The next day we woke up to a wonderful sunrise and clear sky! Yet again, we were lucky with the weather and the forecast proofed once more that the weather in NZ is just as predictable as the lottery. So we decided to drive up to Cathedral Cove on the east side of the Coromandel.  It was an 1 hour walk from Hahei beach to the cove. We were surprised to find us walking through a beautiful forest along the coastline with breathtaking views onto the Pacific. I could not help but think that this felt a lot like walking The Abel Tasman just in flipflops and sunshine :).   When we got to Cathedral Cove it was 1pm and most of the people who got there in the morning had already left. So there were only a few people on the beach, which made the scenery we were about to see even more special.

Cathedral Cove really has a majestic feel. When the sun shines through the cove and the sky above you is as clear as the blue ocean water, it just makes you think you arrived in paradise. Have a look at the picture and decide for yourself. As you can probably imagine, we were in 7th heaven and spent almost the whole afternoon at the beach. Mathias even saw a stingray when he went for a swim. We were so happy. We had one more day left at the Coromandel before it was time to head back to Auckland. After that day though it didn’t matter if it would be raining or not the next day. So nothing prepared us for what we were to experience on our last day at the Coromandel. When we woke up the sky was filled with sunshine again and there was not a cloud in sight. We thus decided to drive up even further to the north. The tip of the peninsular is still mostly untouched and only accessible via gravel roads. It is thus a perfect place to seek loneliness and quiteness for a last day on the beach.

We picked a small bay on the map that did not get any big mentionings in the Lonely Planet in the hope we won’t meet other tourists there. The drive through the north tip was already very impressive. Coming from Coromandel Town where we had spent the night, we drove along the rocky west coast for a bit before crossing to the east side again. The pass brought us through bright green farmland and mangrove swamps before reaching the coast. The spot we picked was called Waikawau Bay. When we got there, there were only a few holiday homes situated along a small street.  However they seemed empty at this time of year. We parked our van, walked down to the beach and this is when we discovered our real first paradise spot of this trip. In front of us was a beautiful bay with a stunning view onto the South Pacific Ocean. As we walked along the beach and found a both sunny and shady spot underneath a tree, we were thrilled to realize that we were the only ones on this whole beach. And that is how it stayed throughout the whole day: The blue South Pacific, beautiful sunshine, two seagulls and us. Our first paradise spot! Thank you New Zealand for saying goodbye to us with such wonderful last 2 days. We will be back!

When we checked the weather forecast for the Marlborough region, we also checked the weather for the North Island for the days after, as we wanted to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing in the middle of the island and maybe even a walk around Mount Taranaki on the west coast. When the forecast said there will only be one really sunny day on the North Island for the whole next week, the decision was clear. We would skip Mount Taranaki where there was only rain forecasted and head straight to Mount Tongariro. It is known as the best day walk in New Zealand and on a clear day you can even see Mount Taranaki from the Tongariro summit. So straight really meant getting up before sunrise the very next day, taking the first ferry to Wellington, there only stopping to book our bus from the car park to the starting point of the walk and continuing on to Tongariro National Park. We drove all day and our hope for good weather changed as often as the weather itself that day. We drove through parts of sunshine and then suddenly heavy rain would come down for 1 hour only to stop again and leave a wall of thick clouds behind. By the time we got to our campground it was completely dark, but the sky was clear. It put our hopes up again for a good day, except that it was freezing cold: the temperature that night dropped to -5º. Thank god we had our downy sleeping bags with us. The next morning we had to get up before sunrise again to park our car at the end of the walk and catch our bus that would bring us to the starting point of the walk. We would then basically walk back to our car. When we got out of the van the sky was completely cloudless! We were so excited despite the cold. It was still freezing. In fact, the people next to us who slept in a tent actually had ice on their tent! So we started the trip with 3 layers of clothes, but smiling faces due to the clear sky. On the way to the car park the sun rose and was so bright it blinded us. It was getting better every minute! At the car park it turned out that we weren’t the only ones who planned on this one sunny day to do the walk. 3 buses were full with people. That was actually the first time we did a walk with a big crowd in New Zealand. So far, even though we met other travellers at information centres or at common meeting points, we were usually on our own as soon as we started the walk. This one was different, but it didn’t matter anymore when the bus driver dropped us off with the words: „Welcome to Tongariro National Park. You chose the best day we had in a very long time!“ YEAH, we could have screamed!! All the rush and hassle had been worth it. And then we got out of the bus and the first view already blew us away.

Mount Ruapehu stood proudly to our left and dazzled us with its snow covered top shining in the sun. Little did we know then that every few kilometers a completely different view would surprise us. The standard crossing is a 19.4 kilometer walk. We added 3 kms as we went up to the summit of Mount Tongariro from where you are supposed to have the best view over the country and maybe even see Mount Taranaki on the west coast. So we reckoned we had an 8 hour hike in front of us. Off we went with still 3 layers of long-sleeve clothes on and with probably around other 100 people. Luckily our hiking experience put a gap between us and most of the other group as we speeded up the track in the beginning. The sun was shining brightly now and we had a perfect view of Mount Ngauruhoe, which you can recognise by its red colour and perfect cylindric shape in the pictures. (For all the Lord of the Rings fans, this is Mount Doom.)

About 30 min into our walk we were down to shorts and t-shirts and had already put sunscreen on. The strangest thing though was that my body seemed to deal with 3 different temperatur zones. My head and upper body were hot from the sun, my hip, upper legs and feet were at normal temperature, but my lower legs were a bit cold due to the cold wind. With long trousers I was too hot though. That phenonemon would continue throughout the whole day as the weather changed with the height from warm and windy to cold and icy winds to then warm again as we walked downhill. I think I changed my clothes about 5 times that day :). The first part of the track took us through a valley full of low alpine plants and bushes, climbing over a succession of lava flows from Mount Ngauruhoe to our right. With every step the sunlight changed Ngauruhoe’s colour from brown to dark and even bright red. Having discovered the panorama function on our tablet a few days before, I could not stop taking pictures every few minutes. When I took them, I thought that a lot of them will probably look alike, but when I viewed them in the evening again I discovered that every picture actually portraits a different colour combination and scenery. Not surprisingly, you will find a lot of panorama pictures in the Tongariro gallery :). The end of the first part brought us to the top of the South Crater which is 1660 metres high. It already became very windy up there and as we continued on to the Tongariro summit, which is 1961 high, the wind turned ice cold despite the shining sun. The ascent was quite steep and some parts of the ground were still covered with thin ice which made it quite slippery. These weather conditions however also created an almost mystic atmosphere, as the heat of the sun turned the ice on the volcanic gravel directly into gas. Steam was coming of the ground all around us and turned it into a magical scenery. We are about to reach the top of Mount Tongariro when the summit is suddenly covered in clouds. Oh, what a disappoinment. All this way to get a great view and then this. Should we even walk up to the end if we can’t see anything? Mathias motivated me to keep going as surely the clouds would go away after some minutes. So we did. We reached the top still covered in clouds, but just a few minutes later the clouds really started to move on and a stunning view over the valley opened up to us. We could even see as far as Mount Taranaki on the west coast. It was so impressive!

We could not get enough of it and decided it was the best place to have our lunch. After a 20 minute lunch, we started down again to continue the other half of the track. To be honest, at that point we thought we had seen the best parts already, but we were wrong again. As we walked down the crater it was incredible to feel the hot ground of the still active crater underneath us. And around the next corner was yet another different view of Mount Ngauruhoe shining in gold and red colours to the right and looking onto the Emerald Lakes on the left. You could now also see where the volcano erupted and left a massive crack that Mathias lovingly called „The big V…“. I think you know what we mean, when you see the picture :).

From the Emerald Lakes we walked on to the Blue Lake that glittered in the sunshine and just looked so tranquil in the middle of this volcanic landscape. The picture of Mathias standing in front of it simply is for me the picture perfect. After that there were 2 hours left to walk and the leaflet didn’t say very much apart from a nice walk through the Rotopaunga valley along alpine bushes and flowers. We were thus a bit surprised to suddenly stand in front of sign saying: You are entering the active volcanic hazard zone. And indeed a few meteres later you could smell and see the active volcano Rahui. Quite a bit of smoke was coming of it. How exciting!

The rest of the walk was then about an hour down the valley and again had a complete change in scenery when we suddenly walked through a dense beech forest. We arrived at the car park 7 1/2 hours after we started and were still mesmerized by what we had seen. This was indeed the most spectacular tour in New Zealand. Even now, days later as I am writing this post and looking at the pictures over and over again, I am so impressed. And how lucky we have been with the weather! The next day was all misty and rainy again and as we left Tongariro National Park, not a single volcano was visible. Was it all a dream?

We had booked our 2 nights at the huts along the track on our arrival day in Auckland 2 weeks ago. So in front of us was a proper 3 day hike. The track is very famous and one of the best coast hiking tracks in New Zealand. It goes through wild rainforest, yellow sandy beaches and rocky streams. So enough reason to be very excited :). Unfortunately, we arrived at our starting point Marahou on a very rainy day and the weather forecast said it would be the same for the next 3 days. We took a campground very close to the starting point of the track in Marahou. To cheer us up, I made some dinner, which was all fine until I broke the glass lid of the stove in the van after I placed the hot pan with fresh roasted chestnuts on it. It broke in 1000 pieces, quite spectacular actually ;). My family will now probably say: „So typical“. And then in addition it started to rain so badly, it sounded like the world is coming to an end. The next morning was thus a big surprise to us after having had very little sleep due to the loud rain on our van roof. The morning welcomed us with less clouds, blue sky and lots of sunshine! So after 2 hours of final preparations, we finally started our trip. We had a 24 km track in front of us, but were very happy about the unexpected weather change and the fact that we had no one else with us.

I was so happy, I could not resist to take a small bath in the sea during our quick break. So refreshing!!! It was just great to see the sunlight shining through the green leaves of the forest and listening to the birds around us. We we surrounded by fern plants tall as trees and most of the plants looked like they have been here since million of years. We went up and down and almost every corner had another view onto small golden bays and beaches.

Our small challenge for the first day was a low tide crossing of Torrent Bay for 30 min. We had to be there at a specific time to be able to cross the little stream at its lowest point and it still meant walking through knee high water. So we took our shoes off. Natalie started to cross the stream first and I stayed behind to take a picture.  But then she asked for some help. So I put the camera in my left pocket and started to cross the stream as well. The water came up really fast and when I tried to pull up my pants a bit higher the camera dropped out of my pocket and fell into the water (I know, I can hear my family already: „So typical…!“). I could get it out very quickly, but it was still all wet.

During the second half of the crossing all I could think about was if we lost all pictures or the camera was broken or both!? Natalie was sooo patient with me these days even though I broke the stove lid just a couple of hours before as well! We stopped for a late lunch and checked our stuff. The camera was dead, but fortunately all pictures were still available on the SD card. So we enjoyed our homemade sandwiches and relaxed on the beach a bit. I looked around and it was just us, how wonderful! But we could see the clouds coming again.

We headed off for the last 4 hours (12km) and reached Barks Bay, our booked hut for the night. With the last steps the weather turned rapidly into rain and wind. We were happy to have made it there safely and on time. All huts along the track serve fresh water, a wood fired oven, benches, a table, no electricity but candles and mattresses. There is space for more or less 25 people. All food and cooking equipment needs to be brought. It was so cozy inside and good to stay there for the night, as we had heavy rain all night long. The morning started with light rain. We slept till 9 a.m. as we needed some rest after our long distance hike the day before. We left to Awaroa Hut at 11 a.m., which was planned as a 4 hour trip. Rain and wind became stronger but our rain clothes did a very good job for most of the part. Because of a first steep part and our fast pace, we sweated a lot though. Parts of the track followed the beach line and other trampers told us that they had to pass this part in hip deep water at high waves. Oh no, the heavy rain and wind were already very challenging. In order to avoid to get cold while waiting for a lower tide in this part, we decided to keep on going without shoes. The tide was fortunately lower than announced and despite heavy rain and storm we made it safely through this part and found some less exposed parts of the track in the forest to put our shoes back on. Finally we reached Awaroa Hut at 3 p.m. There was not a single dry part on me and Natalie, but the fire place was already fired up with wood and we started to warm up and dry our stuff. Step by step all our companions of the last night arrived and we were happy that all of them made it wet but safely. It rained all night long and the hut based ranger told us that the water taxis were already not allowed to run that day and will probably not be allowed to come the next day to pick us up from our next days hiking stop Totaranui, which was meant to be our finish point. We should walk back the next day to the nearby Awaroa Lodge to call them for further information at 9 a.m. Despite our little problem we had a very nice evening together with the people. It turned out most of them have been traveling for a long time and we received great tips for our trips to Australia and Asia.

It rained all night again and the next day started early for all of us at 6.30 a.m. As expected the weather was so bad, we could not continue our planned 3rd day route. Instead we had to go back to the lodge to check if a water taxi would bring us back. Our ranger gave us last instructions how to cross the bay at low tide. Once there it was not a big surprise to us to hear that all water taxi services for that day and maybe the day after were to be cancelled! The final decision came at 12 a.m. when Natalie was told that the boats definitely were cancelled for the whole day. Now it was official, we were stranded on the Abel Tasman Track. Even the streets north and south of us were closed due to earth slips and tree falls as well. No one was allowed on the track anymore and no buses or water taxis were allowed to run. We both had just enough food to cover us till the next morning, but most of our new friends did not. We decided to asked at the lodge if we could buy some food of them to cook for all of us and they were so friendly. Only the limitation of money and cooking equipment stopped me from cooking a 5 course dinner for everyone ;). The kitchen chef was so amused about our request of 1,5 kg of rice and some leftover veggies, that he made us a deal for just 15 dollars to buy that of him. Back at our hut we all put our leftovers together and cooked the best tasting veggie rice I ever made to feed 7 very hungry stranded hikers.

The next morning the storm was gone. The ranger told us that our water taxi would probably be going today. Nevertheless, he said it was the first time in his 15 years of working there that a water taxi could not come for 2 days in a row. What a historic moment to share! As predicted, all water taxi were running that day again and we caught our water taxi at 10.30. am. At best weather we enjoyed a beautiful boat trip along the coast. It was so nice to feel the sun on our skin again. Our driver was so friendly, he even stopped at a seal colony for a while so we could catch a view of them. Unfortunately, we do not have any pictures of this part yet, as the camera is broken and we did not want to take out our Samsung tablet on open water. As soon as we will receive the pictures from our stranded companions though, we will share them. In the meantime, have a look at the gallery to see some more pictures of the trip.

Our little adventure trip ended safely back in Marahou. Happy and satisfied we said goodby to our new friends and started immediately to find a hot shower

When we planned the whole trip and New Zealand in particular, we actually discussed if it is a good idea to go to one of the most beautiful places on earth right at the start, as it will set a high standard for everything else to come. For now I can say it was the right thing to do, because it confronted us really quickly with the most important thing we have this coming year and need to learn to worship properly: time. We for once have time to just stay and enjoy the present, without thinking about the list of things to do at home or work. And often it is enjoying the simple things that we take for granted when talking about it, but that are actually still a phenonemon. Like our night at Hokonui Hills, where we had a perfect clear sky and looked up at the stars for the first time since arriving in New Zealand. Not only did we see the milky way very clearly, but it made us realize how amazing it really is to be standing on the other side of the planet and seeing the same stars as two weeks ago in Munich. And as we stand there gazing at this beautiful sky, a shooting star passes by and makes our hearts jump with joy. What a special moment to remember. So this was the first sign to start taking it slower, but only today, 2 days later, did we actually manage to have our first dinner while watching the sun go down.

The days before we just about made it to the camping ground as the sun was gone and dinner was served in the dark. But here, with such spectacular views and dinner settings, everything else would feel so wrong. It feels like we are at the heart of the earth and all you want to do is take in every second of it. Yesterday, we hiked up the mountains and today we did a kayak tour. I wish I could put what we have seen into the right words or show you the perfect picture worthy of it, but it is impossible.

Every time you see an amazing view, take a picture and look at it, you are disappointed of how little of the actual stunning scenery is captured. So while we did the most incredible kayak tour today, we tried to burn the views and feelings we experienced into our brains forever.

And while you can have a look at the pictures we took to get an impression, I can only recommend you to come here and see and experience it for yourself. Until then, enjoy the pictures.