Newsletter 4 (6 september 2002)

Hello mates,

My last day in New Zealand and since i have seen the things i wanted to see it's about time to let the rest of the world know what i've been doing and so on. The last time i wrote a was in Suva (Capital of Fiji), so from there we start.... After Suva i went back to Nadi for 2 days and i went to this luxury place called Nadi Bay Hotel. To my suprise i met the 4 english and 2 irish again, whom i already had met in Tuba Kula. It was nice to meet them again, especially since i wasn't in the mood for making new friends again. Of course we drank quite some beers to celebrate. (Darren, would you be so kind to forward this message to the other 5? Thanks in advance. Send me their emailadresses too, so i don't have to ask you again pls.) Alright, after those 2 days i flew to Auckland (NZ), where i was picked up by this great NZ bloke Tony, who i already had met in Santiago. He took me all around the northern part of the north island. A palce where i probably wouldn't have gone if i hadn't met this guy and now i know that that would have been a mistake. Man, what a beautifull country and what a hospitle (did i spell that right?) people. We stayed at the houses of friends of Tony and i felt really welcome and very "at home" immediately. Those people have chosen the right place to live i can tell you. Lots (better: heaps) of space and a very relaxed lifestyle. Tony, i owe you one man. Thanks again and pls come to holland, so i can return the favor. (It's gonna be busy when i come home.) After having seen the nortern part of the island Tony left for Sidney (to start working again) and i spend a few days in Auckland. Just enough to get an impression of this big city. Went to underwaterworld (very nice), visited some bars with live music (not that good actually, altough the public there loved it) and strolled through the town. Then to Rotorua: really nice place with a lot of termal activity in the ground, so it has this funny (read: rotten) smell of sulfide. Saw a lot of those wells, not because i wanted to, but because you couldn't miss them. Met a nice bloke from Oxford there (Hi Sid, how are you doing?). We spend about 3 days together and celebrated my birthday quitly. Also met this dutch family (my mother knew them when she was a kid) and had a nice chat with them (in dutch, which felt strange after having talked english for such a long time). Oh yeah, i also saw the glowworm caves, which was really impressive. Thousands of glowing larves on the ceiling of a cave, which gave you the impression that you were looking at a nightly sky. Dee and Emma, you were right, its worth a visit. After Rotorua i went to Welington for a day, just so i could hop over to the south island the next day (by a ferry on a very rough sea (never seen that many people vomitting at the same time in my life)). The south island is even more "empty" than the north island. Beautifull nature and again very friendly people. I stayed 2 nights at Tony's brothers place (thanks again Jamie and Annette) and the weekend itself in Christchurch, which was enough to get a good impression of this cozy (Spelled right?) city. Great weather and great parks and botanic gardens. Nice place to go out as well, and so i did. Then 2 more days in Kaikura, to go whalewatching. I did and we saw 3 whales, some albatrosses (man, they're huge too), lots of dolphins and seals, which i found fantastic. The organisation thought it wasn't that good, so they gave us a 40% refund when we were back. How about that? After this: back to welington, where i have spend 1 night at Bob's place (also relatives of Tony; thanks Bob) and the last two days, strolling through the city, visiting the (free) Te Papa museum (which is fantastic; i went 2 times to see it all) and tomorrow i fly to Sydney. Guess who i am going to meet there? Right: Tony, for the 3rd time. Looking forward to that. Hey, that's all folks. Write you again in a month or so, either from Melbourne or from Bali,

Have a fine winter (for you guys on the northern hemisphere) (smile),
Jan.