The prettiest blues.

New Zealand's shades of blue are out of this world.

I am watching, day by day, nails on my toes turning violet. Thomas says they will turn black soon. But really, I had no issues with my hiking shoes until now.

We have done the Tongariro Northern Circuit which is the well known Great walk of New Zealand, taking you on a 45km long circular hike around the volcano (the one where Frodo destroyed The ring! Pretty cool). Not gonna lie, that was really really hard. I think I was never that exhausted as on the second day of the hike when we came to our van at the parking lot and just falled asleep until the next morning. I had the worst migraine half of the second day, forced to be drinking very little because we were running out of water quite quickly. This hike is supposed to take 3-4 days, but we decided the hut is quite expensive and we can make it in 2 days haha. Well, we did, but it was very very challenging.

The morning view from the hut was the prettiest ever though. And there was the most beautiful waterfall ever, like 20 meters from the hut!

Lately we have also tried Thomas's insurance, because he has some longing digestion issues since we left Europe. We have visited hospital in Tauranga, there was a strike, were sent to a private clinic, then to a lab, waited for the results.... yesterday we visited another hospital in Taupo. So things are not only as pinky as on my instagram. This is very tiring and I know how much he is suffering and really hope we will find some effective help soon.

Other than that, we jumped on quite chilled wave these days! We are basically just chilling, here and there, around Lake Taupo, enjoying the free camping time, talking about life, creating new visions, reading books, shopping for food, then cooking, sometimes just being locked in the car listening to raindrops hitting our rooftop.

Ten days until our job starts and roadtrip ends.

 Board, love.

Once you love it, you will never stop. It all started when I was a young teenage girl buying Board magazine from my pocket money and was fascinated by all those surf travel stories from faraway places. Places I never thought, by that time, that I could ever travel to by myself. Surf was a dream. I started snowboarding soon after, when I was around 15 years old. Back in US on my work and travel experience me and my friend were building our own skateboards from the desks that some spoilt kids left there. It was pretty cool, we ordered the rest of components online while we were painting the desk our very own designs, only for that later on that summer we could ride the streets of California like a pro! Dream. That one is still in my room back in Czech, travelled all the way back from US with me. We even tried wakeboard and surf for the first time, that was the time I realized this sport is way much much harder than I could have ever imagined. Surfing is still on my radar. Seems I am just attached to everything 'board'.

Now here I am, at Lake Taupo in Central New Zealand, buying my first longboard ever, riding it around the lake, and thinking about why I always buy boards when adroad... It seems like my little ritual. Move to another country, buy a board. Little weird but I kinda love it.

(Oh, and I recently collected a new pic of my mug, overlooking Lake Taupo and Tongariro national park.. In fact, hello from Tongariro today! We are just at the campsite at the beginning of Northern circuit trek, preparing for the hike which should take us two days.)

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Kdyz si to jednou zamilujes, uz proste nemuzes prestat. Vsechno to zacalo, kdyz jsem si jako mala holka kupovala casopis Board a hltala vsechny surfarske cestopisy a fotostories z dalekych zemi.. ze zemi, kam jsem si tehdy myslela, ze se ja urcite nikdy nepodivam. Surfovani se stalo snem. Kratce pote, okolo mych 15 let, jsem zacala se snowboardem. V Americe na work and travel jsme si s kamaradkou vyrobili vlastni skaty z prken, ktera tam nektera rozmazlena decka nechala, pricemz jsme si zbytek komponentu objednali online. Pokreslili jsme si je podle sveho a pripadaly jsme si jako nejvetsi bohyne, kdyz jsme se na nich pak na konci leta prohaneli po Kalifornii. V Americe jsme take poprve zkusili wakeboard a hlavne i ten vysneny surf. Tehdy jsem pochopila, jak moc je tenhle sport narocny. Jeste jsem ho ale nezatratila, stale ho tam nekde v hlave mam.. stale me to proste tahne ke vsem boardovym sportum, nemuzu si pomoct.

Treba ted u jezera Taupo, kde jsem si poridila svuj prvni longboard, projizdim se tu na nem okolo krasneho jezera Taupo, a premyslim, proc ja si vlastne vzdycky kupuju skaty v zahranici... vypada to na takovy muj ritual. Pristehuji se do nove zeme, driv nebo pozdejs kupuji nove prkno.. je to mozna tak trochu divne, ale naprosto to tak miluju.

(A jeste se musim pochlubit se svym nejnovejsi prirustkem do moji foto hrneckove sbirky, vyhled pres Taupo na Tongariro. Po pravde, zdravim z Tongarira! Zrovna se tu v kempu pripravujeme na vystup na Northern circuit, kterym bychom meli stravit nase dalsi dva dny.)

 

(f).R.I.E.N.D.S

Just keep rolling under the stars at Lake Taupo.

 Northland roadtrip, part IV.

 Northland roadtrip, part III.

Northland roadtrip, part II.