North Island Tour, finally

After 3 weeks of silence, some news from the Nth Island.
I left Christchurch the very morning after the saddest party of this semester : "farewell party", the theme wasn't very merry. Nevertheless, it has been a strange blend (stranger than the Australian, South African and New Zealander white wine blend) : kind of funny stuff mixed with hips of hugs...
The train left Christchurch at 7am, I left the city in the darkness. However, it has been a good trip, crossing the North Canterbury

and following the western coast until Picton.

Kaikoura was as usual,

this beautiful mix of mountains and sea, and fur seals lied down under the sun.

After the crossing of Cook's strait, I met my five future

tripmates and our campervan in Wellington.

We were ready to cross the North Island to Auckland at 6 in this wheelled turtle which will be our home ...

Unfortunaltly, the weather wasn't aware that we should come : the roads going trough the Tongariro area were closed, and snow started to fall. So we decided to avoid the Tongariro and to go straight to Lake Taupo, where we had a pleasant smoky bath, and Rotorua, weird burning city..

We stopped for the night at the hidden valley, which used to be the 8th world's wonder before an earthquake decided something else. It's still very beautiful..

An informatical problem oblige me to stop

see you

yvan