To Queenstown for New Year

The drive from Wanaka to Queenstown went smoothly. The road is full of wineyards and wine tasting sites. In Queenstown we took the Gondola up to Bob's Peak for some great views over the surrounding region. The peak is 450m above the city. We are celebrating New Year in Fishbone Restaurant with a full course dinner. 6 hours left from this year... Happy New Year to everybody!

Passing the Alps to Wanaka

After Lake Matheson we headed towards Wanaka, through the Haast Pass. It is the lowest pass over the Southern Alps, but this does not make it less interesting. We stopped to see some waterfalls (the Thunder Waterfall being the most impressive), then the Blue Pools just before Makarora, and then we drove along Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea. We arrived in Wanaka around 5pm.

Lake Matheson

We left Franz Josef very early in the morning around half past six and drove a half an hour to Lake Matheson. This lake is legendary because on clear days Mount Cook is reflecting perfectly in the lake waters. So we went for a one and a half hour hiking tour around the lake hoping to capture a legendary picture. The luck was not on our side since the peaks were all covered with clouds. However, the nature around the lake as well as the views were definitly worth the hike. Then we had breakfast in the local Cafe.

A Helicopter Ride - Franz Josef Glaciar

A 20 minutes flight over the Glaciar wit landing on top of it and some astonishing views from the helicopter.

Pencake Rocks in Punakaiki

Definitly one of the most fascinating sites so far. The sea, the rain and the wind has modeled the shore in various breath-taking shapes, cutting sometimes under the rocks, creating holes and carving caves which the waves hit with enormous power, withdrawing then back into the sea to restart the whole cycle again and again... The name "pencake" comes from the layered shape of the rocks as if they were a pencake pile. We arrived in Franz Josef in the afternoon after stopping by in Greymouth and Hokitika (a very nice small town) and after some stunning views of Mount Cook whose peaks are covered by snow. Tomorrow we'll take a helicopter ride to land on the Franz Josef or Fox Glacier, if the weather allows it.

The West Coast

We left Kaiteriteri on Sunday to start our drive on the West Coast. We passed through the scenic Buller Gorge to Westport where we had a light lunch. Then we stopped to visit an old gold mine in Charlestone (a spookie experience as there was nobody there - not even the owner - and we were walking through some caves and tunels following the mine rail way). The drive to Punakaiki was through a misty and rainy weather, but it still did not prevent us from enjoying the amazing scenery: the mountains meeting the see, with all kinds of interesting rock formations. The region is unbelivably fascinating. The dinner in the local tavern topped up one of the most interesting days so far.

Hiking in Abel Tasman

On Saturday we went on a hiking trip in the Abel Tasman National Park located in the northern part of the southern island, some 50km west from Nelson. We took a Sea Shuttle from Kaiteriteri to to a place called Bark Bay. On the way there we saw a seal colony around a small rocky island. In Bark Bay we started to walk the hiking track following the coast line, with some great views over the seashore. 3 hours and 10km later we arrived at the pick up place called Anchorage and the boat took us back to Kaiteriteri.

Christmas Day - the Southern Island

From Wellington to Picton on the southern island we took the Interislander, it was a 3 hour ferry trip. We drove to Nelson where we had lunch (the fish of the day: terakihi on chick-pea with some scallops). We arrived in the afternoon in Kaiteriteri where we went to the beach for an hour or so, but no swimming, the water was a bit too cold. We'll be staying here 2 nights.

Christmas Eve in Wellington

Very difficult to imagine it is really Christmas here: 25 degrees outside, the sun is shining, almost no Christmas decorations anywhere, just here and there a Christmas tree hidden in a corner of a shop and some Christmas wishes written on a shop's window. We visited the New Zealand's National Museum (Te Papa) almost the whole day. Then we chose a fancier restaurant for our Cristmas dinner (most of the restaurants are just simple food places). We had a delicious 3-course dinner (with some Christmas music playing in the background) and then packed for tomorrow's early departure by ferry towards the South Island.

Taupo - Wellington

Wednesday was a driving day of about 350 km down to Wllington. On the way there, after some great views ov Mountain Ruapehu, we stopped in Taihape for breakfast, then we drove to the Pacific shore in Foxton, Waitarere and Paraparaumu Beach, where we had lunch. In Wllington (so called the Windy City - for a very good reason) we climbed up to Mount Victoria for a view over the city. We skipped dinner and only had some kiwi and ananas instead.

Tongariro Crossing

We started the day by waking up at 5. We left the hostel at 5.20 when the Tongariro bus picked us up. After almost 2 hours we arrived at the starting point of the hiking tour. Tongariro crossing is a hiking circuit of 18.5 km across Mount Tongariro. The area is a vulcanic mountain chain with exceptionally fascinating landscapes. It took us 7 hours to get to the other end where the bus picked us up and took us back to the hotel. Needless to say, we were quite tired after the day, but it was worth it. Tomorrow we are heading towards Wellington.

Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland

The next stop on Monday was the Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland, a collectione of colorful mineral rocks, colapsed craters and sulfuric streams and lakes. One of the lakes, 65m in diameter and 62m deep was fizzliing from the sulf bubbles raising to the surface, and that's why it is called "The Shapagne Lake". In the evening we arrived at our new hostel in Taupo and went out for dinner: salmon pasta and the fish of the day: snapper in garlic cream sauce. Excellent food.

Auckland - Rotorua - Whakarewarewa

We started the day by picking up the car: an automatic gear boxed Nissan Pulsar. So two challenges for me on the road: the automatic gear box and the driving on the left side of the road. The driving went quite smoothly with just a bit of special attention to driving too close to the left edge of the road, as the driving view is different with the stearing wheal on the right.

The first site to visit was a Maori vilage just south of Rotorua, in Whakarewarewa. We saw a Maori welcome ritual and also an errupting geyser.



Auckland - New Zealand

Getting INTO New Zealand seemes to be much more difficult than getting TO New Zealand. At the passport control, I was taken to a separate room for a short interrogation session. They were concerned I might be looking for a job here. After about 20 mins we were allowed to proceed to the custom office.New Zealand is very strict with the food one introduces into the country (especially fruits and anything what could make a new species of plant or animal apear in their environment). So I waited for about another hour untill they have gone through every little item in our luggage. Finally out of the airport we took a cab to our hostel, then went out in the city for a little sightseeing and a big dinner (much bigger than expected). We went up in the SkyTower for a view over Aucland from about 220 meters. After going to bed at 9 (bravely resisting to the temptation of going to bed earlier than that) a sleep of 10 hours has put our rhythm into the New Zealand ti me zone (GMT + 13), 11 hours ahead of the Finnish and Romanian time. Today we are heading towards lake Taupo, after picking up the rental car.

The Peak Tram

The Hong Kong Island is the center of the city. It is full of skyscrapers and loads of expensive shops (people were queuing up to enter a Gucci shop similarly to the queues for taxi or for entering the bar in Finland).

But maybe the most interestig attraction here is The Peak Tram. It is an old tram pulled by cables, climbing a steep hill from whose top a wonderful view over the sea and the skyscrapers opens. It was a bit foggy when we riched the top, but the visibility was quite good anyways.



Arrival in Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong with a 2 hour delay, as the flight was late from Paris. We headed to the city by train to Kawloon station and then by a bus shuttle close to the harbour. We took the Star Ferry to the Hong Kong Island and then walked to the Peak Tram.


And the journey begins

In Espoo (-13 and a snow storm) for the night, tomorrow morning at 7.35 the flight to Paris.


A day in Enoshima and Kamakura

This is a region which used to be the capital of Japan some hundreds years ago. Full of temples and shrines, also the place of the largest Buddha statue, almost 15 meters high.

I was lucky to capture a freshly married couple in their wedding suit.

The office building

The office is located 5 stops from Shinjuku station with the Yamanote train. Door to door form the hotel to the office the trip was 30 mins. Shinjuku is the world's most busy station with about 3,5 million passengers daily. We got lost a couple of times in it and got out completely on the other side of it from where our hotel was.
It is so funny to see such a crowd of people every morning followinng their own tracks, as if they were cars on the street... And everybody dresset up as if they would go to a cocktail party or something... You can count on your fingers the people you'd encounter dressed up casually on the street...