Kia Ora

Kia Ora means hello in Maori.

I know, It's been a week since I updated my blog. But then again, I have more stories to tell you now :)

Let's see, last week, my friend Marianka and I went to China Town in Sydney on February 14 to get our minds of Valentine and to get into the Chinese New Year.
There was a lot of noise going on. People slamming on drums, dragons fighting in the streets, streetmarkets coloured in red and gold.
There was even a stage where they did some Chinese performances like lampion-dancing.
After our 'Chinese' day we had dinner in Kirribilli at Bangkok Sidewalk. A good thai place. We went back to the hostel to fix ourselfs a drink and watched the fireworks from the terrace.

The next day I had to leave beautiful Sydney, which had become my second home, to fly to Auckland, New Zealand.

On the third day of my trip I met a lady on a bus in Sydney, she lived in Hamilton New Zealand and had given me her address to come and stay with here if I would visit the north island.
So I did. I booked a ticket to Auckland and called the lady, whose name is Gail to let her know I'd be coming over.
On Monday I flew into Auckland. After the securtity checks (have you ever been arrested? what is the purpose of your trip? Do you carry any food like meat or fruit on you?) I got another stamp in my passport :)
Gail and her husband Michael were there to pick me up and after driving 1h20 we arrived at their gorgeous home in Hamilton.
The closest neighbours they have are 150 meters away. They grow grapes, tomatoes, potatoes, herbs, ... A real country house, or as it's called here: a farm.
I spend 3 dayes in Hamilton and got to experience the hospitality of New Zealand people.
I also got to experience sleeping in my own room in a double bed again :)

Today, Friday, I hopped on the Magicbus that will take me all the way down to Queensland and all the way up again to Auckland to fly to Melbourne on March 10.
We stopped in a town called Mattamatta, better known as Hobbiton. Where they filmed Lord of the Rings.

And now I'm in Rotorua. A town where you can smell the sulphur from the natural Thermal spa's. See the water and even the mud bubbling from the heat.
Tomorrow I'll check out Taupo and get to Wellington, the southern part of the Northern island. Where I need to take the ferry to the South island (logic no? :)
As I'm writing this on the terrace of my hostel in New Zealand watching the sunset. It's hard to imagine I'm almost 20.000 km from home.

Home... Yet another thing that's hard to define. I mean, if home is where the beer Stella is, I might as well move in anywhere in the world :)
When you travel like I do, you learn to live on your own square meter. You don't really miss the material things back home.(as long as they take my credit card that is:)
Still, there is a difference between a tourist and a traveller.
I consider myself a traveller. Someone who is eager to feel, breath and taste the places I go to. I wanna blend in and truly experience a city or a town as it is.
While a tourist is someone who will take his/her two weeks of vacation, travel to a place, go and see as many 'touristy' things as possible, takes pictures and then fly back home to tell people how beautiful the Opera House is or big Uluru is.
And that's just fine, but I wanna know more... I wanna get lost in a city and find myself in a part of town I wouldn't discover if I had stayed on the 'tourist-track'

But, whatever kind of traveller you are, go and see places even if it is in your own country. You'd be amazed with what you see, discover and learn...