New Zealand: Illa sud / South island

[ENGLISH FOLLOWS]
Hi ha una pàgina de motxillers per Nova Zelanda a facebook on vaig veure una entrada d'una noia holandesa, la Sophia, que buscava companys de viatge per recórrer la illa sud, així que li vaig escriure. Vam quadrar dates i també havia s'havia posat d'acord amb una noia d'Austria, la Petra, i una d'Alemania, la Merle, que es compraria un cotxe. Erem 4 companys de viatge, tots viatjant pel nostre compte, i un cotxe, així que ja podia començar l'aventura per la illa sud!

M'aixeco ben aviat a la casa on m'allotjaven a Wellington i un dels nois que vivia allà em porta a l'estació on havia quedat amb la Petra, anem cap al port i agafem el ferri que creua de l'illa nord a la sud. Al arribar ens recull la Merle amb el cotxe i anem cap a Nelson on ens trobem amb la Sophia. Ja ens haviem reunit els 4 i comencem a parlar sobre plans de viatge, històries i, en general, a coneixer-nos. He tingut molta sort perquè les tres són molt bona gent, tots tenim caràcters diferents però tinc la sensació que ens portarem molt bé.

El dia següent ja ens posem en marxa, Nelson és la porta per visitar el parc nacional Abel Tasman. Conduim fins a l'entrada del parc on agafem un taxi aquàtic, una barca que ens deixa a la meitat del parc nacional. De camí la barca s'atura per veure un grup de foques jugant a les roques, per mi ja ha valgut la pena venir aquí. Caminem pel parc nacional tot el dia, és preciós, de cala en cala com el camí de ronda però amb la selva entremig, fins arribar al refugi on dormim. L'endemà continuem la caminata fins a l'entrada del parc on teniem el cotxe.

Ara que som 4 és molt complicat fer couchsurfing perquè normalment allotgen a una o dues persones, així que anem d'hostals. Ens dirigim a la costa oest on visitem les pankake rocks, unes roques a vora del mar que semblen pankakes apilats. Els trasllats amb cotxe són visites en si mateixes ja que passes per paratges increibles on has de parar sovint per admirar les vistes. Aquella nit dormim a Haast, un poble diminut on no hi ha gairebé res, ni cobertura, però tenen una increïble platja solitària on anem a veure la posta de sol i, com que estem a l'oest, el sol es pon al mar.

En dues hores passem de la platja als glaciars, això és una passada aquí, pots canviar radicalment de paisatge en molt poc temps. Ens diuen que hi ha una excursió que és molt maca per arribar a un mirador davant del glaciar Franz Josef però que no està gaire ben marcada. No sé a que es refereixen perquè estava perfectament marcada, com tots els camins aquí a Nova Zelanda, estan impecables, passem per varis ponts penjants i creuem varis rius fins arribar a un mirador davant del glaciar.

L'endemà anem a un altre glaciar i anem a dormir a Wanaka, un poble davant d'un llac espectacular envoltat de montanyes nevades. Decidim quedar-nos varies nits aquí per digerir tanta bellesa paisatgística. Pugem el Roy's peak, una muntanya des de la qual encara tens millors vistes, anem a un pub que feien micro obert, a un cine molt autèntic amb sofàs i cadires de dentista, i fem un circuit super divertit pel bosc amb bici de muntanya.

Continuem la ruta de muntanya fins a Queenstown, un altre poble a vora d'un llac i envoltat de muntanyes on també fem una excursió i aprofitem per sortir de festa ja que és dissabte i el lloc és conegut per la festa. Volem fer un tros de la ruta Routeburn així que anem fins a Kinloch i com que no para de ploure decidim estar a un hostal i fer un troç de la ruta l'endemà. Vam anar a parar a el millor hostal per estar un dia de pluja, menjador amb vistes al llac, foc, bon internet, pel·lícules, crispetes gratis i un jacuzzi exterior. Al final del dia ja no plovia, així que vaig aprofitar per anar a còrrer per la vora del llac.

L'endemà ens despertem i ens trobem una sorpresa, estava tot nevat! Preguntem i ens diuen que podem fer l'excursió igualment, així que anem cap allà. La carretera estava força neta de neu fins a l'inici de l'excursió, però tot el camí estaba replet de neu que formava un paisatge preciós. Passem pel bosc, varis pons penjants, no parava de nevar i alguns arbres es comencen a trencar pel pes de la neu, així que decidim fer mitja volta. Al final no feia gaire gràcia els arbres que queien perquè era perillós, però afortunadament arribem al cotxe. De tornada hi havia un arbre a la carretera, frena i el cotxe rellisca per la neu fins el costat de la carretera. Dues rodes estaven al fang de la cuneta i no hi havia manera de treure'l d'allà, no tenim cobertura i els altres cotxes que haviem vist es quedaven a dormir al refugi així que no tornarien fins l'endemà. Decidim començar a caminar fins a tenir cobertura, a males l'hostal on haviem dormit estava a 16km. Portem una hora caminant i trobem una camioneta amb una parella que ens diu que ens pot ajudar, ens carrega i anem fins on tenim el cotxe. Posen una cadena i a remolcar el cotxe que comença a sortir del fang però la camioneta comença a patinar i també acaba a la cuneta. No m'ho podia creure! Fent maniobres aconsegueix treure la camioneta de la cuneta. Així que a la tercera va la vençuda, provem una estratègia diferent i sembla que funciona, perfí aconsegueix treure el cotxe de la cuneta!! Una estona més tard estavem banyant-nos al jacuzzi exterior amb vistes a les muntanyes nevades, refent-nos del fred i rient de la mala estona que haviem passat.

[ENGLISH]
There's a backpackers in New Zealand facebook page where I saw a post from a dutch girl, Sophia, that was looking for travel mates in the south island, so I wrote her. We agreed on the dates and she also agreed with an austrian girl, Petra, and a german, Merle, that wanted to buy a car. We were 4 travel mates, all travelling on our own, and a car, so we could start the adventure in the south island!

I wake up really early in the house that I was hosted in Wellington and one of the guys that was living there took me to the station where I had to meet Petra and we went together to the harbour to catch the ferry for crossing from the north to the south island. When we arrived, Merle picked us up with the car and we went to Nelson where we met Sophia. We were the 4 together and we started talking about travel plans, stories and, in general, knowing each other. I've been so lucky because the three of them are really nice people, we have different personalities but I have the feeling that we will get along so well.

On the following day we started the trip, Nelson is the gate for visiting the Abel Tasman National Park. We drove to the entrance of the park where we took a water taxi, a boat that left us in the middle of the national park. On the way, the boat was stopping to see a group of seals playing in the rocks, for me it was already worth it coming here. We walked the whole day, it's really beautiful, from beach to beach with the rainforest in between, until we reached the hut where we sleep. The folowing day we continued the trekking to the entrance of the park where we had the car.

Now that we are 4 people, it is more complicated doing couchsurfing, so we go to hostels. We are going to the west coast where we visit the pankake rocks, some rocks next to the sea that they seem piled pankakes. The journeys by car are visits themselves because you drive by incredible places where you need to stop all the time to admire the sights. That night we slept in Haast, a tiny town where there's almost nothing, not even signal, but they have an incredible lonely beach where we went to see the sunset and, due to we are in the west, the sun sets in the sea.

In two hours we passed from the beach to the glaciers, that's really amazing here, you can completely change the landscape in a really short time. They told us there's a really nice excursion to reach a viewpoint in front of the glacier Franz Josef, but it's not so well indicated. I don't know what they are talking about because it was perfectly indicated, like all the tracks in New Zealand. We pass by several swing bridges and rivers until we reached the nice viewpoint to the glacier.

On the following day we went to Fox glacier and we slept in Wanaka, a town in front of a wonderful lake and snowed mountains. We decided staying some nights here to digest so many beautiful landscapes. We climbed up the Roy's peak, a mountain from which you have even better views, we went to an open mic pub, a really authentic cinema with sofas and dentist chairs, and we did a super funny circuit in the forest by mountain bike.

We continued the mountain road to Queenstown, another town next to a lake surounded by mountains where we also did an excursion and we took the advantage of partying because it was Saturday and the place is well known for the parties. We want to do a part of Routeburn track so we went to a town next to it, Kinloch. It didn't stop raining so we decided staying in a hostel there and doing it the day after. We stayed in the best hostel for a rainy day, livingroom with views to the lake, fire, good internet, movies, free pop corn and an outdoor hot tub. At the end of the day it wasn't raining anymore so I went running next to the lake.

On the next day, we wake up and we find a surprise, it was all covered by snow! We asked and they told us we can do the excursion anyway so we went there. The road was quite clean of snow besides the last part, but all the walking path was full of snow which made a beautiful landscape. We went through the forest, several swing bridges, it didn't stop snowing and some trees started to break for the weight of the snow, so we decided coming back. At the end, it wasn't so funny seeing the falling trees because it was dangerous, but luckily we arrived at the car. On the way back there was a tree on the road, we breaked and the car slipped in the snow to the side of the road. The two side wheels were on the mud and there was no way to take the car out from there, we didn't have signal and the people of the other cars that we saw would sleep in the hut, so they wouldn't go back until the following day. We decided to walk until we would have signal, on the worst case the hostel we slept last night was 16km away. We've been walking for one hour and finally we find a kind of pick up with a kiwi couple that could help up, so they give us a lift back ot the car. They put a chain and pulled the car that starts to go out from the mud, but the pick up also slips and it ends also on the side of the road. I can't believe it! Trying it harder, they can take the pick up out from the side of the road. So they try a third time, but with a different strategy and it seems that it works, finally take the car out! Some time later we were taking a bath in the outdoor hot tub with views to the snowed mountains, recovering the body heat and laughing about the bad time we had.

Kiwilandia part 2 (New Zealand)

[ENGLISH FOLLOWS]
Els nova zelandesos s'anomenen a ells mateixos kiwis ja que aquí hi han molts kiwis, la fruita, i l'animal nacional també s'anomena kiwi. Veus simbols per tot arreu de vigila que no atropellis un kiwi o si deixes el teu gos suelto podria matar un kiwi. La veritat és que és molt difícil veure'n en llibertat, doncs és un animal nocturn, com un ocell, força gros i carnós, però que camina a poc a poc i no vola, és a dir, ideal perquè qualsevol depredador es foti un bon tiberi.

Continuem el viatge per l'illa nord cap a la península de Coromandel amb la Melissa l'anglesa i la nova incorporació la Lea d'Alemania. Veig moltes platges precioses però l'aigua està massa freda per banyar-me ja que és hivern, però m'han dit que hi ha una platja que té aigua calenta (hot water beach) així que un dia després d'una caminata anem a veure què és això. Arribem a la platja en qüestió, cabem un forat a la sorra com una piscineta i l'aigua que surt està cremant, tant és així que gairebé no m'hi puc posar. Llavors una dona local em deixa un cubell i em diu que hi posi aigua freda del mar per baixar la temperatura. Tota una experiència i al final em pego un bany a l'aigua freda del mar.

Nova Zelanda és coneguda per haver estat el plató de moltes escenes del senyor dels anells (entre d'altres) així que no podia faltar la visita a hobbiton, el lloc on van rodar les escenes del poble dels hobbits. Al cine res és el que sembla, doncs per mostra hi ha un dels arbres que apareix de fons a sobre de la casa del Bilbo Bolson que és artificial i van pintar totes les fulles una a una, o hi ha la mateixa porta de diferents tamanys per simular que els hobbits son més petits que la resta de persones encara que els actors no ho siguin.

Arribem a Rotorua, una zona d'activitat volcànica on hi han gueisers, vapor sortint de la terra o dels llacs, olor a sulfur i aigües de color verd. Si em traslladès al pirineu amb la imatge d'aquest lloc pensaria que hi ha tot d'incendis al bosc, però tansols és vapor de l'activitat geotèrmica. Aquí vam conèixer a un noi alemà, el Denis, que es va apuntar un parell de dies a visitar la zona amb nosaltres. Vam anar a banyar-nos a un riu amb una petita cascada on l'aigua estava calenta.

La Gaelle i el Julio, dos dels companys de pis de Barcelona van marxar a viure a Nova Zelanda quan jo també vaig deixar el pis, així que em van trucar perquè tenien tres dies de vacances i que em venien a veure, així que vam quedar que ens veuriem a Taupo. De camí a Taupo vam parar a visitar unes cascades i mentres estava fent fotos algú em tapa els ulls per darrera, era la Gaelle!! Encara no havia arribat a la ciutat on ens haviem de trobar i ja haviem coincidit. Vam cuinar truita de patates, un vinet i vam jugar al catan (un joc de taula que soliem jugar al pis). L'endemà vam fer una excursió per vora del llac de Taupo i a la nit ja van marxar. Em va fer molta ilusió veure'ls.

D'aquí vam anar cap a l'est, a Napier, una ciutat amb edificis art deco que va sofrir un terratrèmol molt fort fa uns anys. La veritat és que aquí les ciutats no tenen gaire part històrica, doncs les primeres persones van arribar aqui sobre el segle 13, és a dir, que la catedral de la Seu és més antiga que qualsevol edifici de Nova Zelanda. Anem a Gisborn on ens allotja el Rori, un kiwi molt simpàtic que ens tracta super bé i ens presenta els seus amics. Resulta que estaven preparant el rodatge d'un curt per un festival de cine de Nova Zelanda, aquell divendres al vespre rebrien la temàtica del curt i tindrien 48 hores per presentar el curt. Vam colaborar gravant alguns sons per la introducció del curt i em van dir que em quedés el cap de setmana per fer d'actor al curt. Hagués estat genial però anavem curts de temps, així que l'endemà vam fer milles cap a Wellington, la capital.

Un cop arribem a la capital ens vam separar amb les noies, la Melissa tornava al nord a treballar i la Lea començaria a fer d'au pair. Jo me'n vaig anar a casa del Conrad, l'Adam i el Shaun, tres kiwis que em van acollir a una casa enorme al sud de la ciutat. Va ser arribar i vaig conéixer a un munt de gent, alguns d'ells eren gent que havien acollit i s'havien quedat a viure a la casa i d'altres que estaven pocs dies com jo. Poc després d'arribar estava amb una birra a la mà jugant a jocs de beure i passant-ho de conya. Aquesta casa era com una gran familia i em vaig sentir super a gust allà.

Un dia volia fer una excursió i els de la casa em van dir que podia anar per la montanya de vora de la casa fins a la platja i si continuava una bona estona probablement podria veure foques. Així que no m'ho vaig pensar i vaig anar cap allà, després de dos hores caminant veig una foca a les roques, vaig alucinar, m'hi vaig fixar millor i vaig començar a veure més foques. N'hi havien com 50, però com que estan fent la marmota i son del mateix color que les pedres no les veus de primeres. Van arribar uns nois que vaig conéixer i un d'ells es va posar a tocar la guitarra, va ser una excursió increïble, em vaig quedar més de dues hores observant les foques. Al arribar a casa, vaig sopar amb la gent i vam decidir agafar vi per anar a veure les estrelles a la cima de la montanya de vora la casa, aquesta va ser la meva última nit a l'illa nord, quina despedida!

[ENGLISH]
The people from New Zealand call themselves kiwis because there are many kiwi fruits here and the national animal is also called kiwi. You can see signs everywhere warning not to drive on a kiwi or your dog can kill a kiwi. The truth is that it is so difficult seeing one in freedom, due to is a nightly animal, like a bird, quite big and fat, but it walks slowly and it doesn't fly, in other words, it's ideal for any predator to have a good meal.

We continue the trip in the north island towards Coromandel peninsula with Melissa the british and the new mate Lea from Germany. I'm seeing many beautiful beaches but the water is too cold to swim because it's winter. I've been told that there's the hot water beach, so one day after a hike we went to see what's that. We arrived to this beach, we digged a hole in the sand, like a small pool, and the water that pops up is burning that much that I can't stay inside. Then a local woman borrowed me a bucked and told me that I should mix it with cold water from the sea to lower down the temperature. Such an experience and at the end I swam in the cold water of the sea.

New Zealand is well known for being the scenery of many movies of lord of the rings (among others), so I couldn't skip the visit to hobbiton, the place where they filmed the scenes in the town of the hobbits. In cinema almost nothing is real, like the tree on top of Bilbo's house that is artificial and they painted all the leaves one by one, or the same door is in different sizes to simulate that the hobbits are smaller than the rest of the people even the actors are not.

We arrive in Rotorua, an area with volcanic activity where there are geysers, steam going out from the ground or the lakes, smell of sulphur and green water. If I would locate myself in the pyrenees with the image of this place I'd think that there's fire in the forest, but it's only the steam of the geothermal activity. Here we met a german guy, Denis, who joined us for a couple of days to visit the area. We went for a bath in a river with a small waterfall where the water was worm.

Gaelle and Julio, two of my flatmates in Barcelona went to live in New Zealand at the same time I left the flat to go travelling. They phoned me because they had three days of holidays and they'd like to meet, so we agreed to meet in Taupo. On the way to Taupo, we stopped in some waterfalls and, while I was taking some photos, someone covered my eyes from the back, it was Gaelle!! I still hadn't arrived to the city where we were supposed to meet and we had met already. We cooked spanish omelette, some wine and we played catan (a game that we used to play in the flat). On the following day, we did a excursion next to the Taupo lake and they left at night. I was really happy of seeing them.

We went towards the east, Napier, a city with buildings art deco that suffered a terrible earthquake some years ago. The cities here don't have so much historical part because the first people arrived here on the 13th century. In other words, the cathedral of my town is much older than any building of New Zealand. After that we went to Gisborn where Rori hosted us, a really kind kiwi that treated us so well and introduced us to his friends. They were preparing the recording of a short film for a cinema festival of New Zealand, on Friday they'd receive the topic of the short film and they'd have 48 hours to submit it. We helped them recording some sounds for the introduction of the short film and they told me if I'd like to stay over the weekend to act in the short film aswell. It would have been great but we didn't have much time, so the next day we went to Wellington, the capital.

Once we arrived in Wellington we split with the girls, Melissa was going back to the north to work and Lea would start working as au pair. I went to the home of Conrad, Adam and Shaun, three kiwis that hosted me in their huge house on the south of the city. From the moment I arrived I met many people, some of them were people that had been hosted and they've stayed living in the house and others were staying a few days like me. A few minutes I had a beer on my hand and I was enjoying a lot playing drinking games. This house was like a big family and I felt so well there.

One day I wanted to do an excursion and the people from the house told me I could go through the mountain nearby to the beach and if I would continue for a long time probably I would see seals. I didn't think about it two times and I went there, after two hours walking I saw a seal in the rocks, I couldn't believe it, I looked deeper and I saw more seals. There were around 50, but due to the fact that they are lazy and they are of the same color than the stones, you don't see them at the beginning. I met some guys and one of them started playing the guitar. It was such an incredible excursion, I stayed more than 2 hours observing the seals. When I arrived home, I had dinner with the people from the house and we decided to take some wine and go to top of the mountains nearby to see the stars. This was my last night in the north island, such a farewell!