“How did it get so late so soon?” (Dr. Seuss)

First of all I think I need to apologise for all this time writing in Spanish. I have been very busy lately and my computer was broken so I did not have enough time to write two posts every time in both languages.

As some of you may know, I am already in Australia. Yeah! It is being a long time since I do not write in English and many things have occurred already.

So I will go a little bit backwards to continue the story where I left it.

I was living in New Zealand, beautiful country and a place to come back for sure (I still have some places that I would love to visit or re-visit) Unfortunately after trying my best to stay in the country my luck did not followed me or maybe it wanted me to go in a different direction. I could not get a working holiday visa after trying many times and my visa was expiring but I had an ace up my sleeve, a secondary plan to postpone my way back to my home country, Spain.

So I decided that before leaving New Zealand, I had to do a good ending trip. So I planned two trips in the time that I had left, one to wilderness and the other to my mind.

The first one was a week of hitch-hiking, with my own food as usual, and no money trough the North Island. My main destinations where the east and the south of the North Island which were the leftovers of all my trips in that Island.

Starting in a dark night in Mangaokewa Gorge Scenic Reserve (just after Te Kuiti), after two intense days of rock climbing, I start hitch-hiking after saying goodbye to the friends I was climbing with and who brought me to this place. Just with the hope of finding a ride to Taupo or somewhere along the way and trying to run away from an expected night storm.

Luckily I got ride in the middle of the night which was going to Bennydale, the next town in the road just a few km from where I was. There, now under the street lights, I start again the long process of showing my thumb and my best smile and wait for some friendly person who goes in my way and have a spare seat.

After a while standing with not much luck two women just come out from the Bennydale Hotel, which in my opinion seems to be the only cultural and social place in that little town. The come up to me and the eldest one star talking with a damage voice almost from beyond: "what are you doing here?"Suddenly we start talking and I explain myself one thing leads to another and I end up in the birthday party which was taking place in the hotel with the owner inviting me to sleep for free in one of their rooms and the people from the party offering me unlimited amounts of food and drinks.

Having some beers and food with some of the Bennydale locals!

Next day I kept travelling to my next destination, Taupo, where I did bungee jumping, which was very exciting. After the experience of the bungee jumping, I sleep in a forest close to Taupo. The next morning I went to the Natural Spa to see the sunrise.



My trip continued to Napier in a nice chat with the phisiotherapist from a football team in Wellington. Hawks bay was beautiful and the weather was very nice. The Art Deco city of Napier it is beautiful and pleasant to walk on and an amazing view can be founded in the top of the mountain by the port.

The port of Napier in a beautifull afternoon

After Napier I kept travelling south direction with the intention of getting to the Tararua ranges. This was the first time I got to jump in a truck while I was hitch hiking and I have to say that I loved it!

In the way to the Tararua got stacked in Palmerston North, a nice little big city, and because of that delay I could not get where I was expecting. After walking in the dark for a few kilometres, one very nice Maori guy who was living in a self constructed house made out of recycling parts invite me to his house, and we shared some good talking with some beers.

The next morning I was going into the wild again leaving the sealed roads and changing them for very small and not transited paths. I had to go through rivers and heavy rain, and very windy and cold conditions but as you may have realized already I love that stuff.

When I got to the hut I meet two hunters who gave me a ride to wellington the next day. With the peculiarity that was off road and the car was a very old off road truck.

This truck had 3 persons on it and did more than 30km off-road in a 3h trip, including flat tire and one of the heaviest rains I have seen in my life

Once in wellington I could sleep in a mattress in a friends place and went out to check the nightlife which turned to be pretty amazing! There is live music everywhere and you do not need to pay to enter in the clubs. You do not even need to pay for pool tables.

Besides the weather (windy wellington), wellington was a pretty good place!

Due to my tight schedule I had to take a 12 hours bus back to Auckland in order to get there on time for my other plan in my last month, the meditation course.

I do not have words to describe the meditation course but I can just say that was one of the best experiences in my life. Of course that was hard to meditate for 10hours a day during 10 days but it was totally worthy. I am pretty sure that I will do more courses or volunteering in the future.

I totally recommend it to everyone, so if you are interested you can find more information in the website Vipassana.

That was the closure of my chapter in New Zealand, country that I love and where I will go back again one day.

Hopefully I can find more time off and keep on updating my adventures in Australia.