New Year's Eve in the Marlborough Sounds

Rob and Aneke, who emigrated from Holland to New Zealand some 20 years ago, kindly invited Anne, Nynke and me to their property in the Marlborough Sounds for New Year's Eve.

It took us 1/2 h to get from the gate to the house down in one of the bays, partly over a steep and narrow track through the bush. But it is fully worth it!

View from the house

"Our" beach. What else can I say?

Rob and Aneke's bays. Their property is so large that it comprises several secluded, very beautiful bays of white sand and amazing rock, in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

Everything was prepared for the New Year's Eve party.

The water was amazing. When we surfing on New Year's Day, we saw a huge eagle ray (a bit like a sting ray) in the surf right in front of us.

View on French Pass from one of the hills.

Jolly get-together (with Anne & Nynke)

Good times! (Rob on the far left)

The house as seen from the surrounding hills

Deck at the beach


Bonfire at the beach to welcome the New Year

An amazing night at the beach

Summer Road Trip on the South Island

East Coast Evening

Christmas Eve - Kiwi style: With BBQ at the beach

A meddlesome sea lioness in Curio Bay

Catlins view

Dolphins visiting me while I am surfing

Full waterfalls after a few days of rain

Nugget Point in exceptionally good weather

Kaikoura seals with pups

Spot the dolphins! (Sorry for the bad shots)

S'later Palmy!!

So...this is it! 18 months in this wonderful country... and tomorrow morning I'm heading back to good old Europe. Phil will stay here for a bit longer and will take up the blog again. Thanks heaps guys for the most amazing farewell present ever, I hope we meet again somewhere, some time in the future. NZ rocks!

The Lost Gipsy Gallery

Ok, this is one of the funniest things we've seen in New Zealand (and thanks again to the Lonely Planet guide...): The Lost Gypsy Gallery. This guy (who is a surfer, by the way) works in a bus that is filled with gadgets he's made himself out of junk and recycling items. Everything is wind or solar powered and made out of...well, anything he's been finding around!! We spent hours playing with the toys and having a look around the garden where all his best creations are on display.

Tunnel Beach

Tunnel Beach, a new place we discovered in our recent visit to the South Island, is just two kilometres south of Dunedin. The place got its name because of a passage that was carved years ago through a rock to give access to a sheltered beach at the base of the cliffs. The walk to the beach is an easy one hour return- although there's quite a bit of a climb involved on the way back to the carpark.

The views on the way are spectacular, and once at the beach we had a lot of fun trying to climb up the huge rocks there.

Climbing up Mt. Ngauruhoe

The team (from left to right): Rayon, Phil, Mishi, Jose & Sylvia

Con Rito y Milita en la Isla Norte

First day in the Coromandel

After a maori performance in Whakarewarewa

Relaxing in some hot pools near Taupo

Looking for Paua...

Getting ready for a day looking for Paua at Flat Point. (Both of us together with Jackson, Mishi and Beata)

Riversdale, awesome spot to chill out after a morning in the water

Biggest ice cream ever in Masterton, on our way home

The Paua with some garlic, ginger and a little bit of pepper...soo good!

Best spot to camp out ever!!

trying our brand new BBQ on the beach...somewhere north of Wainui

6:30 sunrise

I'm on a boat!

We went on a boat cruise around Gisborne's harbour, on one of the oldest boats in town!! It had been recently restored, and the guys in charge were a couple of old men who were very happy to show us the best spots around and tell us about the place. The weather was brilliant, so we had a very good time...couldn't see any dolphins though :-(