05.01. - 07.01.: Te Urewera / Lake Waikaremoana

Yo. Montag morgen ging es ab in den Park, der uebersetzt "burnt penis" heisst. Also immer schoen aufpassen ... . Da ich keinen Bock auf 7 Milliarden Kilometer gravel und 40000 Kurven hatte, wurde ein Driver angeheuert, der ausserdem Essen und alles andere geregelt hat. Brav, so soll das sein. War absolut sein Geld wert, thanks a lot for everthing, Brad. I highly recommend "Walking Legends", a lot of spots we visited we would never have reached/found ourselves, esepcially the "Sanctuary Loop" and "Lou's Lookout". Te Urewera itself is stunningly beatiful, remote, and empty. We met almost noone alhough its high season. The rainforest kicks ass, lots of ancient trees and beautiful sights. Am Dienstag gab es eine kleine Ruderepisode auf Lake Waikareiti, war super because I rowed to an island with another lake on it. The only problem was that my last rowing session war vor ca 7000 Jahren - my technique really sucked and I had to spend a lot of energy to compensate for the lack of skill. The lovely Begleitperson didn't do any rowing of course, someone has to smile and look good, I suppose. :-) Am Mittwoch auf der Rueckfahrt dann noch einen sidetrip in den Whirinake Forest, auch der Hammer, unglaublich dicht, richtig viele komische alte Baeume und natuerlich Farnhell. Oh, I nearly forgot, the best part was the accommodation, we stayed at the Lake Whakamarino Lodge, wenn ihr jetzt noch wisst, dass "wh" wie "f" gesprochen wird, ist das durchaus lustig. Der penis wurde aber nicht an flauschigen Schafpopoechen geburnt.

Another thing: I beat a native speaker two times out of three at scrabble.

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