Le 25/01/12, 12:24
174.36666533333-39.067447333333
Already a week in the North island of New Zealand, times goes faster down under !
(and yes indeed since a day here is equivalent at 2 days in patagonia, 3 in Buenos aires or five in Bolivia !!)
There is much to say, but let's start with the beginning, Auckland. This is NZ main city (1,5 millions people on a total of 4,5 in the country), but not the capital (yes...Wellington). I stayed there for 2 days hosted this time by Vulcan a friendly turkish emigrant contacted once again through Couchsurfing.
Auckland is just "nice"...in fact 95% of the town is a kind of posh american suburb full of perfect houses with perfect gardens in a perfect environment (green volcanic hills, forests and parks everywhere, nice bay with a lot of islands)...and finally perfectly boring.
The "rest" is a kind of small, clean, modern business distric with a few bars and a lot of cheap asian restaurants...as you can guess defitively not the most funky town in the world! actually Auckland's main interests don't reside in the town itself but in its surroundings, such as the islands or the Waitakere regional park. It's a wonderful park with wild volcanic black sand beaches, cliffs, and a fantastic regenerating rainforest.
Before the "roastbeefs" invaded NZ, most of the country was an endemic primary forest with some huge trees like the giants kauris, which could live more than 2000 years and have a diameter of 8m! Of course in the 19th century timbers cut almost everything, and now we can just see a few "young" specimens of 600 years old, although the Kiwis make huge efforts nowadays to preserve their unique fauna and flora, and are replanting a lot...but it's gonna take decades before the forest starts to really look like it once was. Theses forests are indeed one of the things I prefered here, because they are really different, they seem to be from "another age" (like in the Dinos docs) with a lot of ferns, so green and luxurious, and so peaceful at the same time.
It's seems ridiculously "new age" said like that but I don't know how to explain it otherwise, you feel a kind of spirituality in this environment (I experienced stg similar in the Titicaca, in a diferent way for its purity and timeless effect).
After that, since it's summer here, it was finally time for me to go the the beach ! (so far I hadn't swim in south america), that's why I took a ferry to go the the Coromandel Peninsula, where stand the most beautiful beaches of the north Island.
(and yes indeed since a day here is equivalent at 2 days in patagonia, 3 in Buenos aires or five in Bolivia !!)
There is much to say, but let's start with the beginning, Auckland. This is NZ main city (1,5 millions people on a total of 4,5 in the country), but not the capital (yes...Wellington). I stayed there for 2 days hosted this time by Vulcan a friendly turkish emigrant contacted once again through Couchsurfing.
Auckland is just "nice"...in fact 95% of the town is a kind of posh american suburb full of perfect houses with perfect gardens in a perfect environment (green volcanic hills, forests and parks everywhere, nice bay with a lot of islands)...and finally perfectly boring.
The "rest" is a kind of small, clean, modern business distric with a few bars and a lot of cheap asian restaurants...as you can guess defitively not the most funky town in the world! actually Auckland's main interests don't reside in the town itself but in its surroundings, such as the islands or the Waitakere regional park. It's a wonderful park with wild volcanic black sand beaches, cliffs, and a fantastic regenerating rainforest.
Before the "roastbeefs" invaded NZ, most of the country was an endemic primary forest with some huge trees like the giants kauris, which could live more than 2000 years and have a diameter of 8m! Of course in the 19th century timbers cut almost everything, and now we can just see a few "young" specimens of 600 years old, although the Kiwis make huge efforts nowadays to preserve their unique fauna and flora, and are replanting a lot...but it's gonna take decades before the forest starts to really look like it once was. Theses forests are indeed one of the things I prefered here, because they are really different, they seem to be from "another age" (like in the Dinos docs) with a lot of ferns, so green and luxurious, and so peaceful at the same time.
It's seems ridiculously "new age" said like that but I don't know how to explain it otherwise, you feel a kind of spirituality in this environment (I experienced stg similar in the Titicaca, in a diferent way for its purity and timeless effect).
After that, since it's summer here, it was finally time for me to go the the beach ! (so far I hadn't swim in south america), that's why I took a ferry to go the the Coromandel Peninsula, where stand the most beautiful beaches of the north Island.
