New Year's Eve

Hello everyone,

we've managed to update the blog once again. Here's a brief update about the time from Christmas to early January.

After the Christmas season, we still had winter holidays from work, so we decided to explore the rest of the North Island, as we had yet to visit the western and southern parts.

We started our short trip in New Plymouth, the westernmost city of the North Island. The nature in the region was truly beautiful. From the view of Mount Taranaki, the second-highest mountain on the North Island (2518m) and also a former volcano, to the amazing beach that felt like it was right outside our door, with steep cliffs, several small islands nearby, and a perfect panorama for a sunset. We also really liked the city itself, with its long waterfront walkway and well-maintained park. It was definitely worth the trip.

After that, we took a bus to the southern part of the North Island, to Wellington, the capital, where we spent the days around New Year's Eve. Wellington is the city in NZ that we've liked the most so far. It doesn't really have that big city vibe, but feels more manageable and has lots of small side streets with plenty of pubs and shopping opportunities. Of course, we quickly found our favorite pubs as well.

During the New Year's Eve period, some other people from our hostel in Napier also came to Wellington, so we had a cool group to celebrate an awesome New Year's Eve with, right by the waterfront where the fireworks later took place and where there was an open-air concert until then. After that, we continued to party and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

In the new year, we spent a few more days exploring Wellington before heading back to Napier for another week of work.

Before the big vacation begins. AUSTRALIA😁