The Far South

Just a week to visit half of New Zealand, yes it's short. So I focused on a few specific points...first the Coromandel Peninsula (which is accesible by ferry from Auckland, so nice trip), well known for it's nice beaches...and Cathedral Cove was really amazing (just see the pics)...I had a nice stay there, doing a lot of bike on the coast.
And then the centre of the Island to see the Volcanic area of Tongariro National Park (the Mordor land in the Lord of the Rings!) and especially to walk the Alpine Crossing, a oneday 19kms walk, supposed to be one of the most impresive in the world (nothing less!). I got very lucky with the weather, since it was quite sunny and not too windy, and yes after a first disapointing part where you think that Canary Islands are really nicer, then you get to the top, and frankly it's quite unbelievable (pics...) the nice stuff is to really walk in a volcanic fields, surrounded by craters and coloured lakes...!
My last stand in the north was the capital Wellington, mandatory stop to go to the south island by ferry. Anyway it's a nice little town and was a pleasant daystop.

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.

Mi ultima semana en America Latina fue para Chile...bueno para la zona de Puerto Varas (region de los lagos) y de Santiago mas bien (con un dia en Valparaiso).
Asi que de este pais extraño poco puedo decir, no me he quedado lo suficiente para bien conocerlo. Sin embargo resulta impresionante la diferencia con Argentina : los rasgos son muy distintos, la comida también, la sociedad mas conservadora, y la situacion economica aparentemente mejor (lo poco que vi de este pais no tiene nada que ver con el tercer mundo).
Lo mejor de esta semana no fueron los paisajes (aqui nada del otro mundo, aunque me gusto mucho Valparaiso) sino seguramente la gente que conoci, Boris del couchsurfing en Puerto Varas quien me hospedo tres dias, al igual que Muriele, una amiga francesa de otro amigo mio, quien vive en Santiago desde 24 años, y tambien Guillermo, un chico buenisima onda quien me hizo descubrir un poco Santiago. Han sido bonitos encuentros, y una buena transicion hacia mi proximo destino, Nueva Zelanda.

Como muchos, me imaginaba la Patagonia como nos la venden en los reportajes y revistas de viaje...una especie de Alaska del sur, con glaciares increíbles, montañas majestuosas, espacios grandes verdes con valles, viento, caballos salvajes , lagos turquesas, un cielo de película....
Pues no es una mentira sino una tremenda exageración, porque esta visión de sueño corresponde solamente a la parte andina de Patagonia, o sea ni el 5% de su inmenso territorio!
Los 95 % que quedan son en realidad un desierto semi-frio, una especie de estepa desolada y muy seca, donde no crece ni un árbol, monótona, y con un viento ¨que te hace volar¨ (Alaska no, Patagonia digo!), digamos que para los que conocen, que hasta La Mancha es mas bonita.

Bueno, esta aclaración hecha, como todos los turistas me fijé en los sitios que merecen la pena y eso supone del lado argentino el glaciar del Perito Moreno, y las excursiones por El Chalten cerca de la montaña Fitz Roy.
Y haciendo abstracción de las hordas de turistas, los precios muy elevados y el lado artificial de las urbanizaciones solo hechas para el turismo, para esta parte la realidad supera el sueño.
El glaciar de Perito Moreno es francamente increíble, hice la excursión mini.treking que incluye un paseo en barco y una caminata con crampones sobre el mismo glaciar, acabando con un whisky con hielo del glaciar...mola.
Lo que mola menos son mis dos compañeros de viaje que rivalizan de tacañería...entre un Israelí (aunque este no es judío) y un catalán, los clichés se quedan cortos...menos mal que me libro de ellos en poco días en fin por lo menos no pasé la nochevieja solo,
y el catalán, quien hace tb una vuelta del mundo me dejó buenos consejos.

Lo más bonito de la zona, y quizás incluso de Argentina, lo encontré por El Chaltén, un pueblo salido de la nada para convertirse en la meca del alpinismo y donde hay pequeñas excursiones de 1 día impresionantes...
Lo que hace esta parte del mundo peculiar, es su vegetación, no hay pinos ni abetos como en las zonas de montañas que solemos conocer, sino arboles endemicos muy extraños, muchos muertos de hecho (por varias razones, sobre todo pq tardan mucho en descomponerse y nadie los quita) y también su cielo que varia constantemente, lo que da cambios de luz y de ambiente espetaculares.

Después de 4 días aquí, tomo un bus quien me llevara en dos días por el norte hasta Bariloche, pasando por la mitica Ruta 40, travesando toda la Patagonia.

So after an unexpected very nice Christmas in BA thanks to Marcus, I finally left the town to go on with my journey...this time far more to the South, to the very end even, since I flew to Ushuaia.
I just stayed there two days, hosted by Valentin from Couchsurfing, and I wish I could have stayed longer because I really enjoyed the scenery, with the Beagle canal and the many Islands with a lot of wildlife...sealions, pinguins an many other birds. It was very rare to have still daylight at 23h, and it was a bit cold, but I got quite lucky with the weather,with some sunny intervals, but a very strong wind.
But I have a short schedule and had to go on to Chile, at Puerto Natales to make a 4 days trek at the Torres del Paine national park.
The trip took me a big day, crossing all the Tierra del Fuego Island, waiting 2 hours at the Chilean border, and bus again, then ferry...to finally arrive at Puerto Natales and learn that a huge fire started two days ago in the National Park, and was uncontrolable due to the very strong winds, park was closed !!
It was a big deception since it's supposed the be the nicest place in Chile and one of the best parks in all South America...still I got lucky enough to find a bus the next day (because everybody wanted to leave at the same time this place, and all the transportations were full for the next 3 days)to my next step...El Calafate in Argentina, where I finally spend the new year's eve and see one of the natural wonders of the country, the Perito Moreno Glacier.
Even more than before in Peru, hords of Israelis visit this part of the world, and here in El calafate, there so many that we can find them even outside their usually own hostels and restaurants...but they still don't mix with anybody else...poot guys really.
In the hostel I also met Jordi (catalan firemean travelling the world for already more than a year) and Jamal (yes an israeli! but not jewish, and actually doesn't really like either his compatriots), and gonna travel with them for at least a week.