We are back… for good!

If the Backstreet Boys can do it, so can we! Although our “comeback” to China wasn’t easy after our grand time in NZ, we have adjusted now and present you with our photos on flickr. This time we have put some effort into descriptions of the photos, so if you are interested just click each photo individually to read them. In fact, we have filtered out a lot of photos, so you only get to see the best. Since we drowned our little digital camera while sitting on a lovely beach one evening, we haven’t taken any photos of the Fox Glacier, which was spectacular. We were promised by a friendly French girl that she’d email us some, and we’ll put them up then.

Mishaps first (ironically they always make the best stories)

1. Like we said, we mourned the loss of a camera after what would have been a perfect day of hiking, body boarding and sunshine (on the West Coast!) until that big wave caught us by surprise. Lee managed to save his big Canon camera, but the little digital one died immediately (must have been of a salt and water attack). We both felt responsible and a bit blue, since it was such a handy little thing to take everywhere, whereas the big one is more of a dinosaur: brilliant and beautiful, but heavy.
2. The summer there was the worst in 10 years, so we had to handle a lot of rain and cold. With a 25 Euro tent (Made in China), that wasn’t always fun. That also stopped us from doing some walks like the Tongario Crossing. Oh well, we still made the best of it by sometimes renting a caravan or a cabin for the night, which was a nice, unexpected luxury.
3. The Trampoline in Christchurch: After Lee had outdone ALL the kids on an air pillow earlier (you should have seen him fly!), we waited for the trampoline to get empty so we could have a go. All went according to plan until the very last 10 second, when Lee insisted on a roll backwards… and hurt his neck badly. He could hardly move or stand up. The next morning, when Lee was still shaking with pain, we went to a 24-hour-surgery, terrified that it might have damaged his spine. Luckily, it was only tense muscles and after an x-ray we could rest assured that his spine was just fine. So instead of going for a long overnight walk on the Banks Peninsula, we rented a cabin and read a lot, while Johanna was doing the cooking (for a change) and tried to pamper Lee. Luckily, he got better within a couple of days and has hopefully learned from it (that’s what the doctor said – a very attractive young woman of Indian descent…)

Now to the Highlights

1. EATING (a lot of) Western food again. Lee discovered his passion for cakes in general and Bellini cake in particular, whereas Johanna always had had a sweet tooth. Especially our meals in an Indian restaurant in Napier and an Italian restaurant in Christchurch are edged into our memories and hips…
2. The Pacific Ocean and body-boarding: Surprisingly warm ocean with beautiful big waves made Lee turn into the Beach hero, who was being asked by some kid to be his surf buddy and to teach him his “tricks”…
3. The beautifully designed, vast net of walking tracks made us spend many half days walking about in beautiful jungles, by rivers and through amazing landscapes.
4. Punakaiki, a little place on the West Coast (South Island), which has much more to offer than only the Pancake rocks. Go for a walk there, and you’ll know what we mean. We will in fact dedicate a whole set of photos to it, which will be coming soon.
5. Rare species of animals and birds made us feel like pioneers.
6. Watching the penguins coming back to the shore after sunset on Otago Peninsula. Spectacular! It was a long wait, but definitely worth it, especially when three of them walked at hands’ distance by us on their way home.
7. Thinking about it, the whole trip was in fact a highlight, so we better stop here.