New Zealand : Amazing country and people!

Hey everyone,

We’d like, with this article, to thank all of you for the time we spent together and which made our trip here unforgettable!! We already spent 4 months and half in New Zealand and it was not enough to discover this wonderful country !

We discover so many beautiful places, and have so great time with each of you!

So we’d like to thank :

• Simon and Aurélien to join us for a while in New Zealand, to be our family in Christmas and New Year Eve and with who we spend so many wonderful time! Thanks to fit you to our life style : wild camping, noodles, hitch hiking, sleeping in the car, diet of beer, couchsurfing…

• Our flatemates in Wellington to keep Elin’s room for us! Thanks Ashley, Hayden, Justin, Benny and Elin for this great time in your amazing house on the top of the hill, for New Year Eve, barbed game party, bread experiment… It was nice to live with you and feel at home! Thanks to show and advice us so many nice corners, share lot of time with us and correct our English even if it was cute!!! And don’t forget Ashley “you’re vegetarian so you cannot eat snakes!”

• Juan Pablo, Eszequiel, Santiago (our lovely Argentinos friends): To join us in the seedy backpacker, to spend a crazy New Year Eve with us (Santiago you’re really easy going to satisfy to sleep! Next time we let you a cover directly in our neighbour’s place!) , then to host us two time in your place in Te Puke. Thanks to cook, dance, go to the beaches with us!!!! It is so nice to have some friends and to see them again and again all along our trip…

• Mark : Thanks to picked up us between Blenheim and Wellington, to host us for more than one weekin your flat, to introduce us to your lovely and very nice friends Sam, Neck… Thanks to show us the Waitakere Ranges, to teach us how to fish, for this wonderful week end in Matapouri, to support us in our crazy time (our hysterical laughter every night… J )!

• Alyson and Don: to host us a week in your place and for your kindness. We loved spending this week with you, walking to Te mata peak and the perfect time in your boat, listening Andrea Boccelli on the middle of the ocean.

• Mickael : Thanks to pick up some crazy girls in a roundabout and to spend these pleasant times drinking wine and talking politics… ;). Thanks again to contact Callum for us.

• Callum and all the team of the Discovery Lodge : Thanks Callum to host us, for the advice on the bed and breakfast management, to lend us your car… Thanks Daniel for the wonderful meals and the glow warms. Thanks Jade and Tania for your advices on the different walks. Thanks Maria and Easy to teach us how to clean perfectly a room. Thanks everyone for your kindness, your truthiness and to integrate us to your team. If you are fed up about your spaghetti cans on the breakfast (no comment!)…in France we have very good croissants…! J

• Heather Smith to welcome me in your amazing farm,to show me how to milk, to share your knowledge about gardening, pruning… To organize with all the team a party for my birthday, to picked up us to your pick nick party and for all this great time with you! I really enjoy and have a lot of fun in Tauroa Farm… Thanks also to the woofer Eitan, Max, Woolfgang, Ania and their 2 kids to organize a beautiful meal for my birthday, for all these yanniv games evening and for this great time together!

• Cheeky Pipi (Liz, Phil, Sagar, Roger, Tsuki, Tomy…): I spent a great month in your company. Thanks a lot to try to teach me how to make a good coffee and its pattern!! I really liked working with you guys, in the kitchen or in the front house. It was fun and I learnt lot of stuffs! Thanks to be patient with me even in the busy time when I did not get all the instruction the first time! ;)

• Daryl : Thanks to host us one week and explain us how to look after passion fruits. Thanks for the boat rides, to introduce us to your family, to show us Manganui and to be so nice and relax with us… We hope that one day men and women will think the same way… J

• Patrick : We spent a great time in your paradise with you and your lovely dogs. Thanks to teach us to gather mussels, to put up a nat, to fish eels with a spear, to cook home-made pizzas (your recipe is now famous…J ), to try to hunt an opossum to taste it and we’d just like to know if… you would like to GO TO RUN???? ;)

• Jacko and Teao: Thanks to host us two days, for your very impressive map of the city (you’re really better than the I site), to share your culture with us and for your kindness…

• Rosalie : Thanks to welcome us, for this 2 sports days, for this walk in the native bush, to practice with us kayaking, to lend us your bike for a ride! We really like our time in your place! You’re so plenty of energy… For the moment Laurine’s working on her phobia in cockroach! J

• Craig : Thanks to host all of us, for this crazy night with your friends, to share all this great time together (quad, dinner, walks…)!

• Kyle : Thanks to show us to some nice corners like waterfalls or the hot pools under the stars… It was great! And sorry to disappoint you but all French girl are not crazy!

• Jennyfer : Thanks to give the series and all the girl movies. Now we’re addict to Hart and Dixie! We had a lot of fun with you, good luck for your great job! J

• All the people who picked up us when we hitch hiked: We could not travel and enjoy so much without all our hitch hiked experiences. Thanks to all of you we travel through the North Island (2475 km by hitch hiking), discovering the country by local people’s eyes! Thanks a lot for all these adventures (driving on the beach, discovering wild horses, visiting the surrounding, hunting with a sound toy…). It was just handsome experiences which enables that this travel be so specific!

THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING!

We’re sad to leave your beautiful country. We were just so amazed by the kindness of the population who always tries to make the best to integrate us, to make us feel comfortable. You really live in a preserved country so enjoy it because you’re lucky!!

For us, the adventure keep going and the next step is the South East Asia with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

And do not forget that Annecy (and the tasty bread, the good cheese, the wine… ) is waiting for you. We’ll be more than happy to host you and make you discovering the French Alps!

Take care and all the best.

Keep in touch…

Laurine and Mailys