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.

 

 Northland roadtrip, part I.

After our arrival to New Zealand things went crazy. But it is the way we should live our lives, right? To the fullest.

We had to arrange an appointment at bank to set up new bank account, apply for tax number, new phone number and I felt like we were just waiting and "loosing time". Especially stressfull was shopping for the car. It is stressfull on both sides, whether you are a buyer or a seller, I believe. We went to two car fairs, see one car on our own, messaged plenty of people online, and after one week we were the owners of our white campervan Toyota Hiace. It may seem as a short period of time for such a purchase, but trust me, when you are unemployed, without car, summer's almost over, and you are stuck in the hot city center, you might get a bit impatient. But looking backwards, it was not as bad as it might have seemed. The most stressfull was probably setting up insurance by phone, but that was only our own mistake since we have missed the opening hours at the branch and really wanted to leave Auckland that day and didn't want to wait until the next day.

Our car seems to work perfectly until now, knock knock, and we got to explore a bit of Auckland surroundings, for example Rangitoto island, where we spend the day hiking our first new zealandish hike to the summit! In the meantime I was, of course,shopping a bit. The endless cheap shopping possibilities remind me of the States. I had some pretty good deals and packed our car with everything we couldn't carry from Europe with us, like a nice yoga matt, or painting supplies! I felt in heaven when visiting local art supplies shop. Almost as happy as I have been when I saw all the vegan options available at grocery stores here.

We left Auckland around 10 days after our arrival, and headed up north. We told ourselves, if we will not head up for Northland now from Auckland, we will probably not return there at all.

First days we were getting along with the van life, to be honest. From living at such a tiny space with all of our belongings, camping stuff and two big backpacks, to sleeping on such a thin matrace and being limited by daylight basically (we have pleased ourselves with a solar lamp couple of days ago).

First night we made that mistake, that we turn on all the fairly lights and left all the doors open while sitting outside. Big big beginners mistake. For the next hour inside we were just killing mosquitoes and complaining about how stupid we were. But... that's how instagram pictures the van life,right? A lot of fairly lights and legs out of door while watching the sunset. One big lie. (Or these people really love mosquitoes.)

After few days, when things got their own places, and when we threw away couple of unnecessities, we started loving the van life. It gives you such a freedom. I personally love the tiny space. I love how little we have, in fact I sometimes feel like we are carrying way to much anyway. I love the noise of the kettle first thing in the morning and the taste of our hot coffee. It tasted somehow better when being served out in the wilderness. We learned to transfer our daytime couch into bed in just a few minutes, as well as prepare the car for next journey after the night - you must attach or pack everything so that things don't fly through while you drive. Every few days you must fill in fresh water and dispose the dirty one. It is all just a habit and after few days you do everything automatically.

We have spend around 10 days on the North. We were impressed by the stunning nature, it seemed there is something to see everywhere according to the road atlas we got from our friends, with whom we spent couple of days in Auckland and who gave us the best advices (and helped a lot with the car purchase as well, thank you once again Petr and Monca!).

So, in the Waipoua forest, we learned a lot about the Kauri trees, which are the new zealandish biggest trees used to build boats in the history, and spend the day basically in the jungle without mobile signal. We were wandering at those huge beaches on the West coast, especially Ninety Mile Beach and the Giant Sand Dunes on top of it, where we tried sandboarding. We hiked the very last 2 km of Te Araroa trail near Cape Reinga, just to get to a beautiful beach, where we were completely alone. There were also great little hot springs somewhere in the middle of Northland, where we had a great time, while trying different pools of different colours of water and mud and temperature - all that for 4$! On top of all this we had a great roadtrip with all the coffees on gas stations, silly pictures and a lot of music. Great battery recharge after Auckland.

Northland is a perfect escape for the aloners. You don't meet a lot of people and everything you see is a beautiful countryside. People were also super kind. One night we slept at locally owned campsite at a family's, that is visiting my hometown in a month.. I mean, what a coinsidence! So we exchanged some tips and I could cuddle their dogs in the meantime. In other camp near Whangarei, we met a local retired guy, with which we had a great talk for couple of hours while waiting in the communal kitchen for the rain to pass, covering everything from our families, to rugby and the politics.

So after 10 great rewind days we moved from Northland to Bay of Plenty, where we are right now, the third day, searching for a job. The summer will be ending soon, so I think it is time for some hiking in the nearby mountains, before it becomes too cold, and before the work starts.......

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Po nasem prijezdu na Zeland veci nabraly na obratkach. Ale asi je to dobre, prece jen zivot by se mel zit naplno, nebo ne?

Museli jsme si sjednat schuzku v bance, kvuli zalozeni uctu, zazadat o novozelandske danove cislo, zaridit nove telefonni cislo... melo jsem pocit, ze porad na neco jen cekame a ze "ztracime cas". Nejnamahavejsi byl rozhodne nakup auta. Je to stresove jak pro prodejce, tak pro toho, kdo nakupuje - auto kupujete z druhe ruky (nebo spis z desate), a musite zvazit a dat si pozor na spoustu veci, abyste penize nevyhodili jen takz okna za sunku, co se vam za par set kilometru rozsype. My jsme osobne navstivili 2 car fairy, jedno auto jeste bokem mimo fairy, vlezli jsme do nekolika motoru a napsali desitkam lidem na internetu zpravy. Meli jsme v podstate dost stesti, protoze uz po tydnu hledani jsme byli vlastniky svoji bile Toyoty Hiace. Mozna se Vam tyden bude zdat jako hodne kratka doba na nakup auta, ale verte mi, ze v momente, kdy jste nezamestnani, bez auta, a leto se kazdyn dnem krati, se vam to bude zdat jako vecnost. Kdyz se tak ohlednu zpatky, nebylo to vubec tak zly, jak mi to ten prvni tyden vse pripadalo, meli jsme vicemene fakt stesti. Hodne nam pomohli kamaradi Petr s Moncou, s kterymi jsme v Aucklandu stravili par fajn dni, behem kterych nam predali sve zelandske working holiday zkusenosti, a odfrceli pak do Asie.

Uplne nejhorsi ale zarucene bylo sjednavani pojistky na auto pres telefon. Byla to tak trochu nase vlastni chyba, ze to tak dopadlo, protoze jsme prosvihli oteviraci dobu na pobocce, a nechteli jsme uz v Aucklandu cekat do dalsiho dne, kdyz jsme uz konecne meli auto (s nepojistenym jsme ale rozhodne nikam jezdit nechteli, zvlast kdyz prvni jizdou bylo vymotani se z pomerne centralni casti Aucklandu okolo 6. vecer).

Auto zatim jezdi perfektne, musim zaklepat, a jsem rada, ze jsme na nej meli takove stesti. V mezicase jsme alespon trochu prozkoumali Auckland, vyjeli jsme treba na ostrov Rangitoto, kde jsme podnikli nas prvni novozelandsky hike! Taky jsem, bohuzel i bohudik, trochu nakupovala - hlavne veci, ktere jsme z Evropy nemohli prevezt, jako treba jogamatka nebo potreby na malovani. Byla jsem uplne v sedmem nebi, kdyz jsem videla tu nabidku malirskych potreb v mistnim obchode! Skoro zrovna tak, jako kdyz jsem v potravinach videla, kolik je tu k prodeji veganskych alternativ.

Priblizne 10 dni po nasem prijezdu na Zeland jsme tedy vyrazili na sever. Rikali jsme si, ze pokud tam nepojedeme ted, kdyz jsme uz v Aucklandu, tak uz nikdy.

Abych byla uprimna, prvni dny jsme se pomerne horko tezko szivali se zivotem v dodavce. Od toho, na jak malem prostoru musime zit se vsemi nasimi vecmi, vecmi na kempovani a dvema obrimi krosnami, po spani na hodne tenke matraci a toho, ze jsme v podstate se vsemi aktivitami limitivani dennim svetlem (pred par dny uz jsme si teda poridili solarni lampicku).

Prvni noc jsme udelali primo zacatecnickou chybu, kdyz jsme si ve vanu rozsvitili vsechna svetylka a nechali otevrene dvere, a mezitim v klidecku sedeli venku pred autem. Cca hodinu jsme pak uvnitr stravili zabijenim komaru, a nadavali jsme si, jak muzeme byt tak blbi.. Vsude na instagramu vidite takove ty fotku rozsvicenych svetylek, nohou ven ze dveri, samozrejme pri zapadu slunce, ale je to vsechno jedna velka lez.. (nebo maji ti lide opravdu radi spani s komary!) My si dvere vecer tedy radeji zavirame.

Po par dnech jsme se s vanem ale szili, kazda vec ma uz svoje misto, a vse prebytecne jsme vyhodili. Je znat fakt kazda zbytecnost navic. Jinak se mi libi, jakou svobodu nam zivot ve vanu dava a uzivam si i ziti na tak malem prostoru. Libi se mi, jak malo veci ted vlastnime, i kdyz mi casto prijde ze s sebou strjne jeste tahame spoustu zbytecnosti navic. Miluju piskot nasi konvice, jako prvni ranni zvuk, a chut horke kavy. V prirode chutna proste nejak lip. Naucili jsme se, jak pretransformovat nas denni gauc na postel behem par minut, zrovna tak jak pripravit auto rychle na cestu - vse se musi zabalit nebo pripevnit, aby vam pri ceste vzadu nic nelitalo. Kazdych par dni je pak treba nacepovat cistou vodu a zbavit se te spinave. Vse je to o zvyku a po par dnech uz vse delate automaticky.

Na severu jsme tedy stravili priblizne 10 dni. Podle naseho atlasu, ktery jsme zdedili od Monci s Petrem, bylo vsude neco zajimaveho k videni. Ve Waipoua forest jsme stravili den v dzungli bez signalu, obdivovanim nejvetsich novozelandskych stromu kauri, ktere se v minulosti pouzivaly ke stavbe lodi. Nekolik dni jsme se potloukali po krasnych a obrovskych plazich zapadniho pobrezi, hlavne po Ninety Mile Beach a na jejim nejvrchnejsim konci, na Velke dune, jsme si vyzkouseli sandboarding. Prosli jsme se po poslednich 2 km treku Te Araroa, abychom dosli na plazicku, kde jsme pak byli uplne sami. Nekde uprostred Northlandu jsme narazili na termalni prameny, kde jsme jen za 4$ na osobu mohli vyzkouset bazenky ruznych barev a teplot. Byl to super roadtrip, behem ktereho samozrejme nechybely kaficka na pumpach, spousta hudby v aute a spousta fotek. Po Aucklandu idealni unik do prirody.

Sever je jako delany pro samotare. Lidi moc nepotkate, zato je vsude krasna priroda k obdivovani. Narazili jsme na spoustu moc milych lidi. Jednu noc jsme spali v takovem rodinnem kempu u rodiny, ktera zanedlouho pojede na navstevu do Plzne, meho rodneho mesta. Takova nahoda! Jednou jsme se, zase nekde jinde, zas zakecali s mistnim panem v duchodu v kempu ve spolecne kuchynce, kde jsme se vsichni schovavali pred obrim slejvakem, a probrali jsme u toho vsechno od nasich rodin, po rugby a politiku.

Roadtrip nam uz skoncil a pote jsme se prozatim presunuli do Bay of Plenty, kde si ted hledame praci a krapet jeste premyslime nad zdolanim nejakeho vetsiho hiku v okoli, dokud je jeste leto a teplo, a hlavne dokud jeste nepracujeme....

The biggest luxury? Couple of episodes from The Friends (from a fully charged laptop!), last sips of wine and dry foot. The cyclon arrived to our corner of the world. It is time to cover up in blankets and rest a bit..

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Ten nejvetsi luxus je pro nas ted nekolik epizod Pratel (z plne nabyteho ntb!), posledni dousky vina a hlavne suche nohy. Dorazil k nam tropicky cyklon! Je cas zabalit se do perin a v klidu pockat, dokud se zas neprezene..

 

Wandering through Northland these days. The views are spectacular and the mobile signal very rare. Keeps me unplugged and focused on the present moment. In the morning we almost never know what the day will bring because this was all quite unplanned. The unplanned makes up the best memories, speaking from my own experiences.

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Toulame se ted po severu Severniho ostrova. Vyhledy jsou tu dechberouci, zato mobilni signal velmi vzacny. Jsem tak nejak donucena zit bez socialnich siti ci jineho propojeni se svetem a soustredit se jen na to, co je tady a ted. Vetsinou rano vubec netusime, co nam dany den prinese. Cely tenhle roadtrip je vlastne tak nejak neplanovany a spontanni. Neplanovane prinese vetsinou ty nejlepsi vzpominky, mluvim z vlastnich zkusenosti.

Mornings. Somewhere in the middle of Northland.

 

First night in the van. A one to be remembered. 14.2.2019

This year I got a car for Valentine's. Not that we do celebrate it, but it was accidentaly exactly on that day. I should start to be more kind to Thomas.

It was a really exhausting day. Thomas is sick for couple of days, and we somehow collected so much belongings that we had issues to transport all of them at once at the parking lot where soon-to-be-ours car was waiting for us. After one hour long call with insurance company and few more in the shopping center, at 6 p.m. we were finally ready to go out of Auckland! We parked at the nearest free camping place north to the city and it was just stunning. The colours of sunrise through our windows were just breathtaking. I think that we rocked the first day in our van quite well!

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Mame za sebou prvni noc ve vanu! Myslim, ze na ni budem jeste dlouho vzpominat. 14.2.2019.

Letos jsem tedy k Valentynu dostala auto. Ne ze bychom to nejak slavili nebo jinak planovali, ale proste to tak vyslo. Mela bych na toho kluka zacit byt fakt hodna.

Vcerejsek byl fakt unavny. Tomasovi uz vic dni neni dobre, takze jsme museli zavitat do lekarny, a meli jsme velky problem dotahnout vsechny nase veci z hostelu k autu. Nejak se nam to za ty posledni dny namnozilo. (Jak jsme neustale jen na neco cekali, tak jsem hodne chodila po obchodech a nasla spoustu veci "co by se mohli hodit a mimo Auckland je uz tak levno nesezenem". Ale dotahnout to pak na to parkoviste! Pekne jsem si za to pak nadavala..) Po prevzeti auta jsme si museli jeste telefonicky uzavrit pojisteni, stravili jsme nekolik hodin v obchodaku pro posledni veci, ktere ve vanu chybely, a asi v 6 vecer jsme uz konecne byli ready opustit Auckland! Zastavili jsme na noc v nejblizsim free kempu na sever od mesta a musim rict, ze hned trefa do cerneho. To misto nemelo chybu. V 6 rano jsem se vzbudila a jen jsem zalapala po dechu, kdyz jsem videla ten nejkrasnejsi vychod slunce primo skrz okynko. Myslim, ze prvni den s vanem jsme zvladli na jednicku!

 Oh, and we went to a Chinaski concert in Auckland (famous Czech band). Quite rare. Then we went to karaoke where I accidentaly missed our Bon Jovi song with my friend, because I went to the toilet. Then I cried because of it, but it doesn't give any sense to me now. First zealandish hangover. The other day, I bought Bon Jovi tshirt in here. Did I ever mention how much I love Bon Jovi?

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Jo a v sobotu jsme zavitali na koncert Chinaski tady na Zelandu. Unikatni prilezitost videt je hrat pro tak male publikum. Pak jsme sli na karaoke, kde jsem omylem prosvihla nasi pisnicku s kamaradkou od Bon Joviho, protoze jsem zrovna nutne musela na zachod. Pozdeji v noci jsem se kvuli tomu rozbrecela, ale vubec mi to ted nedava smysl. Aneb prvni novozelandska kocovina. Dalsi den jsem si nutne musela koupit Bon Jovi tricko. Uz jsem se nekdy zminila, ze miluji Bon Joviho?

I think that today I finally got the right feeling about this all. That we are not on holiday. That we moved in there. Scary and fascinating, all at once. So, let's use the time that was given to us in there the best we can.

Me after first week in Auckland.

 From Zealand.

I am so terribly late in posting about our journey. This blog was supposed to be fun so I don't push myself too much - whether it is the option to live my life or to write about it, the answer is obvious. Don't take it personally. I don't respond to my mum precisely on time as well.

I almost forgot how it is to live on a journey. How one is constantly moving and experiencing something new everyday and has so much to take care of everyday. I didn't journal for since we came here. We are living in one of the biggest hostels in Auckland now, and most of the time we were searching a lot on internet on our own, being super anti socialized. Sorry not sorry. There were things to be done after our arrival to new country, like set up a new bank account, get phone number, apply for a tax number, buy a car or realize what the fuck we want to do in there, while in the meantime questioning why the fuck did wecame to the other side of this planet to go through this bureaucracy hell voluntarily. That was maybe a bit overreacted, and things were not that dark, but there was definitely a little bit of tension through the past week or so.

Thanks God, we are leaving Auckland tomorrow. In our new car. If I could call "new" a twenty year old campervan that was rebuilt into a small appartment let's say by his previous owner. We will call him Rob. Or Bin. (No, we don't miss our cat Robin at all).

And then, then I will tell you all the rest. Good night for now.

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Sdileni na cas mi uplne nejde. Prijde mi, ze by to pak bylo na ukor toho realne proziteho casu na novem miste, a v momente, kdy se musim rozhodovat mezi zazitky a nebo jejich sdilenim, je odpoved pomerne jasna. Neberte si to osobne! Neinformuji co se aktualne deje a nedeje uz pomalu ani svoji rodinu..

Uplne jsem pozapomnela, jake to je bydlet na cestach. To, jak se clovek musi porad o vse starat, vse si zjistovat, a porad narazi na neco noveho a dosud neobjeveneho. Bydlime v jednom z nejvetsich hostelu v centru Aucklandu a jsme tu nejspis za nejvetsi podiviny, protoze vetsinu casu, misto uzavirani novych pratelstvi v te zaplave novych mladych lidi, koukame do mobilu a zjistujeme si veci. Je mi to trochu lito, ale na druhou stranu zase ne az tak moc. Jsou proste veci, ktere se po prijezdu musely udelat a ktere zabraly nejaky ten cas - otevrit si bankovni ucet, vyridit mobilni cislo, zazadat o danove cislo, koupit auto na cesty a mezitim resit, co ze to tu vlastne (krome cestovani) ten rok chceme delat.

Byl to krapet stresovy tyden, ale uz mame snad vse vyrizeno a zitra budeme moci konecne opustit Auckland v nasem novem aute. Pokud muzu pod pojmem "nove auto" oznacit 20 let stary campervan prestaveny na bydleni, ktery uz objel Zeland krizem krazem se svoji predchozi majitelkou. Budeme mu rikat Rob. Nebo Bin. (A ne, vubec nam nechybi nas kocour Robin.)

Pokracovani priste. Dobrou noc.

Last days in Tokio / Posledni dny v Tokiu

Couple more pics. Thank you Tokio, we enjoyed your vibes.