First countries, then cities - but always fun!

Hello dear readers,

as announced, my blog continues with my experiences in Tongariro National Park, after I completed the Alpine Crossing. Have fun :)

Monday, 17.10.

In the morning, I had to say goodbye to almost everyone else, as I decided to stay two days longer in the national park. After breakfast, I went shopping in probably one of the most expensive supermarkets in the country (tourist area). Originally, I had considered going skiing in the last week of the season, but the high price, the difficult journey - there are no buses in National Park Village in October, so you can only hitchhike to get anywhere - and the fact that the slopes are only very short at this time of year deterred me. Instead, I went on a hike to a quite high waterfall, which took me several hours. It was a total of about 12 km, at least 8 of which were on a trail in the forest, which was not only incredibly muddy, but also constantly uphill or downhill. Flat sections were completely absent. The waterfall, as well as a viewpoint halfway, were worth seeing, even if I couldn't get particularly close. It was annoying that I damaged one of my shoes on a tree root because I got caught on it. I arrived at the hostel quite exhausted and sat down in front of the TV after taking a shower and watched a few quiz shows. By the way, I was the only hostel guest that day, together with an older man who was there for skiing. I had dinner quite late and went to bed early.

Tuesday, 18.10.

After doing the Crossing with the first Stray bus, I hopped on the next one early in the morning and this time took part in the tour for those who didn't participate in the Crossing. There were only eight of us. First, we went to a Lord of the Rings viewpoint just before the Mt. Ruapehu gondola and then to the gondola itself, but we didn't ride it. Mt. Ruapehu is the highest mountain in the national park and is also used for skiing. We then stayed at the base station and had a little snowball fight with the small remnants of snow that were there. After that, we went to the largest village in the national park, Whakapapa, to be exact, to the i-site. There is an exhibition there about the volcanoes of the national park and native animals like the kiwi. Afterwards, we visited the Mangawhero Falls, also known as Gollum's Falls. It was nice to see another film location, but the waterfall itself was nothing special or impressive. It just lives off its history. From there, we made our way to the hostel and started playing table tennis first, but since the weather was getting better, we went out to the field and spent time with a few fun sports activities in front of the backdrop of Mt. Ruapehu. First, almost all of us tried slacklining, which is hellishly difficult. It's like tightrope walking, but of course not as high. With support, I managed to walk along the line forwards and backwards. I couldn't do it without help :D Our bus driver was the only one who did it well. Later, we juggled, and I can at least do it to some extent now (it's just a matter of practice), and then the whole group performed some acrobatics, such as human pyramids. After the 'Alpine Crossers' arrived at the hostel in the late afternoon, I went to dinner with a larger group in a pub. Unfortunately, I learned that the Crossing had perfect weather this time and there was hardly any snow left. Bad timing ;) But the food was very tasty and especially plentiful.

Wednesday, 19.10.

Most of the day was spent on the journey to Wellington. But there were two notable stops in between. The first one was for the so-called Gumboot Throwing. The game is very simple. You have to throw a rubber boot as far as possible. Since I've never been good at throwing, I didn't have high hopes. But at least I had the fourth or fifth longest throw with about 25 m, so I wasn't as bad as I expected. However, I was still about 20 m away from the winner. There were also some slapstick moments that were quite funny to watch. Some people missed the right moment to let go, so a few boots flew back, to the side, or straight to the ground. Fortunately, that didn't happen to me ;) Later, we went to a playground for adults with a zipline, climbing landscape, slides, hamster wheel, swings, and a 'gym'. Nipper, our bus driver, challenged us to take a 'creative' group photo and promised to buy everyone involved a shot in the evening. So we all took our positions in the climbing landscape and showed off some fancy poses, which impressed Nipper. In the late afternoon, we arrived in Wellington. Since we only had 2 hours, we couldn't do much. I used the time to hike to the highest point of the city, Mt. Victoria. With good weather - unfortunately, it was a bit windy, but the sky was blue - I had a wide and great view over Wellington and the adjacent sea. From above, I find Wellington more beautiful in terms of architecture than Auckland. When I returned to the hostel, I went directly to a Beer Pong tournament in the Blend Bar. Stray was represented with six teams (two players each). I myself was one of those who limited themselves to watching and cheering, which worked well. If there had been a prize for the best atmosphere, our group would have definitely won it ;) Sometimes it reminded me a lot of the atmosphere at darts games. Whenever our teams were playing, they were cheered on frenetically, and every hit was enthusiastically celebrated. But it didn't help. The last two remaining Stray teams were unfortunately eliminated in the semifinals, as their opponents were not impressed by the crowd and were a little too strong. So the final had to take place without our participation. But that didn't dampen our mood, of course. We got our promised shots and then celebrated properly. Like most of us, I quickly started dancing when real party songs were played, such as YMCA, Boom Boom Boom Boom, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, or Wannabe. The mood was cheerful, but none of us were drunk. Unfortunately, the bar closed at 11:00 PM.

Thursday, 20.10.

In the early morning dawn, I had to set off for Auckland again. The journey took about 11 hours. Unfortunately, the seats were not particularly comfortable, so I was glad that we made several stops where we could move around a bit. I didn't really manage to sleep either. At least in the second half of the journey, we passed the time with two movies. Cinderella Man and Alien vs. Predator, although we arrived in Auckland just before the climax of the latter and I still don't know how the movie ends.

Friday, 21.10.

This day can be summed up in one word: zoo. In the morning, I went to some shops to have a few things repaired again, such as my shoe or my pants, before I set off for the zoo and stayed there all afternoon. Of course, you can also see animals from all over the world at Auckland Zoo. There were a few new species of animals for me, but I had seen most of them before. I was especially happy that I saw a kiwi live for the first time. The animals are nocturnal and therefore have to stay in a dark building illuminated only by infrared lamps all the time. Apart from that, my personal stars were the penguins, which are very small and super cute even though they are fully grown :) I was there just when they were being fed and could have stayed at their enclosure forever. I was absolutely impressed by the giant Galapagos tortoises. They are the largest land tortoises in the world. They are simply gigantic, although they also move in super slow motion. I also saw their feeding, as well as a flying show by the macaws right next to them. I also found the little golden monkeys spectacular, who were jumping around in their enclosure like crazy and apparently had a lot of fun. In the same enclosure, there were also two capybaras, and they were as calm as could be, as if they had nothing to do with what was going on around them :D Overall, the zoo is very nicely designed, with large enclosures and diverse facilities, especially for the monkeys.

Saturday, 22.10.

Actually, Saturday was the only day that was already partly planned before my trip, at least in the evening. But more about that later. After picking up my laptop, which unfortunately wasn't quite ready yet, I went directly to One Tree Hill, which is almost as high as Mt Eden. From the foot of the mountain, you walk past green meadows and lots of sheep steeply uphill, and at the top of the summit, you are rewarded with a wide view. This view is quite different from the one from Mt Eden, as One Tree Hill is much closer to Auckland City, so you can see much more nature from there. Unfortunately, it was incredibly windy at the top, so you had to be careful not to be blown away. By the way, there is a grave and a triangular, tall column on the summit as a monument for the buried person, whose name I have unfortunately already forgotten again. After that, I went back to the hostel and got ready for one of the absolute highlights of the trip so far, the visit to the rugby international match between New Zealand and Australia for the Bledisloe Cup at Eden Park, the largest stadium in the country, which of course was completely sold out with 50,000 spectators. Of course, in honor of the All Blacks, the New Zealand national team, I went to the stadium dressed in black. After watching the last minutes of a women's international match (NZL-AUS), which the All Blacks dominated, and the warm-up program of the two teams from my seat on the left side of the main stand, exactly level with the left goal, the Eden Park filled up incredibly fast in the last 20 minutes before kick-off. By the way, there is no separation between home and away fan blocks in rugby. Then it became really emotional for the first time when the entire stadium stood up and, after 'Advance Australia Fair' for the 'Wallabies' (nickname of the Australian team) had been played, at least 49,000 spectators - there were a few Australians and tourists in the audience - sang the New Zealand national anthem, 'God Defend New Zealand', which is bilingual. The first verse is sung in Maori, the second in English. Then came a real goosebumps moment with the world-famous Haka of the All Blacks, which was simply impressive. Before I get to the course of the game, let me briefly explain the most important rules. Basically, you can score in rugby in four different ways. The most valuable is the try (5 points, similar to a touchdown in football). Here, the ball has to be put on the ground by a player in the zone behind the opponent's goal line. After each try, there is an opportunity to score 2 more points with a kick called a conversion. There are 3 points each for a penalty kick (equivalent to a free kick in soccer) and a drop kick from open play. The ball is passed by throwing or kicking, with throwing only allowed backwards but kicking allowed forwards. When the game is interrupted, it is continued with a scrum (on the field) or a lineout (equivalent to a throw-in after the ball has left the field of play). Now to the course of the game. After an even start, the All Blacks were able to score two tries via the wings and take a 10-0 lead, with the conversion chance being missed on each occasion. The atmosphere in the stadium was naturally fantastic. After the Wallabies were able to reduce the score to 10-7 with a try and subsequent conversion, the halftime score of 15-7 was achieved with the third All Blacks try. After the break, the Wallabies then took the lead and were able to score a penalty kick and a try to level the score to 15-15, but the 5 points for the try were disallowed after the use of the video referee, which is fortunately firmly established in this sport, because there had been an obstruction by another Australian player who was not on the ball. In the middle of the opponent's pressure phase, the All Blacks were then able to counterattack, which, right in front of my stand, resulted in a score of 20-10 and was converted to 22-10. They were then able to add a penalty kick and two more tries, one of them with a conversion, until the end and ultimately prevail confidently with 37-10. As I said, the atmosphere was fantastic. There weren't any chants except for a timid 'Go All Blacks', but every action on the field was loudly commented on. There was also an occasional Mexican wave going through the stadium. All in all, the game was more than worth the 90 NZD entrance fee. Anyone who flies to New Zealand and doesn't attend a rugby match in a stadium has definitely missed something. You just have to experience it. By the way, I really like rugby as a sport. I took the train, which was of course packed, back to the city center and arrived at the hostel at 11:15 PM.

Sunday, October 23

In the morning, I went to the museum again. This time I visited the middle floor, which is about the volcanoes in New Zealand and the animal world. There was also some Asian art to see, mainly porcelain. After the museum closed, I stayed on the premises for a while to enjoy the beautiful view and then went for a walk in the park.

In the next report, I will tell you what I experienced in the far north of the country. Look forward to it!

See you soon,

Your Max