Jeff Nadeau - Beyond Lektora & Microsoft

Our holiday is over but was so nice! 6 weeks is a lot of travel time and we had the chance to see so many great things. Over the next days, I will write a couple of blog posts describing our experience. I will also post our best pictures as soon as possible. (I have 2500 to choose from :-)

For now, let's begin with New-Zealand North-Island. Our itenary was Auckland, Tauranga, Tongariro, New Plymouth and Welllington.

The highlights were the Tongariro Crossing, Roturua and Wellington.

The Tongariro crossing is a very long (18km, 8 hours) hike where you walk across and climb active volcanos (one is LOTR “mordor”). Near the huge red crator, you even feel the heat and see the fumes. However, I was so exausted at the end and my legs were so sour I even woke up in the middle of night because of the pain! I had never done a hike a like this. Simply amazing!

Roturua is the heart of geothermal activity in New-Zealand. There we saw real geysers, boiling mud pools and bathed in natural thermal sources. Very impressive and unsual for someone from Canada! We also learned a lot about the native Maori culture.

Wellington is the capital of New-Zealand and a very unique city. It is an extremely compact town surrounded by very lush and huge moutains. It is located at the southern tip of the island on the shore of the emerald cook strait. The pretty suburbs are all located along a narrow valley across the moutains range. Overall, a very unique city with a definite european feeling.