HiHo! :)

Still in the Beach Hostel...
I will move on tomorrow or the day after.

I had such a good time here with Nicole, Sabrina, Katie and Gerry (and all the others ;)), so it will be kind of hard to leave and head on, but I still look forward to do the Copland Track (I hope thats works out!), see the glaciers and go over Haast Pass towards Wanaka.
I really hope to meet you down in the south (or whereever) for another time (perhaps some weeks in Dunedin?! ;) )
Another proof of special places - special people!

Thanks for that week, have a lovely trip and cu :)

Here are some impressions of the last days here:

the hostel seen from the beach









Phillip, Matt and Hilke on the beach in front of the hostel




the first stunning sunset @ Punakaiki





















this photo is not faked at all! It really was like that :)








on the left side is the hostel... Is there a better location for a hostel??? ;)
































the famous blowholes of the Pancake Rocks really rock when it's high tide...



















... and look soooooo pretty when the sun is setting ;)







l to r: Nicole, Sabrina, Naomi
thanks for that lovely evening, making the pics possible and the dinner when I came back to hostel at 10 to 10 :)











































I still don't think it's THAT evil... ;)








































chilling on pancakes








































waited several mins till that bird finally made a move... :)

















while waiting for the sun to set finally, the first coffee after 1 week gave me really a hard time... Must have been funny to watch that nervously moving guy standing on top of that rock for no apparent reason ;)











absolutely stunning...



























on the left is the platform you can stand on to look into the blowhole







that was then on the way back to the hostel









it's only a 10min walk back to the hostel from the pancakes
Was in the end bit more than 300 pics up there withing just some hours...




next days we went up the Porarai river (or however it's spelled ;) ) to chill a bit on this rock lying in the river...









...of course not everybody just chilling all the time ;)

btw the water was very chilly aswell :)







some mins along the beach there were those things standing around...






















another stunning sunset
I don't know why everybody tells about the rainy and rough westcoast... We hab 2 rainy days within 1 1/2 weeks and one sunset was more beautiful then the one before :)



your shadow on a pancake (instead of your name on a rice corn) :)






thanks for (almost) not moving for 60secs! :)




















the entrance (or exit whatever you prefer) of the Punakaiki cavern seen from inside...
The glowworms inside were sooo cool :)





... and from outside

Hello out of my tent at the Beach Hostel in Punakaiki, only some mins away from the Pancake Rocks :)

Just added a few pictures of the rounding of Lake Rotoiti and will add more pics I made in the last weeks during the next days.

To have at least some form of cronology in all the pics I put them not on top of the blog, but sorted them in on the 25.11.09 (isn't it easter soon? so it's bit of a pratice for the search for all the eggs and stuff;) )...
Will do the same with the next pics (Nelson, Abel Tas, Golden Bay) and then hopefully it's again up to date here :)

Now both the batteries of my netbook and of myself have come to an end, so I will switch the pc for my pillow (the inflatable one I bought ;) ).

good night and more pics in the next days :)