Grand Mercure Oakridge Wanaka

... was greeted with scenes of grown men and complete strangers hugging! Tremendous.<br><br>Football (soccer as they call it here) is not that big over here with rugby easily dominating, and this was proven by some of the comments I heard during the course of the evening, which I (somehow) managed to keep a mental note of:<br><br>Top 3 comments from the evening:<br><br>1. He&#8217;s going to kick one to the tall timber (from a Kiwi in the bar ...

... us smucks can buy the BEST DARN COOKIES in the entire world: homemade by the nice people that run it. Unfortunately, me and Je picked a very depressing (but well made) film about dementia and death. Despite the cookies, we were not happy little campers when we came out.<br><br>* We hated everyone else in the hostel, who, despite there being a bar literally metres from the hostel, thought it ...

... the distance surrounded by those massive rock faces and mountains - just spectacular. Also plenty of waterfalls, due to all the rain I suspect. We stopped by one waterfall called Thunder Creek falls which was very impressive, but we didn't stay long because of those pesky sand flies! Lake Wanaka with a dusting of snow of the surrounding mountains was also beautiful, as was Lake Hawea. After unhitching the 5th Wheel at the Albert Town Tavern which is a NZMCA Park Over ...

... am 13.05. nach Sydney fliegen, mir dort die Stadt bis zum 18.05. angucken (gucken ob die Aussies ihrem schlechten Ruf gerecht werden) und dann am 18.05. nach Bangkok fliegen. Am 20.05. geht es dann nach Vietnam (juhuu) von dort aus werde ich dann durch Vietnam, Cambodia und Laos reisen und dann hoffentlich bis zum 16.06. wieder in Bangkok sein um von dort aus ueber London nach Hamburg zu fliegen ...

             This was our longest driving day by a good margin. We had to drive 600Km. Sadly we got a slow start because of the late night getting dry after the wet hikes around Lake Matheson and up the Fox glacier. But the weather was superior. I got up that morning and stepped outside to check the weather. SOOOOO much better. We could actually see the mountains behind the near ridges. Now we could understand ...

... das Beduerfnis haben sollte, mir irgendwelche Sachen (wie zB Postkarten) zukommen zu lassen, oder einfach auf nen Kaffe vorbei kommen moechte, meine Adresse is jetzt: 117 Lakeside Rd 9305 Wanaka NZ Aber seht zu, die Post scheint gerade besonders langsam zu sein. Ansonsten is der Nationalpark angeblich ein Paradies fuers Rock Climbing. Das werd ich dann Morgen auch mal gleich ausprobieren...

... else. After listening to them start complaining about how tired they were, we quickly agreed to let the fairies live again! And now for the miscellaneous highlights: - The Te Kaihinaki Boulders in Moeraki. These boulders date back many millions of years and were created from small lime crystals. The large spherical boulders sit mysteriously amidst an otherwise flat stretch of sand beach. Some of them are cracked open, like giant hatched eggs and ...

... car park. <br><br>Errrrr.... WRONG. <br><br>It was another car park entirely, so we pushed on again.<br><br>Thankfully the views continued to impress, if not distract us from our aching legs!<br><br> <br><br ...