Auckland

Tuvalu dancers and singers.

First stop in New Zealand: Auckland. Biggest city with a population of 1.6 million. I wasn't too fond of the place, too hipster for me, but I was lucky to be there during the Pasifika festival. Held once a year, it gathers all the pacific island countries for a big cultural exchange. I could experience traditional dance, food and crafts.

Meat and vegetables slow cooked in a buried hole.

Hawaiian dancers.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hanoi

Image
View from the Lotte center. Last stop in Vietnam : Hanoi ! I stayed in the old quarter where the streets are always busy. Scooters, eateries, shops, everything happens on the street. You never get bored, but you also need to stay wary. The traffic is hectic. In comparison to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi feel more "communist". Grand avenue, bulky concrete buildings, statues to the glory of past leaders. Two of the place I found very interesting were the Hỏa Lò prison and the Ho Chi Minh museum. They were heavy on propaganda, because they would tell only one side of the story. The prison was built by the French, but then used by the Vietnamese to hold the captured american pilots. It is now a museum. During the French era you can see the horrible conditions in which the prisoners had to live. Strangely only the french guards are blamed, but most of the pictures show Vietnamese guards that were working with the colonial government. During the Vietnamese era, only good thing...
Read more

The japanese alps

Image
Kegon waterfall near Nikko. After the thrill of the big city, we moved to the quiet mountains. We went north of Tokyo to the small village of Nikko. There we enjoyed walks in the snowy forest and hot bathes in Onsen. Walk in the snowy forest near Nikko. After Nikko we went to the west coast with a one day stop in Matsumoto to visit the castle. On the coast, we stayed in the city of Kanazawa. There lies one of the most beautiful garden of Japan, the Kenroku-en. It was still half covered in snow, but it didn't lose of its magnificence. Kenroku-en in Kanazawa. From Kanazawa, we made a one day trip to the Shirakawa-go village. There the villager perpetuates the tradition of thatched houses famous in the region. Traditional thatched house in Shirakawa-go. Shirakawa-go. Trout living in the canals of the Shirakawa-go village. Roughly the path we took from Tokyo.
Read more

Rotorua

Image
Geyser in Te Puia. Rotorua is a city in a highly volcanic area. The first thing you will notice when arriving is that the whole city smell like rotten eggs. Volcanic water and fumes comes out from everywhere. I visited the Te Puia, a park run by the Maori of the nearby village. It mixes geysers and bubbling mud with a presentation of Maori culture. Another place to visit is the redwoods forest. More than a 100 years ago the government decided to plant various tree species to determine which one would grow better on New Zealand soil. The best species would be used for timber exportation. The redwoods forest is now a great day hike place. While walking on its trails you will encounter a huge mix of trees, from native ones to the Californians sequoia. Volcanic mudd in Te Puia. Small volcanic pond in the city. Volcanic spring in the Redwoods forest. The sulfur in the water keep the dead branches from degrading and gives the water this beautiful blue color. R...
Read more