Mt Egmont is 2518 mt over the sea, what is not a lot comparing other mountains, however it has one of the borders on the sea so you have to start at almost the sea level. Māori legend says that Taranaki (Mt Egmont) previously lived with the Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu mountains of the central North Island but fled to its current location after a battle with Tongariro.

The route that we took it was quite hard to hike it but after 5 hours we reached the summit. On the way up we crossed only a few people and a man who was 83 years old. He told us that for the past three years he had been saying this is going to be my last year, however I don’t think he’ll not come on 2011. Believe me it was not an easy hike and being 83 years old and reach the summit it was a big endeavor! The 360 view from the summit and the snow in the valley were awesome.

On the way to Auckland we stopped at three sisters, a rock formation recommended by a collage. It is on the cost and there are some caves and a beautiful three rocks formation. Tide was low and I gave a second possibility to the ocean caves, this time everything was fine and we enjoyed a black sand beach.

We returned to Auckland on Monday, met Clovis and some friends from UK, and we all had some drinks at ponsonby social club. Later for dinner we cooked corns that we bought on a small town and the day after Juanx took his plane to Buenos Aires (Feli ya no lo tenes que extrañar mas y en el futuro viajaremos de a 4:).

It was really easy traveled with Juanx and we got very well. It seams yesterday when we started traveling, however time flew, and there is lot coming forward!

Enjoy all the pictures!

In New Plymouth we saw a live music show under TSB Bank Festival of Light that it was really cool and the next day we did one of the Taranaki volcano trekking on a raining day, spending the second night of the trip, at Wanganui. We arrived later in the night and we couldn’t find any hostel so we stopped by a police station to ask for it and a police officer escorted us to one. I knew that she´d not accept some caramelos of dulce de leche, however I offered them to her as a way to say thanks for have escorted us to the hostel what she answered: I´m in service and it is part of my work to make tourist comfortable with my city, thanks anyway… (One day the same is going to happen in Argentina)

On the third day we went to Wellington, NZ capital, which is beautiful. There are people playing music all over a pedestrian street and there is a lot to do futhermore the botanic gardens, Wellington museum and Victoria mt. In the Wellington museum it is the biggest octopus ever found it, almost 8mt, I remember reading the article in La Nacion when they cached it 3 years ago. In Rotorua we did Zorbing what is a recreation of rolling downhill in a plastic and transparent orb (there are some pictures in the gallery)! Finally enjoy the video of 4 kids playing sticky music in Wellington (I didn’t know that my camera didn’t record sounds when you zoom in or out on the video function, Samsung you should work on it)

• I learned that Wanganui is the longest navigable river in New Zealand.
• I learned that in Napier was level by an earthquake on 1931 and it was rebuilt with an art deco style.
• I learned that Taupo Volcano was the largest eruption during the last 20,000 years and Chinese people has created a machine to calculate earthquakes on 132AD, little before 1935 Richter´s magnitude.
• I learned that Mt Taranaki was with the other volcanoes in New Zealand but because Taranaki dared to make advances to Pihanga and was reproach by Tongariro (other volcanos from NZ) a battle ensued between them and because Taranaki lost he had to move to the west cost (Maori legend)
• I learned that Pablo Escobar had his bunker under an artificial lake with crocodiles and hippopotamus and I learned the differences between the paramilitary and the FARC.
• I learned that you need to check the lights are off before you get off the car.

Enjoy the pictures of this trip.

I met Paula, my friend from Colombia, on Melbourne. We studied at the same university and we traveled to Great Ocean Road with Juan and some other Colombians. During this 2nd trip together she was in charge of make the car a mess and to try to read the maps. She also asked me the most random questions that someone ever asked me, such as: If you have to create a super hero what powers would you give him?

Little notes:

First note: Paula was number 7 at the ICEFS, what is an exam from the Colombian government to test all the students in the superior educational system in Colombia.

Second note: In one moment I asked her the number of the road that we were on and she told me 70….. it was a speed warning sign. It was the first time that I thought the ICEFS was not well measurable.

Third and final note: After all the journey she said, in clear Spanish and not even drank, Tengo otitis en un ojo, what in English I suppose is: I have an ear infections in one eye…. so I called the educational ministry of Colombia that something was seriously wrong.

Even all of those little notes I know that Paula is brilliant and the trip was lot of fun, now I´m looking forward to see the south island, probably by march.