Sunshine

Sonnenschein! Okay, ich muss zugeben, dass wir schon seit einigen Tagen Sonne haben und man eigentlich sagen kann, dass wir waehrend unserer Zeit hier in NZ 50% Regen und Sonne hatten. Also recht fair.
Right now we are next to Auckland. We went today on an island called Tiritiri Matangi Island and enjoyed watching wonderfull rare birds. Next Tuesday at 1:10h we will try to catch our plane to go to Singapore and afterwards heading back to Zurich arriving there at 23h in Baden hopefully.
Just a week left ...still we are excited to meet you all at home at -10Degree Celsius, show you our thousands of pictures and talk a lot...
Here a short overview, what we have done so far:
At the Southern Island we went from Nelson (after the Abel Tasman Great Walk) to Picton. There we were invited by a nice Kiwi sailor to join a Regatta at the Marlborough Sounds. Awesome. Ingo just lost his hat during a "Halse". But his head is fine. On Christmas we stayed in Wellington. Afterwards we headed to New Plymouth to spend wonderful 4 days hiking around the Mt Taranaki (a vulcano also called Mt Egmont). Afterwards we joined a tour and hiked up the Mt Ruapehue to the Crater Lake by sunshine (Tongariro National Park). It seems that Kiwis do not hike down they slide down. Was really fun in the snow. Unfortunately the weather for the Tongariro Crossing (there you pass Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings) was really bad. We hiked the Tongariro crossing at 50-80km/h wind speed, clouds, rain and no stunning views. Nevertheless it was really exciting especially when other people turned around. ;-)
In Taupo we enjoyed swimming in the hot springs recommended by Thomas and in Rotorua it is really worth it to spent 40 Dollars for Te Puia. There I saw my geyser and Ingo his kiwis (real ones I mean birds). In Coromandel we enjoyed the sunny beach at the Cathedral cave where you can jump from a rock, swim in the ocean and afterwards taking a shower at a small waterfall.
Okay and now we will head north to see the huge Kauri Trees. I have to leave you now. Have to get some food before heading to the Auckland Observatory.