TravelStream™ news feed for member aguas on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/aguas en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:45:46 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/2/1251297758/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/2/1251297758/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/2/1251297758/tpod.html Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:45:46 -0400 Ireland

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Liscannor, County Clare, Ireland


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Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom


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Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland


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Ko Phangan, Thailand

EN: Much less developed then Ko Samui, Ko Pha-Ngan is an equally stunning island, and the home of the famous Full Moon Party. We stayed at Hat Rin, on the southern tip of the island, where the Full Moon parties take place, and even if we didn't visit during the full moon we still had the chance to go partying at the beach, there's always something going on in Ko Pha-Ngan: half-moon parties, black moon parties, pool parties, cross-dressing parties, or just plain parties! Even on any regular night, Hat Rin's Sunrise Beach gets pretty livelly, several different bars with big sound systems feature DJs playing techno, trance, hip-hop, drum 'n' bass, and others, dozens of stalls selling higly alcoholic buckets, fire shows, and hundreds of people partying... the parties go on all night, although by midnight most people are drunk. There are fire chalenges for the most intrepid (or drunk), like fire rope jumping or jumping through a fire ring, we stayed away from those but had a lot of fun watching others having a go at it. Drugs are huge here and the Suan Saranrom (Garden of Joys) Psychiatric Hospital in Surat Thani has to take on extra staff during full moon periods to handle the number of farang ("foreigner" in Thai) who freak out on magic mushrooms, acid or other abundantly available hallucinogens. Besides partying, we did a lot of beaching and we also rented a motorbike for one day to explore the island. The roads on Ko Pha-Ngan are very (very!) steep and sometimes it was quite a challange to go up (or down) the hill with the two of us on one crappy scooter. All in all it's a nice ride around the island, we especially liked the tiny and quiet Hat Chaophao beach and the more developed (but still quiet and beautifull) Hat Yao beach. The highlight of our motorbike trip was the Ao Mae Hat beach (which the guide calls "not fantastic", don't know why!) which is stunning with its cute little island connected to the land by a narrow sand bank. The reef is very close to the shore, so it's great for snorkelling, but swimmers have to watch for the sea urchins (Eva can tell you why). We were even thinking of spending the rest of the days here instead of staying on the Hat Rin Nai beach, but eventually we didn't, as the disaster stroke on the way back to our village. :-) Around 5pm we decided to ride back home and being at the other end of the island (cca 15km from our village), it would take us about half an hour. As soon as we left the very beautifull Ao Mae Hat beach, we got a flat tyre. We were in the middle of nowhere, there were only a few houses along the road and none of the locals spoke English. Just when we started to think we were going to have to spend the night here, a couple of guys from one of the houses offered to fill up our tyre, so that we could get at least to the nearest village and find a repair shop there. Unfortunatelly that didn't work out as our valve was screwed. Again, we started to think we were gonna sleep here, but didn't give up and tried to ride a bit, which was not the best in two people on one bike. Luckily, just when it started to get dark (nothing happens after the dark here!), a local English farang ("foreigner" in Thai) rode by on his scooter and stopped to see what was going on. He offered help, so Eva got a lift with him to the nearby village and Nuno was following without trouble on the flat-tyre-bike. Unfortunatelly the bike shop we were aiming for was already closed, but our saviour called his Thai partner and she advised him to go to another shop in another nearby village, which was open (thanks God!!!) and the guy changed our tyre in no time. We arrived safely to our village at around 8pm, returned the bike (the tyre was more expensive then the rental and the owner wouldn't give us money back, but it was peanuts and we didn't care), went home and decided not to move the next day to the beach we liked, we were too tired and lazy! :-) Plus... our room in Hat Rin Nai was super comfy with aircon, hot water and a fridge, and most important of all - we had a huge window facing the west, so every night we were sitting on our bed, drinking beer and wine and looking at those stunning sunsets over the sea. :-) PT: Tão bela como Ko Samui, mas com muito menos infraestruturas turisticas, Ko Pha-Ngan é famosa por ser a ilha da Festa da Lua Cheia (Full Moon Party). Ficámos em Hat Rin, na ponta sul da ilha, e o local das Festas da Lua Cheia, e mesmo sem lua cheia tivémos oportunidade de ir a festas na praia, em Ko Pha-Ngan há sempre festa: festas da meia lua, festas sem lua, festas na piscina, ou simplesmente festas! Mesmo numa noite normal, a praia leste de Hat Rin tem bastante vida, vários bares com DJs passam todos os tipos de musica bastante alta (maioritariamente techno, mas também outros tipos), há dezenas de barraquinhas a vender baldes de misturas bastante alcoólicas, espectáculos de fogo, e centenas de pessoas... as festas duram toda a noite, ainda que pela meia noite practicamente não há ninguém sóbrio. Para os mais intrépidos (ou bêbados), há desafios de fogo, como saltar à corda em chamas, ou atravessar um aro em chamas. Estas festas também envolvem bastantes drogas, e o hospital psiquiátrico Suan Saranrom (Jardim das Delícias) em Surat Thani tem turnos reforçados durante a lua cheia para acomodar o monte de farangs ("estrangeiros" em Tailândes) que se "passam" devido aos cogumelos mágicos, ácido, ou algum dos outros abundantes halucinogénicos. Para além de festas, passámos bastante tempo na praia e também alugámos uma scooter para explorar um pouco mais da ilha. As estradas em Ko Pha-Ngan tem subidas muito (muito mesmo!) inclinadas e por vezes a scooter teve bastante dificuldade em nos carregar aos dois, mas conseguiu. Dos muitos sítios interessantes que vimos nas nossas voltas de scooter gostámos particularmente da pequena e calma praia de Hat Chaophao, a menos calma mas igulamente praia de Hat Yao, e, sobretudo, da praia de Ao Mae Hat onde há uma pequena ilha ligada à praia por uma estreita lingua de areia. Em Ao Mae Hat, o recife fica bastante próximo da praia, por isso é um bom sítio para snorkeling, mas há que ter cuidado com os ouriços do mar (a Eva que o diga!). Até chegámos a pensar em passar os dias quen nos restavam na ilha em Ao Mae Hat, mas no regresso a Hat Rin tivémos um pequeno incidente e acabámos por chegar a casa tarde e demasiado cansados, pelo que dicidimos ficar onde estavamos. Por volta das 5 da tarde decidimos regressar a casa (cerca de 15Km), mas assim que saimos de Ao Mae Hat tivémos um furo. Estavamos longe de tudo, e apenas haviam algumas casas perto da estrada, mas ninguém que falasse Inglês, ainda assim conseguimos explicar o problema e alguns habitantes locais ofereceram ajuda, mas o problema era na vávula e ficámos na mesma. Tivémos que tentar seguir viagem com a roda em baixo, mas com 2 na scooter não fomos muito longe. Entretanto já se estava a fazer noite, e começavamos a pensar que não chegávamos a casa, quando apareceu um habitante local Inglês ofereceu ajuda. A Eva apanhou boleia com o nosso salvador e este ajudou-nos a encontrar uma oficina, só com um foi mais fácil levar a scooter. À segunda tentativa encontrámos uma oficina ainda aberta e lá arranjámos a roda, o que foi mais caro que o aluguer da scooter. Chegámos a Hat Rin já pelas 8 da noite, e, como estavamos cansados, decidimos ficar por ali mesmo e não ir para Ao Mae Hat como tinhamos pensado. CZ: Ko Pha-Ngan je jeste o neco hezci nez Ko Samui a mnohem mene ovlivneny turismem. Ko Pha-Ngan je take mistem konani slavnych uplnkovych pareb (na plazi ve vesnici Hat Rin, kde jsme se take ubytovali), sice zrovna nebyl uplnek, ale na Ko Pha-Nganu to je uplne jedno, protoze pokud zrovna neni uplnek, poradaji se parby za pulmesice, kdyz je nov, vpodstate jakakoliv prilezitost je dost dobra na chlastacku. Kazdy vecer vychodni plaz ve vesnici Hat Rin ozije a vsechny bary (a neni jich malo) nazhavi svoje repraky, naplni tezce alkoholicke kyblicky a rozjedou to nahusto. Kolem pulnoci uz jsou vsichni dost nality, ale party nekonci a vetsinou se jede az do rannich hodin. Nektere bary poradaji ohnove show a kolem pulnoci se obvykle vytasi s horicim lanem, pres ktere se opilci pokouseji skakat (docela sranda), pozdeji prichazi na radu zapaleny kruh, takze ozralove, co si mysli, ze jsou tygri, se ucastni hromadneho skakani skrz horici kruh. Prodej halucinogennich latek tu jen kvete a behem uplnkovych noci mistni psychiatricka lecebna zdvojnasobi pocet zamestnancu, protoze spousta lidi ulitne na ruznych houbickach a podobne a musi byt hospitalizovana, nekdy o sobe nevi i nekolik dni. Krome pareni jsme take pilne plazovali a jeden den jsme si pujcili skutr a vyrazili na obhlidku ostrova. Silnice jsou tu opravdu strme a nekdy to byla docela sranda vysplhat se na kopec nebo ubrzdit to smerem dolu. Prece jenom jsme na chudakovi skutrovi sedeli dva a nebyl na to moc vybaven. Nejvic se nam libily plaze Hat Chaophao (malinkata a klidna), Hat Yao (o neco vetsi, ale krasna a ticha), vitezem ale byla Ao Mae Hat, ktera je vazne nadherna, vede z ni asi 3m siroky pas pisku, ktery ji spojuje s mini ostrovem vzdalenym asi 50m. Hned kousek od pobrezi zacinaji rust koraly, takze je to skvela plaz na snorchlovani, akorat si clovek musi davat pozor na morske jezky, protoze jsou hned par metru od pobrezi (na jdnoho jsem slapla a moc pekne to nebylo). Libilo se nam tu moc a chteli jsme tu stravit tech par dni, co nam na Ko Pha-Nganu zbyvalo, ale nakonec se tak nestalo, protoze cesta domu neprobehla presne podle nasich predstav. :-) Kolem 5 hodiny vecer jsme vyrazili smerem k domovu, bylo to asi 15km (pul hodiny jizdy). Bohuzel jsme hned asi po 5 minutach pichli, takze jsme se octli v dost prekerni situaci, protoze kolem nas vpodstate nic nebylo, krome nekolika chatrci, navic nikdo z mistnich neumel anglicky. Nastesti rychle pochopili, co se stalo, a kdyz jsme si zacinali myslet, ze u nich budem muset prespat, tak se vytasili s pumpou, ze nam tu pichlou pneumatiku nafouknou, abysme se dostali alespon do nejblizsi vesnice a nechali si to tam opravit. Moc stesti jsme nemeli, protoze byl rozbity ventilek, takze to neslo nafouknout. Zacinalo se stmivat (a po setmeni jdou vsichni spat :-), takze jsme nasedli na nas invalidni skutr a vyrazili, moc to neslo, prece jenom jsme byli moc tezky. Nastesti kolem zrovna jel na skutru mistni farang (=cizinec zijici na ostrove) a pomohl nam. Do nejblizsi vesnice jsem dojela na jeho skutru a Nuno frcel za nami, byl o moc lehci, takze to slo docela dobre. Bohuzel opravna mela uz zavreno, ale nas zachrance zavolal svoji thajske partnerce a ta nam poradila jinou nedalekou opravnu, ktera mela otevreno a pneumatiku nam konecne vymenili. :-) Domu jsme dorazili docela pozde vecer a uz se nam nechtelo druhy den stehovat na jinou plaz, takze jsme nakonec zustali na Hat Rin. No a ke vsemu nas pokoj na Hat Rinu byl super, hned u more, dokonce jsme meli klimatizaci, teplou vodu a lednicku. Nejvic se nam ale libilo obrovske okno na zapad, takze jsme kazdy vecer sedeli na posteli, pili vino a pivo a pozorovali zapady slunce. :-)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/1/1236027780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/1/1236027780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/1/1236027780/tpod.html Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:13:11 -0400 Eva & Nuno Go Travelling

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Whakapapa Village, North Island, New Zealand

EN:Wellington is known in NZ for being very windy, and sure enough when we arrived we found very strong winds. We were still not sure we could extend our stay in NZ (we had about 1 week left), so we decided to head straight to the Tongariro National Park, since this was the southernmost place in North Island we were sure we wanted to visit. It was not possible to make it to Tongariro that day, so we stopped for the night at Mangaweka, the caravan park turned out to be quite basic (with no hot water in a very "natural" shower, we felt like we were back in Asia), but the location was superb, right by a river and some very high cliffs.We only reached Whakapapa village in Tongariro NP around lunch time the next day. With its towering active volcanoes, Tongariro is definitelly one of NZ's most spectacular parks, it was used for Mordor and Mt. Doom in the film Lord of the Rings. The park offers excellent trekking, the most famous track is probably the 20km long Tongariro Crossing, reputably the best one day walk in NZ. As soon as we got settled down at the caravan park, we sorted out transportation for the Tongariro Crossing the next day. The walk starts at a different point than it finishes. Since we still had all afternoon free, we decided to do a few shorter walks around the village. We had walked probably 200m when it started to pour down,  we were lucky we were still close, so we had no trouble going back to the caravan park. It rained all afternoon and into the evening. Since we were stuck in the van, we took some time to work on our log and sorted out other stuff, and we managed to extend our stay in NZ for another week. Unfortunately we could not extend our van rental with Explore More, so we had to book another van with Cheapa Campa for the rest of our stay, this meant we still had to go to Auckland by the 3rd of March as planned.We were afraid the weather wouldn't improve for the walk, but when we woke up early next morning (we had to leave at 7am) the weather was fine. In fact, on our way to the start of the track, the bus driver told us that we were extremely lucky as the weather was supposed to be excellent that day, and it had been raining the whole week before that. Arriving at the track it became apparent that this would be no lonely walk, hundreds of people were already on their way and tons more were getting ready, the track was packed as far as we could see. The start at an altitude of 1100m and at its highest it reaches 1900m, it is quite steep at some points, particularly on the 1st 3rd of the way. We had been advised to be ready for cold conditions and rapid weather changes, so we were wearing several layers, but going up hill in the sun we soon were too warm and had to remove all layers but one. The scenery as you walk up the hill is truly amazing and unreal, almost out of this world, particularly when you reach the central crater and later the red crater, but you can better judge that from our picture album. In the end we took around 7 hours to complete the crossing, with many picture stops and a short lunch break, and despite all the people we enjoyed it very much, it was definitely one of the best, or even the best, walk we did during our entire trip. We could feel our legs and Eva was suffering from several blisters, but all that pain was definitely worth it. :-) We took a minibus back to the camp and slept really well that night.CZ:Ve Wllingtonu pekne foukalo, ostatne jako skoro porad. Jeste stale jsme nevedeli, jestli si muzeme prodlouzit nas pobyt na NZ, a tak jsme se radsi hned vydali smerem k narodnimu parku Tongariro NP, abysme to jeste stihli. Dost jsme se tesili, ale ten den uz jsme to nestihli a museli zaparkovat nekde po ceste. Ukotvili jsme v kempu Mangaweka, ktery nas prenesl zpet do Asie – sprcha plna ruznych breberek a plisne, tapla voda netekla atd., ale jinak hned pod kempem tekla reka a nad ni se tycily celkem obdivuhodne utesy, takze se nam tam nakonec docela libilo.Rano nas cekal brzky start a kolem poledne jsme konecne dorazili do vesnice Whakapapa, ktera se stala nasi zakladnou pro zkoumani Tongarira. Tongariro NP je jednoznacne jednim z nejoblibenejsich mist na NZ, je to tu sama sopka a nektere kreace prirody byly pouzity ve filmech Pan prstenu (Mordor a Mt. Doom). Nejslavnejsi trasou je 20ti kilometrova “vychazka” zvana Tongariro Crossing a v pruvodci pisou, ze je to nejhezci jednodenni tura na celem NZ. Zacina ale jinde, nez konci, a tak jsme si hned v recepci kempu zajistili dopravu na rano. Jeste nam zbyvalo cele odpoledne a my se vydali na obhlidku okoli, nanestesti asi po 200m zacalo neskutecne lejt, takze jsme to zabalili a vratili se do kempu. Po zbytek dne jsme se venovali nasemu denicku a modlili se, aby se pocasi do druheho dne aspon trochu umoudrilo. Mezitim jsme si taky posunuli letenku o dalsi tyden a zajistili si karavan na stejnou dobu, bohuzel v Explore More uz nam nemohli prodlouzit najem naseho puvodniho vozitka, a tak jsme si pujcili ten samy model, ale od spolecnosti Cheapa Campa. Moc se nam to nehodilo, protoze to znamenalo, ze uz 3 brezna musime byt v Aucklandu a prehodit si auto, no ale nedalo se nic delat.Rano jsme uz v 7 hodin opousteli kemp a razili autobusem na zacatek tury. Sice byla pekna kosa, ale slunicko svedomite svitilo (i kdyz se zatim jen tak povalovalo nad obzorem) a ridic autobusu nas ujistil, ze konecne po celem dlouhem tydnu prseni se nam udelalo hezky a melo by to vydrzet i po zbytek dne. Kdyz jsme dojeli na zacatek trasy, hned nam bylo jasne, ze se cestou rohodne nudit nebudem, jelikoz nam spolecnost bude tvorit asi tak dalsich tisic lidi. Trasa je to skutecne popularni. :-) Zacali jsme v nadmorske vysce 1100m a po nekolikahodinovem plazeni jsme dosahly nejvyssiho bodu trasy – 1900m. Chvilema byly kopecky docela strme a cestou jsme postupne odhazovali slupky obleceni, ktere jsme na sebe uz rano nasoukali po varovani mistnich horalu, ze pocasi je tam nahore dost promenlive a muze se to vsechno pak osklive zvrtnout. Nam ale slunce palilo celou cestu a vylozene jsme si to uzivali. Je tu nadherna priroda a ty vulkany jsou proste neuveritelny, ale to se spis lepe posuzuje z fotek. Cestou jsme porad zastavovali a fotili a taky jsme si chvilku odpocali pri prestavce na obed, ktery jsme si nesli v batuzku. Celkem nam to trvalo 7 hodin a i pres ta kvanta lidi jsme se shodli na tom, ze to byla asi nejhezci prochazka, a to nejen na NZ. Sice nas pekne bolely nohy a ja byla samy puchejr, ale rozhodne to stalo za to utrpeni. :-) Minibusem jsme se vratili do kempu a tu noc jsme spali ja do vody hozeni.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/2/1246569274/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/2/1246569274/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/2/1246569274/tpod.html Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:38:45 -0400 Ireland

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Dublin, Dublin, Ireland


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Howth, County Dublin, Ireland


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Picton, South Island, New Zealand

EN:Marlborough region produces our favorite New Zealand white wines - the Sauvignon Blanc is particularly good - so it was a shame we didn't have much time there as we arrived in the area on the day before we were to leave South Island. We got there in the middle of the afternoon and still had time to make a few sightseeing stops along the Marlborough Sounds before we settled for the night on a waterfront spot at a caravan park on the Queen Charlotte sound, just a few km from Picton, where we had to go next day for the ferry. Our location was excellent, so we took the time to cook a proper meal and enjoy a nice dinner and a few drinks at sunset. There were a lot of "wild" ducks living around the park, these quickly found out what we were up to and decided to join us for dinner, before we knew it we were surrounded by very assertive ducks begging for pasta.The next morning we continued driving to Picton where we arrived with plenty of time to spare before our ferry. From Picton the ferry sails along the Queen Charlotte Sound all the way to the Cook Straight, so the first part of the ferry trip was very nice and we could enjoy the amazing scenery. We loved the South Island and we were a bit sad to leave. Having spent longer than planned there, we found ourselves with just over a week for the North Island, so we decided we would try to extend our stay in NZ by one more week.PT:Brevemente...CZ:V oblasti Marlborough se pestuje a vyrabi nase oblibena znacka bileho vina Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008, takze byla skoda, je jsme tu stravili pouze jeden den. Dorazili jsme sem brzy odpoledne, takze jsme si jeste mohli uzit pobrezi Marlborough Sounds. Na noc jsme se usidlili v karavanu v zatoce Queen Charlotte Sound, bylo to asi 10m od more a nekolik malo km od Pictonu (okdud nam druhy den jel trajekt na Severni ostrov). Uzivali jsme si vyhlidky na zaliv, uvarili jsme si poradnou mnamku a otevreli lahvinku uz zminovaneho Sauvignonu, no a samozrejme jsme se kochali zapadem slunce. Pri veceri se k nam vetrelo nekolik "divokych" kachen a zebrali na nas testoviny, tak jsme jim nejake taky nechali.Dalsi den rano jsme vyrazili do Pictonu a nalodili se na trajekt. Jelo se nam dobre a cestou jsme se kochali vyhledem na Queen Charlotte Sound a Cook Straight. Z Jizniho ostrova se nam ale vubec nechtelo, moc se nam tu libilo a opousteli jsme ho s tezkym srdcem. Zaroven jsme ale byli plni ocekavani co se tykalo Severniho ostrova a uz tehdy jsme vazne zacali uvazovat o tom, ze si nas pobyt na NZ o tyden prodlouzime. Na Jiznim ostrove jsme totiz stravili mnohem vice casu, nez jsme si puvodne naplanovali, ale rozhodne toho nelitujem. :-)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/1/1235122440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/1/1235122440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aguas/1/1235122440/tpod.html Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:40:12 -0400 Eva & Nuno Go Travelling

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Motueka, South Island, New Zealand

EN:The Abel Tasman National Park is a truly beautiful coastal area and one of the most popular trekking destinations in New Zealand. There are various tracks in the park, of which the most popular, and one of the country's most beautiful, is the 51km-long coastal track. It takes 3 to 5 days to walk the entire length of the coastal track, fortunately for "amateur" trekkers like us there are several water taxi operations which can make it possible to walk sections of the track as 1 day treks, the taxis can drop you at several different points along the track, and pick you up from a different location at a predefined time. When we arrived in the area, the weather was still quite bad, so we wouldn't be able to go trekking the next day, but we still decided to risk it and booked a water taxi anyway. After that we went to Kaiteriteri beach, considered to be one of the world's best (although it surely didn't look like it in the rain), where we spent the night at the local caravan park.The next morning we woke up to a beautiful day, after the last few days we could barely believe our eyes. We went for the water taxi terminal and we were surprised to find out it was inland and not at the water where one would expect it, but you still board the boat right there... it sits on a trailer and once everybody boards, it is towed to the beach, it's quite funny to travel that bit of road by boat :-). The boat trip was quite nice, and after a few sightseeing stops we were dropped at the Big Tonga beach, from where we walked to our pick-up point at Torrent Bay.  The several hours walk, although a bit more difficult than we expected, was really nice, passing through native bush overlooking beaches of golden sand and gleaming blue-green water and numerous bays, and it becomes quite steep at times, we were pretty tired when we reached Torrent bay. After the trekking we drove to Golden Bay, the road over the Takaka Hill turned out to be much more steep and winding than we expected, but due to the magnificent dramatic scenery, it also turned out to be absolutely amazing. We stopped for the night at the beachside caravan park in Pohara. The next day was basically our last day in South Island, so we had to make it somewhere near Picton from where we would take the inter-island ferry, although this was a fairly long drive, we still had time to do some sightseeing on the way. We first visited some of the Golden Bay coast, and also the Te Waikoropupu springs, the largest freshwater springs in NZ, and reputedly the clearest in the world, and on the way out of the area we made a stop at the Ngarua Caves, near the summit of the Takaka Hill. After this we didn't stop very often until we reached the Marlborough Sounds.PT:Brevemente…CZ:Narodni park Abel Tasman je nadherna pobrezni oblast a diky tomu i jedna z nejoblibenejsich destinaci neunavnych "chodicu" na Novem Zelande. V parku je nekolik tras a nejpopularnejsi je pobrezni stezka, ktera meri celych 51km, coz jsme rozhodne zdolavat nehodlali, trva to 3-5 dni. Nastesti tu jezdi dostatek vodnich taxiku, ktere ty “linejsi” turisty (jako jsme my) odvezou na jednodenni tury a na konci dne je zase vyzvednou. Kdyz jsme dorazili do parku, pocasi se stale jeste nehodlalo umoudrit a chvili jsme uvazovali, jestli ma vubec cenu si na dalsi den neco planovat. Nakonec optimisticka polovina nasi osobnosti zvitezila a my si i pres neuprosny dest objednali hydrotaxi na dalsi den. Potom jsme se vydali na obhlidku plaze Kaiteriteri, ktera je podle pruvodce jednou z nejkrasnejsich na svete, no v tom desti to tak moc nevypadalo. Na noc jsme zaparkovali v mistnim kempu a stravili tu velmi destivou noc.Druhy den rano jsme nemohli uverit vlastnim ocim, slunicko svedomite svitilo a na obzoru nebyl ani jeden mracek. S dobrou naladou jsme se vydali k terminalu, ktery prekvapive nebyl na pobrezi, ale asi 300m od plaze. Trochu nas to zarazilo a pak jsme se museli docela smat, protoze se nase cela skupinka nalodila do clunu, ktery drepel na jakemsi voziku a byl zaprahnuty za traktor. Takto jsme oddrkocali k mori, kde nas traktor zacouval do more. Plavba to byla prijemna, cestou jsme se staveli na nekolika zajimavych mistech a potom nas taxik vysadil na plazi Big Tonga a odtud uz jsme museli pekne po svych az do zalivu Torrent Bay. Nebyl to zadny med, obcas jsme se plazili do kopce s jazyky na veste, ale byla tu nadherna priroda - lesy, palmy, zatoky s tyrkysovou vodou a plaze se zlatym piskem, proste romantika. :-)Hned jak jsme se vratili z prochazky, vyrazili jsme smer Golden Bay. Silnice vedla pres Takaka Hill a docela nas prekvapila, a to hned ze dvou duvodu:  za prvy se vinula jako had ze strany na stranu a byl to tam samej kopecek a udoli, no ale na druhou stranu (a to je ten druhy duvod) jsme se tu neskutecne kochali, uzasna panoramata! Noc jsme stravili v kempu v Pohare, kde jsme si uzivali krasneho zapadu slunce. Zitrek byl nasim poslednim dnem na Jiznim ostrove a nasim cilem bylo se priblizit co nejvice k mestu Picton, odkud nam odjizdel trajekt na Severni ostrov. Bylo to jeste porad dost daleko, a tak jsme se ani nikde moc nestavovali, tedy krome nekolika uzasnych zalivu na pobrezi Golden Bay, pramenu Waikoropulu (nejvetsi vridla na NZ a pry maji nejcistsi vodu na svete), jo a take jsme se staveli v jeskyni Ngarua nedaleko vrcholu kopce Takaka Hill. Potom uz jsme bez zastavky spechali az do oblasti Marlborough Sounds.
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