raglan to stay at the Rainforest retreat we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls. The Hostel was really nice and relaxed,  no doors where locked and they had a lot of activities, like the flying fox (you have to experience it by yourself at night).  In Raglan most of the group went surfing and ultimately decided to stay at that nice little paradise a couple of extra days with just a few of the group carrying on – including me.

5th of October, Raglan to Rotorua
One thing you should get used to when traveling on a time schedule is that staying in bed till noon is just not possible… We left Raglan at 8am and headed south to the town of Waitomo, famous for it's caves and glow worms. We did a walk at the Ruakuri Reserve while the others went Black water rafting.  Waitomo would be a excellent place to spend some money for abseiling into the Lost Cave for about 200 bucks and other adventurous stuff, but New Zealand is full of crazy activities…

We then headed across to Rotorua for its geothermal areas, smell and 'Slim's Cultural Place'.  The cultural show was a real blast. First we had a hangi, a traditional Mauri feast, after that the guys learned how to dance the Haka, a warrior dance (I hope that video-footage of me never shows up online!) before we watched a play by a local Maori theater troupe.

The play was about a Maori leader married to two woman. Yet he was not satisfied and wanted to add another squaw. The real fun part was that, while one woman was played by a member of the acting group, two woman where chosen out of the audience. Unbeknown to the actors, one of the girls was an actor herself and was in her role within the minute. The other girl wasn’t one of the shy kind either and the chief found himself in the unusual position of three independent woman fighting for him. It was hilarious to watch! After the show me and my fellow stray mates attended a Karaoke contest next to the hostel and some backpackers even showed of their singing abilities – of course with the help of some booze.

6th of October, Rotorua to Taupo
Rotorua, or “Rotten Egg city” is famous for Whakarewarewa , a little village build right in the middle of erupting geysers, hot thermal springs and bubbling mud pools. It’s a place where Maoris lived for many years and now offer an insight on their culture and lifestyle. Very convenient to have a pool of hot boiling water right in front of your house where you can cook your meals and wash your cloths.

After we left Whakarewarewa we headed south via some more amazing mud pools and the Huka Falls towards Taupo and it's great lake (the world's largest crater lake). Kerry, out beloved bus driver was a real story teller and every morning he would play the song “Me and my monkey” by Robbie Williams.

The reason he did so was to “honor” group he traveled with before us. The group consisted of about a dozen girls and one guy. The hostel in Taupo offers a room for 14 people so that entire stray group including the guy spent the night in one room. After a pub crawl and of course way to much alcohol the guy must have forgotten that he was in a room full of girls and in the morning started to “please” himself, which is also know as “spanking the monkey” Unfortunately the girls took notice of that and told Kerry about the incident it in the morning when they got back on the bus… After we where told the story, the hold bus started to crack up and we demanded the song every morning, and if someone joined the group forced Kerry to retell it, adding bits and pieced every now and then to the already raunchy story.

7th of October, Taupo to Whakapapa
Taupo is the capital of skydiving in New Zealand, unfortunately not on the 7th of October, as snow and strong winds kept planes grounded. At least for us, some early birds eventually got to jump out of the plane in the very morning while the rest of the group was still sleeping.

The plan was to do the Tongorrio Crossing on that day too, but as snow already canceled my plans to jump out of a plane, it also prevented me from doing one of the most amazing walks on this planet. What a shame!

While snow could keep me from climbing “Mount Doom”, it did not prevent crazy AJ and some other backpackers from doing a little walk around the national park once we arrived at the “Scotel”, a skiing resort that also offers accommodation for backpackers during the low season. Despite strong winds and sleet  we did a 2,5 hour walk. Unfortunately my jeans where frozen after that walk and my legs went numb. But its amazing what a whirlpool with six female travelers in it can do to your blood temperature in a very short time! At night two wonderful ladies prepared Chili con Carne for the entire group and we had a fun evening at the hotel bar.

8th of October, Whakapapa to Wellington
After being dropped of by Kerry and saying good bye to his crew I started to explore Wellington (Te Whanganui-a-Tara or Poneke as the Mauri call ) the capital of New Zealand. The city ranks as one of my favorite city now, it truly got soul and a unique “feel” with some very interesting sights. While I had to deal with snow just the day before, upon my arrival in Wellington the sky cleared up and I was able to walk around in T-shirt and explore the magnificent Botanical Gardens. I also walked all the way from the parliament to the Embassy Theater, where the world premiere of Lord of the Rings was held. At night I attended a CD-launch party of a  band called Odessa with fellow backpackers.

9th of October, Wellington
With another full day to explore Wellington and not having to rush down to the South Island, I choose to visit the Te-Papa museum (translates to “Our Place), the national museum of New Zealand. It has a wide collection of the history of Maori and white settlers. Debby Rothenberg, one of my fellow travel-companions is a stand up comedian and gave us an insight of her experience while traveling around the Northern Island. Having “a session” with someone dose not necessarily mean to end up in Bed in New Zealand, but if you ever meet Debby herself, just ask her and she will explain it to you!