Christian & Mari Down Under

A fantastic year has come to an end

It is kinda weird to be back in Norway, knowing that we might never go back Aotearoa, "the land of the long white cloud." We've had a magnificent time! To all our non-kiwi readers: New Zealand is a fantastic place - go there!

The two of us want to thank all the fantastic people we've met during our 12-month stay - thanks for your hospitality, friendship, good sense of humour and patience with the confused Norwegian Xchange students! We'll always remember you and hope to see you again some time!

Cheers,

Mari & Christian

The next generation Indøkere has arrived

Wednesday the 4th of July marked the end to our stay in New Zealand. A few hours before our flight left, however, we met the next generation of Indøkere that will be playing around on NZ as exchange students. Eirik and Erlend - we know that you'll have a great time! Take care & have fun!

Of course I had to go one last time to Mount Eden. Dunno how many times I've been there - maybe 100? Eirik had his first trip to the top as I had my last. A worthy takeover ceremony.

Erlend, Eirik & me @ the marina

Cultural experiences in Napier

As it went towards the end of our trip, we headed for Napier on the east coast. Napier's major tourist attraction is the town itself, which draws Art Deco and architecture enthusiasts from around the world. The rebuilding period after the 1931 earthquake coincided with the shortlived and rapidly changing Art Deco era and the Great Depression, when little 'mainstreet' development was being undertaken elsewhere. As a result Napier's architecture is strikingly different from any other city; the other notable Art Deco city, Miami Beach, has Streamline Moderne Art Deco. The whole centre of Napier was rebuilt simultaneously. In many ways it resembles a film set as it has whole streets of 'in period' buildings, but it is a real city and the buildings are original.

After experiencing the art deco city, we set off to taste some of the famous wines of the area. Wine tasting comes highly recommended - you'll spend the afternoon drinking up to 40 glasses of wine (not entirely full glasses, of course, but still...). It all becomes very funny after 20 glasses or so. Need I say more?

Our three days in Napier were really great! Everyone visiting New Zealand should go there to get a bit of art deco culture and a big dose of the wineries! :-)

Mari sniffing on her wine before emptying the glass

Sunset in Napier. Nice, huh?

Afternoon moods

Christian admiring the ocan view

Mari having a rest after a hard work out

Christian trying to be really sophisticated

Smiling after 16 glasses of wine. We insisted that the picture was to be taken from some distance.

Even though you can't see it very clearly in this picture, Napier really looks like a Hollywood film set from the 50s.

Tandem biking around Lake Taupo

Unfortunately, we do not bring you any fab pics from the Maori rock carvings, as there are no kayak outlets with freedom hire opportunities in Taupo! Weird, eh? The only alternative was going on a redickilously expensive guided trip with approx 1hr of padling - way too little value for money!

So instead, we did what everyone in our situation would have done: we hired a tandem bike and went for a trip around lake Taupo! It was great fun! Included in the package was also some state-of-the art speeding helmets, as you may see from the below picture.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Taupo for now and head on to Napier, a city worldwide famous for its architecture (art deco style) and wineries. With lots of wine, even architecture can become interesting, is what I've heard.

Sporty people on sporty bike

Sporty helmets (?) on sporty heads

Tandem happyness

Rotorua & Taupo III

Howdy people! A minor update on our travelling progress. At the time being we are in Taupo, where we arrived from Rotorua around noon. Yesterday was spent mountainbiking in the Redwood forest of Rotorua. It was the 3rd time we were there, and so our "bike dealer" introduced us to a whole new network of tracks in which we'd never set wheel in before. It was wickedly awesome, as always! After the mountainbiking we set off to a nearby hot spring to chill out and relax our soar muscles. But to our big surprise the hot spring had become very cold - so after a quick bath we just went back to our YHA backpacker hostel.

Today we've spent tramping up and down [some weird Maori name], a mountain, in Taupo rising 1088 meters above sea level and bathing in some other hot spring that we've already visisted twice before. Sweet as!

Tomorrow we will hire sea kayaks and explore Lake Taupo. One of the main attractions of Taupo - a 10m high Maori stone carving on a cliff - is accessible by kayak only - hopefully we'll be able to bring you pictures from that place tomorrow.

We'll probably stay in Taupo until Friday, after which we haven't quite decided what to do. Maybe Napier, maybe some other place. We'll head back to Auckland on Sunday, as we need a few days to shut down bank accounts, sell our car (we've been working on that for a month now, it turns out that selling a 1996 Vectra is everything but easy), order transcripts, clean the flat and most importantly welcome the next generation of IndOkere til Auckland; Eirik, Erlend and Kristin arrive on July the 3rd!

We actually encountered some snow on our way up

Chillin' out after a hard walk

Dude on timber

View over Taupo

View over Taupo and Maris hearcut

Christian playing in the jungle...

...and Mari playing in the jungle

Mari mountainbiking in Redwood forest

Hmmm...maybe we should have gone left a bit further behind?

Christian focusing - trying to stay on his bike

Nice to chill out in the hot springs of Rotorua after a hard day of mountainbiking

Mari ready for tramping!

School is out!

Howdy people! Sorry for keeping you in the dark about the latest events of our social and academic lives - but truth is there really hasn't been much going on besides studying for exams the last month. :(

Mari finished her exams on Tuesday and myself finished yesterday - it sure is sweeet to finally be able to do something else than studying only. This weekend we're washing our appartment like crazy, as we're moving out on monday. We'll then do our last bit of travelling (North Island) before Quantas Flight XXX takes us home, sweet home on the 4th of July. (Let's hope bin Laden behaves on the US national day ;)

Anyways, we'll keep you posted with pics & stuff from our forthcoming trip - so make sure you visit our blog regularly for the next couple of weeks!

1,2,3 hurra 4,5,6 hurra 7,8,9 hurra hurra hurra!

Even though we are on the other side of the world 17th of May most off course be celebrated. I don't think I have ever celebrated it as much before as we did this year. We started the day at Kristin and Martes place with breakfast, champis, a lot of norwegian songs, and speeches by both Jorgen and Petter at 7 am. After a long breakfast we continued the celebration at Rosegarden, where ANSA arranged a great lunch with sekkelop, kiwilop, ball kasting and of course some more singing. Then after 3 hours here we walked in 17 mai tog down to the city again where we were invited to Jorgen on Rommegrot and Spekemat, before we went to Seba (a pub in Auckland) to continue the celebrations. It was a incredible cool day, so I am looking forward to next 17 may already:) Hope you all at home had a great 17 may as well and that you did not have to study too much. Provides you all with some photos from the day.

Kristin opening the champis at 7 o'clock in the morning

Marte and Kristin had made a great 17th of May breakfast

Petter and Jorgen enjoying breakfast with champagne

Kristin and Marte had baked a lot of rolls and "kringle"

Petter is holding the first speech for the day around 7.30 am.

It is not often that it is so hot at home that you could were this at 17th of May:)

Yvonne

Eating lunch at Rosegarden

Magnus, Ingrid and Christian is dressed up and ready for lunch.

Enjoying a drink before lunch

June, Magnus and Ingrid

Gutta boys

Sekkelop competition

kiwi skje lop

17 mai toget har bare en liten pause

Ingrid and Marie

Jorgen is serving his homemade Rommegrot

Jorgen is wishing us all welcome

Two happy girls

Weekend trip to Rotorua

This weekend me, Christian, Jorgen, Marte, Kristin and Petter went on a weekend trip to Rotorua. A short summary of the weekend: From friday to saturday we went camping next to a hot spring. When we arrived friday night we could just go into a natural spa next to our tent. Cool huh? So we started the evening with a cold beer in a hot pool in the middle of the forest and watched the stars. Afterwards we made gourmet dinner on Kristin and Marte's primus. On saturday we went ludging( kjorte olabil) down from the top of a gondola in Rotorua in the morning and went climbing for 3 hours in the evening. On Sunday mountainbiking was on the program. After 3.5 hours with biking we went to the hot spring again to relax our tired muscles:) It was an amazing weekend and it is really impossible to decribe it in words! You just have to come here and experience it, but the pictures will give a feeling for it I guess:)

I don't have all the pictures from the weekend yet, but I will post some of the pictures I got.