Rumbling Volcanoes in the North
Finally we have found a campsite that offers decent internet. We have now 2hrs or 1 gig of free internet, so plenty of room to upload new pictures and write an update. The main reason is that we are currently in Auckland in one of the city campings and modern facilities are more common here than elsewhere in NZ. We are in Auckland because sadly we needed to say goodbye to the grandparents who travelled back home today. But the trip ain’t over for us yet, we have one more month to go here. We have been travelling through the North Island for the past week. It is totally different from...
Read MoreThe final days on the South Island
A quick update from our trip. We have left the South Island and are currently on the North Island. In our last days on the South Island we wanted a little bit of a summer beach holiday. We were debating if we would visit the Tasman Park or the Golden Bay. The Tasman park apparently is very beautiful, but not as easy to explore with young kids. You would need to take water taxi’s and do some serious walking. So we opted to explore the Golden Bay. An area that is popular with locals who spent their summer holidays here and in December and January the beaches and camps are packed. But we...
Read MoreThe wild wild west
The west coast of New Zealand was important for the Maori’s as it contained the precious green gemstone jade, that they used for decoration, as a symbol of wealth and because of its strength, as knife or axe. But when the early European settlers discovered gold in the 1860’s, this area became booming and small towns with many pubs were quickly established. The gold rush only lasted for a few years and nowadays the area is most famous for its raw and unspoiled nature and you see more campervans and tourist busses than normal traffic on the roads. We have been traveling along the west coast...
Read MoreThe first week in the campervan
Last night it rained and right now in the early morning it is wet and cold outside and the promised view of the mountains is hidden by large clouds. But a faint sun is already trying hard to break through the clouds and in a few hours it will be sunny and the temperatures will be nice enough to walk around in a T-shirt. Welcome to camping in New Zealand. We are now on the road for one week and we have our first rest day, no planned activities and no driving around with the camper. Time for the kids to play and time for us to do the laundry and and to update the blog. Because there are so...
Read More22 February – A day to remember
22 February is not a special day on our trip, but for many people in Christchurg this is a day they will never forget. Four years ago, on 22 February 2011 at 12:51pm, a major magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Christchurg and 24 seconds of shaking ripped out the heart of the city and 185 people were killed in the event. This earthquake followed another major earthquake 6 months earlier and the two together caused significant damage to the city centre and several suburbs and altered the landscape and the people of Christchurg forever. Today the people of Christchurg and many others came together...
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