Hi there,
First of all, thanks heaps for the birthday wishes. It was quite strange to celebrate my birthday on the other half of this planet, so I will never forget it. It was special...
I left Kiwi capital Wellington and headed towards Picton on the South Island. I really liked the Marlborough Sounds: beautiful islands and peninsula's on the South Island coast. And I met - for the first time on my trip - some Belgians... From Gent!!! We went for a beer and discussed the actual crisis in Belgium. They were very much in favour of keeping Belgium. Then I moved on to Kaikoura where I almost got attacked by a seal!!! Luckily there was a Dutch tourist who warned me that there was a seal in the bush. I hadn't seen the seal at all. I would have continued walking just 20 cm from him...:) After 2 days Kaikoura, I took the train further to Christchurch. I was sitting on a table in the train with 3 tourists from the USA. They made the perfect journey in New Zealand... They visited 2 days Auckland, 3 days Wellington and 2 days Christchurch. I said:"Isn't it strange to visit just towns in New Zealand...? I would just visit the landscapes in the countryside.". They said:"Yes, you are fully right. We didn't know that this was such a beautiful country...".:)))) Well prepared Americans, but they were funny and offered me to 'help them drink their bottles of wine'.:) I even got a free invitation to Philadelphia, where one of them is running a bed and breakfast! Arrived in the evening in Christchurch, I stayed in a hostel in the neighbourhood of the railway station, because I had the train again the day afterwards in the morning. I wanted to grap some take away food. I had to choose between 10 Chinese restaurants and... 1 Afghan restaurant... I thought that that last one would definitely be 'the challenge', so I wanted to try that Afghan food. I entered the restaurant and the guy behind the bar welcomed me with 'hey brother'... He wanted to know where I was from. I said:'Belgium'. 'Belgium,..., wasn't that a part of Russia, I mean the Sovjet Union'... After explaining to him that that was not the case, he offered me something extra... Typical Afghan, he said. I don't know what I have been eating, but it was good...:) The day afterwards, I left Christchurch for the Tranzalpine Train. That is definitely the most beautiful train journey in the world. There was a compartment in the train with no windows... A viewing cabin to make pictures. It was freezing up in the mountains in that part of the train! And mind the tunnels if you are hanging out of the train as I did sometimes...:) Arriving in Greymounth, I met a German again that I had already met before and we decided to travel together for a few days. He was also heading to Franz Joseph. In Franz Joseph, I decided to take part in the Franz Joseph Glacier walk. A full day climbing the ice of that mountain... I met there for the second time Belgians! From Antwerp this time, on their honeymoon... And the same question: What do know/think about the crisis in Belgium? Now a totally other story: they were definitely in favour of the end of Belgium and they said: 'if the Walloons want Brussels, they can get it. And Antwerp becomes then the capital of Flandres!' Whatever, I loved the accent of that Belgian, whoops Flemish, couple. They had that typical Antwerp accent, that stayed with me the whole day and gave me some kind a nostalgic time when I was living in Antwerp...:) The funny thing about NZ is that I am meeting all the time the same people on the bus. Sometimes they are a bit ahead of me, but then I am catching them up later or the other way around. We start to become a very nice group of friends... Very international: there is Alice, a nice French girl who wants to go to Australia afterwards and certainly visit Alice Springs (just because of the name!!!), Carlos from Portugal who is going to stay in Christchurch later on because he has job as football trainer, Heike from Germany who is collecting sand and is sending monsters home from every beach (this is no joke!!!), Machteld from Holland with whom I am always discussing 'the correct Dutch', Jane from London who is always laughing with my coffee adittion (and my coffee machine in my backpack) and finally there is Filippo from Bresil, who is real name is 'Macho'.:) I have been celebrating my birthday with them. Was really cool!:) Definitely time to leave you now...
Take care! Hug from New Zealand! Ruben
First of all, thanks heaps for the birthday wishes. It was quite strange to celebrate my birthday on the other half of this planet, so I will never forget it. It was special...
I left Kiwi capital Wellington and headed towards Picton on the South Island. I really liked the Marlborough Sounds: beautiful islands and peninsula's on the South Island coast. And I met - for the first time on my trip - some Belgians... From Gent!!! We went for a beer and discussed the actual crisis in Belgium. They were very much in favour of keeping Belgium. Then I moved on to Kaikoura where I almost got attacked by a seal!!! Luckily there was a Dutch tourist who warned me that there was a seal in the bush. I hadn't seen the seal at all. I would have continued walking just 20 cm from him...:) After 2 days Kaikoura, I took the train further to Christchurch. I was sitting on a table in the train with 3 tourists from the USA. They made the perfect journey in New Zealand... They visited 2 days Auckland, 3 days Wellington and 2 days Christchurch. I said:"Isn't it strange to visit just towns in New Zealand...? I would just visit the landscapes in the countryside.". They said:"Yes, you are fully right. We didn't know that this was such a beautiful country...".:)))) Well prepared Americans, but they were funny and offered me to 'help them drink their bottles of wine'.:) I even got a free invitation to Philadelphia, where one of them is running a bed and breakfast! Arrived in the evening in Christchurch, I stayed in a hostel in the neighbourhood of the railway station, because I had the train again the day afterwards in the morning. I wanted to grap some take away food. I had to choose between 10 Chinese restaurants and... 1 Afghan restaurant... I thought that that last one would definitely be 'the challenge', so I wanted to try that Afghan food. I entered the restaurant and the guy behind the bar welcomed me with 'hey brother'... He wanted to know where I was from. I said:'Belgium'. 'Belgium,..., wasn't that a part of Russia, I mean the Sovjet Union'... After explaining to him that that was not the case, he offered me something extra... Typical Afghan, he said. I don't know what I have been eating, but it was good...:) The day afterwards, I left Christchurch for the Tranzalpine Train. That is definitely the most beautiful train journey in the world. There was a compartment in the train with no windows... A viewing cabin to make pictures. It was freezing up in the mountains in that part of the train! And mind the tunnels if you are hanging out of the train as I did sometimes...:) Arriving in Greymounth, I met a German again that I had already met before and we decided to travel together for a few days. He was also heading to Franz Joseph. In Franz Joseph, I decided to take part in the Franz Joseph Glacier walk. A full day climbing the ice of that mountain... I met there for the second time Belgians! From Antwerp this time, on their honeymoon... And the same question: What do know/think about the crisis in Belgium? Now a totally other story: they were definitely in favour of the end of Belgium and they said: 'if the Walloons want Brussels, they can get it. And Antwerp becomes then the capital of Flandres!' Whatever, I loved the accent of that Belgian, whoops Flemish, couple. They had that typical Antwerp accent, that stayed with me the whole day and gave me some kind a nostalgic time when I was living in Antwerp...:) The funny thing about NZ is that I am meeting all the time the same people on the bus. Sometimes they are a bit ahead of me, but then I am catching them up later or the other way around. We start to become a very nice group of friends... Very international: there is Alice, a nice French girl who wants to go to Australia afterwards and certainly visit Alice Springs (just because of the name!!!), Carlos from Portugal who is going to stay in Christchurch later on because he has job as football trainer, Heike from Germany who is collecting sand and is sending monsters home from every beach (this is no joke!!!), Machteld from Holland with whom I am always discussing 'the correct Dutch', Jane from London who is always laughing with my coffee adittion (and my coffee machine in my backpack) and finally there is Filippo from Bresil, who is real name is 'Macho'.:) I have been celebrating my birthday with them. Was really cool!:) Definitely time to leave you now...
Take care! Hug from New Zealand! Ruben
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