To Middle Earth and back again

by Eran Backler - 22:13 on 24 December 2011

Before heading to New Zealand,

we spent a few days on the Great

Barrier Reef in Queensland Australia,

including a whole day on a pontoon

in the outer reef where we had time to snorkel,

Scuba-dive and mingle with all the amazing tropical

fish and corals in the reef. A first for Lauren, and a very

magical experience.
 

We then flew to Melbourne (never again!), and then

made our way along the coast to Sydney, where we

enjoyed concerts and performances in the Sydney

Opera house, beach life and the Australian Museum.

Eran also climbed on the famous Sydney Harbour

bridge and had a backstage tour of the Sydney Opera

house.

We then flew to Auckland, New Zealand, and while

Lauren retired to the Vipassana Centre for a 10-days

meditation course, Eran and Lucian travelled through

the beautiful landscapes of Northland and the

Coromandel peninsula.

We joined a hosting program and stayed with some

lovely local people including a couple of Maori families,

where we learnt a bit about their tradition and way of

life. Many Maori families have lots of children, we

stayed with one big family of 10 children! Which was

quite a chaos!! we enjoyed the experience though and

they were very nice.
 

We also spent a couple of days in the beautiful Mana

retreat Centre, peaceful and nourishing for us.

We enjoyed a stay at a kiwi farm too.

The three of us reunited in sulphur stinky Rotorua,

where we stayed with the Macgregors, a lovely family

that Eran stayed with 6 years ago during his previous

travels to New Zealand. They live in a rural lifestyle

block with a vegetable and herb garden, chickens,

ducks, cows, donkey, goats, pigs and sheep. The goat

jumped on our car and chased and butted Lauren, but

all the other animals were friendly!!

In Rotorua, we watched and smelt the sulphur of the

Geysers and boiling bubbly mud pools and enjoyed

basking in the lovely hot springs.

We then visited the filming site of Hobitton from Lord

of the rings, which is also currently being used for the

upcoming film of “The Hobit”, it was lovely walking

amongst hobbit holes. We also visited the filming site

of “The Whale Rider” in a remote Maori beach

community. We stayed in Tauhara retreat centre,

at Lake Taupo before heading to Wellington, narrowly

escaping a host in a very creepy house, we don't know

if it was haunted or what, but it gave us such a scare

we made our excuses and fled to a hotel where we

scrubbed and scrubbed off all the nasty energy in the

shower!! A quick visit to the museum, and then

catching the Ferry to the South Island.

Arriving in the South island we spent 4 hours on a boat

in Picton looking for elusive dolphins to swim with,

Lucian was not impressed with this trip and neither

were we, returning to shore still dry, having seen only

a glimpse of a seal...

After that, a day at The Abel-Tasman National Park,

hiking through green woods and golden beaches.

Lucian slept on the beach while we soaked up the

turquoise sea and sun, too cold to swim but such a

lovely sight. We stopped at Hokitika on the West Coast,

which is the capital of Jade carving & gold mining,

and Eran went on a Bone-carving workshop as well as

black-water rafting: floating on a tube through caves

filled with stalactites, stalagmites & thousands

of glow worms. Lauren and Lucian walked through the

woods and had a picnic by the clear waters waiting to

watch the cavers emerge floating down the river.

We then stopped at the Glaciers, where Eran and

Lucian had a Helicopter flight with a snow landing at

the top of the Fox Glacier. Lucian has been dying to

go on a helicopter for months, and when ever he had

seen one he expected it to come and pick him up, and

got quite upset when it didn’t! so this time - he did it!

We continued through the majestic Kiwi Alps to

Queenstown, the New-Zealand hub for recreational

activities. Eran went river-sledging where he almost

drowned and also had a day course of paragliding,

which involved a lot of running around a field with a

heavy bag on his back, and a bit of hovering for a few

seconds! Lucian enjoyed going up the hill with a

cable-cart and down the hill with a Luge-car.

We spent Eran’s birthday in Arrowtown before making

our way to Christchurch. Outside of Christchurch we

spent the morning swimming with the Hector Dolphins,

the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world.

Thankfully Lucian enjoyed the day this time and it was

a beautiful experience. The water was very cold and we

were shivering for a while after! but we got to see

them jump & had good contact swimming with them. 

We paddled a boat down the stream in the Christchurch

Botanical gardens before meeting Tessa, a friend of

Eran’s who lives in Christchurch. We talked with her

about the earthquakes and destruction that took place

in the city. We had a look at the city center, which is

still closed off, with the cathedral mostly in ruins and

other buildings and roads cracked and fallen.

We had an ominous feeling, especially as we have

noticed that some places we have visited on this

journey have had some kind of disaster just before or

after we visitted...

A day after we left Christchurch a 5.9 double

earthquake hit the city again…

We had a long journey from Christchurch all the way to

London, with a stop in South Korea, where we

managed to go on a 3 hours trip, exploring a traditional

Korean Park and flea market. In the plane Lucian slept

a lot of the way, which was a blessing. He also enjoyed

getting a tray of food brought to him, & found that

very exciting!

Our travels have finally come to an end, and we are

now settling down, preparing for the birth of our

second child, and our next steps in life. We would like

to thank all of you who followed up on our journey,

through this blog, and to all the amazing people we

met along the way.

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