Tag Archives: sun

Day 137 – Pleasant interruption

Nina spots all the cats

Nina spots all the cats

Relax and recharge, that is what we proscribed ourselves for today. The sun was out when we crawled out of our room after a decadently long sleep in our King size bed. Falling out of the bed. This was presently followed by an equally decadent breakfast.

After that, we went on a brief stroll around Tuk-Tuk to make use of the sunshine while it lasted. Truly brief though, and soon we were back at our Hotel, hogging Wi-Fi, milling about and doing some light blogging. Around 11 am two outside guests arrived while we were just finishing one of our blog posts. They had been around last night, and I could not help but comment on their rather lavish breakfast order. A brief conversation at shouting distance was sensibly brought to an end when we joined them at their table. Which is also where we spend the rest of the day!

Sorry Robin, 3/4 with eyes closed. I'd say that's a sign of inner calm

Sorry Robin, 3/4 with eyes closed. I’d say that’s a sign of inner calm

It was refreshing to be able to have an intelligent conversation with like minded people. Since Jogja, we were either missing the company or the language skills for it, but it was just the thing to get us in a good mood again. We sat with Germans Yana and Robin all day till 11 pm (way past bedtime for us ancient folk). The two are on a gap year / vacation before starting university. I must say, I was much impressed at the wisdom both of them already possessed – I am not sure if I was that good a company 10 years ago ;). It seems the FSJ (voluntary social service year introduced after the end of the draft) is good for some solid character building.

Thus, the day passed, as food and drink flowed in to keep up our discussions on traveling, politics, life and everything else. Not much to blog about really, other than to say that we had a great time. Maybe we will even meet the two of them again later on our trip.

Day 76 – There and back again

Flo woke me up quite urgently because the sun was rising right outside of our room. I stumbled out, into the hammock and we watched the sunrise.

From bed to hammock, that is as far as Nina got.

From bed to hammock, that is as far as Nina got.

A quick check of the clock told us that it was 6.30am and breakfast would be served at 7am.

I never have a problem with breakfasts (being vegetarian) and this one was great. Fresh bananas and pieces of oranges next to omelettes and hard-boiled eggs. As a baseline, there are always small, round bread rolls with jam, honey, peanut butter or marmite. It was delicious and I stuffed myself. Right after breakfast, we realized that we’ve forgotten to take our doxycycline today. So back to the table and more food…oh, the pains. 😉

We packed a daypack for hiking and went to talk to Barry about hiking to Mario’s place. Mario’s place is on the opposite side of the island with a hike leading across to it.

Like a map for a treasure hunt ;)

Like a map for a treasure hunt 😉

Barry gave us a basic map of the track (no markings) and we packed our lunch in the kitchen before heading off.

The first 1 ½ hours are along the road. Despite us leaving in the early morning, it was hot and the track was lacking trees for shade. However, the view back down to Beloi and the bay was great.

Finally, we came to the first real turn and the track went off into a forested part, leading past limestone walls and caves. Some of them are gigantic, with roots from trees hanging down. Immediately, it was cooler and the slight breeze refreshing. A couple of goats could be seen at both sides of the path. Continue reading

Day 3 – The two sides of Aotearoa

Rain – lots of it. Last night on the ride here, all night and all morning. Plus grey skies and 300m visibility. We would not get our gear packed up remotely dry. The ride was also dodgy, the silt on the gravel roads becomes slick as soap.

Rocinante and our tent

Rocinante and our tent

So, a decision was made. Stick it out for one day, or at least until a pause in the rain gives us a chance to pack. And then, all went out again, when the DOC warden took pity on us and offered us a hut for a great price (budget is an issue for us now, especially in the “western world”). The hut was amazing! Warm, dry and enough space to spread our gear out to dry.

Te whenua also took pity and shooed the clouds away around 11am. It is hard to overstate what a difference the weather makes when one is so exposed to it all day. What set out to be a dreary and cold stake out between wet tent and cold public kitchen turned into a warm, sun-drenched dream.

The weather turned out to be so good in fact that we took off for 3 hours hiking the tracks around Waikaremoana Holiday Park. We explored some of the coolest waterfalls and had great vistas of the lake and surrounding mountainside.

Falling in love …

Red rocks walk 1

The red rocks walk

… with the land and especially with the  roads! Sooooo marvelous, and it was just the two very short ride outs you can do in 2 hours starting in downtown Wellington.

Nina and I went for two ride outs this week. The first one was on her birthday. Although we missed the sun by maybe 2 hours, it was still gorgeous. I am fairly certain, that this is going to be my new “Hausstrecke”. Continue reading