From Taupo to Napier!

Rain and cloudy today! These have been the two major coordinates of today! Not my favorite ones! In this context we have had to find some stuff to do.

After a great morning running session along the Taupo Lake, we took off to the Wairakei Terraces and Thermal Health Spa. There we spent about three hours. Most of the time spent there was amazing, especially the pools and the massage; the walk around the so called geyser and vegetation is not worth, so save the money!

From the spa we went back to the Acacia Bay, but because of the weather we shot two pictures and then left to the central Taupo for lunch at Piccolo Restaurant.

After the lunch, with the clouds surveying the region we decided to head to Napier. As soon a we set the address on the GPS we learned that there are about 150 km between the two cities. Moreover, we understood that we will drive mainly through the nature since at the exit from Taupo there is a traffic sign indicating that the first petrol station will be after 130 km!!! Our thoughts proved to be true when we found ourselves driving around green surroundings, with interesting vegetation and many slopes and S curves. Even though there was an deserted area, we meet also a police car checking the traffic…to our big surprise.

After almost two hours we entered Napier. The city was threatened by dark and heavy clouds, but they got away with the time. The city is nice, having a special charm due to its architecture and proximity to the sea. We had a walk in the windy and chilly weather and then had dinner at Mister D Restaurant.

Tomorrow we plan to visit some of the attractions in Napier, afterward we’ll travel many km to Wellington. We are waiting forward to this trip.

From Coromandel Peninsula to Matamata, via Waitomo Caves!

Today has been the day when we left Coromandel Peninsula and headed south to Matamata as end destination. It is an 320 km driving distance according to our GPS. Yet we didn’t drive strait to the destination, but we stopped at the Waitomo Caves to explore some of them  and especially the Glowworms Cave.

Driving in the Coromandel Peninsula is fascinating: many beautiful views and a road with a lot of slopes and S turns; I loved it. Once one arrive at Thames. the road settles and becomes more “boring”, with flat roads only. However, the way our GPS chose for us to get to Waitomo Caves took us through a lot of secondary roads, I would say. There have been many roads where we drove alone, and there were many segments of road with very narrow roads.

It took us about three hours to get to the Waitomo Caves from Coromandel Town. At the caves we stopped with the thought of exploring all the three caves shown in most of the pictures with the caves. However, once in the tickets office we ended up buying a two hour tour with the tube in Glowworm Cave. It’s so because we are not very into all that theoretical part about caves, where one gets explanations about the history of the cave, creation etc. We wanted something more fun and interactive, and of course we wanted tese the Glowworm Cave, with those little worms lighting up the sky of the cave. There were two companies offering more or less a similar tour, but due to availability we had no choice but going into the caves with Footwhistle. It costs 139 NZD/person, for what they say it is a two hours tour, but it was actually about one and a half hour. The tour was fun and the cave they took us in was amazing too; we arrived at points where the water was 7 m high but we were actually 400 feet under the entrance level.

We were done with the visiting the caves at 5 PM, and because we still had about 100 km more to drive, we took of to our destination: Matamata. Driving there was more fun, that the previous segments, with some parts being quite similar with some from the Coromandel Peninsula. On the way there are not places worth visiting so there was not stop in our one and a half hour drive.

Matamata seem to be a tiny place, with everything they have run around the fame of The Hobbit. We visited the “central” part of the village, with the Broadway Street and stuff, and now we waiting forward to visiting the hobbit house tomorrow morning.

Keep tuned, I’ll be back with details.

 

In love with an alien!

I came in Denmark exactly three years ago! It was a decision I made pushed by the desire to experience the educational system in one of the civilized countries on this planet. Nothing more; just study! This was in my mind when I got here.

I had to say that before the autumn of that year, 2012, I visited Denmark for one week only in 2010; but, you know how it is when you visit a place for the first time, it’s all about holiday: relax, fun, easy-going etc., nothing serious, no hard feelings, and all these because you know you will be there for only a limited period of time. But the situation may change slightly when it comes to moving to a foreign country for a longer time; changes which help you speed up the process of getting integrated in the country’s culture, and to discover the country better; at least this is my story; a love story with a cold partner; a love story with all it’s ingredients; with fantastic moments, but with hard times as well.

However, even if I would like to, I won’t be able to put on paper all the aspects of my “relation” with Denmark; not even all the most important. Therefore I will just mention here some random aspects that struck me so hard that I can easy remember them now.

One of them was the weather. I am coming originally from a country with four seasons, from which a very hot one called summer. When I got here, in September, in my country the temperature was around 28 degrees; but in the same day a bit north, the temperature was 18, beside the wind which was blowing everywhere and everything, and made me wear cloths that in my country I would usually wear in the late autumn. The worst thing about my relationship with the Danish weather, is that since that moment I have been trying to get use with the temperatures, which make it looks like there are only to seasons here: autumn/winter (from August til June) and spring (in July, when the temperature goes up to 25 degree). This may make it easy for anyone to realise that now a jacket is as important to me as socks or underwear; I wear it almost year round here in Denmark.

Another thing about Denmark, that created turbulence during my stay here, is the Danish language; it is amazingly difficult to learn it, especially if you have other activities around it (like school and a full-time job, in my case). Of course, it is admirable that in Denmark are institutions, in every district, where you are taught Danish for free, from the beginner level to the level which is mandatory for  receiving the permanent residency in Denmark, or even to the level where, after finishing it, you can study, at a university level, programs taught in Danish; and again all these for free. Yet, to get these opportunity is for everybody, but to get to speak Danish language it is not (or not so easy and so soon). The most annoying thing about the Danish language and it place in one’s experience with Denmark, is that without it is very hard to do many things, like getting a job, friends etc.

Because I just mentioned for a couple of times about working in Denmark, I have to say that from this point of view, Denmark is a wonderful country; because there are jobs for everyone, and also guidance/help to get one; there are not jobs only for the ones who don’t want to work. In my case, I could find a job very soon after my arrival in Denmark; so, at the middle of September, at not even two weeks since I arrived in Denmark, I got a job. Of course I wanted to get a job, because I came in Denmark with money to be enough for only a couple of months, so from this perspective it didn’t even matter what kind of job it was; only to get paid. So, I got a full-time job as a cleaning assistant, in a hotel, and in order to be able to attend classes at my school, I had to take only the night shifts; so night at work, day at school, evening Danish classes (only two times a week). What was good about this job, it’s that it allowed me to go to school; it wasn’t addressed only to Danish speaking persons, and the salary was good enough to cover the monthly expenses for two persons. And here I come to the point where I release the fruit of love in my relationship with Denmark: it offers me money, I give “her” hard work, time and patience! I hope, in this way our relationship will be a long and healthy one.