[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!
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