Closure

Hey y'all.
So this is it. I'm back in Sweden (for a little while on my own, which is a truly weird feeling after having been together for 24/7 for so long), which is considerably colder than all the previously mentioned places. But none the less is it quite beautiful even here with spring coming along nicely.
But this post is for the promised pictures from Sydney, and some more recent from our last stop in Hong Kong. Here we go:

The obligatory picture that proves we were really there. I must admit though that seeing it for real doesn't make it feel real. You look at it as something from a movie, as if it's really just a model.

And the equally obligatory cuddly bears... I never realized before that their claws are that big and scary! Nothing I want to hold anyway!

Gotta love those information signs.

We found Nemo.

How many sharks does an aquarium really need? We saw at least 20, and quite a few of the same kind. At least as far as I could tell.

After all those animal encounters we needed to take it a bit easy in Darling Harbour.

After Sydney it was time to leave everything relaxed behind and head for the buzz of Hong Kong. It was like getting smacked in the face by 5 million people at the same time. So much information to take in, and you can't believe how hard it is to take it in when it's all in cantonese!

Loved the street markets where they sold everything and anything at any price. Made it a bit hard to choose though.

Our lovely new old friends and hosts took us to this wonderful place, the largest floating restaurant in the world we were told (and really: to try to build anything bigger would be a bit silly) where we had quite extraordinary dim sum (thanks!).

It was quite hazy, but as we've said before it gives a special beauty. We can always hope that the sun will shine next time :)

Now this trip is officially over, and life will go back in some old and some new tracks. Risking to sound kitchy I dare say it's been an experience to remember for life. Almost everything has been wonderful in one way or another, and we didn't even have any near-death-experiences (much appreciated).

Coming back it's been real fun to hear that so many people (some expected, some very much not :) ) have been checking out this blog: much appreciated aswell! I hope we've been giving you a good taste of our adventures and of the beauty of NZ, maybe even inspired someone, who knows.

I look forward to see all of you that are now in my ore immediate surrounding and I hope to hear from the rest of you. If not soon so we'll let you know when the next trip is coming up.

Lots of love to all. Take care.

Last days in the southern hemisphere

Hey mates.
We are in Sydney since forever (about 10 days in reality) and we're spending our time on the beach, in front of movies, on the beach with books, in cafes and bars, on the beach, and with some obligatory sightseeing:
Opera house - check
Aquarium - check
Wildlife, including scary spiders, platypuses and kangaroos - check
Holding koalas - no check 'cause it's against the law to hold them
Streets of Sydney - check
3 or more beaches - check (Bondi, where we're staying, Tamarama, and Bronte)

It's getting fall here and even a bit chilly at night, and we figured that since some people have already picked flowers at home it would be a good time to come back to Scandinavia. We'll try to bring some sun with us, but I don't know what the airport regulations are on stars in the carry on luggage.

There really isn't much to say since we're not really doing anything anymore, I really want to show you pictures. I suppose only writing fails to extract that jealousy we're after. But the Sydney computers aren't the most cooperative in the world so you won't get any for now. I promise we'll put them up as soon as the opportunity shows itself.

So. One day left and then we're off to the far east. (Jenny: what's going on with our planned date there btw?!? Any news?)

And then I hope to see y'all as soon as possible.

Oz

The part of our trip titled "New Zealand" has ended and with it our ambition for sightseeing and adventures. All we wanted was to be on the beach, to enjoy the sun and relax. Melbourne is, how should I put it, not exactly the right place for that. So we explored the city for 2 days that included awesome french baguettes (and a funny Frenchman who made them) and headed up to Byron bay. Byron bay is the Mecca of being on the beach, enjoying the sun and relaxing. There is almost nothing else to do there, actually. Of course we couldn't come home from Australia with the answer "no" to the question "did you dive?" so we had a little taste of that. Expensive but definitely worth it. Sand sharks, leopard sharks, giant sea turtles and bull rays (and about 3 trillion other fish that we don't know. They were mostly yellow, but some were blue...). No photos from under the water though. Anyway, since we're not doing much, we're not taking many photos. But here's what our last few days looked like:

I'm sure you're not feeling sorry for us, right? And we just heard that they sell kangaroo meat in the supermarket. Gotta try that one.

Next stop - Sydney. See y'all later.

Last day in New Zealand

It's slowly coming to an end, our trip in New Zealand. Actually the end has been moving really fast. We are both pretty tired from our nearly two months of sightseeing and now we're quite happy to go over the Tasman Sea to do some true vacation.
But first a resume of the last couple of weeks. We left you off in Dunedin, and it's just after that we pick up again.


We left Dunedin on a sunny day heading for Aoraki/Mt Cook inland again. It was beautiful in the valley. What you see here is however not the highest mountain in NZ but some really pretty glaciers . We took a little day walk up to a terminal lake (that is the lake formed from the melting glacier ice) to get a good view of the peak, but this was actually prettier.

After realizing we couldn't realize what to do more in Mt Cook we decided to spend some of our remaining days back in Wanaka. So back we went to the same hostel with the same friendly couch with lake view. We spent three nights there and did some serious relaxing on the beach with ice creams.

A few beers got consumed as well in the sun which didn't hurt at all.


We did however do another day hike up to the face of the Rob Roy Glacier. It was (again) a fantastic day and a good way of spending time.


We even got to do some sun-basking at the top. Happy days!


After Wanaka it was time to slowly head towards the final destination. To shorten the drive we stopped for one night in Lake Tekapo, as the guide book says: "surprisingly located at the lake named Tekapo". Not wanting to climb any more we drove up to an observatory just to take in the views. Tragically nothing really measures up to the Routeburn (see previous post if you've forgotten or missed it) anymore...

Our final stop was Banks Peninsula right outside Christchurch where we stayed a couple of nights in the most charming of places, Le Bons Bay. We got to do the most price worthy boat trip so far with the owner of the hostel where we saw heaps of Hectors dolphins, baby seals and even two penguins. It was a gorgeous day and a great experience. Kept us happy for a very long time.

Even though the beach in Le Bons Bay was close to perfect the water earned a "shit-the-Pacific-is-cold"-dance, and there was no swimming happening that day.


Last but not at all least we stayed in Onuku Farm Hostel, a place that served us superb views, great company (a guy from Jersey - a semi independent country neither one of us had ever heard about! Talk about learning new things!) and a scorching sun.

That was the last evening on Banks P. and now we're back in Chch for some last minute shopping before the flight to Oz takes off tonight. It's getting fall here and the nights are colder, so it feels like a good time to take off for some heat again.
It's been great, and it still is. New Zealand is a recommendation to almost anyone and there is still no good reason not to move here, except the far away part. We're both dying to pump you all full of stories (knowing some of us they might come up several times), to share what we can and just try to explain the rest.
Beware all you listeners: we're coming home soon!

Touchdown

Yep, we made it to the most southern point in our trip, and the most southern point in New Zealand (if you don't count Stewart Island, and that's ok, nobody counts Stewart Island)

So, "how was it?" you may ask. The answer would have to be "Windy. Very very windy."

That, more or less, concluded a few days of bad weather. (we knew it had to come at one point ore another) Still, we insist on showing off with the spectacular thing we've seen. That's how we are, delivering the goods in sun and in rain, in wind and... when there's no wind...

Lake Manapuri, considered by many to be the most beautiful in Kiwiland, marked the beginning of the bad weather. It only made it look more dramatic...

Doubtful Sound, considered as the most beautiful fiord in NZ (noticed the repeating superlatives? it's not us, the damn Kiwis are brainwashing us) was very hard to get to, very expensive to get to and justified its reputation for having up to 8 meters of rain per year. It's a shame we can't show you the flying dolphins though...

 

Milford sound is a more accessible, more visited, and more commercialized fiord. We only got there with a car, you know, just to make sure the weather is as bad there too.

 

To whomever it actually means anything, it appears that the place does actually exist. Swashbuckling, isn't it?!!!

The Catlins is the south coast region of NZ. We heard it's very beautiful, and we believe it is, when it's not rainy/foggy/dark. We can only assume. But we saw a penguin climbing ashore and a few meters high waves crashing on the rocks.

The Otago Peninsula, just outside of Dunedin (where we are now). In this picture you ca see a rare creature the mysterious Kajsa Kurtenius doing the "let's stomp the penguins" dance. Fortunately for the little penguins they managed to hide very well and therefore were not stomped. Or seen...

And this is Bettie, our recent Fur Seal acquaintance. Look how close we got! And it wasn't even  a part of a guided tour! Miracles do happen!

Thanks for all you comment writers, we are now certain that at least 3 people check our blog!

The Routeburn Track

Loosing track of time here all I know is that it's not enough. There are so many things we want to see and do and just so little time (oh, and did we mention that it all costs a fortune or two?!).

Having your complete attention we'd like to apologize to anyone and everyone who's been trying to reach us and failed, but as you can see from the pictures below we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so reception for the phone is just a vague hallucination on the horizon.
So, this is going to be mainly about our latest adventure: The Routeburn Track, listed by National Geographic as one of the 11 best tracks of the world. It truly was.

We started out from Kinloch, a small place consisting only of the hostel where we stayed with its adjacent restaurant. The weather wasn't very promising for two days prior to our take off, but we decided to be brave. Even in fog the place was magical.

The first day (of four, three nights in the bush) gave us a bit of a drizzle as we made our way up the mountain to the first hut. But as already said: even in fog and low clouds... The river is the Route Burn, once the easiest way to cross the mountains of Fiordland to the Tasman Sea.

No kidding it's loose - anyone could see that!

As a matter of fact there were quite a few places where we crossed earlier landslides, and given the wet weather we occasionally threw a wary eye up the slopes next to us.

After only three hours hiking we reached the first hut at the Routeburn Falls. We avoided the heaviest rain that fell after we were safe indoor. A good warm up for coming days.

Day two started cold, but with a clear blue sky above, and we continued our climb up towards Harris Saddle. In a region with 220 rainy days per year we considered ourselves lucky to get to climb the Southern Alps in such a fantastic sunshine.

At the saddle we took a little side trip up Conical hill, and given it was a day just after rain we had the clearest view possible - we could see all the way to the sea. Roi is here forming his own version of Lord of the Rings with the correct snowy mountains in the background, the Darrans.

Defying my fear of heights I too stepped close to the edge to get a good picture of the Hollyford valley stretching towards the Tasman Sea. Whatever climb we had done, and whatever weather these grand mountains might throw at us later, it was all worth it for these views. The track contains the most beautiful views I have ever seen, not exaggerating, and I find it heartbreaking to not be able to just print them on the inside of my eyelids for the future.

Third day, likewise, started cold, with frost covering the ground around McKenzie hut. We had a long day ahead so we started early, heading for Howden at the end of the Routeburn Track, and then on to Upper Caples hut on the Track with the same name. Connecting these two tracks gave us the opportunity to go in a loop and get back to Kinloch and our car.

In between this picture (which is the fantastic beech forest that most of the Caples Track stayed in) and the one above we had one of the hardest tracks ever. It was a 500 metre ascent up an almost vertical wall (might be slightly exaggerated) covered in rainforest with hysterical slippery roots. We literally used our whole body to climb, pull, push, crawl, swing and drag ourselves with backpacks up this slope to McKellar Saddle. Not being as popular as the Routeburn it was also not as taken care of, and therefore much harder. At the hut we were devastated from sore feet, knees, thighs and hunger. But we made it. The last day was harsh since we had residues of the previous tiredness, but nothing that a shower, a meal at the restaurant (I had lamb rump steak, Roi venison filet) and a Laphroaig couldn't cure.

Today we are resting our poor legs. We've driven from Kinloch, via Queenstown and the best hamburger in the world (it's a lot of superlatives today), to Te Anau and Manapouri where we're staying for two nights. The day is as pretty as can be and the only bad thing is that my feet are a nightmare after having served at least 200 sandflies a feast the last night on the tracks... But we're dealing with them too. We are after all, as a woman in a visitor centre put it, "swedish machines that can take anything".

And hey, by the way, we do appreciate any proof that you guys are actually reading this, so please give us more comments!

Lots of love!

Working hard to take it easy

We've now been running around this country for a month in a slightly hectic pace. It's definitely rewarding given all the things we get to see and the experiences we're having, but it does take a toll eventually. So we were supposed to rest. And what do we do?! We climb a mountain (se below).

At least we are now carried around by ourselves in a lovely Nissan Sunny rented in Christchurch so we don't have to walk everywhere or take hysterically expensive shuttles to all the "encounters" and "adventures".
Right, I was supposed to tell you about the seal swim. It was fairly cold water indeed, and unfortunately the seals were a little bit bored that day so there were definitely more people than seals in the water, but I did get to swim with two moderately playful ones on a close range, so I'm happy. Maybe it was highly overpriced, but how many chances do you get, really?!
Well, here are the things we did up until now on our "vacation":

Here's The Wizard in Christchurch. He's a former english lecturer who now stands in the main square of Chch every mon-fri lecturing whoever is willing to listen on war, women and life in general. He sounds really smart, he's funny and he's got some weird ideas on womens role in the world. But definitely worth listening to!

In Kura Tawhiti, on the way across the Southern Alps through Arthurs Pass we stopped for a look at some seriously weird shapes of lime stone. It was a short and nice, imagination triggering walk. they actually used this site for something in "The Lion, the Witch and the Warderobe" (yes, they were here too...).

I wasn't comepletely satisfied with the placing of some rocks though, and I did my best to correct these mistakes.

In Hokotika on the West Coast we stayed for a little indoor activities since the weather wasn't so kind to us anymore. Steve here taught us a bit about bone carving and we worked on our pieces for about five hours before we were satisfied. The results might be shown later, or when we're back home again :)

Despite the rainy weather we went on a little tour around Hokitika and saw this amazing gorge in the middle of nowhere. And again it needs to be pointed out: NO Photoshop! It was really that crazy blue!

On our way down the coast we passed the two glaciers, Franz Joseph and Fox. We voted against any trips onto the ice because of the grey weather but we got close enough with the car and some view points. I'm here waiting for something to happen (the cold winds from over the ice eventually made us go back to the car and turn some heating on). It was truly an odd feelig walking through rainforest and then suddenly bump into a glacial river with huge ice blocks floating along and at its end a fairly large glacier. This country makes no sense.

Once again heading for the mountains, from Haast towards Wanaka, we stopped for a few walks in teh rainforest to look at all kinds of waterfalls. Funnily enough it was always the sidekicks that were the most interesting things, like this swinging bridge for instance.

Once we reached Wanaka we were supposed to rest for a couple of days to have the energy to start running around again, but the sun was shining... so we climbed Mt Roy. 1100 metres ascent to some fantastic views, but no - we didn't feel very rested when we got down again. Roi got a phonecall from home somewhere in the middle that granted us a needed stop.

The views though were all worth it! 360 degrees of beautiful mountain panorama including two lakes, a glacier and alps as far as you can see. Nice and sunny weather didn't ruin anything either.

So this is where we are now. All is well (except for some sore leg muscles), the future is booked, and we are actually resting today. So now it's off for some ice cream!

Take care!

The north of the south

Another week has passed. We are now in the great city of Kaikoura (pop.: 4000, name translation: "delicious crayfish") and heading down to Christchurch later today. So, week III, here we go:

Wellington is a truely charming city. It's a shame we didn't have more time to spend there but in NZ you have to book everything in advance, so we had to rush to the ferry...

The Queen Charlotte trek in Marlborough Sounds. I'm trying to think of something funny to say but I guess you'll just have to be OK with the landscape.

Still on the Queen Charlotte. Not a bad spot for dinner, eh?

Kajsa and friends.

Still on the Queen Charlotte (it wasn't that grey, but even great cameras have their limitations)

Eventually we had to act like civilized people and take a wine tasting tour since Marlborough is one of the best wine regions in the world. In the picture is the funniest vineyard owner ever. We weren't really that impressed with the Sav Blanc, or in her words: "there's only so many times you want to be smacked in the face with a gooseberry branch". Our discovery: we love NZ's Pinot Gris.

This is Kaikoura, where I'm writing from. No, it's not the ugliest place in the world. Sort of what Switzerland would look like if it was sitting by the Pacific ocean.

Kaikoura is, more than anything else, for whale watching, swimming with dolphines and swimming with seals. The sea conditions didn't allow but we got pretty close anyway. Here I am with our favourite seal, Stewart, just chillin'.

And the reward for a good day's walk. This is Monteith's Celtic Red, the best Kiwi beer so far.

Kajsa is now taking another shot at the seal swim. I decided to pass as 15 degrees water are way past my insanity borderline. I bet she'll tell you all about it in the next post.