Home » New Zealand » Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, The glaciers, Milford Sound, Mount Cook, Abel Tasman National Park, Wellington, Tongariro National Park, Bay of Islands, Auckland

South Pacific - part II

Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, The glaciers, Milford Sound, Mount Cook, Abel Tasman National Park, Wellington, Tongariro National Park, Bay of Islands, Auckland

Hector Yague
2005-10-09 15:46:17

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what's happening with their own aboriginal people in Australia, here in New Zealand the Maori are doing alright, socially-integrated and their culture and language remain strong. Good for them!

Maori folkloric dance is pretty fun and merry. We also got to see the haka (Maori war dance) which used to be performed before every battle in order to scare the shit out of the enemies beforehand. It's been launched to international fame by NZ's rugby team and national icon All Blacks, who dance the haka right before the match kicks off.

Once the exhibition had concluded, Felix and I called it for the day and went out for a couple of beers to a local pub. Well, I did have just a couple of beers, but Felix managed to bump New Zealand's average yearly beer-consumption rate all by himself that night. Drunk like a true englishman I reckon haha!

Auckland

So, the day after we eventually got to our very last destination in New Zealand, the 1.2 million pop. city of Auckland. If Wellington is the political and cultural heart of NZ, Auckland is definitely the economical hub. We arrived in the evening, and being it Felix's only day here (he was flying the next morning), we walked downtown despite our latent fatigue. Didn't do much really, simply toured about some, checked the town's casino (we didn't gamble of course, not that we could afford it anyway haha!), had a frugal dinner, and dragged our worn out asses back to bed by 10 pm.

In the morning at 8 am we returned the car at the rental office and Felix and I shook hands good-bye in an emotive farewell. It had been three weeks on the road together sharing the NZ experience and he's a cool geezer (I learnt this word from him). He's going to spend the next three weeks in Fiji before finally flying back to England after one full year worth of traveling. In ...