My last day in New Zealand... going back home tomorrow!!!

... and my last post from New Zealand too... kind of sad... But then again, I'm super happy to go home too!! It's been great times for the past 3 and a half months in here, I really do love this country and I'm so happy to have met so many great people on the way!!! You can never have too many friends and I've made loads of them during this trip :))) I'm really hoping to see them again some day, somewhere :))

I've already packed my bags, gave a lot of clothes to the salvation army (most of them old and crappy ones, but hey, they'll take anything, it's not like I'm going to use them anymore) and few pairs of shoes as well. I arrived here with 3 pairs of shoes, bought 2 pairs here, leaving with just the ones on my foot. Ones were ruined by mud and ones were getting a bit worn out anyway so... You can always buy more, am I right? :D Not that I'll be having much money to spend when I get back home :D It's amazing how much money I've spend in this country!! Well at least back home I don't have to pay for the food anymore, I'm hoping my mom has missed me enough to cook for me <3 hihih

So yeah, this is it for my blog as well. It was all about NZ and now that I'm going back home I'm done with the writing as well. I have loads of pictures and fond memories of this country and all the people I've met, so I'm not going to ever forget it!!! I'm so happy that I came here, so SO happy! Even though I didn't find a job and had to borrow money from my dad, it was still worth it!! It's not like I get to travel on the other side on the world every day. And it was more than just a holiday too, it was an adventure!! I'm super happy that I bought that bus pass for the Kiwi Experience, it was really good way to see this country and meet new people <3

That's it for me now, I better go now, might even go for one last drink at the bar tonight before going to bed. One last night at the hostel, thank God that's over!! :D I hope the flights tomorrow will go smoothly and maybe I'll get some sleep on the way too. It's gonna be one loooooong loooong way home. First to Hong Kong, then to Amsterdam and then finally home, sweet home <3 Thanks to all my loved ones, thanks for reading my blog and I'll see you soon!!!!!!!! Love ya!!! Loads of hugs and kisses are on the way!!! 'I'm coming home, I'm coming home, tell the world that I'm coming home'!! :)))) <3

Day trip to Matamata, also know as The Hobbiton :)

Yesterday, Wednesday 13th July, I hopped on a intercity bus at 8am and went to a little town called Matamata, also know as The Hobbiton as the Shire scenes in Lord Of The Rings were filmed a bit outside this town. I got there after 11, got a little lunch and took a Hobbiton film and farm tour at noon. We drove with this little bus on to a farm where they've build the Shire filmset, but now here comes a tricky part. I can't tell you anything about it. We had to sign this confidential agreenment that we can't tell anyone what we've seen or hear while we were there, as they're filming the new Hobbit movie there at the moment. No, not on the day I was there, but anyway, they'll be using that set. So I got lots of pictures from there, but I just can't show them to anyone :D Kind of funny... but then again not, as I'd love to share it with you guys!

But I think it's ok to describe it in a way that I thought it was pretty cool. I'm a huge LOTR -fan, so for me it was pretty awesome to be there in person. I'd recommend doing it, if you're ever gonna visit NZ :)) The bad thing was that it was raining on that day and it had been raining for few days before, so I totally ruined my shoes getting them all muddy :( I got a perfect reason to buy new ones now ;)

So I guess that's all for now... I've been told to enjoy my last few days in NZ, so I'm trying to do just that :) Today I found this great place where I got manicure, pedicure and my eyebrows tinted all for just about 30eur! Wish we'd have places like that back home!! I might even go for a massage later on... :) And to the movies! Kind of sad to leave this place, but then again, really REALLY happy to go home too :)) No more living in hostels, no more being alone if you don't want to (I know, hostels are full of people, so I'm not really alone, but I miss my best friends and family :)). So only 3 whole days more and then I'm off! It's gonna be a loooooong loooooooooooong trip back home, but it will be worth it :) Please try to understand if I'm a bit 'out of it' for the first few days, I'll be travelling more than 24hours in a row, so might take me few days to get back to the rhythm of normal life :D Better go then, off to shoe shopping and lunch, see ya!! <3

One of THE best NZ nights EVER!!

I've met this Danish girl in my hostel few days ago and I've been hanging out with her since then as she's great fun. So as we've done every night, last night we went down to the bar as well. We wanted to go and play the bar quiz and have a pint or two. Which turned out to be more than that and I loved it :D We had so much fun!!! There was this group of guys (32 of them to be exact) and they were police man from Australia (Aussies or Ozzies as I like to call them) and they were with these Kiwi cops just having a fun night out.

We got to know them as one of the Kiwi girls came to chat with us (she was the only girl in the group of 30+ guys as their bigger group was split up by two bars) and they were introducing us to the Ozzies as well.
Ozzies had the coolest drinking game going on, whenever their captain took their shirt off, they all had to do it too. And only when the captain put his shirt back on, then the rest of them could put their shirts back on too. They did had their singlets on, but it was still very entertaining for us girls as you got to see their very well trained upper bodies and oh those very muscular arms... mmmmh, so good. Oh and the idea of the game was that who ever was the last one to get their shirt off, had to down their drink in one go. Later on when they got a bit more drunk, few of the lads took their singlets off as well and one of them got on the bar to do some pushups...uuuh lalaa!!

They were really nice lads, it was cool to hang out with them on a Sunday night :) I got few of them on the dance floor as well which was good fun :D I heard only today that most of the lads were single too and few of them were apparently also asking about me, which feels really nice, but no phonenumbers were exchainged, so... but I still had a great time!! Oh and the locals, they were also cops and as it was a guy and a girl, I just assumed that they were a couple as the girl kept referring to him as a partner, but apparently they are partners at work and not in private life. I was kicking my self a bit today after my Danish friend told me that they were not a couple as that was the only reason I didn't flirt with that dude as he was h.o.t. And a police!! Those of you who know me, know I'm nuts about cops... :D Hahahahah!

One the best nights I've ever had, so glad we went out :)) I had to share this with you guys, sorry I didn't take pictures though, I thought that would have been a bit too much maybe :)) I also got to experience a bit of a hangover today, which I haven't had in months and today reminded me why. I hate hangovers, they're the worst... So that's all for now, see ya later alligators!! :)))

ps. Bad news on my laptop, it's beyond repair so I'm afraid no more pictures coming up until I get back home... :(

9 days left in NZ...

9 more days, then I'm heading back home!! As much as I love this country and I've loved my time here and seeing lots of places and doing lots of new stuff, I'm also really looking forward to going back home. I miss everyone back home and I love the fact that it's summer back home and I'll get to enjoy it!!! I'm also pretty tired living in hostels so the fact that I got my own room waiting for me sounds great  :)) And I'm super happy to hear that my friends and family have missed me too, so it's good to go back to a place where people love me :))) I miss talking to someone who really knows me if you know what I mean. I've made a lot of friends here too, but they've also left already, everyone is going their own way while travelling..

Hmmm, I think that was it for now. I know I wanted to write about something, but I kind of don't remember what it was now. At the moment I don't have anything exiting planned for the rest of my stay in Auckland, I think I'll just try to enjoy it and relax. I'm frankly really tired after all that travelling, so I don't feel like doing much. And I'm also trying not to spend that much money anymore. I have to buy an new laptop when I get home as my old Dell is starting to get ready for retirenment home. I took it to this computer repair shop and they'll try to reinstall windows on it. I just need it to work one more week, hopefully it will be fine. That's why I haven't been able to post any new pictures on facebook now, hopefully I can do that next week.

I think that was all for now, nothing special to write about at the moment so... see you again soon my dear readers ;D

Kaikoura, part 2, the baby seals and the seal colony :)

Hello there :) I wanted to tell you a bit more about the trip in Kaikoura. So last Saturday we did the dolphin swimming trip and on Sunday me and my 'roommate' Hannah went for a walk as it was such a gorgeous day. We walked to the seal colony at the end of Kaikoura peninsula and it was pretty cool out there. Took us more than an hour to walk there as we had to stop for my morning coffee on the way, but it was worth it. The seals were laying on the sun and really, I mean really close to us. There was this wooden boardwalk and one of the seals was laying right on top of it, so we had to jump off in order to avoid too close contact with that scary creature :) There were other turists there as well and one of the ladies offered to take our picture while we were standing behind the seal, came out pretty cool picture. Hannah went a bit too close to it and it was 'roaring' at us and showing it's teeth. Pretty scary coming from a big animal like that...

After that we walked up the hill to this beautiful lookout place, where I hopefully got some pretty pictures from. I haven't looked at them yet as my laptop is busted... We continued walking back the same route we came from and stopped for a quick lunch, as there was this bbq fish food cart on the way :) Then we walked to this other lookout place where you can see the town and the beaches from a top of a mountain and that was gorgeous spot as well. All and all this walk took us pretty close to 4hours and we were pretty tired after it, but it was definately worth it. I'm happy I decided to stay in Kaikoura for 3 nights, it's really pretty out there and I could even live in that town :)

Next morning (monday 4.7.) we hopped on the bus again and the driver took us to this waterfall nearby that had cute baby seal swimming in it!! I guess it's like their hang out place or something, there was loads of them! They were swimming and jumping and playing around in the water and they were sooooo cute!! I didn't get good pictures as it was so darn dark in there... :( Should have grabbed my external flashlight, that might have worked. I'll put few pictures anyway up in facebook so you'll get the idea of how close we were to the seals again and how cute they were :)))

So yeah, that was all I wanted to tell you this time, our little seal incounters :D After Kaikoura I spend one night in Wellington and another night in Taupo before arriving to Auckland, but there's nothing to report from those places as I didn't do anything there. It was my 3rd time in both of those cities so I didn't feel like I had to do any of the tourist stuff in there. I got back to Auckland on Wednesday and I'm so happy to be back here. I get to see some familiar faces around the hostel again and it kind of feels like home to me. I was thinking of going for some day trips or something as I still have 10 days left here, but as they are all pretty expensive and I'm pretty tired now, I don't know if I'll do anything. I might just chillax and enjoy the rest of the days I got in this beautiful country :) I'll probably do little something during the days, but nothing major and nothing too expensive. Travelling around has been pretty exhausting on some days and you can't really get a good night sleep in hostels, so I just feel like relaxing now. I even got a massage yesterday (hadn't have one in a looooong looooong time) and it felt really good after carrying that heavy rucksack on my bag for months... I've bought so much stuff, so I have no idea how to get everything back home, but I'll try not to worry about it yet. I may have to just through some of my clotes out and that's it. You can always buy new ones, right? ;)

Oukkidoukki, but see you later alligaters!! I'll probably write at least one more post before I leave NZ :) Love ya!! <3

Kaikoura; Swimming with the wild Dusky Dolphins in the Pacific Ocean!!!

Hi ya!! I arrived yesterday, Friday 1st July to Kaikoura and so far I love it!! It's really beautiful out here, small place, but very nice indeed :) We arrived late yesterday in the evening after spending pretty much the whole day travelling in the bus from Queenstown to Kaikoura. Kiwi Experience bus doesn't go to Christchurch at the moment (due to th earthquakes they have there...), so we just dropped some people off at the airport, but didn't get a chance to see the city. Normally there would be one night stop in Christchurch. So I only went to the supermarket in the evening and that was it.

Today, in the morning, we head out to the sea to look for some dolphins!! The sea was really rough and they warned us before hand that there might be some seasickness due to the large waves and wind. I was really worried. But when we got going I was actually fine, think that travelsickness pill I took helped a bit. I was sitting outside the boat and the waves were really big, but it was kind of like being on a roller coaster :) Then after a while, the captain got a call from an whale watching boat that they spotted the dolphins and gave us the direction to get there. Finally, we found them!! I was a bit worried as we wouldn't have gotten a full refund if we couldn't find the dolphins. It's not even guanranteed that you'll get to swim with them, it depends on their behaviour. If they are friendly, it's fine. And we were lucky as we got to go in!!

We were pretty much covered in wetsuits, from head to toe: hoodies, wetsuit, jacket, gloves, socks and flippers. Oh yeah, and snorkels and goggles. But the water was still cold. You can imagine, it's winter time and it's the Pacific Ocean... :D It wasn't actually that bad once you got in to the water, the wetsuit definately helped. I can tell you that Pacific Ocean tastes bad, very salty.. yagh! There was around 50 dolphins around us and they were coming from all directions. It was AWESOME!!! So surreal though, they were swimming only like 1 metre away from you!!! It was so cool!! And when you put your face down, you could see them swimming right under you, it was like being in one HUGE aquarium, looking at them through the glass (except you weren't, they were actually there with you!!). It was probably one of the coolest experiences in my whole life. I absolutely love dolphins, always have, so it was a bid deal for me to actually swim with them <3 They were really cute too :))) And wild, not trained, not fed by people or anything.

But here's when the trouble started for me. Floating in the water holding your face in the water watching down while huge waves where rocking you was not good. I got really, really seasick out there... Got a bit of a panic attact there too as the waves were just taking you anywhere and I started coughing and got some of that nasty salty water in my mouth. With the goggles you couldn't breath through your nose which was really distracting as well. But I got over it. Then it was just the nausea I had to deal with. I think we were in the water for about 30min or so and then we got on the boat again. We started following the dolphins, so that people can take pictures, but I was really feeling bad at this moment, so I didn't even get my camera out. I was just holding my little bucket in my hands like my life was depending on it. Once one other guy started puking, that was it for me, had to empty my stomach too in that little bucket I now call George. I had George the second as well. Felt sooooo soooo bad all the way back... We were suppose to change our clothes in the boat, but I couldn't go in to get my clothes so I was freezing in that wetsuit all the way back to shore. When we got back I felt a lot better and got to take a hot shower at the dolphin incounter centre.

So all an' all, awesome experience, I higly recommend doing it if it's something you've always wanted to do :) I'm still a bit nauseas and my bed will be probably rocking for the next few nights, but it was worth it.

That's all for now, I still have tomorrow to spend in Kaikoura, then I'm off again on Monday morning with the Kiwi bus. Going to Wellington for one night, then Taupo and finally back to Auckland!! It will be nice to see some familiar faces again in Auckland :) Oh speaking of familiar faces, I have to tell you one more thing:
Even though New Zealand is quite big country, like the distances are quite long from the top part of the country till the bottom (on both islands) and there are lots of places to visit, I still manage to run in to familiar faces all along the way! Today I met this women in Kaikoura that I met in Dunedin, we went to the Wildlife tour together. Then in Wanaka, I met this lady I first met in Auckland somewhere back in April. We were staying in same hostel then and again in Wanaka :D There's one girl I've seen in 3 different cities, Auckland, Wanaka and again in Dunedin :))) Funny coincidence :)) And I also run in to a German girl in Franz Josef that I met like a month before that in Waitomo! There are so many places and people travel in their own pace so I find it really odd to run in to these people over and over again :))

Ok, now I really need to go. I'm running out of time on the internet... as my laptop is still broken. Couldn't get it fixed my self... need to find a repairman, probably in Auckland once I get there. So no pictures for now because of that.
See ya later alligators!! You'll hear from me again once I have something to report about :))) <3

Dunedin

I arrived in Dunedin 3 days ago and so far I like it :)) It's quite big city, 2nd biggest in the South Island and quite beautiful as well. There are lots of old buildings and people seem nice and friendly too. My hostel here though is probably the crappiest hostel I've ever been to... It's stuck in the 1960, smells like an old attic, moldy, and the rooms are freaking cold here as well. I feel like sleeping in the fridge, I'm so cold during the night I have to sleep with my fleece jacket and gloves on. I wish I had a hat, I'd put that on as well. The heating system they have in there is crap. The electricity in the room stays on only for 45min, so last night I got up pretty much every 45min to put the heating back on.. that's what you have to do in order to get at least a bit warmth in the room, but it doesn't help a lot, the ceiling is too high for that to warm up the whole room. I booked the room for 4 nights so I have to deal with it one more night and then I'm changing in to a different hostel.

I decided to stay few more days here in Dunedin, as I'm not really in a hurry to go anywhere, so why not :) There's a lot more to do in this town than there is in Wanaka. They even got McDonalds here and loads of other restaurants to choose from. I think I already tried everything they have in Wanaka, so it's a nice change to get something else to eat in here :D

Yesterday I went to this Wildlife Tour that lasted for 5hours, we left at 1pm and got back a bit after 6pm. First we went to this Albatross Centre, where we got to see Royal Albatross chicks that they are protecting there from the predators. Unfortunately no adult Royal Albatross on site, but it was nice anyway to hear a bit about the work they do there in order to protect these animals. Then we drove on to this private property only this company has access to to check out some other wildlife animals they have here. We got to see furry seals (they were adorable, I wanted to take one home with me!!), sea lions (huge and a bit scary, we got really close to those guys!!), Yellow Eyed Penguins (cute little creatures :)) and we saw some Pukekos (these funny looking birds) on the way too. So all and all a very nice trip :)) We had to go up and down some hills so there was a lot of walking involved, but somehow I managed to survive all that ;D

I haven't done much else here so far, I went to the movies one day and I've been just walking around the city, doing some window shopping and that sort of thing :) Tonight there's a Midwinter Carnival here in the city centre with some performances and live music, fireworks and that sort of thing, so I'm definately heading there to see what kind of festival that is. I'll take my camera with me and in case I get some nice shots, I'll add them to facebook later on :) I have lots of pictures from the wildlife tour as well, I'm just having a bit of difficulties on connecting to the internet with my laptop at the moment, so as soon as I can get it to work, I'll be uploading those first. I think my laptop is coming to an end of it's life... I'm not sure how much longer will it last, there's some signs already it might be a goner soon... :(( I just hope it will hang on until the end of my trip.

Speaking of the end of my trip, I've been seriously thinking of maybe coming home next month. Getting a job seems to be impossible around here and frankly, I'm getting a bit tired of even trying... So summer at home seems more and more tempting. I'm just having hard time making a decision for sure. And I think I need to make it fast so I can book my flights. Another one of these moments when it's tough being alone... oh well, we'll see what happens I guess, I'll try to come up with something next week. If you have anything that will make my mind come to a some kind of conclusion, let me know, I'd appreciate a bit of a help here :))

That's all for now, see you later alligators!! <3

Homesickness...

Yes, today it finally hit me, homesickness. I just realized how much I miss home, I miss my family, my friends, our dogs, my godsons and goddaughter, my little nieces and nephews... oh man, I miss it all. Me and my sister used to talk on the phone pretty much everyday (even though we saw each other pretty much every day :)) and now I haven't talked with her in ages!! And I miss talking to my best friends too... :( I wish one of them were here so I could figure out what to do. I've been in Wanaka over a week now and I've applied for few positions I'd really like to have, but I haven't heard back from them yet. The ski season hasn't started yet, as there's still on important element missing; the snow, so that's one of the main reasons there's no jobs around here now. And I also heard that you really have to know people around here to get a job, so with connections mainly. That sucks for lonely travellers such as my self.

I'm still surviving with money, but that's only 'cause I get help from home (thank goodness I have a loving and supporting family, I'm blessed). But I do feel I can't keep on with this for much longer, so I'm actually thinking of going back home soon.. I'd hate to quit, but I don't know what else to do. And going home when it's summer there doesn't sound bad at all to me :) And I do know people there miss me too, so going back to that sounds pretty good to me right about now :)) I'm happy I got to be here for so long already, it was more than a holiday and I've got to see loads of places around this whole country, I've met loads of awesome people (new friends, yey!) and I've done lots of things and I have so many lovely memories of this country already <3 I do love it, I absolutely love New Zealand. It's a beautiful country filled with souch a friendly people and I'm super happy that I came here. And I know already, I'd love to come again some day :)
Hmm, I think I've just managed to cheer my self up a bit :)) hih, ok, I don't feel so bad now just thinking about all I've got to experience in this place so far :))

So tomorrow I'm heading out again, I'm going to the east coast, to a second largest city of South Island, called Dunedin. I've heard it's a nice place and I want to go and check it out for my self. It's not included in my Kiwi Experience bus pass, so I just ordered bus tickets from the tourist information centre and booked my self a hostel online. I'll be there for 4 nights and then I'm thinking of coming back to Wanaka, to see if any of those job applications I've sent out paid off. But I'll decide that once I'm in Dunedin, maybe I'll like that place so much that I wanna stay there for a while, who knows! :)) I'm keeping my eyes and options open, going as I want to and doing what makes me happy (to avoid these homesickness days when everything just seem to fall apart). Let's call this my plan D, :D I've never had to change my plans so many times as I have here, but hey, life doesn't always turn out the way you've planned it, right? Sometimes you just need to change your plans and go with the flow. See what life brings in front of you the next day. Well, wasn't this a lovely 'dear diary' moment...
I better stop now and try go to sleep soon, as I need to get up early tomorrow to catch that bus to Dunedin. I'll let you know how it is once I get there and will be taking some pictures too to put in to Facebook :)) See you laters alligators, love ya!! :)) <3 *Loads of hugs and kisses*

Earthquake!

Today, Monday 13th June 2011, I experienced my very first earthquake ever here in Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand. I was sitting at a cafe when all of a sudden I thought I felt a bit lightheaded, like my head was spinning. I looked up and saw how the lamps hanging from the ceiling were swinging from side to side and this guy sitting next to me saw the expression in my face (which was pretty much 'what the heck was that?') and said; yes, I felt that too. Was so surreal, it wasn't really like the ground was trembling, but it was more like swinging. Kind of like being in a boat on a heavier waves, just rocking from side to side. It didn't last long though, it was over before you even realized it was an earthquake. I'm glad it was a small one, these I can handle, I don't even want to experience the bigger ones... I heard they had another big one again today in Chirstchurch :( That city doesn't seem to get a break from those big earthquakes... I'm glad I'm not going there. I heard it's pretty much like a ghosttown now days anyways..

The last update I wrote on this blog was from Franz Josef so an quick update after that: From Franz Josef we came to Wanaka. Now I absolutely fell in love with this place after just few minutes when walking around this lovely little town and I spend two nights in here. Then I left to go to Queenstown to check that place out and to meet with my friends from the bus. I spend 4 nights in Queenstown, but I wans't really exited about that place. And I got sick there too, it was really, really cold down there! The best thing about Queenstown was the famous Fergburger. Seriously, the best burger ever!! :D So everybody going to Queenstown, you HAVE to try it, it's so freaking good. So after few days in this city, I decided I don't like it that much and that I preferred Wanaka so I booked a bus ticket back to this lovely little town :)) Oh and the hostel in Queenstown was the worst ever, so that was probably one of the reasons as well that I didn't like it. I'm much happier here in Wanaka now. I even got the same room back I stayed in the last time I was here and again, all to my self :)) It has a bathroom and shower in it too, so it kind of feels like my own place now :)) I hope I'll get to keep it to my self for a while at least. I'm trying to look for a job here, but as the winter ski season hasn't started yet (usually there's snow on the ground by now, but this year the winter seems to be a bit late), the town is pretty quiet and it's hard to find a job now. I went to the job agency today and the lady told me to come back in 2-3 weeks when the town will get more busier, to see if they have something then. Apparently no one is hiring at the moment... I'll just have to keep my eyes open and hope something will come up soon!! So I'll get back to you when I have something new to report :) I'll have to stop writing now as my internet is cutting me off every 10minutes and it's driving me nuts!! :) See you later alligators!! <3

Franz Josef, Heli-Hike 3.6.2011

We arrived to Franz Josef yesterday and as it was such a nice weather (unlike today, it's been raining all day now) we got to do our Heli-Hike trip in the afternoon. We go in to the office a bit before 1pm and we went to get our gear on, boots, jackets and pants on (all waterproof as it is a warm glacier so you have water ponds here and there) and got on the helicopter. This was my first time ever in a helicopter (that's one reason I wanted to do this option, instead of just a hiking trip up to the glacier) and it was pretty cool. It was kind of like being in a rollercoaster :D

The helicopter took us all the way up on the glacier and then started to zigzag down. We landed on the glacier where there were two guides waiting for us. The hiking part in the glacier was about 2h 30min and we got to see waterfall and some pretty cool ice caves :) I went though the first ice cave they took us to and was pretty close to get a really bad panic attact so I didn't want to go through any of the other caves they took us to. It was really narrow and you had to slide down on your stomach, holding the rope and trying not to slip on your way down. It was horrible, I was hanging on to that rope like my life depended on it and I absolutely hated it. Claustrofobia kicked in hard. But I survived :D Walking up on the glacier wasn't what I expected. It was kind of like walking on the soft snow instead of slipping on the ice, as I thought. We did have the spike thingys on our boots, which were really good. But it was also hard as you had to really stomp with your feet to get a grip on the ice and snow so you wouldn't slip. This two hour something walk was just hard enough for me (as I'm not fit enough to do any demanding hikes), so I was happy not to sign in for the half or full day hikes for today :) After the hike, we got back down with the helicopter again and finally got to the hostel. I hadn't been eating since breakfast at 11am and we got back to the hostel at 5pm so I was starving already :D

So all and all, I enjoyed my Heli-Hike experience, I thought it was too expensive, but hey, you only live once, right? :)) Tomorrow we're heading down to Wanaka and I'll be spending there few days before going to my final destination (for now), Queenstown. So I'll write again, when I have something to report about. C ya!! <3

My very first SKYDIVE!!!!

Tuesday 31.5.2011 Nelson, South Island, NZ
I still can't believe this my self, but I actually jumped off from an airplane at 16,500 ft few days ago in Nelson!!! I've never ever wanted to do skydive before, but now I've been thinking about it since Taupo as many of my friends did it when we were in Taupo and told me it was great. After that I still thought I'm not going to do it, as it's not something I've always wanted to do and I don't want to do something I think I might not enjoy of (like for example bungy jump, no way!!).

So we were driving along on a Kiwi Experience bus on Tuesday, heading to Nelson and the bus driver started talking about the skydive you can do in Nelson. It's the highes one you can do in this country, 16,500ft when in other placed like Taupo you can get up to 15,000ft. It was an absolutely gorgeous day that day, sunshine and blue sky, so the driver said if you're ever going to do it, do it today as the scenery will be absolutely amazing. So I thought about it for a while, was worried about the money (as they are quite expensive, but then again, not as expensive as it would be in Finland for example) and then decided 'oh why not' :D

I got a bit nervous when we got closer to the place where we were going to be picked up from, but I was also starting to look forward to it. So we were picked up with a minivan and driven to the skydiving place. It all happened super fast once we got there as it was closer to 4pm and they had to get us up in the sky as fast as possible to get some nice photos and videos before it got too dark. So we got in, got our suit and harness on and off we went on to the teeny-tiny airplane (could barely fit the 6of us in). I was scared that it would be just horrible to be in that small plane as I'm claustrofobic as well as not so fond of small planes, but it wasn't actually bad at all. Once we got higher and higher, then I started to feel nervous again and a bit nauseous too. They gave us oxygen with a mask when we got up, just before we jumped out of the plane. There was only me and one other girl jumping and she was the first one to get off the plane. Oh and we both had our own camera mans as well, to shoot our videos :) So Astrid was the first to jump of the plane with her instructer and camera man and man, that was wild to see them jump off knowing it's gonna be your turn next and there's no other option than to jump :D So we got to the door, there was a camera on the wing to take our picture, I was told to grab my harness and bend my legs under the plane, the guy on my back counted to 3 and off we went. The first few seconds were absolutely the worst thing ever. I think I even closed my eyes for a second we jumped from the plane, it was just so scary!!! :D But when we got to the 'flying part' and I got to put my arms out to the sides, it was pretty damn AWESOME!! Camera guy was all over us during that freefall taking pictures and recording that video and I was just smiling and giving him thumbs up :D I absolutely enjoyed every second of it and was so surprised I didn't scream or started swearing or anything :)

When we opened the parachute, that was another part I didn't like that much, as you get pulled up really fast, so that was kind of a nasty feeling for a second or so, but once it was open, you couldn't help but see how amazing the view was. We were so freaking high up, it was a bit scary, but I still loved it :) It came down surprisingly fast as well and I was smiling like an idiot all the way down :) When we landed and the camera guy (who was already down there waiting for us) asked how it was, I think my words were 'that was awesome!' :D And my video turned out great, better than I thought it would be as they edited it and added music to it, so it's really cool. I can't wait to get home and show it to everybody!!!

So that was my first skydive, would't mind doing it again some day ;D I do recommend it to everybody now, it should be in your bucket list if it's not there already :)))

TransScenic train to Wellington and LOTR-tour

I got up super early on Sunday morning to take the train down to Wellington at 7.25am. It was one of these TransScenic trains they have here, so it had big windows and an outdoor area to take pictures of the beautiful landscapes we passed by. And I didn't know this before hand, but they also tell you about the places you pass by, which I think is really good. So it's just not that you get to watch out the window, but you hear about what you see as well. I was a bit scared at first as it is as 12hour ride on the train, but it really didn't feel that long. I was reading my book and taking pictures, so the time went by faster for me :) We got to go out on some of the stations to stretch our legs and we also got 30min lunch brake around 1pm. The only bad part about the train ride was that it really, REALLY wasn't a pleasant drive. The train was shaking from side to side like all the time and not just a bit, a LOT. Everytime I got up to go to the toilet or restaurant car, I was bouncing from side to side hitting my legs and arms on the seats on each side. I even got neuseas which I normally don't in a train, so I had to take travel sickness pill... I would rather not go through that experience again. I was lucky to get the ticket cheap, I think it's normally around 130dollars, but I got it for 49 (sorry I've lost my dollar sign on the keyboard), so it wasn't that bad at least. I hope that I got at least few decent pictures from along the way, which I'll be posting to facebook asap.

Today, Monday 30th May, I went first thing in the morning to the i-Site centre (tourist information point) to book my self that LOTR-tour that I didn't get to take when I was in Wellington the last time. That was in the afternoon, so in the morning I went to the Weta Cave on my own. Got a free ride there from a tourguide that happened to be at the i-Site at the same time and over heard me saying I wanted to go there. So thanks Nathan for the ride :)) Weta Cave was nice, but it's a really small place, so there isn't that much to see. Good thing is that it's for free :) And they show you this 'behind the scenes' video and tell you a bit on how they make the special effects and masks and all that stuff.

After that, I got to the cable car (another thing I missed the last time as it was broken then) up to the mountain where you can get a view from the whole city and there's also Botanic Garden there. It was nice as it was a sunny day, so I think I got some cool shots from up there :) After that, it was time for lunch and then off to the tour. There was only me and one other person taking the tour :D So it was pretty private tour :D Our guide was cool, he knew all sorts of things from the movie and the actors I had no idea about. But boy, did he like to talk :D But then again, you have to, being in a profession like that :) But he was really nice, we talked a LOT about all kinds of movies, he seemed to be a bit of a movie freak him self too (again, quess you'd have to being in a profession like that :)) I liked getting all the new information behind the movies that I didn't know before. Some of the locations we got to see were actually looking familiar too, like that one scene where the Hobbits are on the road (from the first movie, only starting the journey when Merry and Pippin are joining with Frodo and Sam) and the black rider comes and they have to hide. That I actually did recognized. But then again for example Isengard is just a field with some trees and fresbee golf course on it :D So I'm afraid as there was nothing left to show that the movie was actually made in some places, it didn't really impress me that much. Only the parts I did recognize. And yeah, it is fun to know that you've been to some of the places where Legolas, Frodo, Arwen, Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimli and all the others have walked on :))

But hey, it's been a pleasure to write to you guys again, but I just noticed it's getting really late so I need to go to sleep, and soon. I have another super early wake up call tomorrow as the bus to the ferry leaves at 7am... Going to take the Interislander ferry down to the South Island :) I'll try to get back to updating my blog more again, as I'm gonna be travelling from a place to another pretty much every day for the next week or so :) So I'll let you know what I've been up to! :) C U <3

My very first Ta Moko

So as you probably know by now (if you're my friend in Facebook and check it pretty much every day as I do :)), I got my very first Ta Moko done last Saturday, 28th May!! It was my 6th tattoo, but my first Ta Moko, so it's a Maori design tattoo and one of a kind. The guy who did it (thanks Scotty from Otautahi Tattoo) freehanded it on my leg, which I thought was pretty awesome. And I absolutely LOVE it!!!! It's gorgeous, turned out better than I expected!! Still looking forward for it to heal properly, so you can see the shadings he did on it. Oh and it has a lot of meaning to it too, that's the cool part of it. It has my whole family on it, my sisters, my brother and my mom and dad <3 Now I can say they'll be with me where ever I go from now on :))) It's also got water element that represents my travelling, it has a symbol that represents like a new start in life (which this kind of is again, I'm in a country I don't know so I'm starting all over again) and it has this guardian on top, that protects my family. It's just awesome. Because all the symbols it has, it makes my other tattoos look... well, not that cool, as they're all just pictures, made with stensils, not freehanded. But I still do love all my tat's, they all mean a lot to me. This is just most meaningful of them all and no one else has it, it's unique. Can't wait to show it to my family and friends back home :)))

Another year older... blaah... :D

Hello there my dear reader(s?) :D So as you probably know (unless you're some stranger reading my blog as you have nothing better to do) it was my birthday yesterday. I turned 25 again ;) so I wanted to tell you about my day.

Morning started off good, bumped in to my Canadian friend in the hallway on my and she sang happy birthday to me and gave me a hug :))) It was really nice of her :)) Then after my breakfast I head out to the town, just wondered around for a while and went to get coffee at Starbucks. I had piece of really really good maple, caramel & walnut cheesecake, but that combined with soy hazelnut latte made me feel really sick. They were just soooo sweet I really wanted to puke afterwards :D (yes I can lough about it now, but yesterday it wasn't funny). Then I went to have some lunch and wondered around the town for some more, trying to come up with something special to do and decided to get a massage. And this was interesting... (I'll write hole other chapter about this massage...)->

So there's a massage place right accross the street from my hostel and I've been there before, so I went in again. Now the last time I was there, I got a massage from this Chinese lady and it was really good one. Well, I wasn't that lucky this time... I got this Chinese guy who was apparently trying to get some information out of me and if I knew what it was, I was more than willing to share that secret with him. It was pure torture. I swear to you he was trying to see if my head comes off at some point if he pulls it hard enough. He also found some very sensitive spots in my neck he wanted to push them as hard as he could. And yes, they are still hurting me. Then I got to the table (was sitting in a chair first) and he pushed my back so far I think my boobs sinked in to me an inch or two. Maybe he was trying to see if they come out on my back if we pushes hard enough, who knows. Oh and yes, this was a good one; it was suppose to be a neck, shoulder and back massage, but he rubbed my bum too. I so wanted to say 'Hey that's not my back, that would be my ass!!' But I didn't. I thought well what the hell, it wasn't like he was doing it in a harrasing kind of way, but still I found it a bit weird. Then you know when you're getting a back massage and they usually press the spots right next to your spine or like in between the vertebrae? Well this dude pressed right on my spine, like on the vartebrae and that hurts like hell!!! I was seriously sweating my ass off I was in so much pain. But I didn't scream, was really close to it, but held it back. You should have seen my face though, would have been hilarious if someone was taking pictures under the table :D And he was really pushing as hard as he could and sometimes lying on top of me putting his own bodyweight on it too. I just thought that maybe it will be worth it, that it must work if it hurts that much, but I don't know now... today I've been just hurting, it's even hard to sit as the sore spots are on my lower back. So that was just a bad massage... I'm so not going to him anymore!

The rest of the evening was nice. I went to dinner on this Italian restaurant with one of my friends here as she wanted to take me out on my special day. And I appriciated it of course (she paid for my dinner too!) :) The waiter made us site on a table number 30 which I think was a really funny coincidence :)

After dinner we head down to the bar, it was pretty full as they were showing a rugby match there. I had few drinks there and it was pretty nice :) Even got one guy to buy be few siders which was nice :))) No no, I didn't ask him, but he wanted after one of the girls told him it was my birthday. About quarter to twelve I decided that as my birthday was almost over, I can call it a night and go to bed. I was getting a bit sick of drinking that side anyways, so I didn't want to stay longer. The sider they have down at the bar is ok for one pint, but then it gets a bit too... I don't know how to say it in english, but you just get tired of it and can't get it down anymore, if you know what I mean.

So that was my B-day, not that special, but very nice anyways :)) Best parts were when Aimee sang to me in the morning and when I read all the wonderful posts I got to my wall in Facebook :)) Those were the things that made me happy :)) So thanks to all of you who made my birthday a good one :))) Love ya!! <3

ps. I'd love to know if you're reading my blog, so can you please post something (anything) as a comment to this one so I know who's with me here (and if my sisters are not reading this, I know to give some feedback on it to them...) :D Cheers!

Starting up a plan B

Hello again :) Few days have passed again after my previous post and the celebrations for Finland winning the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP in icehockey are done. I mean, you can't party forever right? :) But we are still going to be world champions for the rest of the year, so maybe a little party time here and there will still be allowed :)

I wanted to tell you about the job interview I had today. I went in to the part 1 for the interview yesterday for this marketing and sales company. The job sounded pretty good, as it was a sales job, but the product was something that is easy to sell and probably their target market was like bigger companies so not just a regular consumer. They told me they were not looking for a sales person, as they can be a bit too much sales-driven and will even lie to sell their product, so they were looking for just an ordinary people. There was a basic salary to start with as well, so not just a commission based. I had a really good feeling about the company and the job as well so I was excited to get a second interview for the next day (which was today). This second interview was also a sales training day and they asked us to be there from 10am to 4pm. There was 12 of us there. So we got in there at 10am, the trainer came in to the room and our first task was to sell a pen. Yes that's right, we all got a regular ballpoint pen and they told us to go out to the street and try to sell it to someone. I was like, oh no, this is not someting I want to do... But I went out anyway and tried to sell it to 3 people. Surprise, surprise, no one wanted to buy that pen. So we all got back in to the office, the trainer called out everyone of us who couldn't sell the pen and we were told 'thank you for coming, but you can leave now, we're not going to continue with you guys for the rest of the day'. You should have seen the look on everyone's face (I think there was like half of the room kicked out) as we went like 'so this is it then?' We felt like we didn't even get a real opportunity in trying to get that job. But I guess if you can't sell a pen on the street, then you can't sell anything. Well I don't think so, but apparently the company does... I'm not a sales person anyways, I know that, but I thought they weren't really looking for that sort of person anyway. So I think I'll stop applying for sales jobs now... hope something else comes along. There has to be some other jobs out there, right??

At the moment, I got the hostel booked until this Sunday and then I think I'll go down to the South Island. I might as well go out and see some new places, as I don't have anything to do in Auckland at the moment and I'm getting sick of trying to get a job as it hasn't been working out so far. The timing sucks as it's getting colder now down at the south and I wanted to go there later on, like in August or September, but then again, as I said, I got nothing to do in here either... I'm thinking of looking for a job down at the South Island as the winter season is about to start and there might be some job opportunities in that field. Like in some of the ski centres down there. So I'll pack my bags again, leave something at the luggage storage here at the hostel as I can't carry everything with me and try to find some inspiration in life again :D Seeing new places might just be the thing I need right now.

I'll let you know as soon as I figure out for my self, what exactly I decide to do. There are still few days left for this week to try to land a job somewhere in Auckland, so wish me luck!!

-S-

Can someone please give me a job already?

Hello there :)
So apparently I have at least one reader on my blog, so I better write something on it sometimes :) I thought no one was reading it, so I've been lazy lately in keeping it up to date. The other reason I haven't been writing is the fact that I haven't got anything to write about :D Time is going past so fast even though I have nothing to do.

So I still don't have a job, but you can't blame me for not trying. I'm trying so hard to get something, but it seems to be really difficult getting any job... There are so many people here at the moment looking for jobs that it's just unbelievable. I heard that even the locals have to go to Australia to look for a job as they can't get one here! I've got few interviews so far, but they were for sales jobs, where you had to go from door to door trying to sell something or asking people to donate money for charity. I can't do that. Especially the collecting money for charity where you had to keep a smile on your face for 8 hours a day and give this ready made speech on every door... no way hose. As I told my roommate, us Finns are not capable to smile 8 hours a day, it's in our nature to be depressed and complain about staff most parts of the day. At least I am, there's no way you can make me smile whole day through, it's physically impossible. I'd get a headache sooner or later from it :D I can't sell stuff either. If someone tells me; no, I don't want to buy anything from you!' I'd go; thats ok, sorry to bother you. So I don't think I'd be a good salesperson as I can't persuade someone to change their minds. No sales jobs for me please... I need something else.

The other thing that's really frustrating is that you can see the advertisement for 'temps wanted for office jobs' like all the time, but why don't they just hire me? That's exactly what I'm looking for, a temporary job in an office. I've got calls from agency that I've sent my CV to that they will let me know as soon as they have a job for me and that there's lots of temporary office roles available, but then I don't hear from them again. So I don't know if there's just so many people applying for jobs right now that I don't have a change to get even to the interviews or what. But it's not like I don't have experience in that field. Oh well, I guess all I can do is wait and see what happens. And keep on looking of course. I really really hope I can get a job here, so I don't have to come home earlier than I planned. It's not that I don't miss home, I do, but I have the rest of my life to be at home, so I wanna stay here for now and I want to see the rest of the country too before I leave.

Ok so enough for the complaining. So the summary of this all was basically that I haven't really done much to report about, just been looking for a job and spending my time around Auckland city centre and the hostel. There's not that much to do if you don't want to spend money around here, so my favourite past time during sunny days is going to the park to read a book :) I usually get a coffee from Starbucks before going up there and one morning, when I got to the shop the girl behind the counter greeted me by saying: Hi Suvi! And then I knew I've been going there way too often :D :D Well she said the first time she heard my name (they write it on the coffee cups to know who ordered and what) that she thinks it's pretty name, so it wasn't so big deal that she remembered me, I guess.. :)

I think I better go now, I plan to go see movie today so I better check my e-mails and send some job applications before that. I'm so looking forward for the icehockey match tomorrow morning!!! Finland vs. Sweden... that's gonna be LEGEN-----wait for it------DARY!!!
It should be starting at 6.30am so I got to get up early so I can cheer up our boys to, what will hopefully be, a victory!! YEEEEJEEEEEEEEEE!!!! :D Come on boys, you can do this, I know you can!!!

Lots of love to Finnish icehockey team and to my reader(s?) as well :) :) :) <3

-Suvi-

Waiheke Island

Kia Ora everybody!
I had nothing to do today in Auckland, so I decided to go to Waiheke Island which is only 35min ferry ride away from the city. I have been told it's a nice place to visit so that's why I wanted to go there, too bad that I picked a day that wasn't so good when it comes to weather. You should definately go there on a warm sunny day in order to enjoy the beaches they have there. There wasn't that much to do today... I was looking forward just to chillax at the beach and read my book, but it was just way too grey and windy for that. I did the island tour that was commentated, took about an hour and 20min or so, but it wasn't the best. The driver just told us a little bit about the island and the people living there and the fact that most of the island is just vineyards and farm land. There's about 8000 people living there through out the year and in the summer a lot more as there are a lot of summer houses in that island.
So I did the guided bus tour, had some lunch and a cup of bad coffee, was enjoying my book and then head back out to the ferry and here I am again, in Auckland. Well the good thing was that it took most of my day, I left at 10am and was back at the hostel at 4pm, so now I don't have to wonder what to do today, I'll be ready for bed in few hours :D

That was about it on the subject of Waiheke Island. I'd recommend the place, it really seems like a nice little relaxed island. I'm already looking forward to going there again, maybe for the whole weekend when it's warm and sunny :) Just to relax on the beach and do nothing... sounds good to me :) And the sceneries are beautiful there too, I'll add some pictures of it to FB later on, just try to imagine what it would look like if the sun was out :D

As far as the job searching goes, I've sent my CV to 4-5 agencies now, so I really hope something will come up soon. I can't wait to find my own place to live, even though I'm getting a bit used to this hostel, I still don't want to use the common kitchen for cooking... I find that a bit odd and uncomfortable with loads of people around you. And I wouldn't mind having my own room either, having a place to put my stuff in other than my rucksack or the locker under the bed... Plus at the moment, I have a very annoying roommate who wants to chat like all the time, even when I'm trying to read my book!! Oh well, I'll survive :D

Got to go now, I'll get back to you when I have something to write about again :) *mwah* kisses and hugs <3

Taupo -> River Valley -> Wellington

So it's been couple of days again and I haven't had the time to write on my blog. So I'll give you a quick rewiev on these last few days.

We spent two days in Taupo, but since it was the easter holiday weekend, there wasn't that much to do here. We arrived Thursday afternoon, a bit before 4pm and I spend that day (what was left of it) looking for a dentist that could see me because I'd had horrible toothache for the past week or so. Finally found one, rushed to get there as I only got 30min to find the place before they closed and got some antibiotics to help ease the pain. It's ok now btw, in case someone is interested :D Will need to say dentist later on in Auckland though.. Next day was Good Friday so didn't do much on that day either. Slept in late, had a really nice breakfast at a cafe nearby and then strolled around the town and went to the movies :)

From Taupo we drove to River Valley. We stayed in this lodge that was like between the mountains there, at the very bottom next to the river. It was really cold out there with outside bathrooms and all. It was like camping actually :D I woke up at like 5am to go to the toilet in my t-shirt and was so freaking freezing... We had a really good barbeque on the evening when we arrived there and all and all I must admid that the food was super good. Just for food, I might have wanted to stay for another night too :D
Next morning we went on a 2hour horse trecking trip. That was pretty cool, nice surroundings and all that. Was a bit scary though as the hills were pretty steep and the horse was walking like right on the edge... I had to concentrate a bit too much just to controll the horse and for that reason didn't have much time to fully enjoy the sceneries. But I still liked it :) And our tour guide was complementing me the way I handled my horse so that was nice to hear :)) Like at one point we went down again on this very steep hill and she said (when I found my way down) that it was very well done as usually that horse is running down the hill instead of walking very slowly. I just thanked her for not telling me beforehand :D

From River Valley we went to Welligton where I spent two days. Again, still the easter weekend so not much to do there. Noticed right away why they call it a windy city, that it truely is. It wasn't really warm and welcomming either, not like other places where you immediately feel that it's nice to be in. There was few things I wanted to do in Wellington and one of them was to take one of the LOTR tours :D BUT as it was an easter monday, the Weta caves (as they call the studios) was closed. It's only closed for 4 days in the entire year and this happened to be one of them! So dissapointed... Then I thought I might as well take the cable car up to the botanic gardens just to spend some time there, BUT when I got to the cable car station, there was a lady there who told me it was broken. It would have taken an hour or two to fix it so I didn't want to stay and wait for it. So all I did in Wellington was wondering around the city, went to the Te Papa national museum for few hours and in the evening we went to the movies with some guys from our bus. But I do not feel too bad, as I'll probably visit Wellington again when I head down to south island for my tour, part 2, later on this year. I'll do the LOTR tour then, that's all I want from that city :D

That's about all I have to say for now, I'm currently in Taupo but only for one night. Tomorrow heading back to Auckland to finally look for that job and sort some things out like the social security number (that has hopefully arrived already) and to look for a place to rent. It would be sooooooo nice to get out of these hostels. Kind of had enough already. Miss my own peace and quiet place and own kitchen so I can start cooking my food again instead of going out every day. Ok so see you later alligators!!

Waitomo and the Glowworm caves

So it's Wednesday 20th April and today we arrived to this very small town called Waitomo. There's really not that much to do around here, there's not even a supermarket or an ATM in this town. Can you believe that :D So I got to go to the caves this afternoon to see the glowworms. That's pretty much all you can do in this place, go to the caves.
So we got there, got our wetsuits on (yep, looking redicilous) and helmets of course, took out our tubes and head out to the caves. I was a bit scared when we got there, to the caves, as it was a very tiny place and I'm a bit (maybe an understatement, a LOT) claustrofobic so I almost got an panic attact, but I managed to calm my self down as everyone else was so exited. So we head further down to the caves and it was a bit rough path as you never knew just how deep the water was where you land your foot at. And the rocks were very sharp too at some points. So that was a bit scary. Then there were like 3 points where you stopped and you put your tube againts your bum and jumped like your back first on to the river. So water splashing everywhere when you landed and got up in my nose too :D But drifting on your tube and watching the glowworms was awesome. They are so cool creatures!
There was also this one point where they asked us to turn off the lights we had on our helmets and we had to draft along the river in total darknes. I didn't like that bit as we got smashed against the rocks some times and it scratched my hands (again, very sharp rocks). I was pleased to know though that other people were all around me, so that was calming me down :)
All and all, I would recommend the trip, but maybe only for those who do not have serious issues with claustrofobia :D It was fun afterall, drafting down the river in the caves in a tube, watching glowworms. It was a good day. We'll just have to see what tomorrow brings :)) See ya!

Evening out in a Maori village, Rotorua

Hello again everybody! I haven't been able to write in few days as travelling with Kiwi bus seems to be being in a constant hurry :) We do so much during the day, like take stops here and there so it's always a bit late in the afternoon when we reach our destination. It's fun that you get to see places on the way too, but then you're a bit tired when you find your next hostel...
So what have we done, we were at this little town called Whitianga yesterday, it's in Mercury Bay. Lovely place, but I wouldn't want to live there, maybe just a tad too small for my taste :D On the way there we went to Hot Water beach. That was cool. The sand there is really hot, like you couldn't really walk on it and what people do there is dig up a hole, it fills up with hot water and then you let some water from the ocean to mix up to make your own little pool there. Pretty nice, there were lots of people there in their little sand pitts. Our crew (so people from the bus, we travel with same crowd pretty much all the time) dig up a hole as well, but there wasn't enough time to dig a big one, so they managed only to sink their feet in to it :D

So Whitianga was nice, but didn't really do much there. We had some nice dinner, spagetti bolognase that the keeper of the hostel made for us and we only paid for like 3,50eur for it. So it was nice to hang out with the people from the bus that evening. Next morning we head out to Rotorua. The town it self is not that bad, a bit bigger so I almost got lost trying to find an ATM and a shoe shop as my flip flops broke, they like fell apart completely for some reason :D But here comes the story that I really wanted to share with you guys...

We headed out in the evening to this little Maori Village, where we had a really good show put out for us and a dinner, hangi, that was prepared under the ground. I will honestly never forget this evening as it was simply AMAZING!!! Like I was totally blown away by their dancing and singing and I find Maori culture really facinating. It was definately worth every single dollar I spent on it and I'd do it again in a hartbeat if offered. I actually almost cried at few points as it was so touching, silly me, I know :D They showed us also their village and told us how things were done in the old days. And that dinner, oh boy, it was yammy!! It kind of tasted like smoke, which was a bit odd, but all and all, so good. They had chicken, roast, fish, kumara (this sweet potato), potatoes, carrots, salads and desserts. The meal it self had been cooking for 3-4 hours under the ground, so you can probably imagine how good it was :))
Pictures will be posted in facebook as soon as I have some time to spend on my computer again. Time flies when you're having fun out here so excuse me for not updating my facebook like every single day. I try as I know my family and friends will be worried if I don't, but try not to freak out if you don't hear from me every day. Once I get back to Auckland and will find a job, I have more time to hang out in fb and chat with you guys :)

Got to go now, bus will be leaving soon, next destination: Waitomo. Cheerious!!
Love,
Suvi

Day tour to Cape Reinga

Got another early wake up call this morning as the bus to Cape Reinga departed at 7.10am in front of the hostel. Now I must say about this hostel first that it's so much nicer than the one in Auckaland as instead of being one big multi-storey building, our 'rooms' here are actually like little cabins. So there's shower and toilet in here, instead of going out the hall to find one, it's just so much nicer this way. And there's two seperate rooms with 4 beds in each, at least this second night here, I'm alone in the room, yey :D Ok, back to the bus...

Our first stop was at Puketi Kauri forest, where we went for a nice 5 minute walk around the forest to check out these huge Kauri trees. Then we drove on to this small village called Taipa, where we stopped to have our morning coffees at a local bakery and also grabbed some lunch from there to take with us. Then we head out to the 90 mile beach. It's actually just 65miles long, but it was named buy some farmers who just estimated the distance of the beach. They never bothered to change the name once they found out the correct number, in kilometres it's over 90 anyways so kind of right after they changed in to metric system :D Ride along the beach was pretty cool, sometimes we hit the water too so it was kind of surreal to be driving IN the ocean :) The bus we were on was especially build to do that beach drive so it was no ordinary city bus.

After getting of from the 90 mile beach we got to a place called Te Paki where the Giant sand dunes and quick sand stream is. We actually drove on the quick sand stream and were lucky not to get stuck and sink in to it. No not lucky, just with a good driver who know we'd be fine as long as we didn't make a stop while on the quick sand :) So this is the place where we got off again and took out these small boards and head out up on the dune in order to surf it down :) That walk up there was really hard and I had to stop several times to catch my breath again. That's why I only came down once as I couldn't face the coming up part again :D It was really cool I must say, it was over really quickly, but so much fun. You had to lay on the board on your belly facing the direction you were heading, so down. We all had sand absolutely everywhere afterwards. I was digging it out of my ears, all over my face and I had some sand in my hair too. But it was worth it.

After sandboarding we head out on this little beach where we had our lunch. Some of the guys went swimming, but I didn't go, the waves were coming down pretty hard so I would have had problems out there. After lunch we drove up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost place in New Zealand. We had the opportunity to plan a tree there (had to donate small amount of money to do that, about 10eur) which I did. I picked the most beautiful spot I could find up there and I planted my little tree in memory of my friend Heini who we lost in August 2009. My little tree is named Cosprosma Repens and I got the gps coordinates for it, so I can find it with Google Earth and see via satellite on how it's growing, pretty neat right :)) I can show you guys when I get home where exactly my little tree is. I also like the fact that I've now left something behind in New Zealand, something that will keep on growing well after I've left the place :)
After that we walked down to the lighthouse and saw the spot where the two oceand meet, the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. You could actually see the white waves there coming from two different directions.

And before I forget, I wanted to also tell you that Cape Reinga is very spiritual place for Maori people. It's the most sacred place in the country. This is the spot where they believe their spirits will come to move on after their bodies have passed away. Their spirit will travel here after one year after their death and take one last journey back to be with their ancestors. The spot where the two oceans meet is their passing way to the other side. Our tour guide, who was Maori, played this wooden whistle when we were about to leave the place (they play it when they're leaving from somewhere, they play it in the funerals for example) in honour of his mom who passed away few years ago to let her know he's close to her and will follow her to the other side one day too. Was hard not to cry...

After Cape Reinga we head back out to 90 mile beach as the tide was still out and that was faster way out of there than the other route. We had a quick stop at this place where they make furniture and all these other lovely carved things (like wooden jewellery and statues and such) from Kauri trees. Not the ones standing in the forest as you're not allowed to cut those down, but they dig up the trees that have been sinken in to the ground after a massive tsunami brought them down like hundreds of years ago or something like that. After that we went to have fish and chips at this lovely place in yet another small town called Mangonui.The BEST fish and chips I've ever had. This place is famous of it's fish and chips and mainly because the fish they serve is always fresh. Not more than a day old. Soooooooo yammy! This probably ruined all the other fish and chips for me :D Well maybe not, I just love them... :)

And here we go then, we head back to Paihia and arrived here around 6pm. Day well spend on a bus with a brilliant driver who told us all the lovely stories about Maori people and a lot about New Zealand history too. Was well worth to spend that extra (about) 40eur on this day trip :))) Pictures are already on facebook so please do have a look, I always like reading the comments you left on my pictures :)))

All good, tomorrow is another day here in Paihia, I'll let you know again what I've been up to ;) Good night for now and see ya! <3

Greetings from Paihia, Bay of Islands!

So I arrived today to little town called Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Now when I say little, I really mean little. There's like one mainstreet, where most of the shops are and then there's one road going along the beach and that's it. I think the bus driver said that the population is 4,500 but I couldn't get google to confirm, google said it was less than 2,000 which seems about right to me. But there's like 144 islands in Bay of Islands area, so I think it depends on what parts do you count as Paihia and what not.

There's not much to tell about today as I really didn't do much. Weather was a bit dodgy, was dripping a bit here and there, so I just strolled around the town, went for lunch and walked on the beach. There was also farmers market in town today, so I had a nice crepés with nutella for dinner :D Do you know what it feels like when you try to eat and there's about 10-20 seagulls gazing at your food? Not very nice I can tell you. I was sure they were going to attact me at any second. But they didn't, good seagulls, nice seagulls. Please don't peck me.

I decided on the bus, on our way here, that's I'd do the Cape Reinga tour as well, even though it's not included on my bus pass (just means I have to pay extra again). Our driver made it sound so nice and once I'm up here anyways, why not. So that's tomorrow, heading up bright and early again, departure is at 7.10am. Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight and not like last night, hardly slept at all. I think I'm just too exited when I'm about to go somewhere so I kept on waiking up all night long. 'Is it morning yet? Can I get up now? Is it time to go already?'

Oh and I met some nice people today, I got one 'roommate' from Chile and another from Germany. I also met some Brittish at the bar this evening, had few pints with them. It's nice to meet people from all over the world, but sadly their plans are usually so different from yours, so you might only get to spend like a day or two with them. Like these current roommates of mine, they are both leaving tomorrow. Oh and if you think you're envious of me, you should here the travel stories that the other backpackers have here!!!! Man, I'm envious of them :D Some of them have been travelling for months and to more than just one country. That would be so cool to do, but I guess that just needs a lot of saving first. Or a very rich relative. I have non. No, just kidding, I'm not that envious actually, I know I couldn't live a hostel life for very long. I mean it's ok for now, but I really do want to find a job in order to be able to afford to rent an appartment, or a room actually.

Well anyways, I guess I need to sign off now and get some sleep before tomorrows big trip, so see ya later alligator (if there is anyone reading these anyways.. ;)) !!

Heading up North!

So I got sunburned today, I was sitting in the park, reading a book for about 3hours and of course I got sunburned in few places (hands mostly). Why does that happen, like every time? There are always little spots you just don't think of to spread the stupid lotion on to and that's where you get burned of course. For me it's the skin underneath the top shoulder straps, so when the shoulder starps were not in their place the whole time, that's when my pale white skin was exposed. Not that anyone cares (just needed to share anyways), except me who has to put on the heavy backpack tomorrow, that's gonna be painful.

Ok so about tomorrow. I'm gonna start using the bus pas I bought for Kiwi Experience busses and head up north to Bay of Islands/Paihia. I got room there booked, in a hostel of course, for 3 nights and then I'll come back to Auckland for a day and after that head down south. My original plan was first to get here and start looking for a job immediately and then travel, BUT I realized that because it's so lovely weather now and might not be so nice in a week or two, so I'll do the traveling part now and then look for a job. And anyways, I have to wait for about 2 weeks to get my social security number, so there's no point looking for a job now as I can't get any until I got that number.

So the new plan now is to tour around the north island for about a week or two and then look for a job. Hopefully I'll be able to find something, earn some money and then do the south island travelling in a few months or so. The bus pass I got will cover both islands, north and south, pretty much goes around the islands and I can stop where ever I want on the way for as long as I want.

That's it for now, I'll be posting from Paihia next time to let you know what it's like up there :) :) kisses and hugs to all my loved ones    *mwah*

The Story so far...

Took me a while to get this blog started, but here we go, my very first blog ever :) I need to quickly tell you what has happened so far (not that I even remember all, like what did I do that and that day...) to get you up to speed. So I left on my little adventure on 1st April, 2011. My plane departed from Helsinki-Vantaa to Amsterdam where I changed planes and flew to Hong Kong, where I arrived 2nd April.

Hong Kong was pretty cool city. I really liked that it had mountains and tall skyscrapers like everywhere you looked at. Really nice scenery. People there were not so friendly though, I think it's because everyone seemed to be in a rush all the time, like if you went to take a metro or something, there were people just pushing you out of their way in order to get there first. So this is not a place I'd like to live in, not even visit again to be honest. But I did do all kinds of cool stuff while I was there. Like travelled on the worlds longest outdoor escalators, went up to the mountain on Lantau Island with the Ngong Ping cablecar to see the world's biggest Buddha, took a tram up to Victoria Peak in the evening (I was going in the afternoon, but had to queue to the tram for 1hour 40min, so it was already dark once I got up there) to see Hong Kong in the dark, that was breathtaking!! Absolutely amazing view from up there <3 So that was pretty much the mainpoints from Hong Kong, check my pictures from facebook if you haven't already :) :)

So I spend 4 days in Hong Kong, I left there 6th April and early in the morning of 7th, I finally arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, my new home <3 Passport check and customs were surprisingly easy, I thought I'd get interviewed or something, but no, nothing. They asked for my workvisa, but didn't even look at it properly. I guess it doesn't make a differens at that point, you can't get a job in the country if it's not sorted out, so it would be kind of your own fault if there was something wrong with it.
So it was Thursday when I got here, was so tired that day due to lack of sleep on the plane getting here from Hong Kong, so I slept through the entire day. Now I must admid again, it's a bit blurry what I did on which day (I should check my facebook status for every day so far ;D ). Friday I just strolled around the city, trying to get familiar with the surroundings, visited the Sky Tower, took some photos from up there and so on. Saturday I went for Dolphin and Whale watching adventure, spent the entire day at the say which was just LOVELY!! I highly recommend this. Dolphins were swimming just next to the boat so I got tons of pictures of them and we even saw a whale!! We actually followed quit a bit on that whale, so everyone got a good look at it, it was just massive!
Sunday, what did I do on Sunday... oh yeah, I was walking around the city pretty much the entire day. I also went to Auckland Museum, got my private tour with Russian guy named Alex, couldn't understand half of what he said, so wasn't that good experience. Was ok, but I think I'm just not a museum going person after all ;D On Monday I took this Auckland city tour, that was free for me, as I purchased this Kiwi Experience bus pass (I get to travel around the country with that one), that was pretty nice. We went up on this volcano, Mount Eden, which was pretty awesome as you could see the entire city from up there. We also go to take this bridge walk, under the harbor bridge, so we had our helmets and harness' on and we took a stroll under the bridge. There were few people there doing bungy jumps as well, but I didn't dare. I would never... :) Then we went to this small village to have some lunch, fish and chips, and came back to the city. In the afternoon I did some important stuff like opening my bank account and applying for the social security number which I need to wait now for about 2 weeks and only when I get it, then I can apply for a job.
Then we've finally reached until today, this I can remember what I did, I went to the zoo :)) Correction, I got a bit lost first with the bus and then I went to the Zoo :D It was a nice zoo I must say, not as big as Dublin Zoo for example, but it was nice anyways. It was gorgeus day again so why not spend it at the zoo, getting some suntan and entertainment at the same time :))

Ok, I believe this was it the, the story of my trip so far. Everyone still with me? No one is asleep? ;) hihih
Better get used to my long stories as they tend to always work out that way once I get exited. So I better sign off for now, I'll be back once I got more news for you, see ya!! *mwah* <3